9-1-1 is a modern take on a procedural drama from the minds of Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Tim Minear. It follows the professional and personal lives of first responders living and working in Los Angeles, highlighting firefighters, police officers, paramedics, and the dispatchers who send them where they need to go. The show is in its eighth season and isn’t stopping soon, but has already put its main characters through some pretty intense situations.
Instead of focusing on law enforcement like most procedurals, 9-1-1 spotlights the LAFD, specifically Station 118. The 118 is a family throughout the show, but extends far past the firehouse. Each main character is intertwined somehow, with firefighters sharing blood with dispatchers, others marrying police sergeants, and everyone leaning on each other to take care of their individual families. It’s a beloved part of the show, but that often means that when one character takes a hit, the whole family feels the impact.
Hen Experienced a Fatal Traffic Collision. Season 3, Episode 8. Henrietta “Hen” Wilson is one of 9-1-1’s most pivotal and underserved characters, introduced in the very first episode. Hen’s a seasoned firefighter, but she and her best friend, Howard “Chimney” Han, are the 118’s paramedic team, with Hen’s technical and problem-solving skills even leading her to medical school from Season 4 to Season 6. Aside from being such a vital part of the 118, much of Hen’s character revolves around her wife, Karen, and their son, Denny. Throughout the early seasons, Hen fights many battles for her family and more while dealing with family drama.
The Season 3 episode, “Malfunction,” is no different for Hen, as she struggles with her home situation after she and Karen receive bad news about their fertility journey. Karen was understandably mourning the loss of their IVF embryos, which caused a lot of tension between the spouses. Things get significantly worse for Hen at work, as she hits another driver in an intersection while transporting a patient. The young woman didn’t survive the crash, shaking Hen to her core, as she blamed herself fiercely for a while, even after she was cleared of wrongdoing.
Eddie Became a Widower. Season 2, Episode 17. Edmundo Diaz, or Eddie, joined the 118 family in the action-packed premiere episode of 9-1-1’s second season. Most of the team was excited to have him on board, especially given his experience as a decorated combat medic, though it took a little longer for Evan Buckley to warm up to him. 9-1-1’s first episode with Eddie introduces him as a single father to young Christopher, who lives with Cerebral Palsy and is the light of Eddie’s life, though balancing being a single father to a special needs son and having a super high-octane job is a constant struggle for Eddie.
Christopher’s mom, Shannon, wasn’t in the picture, having left her family a couple of years before. She reentered the picture when Eddie tried to get Chris into a nicer school that needed to meet the other parent or see the custody agreement. Shortly after she came back into their lives in Season 2, Eddie was ready to get married again, while Shannon wanted a divorce. But the day after that conversation, the 118 responded to a pedestrian collision. Eddie, realizing that Shannon was the pedestrian and the team knew her injuries were likely catastrophic, allowing the couple to say goodbye is a heartbreaking sequence made worse by Shannon’s goodbye note to Chris. Losing Shannon devastated both Diaz boys and indirectly caused a rift between them that’s still present in Season 8.
If you thought 9-1-1 was just another action-packed drama, think again. It’s a show about healing, surviving, and standing tall after being knocked down—again and again. The 118 team has faced hell and back, but they keep going. Why? Because they’re not just coworkers. They’re family.
