You can say what you want about the 911 franchise, but you can never say that these aren't the some of the most surprising shows currently on television. I mean, the past four episodes of 911 season 9 have dealt with a storyline involving a space mission gone wrong. And if heading out into space isn't enough of a surprise, you never know when a crossover might be on the horizon.
With the hot new spinoff 911: Nashville off to the races, fans have been eager to see whether we could see our favorites at the 118 crossing paths with our new friends out in Tennessee. That hasn't happened quite yet, but there was a brief crossover moment between Nashville's Cammie (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), who appeared in 911 to help Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) with space business.
However, the most recent 911 crossover moment might have been the most unexpected yet. In 911: Nashville season 1 episode 4, the flashy heroics of the fearless Blue Bennings (Hunter McVey) were compared to a similarly flashy and fearless character from the now-canceled spinoff 911: Lone Star. You might have missed this moment because I sure did the first time around!
911: Nashville drops surprise reference to Lone Star's Marjan a.k.a. Firefox
During the episode, the Nashville team responds to a call at a waterpark, which involves a number of high school seniors attempting to pull off a prank where they have the most people in a waterslide. When the slide becomes overstuffed, it breaks in half and collapses with a few people still trapped inside and others falling to their deaths or serious injuries below.
The team races to try to help those still in the slide before it gives out again, but they're having trouble reaching to the heights of the slide. Not wanting to waste another second, Blue thinks on his feet and climbs up the various poles up to the slide to save the lifeguard who was stuck inside. When waterpark guests below film his heroics, Blue goes viral on social media.
But here's where the Lone Star connection comes in. If you'll remember, Marjan (Natacha Karam) also frequently went viral for her various acts of bravery and was later dubbed Firefox by the public. As explained by Ryan (Michael Provost), Marjan shared Blue's video and made it go viral to upwards of four million likes. Everyone's starting to call him Hot Tarzan.
We definitely weren't anticipating to hear Ryan say "Firefox down in Austin shared it," and if you're anything like me, you embarrassingly didn't make the connection while watching the episode. It completely slipped my mind that Marjan was nicknamed Firefox, but what's even funnier is that while watching Ryan explain Blue going viral, I thought, "That's exactly like Marjan!"
Clearly, worlds will continue to collide in the 911 universe if the past few episodes of both shows are anything to go by. It's unclear whether either show will surprise us again, but this time with an actual appearance from a Lone Star character, but showrunner Tim Minear shared with Entertainment Weekly that he hopes to work with Gina Torres again "soon." Hmmm, we'll have to wait and see!
911: Nashville airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC, streaming next day on Hulu.