Spoilers ahead for Season 3 of 9-1-1**.**
Tis the season for tsunamis. Last night, Fox’s 9-1-1 delivered an intense episode that finally brought the heavily teased tsunami to the shores of Los Angeles. Oliver Stark’s Buck was at the Santa Monica Pier with Eddie’s son Christopher, and they were two of the first characters to suffer through the disaster. In the midst of it all, Buck fought for both their lives, though Christopher was lost in the flooding at the end of the episode. His fate is still up in the air, though (while another character's fate is no longer in question).
While fans may not find out what happened to Christopher until next week, Oliver Stark promises that Buck will do his best to find him, but that it’s a precarious situation. Speaking with TheWrap, Oliver Stark opined about what Buck will be going through in Episode 3 and the immense responsibility he’ll feel when attempting to find and save Christopher. In his words:
It almost becomes, for Buck, more frantic and more chaotic because at the end of tonight’s episode, he obviously loses Christopher. And then it becomes this searching that he has to go through where it’s almost worse the fact that it’s not his own child, I think. If you lose your own child, then you’re screwing up your own life. But if you lose somebody else’s child, you’re screwing up your life and theirs. So there’s this desperation that I think is on a whole other level. And it’s something that we’ve not really seen from Buck where it’s do or die. You know, he has to find this child. And even at the end of tonight’s episode, it’s suicide what he does when he jumps back in that water to go after Christopher and it’s almost a continuation of that: My life doesn’t matter. I have to find this boy.
Basically, everyone should ready their tissues and prepare for a huge emotional aftershock. Buck will be frantically searching for Christopher in Season 3, Episode 3, and the episode photos sadly haven’t offered any clues as to whether Christopher actually survived. Thus, everyone is left biting their nails, waiting for either dreadful or hopeful news.
What makes matters worse is that Christopher has cerebral palsy, and at only eight years old, he may not have been able to wade his way through the torrential flooding. What will Buck even tell Eddie (Ryan Guzman), Christopher’s dad, when he sees him again? It’s a tough situation all around, and there’s no doubt that Buck will be wracked with guilt until he’s found.
The tsunami on 9-1-1 truly did a number on the characters, and what made things even more realistic was the mixture of practical and CGI effects. Showrunner Tim Minear revealed that they used the gigantic water tanks from Titanic and built whole streets (and a ferris wheel) that could then be destroyed in the wreckage. It made the impact of the tsunami that much more intense and terrifyingly real.
Fans will hopefully see Chistopher’s safe return in next week’s episode of 9-1-1, which airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. If you’re looking to have more TV in your lives, be sure to check out our complete list of every new and returning show premiering this fall.
