9-1-1: Aisha Hinds on Hen's Trip to Space and the Hangover From Last Season's Big Death

[Warning: The following contains spoilers for 9-1-1, Season 9, Episode 4, "Reentry." Read at your own risk!]

Aisha Hinds has learned to expect the unexpected on 9-1-1. After eight seasons of playing a firefighter-paramedic on television's wildest — and most disaster-prone — procedural drama, Hinds wishes she could say she was surprised when she learned that her character, Henrietta Wilson, and Angela Bassett's Sgt. Athena Grant would be sent to space as part of a gift from slimy billionaire Tripp Hauser (Mark Conseulos) for saving his life after he was swallowed by a whale. (Yes, in case you haven't already watched the latest episodes for yourself, you read that right.)

"Given the fabric of 9-1-1, the DNA of this show is always to explore something out of this world — so it literally took us out of this world," Hinds tells TV Guide with a laugh, fully embracing the pun. "So when I saw that, I was like, 'Oh, OK.' But it's also like … that's not far from what is happening. People are taking trips to space!"

In the first four episodes of Season 9, Athena and Hen took a short orbital trip around a civilian spacecraft called the Inara as part of a publicity stunt organized by Hauser, a tech billionaire in the mold of Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos who chose to proceed with the launch despite repeated warnings of a geomagnetic storm. Naturally, the storm knocked out a bunch of satellites, and that debris collided with the spacecraft. After a failed attempt to send the 

Inara back to Earth resulted in a fire onboard, Athena, in a last-ditch effort, chose to open the emergency hatch, leaving the spacecraft stranded in space with limited oxygen.

Back on Earth, Hen's rocket scientist wife Karen (Tracie Thoms), Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), and the rest of the dispatch team worked frantically to regain contact with the 

Inara. Karen helped coordinate a plan to use older, more resilient '90s-era satellites that were orbiting above the debris field, and dispatchers had to attach a satellite phone to an antenna on the roof of the 9-1-1 call center to get a signal that could connect to the Inara during brief orbital passes. Once the dispatch center was able to re-establish contact with the Inara, Karen and her colleagues coordinated a plan for the passengers to travel to the International Space Station — only for Athena and Hen to discover that the ISS was in the middle of a space debris field and had already been hit multiple times.

In Thursday's conclusion to that multi-episode arc, Athena volunteers to briefly leave the ISS in a space suit to fix an escape pod that an engineer was trying to repair before he was struck and killed by debris. While Hen is initially planning to don the suit, Athena beats her to the punch, reasoning that Hen has more to lose with a wife and two young children at home. Speaking from a place of unbearable grief, Athena, who tragically lost her husband, Capt. Bobby Nash (Peter Krause), last season, claimed that "there's nothing left for me on Earth" and that there are more people left for her in heaven. "I'm not doing this because I'm altruistic. I'm doing it because I'm selfish," Athena says. "I can't lose anybody else, Hen. All I have left is me."

In the end, Athena is able to help fix the escape pod, but as her oxygen supply becomes dangerously low, she considers just letting go and floating away into space. It's at that moment that she comes face-to-face with her younger self (played by Pepi Sonuga-Rogers), who questions the point of living a life marked by so much loss. (As 

9-1-1 fans will remember from the "Athena Begins" episode in Season 3, Athena also lost the love of her life, Emmett, in the line of duty decades ago.) The older Athena reasons that the point of living is for all of the moments in between. "Pain is the price we pay for joy," she tells her younger self, "and it's a fair trade, a good deal, because any second, instant, moment of joy is like a diamond in the darkness."

Rather than choosing to die, Athena chooses to live. She manages to get back on the ISS (with an assist from Hen), and the two friends — along with three other characters — end up crashing back into the atmosphere on the escape pod. With her feet firmly planted back on terra firma, Athena vows to be more involved in the lives of her two children, May (Corinne Massiah) and Harry (Elijah M. Cooper), especially since the latter declares at the end of episode that he is planning to follow in his late stepfather's footsteps by joining the LAFD.

"If I had to voice one concern [about the opening storyline], it was like, 'How do we vacillate between the two? How do we go from just a regular emergency [on Earth] to [space]?'" Hinds says. "But the fact that that voyage had an impact on Earth was genius to me. The fact that we got to explore the way Athena's grappling with her grief and really digging deep back into all the experiences that informed her emotional interior and where she is now was pretty amazing. Seeing young Athena and that storyline play out while she's in the middle of space losing oxygen, it was incredible."

Speaking just hours ahead of Thursday night's episode, Hinds opens up below about filming the latest epic emergency in the 9-1-1 universe, how she really felt about the tragic loss of Krause's Bobby, and why she is actively encouraging the rest of her castmates to follow her into the director's chair.

The 9-1-1 universe has weathered just about every possible storm and natural disaster on Earth in the 200 combined episodes of this franchise, so it feels rather fitting that the new season of the original series would tackle an extraterrestrial emergency. What was your genuine reaction when you learned that Hen and Athena would be going to space, and what stands out to you about this opening, multi-episode arc?

Aisha Hinds: Max, you've been with us for a long time, so you know. I think I have learned to not be shocked, to never be surprised, and to just go with the flow on 

9-1-1, like, "OK." And it tracks. Given the fabric of 9-1-1, the DNA of this show is always to explore something out of this world — so it literally took us out of this world. [Laughs.] So when I saw that, I was like, "Oh, OK." But it's also like … that's not far from what is happening. People are taking trips to space! So I was like, "OK, got it." But I guess the question that came up for me was like, "What's our entry point now for this? What emergency is in space? Do we bring fire engines? [Laughs.] What are we doing here?" So they did a marvelous job of creating a world and finding the circumstances whereby you could unite both worlds, and you could keep the relationships and still feel the intensity and the fabric of those relationships.

The fact that you have Karen, who is versed in this world — it was incredible to watch her kind of usher us through the dangers and bring us back home safely, all while carrying the emotional fabric of being fearful about her wife and her friend out there in space. But this was her world, a world that she has been dying to go to and couldn't go to, and here I am going without her. It's like [there was this separation]: This is her experience of it, and this is [Hen and Athena's] experience of this thing that we had no idea about. But if I had to voice one concern, it was like, "How do we vacillate between the two? Do we go from just a regular emergency to this?"

But the fact that that voyage had an impact on Earth was genius to me. The fact that we got to explore the way Athena's grappling with her grief and really digging deep back into all the experiences that informed her emotional interior and where she is now was pretty amazing. Seeing young Athena and that storyline play out while she's in the middle of space losing oxygen, it was incredible. And then having our incredible guest stars populate the world — they were so smart and so funny and amazing. It was really nice. I think it landed pretty beautifully.

Hen and Athena are certainly instrumental in saving not only their own lives but also those of the other everyday heroes who were launched into space. It's one thing to see the final product with all of the VFX, but what was your experience of trying to shoot in makeshift zero gravity? How practical were the effects on the day?

Hinds: So that was kind of neat because I think it challenged us all to connect with our bodies in a way where we're all kind of like this [

imitates noodle arms] all day long, but our production designer did an incredible job creating the world. So we literally would pull into the parking lot, and we felt like we were in space because the world that they created took off such a large footprint in our studio set. You'd walk into the stages, and you got the full scope of the place. It was high, it was wide, and they literally would move the ship that [we] were on manually. We did quite a bit of harness work to have us floating at different times, and we had to do flips in the air. You see me doing compressions upside down. [Laughs.] It was so fun! My body would probably say not, but ultimately, it was a fun adventure. We had Tierra Turner as our stunt coordinator who was amazing and made sure to take care of us throughout the process.

I haven't spoken with you since last fall, and obviously, the makeup of this show is very different this season than it has been in the past. Tim Minear told me in April that shortly after he decided to kill off Bobby, he called each main cast member other than Peter individually to break the news, but none of you wanted to believe what Tim was telling you — and everyone, at some point, was bargaining with him to keep Bobby alive like he was God. What was your experience of getting that phone call, and what have you made of the way the show has played out in the aftermath of that loss?

Hinds: Yeah, he probably had to sit on the phone with me the longest because I genuinely was like, "What are you talking about? You can't kill Bobby because he's played by Peter, and you can't kill Peter. What are you talking about? You can't kill Bobby. Bobby's the captain of the 118. The 118 needs to still have a cap. What are you 

saying?" But also, that's the world that we had been kind of living in, I think comfortably, right? We had been put in these extreme circumstances, and we always made it out someway, somehow. So that I think is what made it difficult to hear the news and to believe the news. I think as it became more and more real, it was like, "Oh, this is actually happening, wow." So it was heartbreaking to experience this shift in the dynamic of the 118 and our 9-1-1 family.

Coming back this season, it's really great to have moments where there's an acknowledgement of him, there's a nod to him, and we can still unpack the grief surrounding that as characters. I think that they're doing it in a really nice, organic way where it shows the different ways in which people process grief. Athena definitely processes it very differently from Hen and Chim (Kenneth Choi), who's interim captain and grappling with that. So that's been nice to have, and Bobby's DNA will remain a forever part of the fabric of 

9-1-1. So he physically may not be there, but he's always there.

Shortly after Bobby's death, Hen turned down a promotion to be captain of the 118 because she felt it would take her away from dedicating more time to her personal life. Chim, like you said, is now the interim captain, but what would it take for Hen to have a change of heart and to agree to become the next captain of the 118? Do you think she would even want that promotion one day?

Hinds: I don't know. I think she's always grappling with the idea that she wants to keep balance with the 118 family and with her family at home. I think we explored the opportunity for her to pursue something that was important to her when she was pursuing the path to becoming a doctor, and she was right there at the cusp and had to face the question of: In doing so, how much of this will take up and consume her time, her energy, her passion, and how much would that be at the expense of her family? So I think the same question remains: Can both of those things exist in a healthy way? I think if she finds the answer to that, then maybe that's something she might desire. But I think that Hen is most satisfied in knowing that she is living out the purpose of her life and doing something that is helpful to others and helpful in healing people. That continues to be a through line for her.

What can you preview about the next two episodes before the holiday break and where the show will pick up in the new year?

Hinds: So we're back on Earth, but with that, because 9-1-1 is 9-1-1, that does not mean that the floor will not be pulled out from any one of us at any given time. So we just have to stay tuned and see how long before life takes a tilt. [Laughs.]

You had the opportunity to make your directorial debut on 9-1-1 last season, becoming the first main cast member to step behind the camera. Are you planning to get back in the director's chair again this season, and have you convinced any of your co-stars to follow in your footsteps as well?

Hinds: I tell them all the time, because I think it fortifies the family even that much more when you truly understand how we're making our show from not just in front of the camera but behind the camera. There is tremendous reverence and gratitude for our crew in general, but when you really watch them operating in their genius from that side of the lens, you have a deepened sense of gratitude, and I think it will expand their experience on the show if they were to step behind the camera and really engage in the storytelling that happens from that side. So I tell them all the time to try it. I've been trying to convince them. Even if it's not a trajectory that they want to continue to pursue, I think that they shouldn't leave this show without having had that experience. So I'll continue to tell them and with that, I hope for more opportunities for myself to do that as well.