Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for 9-1-1 season 8, episode 14.9-1-1has always incorporated its main couples into the overarching plots, but one Maddie and Chimney storyline has never felt right. While Kenneth Choi’s Howard “Chimney” Han has been around since the pilot episode, Jennifer Love Hewitt joined9-1-1in season 2 as Maddie Han (née Buckley), the new voice of LA dispatch and the older sister of Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark). Chimney and Maddie had time to develop as characters before their flirtationship bloomed, making their love story even more compelling and cementing their relationship milestones in some of thebest episodes of9-1-1.
After dating, having a child, breaking up, and getting back together, Maddie proposed to Chimneyin one of9-1-1’s most heartwarming moments. The love they have for each other and the family unit they’ve created (with a second child on the way in9-1-1season 8) undoubtedly makes everything they’ve gone through together worth it. Yet, the amount ofgruesome injuries they sustained in9-1-1is harrowing and, seeing as they’re both still main characters, is a pattern doomed to repeat itself. I don’t know what’s worse, Maddie and Chimney getting new wounds or9-1-1pressing on old scars.
Buck & Chimney’s Encephalitis Exchange Is A Reference To 9-1-1 Season 7, Episode 6
Chimney’s Encephalitis Was The Main Conflict In “There Goes The Groom”
9-1-1season 8, episode 14 both resurfaced trauma from Maddie and Chimney’s past and promised to add another obstacle to their present. Collectively, the couple have had a staggering number ofnear-death experiences in9-1-1, ranging from Chimney continually having his heart stopped and shocked back to life by Jonah Greenway (Bryce Durfee) to Maddie being kidnapped and barely escaping her abusive ex, Doug Kendall (Brian Hallisay). Even in season 8, the couple hasn’t paid their dues, it seems, as Chimney contracts CCHF (Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever) during the first half of9-1-1: Contagion, a two-part thriller.
Buck mentions the disease because Chimney contracted viral encephalitis after saving a man from an air duct, similar to the one they are crawling through in “Sick Day.”
As Chimney and Buck navigate the vents in season 8, episode 14’s volatile laboratory, they have a short dialogue about how encephalitis looks “quaint” compared to the deadly virus below. The conversation is a callback to yet another traumatic event, when,in9-1-1season 7, Chimney missed his wedding due to an amnestic fugue state brought on by a case of viral encephalitis.Season 7, episode 6 is split between the LAFD station 118 members searching for Chimney and the heartbreaking, hallucinatory journey Chimney goes through as he stumbles through LA, lost and losing time.
9-1-1 Season 7’s Encephalitis Case Robbed Maddie & Chimney Of A Proper Wedding
They Said Their Vows In A Hospital Room
Luckily, Chimney is eventually recovered in this season 7 episode, but it isn’t a totally happy ending. While he’s being treated, Maddie insists they not postpone their marriage — seeing as how they’re always in peril, good timing is never guaranteed. Consequently,Maddie and Chimney get married in a hospital room in9-1-1season 7, with Chimney still hooked to an IV. The gesture is meant to be romantic; to an extent, it is, thanks to Jennifer Love Hewitt’s acoustic cover of the couple’s song (“Islands in the Stream”) that plays overhead as Maddie walks down the “aisle” (hospital wing).
For every sweet aspect of the wedding, however, there are two sour notes. Maddie and Chimney are one ofthe best couples in9-1-1, and they deserved one episode spotlighting their relationship without a tragic twist. Chimney’s fever dream functions as a way to work through his trauma from Doug and grief over losing his adoptive brother, Kevin Lee (James Chen), butthe character-driven narrative shouldn’t have come at the expense of the couple’s wedding.9-1-1could have made the wedding a two-part event (shortening the exhaustive three-episode cruise ship story) and given Maddie and Chimney the celebration they deserved.
Maddie & Chimney Can Still Have A Wedding Redo After 9-1-1’s Renewal
The Couple Now Deserves A Vow Renewal
Thankfully, now that9-1-1has joined the list ofshows renewed by ABC for the 2025-26 season, there’s still time to rectify the problem. Maddie and Chimney may seem perfectly happy with their hospital wedding, but the characters' story still merits a moment of normalcy to celebrate their love.The best outcome would be for9-1-1to give Maddie and Chimney a vow renewaloutright, allowing them to make good on all the plans they originally made for their wedding. Now that their daughter, Jee-yun, is old enough to be present in the plot, she can even be the flower girl.
Anirudh Pisharody
Ravi Panikkar
9-1-1already featured a vow renewal between Karen (Tracie Thoms) and Henrietta “Hen” Wilson in season 5, but the procedural has reused storylines before. After all, Chimney’s potentially fatal case of CCHF comes less than a year after his encephalitis scare. While it may be a bit early to renew their vows, the ceremony is what’s important. Buck could help plan the vow renewal as an anniversary present, giving his older sister the fanfare she deserves in9-1-1season 9. Regardless of how or when Maddie and Chimney deserve a happily-ever-after in9-1-1, and that starts with a proper wedding.
