9-1-1 on ABC Killing Off Bobby Nash Will Unfortunately Never Make Sense

Peter Krause as Bobby Nash in 9-1-1 before the show killed off the character.

When it comes to TV shows, there are two phrases we’re losing the meaning of: “they should just be friends” and “we need realism.” We’re also losing sight of nuance, but that’s a bigger topic to discuss outside of fiction, too. That said, 9-1-1 on ABC killing off Bobby Nash for the sake of realism eight seasons in is truly a wild choice to wrap my head around.

Full disclosure: I haven’t watched the episode yet, and for the time being, I’m not quite sure I plan on resuming. For those who know, I started 9-1-1 recently for the sake of a potential romance between Buddie. But I fell head over heels for Bobby and Athena’s relationship first. In certain scenes, I saw my own late father in Bobby’s character. So, to learn that the show has killed him off after allowing characters to survive having their throats slit or impaled through the head? After eight seasons? Eight seasons of characters surviving through mass fires and tragedies, only for this to be the thing that a character like Bobby Nash dies from? No. Simply put, no.

On the day the episode aired, multiple people on my timeline were saying it was taking them back to when The Magicians killed off Quentin Coldwater in a similarly sacrificial manner. And like Bobby, Quintin was also a character who spent a period of his life wishing and believing he was better off dead. What kind of message does it send out when the characters who are broken and wounded find love and joy but can’t keep it? It’s so hard to wrap my head around the fact that a TV show would make this decision when the real world is dark as is, and most people watching these shows every day are doing it to find hope. If we wanted realism, we’d turn on the news.

I have never once craved darkness as horrific as my own life in fiction. Now, before anyone decides to jump me, I get the appeal of darker fiction, and I know why we need it. (See The Last of Us.) Those stories are equally as important, and they hold tremendous value in the fictional space as do comedies. But 9-1-1 wasn’t that type of show, and neither was The Magicians. When I watch a show like The Pitt, I expect realism. When I watch a show like 9-1-1, I expect realistic elements where we can bend the rules for the sake of the characters we love.

Maybe if this had happened in the second or third season, it wouldn’t have been as horrific. But for Bobby Nash to survive as much as he does, only for this infection to be the thing to take him feels like a heinous blow. There’s also something incredibly wild about leaked paparazzi shots showing the funeral and putting fans through a roller coaster of emotions in the process before they’ve even watched the episode.

Again, I haven’t been here long enough to feel the same pain that many fans do. But I feel it enough that I simply can’t imagine the show without him. I can’t imagine watching Angela Bassett’s character lose another husband. I can’t imagine watching a show where Buck has lost the one parental figure who has ceaselessly believed in him.

Fiction is always riveting to deconstruct because, more often than not, we lose sight of what truly matters. Sharing art and creativity is about allowing the consumer to feel a little less alone. As an author, I’d rather be remembered as someone who brought joy to my readers than someone who broke their hearts and gave them trust issues. And it’s high time that, as writers, we accept that the people who view our content deserve to feel satisfied with what we’re giving them. They deserve to be comforted. They deserve to feel like they’re part of the story. And when characters are killed off while the world is burning all around us, that’s not good writing—it’s messy and unnecessary. It’s a disservice to the characters and a disservice to everyone who’s spent time wanting to see their happiness come to pass.