“9-1-1”'s Ryan Guzman previews season 7 finale, Bobby's fate, and 'overwhelming' Eddie and Kim storyline

"When I looked at the script, I was like, 'Oh my God...'" the actor says.

9-1-1 is known (nay, celebrated) for its jaw-dropping twists and turns — and last Thursday did not disappoint.

In season 7, episode 9, "Ashes, Ashes," Eddie (Ryan Guzman) revealed to Kim (Devin Kelley) that he was spending time with her because she looks identical to his wife Shannon (also played by Kelley), who died in season 2. Kim ends their flirtatious relationship but returns to his home later, pretending to actually be Shannon, to give Eddie the chance to speak his piece and get the closure he'd been seeking.

It's an emotional and cathartic exchange — one Guzman had very little time to prepare: "I had just gotten that scene the night before, and it was overwhelming," the actor tells Entertainment Weekly. "When I looked at the script, I was like, 'Oh my God....' I'd just got done working a 13-hour shift. So I thought, 'I'm going to put this aside. I'm not even going to look at it.' It took me a while, because I saw how dense the scene was and how emotional the scene was."

After a few hours, around midnight before the shoot, he finally felt ready to "go over it and fine-tuning it and try to figure out the intricacies that I wanted to play." And, ultimately, "it wasn't that hard on the day," he explains. "The beautiful part about Devin is she's such an incredible actress that when I show up ready, she shows up already ready and we just kind of play off of each other. I think that's what good acting is. It's a game of tennis. I give her something and she serves me something back that I never saw or thought of before. It's kind of just that reactive way of interacting with each other that feeds good storylines."

Related: '9-1-1' stars Oliver Stark, Ryan Guzman on 'vulnerable' Buck and Eddie in season 7

But what did he think about the identical non-twin storyline when it was first revealed to him? And what can we expect in Thursday's season 7 finale now that Eddie's son, Christopher (Gavin McHugh), and girlfriend, Marisol (Edy Ganem), have walked in on him embracing Kim...not to mention Bobby (Peter Krause) falling unconscious after saving Athena (Angela Bassett) from their burning home? Here's what Guzman has to say about it all.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was your first thought when they told you about the Kim storyline?

RYAN GUZMAN: I mean, there's a lot of room for error, so how do we make this make sense and how do we make it not campy? So it was really just finding that relatable tissue and exploring the reality of "What would happen if an actual person did look like a wife who passed away?" And how would that affect an individual. So that's what we did. Eddie had no opportunity to question. He just leaned in fully, because he wanted to believe this lie.

What was most important to you as you filmed the scene where Kim pretends to be Shannon?

I mean, it was a lot to say, but we knew the type of beats that we wanted, and we also understood that it was less about him trying to cry and him trying to be emotional. It was more about "He wants to hold this back. He doesn't want to let this thing go." In that essence, I'm going to try my absolute best to kind of elongate this conversation and hold back the tears and not show what I really want to show — and I think that's the relatable factor to the audience and what's compelling about the story.

Do you think the conversation made Eddie feel better or worse?

I believe that it is only made things worse. I mean, one door may have slightly closed, if not closed fully, but so many doors opened — and not the best doors. With him finally getting some of that cathartic release, he also now is living in this new land of: Okay, well, what's post-Shannon life look like? Now I don't have this connection with my son because now he thinks his mom is back from the dead. How am I going to have that conversation? Now, obviously, my relationship with my soul [meaning Christopher] is gone. I crushed that. I'm living in a new land now. I think for Eddie, it's kind of the passing of torches from one obstacle to the next.

What was going through Eddie's head when Christopher comes in and says "Mom?!"

What I was playing on the day was: "I've scarred my son for life and there's nothing I can say. There's nothing I'll be able to do to justify that." I know that for the majority of the time I've played Eddie, I've played it as he's trying to make up for something he can't make up for. He can't make up for the fact that he wasn't there while he was [deployed to] protect his country. He wasn't there for trying to develop good communication with [Shannon]. He's been always in a perpetual state of trying to make up for a lack of something, which has driven him kind of insane, to be honest. Now I think that hole just gets even bigger for him. Just, "Oh my God, maybe I'm not the guy. Maybe as hard as I'm trying, I still keep on screwing my son up, so maybe something's wrong with me." There's always going to be that kind of layer to Eddie.

So what's next? What can you tease about the finale as Eddie balances his biological family crisis and his work family crisis with Bobby in the hospital?

Yes, the duality of life. Nothing happens just as easy as we'd hope. It doesn't happen one at a time. Yeah, Cap gets put into the hospital in a very severe situation and leaves the whole team, the 118, in a state of shock and hopelessness. While Eddie is trying to handle things at home, his work life — which has bled into his personal life so much so now that I feel Cap may be even a conduit father to Eddie, or at least a brother — is now in a moment of crisis. It's pulling Eddie, and how much of Eddie is left to really be there in either situation is going to be seen in this episode.

The 9-1-1 season 7 finale, "All Fall Down," airs Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.