9-1-1: Nashville Brings Don's Worst Fear To Life With A Single Phone Call (Exclusive Sneak Peek)

If you thought Dixie was the only skeleton in Don Hart's closet, think again. TVLine has an exclusive first look at the January 29 episode of "9-1-1: Nashville (ABC, 9 p.m. ET)," which finds Don panicking when another shadow from his past comes calling.

It all begins innocently enough, with Don training the 113 (but mostly Blue) for an upcoming game of street hockey against the other firehouses. But laughter quickly turns to fear when Don receives an unexpected phone call from an inmate at a correctional facility. As soon as he realizes who's trying to reach him — and it doesn't take very long — he immediately hangs up, then ignores a follow-up call from the same number. Whoever's on the other line, the mere thought of them is enough to send Don spiraling. (Any guesses? Hit the comments!)

Then again, it shouldn't come as a total surprise that Don is connected to someone in prison. When TVLine spoke with "9-1-1: Nashville" showrunner Rashad Raisani in late 2025, he said that we're going to learn a lot more about Don — including the specifics of his dark past — in the back half of the season.

"On the surface, he seems like the most put-together [of all the "9-1-1" captains], but still waters run deep, and there's something dark in Don," Raisani told us. "We're going to do an origin story for him in Episode 11, and also the origin of how Don, Dixie and Blythe's love triangle came to be. We're going to explore his original sin, which is due to some damage he took as a kid. He has this inner rage that's always been there."

Last week's episode revealed that when Don was only 10 years old, his parents were killed in a fire from which he was the only survivor. Now it appears that we're going to learn about another painful chapter from the Hart history books.

Hit PLAY on the video above for your exclusive first look at this week's "9-1-1: Nashville," then drop a comment with your thoughts below. Are you enjoying the "9-1-1" spinoff thus far?