‘911’ cast celebrate ‘Bachelor’ crossover episode, Joey Graziadei
Angela Bassett and her “9-1-1” co-stars partied last month to toast the hit ABC drama, which marks 100 episodes Thursday with a “Bachelor” crossover.
Spoiler alert! The following story contains major details from Season 8, Episode 15 that aired on the April 17 episode of ABC’s “9-1-1.“
That shocking “9-1-1” death hit star Kenneth Choi especially hard.
The actor, who plays firefighter Howie “Chimney” Han in the ABC series, told Entertainment Weekly that he “fought” showrunner and executive producer Tim Minear over the death of Los Angeles fire captain Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) in the April 17 episode.
“I was sobbing,” Choi, 53, told the outlet. “It was uncontrollable sobbing. I was laughing at myself saying, ‘I don’t know what is happening! I know this isn’t real! Why am I acting like this?’ But it was devastating to me.”
Choi’s grief then turned to disbelief as Minear revealed Bobby’s death.
“As soon as he said the words, I just waited and waited, because Tim has a very wry sense of humor, and I was just waiting for him to say … ‘Just kidding,’ and those words never came. There was this long period of silence and I said, ‘Are you serious?’”
Choi added, “And then I just kind of went into those stages of grief. Denial, mostly.” He thought, “You’re kind of killing off our father figure.”
Bobby succumbed to a lethal virus in the episode after Station 118 was called to a research facility, which had been set on fire by a reckless scientist named Moira (Bridget Regan). Bobby manages to save Chimney, who falls ill and starts coughing up blood while responding to the lab blaze. But after waiting for the rest of the team to safely evacuate and unmask, Bobby realizes that there was a hole in his breathing apparatus.
Choi continued: “(Minear) explained creatively why he thought it was the right choice, and I fought him on it. And I continued to fight him on it. I fought him on it up until we kind of did the funeral stuff, because I was thinking, ‘Maybe they’ll pull it back. Maybe they’ll change their minds.’”
Minear previously told USA TODAY that he’s been thinking about Bobby’s death “for a long time,” saying it “made sense for his arc” after he inadvertently caused a fatal apartment fire before he met his wife, Athena (Angela Bassett). By sacrificing himself for the 118, Bobby feels that he’s achieved “true redemption.”
He also provided a glimpse into why Choi may have been hit harder than most.
“In a lot of ways, Chimney’s the original 118er; he’s been there longer than anyone,” Minear said. “I was thinking back to the episode where Bobby was sharing his origin story with Chimney: how he had come to L.A. with a death wish, that he was going to achieve his atonement and then join his kids in the afterlife. Chimney had been keyed into Bobby’s lore earlier and more personally than any other character.”
Chimney’s grief will take center stage over the next few weeks, Minear added. “It was very important for me that I had at least three episodes after this event in order to process the loss and start to put the pieces back together.”
Contributing: Patrick Ryan
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