The 118 is going to need a new captain when 9-1-1 Season 9 begins. Near the end of Season 8, their beloved captain, Bobby (Peter Krause), died after being infected with a super strain of CCHF (Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever) for which they only had one anti-viral, which he gave to Chimney (Kenneth Choi). Hen (Aisha Hinds) was offered the job, but she turned it down. And in the Season 8 finale, Chimney certainly acted like a captain.
Buck (Oliver Stark) has wanted the job in the past — when there needed to be an interim captain with Bobby on vacation — but he’s not ready for that just yet. However, when TV Insider recently spoke with Oliver Stark about Buck’s future, we asked him what kind of captain he thinks his character will be eventually.
“I think the thing that he would struggle with the most being captain is not being the one that does the cool stuff, right? As captain, you’re not necessarily the one that’s meant to do the rope rescue or running first to the fire, and I think we’ve seen that that is very much Buck’s nature,” he explained. (Watch Stark talk about the Season 8 finale rescue and lament what he didn’t get to do here.) “So I see some difficulties if he ever went down that route in that sense.”
He continued, “But in terms of a leader, I would think he’s very much in kind of the same vein as Bobby because that’s who he’s learned so much from. So, caring, listening, authoritative when needed. So yeah, if he ever gets there, I think that’s what we could expect.”
After the 118 worked together to save victims (and each other) from a building collapse, everyone returns to the station. There, Chimney decided that no one was leaving, meaning Buck wasn’t transferring and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) was moving back to Los Angeles from Texas.
“This is our firehouse. This is the 118. And it’s not just a number, it’s us. And you’re right, Buck. Things are never going to be the same again because Cap is gone. But leaving won’t change that. It won’t make you feel any less sad. It just means that you’ll be sad all alone. Bobby died so I could live, and it has screwed me up in ways I can’t fully express, but the truth is, he would have done that for any one of us,” Chimney said.
“He knew that just coming into work every day, there’s a chance that one or more of us would not make it home, and his job above everything else was to make sure that we did. And we are all standing here right now because of him. This team, we are his legacy. So we can miss him, and we can mourn him, and we can even curse his name, but we are not going to disrespect him by throwing away what he built right here. So you hang up your turnouts, you hit the showers, you go home, and you get some rest because we are all going to see each other on our next shift, right here, together. Understood?”
Hen immediately responded with, “Copy that, Cap, I mean, Chim.”
What kind of captain do you think Buck will be? Do you want to see it happen? If so, when? Let us know in the comments section below.
9-1-1, Season 9, Fall 2025, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC