9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 16 ‘The Last Alarm’ is, above all things, a pretty frustrating episode. In a vacuum, it’s a really well-constructed hour about mourning and the stages of grief, one that particularly focuses on how to push through that initial stage of denial. Within the context of what this show is, however, the episode is a pretty wild tonal swing for the show—something to be expected when you kill off one of your main characters—that doesn’t quite land as well as it should.
Particularly because, even if we only consider the story being told in Season 8, there’s a sense that all the pieces don’t quite lead to this place. Not just for Bobby, but for characters like Eddie, who gets only a handful of lines in this hour, and who hasn’t gotten the payoff to all the promise of the Season 7 finale, or for Buck, who doesn’t get to grieve at all just so others get the space to do so.
If the show does anything right in this hour, it’s do Athena’s grief justice, and allow Angela Bassett the chance to showcase what a great actress she is, once again. But how many times have we been here before? This isn’t anything new. We’re still not over having to see her grieve in Black Panther 2, and how much that hurt us. We didn’t need to be here again. And she didn’t either.
MORE: 9-1-1 EP Tim Minear says killing Bobby Nash was realistic, but 9-1-1 has never been a realistic show.
REST EASY
Athena’s journey of grief in 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 16 ‘The Last Alarm’ hits so hard because it works so well. There’s avoidance, at first. She doesn’t want to make a decision about Bobby’s final resting place. Doesn’t want to be involved in the funeral. She is angry at Chimney for pushing the issue, and at everyone for wanting the funeral to even happen, for the idea that everyone else can move on, but she cannot. She’s the one who’s going to feel his absence every day.
Every part of that is gutting because it’s realistic and very well done. In a way, that’s part of what works so well, and it’s, at the same time, what’s so vexing about this episode. 9-1-1 has changed the rules on us, but this episode would work really well as a separate entity. Athena’s grief, her anger, her trying to latch onto this woman’s case, onto this possible miracle, even her talking to the ghost of Bobby, are beats anyone who has experienced loss will recognize.
Just as that final moment after the funeral, that moment when she breaks, when she has absolutely not processed her grief or her pain, much less her anger, but her love shines through and she tells Bobby to “rest easy” and that he’s “home,” is very, very familiar. I told my dad that it was fine. That he could go. That I was going to be okay. I knew it was a lie. I wasn’t gonna be okay. But I said it because that’s what I thought he needed to hear. And it’s silly, because he was already gone, but I said it.
So, I recognize the moment. The moment is good writing. The delivery is spectacular. The feelings it evoked are on point. Everything else about it, though? The way we got here, and the fact that Bobby is gone because this show wanted to teach us a lesson about realism in a world where things have never quite followed any logic? Well, that’s the part that will never really work for me.
MORE: The fan reaction to Bobby Nash’s death was somewhere between angry and heartbroken. We’re still feeling like that.
HE GAVE HIS LIFE SO I COULD LIVE
Outside of Athena—and the case, which frankly takes up too much of the episode—the main focus in 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 16 ‘The Last Alarm’ is Chimney and his guilt, which makes sense, as Bobby’s choice was directly related to Chimney. But both Chimney and Athena feel like Bobby made a selfish choice, and in the middle of the stages of grief, they both blame him for it. But that’s just grief talking.
In truth, Bobby wasn’t suicidal when he made the decision. He made a logical choice, and yes, he was being a bit self-sacrificing, but he wasn’t actively choosing to die. He was just making sure someone else could live. There’s a difference there. And that difference is at the core of what being a first responder is. And also, at the core of what being a leader is. Bobby chose to be both in that final moment, and he put someone on his team—someone who had become family to him throughout all his time in the 118, before himself.
Perhaps the thing that takes it full circle for Bobby is that the choice was not made out of sacrifice. If there had been a third option, a way out, he would have taken it. And he would have done it gladly. He didn’t want to go. Didn’t want to leave Athena alone. He wanted to live. The man we met in the “Pilot” had long given up this notion of atoning for his sins and then dying. But you know, life and TV don’t always work out the way you want them to.
MORE: We said it was time for Buddie canon now. Is someone listening?
I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE
9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 16 ‘The Last Alarm’ focuses mostly on Athena and Chimney, but it manages to give space for Hen’s grief as well. What it doesn’t is allow any space for Buck’s, who spends all episode being the strong one, or Eddie’s. In fact, Eddie gets just a few lines this hour, and though it would be absurd to ask for an Eddie focus in an episode focused on Bobby’s death, the lack of focus on Eddie for so long leaves a sour aftertaste considering the fact that he wasn’t there when the 118 lost Bobby, we didn’t see him finding out and other than Ryan Guzman’s facial expressions and his unkept look when we first see him, all we get is “I should have been there.”
The 118 is a family, and Bobby was also an important part of Eddie’s life, and we have gotten very little of Eddie’s reaction to Bobby’s death, or very little exploration of what it will mean for Eddie going forward. Perhaps this is something the show is meaning to tackle next episode, but considering we’ve been waiting for the show to give us an Eddie focus “next episode” all season, it’s hard to give them the benefit of the doubt at this point. Every Eddie storyline this season has felt brushed aside, from Chris, to “finding joy,” to going to Texas, to confronting his parents, so trusting that we’re going to get Eddie grappling with the loss of Bobby feels like a leap at this point.
The perfect storytelling beat would be to explore Buck’s repression of feelings and Eddie’s lack of reaction on screen together next episode. Will we actually see that? At this point, who knows? There’s be no indication of how—or even if—Eddie is coming back to Los Angeles, his relationship with Chris was fixed very quickly and without ever addressing the Kim elephant in the room, or the communication issues they had, Eddie was so magnanimous with his parents I wanted to puke and so on and on and on. Plus, lest we forget, there are a bunch of fictional people who think Buck is in love with his best friend Eddie and is pining over him! We haven’t addressed that! And we only have two episodes to go.
If the show could kill Bobby for “realism” in 0.2 seconds, the least it could do is solve those dangling storytelling threads. And while they’re at it, give at least some of Eddie’s plot points that have gone nowhere some depth in the last two remaining episodes, and the character some of the focus he deserves.
MORE: Is Eddie Diaz gay? ‘Holy Mother of God’ at least makes it a fair question to ask.
THIS IS NOW A DIFFERENT SHOW
That’s the crux of the matter, isn’t it? We’re now in “take it or leave it” stages, I guess. And though I’ve lost enough people to understand that life and loss are often unfair and sudden and give you absolutely no warning, this isn’t real life. It’s TV. I did not sign up for real life. In fact, I very much signed up for an escape. Even if I hadn’t, though, that’s not actually the problem with the decisions being made here. Or at least, it’s not the only problem, or the biggest one.
No, the problem is that 9-1-1 now exists under a different logic, one that’s closer to that of the real world. So, when I see Maddie’s pregnant belly, I think: how is this even possible? How can she be this pregnant? How much time has passed, and how does that track with how long Chris has been gone? It doesn’t. Is Maddie’s baby the Twilight baby?
And I can’t handwave it away and say, that’s just 9-1-1 logic, because 9-1-1 logic doesn’t exist anymore! Bobby Nash is dead, and therefore, this is now a show with consequences. Reality has intruded in my wee woo show, and now I have to judge everything else based on that. The show is asking me to. And I’m not actually sure that’s a good thing for them.
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Things I think I think
- Starting with Bobby was cruel.
- This episode is hard because sometimes the worst things about grief are the little moments of normalcy within the grief, like picking a final resting place, or the funeral arrangements. Like, what do you mean you expect me to have opinions on things like that?
- Also, the little details about Bobby dying still make no earthly sense, and that just annoys me so much.
- But I am really glad May and Harry are there with Athena.
- The moment the episode said it’d been almost two weeks any last shred of hope fled my body.
- “Everything about this is wrong.” You got that right.
- Maddie asking how Buck is made me feel things, because I’m not sure anyone else other than probably Eddie, has asked.
- Grief does make us think about how we should tell people that we love them more often.
- “Because until he’s in the ground, nobody gets to move on?”
- Ouch.
- Why is Gerrard there? Is there truly no one else?
- And why is he talking about what Bobby meant to him? Who cares?!
- “I know you’re hurting. I am, too.” No, but seriously. If I were there, I would also not be calm.
- “You’re not half the man that Bobby was” is right.
- “Only because I killed our last one,” wow, Chim.
- Aw, Athena. I know why you want to believe her.
- The murder board is something.
- That scene of Athena talking to Bobby got to me. Do you ever talk to people you’ve lost? I do.
- “If you’re not gonna be helpful, go haunt someone else.”
- Ghost Bobby has jokes.
- PAST TENSE? That was too far.
- “They decided without consulting her.” There it is.
- Angela needs at least a nomination for this, let’s be serious here.
- “He didn’t want to”/ ”He did anyway”
- Yeah, yeah, that “for a moment you let yourself believe that miracles were possible” felt personal. Not in a good way, either!
- “I live in the belief that one day I will see them again.”
- Yeah, why were May and Harry not just staying with Athena? Who said they needed to ask?
- Eddie, why are you so hot when I’m so sad and everything hurts? Please don’t shave.
- “I should have been there.” If this is all the reaction we get from Eddie, I swear to God I will…
- Buck’s “you’re here now…” I need about 5k of what they talked about.
- “I don’t blame me either. I blame him.” Second stage of grief right there.
- Ironically, no one’s ever sure what to do with loss, no matter how it comes. Chimney isn’t alone there.
- The final alarm bit was A LOT.
- Eddie standing anyway even though he’s not in uniform.
- And everyone crying.
- Glad Maddie *is* there.
- Okay, but if Tim Minear really wanted to put an end to the conspiracy theories for good, why not just make this an open casket funeral and show us Bobby’s body? Peter was clearly available for the episode!!
- “Rest easy. You’re home now, baby” is a gut punch.” Really and truly. I cried for about five minutes after the episode ended. How was this episode worse than the last one, and Bobby died in the last one?
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 16 ‘The Last Alarm’? Share with us in the comments below! Check out our Tales From the 118 podcast if you also want to listen to our reviews. On Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Plus, if you want to leave your own rating/comment about the show, you can do so in our 9-1-1 hub!
9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.
Best part was the interaction between Krause and Bassett. Also his burial site. Other than that stick a fork into 911because it’s done without Bobby alive.
time they cancel this show
What a horrible episode. I’m glad people are reporting on it and hopefully Tim Minear gets it together.