Hen has finally come home.
After weeks lost in space (for us viewers), 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 4 finally saw Hen, Athena, and the rest of the Inara II crew, sans Lewis Kern, but joined by Captain Naomi Stanton, make a dramatic return to Earth.
It was a gripping, emotionally taxing hour, with heavy exploration of Athena’s past and current hardships, alongside a dramatic final act.
The hour was the kind of hour 9-1-1 has always excelled at, balancing spectacular action pieces with rich character work, tying it all together beautifully.
Hen’s journey throughout the early part of 9-1-1 Season 9 has shown the depths of her friendship with Athena while also highlighting the beauty of her relationship with her wife.
These are two relationships that mean as much to fans as they do to the talented Aisha Hinds herself.
Getting to talk to Hinds about 9-1-1 is one of the great joys of this job, as her insight and candor make every conversation memorable.
Coming off the intense space arc, she opened up about Hen and Athena’s powerful exchange, what’s ahead for the Wilson family, and Hen’s new work dynamic.
Oh, and would Hinds ever head up to space if the opportunity were there?
Spoiler alert: she prefers solid ground.
Enjoy this chat with the always thoughtful and wonderful Hinds.
Aisha, we’re in space! We are in space. What did you think when you heard you were going to space?
I was like, “Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Okay. We’re in space. Okay.” But also, people are going to space right now. You know what I mean?
True.
And so also it felt like, “That tracks. Okay. That makes sense. How are we getting there? What is our entry point?” And then we were getting the scripts piecemeal to us, and so I was like, “Okay, okay. I like this.”
And I love Mark Consuelos as Tripp Hauser. So that was just fun to do. Having him launch us into the space storyline was cool.
And then just being out there and seeing the art play itself out and seeing how that world integrated with the world on the ground and how the impact of that voyage has an impact on Earth, I really liked the way that they did it.
It felt connected once I saw it all play out, and it was really nice.
And I love that I got to go up there with Angela, and you see these two beautiful Black women killing it up there and almost being killed by it up there. It’s like here I am, the one who’s getting us into space.
Athena then usurps the mission to get us out and goes out into space. And then Karen on the ground is the one who gets us down from space. I was like, “Okay.” So, I like that.
Exactly. The three Black women at the center of this story — that was so lovely.
And Hen’s always been the definition of an everyday hero, which makes her being chosen for the space mission pretty fitting. But I loved it, and I thought it was incredibly powerful that Karen played such a huge part in it, too. Talk to me about that, and her fighting for Hen throughout the whole ordeal.
Yeah. I truly love that you can always feel the fabric of Hen and Karen’s relationship. I love their marriage. I love the dynamic of our family, and I love that it’s always kind of just there. It doesn’t need a broadcast announcement; it’s just understood. My wife is in space, I am a scientist, and we have to get them out.
I told Tracy when I saw the second episode, I was like, because obviously I’m not seeing her shooting, but she carried the emotional world as well as the intellectual and technical world with such grace and ease and urgency and beauty that I was like, “Girl, you anchor this.” And it speaks to the love that Karen and Hen’s characters share.
I looked at it and I was like, “You really are out there fighting for your wife’s life and to get her out of there.” Which I truly, truly love that.
In this episode, there’s a really important conversation between Athena and Hen. While it was so desperate, it was also so important, especially for Athena, to hear her own importance and value in that moment. Talk to me about that conversation between the two.
In the way that I was able to feel sort of the fabric of Karen and Hen’s relationship, this was one of those episodes in that particular conversation where I truly felt at a granular level the fabric of Hen and Athena’s connection.
There was something even about the blocking of it and them being eye to eye, with the door between them, and to your point, the desperation of the moment and Hen coming at this from the perspective of, “We have so much to live for and we have to get out of here.”
And Athena comes at it like, “I have nothing left to live for, and so I might as well sacrifice myself.”
And just holding space for two very kind of tender points of view and honoring the fact that Athena is grappling with grief so deeply that she feels like nothing to live for is the thing that’s going to thrust her out there and wanting to make the sacrifice so that I, who she believes has so much live for, can get back to my children.
It was like a spiritual friendship and connection in that moment. And I felt like their friendship, as it continued, as she watched Athena out there, and her breathing, with the numbers dropping and peaking and failing, she then became desperate.
That moment where she’s like, “If you do not come back, I’ll come out there after you.” It was a real thing because she understood that her friend was about to really put it all out there. So, it really fortified visually for me what their friendship really means. It took it off the page, and it put it in a world that solidifies it in that conversation.
Hen is back on the ground now. And in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 1, we got to see a little taste of Hen and Eddie teaming up in the field. How do you think their personalities and their skill sets complement each other, and what are we going to see from them teaming up moving forward?
It has been fun, so fun having Eddie back, one from Texas, because we literally would be like, “Wrap this Texas storyline up. We miss him.” Because we’d be shooting at different times, and it’s honestly just really nice to have the 118, the fabric of the 118, back together again.
And though we have a couple of different dynamics where Chim is now interim captain and Eddie is now coming back and partnering with Hen as a paramedic in the medical component of it, it’s nice.
It’s nice that we’re all on these emergencies together, and I do love that Hen and Eddie have this shorthand, these inside jokes, and a deep, tremendous love for their children and their family. And they’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that their kids are taken care of, provided for, and know that.
And so far, we will continue to see Hen and Eddie moving together professionally and in their personal lives, so you have some nice moments that are coming up.
Oh good. I like the tease.
In the last two episodes, we see Mara and Denny step in and help. Just following after their mamas. I want this to be a season of peace for the Wilson family. I don’t know if I’ll get my wish, but what can you tell us about what we can expect from the Wilsons this season and what to look forward to?
Yeah, listen, don’t we all want a season of peace in the Wilson family? Because they have gone through so much.
But with every level of experience that they go through, it continues to reinforce and fortify their family dynamic, the love of one another, and the resolve that we are always going to be sure that you are okay amongst each other. I love that. I love that they triumph together. After every trial that they face, they rise from the ashes.
And to your point, I love that the kids now have a model for surviving, and they have been given agency to help others heal. I loved watching them in the firehouse with May and helping to heal people.
They talk about generational wealth. It’s like generational health. Now you have these kids who are the next generation of helping people.
I love that Athena’s son is now interested in becoming a firefighter. So it’s like I love that we have created a model these kids have now seen, and they have taken it, and it’s created this desire in them to help where they see a need.
And so that’s really beautiful. But to your point, you have been rocking with us long enough to know that the Wilson family…
I know what you’re going to say. It’s not going to be all smooth.
And that’s that on that. [Laughs]
Let’s wrap it up with a fun one. If given the opportunity to, would you go into space? And if so, who would you want to bring with you?
If I were given the opportunity to go into space, I would be cool on that.
You’d like to stay on the ground? I feel you on that.
I’ll stay on the ground, and I’ll listen to the stories when they come back. With this episode, I was like, “Yo, that could really happen? Oh, if I wasn’t going before, I’m definitely not going now.”
***This interview has been edited for length and clarity.***
Hinds is truly such a delight, and 9-1-1 looks to have such interesting things on the horizon as they leave the opening emergency behind and start expanding the story.
Show Hinds some love in the comments and let us know what you’d like to see with the Wilson family and the 118 this season.
You can watch 9-1-1 on Thursday at 8/7c on ABC.
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The post 9-1-1’s Aisha Hinds on Hen and Athena’s Big Moment, Teaming With Eddie, and Family Strength appeared first on TV Fanatic.