Note: This story contains spoilers from the opening of “9-1-1” Season 8.
“9-1-1” has built a reputation for starting its seasons with some impressive disasters. There was the earthquake in Season 2, the LA blackout in Season 5, and the cruise ship sinking in Season 7. And who can forget the three-episode tsunami that opened Season 3? But Season 8’s Bee-nado might rise to the top of this list.
“I was talking to Ryan Murphy, and he really liked the entire soundtrack to ‘The Poseidon Adventure’ from last season. He was like, ‘What are some other great disaster movies from the ’70s?’ And I was like, ‘The Swarm,’ which is probably the worst movie ever,” series co-creator and executive producer Tim Minear told TheWrap.
Minear doesn’t recommend that “anyone” sit down and watch Irwin Allen’s box office hit about a swarm of killer bees on the verge of invading Texas. “I said, and he was like, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, that sucks. Okay.’” Like almost every emergency depicted in “9-1-1,” Bee-nado is rooted in some real-life context. Earlier this year, a tractor-trailer carrying 15 million bees crashed on I-95 in Maine. Likewise, in 2023 alone, 5 million bees fell off a truck in Canada, and a truck carrying 1 million bees crashed in Florida. But the real trick of Bee-nado is combining this compelling plot with a story that feels like “9-1-1.” That’s where Athena (Angela Bassett) comes in.
While much of the appropriately titled “Buzzkill” series is devoted to the insect emergency response, it’s a subplot for the Season 8 opener. The main plot revolves around Athena escorting the inmate who killed her fiancé to another prison. She initially resists the assignment. But the more time she spends with Dennis Jenkins (Glenn Plummer), the more she begins to believe his claim that someone wants to kill him before he can testify in another case. Athena’s tense and emotional story culminates at the end of “Buzzkill,” when both Athena and Dennis are in a plane crash caused by ground wasps.
“I knew I couldn’t do a swarm of bees in two or three episodes, so I actually had the bee storyline collide with Athena’s story at the end, which is something I’ve been doing for years,” Minear said. “I’m going to start with an opening episode that takes everyone underwater. You see where everyone is in their personal lives. And then, at the end of the first hour, something bigger happens and takes you into the next couple of episodes. We’re not doing anything different.”
Minear praised Bassett for “playing with things.” That’s a compliment, given that last season’s big considerations involved her character on the brink of drowning on her honeymoon, and this episode begins with Athena being thrown into the air.
“Last year when we did ‘Poseidon,’ she was underwater and she threw herself into the wall. She actually did her own stunts. So she was in [the plane scene],” Minear said. “By the way, when I worked with her on ‘American Horror Story,’ I gave her a lot of weird stuff.”
The executive producer credits Bassett as “a big part of the reason” “9-1-1” has been so successful. “Angela always brings her best to the table, and she puts the craziness into something that’s emotionally real. That’s probably why we’ve been working on it for so long,” Minear said.
There’s another important story at the heart of “Buzzkill”: Station 118’s adjustment to its new captain, Vincent Gerrard (Brian Thompson). Season 7 ended with Bobby (Peter Krause) involuntarily resigning from the force as he recovered from a house fire and other traumatic events. Going into the new season, Minear knew that the tension between Captain Gerrard and the rest of the team would be a major plot point.
“It’s clear that Gerrard is an asshole. We all know that, we’ve seen him before,” Minear said. “The question is how to make it concrete?”
