9-1-1's Oliver Stark Went Silent When Tim Minear Called About Season 8 Death: 'He Said, Are You There?'

Evan "Buck" Buckley (Oliver Stark) was the first to witness Capt. Robert "Bobby" Nash's (Peter Krause) sacrifice. As members of LAFD Station 118 evacuated that damned lab in 9-1-1 Season 8's fateful episode "Lab Rats," Buck yelled as his captain turned back and locked himself inside. Bobby took off his mask: He had contracted a lethal strain of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, which he only revealed once his entire team had reached safety. 

"You're gonna be okay, Buck. Remember that," Bobby told the stunned firefighter. Buck was the only one, besides Bobby's wife, Sgt. Athena Grant-Nash (Angela Bassett), to hear parting words from the captain in his final moments: "I love you, kid."

Like his character, Stark was shocked when he learned of Bobby's death for the first time. The actor recalled his phone call with co-creator and showrunner Tim Minear, who delivered the news about the captain's fate. "I went silent to the point where he said, 'Are you there?'" Stark told TV Guide at the Disney Upfront on May 13. "And I said, 'Yeah, I'm here. I just — I don't know what to say.'"

"It was never a phone call that I was expecting to get," Stark said. Besides, Minear's message ahead of the conversation had made Stark's mind wander in another direction. "I think he texted me beforehand and said, 'I need to call you.' And obviously, when you get a text like that from your boss, I'm thinking, 'Oh, I'm off.'" For a few moments, he thought death was looming for Buck. 

And Stark said it wasn't the first time Minear had sent those words. "He doesn't ever really think about how his texts are gonna read," the actor said, smiling. "I should be used to it by this point, but I don't think I'll ever get used to it."

Then, over the phone with Stark, Minear discussed the decision to kill off Bobby. "Maybe there was some slight relief in there, off the back of that text, that it wasn't me," Stark said. But for the most part, it was "just sadness." 

"We've all grown so close over the years, and [Krause's] absence is for sure felt," the actor said. Both Stark and Krause were part of 9-1-1's main cast since the drama premiered in 2018. Across the show's eight seasons, their characters have developed a special father-and-son bond. 

Asked if he tried to use that phone call to push Minear to let Bobby live, Stark said no. "I didn't, but more in a sense of Tim would explain his reasoning," Stark explained. "And what can you do? It's not my place to pitch, 'Don't do that decision that you've already made.' More just one of, wow, OK, you make those decisions and I'm along for the ride, and I hope for the best."

More on 9-1-1: 

• 9-1-1: Oliver Stark talks about that Buck-Eddie fight, and what he hopes is ahead for them
  
• 9-1-1 sneak peek: Athena comes face-to-face with the season finale's big disaster
• 9-1-1's Ryan Guzman and Gavin McHugh on Eddie and Christopher's reunion
• 9-1-1's Jennifer Love Hewitt on Maddie's kidnapping and her intense fight for survival

The 9-1-1 Season 8 finale airs Thursday at 8/7c on ABC. Episodes stream the next day on Hulu.

Additional reporting by Max Gao.