ABC Cliffhangers and More Finales, New ‘Terror,’ Back-to-Back ‘Hacks’

9-1-1

By the law of TV averages, 9-1-1 fans shouldn’t worry too much about the fate of Athena Grant (Angela Bassett), who was shot by a corrupt detective in last week’s shocker. Given that she was widowed just a year ago by the surprise death of her husband and series lead Bobby Nash (Peter Krause), killing off Athena would likely be too much woe even for this procedural. Although, with the mastermind behind the trafficking ring still on the loose, it’s possible someone else could be headed to an exit ramp. (ABC’s teaser suggested Eddie, played by Ryan Guzman, could also be a shooting victim.) The Season 9 finale is followed by the freshman-season climax of spinoff 9-1-1: Nashville (9/8c), with a guest appearance by singer Noah Cyrus (Miley‘s younger sister), whose sound check takes a disastrous turn.

Grey’s Anatomy

Farewell, Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) and Teddy Altman (Kim Raver). The Season 22 finale of prime time’s longest-running medical drama is their swan song after many seasons. And while it looks bad for Owen, who’s among the victims of a bridge collapse, series creator Shonda Rhimes promised fans a “happy ending” for this on-and-off couple. So, unless she’s thinking of a particularly rosy version of the afterlife, we might be more concerned about Nick (Scott Speedman), the transplant surgeon and beau of Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), who’s also brought to Grey Sloan in distress after the disaster. (His fate might hinge on whether ABC gives his new R.J. Decker series a second season.)

The Hunting Party

Awaiting news of renewal is its own form of cliffhanger, and while fans wait to learn if this psycho-of-the-week manhunt thriller gets a third season, the task force keeps busy tracking escapee Xander Wax (Sex and the City‘s John Corbett playing way against type). His method of poisoning his victims is especially insidious, targeting people randomly by leaving toxic chemicals and poisons on everyday objects like doorknobs and elevator buttons. Back at the Command Center, suspicions lead to confrontation, and not everyone is expected to survive. That’s why they call these episodes cliffhangers.

The Terror

The horror anthology, which set its first season in the Arctic in the 19th century and the second in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, takes a more contemporary spin in its third season. Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) stars as the hot-tempered Pepper, a working-class dad who flies into a creepy cuckoo’s nest when he’s arrested and wrongly incarcerated in New Hyde Psychiatric Hospital. Terrifying hallucinations soon follow — or are they for real? The series poses the intriguing question: “Do bad things happen in a place because the place is evil, or because so many bad things are done there, it invited evil in?” Can’t both things be true? The six-episode series, whose strong cast includes Emmy winner Judith Light, CCH Pounder, Evil‘s Aasif Mandvi, and Stephen Root, is expected to air on the linear AMC channel later this year.

Hacks

For the second week, the Emmy-winning showbiz comedy presents back-to-back episodes, as if it were sprinting to the finish line of its finale season. Still: the more the merrier, especially when so many great guest stars are joining in on the fun while they can. In the first episode, English Teacher‘s Sean Patton guests as a rising stand-up star pursued all the way to Kalamazoo by Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter) to convince him to do a Las Vegas residency. Back home, Deborah (Jean Smart) will do just about anything to woo an investor (Saturday Night Live alum Alex Moffat) to pour money into Marcus’ (Carl Clemons-Hopkins) overbudget casino project — until she realizes what his new AI venture could mean to her career. In the even-better second episode, Deborah and Ava (Hannah Einbinder) head to Montecito to talk a rival comic (Cherry Jones) into relinquishing an iconic outfit Deborah is desperate to wear for her Madison Square Garden concert. The only hitch: the comedian has the wrong idea about Deborah and Ava’s relationship, escalating into classic farce.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Law & Order (8/7c, NBC): Detectives Riley (Reid Scott) and Walker (David Ajala) penetrate a wall of brotherhood solidarity within a New York firehouse while investigating the death of a heroic fire chief. Followed by a new episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (9/8c).
• Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage (8/7c, CBS): Georgie (Montana Jordan) sets off a feud between Mandy (Emily Osment) and a rival weather girl, the publicity from which could give Mandy the career boost she’s been waiting for. Followed by Ghosts (8:30/7:30c), where the fate of the Woodstone B&B continues to hang in the balance.
• Jersey Shore Family Vacation (8/7c, MTV): The Jersey Shore crew reunites for one last hurrah in a farewell season.
• Next Level Chef (8/7c, Fox): The cooking competition stokes World Cup fever, welcoming USA soccer star Alexi Lalas while the chefs tackle a fusion challenge with ingredients reflecting the cuisines of two countries.
• Elsbeth (9/8c, CBS): The delicious Anna Camp (True Blood) is the prime suspect as a “trad wife,” the subject of a documentary whose director dies under suspicious circumstances.
• We Are Jeni (9/8c, Investigation Discovery): A two-hour documentary depicts the ordeal of Jeni Haynes, an Australian woman whose dissociative identity disorder created more than 2,500 alternate personalities in response to years of abuse by her father. Her search for justice led to a landmark trial in a Sydney courthouse.
• One Golden Summer (9/8c, OWN): An OWN Spotlight special revisits the summer of 2014, when a team from Chicago’s South Side became the first all-Black team to win the U.S. Little League Championship, a triumph that proved short-lived when the team was stripped of its title months later over residency issues. In the documentary, the now-adult players reflect on the highs and lows and the bonds that sustain them.

 ON THE STREAM:

• M.I.A. (streaming on Peacock): Shannon Gisela stars in a nine-episode revenge thriller as the newly orphaned Etta Tiger Jonze, who vows to kill the 12 men responsible for wiping out her family in a Miami drug dispute.
• Legends (streaming on Netflix): Steve Coogan and Tom Burke lead the cast of a six-episode spy caper in which customs workers are recruited to become amateur spies, going undercover to infiltrate drug gangs.
• Send Help (streaming on Hulu): The dark comedy/survival thriller hybrid makes its streaming debut, starring Rachel McAdams as a midlevel employee who flips the script on her company’s boorish CEO (Dylan O’Brien) when they’re stranded on a remote tropical island after a plane crash.