‘9-1-1’ Creator Speaks out After Killing off Major Character

9-1-1 co-creator Tim Minear is speaking out about that heartbreaking major character death.

Fans of the first responder drama were devastated when the final minutes of Season 8, Episode 15, “Lab Rats,” ended with the death of Captain Bobby Nash.

Minear, who also serves as showrunner, spoke to TheWrap about the death, which marked the first-ever main character death in 9-1-1’s eight seasons. He said killing Bobby was about choosing “the scariest character to kill.” He continued, “Bobby is the most impactful character to kill… it made sense on every level. [The show] needed a major character death for the audience to feel that there were real stakes in any of these cases… Next season, when our characters are in a precarious situation, you might be gripping the arms of your chair a little bit tighter.”

Even though no 9-1-1 fan thought that Minear would ever go there, he did share last year that no character was unkillable. It’s more so the fact that he chose to kill off Peter Krause’s beloved character, he is certainly the glue of the 118, a father figure to all, and has gone through more.

“It’s not like Peter came to me and was like, ‘I’m ready to go.’ That’s not at all what happened. Things could not have been better between us, the show, the cast, everyone was just happy as little clams,” he said. “It would have been a lot easier to not do it and stay status quo. But you understand why, creatively, I needed to do something moving into Season 9.”

“And not only does his death impact the other characters the most, it makes the most sense for Bobby,” Minear continued. “It is the conclusion of his complete arc of him coming to L.A. — a guy with a death wish — looking for redemption, finding love, finding his place in the world again, doing good works, really getting in touch with the decent man that he is. And then when he’s put in a position where he’s got to sacrifice himself to save those around him, he does it without hesitation. But it’s not because he has a death wish. It’s because now life means everything to him, and it is a real sacrifice and actual atonement for what his origin story was. It makes sense in every way.”

9-1-1 will never be the same moving forward. Bobby’s death will impact the show and the characters as long as it continues to air. With his funeral airing next week, it will be a hard episode to get through, and there’s no telling how each member of the 118 and Angela Bassett’s Athena Grant, now a widow, will deal with it. 9-1-1 returns on Thursday, May 1 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, streaming the next day on Hulu.