Why Isn’t 9-1-1 Season 8 on Tonight? Blame Halloween 

9-1-1 season 8 is just starting to heat up, but the show will not air a new episode on Thursday, October 31, due to Halloween.

The ABC series’ sixth episode of the season won’t air until Thursday, November 7, as most families will be out enjoying the spooky holiday. As fans know, 9-1-1 celebrated Halloween during its Thursday, October 24, episode titled “Masks,” which featured various All Hallow’s Eve pranks gone wrong, a Station 118 haunted house and an ancient mummy curse.

That “curse” was placed on the 118’s Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark) — or so he believed — after the firefighter brought what he believed was a fake dead body to the station’s annual haunted house event. When Buck accidentally broke off one of the figure’s arms, however, it became clear that he was dealing with an actual dead body.

Following an unfortunate slip on some pumpkin guts, a dislocated shoulder and a gnarly skin reaction that seemingly came out of nowhere, Buck spent much of the episode believing Billy had come back to haunt him.

“I think episode 5 is just a really nice blend of all the things that 9-1-1 does really well,” Stark, 35, told Us Weekly exclusively while breaking down the episode earlier this month. “It’s funny in moments and it’s a bit silly in moments, and then it has some really dramatic and hard hitting stuff, and all of that is wrapped up into a 42-minute episode.”

While Buck was convinced he was being haunted, his boyfriend, Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.), and best friend Eddie (Ryan Guzman) had other opinions. The duo even teamed up to try and convince Buck he wasn’t being cursed by an ancient entity.

“It’s funny to say this, but [Ryan and Lou] in particular really bounce off each other well, I think,” Stark said of working with his two costars. “They get on really well, so it’s nice. I just like to witness that. But we have a good time and I like the dynamic there, and the dynamic within the scenes where it tends to be Eddie and Tommy vs. Buck.”

Unfortunately, Eddie and Tommy’s efforts ended up being futile as Buck eventually decided that the only way to break the spell was to pay his respects to the mummy haunting him by visiting his grave.

Whether the curse is behind Buck for good has yet to be revealed, but 9-1-1’s November 7 episode, titled “Confessions,” will likely take a different tone. “Confessions” has been teased as an emotional hour of TV, with a promo for the episode hinting at “two daring rescues” and “one new hero” after a child gets stuck in a pipe.

While speaking with Us, Stark said to expect “touching” moments between characters throughout “Confessions,” including with Buck and his sister, Maddie, played by Hewitt. (9-1-1 also stars Peter Krause, Angela Bassett, Kenneth Choi and Aisha Hinds.)

“I think it’s quite meaningful in many ways,” Stark shared. “Buck is, as he often is, going through something and spiraling a little bit, and he tends to lean on those around him when that starts to happen. Maddie is obviously one of those people.”

Stark also noted in an interview with Screen Rant that Buck and Eddie will have a scene that “speaks volumes” about their relationship. Eddie, meanwhile, will continue to reel over his son, Christopher (Gavin McHugh), moving to Texas to live with his grandparents.

“Eddie has some really beautiful story in episode 6, and I think there’s a really nice scene between the two of us, myself and Ryan, at the end of 6, that speaks volumes to what the relationship between them is,” Stark told the outlet. “And how even when they don’t have to say too much to each other, they know how to be there for each other.”

New episodes of 9-1-1 air on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.