After an action-packed start to its eighth season, 9-1-1 is officially on hiatus until March. This season has been full of entertaining drama and compelling emergencies, from the “Bee-nado” that caused Athena’s (Angela Bassett) plane to almost crash to the more intense sequel to the show’s previous well emergency. Each season, 9-1-1 continues to top itself with a new large-scale disaster that the first responders have tend to in the season premiere.
Season 8 of 9-1-1 has also continued to show a great deal of development for the characters and their relationships. Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Chimney (Kenneth Choi) have another baby on the way, Buck (Oliver Stark) seems to be ready to move forward after another failed romance, and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) has done some work on his guilt and shame in the wake of Christopher (Gavin McHugh) leaving. While 9-1-1 undoubtedly still has strong characters and creative emergencies, the show has yet to top its best plot twist from all the way back in Season 5: the reveal of Jonah Greenway (Bryce Durfee) as a serial killer.
The Reveal of Jonah as a Serial Killer Was ‘9-1-1’s Best Plot Twist
Season 5 of 9-1-1 was a very difficult one for the 118, as they had to deal with the losses of both Chimney and Eddie. In the wake of this, they were replaced with firefighter Lucy Donato (Arielle Kebbel) and paramedic Jonah Greenway. Hen and Chimney notably work very well together, and Hen was even been shown to be frustrated with Eddie in the past for stepping on her toes when he filled in for Chimney. That being said, it made sense that Hen did not like Jonah right away and that she had her reservations about him.
When 9-1-1 puts a lot of focus on a new character, they are typically either someone who is about to become a love interest or a villain. In Season 2, 9-1-1 briefly introduced Chimney’s new friend, Jason (Brian Hallisay), before revealing him to actually be Maddie’s abusive ex-husband, Doug. Jonah was a little bit annoyingly eager, but he was not as suspicious, particularly because he worked for the 118. It seemed like the show was building a begrudging friendship between him and Hen before making him a potential permanent member of the team.
Shortly after the introduction of Jonah, there was a spider-related emergency on the show that ended with a sudden death in what looked to be a plot hole. This, in addition to Hen’s growing dislike of Jonah, culminated in a phenomenal and explosive reveal. After the sudden death of Claudette (Vanessa Estelle Williams) during the dispatch fire, Hen realized that her gut about Jonah had been correct. Due to the slow build-up and Jonah’s position as a first responder at the 118, 9-1-1 was able to give viewers a false sense of security before revealing his true nature.
‘9-1-1’s “Hero Complex” Gave a Phenomenal Pay-Off to This Twist
The Jonah plot twist was particularly interesting, because he wasn’t just a one-dimensional serial killer. Season 5, Episode 17, “Hero Complex,” opened with a flashback to Jonah’s childhood that saw him saving a bus driver’s life with CPR. As an adult, Jonah kept chasing this high of being a hero by intentionally stopping and restarting people’s hearts. When Hen and Chimney’s investigation put them on Jonah’s radar, he ultimately stopped Chimney’s heart in front of Hen to prove himself to her.
“Hero’s Complex” is a truly terrifying episode of television that worked so well because of the buildup and foreshadowing in the episodes leading up to it. Over the course of seven episodes, 9-1-1 developed this story arc in a way that felt natural. When Jonah became this villain threatening Chimney’s life in “Hero’s Complex,” it didn’t feel out of nowhere. Instead, it felt like the disguise had fallen away from this character, and his true nature had been revealed.
Earlier in Season 8, 9-1-1 introduced a new rookie (Zach Tinker) for Athena, who turned out to be evil. This twist didn’t have much weight to it, though, because it all happened in a single episode. 9-1-1 is ultimately at its best when it takes advantage of its network TV format and lets things slowly simmer over multiple episodes.
