9-1-1 Boss Addresses Concerns About Athena’s Future on the Force, Offers Intriguing Tease About Fall Finale

Athena Grant may seem like the second coming of Wonder Woman at times, but Angela Bassett‘s character is all too human, as Thursday’s episode of 9-1-1 was happy to remind us.

After sustaining an injury during an otherwise successful sting operation, Athena was paired with Officer Sparks (played by Days of Our Lives‘ Zach Tinker), a hot-shot rookie with a major attitude — and not a “cool” attitude like that of Snoopy or a Ninja Turtle. The guy basically thought he could play by his own rules, hence him going full Mission: Impossible, jumping atop a moving vehicle to apprehend a fleeing suspect.

Athena expressed her concern that Sparks might have gotten into police work for the wrong reasons, but he attributed that to jealousy, rudely reminding Athena that he’s younger, faster and stronger than her. You know, just in case Athena’s ego wasn’t already bruised enough after her boss pointed out her obvious limp.

“There are a lot of actors who wouldn’t want to show any kind of frailty or sign of weakness or any proof of being mortal — but not Angela,” showrunner Tim Minear tells TVLine. “Some people were asking me, ‘Do you think she’s going to be OK with this storyline?’ And I was like, ‘100%, yes.’ Do you think I got a call from Angela Bassett telling me we couldn’t say that Athena is losing a step? No, I did not. She likes to play things that feel like real situations.”

And things were about to get very real, indeed. A routine traffic stop took a near-fatal turn when Sparks, thinking he was removing his taser from its holster, pulled out his gun and shot an unarmed female driver who was refusing to get out of her car. Were it not for Athena’s ability to remain calm in a high-pressure situation, the woman wouldn’t have survived long enough for paramedics to arrive.

The episode clearly had a lot to say about the responsibility of those who vow to protect and serve, something Minear says he’s inspired to do every so often. “We mostly want to portray first responders as heroes,” he says. “Not every first responder is a hero, obviously, but we’re a TV show that honors the idea of the people that run towards the danger. We’re certainly not a documentary. We’re probably more like Hotshots than we are like Law & Order or something.”

Now for the question (and fear) on every viewer’s mind: did this episode foreshadow Athena’s impending retirement from the force? Though Sergeant Grant may not be as limber as she was in her rookie days, Minear assures us that he has not had any conversations with Bassett about her character retiring from the force. In fact, he’d love to get her back in another wig for more sting operations.

“That reminded me a little of American Horror Story: Hotel when she played Ramona Royale,” Minear says. “I still have all the fake movie posters from that season. A few of them are around my house.”

Elsewhere in this week’s episode, Maddie and Chimney shared their pregnancy news with Uncle Buck, who has apparently turned to baking in the wake of his split from Tommy. And after working alongside Gerrard for several hellish weeks on the Hotshots set, Brad decided he’d rather shadow Bobby full-time with the 118. Gee, what could possibly go wrong?

“You can rest assured this time that I’m not going out on a giant cliffhanger,” Minear says of next week’s fall finale, which serves to wrap up several different ongoing storylines. And thank goodness for that. After the Nov. 21 episode, we won’t get a new 9-1-1 until March 6. We don’t have the upper body strength to hang from a cliff for four months.

Still, Minear does tease that next week’s episode will plant the seed of an intriguing new storyline. In his words, “There’s a thing embedded in Episode 8 that’s going to make the fans go, ‘Wait, what now? What did you say?’”