Because it wouldn’t be a 9-1-1 premiere unless Athena Grant found herself on

the brink of death, Thursday’s Season 8 opener reunited her with Dennis Jenkins,

the man who murdered her fiancé — and that was only the beginning of her nightmare.

Long story short, a big-time sex trafficker hanged himself in prison and his cellmate needs to serve as a key witness. Plot twist! The cellmate in question is Dennis, and he’ll only agree to testify if Athena transports him personally. This is easier said than done, however, when an “officer” from the US Attorney’s office attempts to intercept Dennis en route to the trial. Athena gets away, locking the guy in his own damn trunk, but it’s clear that someone doesn’t want Dennis speaking before a grand jury.

Athena and Dennis switch flights to avoid their pursuers, but this only puts them in the path of even more dangerous foe — the 22 million killer bees (aka “bee-nado”) that ABC has been advertising for months. After escaping their own airborne prison, the little buggers begin to wreak havoc in the skies, causing another plane to collide with Athena’s. For those of you keeping score at home, this means Athena is no longer safe on land, at sea or in the sky. What’s even left for this poor woman? Outer space? (Actually, we’d totally watch that spinoff.)

Meanwhile, the firehouse is in pretty rough shape without Bobby at the helm. Gerrard is even more of a nightmare as a captain than we expected, with Chimney accurately describing him as “Michael Myers with a push broom mustache.” Speaking of mustaches, Eddie is the only 118-er who appears safe from Gerrard’s ire, while Buck — who finds himself considerably less-mustachio’d — is having the most difficulty bending the knee.

And why should he play nice? Not only does Gerrard take every opportunity to belittle Buck, but he doesn’t even credit him for helping to capture thousands of killer bees. Instead, he punishes him for going rogue. “You think you’re something with your tattoos and your broody little pout!?” Gerrard asks, as if either of those were bad things.

At this point, we’re expecting Buck to knock this guy out. We’re dying for it. But this is 9-1-1, so fate has far more twisted plans for the 118’s new captain. A stray buzzsaw comes flying at Gerrard’s head, so Buck knocks him to the ground to avoid getting hit, but (oops!) the impact of Gerrard’s head on the firehouse floor still leaves him in a pool of blood.

Elsewhere in Thursday’s premiere…

* Eddie tries to throw Christopher a birthday party over FaceTime, and in case that doesn’t sound depressing enough, Christopher couldn’t be less interested in spending time with his father, virtually or otherwise. At least Tommy gets to compliment Buck on his party hat (“Has anyone ever told you that you are a vision in a cone?”), so at least the night isn’t a total bust.

* In a delightfully meta twist, Bobby is now working as a technical advisor for a network firefighter drama called Hot Shots. The main actor is very interested in studying at Bobby’s feet, which means he’s probably going to develop some sort of dangerous obsession with him. Or try to kill him. Or both! (This is 9-1-1, after all.)

Tell us: Did Thursday’s premiere live up to the… buzz? And what are your hopes for the remainder of this three-part event? Grade the episode below, then drop a comment with your full review.