9-1-1's Jennifer Love Hewitt on Maddie's Kidnapping and Her Intense Fight for Survival

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for 9-1-1, Season 8 Episode 10, "Voices." Read at your own risk!]

Last December, Jennifer Love Hewitt declared that she had just finished shooting "the craziest thing" that her 9-1-1 character, Maddie Han, had ever been through besides surviving her abusive ex-husband, Doug Kendall (played by her real-life spouse, Brian Hallisay), in the second season. Hewitt wasn't lying.

In the two-part return of the high-octane ABC first-responder drama, Maddie crosses a moral line as a 9-1-1 dispatcher with an alleged serial killer and then gets assaulted and drugged in her own home by none other than Amber Braeburn (a terrifying Abigail Spencer), the LAPD detective who secretly concocted an elaborate scheme to make Maddie believe she had indirectly killed that serial killer.

The midseason premiere saw Maddie taking a series of calls from a serial killer using a digitally altered voice to confess to kidnapping yet another young girl (despite admitting that part of them no longer wanted to do that anymore). The killer had figured out a creepy way to get under Maddie's skin — they sent the police to the wrong address, made Maddie guilty for betraying their trust, and even brought up Maddie's own daughter with Chimney (Kenneth Choi), Jee-Yun, on a subsequent call to the dispatch center.

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Knowing that she was the last first-responder who could convince the killer not to harm his latest victim, Maddie attempted to appeal to the killer's darkest impulses, suggesting that they should turn the gun on themselves rather than on the young girl. By the time Athena (Angela Bassett) and her fellow officers arrived at the crime scene, Richard Bullock, the supposed serial killer, had suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound — but Maddie still felt guilty for failing to be a lifeline for Richard. (In fact, she was the opposite of a lifeline for him.)

After putting Jee-Yun to bed later that evening, Maddie was struck from behind, drugged with chloroform, and then kidnapped by Braeburn, who is revealed to be the actual serial killer on those 9-1-1 calls. Braeburn, as it turns out, was kidnapped herself as a teenager 25 years ago and eventually escaped, but she has since developed dissociative personality disorder. Braeburn had essentially drugged Richard — who became her patsy — with chloroform and then placed his finger on the trigger to make it look like he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot. But knowing that Maddie would likely put the pieces together, Braeburn's darker side decided the call-center operator needed to be eliminated.

While Braeburn tries to "assist" in the search for Maddie and feigns concern for her disappearance, Maddie, chained up in Braeburn's basement, finds increasingly creative ways to survive. She uses a nail to cut the duct tape binding her hands together. She stops Braeburn from injecting her with a lethal dose of fentanyl multiple times, appealing to the side of Braeburn that no longer wants to be a killer. She uses a piece of metal from a pop can to unlock the chain around her ankle. And after digging around, she learns that Braeburn was a former kidnapping victim herself.

But the dire situation comes to a head when Braeburn re-kidnaps Jayna (Chloe Csengery), the teen she and Richard had held hostage a day earlier, and threatens to kill her in front of Maddie. When Chimney shows up unexpectedly at Braeburn's front door, Maddie fights to stop her kidnapper from killing Chimney — only for Braeburn to slash Maddie's throat and leave her to bleed out on the basement floor. Athena then calls Chimney to deliver the news that Braeburn is Maddie's kidnapper. As Braeburn holds Chimney at gunpoint, Maddie uses every last bit of strength she has left to bust out of the basement and strike Braeburn on the back of the head with a hammer. And right when Braeburn looked like she was going to finish off both Maddie and Chimney, Athena comes to the rescue with a single shot, killing Braeburn instantly.

Thankfully, Maddie, who is also pregnant with her and Chimney's second child, survives her surgery. And Chimney gets to reveal some amazing news: They're having a boy!

On a quick call with TV Guide, Hewitt opened up about how she came to understand Maddie's actions and motivations as she found herself in yet another life-threatening situation, the experience of sparring with Spencer in a standout episode directed by Jennifer Lynch — and how, for better or for worse, the events of these two episodes have changed Maddie forever.

What kinds of conversations, if any, did you have with showrunner Tim Minear about what you both wanted to accomplish with Maddie in this two-episode arc, and how did you think about playing out her journey?

Jennifer Love Hewitt: There isn't a lot of conversation at this point. I think Tim Minear is a genius. I put my full faith in him always, and he's given me so much play over the series that I'm always just really excited to see what he's going to come up with next. So there wasn't a lot of conversation. He was just sort of like, "Hey, this is what we're going to do. How do you feel about it?" And I was like, "Great, let's go for it."

I feel like the complicated thing about Maddie is that we met her in such peril and she's been through so much. And even though as audience members, we want her to find joy and love and happiness, who Maddie really is is this person. She is a survivor. She is a fighter. And for better or for worse, she's made for these situations. It's really fun for me to play her in these situations, and I think it's fun for the audience to watch, even though we hate-love it. Even though I feel like the audience has a love-hate [relationship] with seeing Maddie in peril, it is who she is. It is the life that she has led, like it or not. So I was just thrilled.

Let's start with Episode 9, in which Maddie takes a series of scary calls from who she originally believes is Richard Bullock, a serial killer who has been kidnapping and hurting young girls. What is going through Maddie's mind as she effectively tells Richard to shoot and kill himself before the police can apprehend him? Does she really think the end justifies the means, at that moment?

Hewitt: First of all, what was so crazy about filming those scenes is we did all of those phone calls as one [sequence], for the most part. So it was like, I don't know, 10 pages or something of [dialogue] where we just kind of kept going and we kept doing those things. And obviously, Bryan Safi [who plays Josh] was there and Debra Christofferson [who plays Sue]. Maddie's just in this sort of extreme circumstance. I think that's sort of the beautiful part about the show. And again, to give it back to Tim, he is brilliant at just when you think things go a certain way, he switches it on you. I think for Maddie, she's kind of had every phone call up until this point, and this was a totally different thing, obviously.

In that particular phone call, the only thing for me that I brought up on that day — and the director [Bradley Buecker] agreed, and Tim agreed — is the moment where the caller references my own child [Jee-Yun]. I think that's the switching point for Maddie; that's the trigger point. She is with child and obviously another one's coming, but also this very intensely dark, dangerous human being has now made mention of Maddie's greatest possession, which is motherhood. She fought very hard for [motherhood] in the postpartum episodes [in Season 5] and even brought herself back out of that ocean for [Jee-Yun], so she takes it very seriously. But also that "mama bear" instinct of: "You don't mess with my child." So I think that at that point, the danger felt probably safer to Maddie in some way. But when Jee-Yun is referenced, that switches and that becomes, "Oh, I have to not only save my own child, but I have to save all children at this point from this person, and I have to possibly save myself. This is a different thing."

I don't think in that moment there is forethought in Maddie. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it, so I don't know what they play afterwards, but I know that when we did it, there was this real moment of, "What the f— did I just do?!" So I don't know if that's still in there, but I think that that's where she's coming from in that moment. When I read it originally, I was like, "Oh my gosh, are we really going to do this? Can I do this in a way that Maddie can bounce back from?" Because I do think that there will be people who might judge her for it, but ultimately, when they see ["Voices"], I think [they will know] that it is that "mama bear" that's triggered in her brain in that moment. Hopefully, they will realize that, for Maddie, at that point in time, I think that's really all she could have done. I think Maddie was trying to save more people than just herself. So it really is a selfless thing, even though it's a very shocking phone call.

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Threatening Maddie's loved ones is a surefire way to make her spiral out of control and to want to do anything possible to protect them, even at the cost of her own life. What stands out to you from shooting those kidnapping scenes and Maddie's daring escape?

Hewitt: Yeah, it was the most intense episode ever. I mean, really, truly, to top Big Bear [where Doug held Maddie hostage] for Maddie is really hard to do — and this did. [Laughs.] It was very intense. I was fully chained up in real life. I joked with them that they could never break for lunch and forget that I was tied to that pole, but I was fully chained up for days at a time. And it was so weird because on the flip side, I was promoting my book and talking about The Holiday Junkie movie [during] Christmas time and [feeling] lovely happiness. And then I would go to work and I would be chained to a pole in a basement, being tortured.

Abigail and I went through a real experience together. She's phenomenal in these episodes, and I was so lucky that it was her that got to do this with me and that we got to do it together. I think we really felt lucky to have each other, and Jen [Lynch] directing it was just the icing on the cake. She's literally a genius, and I just love her so much. I love from the female perspective that it's two females in this episode fighting it out and coming from different damage and trauma. I love that it was directed by a female. I love that Athena comes and helps me — [there are] many badass chicks as you can have in two episodes. [Laughs.] I think that's really powerful and cool.

Maddie reaches her breaking point as soon as Amber declares that she is going to finish off Chimney in this episode. Can you walk me through Maddie's state of mind as she attacks Amber both in the basement and then in the kitchen?

Hewitt: Maddie is a fighter. She is a survivor. She has a baby on the way, a daughter and husband at home, and she will fight till the end. Maddie has grown from her fight and kidnapping with Doug. This is different. She is different, and she will fight and survive. That's who she is.

What do you remember from the process of filming Maddie getting her throat slashed? Did it catch you by surprise or remind you of your own horror roots at all?

Hewitt: It was very strange to do, and I was nervous. I looked at Maddie as the little mermaid in this storyline and her kidnapper as the sea witch. The only thing that saved Maddie every time in her life has been the call center and being a dispatcher. Her connection to other hurting and scared people. And her empathy. Her cutting Maddie's throat is [her] taking her safe place — her gift from her. It's so dark and so sad. 

Maddie has been kidnapped on a number of occasions, but she is particularly resourceful here as she desperately tries to figure out a way to outwit Amber. What did you want to convey in Maddie's life-and-death moments and her dramatic reunion with Chimney as she is bleeding out?

Hewitt: It was important for me that it felt different than Maddie in Big Bear. I hope that people will see that she's tougher in that room and that she has learned something this time from the way that Doug held her and took her away. She fights like hell to get out of there. She almost doesn't make it, but she does fight like hell to get out of there. I think the reunion with Chimney this time feels not like a reunion. I mean, based on where she is when she gets out of there, I think it will be left with a lot of questions. It'll feel very much like, "What's happening here?!" It was an intense reunion. And yeah, I think it will feel different. I look at all the stuff online and I see people going, "Oh my gosh, Maddie's kidnapped again." It's not like that. And I think you'll see that too when you have the chance to watch everything. This really feels very different and very intense. And yeah, Maddie's grown in strength, hopefully.

We still have eight episodes to go for Season 8, and you've only shot about half of them thus far. Tim said before the midseason hiatus that he thinks by the end of Episode 10, every main character's life will have been changed forever. What can you preview about what is to come for Maddie and the other characters? How exactly have the events of this episode changed their lives forever?

Hewitt: Look, I can only speak for Maddie. But I think more than anything, it feels like we're reminding the audience that just because we're first-responders and we help people in massively traumatic moments of their lives, we are not safe from that trauma or that danger [ourselves]. It affects the first-responders on our show as much as it affects the people that we save. So it's a really interesting season in that way and I think that's really cool for Season 8. It's definitely kept us acting-wise on our toes this season, and it's been really fun too.

I think that every mark of trauma that's left on Maddie sticks, and I think this one will stay with her for a long time and she will have to deal with it just like she's had to deal with everything else and the aftermath. And honestly, I don't know how the audience is going to watch these two episodes and not also be left with a mark of trauma. When I said that it was the craziest thing I've done on the show, it's truly the craziest thing I've ever done on the show — and I had to shake it off when we were done. It's so funny — now people realize why I didn't have a voice for three weeks after filming this episode. [Laughs.]

But yeah, I just think everyone is going to be different because these kinds of big things change you. I think they will change Chimney, they will change her, but there is a baby on the way — and that's positive. I think Tim does a really beautiful job of chaos and trauma and drama. There is also still the possibility for beautiful moments of joy, so we'll have those too. But yeah, this is an intense comeback for us and I just hope [the fans] love it.

9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC. Episodes stream the next day on Hulu.