Contains spoilers for “9-1-1” Season 8, Episode 16 — “Last Alarm”

The audience is heartbroken and spinning various fan theories, but it appears that Bobby Nash’s (played by Peter Krause) controversial demise is permanent. In the episode “Last Alarm,” a significant part is focused on Athena (portrayed by Angela Bassett) grappling with her sorrow and anger over Bobby’s selfless act to save Chimney (played by Kenneth Choi) after they both encountered a genetically altered, Ebola-like virus during a laboratory fire.

As Athena delves into the investigation of a potential kidnapping connected to a fire Bobby battled eight years earlier, she is haunted by visions of him everywhere she goes. The situation turns increasingly dire with each new revelation. Discovering that the child in question is indeed dead and not kidnapped is truly heartrending, enough to evoke tears. Athena, reflecting on this grim truth, delivers a poignant line that feels like a direct message from the writers to the viewers: “For a moment, you let yourself believe that miracles were possible,” she declares.

Bobby himself would have remarked “Ouch” at such heartbreaking truths. With everything considered, Bobby’s death certainly ranks among the most tragic in the “9-1-1” series. Despite fans witnessing the entirety of his elaborate funeral, the memorial procession through Los Angeles, and the burial of his casket beside his first family, some viewers continue to hold onto hope for his survival.

There are plenty of different ways fans think “9-1-1” might bring Bobby back.  The most popular theory is bolstered by a so-called script leak released on April 1 via the social media of both Oliver Stark and Jennifer Love Hewitt. It contains a page of a script that includes a 9-1-1 call between Maddie (Hewitt) and Bobby, where he says he’s being buried alive. 

While Tim Miner is on the record that he has no idea where the leak could have possibly come from, it did presage the notion of Bobby being presumed dead weeks before he dies onscreen. Other theories include the notion that Bobby’s death might be a coma-induced dream — either Chimney’s or Bobby’s. Or that the government has intervened due to the nature of the virus, and the fact that Bobby has a super-rare blood type. Since “9-1-1” is the kind of show where killer bee attacks reign and ghosts exist, it would be easy enough to resurrect Bobby Nash and bring him back to life in a way that’s relatively realistic for this series.

No matter what the series does now, though, they have to cope with the wrath of their fans. “I don’t know using the whole grief episode to tell us that we’re f****** crazy for thinking that he could be alive instead of actually grieving in show … is actually f****** insane,” remarked u/oOWalkingOnAirOo on the “9-1-1” subreddit. For the moment, Bobby Nash has left the building — but if fans stay this angry, who knows what could happen?