‘9-1-1’: Angela Bassett Reacts to ‘Very Surprising’ Major Character Death

Major spoilers ahead for 9-1-1 Season 5, Episode 18 (“Lab Rats”)

9-1-1 star and executive producer Angela Bassett is giving her thoughts on that heartbreaking death.

Thursday’s episode of the ABC drama concluded the two-part “Contagion” event and ended with the surprising death of Peter Krause’s Bobby Nash.

When it was found out that Bobby had been exposed to the super strain of a virus and hid it from the team, he didn’t have long until he succumbed to it. After a tearful goodbye with wife Athena, with a glass door in the lab in between them, Bobby spent his final moments praying at a table. Bassett told Variety that the final scene between the couple was “shot a couple of different ways.”

“Different scenarios and endings, but one thing was always clear: the tie between the two of them, the bond between the two of them,” she said. “And when we looked into each other’s eyes, I think we were there emotionally, and that told the story. And I think that probably told the story when it reached editing, too. That this is the emotion, right here in this moment between the two of them.”

Bassett, whose character, Athena Grant, had been in a relationship with Bobby since Season 2, with the two tying the knot later that season, said Bobby’s death “was just surprising, very surprising, because we just didn’t see this coming.”

She continued, “It’s been eight years of us being superheroes of sorts, and making it through incredibly dangerous scenarios — but we all make it through. So when we read this, when I read the script, it was very puzzling. And then I got an opportunity to talk to Tim [Minear, showrunner] and to ask why, and is he sure, and why are we going down this road, because Athena and Bobby were so happy together and such a team together? It was sad.”

How 9-1-1 will move past Bobby’s death will be interesting and filled with many emotions. Considering Athena already lost her fiancé when she was younger, losing another love like that is not going to be easy. 9-1-1 has been renewed for Season 9, and assuming Bassett will be back, it’s likely fans will continue to see how his death affects her and the 118. New episodes of 9-1-1 return on Thursday, May 1 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, streaming the next day on Hulu.