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Bathena Was the Backbone of 9-1-1, And They Broke It — Why I’ll Never Forgive Them
For the second time in this television viewing season, I’ve found myself mourning the loss of an incredibly powerful, inspiring, rare love story.
It’s not often that love stories grab me that much, even though I’ve come to appreciate romance more over the years (or at least be more forthcoming with myself and others about how much I enjoy a constantly denigrated genre), but I digress.
Right now, I’m reeling from the loss of one of my favorite television couples: 9-1-1’s Bathena.
There’s nothing I love more than older characters getting a second chance at love. Too often, television and film restrict love to young people, as if somehow, as we get older, we lose out on finding real love again.
When you think about that, it’s incredibly bleak, but it’s also just patently untrue.
This is one of the many reasons that Bathena pleased me so much. During 9-1-1‘s run, we saw how Athena and Bobby’s dynamic evolved from professional camaraderie to one of the greatest love stories of all time.
It was such a rich, compelling arc, too. And this romance became the blueprint for all others within the series.
Other relationships found inspiration in this one, with all of its ups and downs, challenges, and triumphs, because 9-1-1, combined with the sublime chemistry and work of Peter Krause and Angela Bassett, presented us with a deeply authentic, messy, but beautiful love story.
It’s what grounded the series, as both characters became the ones constantly doling out relationship advice and helping their friends, colleagues, and subordinates while simultaneously showing that their wisdom and experience in relationships didn’t preclude them from facing challenges and still evolving and growing as individuals and as a pair.
Bathena wasn’t a perfect couple because they were perfect people. They were a perfect couple because they were equally yoked and real. They were flawed, battled communication issues, and each brought their own traumas and demons to this new relationship.
But they figured it out the way real couples do. They worked through everything. They tackled the world and all of their own baggage together and did all the work it took to be genuine life partners.
Because they were supposed to be life partners, you know, for life, and that was supposed to last for the remainder of the series. It was this unspoken agreement of the series, or at least I thought.
There are never enough words to adequately describe or explain why this pairing was essential and integral to the 9-1-1 viewing experience and onscreen love stories.
We don’t see love stories like theirs too often, and maybe that’s why I’m still shaking with rage over the fact that the 9-1-1 franchise gave us two powerful versions of it with Bathena and 9-1-1: Lone Star‘s Grace and Judd and took them away from us at the same time.
Can we pour one out for the suicidal men of faith with traumatic pasts who found renewed purpose and a will to live because of the beautiful women who saved them?
I know Sierra McClain left of her own accord, but I’ve discussed my frustrations with how the series ruined her memory.
But Bathena was the real embodiment of second chances when it came to love stories, one that was hopeful to depths that I can’t even begin to unpack properly.
Bobby Nash was a special character for so many reasons. One of the most prominent ones was his ability to resonate with every type of viewer.
I don’t know any fans of this series who didn’t love this man. For some of us, he represented the fathers we had or the ones we wished we had (I can personally attest to the latter).
To others, he was inspiring as a rare display of a man of faith onscreen who actually led and practiced his beliefs — how we imagine Christianity should be rather than whatever the heck people delude themselves into practicing these days.
Bobby was the perfect example of a supremely flawed, complex character who embodied humanity’s ability to rise above its faults and do and be good.
The lore of this character is so rich and tragic, whether it was a troubled childhood or the devastation of what happened in Minnesota.
Bobby Nash’s disquieting and uncomfortably raw portrayal makes his tragic hero’s death in 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 15 all the more upsetting.
He spent many years being suicidal. His suicidal ideation has reared its head often throughout the series. When one of his last words to his wife was that he was on “borrowed time,” it hit particularly hard, knowing his backstory.
Bobby was a man who genuinely believed he’d save as many lives as the ones he “took” because of that fire, and then he’d pay the ultimate price when it was over.
Finding love through his Found family, sure, but particularly Athena changed the trajectory of his life and gave him something to live for and stay for beyond penance.
While there’s nothing simplistic about someone working through suicide ideation, love having that type of power — that level of healing for him — was such a poignant story.
Bobby saved lives, but it was Athena who saved his. Through his relationship with her and their marriage, he genuinely got a second chance at love and family, and he cherished every second.
Despite losing a wife and children, he got a second chance at them again with Athena, May, and Henry. He didn’t take any of that lightly, either. In addition to the hope Bathena provided regarding love, the family they built was perfectly emblematic of how you don’t need to be blood to be family.
The message to anyone who struggles with the thoughts Bobby has, that level of dark trauma and depression, is that you’re never too dark, too broken, or too far gone to be loved and to love.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel if you take the time to look. And Bobby found that in Athena.
The layers of Bathena’s dynamic and love story and how it wades into some dark and convoluted issues while inspiring such faith and hope are tantamount to why this pairing profoundly impacts viewers (even those who don’t regularly tune into the series).
And for Athena, tragedy marred so much of her life. She lost the first love of her life, and that had such a profound impact on shaping her and everything that she became.
Of course, Michael’s situation was complicated and then beautiful until he, too, perished.
Athena could easily have given up on the prospect of love in a society that often tells us that there’s only one true love for each person and little else. After her first love, and Michael, the series could’ve just left things there, but they didn’t.
Instead, she found Bobby, and not only did she find him, but she also pushed herself to open her guarded heart and let love in, and it was one of the best choices she ever made. It was also one of the most rewarding arcs of the series to watch as a viewer.
She didn’t even know if she’d ever find real happiness again, so it’s enriching to see a woman in her prime take a leap of faith again because it’s never too late.
And that’s what Bathena represented and delivered: the idea that you’re never too broken, too traumatized, too jaded, or too “old” for true love; it can find you again.
Given how powerful this message is and its impact on viewers, it feels like a particular slap in the face that the series took this from us. A relationship that was the purest representation of hope and second chances went down in flames over a cheap attempt at “shock value.”
It desecrates everything Bathena was: its impact, its messaging, its purpose, and how it inspired.
I genuinely need to understand why it was so difficult to allow these two characters, who have been through hell and back, to have a happily ever after. Why weren’t they deserving of one?
Why did a man who was broken and finally found the will to live need to sacrifice himself and happiness after so long believing he wasn’t worthy of it and then achieving it?
As for Athena, why is a woman who has spent a lifetime needing and having to be strong and resilient all of the time forced to step into that for the umpteenth time again?
Now we’re left to reconcile with the man who spent many years wanting to die, finally reaching a healthy mental state in his life where all he wanted to do was live, and the series killing him off anyway.
Where’s the hope in that? Did they not consider how bleak, grim, and hopeless that comes across? Hell, did no one consider how damaging that message is for anyone who battles the same thing?
Sure, it’s poetic, in a sense. Still, in a series that spent eight seasons being ridiculous fun escapism with no stakes, it’s a disconcerting approach to undercut one of the series’ most challenging but essential story arcs with a death like this.
Did we not spend eight seasons willing Bobby Nash to live and championing him for every triumph in working through his mental health issues?
Was there not genuine comfort in watching Bathena build up this beautiful relationship from scratch and practice embodying their vows to one another, as both characters evolved for the better and truly thrived with each other’s support?
Why couldn’t that be enough?
After many years of building up to Athena being in a place where she can finally be open to love again and find real happiness and a future, once again, the thought process was to pull the rug from under her feet.
What good is building up one of the best romantic storylines onscreen just to cut that love story short for ratings and shock value?
We’re not upping the stakes by depriving viewers of hope, inspiration, the fictional incarnation of perseverance, and the message that “if you stick it out or get through your rough patches, there’s love and light on the other side.”
All that does is debase this special love story and all the hard work and years that went into it.
There’s nothing tragically beautiful or poetic about Bobby’s death or the destruction of Bathena.
It’s just emotionally manipulative, cruel, and insulting.
Bathena was the backbone of this series. This is not a passionate assertion by a heartbroken fan; it’s quite simply the truth.
After the removal of that element, what’s left? Can it even sustain itself?
I genuinely don’t understand how we can remove the heart of the series, leave the soul — soulless, and then carry on.
There aren’t many onscreen love stories that leave such an indelible mark that they stay with me for many years, but Bathena is, or was, one of them. The loss of Bathena is something I’ll never really get over … or forgive.
Over to you, 9-1-1 Fanatics. I’ve said all I can say without getting angry again, so I’ll turn it over to you.
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Let’s keep the conversation going — it’s the only way the good stuff survives… well, unless you’re Bobby Nash, apparently. Hmph.
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