‘9-1-1’s Peter Krause on Bobby After the Call Center Fire: The 118 Is ‘Indestructible’

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for 9-1-1 Season 5, Episode 16 “May Day.”]

“Like I always say, you carry this entire operation on your back,” Chimney (Kenneth Choi) tells Captain Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) in the latest 9-1-1 episode, one of the best of the series, and oh, how true that is.

When the 118 is called to a fire at the call center and Bobby learns his stepdaughter, May (Corinne Massiah), is one of the dispatchers still inside, he rushes in to save her — and while doing so, shields her when the roof falls on them. The 118, including Eddie Diaz (Ryan Guzman), who has been working as the LAFD liaison at the call center, runs in to save them. But at the end of the episode, Hen Wilson (Aisha Hinds) is worried about a possible pinched nerve for Bobby and questioning just what’s up with her former temporary partner, Jonah (Brad Durfee), after he talks about failing to save a dispatcher like a math problem and “not a human being.”

Krause teases what’s ahead after this episode and what to expect in the Season 5 finale (airing May 16).

Talk about filming this episode. It looks like it had to be one of the most physically intensive ones for you.

Peter Krause: I really enjoy that sort of work. It’s not easy. When Ryan Murphy first pitched this show to me, he pitched the show in a way that you would imagine an episode like this. I like to make a joke out of the term “pulse-pounding excitement,” but that is what he pitched me when we first did the show, and I was very pleased when this episode came around and the writer-director of this episode, Juan Carlos Coto, did a fantastic job. And we finished up the season with a couple people, Kristen Reidel being the other writer-director, and there’s something really wonderful when the writer gets to direct.

Jack Zeman/ FOX

[This] really is an example of the sort of episode that Ryan Murphy envisioned in the very beginning of the series, and of course it was Tim Minear who really carried the series off of Ryan’s initial brainchild. This particular episode is really Juan Carlos Coto’s brainchild, but again, it really does keep with the theme that Ryan Murphy had in the very beginning, which is this driven action series where you see everyday heroes, unlike superheroes. The director Brad Buecker and I both remarked when we first started the show, this is the comic book I would’ve wanted as a kid, to see real people, and even though our emergencies are sometimes kind of exaggerated or like larger than life, these are supposed to be everyday heroes and it does share some DNA with comic books, if you look at some of the frames and things like that on the show, and I’ve always said that 9-1-1 at its best is like a comic book about first responders come to life.

When the episode ends, it’s unclear how Bobby’s doing. He says he feels like he pulled something; Hen says the pain in his leg might be a pinched nerve. What’s going on with him?

I can’t really say, but I can say that over time, you as a viewer know this, the members of the 118 are rather indestructible. [Laughs] Chimney getting a rebar through his head, Buck [Oliver Stark] having a fire engine land on his leg, all sorts of things obviously have happened to Bobby along the way, getting exposed to chemicals and here having a ceiling fall him while he is protecting his stepdaughter May — which by the way, is another interesting thing I think about Bobby, which ties into obviously his past as a man who lost his family and he feels responsible for it. But I think he really does view May and Harry [Marcanthonee Reis] as his own kids, even though obviously he respects Athena [Angela Bassett] and Michael’s [Rockmond Dunbar] place as their parents. I think there’s a really deep love and caregiving aspect to Bobby when it comes to those kids. And he certainly wasn’t gonna let anything happen to May, which I love as a hero and as a father figure.

Jack Zeman /FOX

Yeah, I liked their moment at the ambulance, when she says she has two dads.

Yeah, I love that.

So we’ll see Bobby back out with the 118 in the next episode?

We’ll see, I can’t say. But the team has been pretty indestructible. They bounce back.

How about how this might affect the 118? We saw how Buck was affected this episode. Is there anything with him and Bobby coming up?

You can look forward to something really powerful between Bobby and Eddie actually coming up. If you recall, Eddie kind of lashed out at Bobby when he wouldn’t immediately let him come back to the firehouse.

Does Bobby now see an Eddie who is ready to return to the 118 vs. after that conversation?

I think in this episode he does, and I hope that that moment where Eddie is holding Bobby up, when they dig Bobby and May out of the rubble, I hope that plays really nicely between Bobby and Eddie. It’s really just a look.

Jack Zeman/ FOX

I didn’t think it was possible for the 118 to feel more like a family, and then we got this episode, with everyone working together to rescue Bobby and May. 

I will say that, over the years, working in television, I’ve taken great pride in trying to build ensemble, whether it’s in Sports Night, Six Feet Under, Parenthood, any of the shows I’ve done. And I also want to say what a wonderful job Kenny Choi, Aisha Hinds, Oliver Stark, and Ryan Guzman have done being team players and understanding that we’re more interesting and we have greater strength as a team than as individuals. And I also want to highlight how nice and respectful they are to all the guest cast that come in and help us make these episodes. I’m tremendously proud of the entire team.

Is that sense of togetherness with the 118 going to continue for the rest of the season?

Yeah, absolutely. They’re a family. Family is very important to Bobby, as is his faith and that’s been something that’s been really interesting for me to play, too, is that Bobby does have a connection to a higher power and he does feel a responsibility to the life that he does have and to the people around him. That’s been a really wonderful thing to get to dive into as an actor as well, playing this character.

Jack Zeman / FOX

The episode ends with Hen suspicious of Jonah after Claudette’s death. What does Bobby think of Jonah?

In Eddie’s absence and Chimney’s absence as well, he was trying to put together a team and trying to keep the family together and that’s not easy. I think as time goes on, we’re gonna see that Bobby is going to, as we’ve seen before, beat himself up a little bit when he makes mistakes, and that’s one of Bobby Nash’s flaws is that he doesn’t really give himself a break. He’s very self-critical and puts a lot of pressure on himself. Without giving too much away, I can say that Bobby feels really bad about some things surrounding Jonah that will be revealed very soon.

What can you say about how the season ends for Bobby?

I can say that the season ends on what I would consider a high note and — we have a new family member in Arielle Kebbel [as Lucy] — it ends in a good place with the family all together.

What’s coming up for Bobby and Athena? Are they still one of the stable parts of the show?

Yes. I think that Bobby is so grateful for his relationship with Athena and also for that family and obviously he would do anything for them. It’s interesting to me because a couple times, Tim and some of the writers have brought things up to me about conflict between Bobby and Athena, and I was like, I don’t know how he could possibly get there because of Bobby’s past and everything. He’s just so grateful to have this family and he really does feel like he’d do anything for them.

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What’s coming up with emergencies? Any big ones or more smaller ones?

A little bit of both. There are some large emergencies and there are some smaller ones, but I think that as we close up the season, it really is about each family being together, but also the larger family of our characters and 9-1-1 all being together as well.

Are we getting a big 118 celebration? What else can you tease about the season finale and how it sets up next season?

There is a celebration. It has to do with certain characters coming together. And during that celebration, Bobby does suggest to Athena that they take a vacation and that vacation may take place on a cruise ship and given 9-1-1, what could possibly go wrong?

9-1-1, Mondays. 8/7c, Fox