9-1-1 Season 7’s Best Moments (So Far), From Buck and Tommy’s First Kiss to Maddie’s Wedding Day Surprise

Leave it to 9-1-1 to cram a season’s worth of drama into just a handful of episodes. In its first five weeks on ABC, the former Fox procedural has been firing on all cylinders, and it’s been our absolute pleasure attempting to keep up.

The new season kicked off with Bobby and Athena battling everything from terrorists to tidal waves on their honeymoon cruise from hell, and that was only the beginning of what 9-1-1 had in store for us. A major recast, a ghostly visitor, a wedding cliffhanger, a long-overdue sexual awakening for a beloved member of the 118 — is there anything Season 7 hasn’t thrown at us yet? A crossover with The Bachelor, perhaps? No, wait, they did that too.

With several more weeks until 9-1-1‘s return on Thursday, May 2 (8/7c), TVLine is taking stock of our favorite moments from the show’s inaugural season on ABC thus far. We promise they aren’t all about Buck… but yes, quite a few of them are about Buck.

Read on for a ranking of our favorite moments from 9-1-1 Season 7 (so far), then drop a comment with your own additions. Which current events would you put on your list?

10. There’s Something About Harry

If you’re going to blatantly recast a well-known character seven seasons into your show’s run, you better work in a subtle reference to the change in your script. At least that’s how we feel, so we were pleased by Athena’s reaction to Harry’s return in Episode 4. Yes, we too noticed how “tall” her son (now played by Elijah M. Cooper) has gotten. Just look at Bobby’s face in this moment — he knows a recast when he sees one.

Marcanthonee Reis, who has portrayed Harry since 9-1-1 premiered in 2018, “was sort of ready to move on,” Minear tells TVLine. “I reached out to Marcanthonee, who hadn’t been around for a minute, and I pitched him this story. I think he loved the story, but was just ready to do something new.”

09. Worst First Date Ever

We’re not saying we’re glad that Tommy left Buck standing alone on the curb in Episode 5, but there was something darkly amusing about watching their disastrous first date go down in flames. You know when something makes you cringe so hard that it actually circles back around to being enjoyable? That was this for us. It was bad enough when Eddie just happened to show up at this allegedly out-of-the-way establishment, but it was simply too much when Buck told Eddie that he and Tommy were going to “look for hot chicks, because hot chicks love firefighters.” If it were possible to physically crawl out of our own skin in that moment, we would have.

08. Mother of a Cameo

Hearing Shannon’s voice while Christopher read a letter from his late mother in the season premiere was enough to get us a little misty-eyed. But when the camera panned over to reveal actress Devin Kelley watching over her son, that just about broke us.

“I’ll take any excuse to bring back Devin Kelley,” Minear tells TVLine. “I just think she’s wonderful.”

07. All the Sinking Feelings

No moment in the season’s three-part premiere was more dramatic (or oddly romantic) than Bobby and Athena’s near-death experience in Episode 2. As their sunken cruise ship filled with water, it genuinely felt like the couple was accepting that this was the end, and we began to wonder how #Bathena was possibly going to make it out alive. Just look at the way he’s looking at her!

06. The (Cliff)hangover

You have to admit, very few shows know how to build hype like 9-1-1. Case in point: the midseason finale unexpectedly jumping ahead to Maddie and Chimney’s wedding day, giving viewers just a nibble of the Hangover-style shenanigans still to come as the 118 rallies to track down the missing groom.

05. Angela Bassett’s Oscars Revenge

Prior to surviving the honeymoon from hell, Athena expressed fears about boarding a cruise ship, telling her therapist that The Poseidon Adventure scarred her as a little girl. She also mentioned that Shelley Winters, on Oscar nominee for her work in the iconic film, should have won the gold. This, of course, was a less-than-subtle reference to Bassett losing her Oscar for 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

“When I wrote that line, it just made me laugh so hard,” Minear tells TVLine. “I thought, ‘How is she gonna take this?’ She read it and ran over to her husband and went, ‘Look what Tim wrote!’ She’s got a sense of humor about herself, which is one of the things I love about her.”

04. A Bro-ment Like This

We’ll be honest, we were a little worried about how Eddie might react to Buck coming out as bisexual. We didn’t think he’d be fundamentally against it, but there was a possibility for awkwardness between them. Not only was there absolutely no weirdness, but Eddie initiated a congratulatory hug and even encouraged Buck to give Tommy a call. A true ally!

03. Maddie and Josh in Paradise

No one was more excited about 9-1-1‘s “crossover” with The Bachelor than Maddie and Josh, who convinced Chimney to sneak them spoilers during an emergency call at the reality show’s iconic mansion. It was the perfect tongue-in-cheek way to welcome 9-1-1 to ABC, while also remaining true to the unconventional procedural’s over-the-top roots. (We wish we could unsee the first responders trying to peel that woman’s skin off the pavement!)

02. ‘Night Night!’

We’re always rooting for Hen and Karen, especially when it comes to matters of their growing family, so that whole journey with their new foster daughter was a real nail-biter for us. When Mara finally warmed up to them at the end of the hour, complete with a “night night,” we just about lost it. Come on, look at them!

01. The Kiss We’ve All Been Waiting For

Buck’s bisexuality has been bubbling just below the surface for years now, so it was pretty darn satisfying to see him finally address those feelings via a kiss with Tommy in Episode 4.

“There have been crumbs for years and years,” Stark tells TVLine. “If you look back, and I don’t know if it was even intentional from anybody in the moment, I think that the thread is there throughout. So coming to this moment now is really exciting and deserved and earned.”