‘9-1-1’ Boss Tim Minear Unpacks The Midseason Finale And Shares His Season 8 Goal: “To Blow It All The Hell Apart”

After a Bee-nado, an emergency plane landing, a Halloween curse, a Hot Priest, several mustaches, a breakup, a Risky Business dance, a pregnancy announcement, and many more 118 shenanigans, 9-1-1 has officially aired its midseason finale.

Season 8, Episode 8, “Wannabes,” put Athena (Angela Bassett) on a chaotic cart cop case, shined a spotlight on Hotshots star Brad Torrence (Callum Blue), and left Eddie (Ryan Guzman) considering a move to Texas in hopes of reuniting with his son Christopher (Gavin McHugh).

The episode also kicked off a lengthy three-month hiatus for the hit ABC series, so to help hold fans over, Decider hopped on a Zoom call with 9-1-1 showrunner, co-creator, and executive producer Tim Minear to get some behind-the-scenes insights into the first half of the season and what’s to come.

“As we go out in Episode 8, I want fans to know that during that hiatus — except for Buck feeling a certain kind of way — their 118 fire family is all back together and everything is right with the world,” Minear said.

Sound too good to be true? This is 9-1-1, so of course it is! “By the end of Episode 9,” the showrunner continued, “the same cannot be said.”

From major midseason finale moments to juicy teases for the second half of 9-1-1 Season 8 (premiering March 6, 2025 on ABC) Minear reflected on his carefully crafted-plans for the 118, starting with the decision to give Brad his hero moment in the midseason finale.

“When we decided to have Bobby consulting on this TV show, we had talked a lot about what interesting stories we could tell in that world, and there was never any room for them, because Athena was landing a plane on the freeway,” Minear said. “I knew I always wanted to carve a little meat there and give something nutritious to the audience — not just have it be a joke in the background. And by the time we got to Episode 8, it was also partially because Callum Blue was so great.”

During an interview earlier this season, Blue told Decider that 9-1-1 was the first major job he landed after a seven-year sabbatical from the entertainment industry. Playing an actor and bringing the show-within-a-show to life not only helped Blue “fall in love with acting again,” but Brad’s storyline allowed Minear to pay yet another homage to an old movie he loves: My Favorite Year.

“Peter O’Toole plays a movie star who is very famous, like an Errol Flynn type character. It takes place in the 1950s, and he’s going to be on this variety show that goes live, and the story is about how he’s famous and kind of a child in a lot of ways,” Minear explained. “He’s got a daughter who he doesn’t get to see. He’s got all the trappings of fame and feels like he’s got nothing else. What he does isn’t real as far as he can tell. So I used that as inspiration, and then it dovetailed with Eddie’s story, which was nice. Brad became vulnerable, we saw the hole in his heart and his life, and it moved Eddie’s story forward.”

9-1-1‘s midseason finale ends on an extra meta, lighthearted note with the 118 helping Brad’s character come out of a coma on the Hotshots set, but despite the last-minute laughs, the second half of the season will tackle more serious issues, including Eddie and Christopher’s estranged relationship.

After another unfulfilling FaceTime call with Chris leaves Eddie feeling empty in Episode 8, a heart-to-heart with Brad — who’s also estranged from his son — inspires the firefighter to start house-hunting in El Paso so he can be closer to his family.

“Eddie’s life is definitely in flux,” Minear said. “The thing that really struck me when I was putting Episode 8 together is we haven’t seen a lot of Christopher this year — just how big he is, how he seems so much more mature now than even just the brief moment we saw him at the beginning of this season. For Eddie, it’s like, ‘Wait — he’s in a room that looks lived in. He’s completely settled. I want to get him this thing to put on his wall, but on his wall there? He’s in a chess club?’ He’s starting to not recognize his own kid. He feels like that time is just slipping through his fingers. But also his kid is thriving. So it’s like, ‘Do I go rip him out of that environment? What do I do?'”

While it’s hard to imagine one of 9-1-1‘s core character relocating long-term, Minear assured Decider that “Eddie is dead serious about doing whatever he has to do to repair that relationship, so if that means moving to Texas, maybe that’s what he has to do.” Back in 2022, when asked if he’d ever consider having Eddie move out of Los Angeles, Minear also told Decider joked about him moving “to Texas, possibly.” So if you need us, we’ll be stressing until March — but hey, at least we’re not alone!

As Eddie is browsing Homes.com and prepping for a virtual appointment with a real estate agent in the midseason finale, Buck (Oliver Stark) lets himself in — stress-baked goods in hand — and informs Eddie that he’s still devastated by his recent breakup with Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.). When Buck learns that Eddie plans to move to Texas in hopes of saving his relationship with Chris, he springs into supportive best friend mode and invites him to the couch to help him find the perfect new home — but those high spirits are extremely short-lived.

For fans who clocked yet another Buck and Eddie couch scene, Minear says he is aware of The Couch Theory, but he also doesn’t fully understand it: “I had seen it when I was primarily doing Lone Star. I think that’s when that couch theory first appeared. I’m not entirely sure what it is, but I see that people reference it.”

Seconds after Buck hits the couch cushions, his face fully drops over the thought of both Christopher and Eddie leaving Los Angeles, and it sounds like we haven’t seen the last of that facial expression. When asked what fueled the heartbreaking wave of emotion, Minear noted that while Buck’s breakup is playing a role in his internal struggle, he also “has abandonment issues going back forever” and fears being left by another crucial person in his life.

“Buck is going to be spinning like a top by the time we come back. [He’s] not wanting to be a bad friend, and not wanting to be selfish. There’s just no way he’s not going to spiral about this,” Minear said, noting that Stark’s character will eventually find a sort of distraction, though that may also be short-lived. “He’s going to have to find something to latch onto to keep from completely spinning out of control. And he will find that. He will find that when we come back. And we’ll see about that and how long that lasts — these relationships don’t tend to last all that long.”

For fans like Buck who are also still processing his breakup with Tommy or feel their connection was unexpectedly cut short, Minear agrees, but stresses that the move was intentional.

“Look, I think the breakup was premature, but that was by design. For me, the story that I was trying to tell was here’s a guy, Tommy. He’s not a main character on the show. We haven’t done ‘Tommy Begins’ or something. But you do see him in the ‘Begins’ episodes, in flashbacks, and by the time he leaves in ‘Bobby Begins Again,’ he’s turned over a new leaf. He’s feeling more comfortable. He’s hanging out with the new people at the 118 once Bobby takes over, and they throw him a party and bake him a cake when he goes off to his new post. There was even a reference in Broken when Chimney calls him to do the water drop,” Minear explained. “But Tommy’s a guy who’s in a different place in his life than Buck is. And I think what Tommy realizes is exactly what he said, which is, ‘I’m not your last. I’m your first.'”

Minear referenced the coffee shop scene in Season 7, where Buck asked Tommy to give them another shot and come to his sister’s wedding, as a point when Tommy thought, “Alright, this guy’s kind of great. He’s super hot and he’s sweet. And this will be nice. And I’m going to be vulnerable for this.” As the relationship grew stronger and the stakes grew higher, however, Tommy reevaluated things.

“I think Tommy, in the end, understood that this was not forever — that Buck is exploring himself. He’s still figuring himself out. And even if Tommy doesn’t know it, he might sense the fact that Buck likes to jump in with both feet a little bit precipitously,” Minear mused. “So was the breakup premature? Yes. Because Tommy was put in a position where he had to be honest. And once he speaks the truth, which is, ‘I think I know where this ends, and I can’t move in with you,’ he’s kind of breaking the spell — the spell of that honeymoon. Tommy even says, ‘I didn’t see this coming either.’ I don’t think either one of them did.”

Minear used the first half of Season 8 to tie up loose ends and reunite the 118. Now his goal for the second half is “to blow it all the hell apart.”

As Buck and Eddie sort through their own personal challenges when 9-1-1 returns, Minear assured Decider that more personal storylines for Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Chimney (Kenneth Choi), Athena (Bassett), and Bobby (Peter Krause) will also be explored. “[Maddie’s] pregnancy story will factor in not insignificantly in the first two episodes when we come back. And the Bobby and Athena building a new house story, we’ll hit that pretty hard in Episode 11,” the showrunner said. “We’re going to get to everything.”

When asked if there’s one special episode that he’s excited for fans to see, Minear confidently replied, “All of them, actually. As far as the ones that I have worked out and the ones that we’ve shot, I’m really excited for Episode 9. There’s a great story that starts in there. We’ll also get to see Buck dealing with his abandonment issues. And then Episode 10 is just going to be thrilling. It’s going to be a thriller. And by the end of Episode 10, everybody’s life is changed.”

Minear used the first half of Season 8 to tie up loose ends and reunite the 118. Now his goal for the second half is “to blow it all the hell apart.”

There will be plenty of personal (and maybe even a few professional) fires for the 118 to put out when they return, so Minear suggests that fans embrace the hiatus and savor these three months of peace.

9-1-1 is currently streaming on Hulu with Season 8 returning to ABC on March 6, 2025.