Maddie and Chimney’s wedding disaster

This article contains spoilers from the Thursday, May 2 episode of 9-1-1.

If you were thinking about a wedding 9-1-1 could happen without a mind-blowing catastrophe, you probably haven’t been paying attention.

Thursday’s episode featured the long-awaited wedding of Maddie Buckley (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Howard “Chimney” Han (Kenneth Choi) — and it was a fitting, heartbreaking disaster. But with a happy ending, of course.

The episode began on the day of the wedding, as Maddie pointed out the whereabouts of Chimney as well as that of her brother, Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman), all of whom were already 30 minutes late. As was teased in the episode trailers, Buck and Eddie finally arrive as if they had crossed Hangover hell and back and always dressed in their Miami Vice-80s inspired bachelor party themed outfits.

Turns out it was a bachelor party that Chimney never attended.

After all 118 people took action, Chimney’s phone was found in the middle of a highway.

After waking up disoriented in his car, Chimney was confronted by a carjacker who sped off in his vehicle and threw his phone into the street. Chimney attempted to retrieve it and was nearly hit by a bus, which he eventually boarded because he was “late for work”.

Except he didn’t go down to the fire station. Chimney was sitting on the bus and apparently talking to Doug, Maddie’s abusive ex-husband (played by Hewitt’s real husband, Brian Hallisay) whom she killed in self-defense in season 2. Chimney imagined Doug stabbing him again – as he did in the season 2 episode “Chimney Begins” – then showed up near the karaoke bar where he once worked… in 2005.

Confused when he wasn’t there, he continued to wander while 118 continued to look for him and try to figure out what was wrong. When a car crashed into an open-air market, injuring several people, Chimney sprang into action and organized a triage before help could arrive – but he still believed he was working at a karaoke bar.

Eventually, after seeing his deceased best friend, Kevin, Chimney headed to Kevin’s parents’ house. And they called 9-1-1.

It turns out that a man Chimney helped rescue from an air duct several weeks earlier had similar symptoms and was eventually diagnosed with viral encephalitis, which he had contracted in Central America.

When Chimney finally woke up in the hospital, he immediately apologized…for missing his wedding day. He knew who Maddie was as well as their young child, Jee-Yun, and proposed. Maddie quickly responded with a tearful yes, as soon as he was released from the hospital.

But when he asked how long it would take and Maddie said three weeks, Chimney admitted he didn’t want to wait another minute.

So, alas, the wedding took place at the hospital, officiated by Captain Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) and in the presence of all their loved ones. In the background of this special moment, there was a recording by Hewitt of a ballad version of Chimney and Maddie’s song, “Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.

Buck’s date Tommy (Louis Ferrigno Jr.) didn’t arrive in time for the vows — he was busy fighting a fire — but Buck gave him a big kiss when he arrived, putting soot everywhere on his face and thus revealing his new relationship to anyone present at the event who was not already aware of his new relationship (including his parents).

In the last scene, Chimney told Maddie that he was relieved to remember so much, but confessed that he didn’t remember Buck and Tommy’s relationship. And then he asked: “Why do they call me Chimney?”

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9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.