When 9-1-1 co-creator, showrunner, and writer Tim Minear spoke with Decider midway through Season 9, he teased a storyline he was “pretty excited” about that would carry into Season 10. Having seen the eventful finale, fans now know he was talking about Buck (Oliver Stark) fostering his biological son, Theo (Lincoln and Theodore Sykes), which is sure to shake things up in the future.

“I didn’t really envision bringing the [Season 6 sperm donor] storyline back. It just felt like it was time,” Minear told Decider via Zoom ahead of Season 9’s finale. “The story was actually telling me that it was time. It wasn’t some sort of cynical ploy. It was like, Buck needs someone new to love.”

As fans saw through Hen (Aisha Hinds) and Karen’s (Tracie Thoms) foster parent journey earlier in the series, Buck will encounter a trying time in Season 10 as he navigates the foster system and the show explores why he’s the person caring for Theo. “It’s not like Buck signed a piece of paper and now he’s the adopted father. There will be complications, and it’s not going to necessarily be an easy road, because why would it be? The whole point is to get realistic,” Minear teased.

While Buck’s Season 10 journey will be difficult at times, the showrunner assures fans he’ll lean on Eddie (Ryan Guzman) for support, as foreshadowed through poignant parallels between the death of Theo’s parents Connor (Colin McCalla) and Kameron (Chelsea Kane), and the death of Christopher’s (Gavin McHugh) mom Shannon (Devin Kelley). When Buck and the 118 responded to a pile-up on a bridge involving a boat and several cars, Eddie realized Theo’s parents were unconscious in one of the vehicles and tried to protect Buck from witnessing the heartbreaking scene, just as Buck tried to do for Eddie after Shannon’s Season 2 crash.

“That was intentional. It was also what would happen in the scene. But it was intentional. I was very aware of that parallel,” Minear confirmed. “There’s also another parallel in that scene. When he takes Theo to the ambulance, he intentionally turns him away from the scene, which is exactly what he did with Chris in the tsunami when the dead bodies were floating by. There are parallels to [Buck and Eddie’s] stories. There’s nobody that would know more about what it’s like to be a single dad raising a kid than Eddie, so that’s convenient.” When asked if Theo will bring Buck and Eddie closer together in Season 10, the showrunner replied, “Absolutely,” and shared that Eddie was initially going to be more involved in Season 9’s Theo storyline until some crucial script changes were made.

Season 9’s final three episodes saw the 118 rescue a group of migrants from an apartment building, ICE raid a hospital to forcefully detain them, and Athena work to bust the man behind the harrowing human trafficking operation. With the powerful storyline, 9-1-1 joined other shows that tackled ICE on-screen in 2026, including HBO Max‘s The Pitt and Disney+‘s Daredevil: Born Again.

After receiving the script, Guzman recognized the power of the timely narrative and felt a responsibility and desire to be a part of it — both for himself and for Eddie. So he made his case to Minear and asked that Eddie be more directly included in the storyline. In an April interview with TV Fanatic, the 9-1-1 star said, “There are events in the show that are very topical, and to not have Eddie a part of these events would have been an overlook of an opportunity to do something for my community.” In hindsight, Minear wholeheartedly agrees.

When speaking about the importance of “telling a human story” in those final three episodes, Minear told Decider, “Eddie wasn’t going to be as heavily involved in that story as he ended up being until [Ryan] came to me. When you’re breaking these stories, you couple characters up. I had Eddie split off and was going to have him a little more involved in the Theo story with Buck, and then Ryan called me, and he’s like, ‘Wait, why are Hen and Athena the ones pursuing this human trafficking thing? Why isn’t Eddie involved?’ I’m like, ‘Well, because I’ve got him over here.’ And he was absolutely right. Eddie needed to be involved in that story. It was stupid that he wasn’t.”

While Eddie ended the season in good health and good spirits, he was one of two core characters who had near death experiences in Season 9’s finale. While praying for Athena to recover from her gunshot wound, Eddie was stabbed in the hospital chapel, an incident that cemented the “It’s Complicated” status regarding his relationship with religion. “It’s heartfelt, but complicated,” Minear said. “I think he has a complicated relationship with his traditions. And it’s something I don’t want to just drop.” The showrunner suggested Eddie’s relationship with religion will be ongoing, and yes, he’s open to bringing Father Brian (Gavin Stenhouse) back in the future.

After Season 9’s traumatic “Mother’s Boy” road trip, Minear also promised Guzman’s character would “for sure” have lighter moments ahead. “I want that for him, because Ryan is really funny. [He and Eddie] both are,” the creator mused. “I really loved it when Eddie did the Risky Business dance, when he had a funny mustache, and even that scene in Episode 12 when he comes in with the mug and says ‘Explain.’ That eyebrow goes up, and he’s hilarious.”

Someone else who deserves lighter moments in Season 10? Athena, who emerged from her near death experience with the desire to switch careers and officially become a detective.

“It felt like it was time to promote her. I always resisted it because of the iconography of the uniform and if she’s a patrol sergeant she can be at the scene of the emergency calls. So I was always hesitant to kind of move her into a slightly different area, but it really did feel like it was time,” Minear explained, citing the introduction of Detective Hooks (Josh Stamberg) earlier this season as his deciding factor. “I’d gotten to the point where I’ve tried to justify why this patrol sergeant was acting like a detective so many times, and [the idea] really came up in that episode for me, just in breaking the story. I made the decision for the guy who had been poisoned to be looking for her specifically to really give her a reason to be involved in that story. And I thought, ‘I gotta come up with something better in the future.’ I also felt like the detective stories had worked for us, so why not make her a detective and put her into some fashion?” 

While Athena will undoubtedly find her way into more perilous situations in Season 10 (and potentially beyond), when asked if he ever envisions 9-1-1 without Bassett he delivered an emphatic “No,” laughed, and added, “I mean, who knows? But I don’t. Not with me running it.”

Earlier in the season, Minear mentioned that he’d hidden Easter eggs throughout Season 9, so in celebration of the finale, Decider asked if he wanted to shout any out or was impressed by any subtle inclusion that fans picked up on.

“I don’t really read the social media stuff, but it was brought to my attention that a lot of people had picked up that we were going to be doing this sperm donor story,” Minear shared. “I don’t know if there was a leak from inside the house or if they just figured it out. And I’ve since stopped being disappointed that people want to ruin the show for themselves, because I guess the people that go hunting for those kinds of spoilers enjoy doing that. And I really don’t think it affects the larger audience. I don’t think most people in America who watch the show on ABC or Hulu are on Reddit. They’re not like, ‘Wait, so-and-so liked so-and-so on Instagram? That must mean this. But they’re actually really good at it. They’re quite sleuthy.”

Chronically online 9-1-1 fans know that a fair share of potential Easter eggs gained traction on social media throughout Season 9, so I asked about the most memorable: Buck’s playing cards that may or may not have spelled out “EDDIE.” When asked if he could confirm or deny, Minear said, “I saw that. I deny everything! I mean, fans will be like, ‘Wait. He was wearing this color in this scene. But in Episode 9 of Season Gobbledygook he was wearing that. That must mean this. It’s like, no, we just didn’t want him to clash with the wallpaper. He’s wearing blue, because the wall is brown.”

For anyone trying to decipher via Easter egg if romance is in Buck’s future, Minear shared some thoughts. “I think that all his choices would be governed by having that kid. That’s going to alter how he looks at everything. So I think that’s interesting,” the showrunner said, pointing to a line Harry had in the finale about everyone having kids or being a kid except for him and Buck. “Harry’s kind of in the middle, right? He was a kid a few minutes ago, and now he’s not exactly a full grown person. He technically is, but he’s in that transition period that Buck has perpetually been in for the history of the show,” Minear reflected. “We’ve often said, ‘Now Buck’s all grown up.’ Well, [Theo] is the test.”

With Season 9 in the rearview, Minear is excited to explore Detective Athena’s adventures, May’s (Corinne Massiah) nursing training, new emergencies for the 118, and is “absolutely” open to Buck seeking an ADHD diagnosis. “We couldn’t do everything in the episode we were telling that story in. But I feel like that’s all implied, and it will be made more explicit as we really start to drill into it,” the showrunner stressed.

Ahead of a milestone Season 10, Minear said a major goal is “Trying to keep myself and the audience interested. To not let the characters stagnate and become stale. It is a challenge, because we’ve done practically everything. It’s not just nine seasons of this. It’s five seasons of Lone Star and now a whole season of Nashville. So [you think] ‘Is it is it too early to repeat that?'”

While the writers haven’t mapped anything out yet, the co-creator said he’s “leaning towards” an opening emergency and that “things are rattling around in my head.” So stay tuned! If 9-1-1 has taught fans anything over the years it’s to buckle up and expect the unexpected.

9-1-1 Season 9 is now streaming on Hulu.