'9-1-1' stars talk Maddie and Chimney's roller-coaster wedding, Buck's 'perfect' gay kiss
Spoiler alert! The following story contains major details about Season 7, Episode 6 of ABC's "9-1-1," which aired on Thursday.
LOS ANGELES – In Thursday’s fraught new episode of “9-1-1,” Maddie and Chimney tied the knot in the most aptly perfect way possible: splayed in a hospital bed.
The couple’s nuptials were severely delayed after Chimney (Kenneth Choi), a firefighter paramedic, got amnesia and went missing the day before their wedding. Using police reports, traffic cams and hospital records, dispatcher Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) pieced together that her fiancé contracted viral encephalitis on the job, swelling his brain with potentially fatal consequences.
“In typical ‘9-1-1’ fashion, it’s a roller coaster,” says Hewitt, traipsing across a wire-laden soundstage in a billowing wedding dress. “They can’t just show up at a church and walk down the aisle. That doesn’t happen on our show!”
How the new episode of '9-1-1' reflects Maddie and Chimney's love story
“9-1-1” has long endeared fans with its outrageous and heart-pounding emergencies, ranging from shark attacks to plane crashes to a sinking cruise ship in the Season 7 premiere, which marked the show's move from Fox to ABC. But walking across the palm tree-lined Fox studio lot on a balmy March morning, the atmosphere couldn’t be more serene: Seated between takes, extras in hospital gowns are texting, doing crosswords and swapping recommendations on kimchi burritos. (At the risk of being an LA cliché, one scrubs-clad man is buried in a screenwriting handbook, jotting notes.)
The cast is shooting the episode’s final scenes with Maddie and Chimney after he was tracked down woozily wandering the streets alone. Now regaining some of his memory, they decide to swap vows in his hospital room, inviting friends and family to watch as the 118 fire captain Bobby (Peter Krause) officiates the informal ceremony.
“Love could not wait, so we’re all here to celebrate that,” says Angela Bassett, who plays field sergeant Athena, sitting by a hospital bed between takes. “We’re off that big cruise ship for a minute, so whenever we get days like this, I appreciate it!”
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Throughout the emotional episode, Chimney has flashbacks to the ups and downs of his relationship with Maddie, from confrontations with her violent ex-husband to her surprise pregnancy with a baby girl. "It's a pastiche of his entire arc," says Tim Minear, the show's creator. "Like Maddie says at the end, 'We always find our way back to each other.' That has been a repeated pattern with them ever since they got together."
After the bride and groom say "I do," wedding guests spill out into the hospital halls, chatting as they peck at small plates of white-frosted sheet cake. The prop sweets received somewhat sour reviews: “I’ve had a little bit. It’s fine,” Krause says politely.
“It’s from Ralphs," Choi adds of the local supermarket chain, cracking a smile as he spots a publicist hovering nearby. “But I’m going to say it’s delicious!”
'9-1-1' creator says Buck's gay kiss didn't 'come out of nowhere'
Thursday’s episode also includes another milestone for Maddie's brother, Buck (Oliver Stark), a once-womanizing firefighter who shared a kiss with pilot Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) in the series’ 100th episode last month. Buck’s co-workers excitedly learn about his new relationship at the hospital, where he passionately smooches Tommy after the wedding.
“It’s one of my favorite scenes,” Choi says. “It’s a reveal for most of the characters that Buck has found a love interest he’s actually interested in. It’s adorable, it’s cute, it’s perfect, and the audience is going to love it.”
Stark likens Buck’s journey to “a hamster wheel”: “He’s been taking one step forward and two steps back, as is quite typical of being in your late 20s and early 30s, trying to find yourself,” the actor explains. “As we’ve moved into this seventh season, he’s found a way to really discover who he wants to be.”
The romance has been met with some backlash from homophobic viewers, whose hateful comments Stark responded to on Instagram last month. Minear says “Buck has been queer-coded” since Season 2, and his awakening “doesn’t come out of nowhere.” In a 2021 crossover episode with Fox's spinoff series “9-1-1: Lone Star,” Buck had a suggestive moment with Austin firefighter T.K. (Ronen Rubinstein).
"T.K. assumed that Buck was coming on to him," Minear says. The storyline "is a thing I've been toying with for a long time, and it just felt like the stars aligned."
Angela Bassett reveals the surprising ways life mirrors her '9-1-1' character
With seven seasons of “9-1-1” and four seasons of “Lone Star” under his belt, Minear says it’s increasingly challenging to come up with new disaster scenarios for emergency responders to tackle. Producers look to real-life 911 calls for inspiration.
“There was one night where something fell out of an airplane in both shows,” Minear recalls with a laugh. “In Year 1, I remember thinking, ‘How am I going to sustain this?’ A bouncy house flies away, a guy gets sucked into an escalator – you’re burning through these viral video ideas at an incredible pace.”
The current season kicked off with a traumatic, high-seas honeymoon for Athena and Bobby. Bassett, who received an honorary Oscar earlier this year, says the writers always keep it fresh with situations that are both wild and relatable.
“Interestingly enough, sometimes Athena’s experiences mirror my own,” says Bassett, who shares 18-year-old twins with her husband, actor Courtney B. Vance. That’s true “especially this year, with Athena and Bobby being empty nesters, and seeing what their dynamic is like when there’s calm.”
This summer, “my kids are going off to college, so I’m like, ‘Courtney, what’re we going to do? Are we going to travel?’” Bassett adds. They would like to vacation in Bali, Norway and Brazil.
“Just no cruises, though, please!”