As 9-1-1 heads toward its mid-Season 9 return on April 30, 2026, viewers are likely wondering how much crazier things can get. As one Redditor put it, the series has seen “so many silly emergencies” throughout the years that it’s hard to imagine how much more out of the box the writers can get as time goes on.

Somehow, they proved themselves perfectly capable when they kicked off the latest season by sending multiple first responders to space—even more incredulous than the Blue Origin flight featuring celebrities like Katy Perry and Gayle King.

While we may not be able to even begin to fathom what might hit our screens next, we can look back on some of the more outlandish plot devices employed since 9-1-1 premiered, from the ever-ridiculed beenado to the tsunami that decimated Santa Monica—and was promptly forgotten by the following episode.

Here are 6 times that 9-1-1 went utterly off the rails, in no particular order.

1. The beenado

As mentioned above, perhaps one of the most talked about episodes—Bobby’s death notwithstanding—was the Season 8 premiere, in which the series appeared to take inspiration from the both laughed-at and lauded Sharknado franchise.

Even star Oliver Stark called it “ludicrous” as the 118 responded to an overturned tractor trailer that unleased a swarm of millions of angry bees upon the streets of Los Angeles, which went on to serve as the inciting event of the trilogy season premiere, which concluded with Athena (Angela Bassett) heroically landing a passenger liner with absolutely no piloting experience after a smaller plane with a pilot incapacitated by the bees crashes into their flight, seriously injuring one pilot and causing the other to be ejected into the vast expanse of sky beyond.

2. When Athena and Hen went to space

If I had a nickel for every time Angela Bassett nailed a wildly unrelated career path with no training under duress, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

In the Season 9 premiere, which spans across a whopping four episodes, Athena and Hen suddenly become astronauts after the paramedic saves the life of a tech giant who in no way at all resembles Jeff Bezos, who offers her and a guest a spot on his next Blue Origin-esque flight in thanks.

When a storm in space impacts the satellite network and sends a piece of space debris hurtling into their space pod and ignites a fire, Athena’s quick thinking has her opening up the emergency hatch to vent out the oxygen and snuff out the fire, but it sparks a new problem: their oxygen is now dwindling.

The passengers direct themselves across the gaping abyss to board the International Space Station, where they’re still faced with the question of how to get home as the space storm continues to rage. Eventually, ever the hero, Athena suits up for a spacewalk that’s absolutely critical to get their pod repaired. When her tether fails, it leaves her floating off in zero gravity and running out of air, and only keeping her wits about her can help her make it back.

3. When Athena and Bobby’s honeymoon turned into The Poseidon Adventure

Back on Earth, but equally unrealistic, was the Season 7 premiere arc (do you see the pattern?), which took clear inspiration from the classic Poseidon Adventure scripts. While trying to catch a single break in their hectic existences and enjoy their honeymoon, Bobby and Athena quickly find themselves back in first responder mode when pirates hijack their cruise ship and later set off an explosion that ultimately causes it to capsize.

As if that’s not enough, while all of this is going on, nobody else is particularly concerned about the fact that the ship has disappeared from radar, as a massive stormfront has moved in and scrambled communications. It’s only at the persistence of Hen and the rest of the 118 that the cavalry is eventually called in.