RECAP: ‘9-1-1’ Season 8 Episode 16 — “The Last Alarm”

Grief comes in all forms, and 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 16, titled “The Last Alarm,” doesn’t shy away from the uglier parts of it. In the wake of Bobby’s (Peter Krause) death, Athena (Angela Bassett) and Chimney (Kenneth Choi) grapple with their anger over his sacrifice, while the others take a step back to play more supporting roles.

Chimney spends a lot of his time running. As the person who was given the antidote while Bobby kept quiet about his own infection, Chimney’s grief manifests through isolation, anger, and guilt. He says multiple times throughout 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 16 that he should be dead, even going as far as telling Gerrard (Brian Thompson) that he killed Bobby. It’s no surprise that Kenneth Choi is fantastic in these scenes.

Hen (Aisha Hinds) and Buck (Oliver Stark) stay in the background during this first wave of reconciling with Bobby’s death, allowing Chimney and Athena their space to grieve. Buck seems to be taking Bobby’s last words to him to heart, taking on tasks and being there for his team while they spiral. Buck’s talk with Chimney up on the rooftop is a poignant parallel to Athena’s talk with a woman she helps earlier in the episode. As Chimney’s anger softens into confusion about what he’s supposed to do with his life, Buck’s answer is simple: just live.

There’s not a lot of insight into how Buck is doing, but considering how close he and Bobby were, that’s likely coming. A lot of this episode is taken up by Athena’s investigation into an old case connected to Bobby, and while the emotional through lines that occur with this plot point are beautiful, there’s not much telegraphing into what Buck, Hen, Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody), and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) are feeling before the big funeral sequence. The last two episodes of the 9-1-1 Season 8 will probably cover the others, but for such a big set piece, the lack of insight into the rest of the 118 as they bury their captain stings.

Bobby himself is just as present as before. The episode begins with a flashback to eight years ago. The 118—consisting of Chimney, Hen, Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr), and Bobby—roll up to a house fire. They enter and encounter a woman named Leah, who is trying to reach her baby, Micah. But when Bobby tries to enter the baby’s room, he discovers it’s aflame. Tommy pulls him back, but Bobby can’t look away from the horror of another child lost to a fire.

9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 16 connects past and present grief through flashbacks.

This flashback loops to the present. On Athena’s worst day, Leah’s brother shows up at the 118 looking for Bobby, hoping he can help keep his sister out of jail. Leah, still consumed with her grief for her lost baby, attempted to kidnap someone else’s kid, believing it to be Micah. Athena decides to help considering Bobby’s connection to it, and throughout 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 16, she channels her anger and grief into this case.

While this investigation takes up a lot of time in the present day, it’s a beautifully tragic way to bridge Athena’s current grief with Bobby’s past grief for his children. Bassett and Krause do wonderful work. Bassett’s tight control of Athena’s anger and grief throughout 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 16 builds the tension well until she breaks down in front of Hen.

It’s a particularly tough scene considering everything Athena has lost throughout her life. And Krause in the flashback scenes is some of his best work as Bobby. He keeps a lot of Bobby’s grief right under the surface, restraining himself. It’s consistent with the Bobby from 9-1-1 Season 1 that we know, someone who’s closed off from his team.

But what’s so wonderful about this interplay between past and present is how much they bookend each other. In the past, Bobby visited Leah in the hospital and comforted her for the loss of her child. When she asks how he keeps going after the death of his kids, he tells her that he lives every day believing he’ll see his children again.

The flashbacks are a grounding presence in 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 16.

In the present, Leah offers her condolences about Bobby after Athena tells her that Leah hasn’t lost everything. For us, it’s a comfort to see Bobby and Athena still connected, despite being separated by years and distance. This Bobby doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to find life again. And for Athena, she’s almost speaking to herself when she says those words to Leah. Even at the end of something, there’s still life.

This is one of 9-1-1’s strong suits. Marrying a character’s emotional catharsis with a rescue or a case, and letting it take center stage. 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 16 is an outlier of an episode, confronting for the first time the death of a main character, but the DNA remains. Though these are uncertain times for 9-1-1, in this, they capture lightning.

The use of flashbacks can sometimes be hit or miss, but here, they work. They’re a grounding presence in the episode, easing the sting of Bobby’s loss a bit. Bobby also appears to Athena as a hallucination, but even that often-used trope works because it’s grounded in Athena’s anger and grief. Used sparingly, these narrative devices can elevate a story of death and grief, and 9-1-1 hits all the right emotional beats. Seeing the original 118 working together is also great, and the small moment where Tommy pulls Bobby back from the fire feels significant in its own right. Hopefully, there’s more to come there.

The final moments of 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 16 consist of a montage of Bobby’s funeral, with Chief Simpson narrating Bobby’s eulogy. The 118 act as pallbearers, and it’s a nice touch to have the more recent additions of the 118—Ravi, Buck, and Eddie—on one side across from the original 118—Tommy, Hen, and Chimney. It’s a worthy send-off for Bobby, emphasized by the flashbacks. The last shot is just Athena, May, and Harry, laying Bobby to rest next to his first family.

9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 16 is an emotional ringer, and despite some wonky pacing, it perfectly sets the tone for what 9-1-1 can look like without Bobby Nash.

9-1-1 airs new episodes every Thursday on ABC and Hulu.

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