9-1-1, ABC’s hit show about first responders, kicks off its eighth season on September 26, 2024 with “Buzzkill.” Only its second season on ABC, after airing on Fox for six seasons before the show was canceled due to financial issues and taken over by ABC, 9-1-1 kicks off Season 8 with a bang. Athena Grant-Nash (Angela Bassett) faces a problem from her past in “Buzzkill” when the Assistant U.S. Attorney’s Office shows up to ask her to escort a prisoner from Phoenix to Los Angeles so he can testify against a rather vicious sex trafficker and rapist.
The problem is, that prisoner is Dennis Jenkins, the man who killed Athena’s fiancé, Emmett, in 1991. Athena is furious that Jenkins made a deal with the federal government, but when she learns that Jenkins specifically asked her to, she decides to honor that request and go to Phoenix, a decision that ends up putting her in danger — again.
In Episode 7, Season 3 of 9-1-1, “Athena Begins,” Athena’s captain, Elaine Maynard (Claudia Christian), shows up at the Grant-Nash house to tell Athena the news — the gun that killed Emmett Washington was found during a routine traffic stop. No one in Athena’s family knows that Emmett Washington was Athena’s fiancé, her first love. She’s kept it all buried for nearly 30 years. Now that the case has been reopened, she finally shares what happened, including how Emmett was the one who helped Athena reconnect with her desire to become a police officer and drop out of law school in 1989. As 9-1-1’s “Athena Begins” shows viewers, Athena and Emmett began dating around the time she became a police officer, and he proposed to her a few years later. When Athena’s mother came to visit, she met Emmett and helped Athena look at wedding dresses. Athena asked Emmett to stop at a store and buy milk so she could spend more time with her mother. It was at that convenience store that Emmett was shot while intervening in a robbery. A young Elaine was the one who met Athena at the crime scene, establishing their long-term relationship and their dual connection to the case. The case doesn’t have enough evidence to find Emmett’s killer, so it remains unsolved – at least until 2019. Despite the captain’s instructions and the concerns of her husband, Bobby Nash (Peter Krause), Athena feels that she is the one who must bring Emmett’s killer to justice. She even tells Bobby that she is at fault for his death because she asked him to go to the store. The guilt is a feeling Bobby understands, given his past, so he supports her in her work, but he still worries about her. It takes Athena a while to figure out where the gun came from, but eventually, she learns that the person who first started passing it around found it in the ventilation duct of a hotel room just across the street from where Emmett was murdered. Maddie Buckley (Jennifer Love Hewitt) helps Athena sift through the 9-1-1 calls from that night, and that’s how Athena finally solves the case. Dennis Jenkins (Glenn Plummer) is a church member, has a family, and works with at-risk youth. He’s even won a few awards for his work. However, when Athena shows up at his door, he knows exactly why she’s there. Jenkins never forgets what happened, nor the names of the people Emmett left behind. Jenkins tells Athena that he was robbing the convenience store so he could pay for drugs and that the cashier was moving too slowly. He didn’t realize Emmett was there until he started shooting at him. Jenkins sobers up and starts working with at-risk youth, but he thinks about Emmett — and Athena — every day. Athena tells him that Emmett would admire what he’s done with his life, but that doesn’t mean she’ll let him off the hook. Jenkins volunteers to go with her, knowing that he owes society, and while Athena is suspended for her involvement in the case, she believes that finally putting Emmett’s killer behind bars will allow her to stop bringing him around. If only she could have known what was coming.
After Athena learns that Dennis Jenkins specifically asked her to, viewers see her packing for an overnight stay in Phoenix in Season 8, Episode 1, “Buzzkill.” Bobby asks why she agrees to go, and she tells him it’s because Jenkins won’t testify unless she’s his escort. He offers to go with her, but she says no, joking that she doesn’t want him to give up “show business.” Bobby, who retired from his job at the LAFD in Season 7, Episode 9, “Ashes, Ashes” when he had some suicidal tendencies, has been assigned by the fire chief to be a technical advisor for the Hotshots TV show, a job he finds a little ridiculous. Athena tells him she’ll be back before dinner the next night, but making that happen may be more difficult than she anticipated.
