Inside 9-1-1′s Wildest Wedding Surprises, From [Spoiler]’s Shocking Return to Buck’s Accidental Outing
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It’s not the first wedding we’ve seen on 9-1-1, but Maddie and Chimney’s extended trip down the aisle is certainly one we’ll never forget — even if Chimney almost did.
The crux of this week’s long-awaited episode is that Chimney, unaware he contracted viral encephalitis during a recent call, suddenly forgets who he is, where he works and the fact that he’s supposed to be marrying the love of his life.
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“He’s got amnesia, he has brain fog and he’s on the brink of death — those things are difficult to play,” Kenneth Choi tells TVLine of Chimney’s spotlight hour. “But they’re satisfying if you do the research and the prep. This episode took several days more than what the schedule normally is for an episode, and once it was finally done, I felt completely satisfied.”
While the 118 does its part to track Chimney down, the wayward groom embarks on a devastating odyssey across Los Angeles, revisiting physical locations from his previous life while simultaneously battling a very handsome demon from his past.
Fortunately, the chaos eventually subsides (more on that later), clearing the way for Maddie and Chimney to finally tie the knot — even if it’s not how either of them pictured swapping vows.
Read on for Choi’s breakdown of the hour’s biggest surprises, including what Chimney’s really thinking during that hilarious Buck/Tommy reveal, then grade the episode and drop a comment with your own favorite moments.
Forgetting Someone?
Before we dive into the real meat of the episode, we need to address the elephant in the room. While some potential wedding guests, like Chimney’s brother Albert, were out of town and therefore unable to attend, one person couldn’t have been more local, yet still did not receive an invitation. And since Sue is too nice to stand up for herself, we’ll do it for her.
Seriously, is she not one of Maddie’s closest work friends? The Buckleys clearly aren’t skimping on this lavish affair, so it’s not like Maddie and Chimney need to keep the guest list tight. Come on, was this poor woman hit by a car for nothing?!
Choi offers up a potential excuse for Sue missing her friends’ big day: “Someone had to take care of the call center, and it’s either her or Josh, right?” he tells TVLine, adding that “she got to be at the final wedding in the end, so that was lovely.”
Not This Guy Again!
Speaking of uninvited guests, we bet you weren’t expecting to see Doug this week. Maddie’s extremely dead ex (played by Jennifer Love Hewitt’s real-life husband) appears to Chimney as the manifestation of his darkest, most intrusive thoughts, ultimately determined to make him give up and die.
“I hope not, now that they’re happily married with their child,” Choi says when asked if Doug is going to continue haunting Chimney for the rest of his life. “But I thought it was wonderful having him back. I love working with [Brian Hallisay]. He’s terrific.”
While Choi admits that it was “so jarring” to see the abusive ghost back once again, he believes that the episode “needed to have someone like Doug to serve as Chimney’s counterpoint.” Showrunner Tim Minear’s idea was for Doug and another character (more on him later) to serve as the devil and angel on Chimney’s shoulders. As he described it to Choi, “It’s Chimney’s psyche battling between whether he should press on or just give up.”
“When Tim first said it, I thought, ‘Oh, that sounds interesting. But how is that going to look?’” Choi recalls. “Then I read the script and was super excited. Tim has this way of making all the dots connect. He’s so good at weaving this intricate web.”
Family Reunion
In his darkest hour, Chimney nearly gives up the good fight, but the return of a familiar face (a good one this time!) turns everything around. The visitor, who appears by way of Chimney’s aggressive hallucinations, is none other than his late cousin Kevin, last seen in Season 2’s “Chimney Begins.”
Choi says it was “lovely” getting to work with actor James Chen again, having developed “a strong relationship and bond” when they first worked together in 2019.
“We had a very short amount of time with him,” Choi tells TVLine. “He flew in from New York and flew right out that day. It was very simple and old hat. As soon as we locked eyes, we got right back into that Kevin/Howard Bond, which you do when you form these strong bonds as we did in ‘Chimney Begins.’ Playing that scene was lovely, because it’s when my character is at his darkest. It was great to have James’ energy there, because he’s such a light, happy, loving, kind individual, and that shines through in his character.”
Chimney’s “reunion” with Kevin gives him the strength to push forward, eventually making it to his aunt and uncle’s home, where he collapses on the living room floor.
The Wedding Singer
With his memory restored and his nervous wreck of a bride by his bedside, Chimney decides that he doesn’t want to wait another minute to marry the love of his life, setting the stage for his and Maddie’s unexpectedly low-key hospital wedding.
And no, your ears aren’t playing tricks on you. That is Hewitt’s voice on Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers’ timeless classic “Islands in the Stream,” which plays during Maddie and Chimney’s impromptu ceremony.
As Choi recalls, “She recorded that beautiful ballad version, gave it to Tim and said, ‘What do you think about playing this for the wedding?’ And he said, ‘I love it.’ She also sent me a copy of it, so in between every take — and we did about 30 to 36 takes of just of us getting married, which was highly emotional — I had my AirPods in and was listening to her song. It always got me right to where I needed to be emotionally. It’s so beautiful.”
Kiss and (Accidentally) Tell
Buck briefly (and accidentally) steals his sister’s thunder on her big day when he enters the hospital room with soot all over his mouth — just as Tommy, whose entire face is covered in soot, arrives from the site of a massive fire. Without exchanging a single word, the group sees, processes and celebrates Buck and Tommy’s new relationship.
Well, we can’t say there isn’t a single word spoken. Hen wins the episode when she turns to Karen and says, “It’s about damn time.”
“I think everybody except for Hen is surprised,” Choi tells TVLine. “The way it’s played is that Hen has kind of known all along that there’s something going on with Buck, but I don’t think anybody else did, Chimney included. So when he sees it, he’s still kind of putting it together. There was a much bigger beat with Chimney, where he looked back and forth a lot more trying to figuring out, but they had to cut some of it for time constraints.”
Choi promises that Chimney’s reaction is a positive one. “The feeling that Chimney has is, ‘Oh, this is great! Because I love both of you guys!’” he says. “He loves Tommy and he loves Buck, so it’s terrific, but it’s also completely out of left field for Chimney. … He, along with the rest of the crew, is happy. All you want for your friend is for them to be happy, and for them to find someone who makes them happy. It doesn’t matter who it is. As long as this person makes your friend happy, you’re all for it.”
Kara-no-ke
In fact, our only complaint about Maddie and Chimney’s epic wedding episode is the stuff we didn’t get to see. According to Choi, quite a few goodies ended up on the cutting room floor.
“I think the first cut was an hour and 15 minutes, and they had to cut it down to 42 minutes,” he tells TVLine. “They had to trim everything down. There was stuff with Buck and Eddie singing karaoke, and even that got cut out. That would have been fun. The editors had a mountain to climb with this episode, and I think they did a fabulous job.”
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