‘9-1-1: Nashville’: Kimberly Williams-Paisley Details What Makes Cammie’s New Romance Right for Her Now

The writing has been on the wall for 9-1-1: Nashville‘s new romance for a while now, and in the Thursday, April 2, episode, a big step was taken. Warning: Spoilers for 9-1-1: Nashville Season 1 Episode 16 ahead!

Cammie (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) met Turner (Coby Bell) during the hacker situation — which carried over from 9-1-1 Season 5 — and then the dispatcher and the agent began getting to know each other in a grief group. That continues in this episode, as Cammie shares a 9-1-1 call that ends in tragedy: A woman’s ex-husband gives the wrong address, and by the time help arrives, it’s too late. What follows is a murder mystery that Cammie works with Turner, one that initially paints the ex-husband as the guilty party who knew he’d given the wrong address before she realizes that it was the woman’s sister, Aubrey (Kyle Richards), after her money. What’s worse: The sister is now going after the victim’s daughter. Cammie, Turner, and the 113 work together to save the daughter and stop Aubrey, with the dispatcher even tricking Aubrey into thinking S.W.A.T. has arrived when they’re nowhere close.

After, Turner notes that the only real time they’ve spent together is as a crime-fighting duo or in the grief group and suggests they grab a beer to celebrate a job well done. She asks if he’s asking her out on a date, and he says it depends on if she says yes. She does.

Below, Kimberly Williams-Paisley discusses Cammie’s new romance, quick thinking during that call, and more.

Cammie and Turner work really well together as we saw with the hacker and then again in this episode. Why is that?

Kimberly Williams-Paisley: I’m so glad they brought Agent Turner back. He’s delightful, Coby Bell, and he’s just a very talented actor. And then I think for the characters, I think both of us are lonely. Both of us have experienced loss and have kind of married our work, so to speak. And so I think we relate in that way. And then I think we’ve met each other’s match. We’re both really smart and quick thinking and love kind of sleuthing together.

Disney/Jake Giles Netter

So is that why Cammie feels she’s ready to date again and says yes to him at the end? Because she saw all that and because of all that work they did together?

I think so. I think it didn’t move too fast, which I think was really important for Cammie. And the fact that he addressed the grief first made a big impact on her. And it was something, of course, that they could both relate to. And I think that made a big difference for her.

What can you say about what’s coming up there? Are we going to see some happiness there? Is it going to be both of them feeling each other out because they both are still dealing with grief?

Yeah, they both are. And I think that they’re both probably in the same timeframe of just like, “Let’s see where this goes. Let’s take our time with it. And let’s go have fun and take it one step at a time.”

But it does feel like, as Cammie’s getting ready to move on and move forward, that this is when stuff about her husband could come up. So how much of a concern is that for her, and is that something we’re going to see?

I think so. I think that’s still a big part of her journey. She’s still wearing her wedding ring, and she keeps wearing her wedding ring, so that’s going to have to be addressed. Why does she still wear it? And what’s her plan there? She also has a family. I’m really looking forward to, as the series progresses, meeting her kids and just seeing more of that backstory in her life, more of that context.

Also, I’d love to see Turner meeting Don (Chris O’Donnell) and Blythe (Jessica Capshaw) and everyone off the clock.

Yeah, Blythe has gotten to know him a little bit at the grief group, but yeah, definitely what would he make of that whole world at the manner and the Sunday brunch? And I think actually he would get along really well with everybody.

We also have to talk about Cammie’s quick thinking with Aubrey because it feels like time and time again this season, we’ve seen why Cammie belongs to dispatch and this is just the latest. She just thrives in situations like that.

I think so, too. And that’s what I love about playing her is she’s very calm and cool on the surface while everybody around her is kind of panicking, and then you can see how that pays off and she’s able to figure things out sometimes before everybody else. And she’s kind of a superhero of the 9-1-1 operator universe.

Cammie’s really getting into crime-solving, it seems. What’s the appeal of that for her? Because she’s good at it.

Yeah, I think she’s good at it, too. And I like how she knows … She obviously keeps pepper spray in her bag. I wonder what other tricks she has up her sleeve. I think there’s a lot to Cammie that we’re going to get to see. She’s got a lot of tricks up her sleeve and has a lot of training and is used to walking into many different rooms. I mean, she used to be a music producer and so she knows a lot about a lot of different worlds, and it’ll be really fun to see her get to use that knowledge.

Disney/Jake Giles Netter

What are her thoughts on the whole Blythe versus Dixie (LeAnn Rimes) rivalry?

Well, I think Cammie’s definitely Team Blythe just because of their history. They’re best friends, and they adore each other. And so she loves Blythe. I do think Cammie likes Dixie’s music. I guess we’ve seen that a few times. We saw that at the gala. And I think Cammie really appreciates music and appreciates Dixie’s talent, but I think she’s Team Blythe all the way.

I love the Cammie and Blythe scenes.

Thank you. We have so much fun. Jessica Capshaw is such a delight to work with, and we developed a really easy rapport right off the bat, and I think she’s wonderful. And I love every time they write scenes for us together. We have so much fun.

So are we going to be seeing what Blythe thinks of this new romance for Cammie?

Yeah, Blythe is already making her feelings known. She was the one encouraging Cammie to go to the grief group and kept saying he was cute. And so I think she approves of this romance.

But what I do need are Cammie and Dixie scenes, I have to say.

Yeah, that really hasn’t happened yet, except for when Dixie collapsed and spit up the blood, but I definitely think that Dixie and Cammie need to go head-to-head at some point.

You’ve been in the middle of the crossovers this season because you were the one who crossed over earlier with the space emergency, and then you were the emcee of the firefighter games with 9-1-1‘s Oliver Stark and Ryan Guzman guest-starring. Talk about filming that one.

Oh, that was so cool. Those guys were amazing. We were honored that they came to Nashville and filmed that episode with us. They were such good sports. And those were long days because there were so many people in the scenes, and there was so much to film. And we really had a good time. It was very cool that they did that crossover, and I liked the way they did it, too. I got to watch the whole thing as the emcee of the event.

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It’s great seeing Cammie and Don working together. We see that in this episode as well. Are we going to be getting more of that going forward, that cohesion between dispatch and the 113?

Definitely. I think that they work very well together. Those two departments depend on each other, and that’s what I saw when I visited the 9-1-1 call center in Nashville is the close working relationship that they have with each other, and the firefighters’ lives depend on the operators knowing what they’re doing and sending them into a situation safely. And so there’s got to be a real trust there.

What can you say about what else is coming up for Cammie and how the season’s going to end for her to set up Season 2?

Oh my gosh, it’s so good. You are not going to see it coming, is all I can say. It’s really fun. They end on a big cliffhanger, and Cammie’s right there in the middle of it, too.

Oh, I cannot wait to see that. I’ve been waiting to see her in the middle of an emergency.

Yeah. It’s going to be good.

9-1-1: Nashville, Thursdays, 9/8c, ABC