Someone needs to get Maddie Han some 24/7 security.
Over her seven seasons on 9-1-1, the call center dispatcher (played by Jennifer Love Hewitt) has been kidnapped and attacked by her ex-husband, held hostage, and faced dozen of more perilous situations. And now, it appears a serial killer has her in their sights when the ABC drama returns with a two-part midseason premiere on March 6.
In a preview clip exclusive to Entertainment Weekly, Maddie and Josh (Bryan Safi) take a call that leads police sergeant Athena (Angela Bassett) on a wild goose chase. “Something’s not right,” she tells her husband, 118 fire captain Bobby (Peter Krause). “Almost nothing’s right about it,” he responds.
When the police do find something, it’s not looking good: “zip ties, rope, blood.” (The unholy trifecta!) “He’s a damn serial killer,” Athena surmises. “And it looks like he took Maddie with him.”
Hen (Aisha Hinds) and Buck (Oliver Stark) look on in shock, as Bobby tries to comfort Maddie’s husband, Chimney (Kenneth Choi): “We’re gonna find her.”
They better do it fast, because the clip ends with footage of Maddie struggling as someone puts a cloth over her mouth and she passes out on the floor.
Maddie’s fate aside, could this be how Athena ends up with a partner in the police department? “Athena doesn’t want to admit that she’s slowing down, so she fights it,” Bassett previously told EW of why Athena resisted a partner earlier this season but may be open to it now. “But she’s realistic and pragmatic, ultimately — just once she gets past her ego and her stubbornness.”
And the preview shows no sign of Eddie (Ryan Guzman), who announced in the November’s midseason finale that he is looking to relocate to El Paso to be with his son, Christopher (Gavin McHugh).
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“I mean, I could tell you how it’s going to play out, but then I’ve ruined the story,” co-creator and showrunner Tim Minear told EW when we asked if Eddie really is leaving. What he did promise at the time was that, “We’re going to hit the ground running and we’re going to hit the ground really hard. No one will be spared chaos.”
But we kinda need to know if Maddie will be spared.
9-1-1 season 8 returns March 6 on ABC.