‘9-1-1’ Character Returns After 13-Episode Absence

This week’s episode of 9-1-1, Season 6, Episode 14, “Performance Anxiety,” saw the highly-anticipated return of former 118 probie Ravi. Actor Anirudh Pisharody was initially introduced as the probie firefighter in the Season 4 episode, “Jinx.” Since then, he quickly became a fan-favorite. However, he’s been absent for much of Season 6 of the Fox drama and finally returned after 13 episodes when Chimney was sent back to the Academy to work on his leadership, where Ravi was an instructor.

While the reasoning in the episode was that Ravi had hurt his shoulder during a rescue, and it was taking longer to heal, so he’s been at the Academy for six months (though he really struggled more mentally rather than physically following the rescue), in real life, Anirudh Pisharody has been as busy as a bee. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor explains that all of his roles that were basically happening at the same time was a balancing act, but thanks to production, he was able to make it work.

“Listen, it’s champagne problems to have a plethora of opportunities,” Pisharody says. “But I’m so grateful all the productions have been willing to work around my schedule. I’m sure there are many shows out there that it would’ve been much more of a hassle than it was. 9-1-1, Big Sky, and Never Have I Ever made it all go swimmingly, and I really appreciate that.”

It’s definitely been great to see Pisharody doing so well and doing all of these other shows, having portrayed Luke on Season 3 of and Des on Season 3 of , but 9-1-1 just hasn’t been the same without him. Last season, the series hinted at his background as a cancer kid, and knowing that the series does backstory episodes for its characters, fans had been hoping that they’d be getting “Ravi Begins” at some point. Now that it seems like he’s officially back at the 118, maybe that will finally happen.

As of now, it’s unknown how many episodes Anirudh Pisharody will appear in, but since it looks like he’s staying at the 118, there’s a very good chance he’ll continue to be on the series at least until the end of the season. 9-1-1 hasn’t been renewed for a Season 7 yet, so depending on if all goes well and likely depending if Pisharody continues to be a rising actor and books more roles, Ravi’s future at the 118 will probably remain unknown. Maybe if Season 7 happens, he’ll be upped to series regular because that would be absolutely perfect.