Why ‘9-1-1’ Brought Back Eddie’s Wife, Shannon Diaz

Warning: This article contains spoilers 9-1-1 season 7, episode 1, “Abandon Ships.”

When 9-1-1 Co-creator and showrunner Tim Minear promised a few returning faces in season 7 of the first responder drama, a deceased spouse probably wasn’t what fans were thinking.

But in the second half of Thursday’s premiere episode, Shannon Diaz (Devin Kelley), Eddie’s (Ryan Guzmán) ex-wife, who died from injuries sustained in a car accident in the penultimate episode of Season 2, appears as her son, Christopher (Gavin McHugh), reads a letter she wrote to him years before.

Mine account Entertainment Weekly who enjoyed the opportunity to bring guest star Kelley back to the show (something that hadn’t happened since an Eddie flashback episode midway through Season 3), but also felt it was a chance to show Christopher’s development in the last four seasons. .

“When I was coming back to the season and seeing how much Christopher had grown, it occurred to me that in the early days of Christopher’s story, he was very little. At one point he asks Santa Claus to bring his mom back,” Minear tells EW. “So he was very innocent and didn’t blame Shannon for anything. He just wanted to see his mother again. Now, I feel like he’s at an age where he not only realizes that she left of her own free will, but now is the time for him to wrestle with the question of why she left.” .

“I always side with my own characters, so I wanted to justify Shannon,” Kelley says of why she was excited to return again. “Giving the audience this little gem that maybe people hadn’t seen before made me feel a little vindicated.

“The last time I saw Gavin was just before the pandemic, and he has grown a lot,” he adds of the reunion with his on-screen son. “At the risk of sounding like a very stereotypical mom, she just recovered. It was great to dive back in and say, ‘Wow, time has passed.’ He’s so funny and sweet. We reconnected right away. Ryan was also in the set that day, so we had a really sweet family reunion. I was taking pictures and it was great to reconnect with Gavin’s real mom because I hadn’t spoken to her in a while.”

Shannon’s return also allowed Minear to explore Christopher’s grief: “Sometimes we feel abandoned when people we love die. So I think he feels doubly abandoned and I think he’s combining those two things. He is still dealing with the death of his mother, but now he is reaching an age where he understands the losses he has suffered.”

Minear felt it was particularly important to explore this when the action-adventure series moved from Fox to ABC for the new season.

“It’s a question of coming to a new network, starting a new season after being off the air for so long: ‘What are the important things that define these characters?’ And for me, that not only defined where Christopher is, but it also allowed me to express myself in a cheeky way where I felt, ‘Oh, this is going to be a fun little story about Christopher being a player and having a lot of girls.’ at stake, when really what it is about is that he will take the trauma that he suffered as a child, and will that be something that will manifest as he grows up, and what will his relationship with women be?’ ”

The co-creator says he chose to highlight this story in the premiere because it also provided information about Eddie and his best friend Buck (Oliver Stark).

“This also defines Eddie, because Christopher defines Eddie, and protecting his son, raising him and making sure he’s well and safe and healthy and happy is really what defines Eddie,” he says. “And, of course, Buck feels a familial duty to both boys. He feels almost like an uncle or a second father to Christopher. I thought it was a great way to reveal corners of the dynamics of that triad.”

But don’t worry, as indicated by Eddie’s smile as he watches Christopher put Shannon’s photo back on his desk, we’re not in for a harsh Eddie season.

“I think we’re going to see Eddie smile a lot more,” Guzmán told EW of his character in Season 7. “We’re going to see Eddie less crying and crazy and the drama and trauma that he’s been through. We’re going to “See him a little more around the corner and showing his fun side.”

But will we see Shannon appear more as the series continues?

“Maybe Shannon really can go to rest in peace, or maybe she’ll come back in some other version,” Kelley says. “We don’t know, but I’m willing to do anything.”

9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8 pm ET/PT on ABC.

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