I knew I was potentially dooming 9-1-1 when I called out a particularly strong set of episodes in my recap last week, but I didn’t expect such a sudden slide into mediocrity. I don’t think we need to worry about the rest of the season here — there are no major plot points or newly introduced characters at risk of derailing things. If anything, the episode’s biggest crime is that it’s mostly filler. Well, that and an appearance from Stacey Rusch’s possibly fake boyfriend, TJ. But we’ll get to him.
“Disconnected” starts strong enough, with Maddie having a rather distressing nightmare about returning to the dispatch center that ends with her throat slashed. Kudos to the show for actually acknowledging a character’s trauma — all the characters go through such horrific shit on a weekly basis that we’re usually forced to breeze by incidents that would, in real life, account for hours and hours of therapy. I just wish the execution here were a little more interesting. Even though Sue and Chimney think she should take all the time she needs, Maddie believes that her dreams are telling her she needs to go back to work. (Pretty sure they’re telling her she has severe PTSD, but I’m not a professional.)
At dispatch, everyone is very supportive. Maddie insists this is where she wants to be, even if she is having a little trouble getting started. (I’m not sure Josh’s “If my last call was from a serial killer, I’d be nervous to answer that phone again, too” is helpful.) Maddie’s first call is, thankfully, not from someone crying into a voice changer, but a boy named Chance who’s trapped with his unconscious dad in an apartment filling up with smoke — also distressing, just par for the course. Maddie is able to locate the building, and the 118 gets to the scene quickly. But when she tries to tell Chance to wave a blanket out the window to help the firefighters find him, she finds that she can’t speak. Maddie looks dizzy and panicked (more great face acting from Jennifer Love Hewitt). Minus bleeding out from a throat wound, this is her worst nightmare. With an assist from Josh, the 118 is able to save Chance and his dad, but Maddie’s voice is gone.
She and Chimney see a specialist, who confirms with a throat CT that while Maddie’s voice box has stopped working, there is nothing physically wrong with her. She’s suffering from psychogenic aphonia, which means that the issue is likely related to her recent trauma. This is all fairly obvious, so I’d rather focus on the fact that the doctor is played by Thomas Anthony “TJ” Jones, a recurring player on the recently concluded ninth season of The Real Housewives of Potomac. TJ spent the entire season talking down to and not having sex with newbie Stacey before claiming that she’d been paying him to pretend they were dating. If true, she got ripped off because he is far more convincing as a doctor on 9-1-1 than he was as a man in a relationship with Stacey. But back to the issue at hand! Dr. TJ (Turner) says that although vocal rest and speech therapy could help, Maddie’s voice may be gone for weeks, years, or even forever. “She took my voice,” Maddie writes. Later, when she and Chimney are doing vocal exercises at home, Chimney insists that Braeburn is gone and can’t beat Maddie. That may be true in the literal sense, but she’s taking up ample space in Maddie’s head. (And mine. I miss her energy!)
While all this is going on, 9-1-1 circles back on Eddie, now in El Paso and interviewing for a new firefighter job with Captain Morales. The interview seems to go well, despite Morales being vaguely threatened by Eddie’s reference, Captain Nash, saying Eddie always has a place at the 118. (In contrast, I am comforted by this.) Eddie feels so good about the inevitable job offer that he spends the hiring bonus he doesn’t yet have on a PS5 for Christopher. He’s hoping that Chris will want to set it up at Eddie’s new place (hint, hint), but ultimately, Chris decides to keep it with his grandparents. That’s not the only disappointment in store: Morales calls to let Eddie know that there’s a hiring freeze, and it might be months before he can offer him a job. On a FaceTime call with Buck, Eddie admits he can’t provide for Christopher without the income, which may mean a speedy return to L.A. This time, Buck reminds him that he moved to Texas to be Christopher’s dad and that he should figure out how to stay. (Maybe Buck just doesn’t want to share the apartment.)
Eddie decides that the best course of action is to become a rideshare driver, and my problem with this part of the episode is not that there’s any shame in being a rideshare driver or that 9-1-1 created a fake rideshare app called Rideshare — it’s that it goes on forever. We’re treated to an endless montage of Eddie annoying his customers by being too chatty and being denied tips. Meanwhile, he lies to his family and claims that he got a firefighter job while also falling asleep at meals and asking his parents to front him the money for Christopher’s chess lessons. I guess it’s meant to feel triumphant when Eddie learns how to be better at his new gig from a former rideshare driver, who advises him to stop talking so much, take advantage of surge pricing, and generally read the room. After returning a rich passenger’s phone, Eddie gets a $100 tip, which he promptly uses to pay back his parents and buy Chris a video game. Maybe some of you got more out of this sequence than I did, but it really felt to me like the writers couldn’t figure out what to do with Eddie in El Paso.
For a moment, Eddie is thriving as a rideshare driver. Then, the bubble bursts when one of his passengers turns out to be Christopher and his friends. Eddie’s embarrassed to be shuttling people around instead of saving lives, and he’s even more embarrassed to have lied to his son again. (Surely he realizes this is so much less of an issue than carrying on an emotional affair with his dead ex-wife’s doppelgänger, right?) But as Eddie blows up Christopher’s phone with apology texts, his son shows up at his door, PS5 in tow. No, he doesn’t want to set it up at Eddie’s place — he wants his dad to return it since Eddie obviously needs the money if he’s going to stay in Texas. Shoutout to Chris for being more fiscally responsible than his adult father. And yes, he does want Eddie to stay. Chris tells Eddie he’s still proud of him, and they hug and each say “I love you.” This is huge coming from a surly 14-year-old.
Back in L.A., Athena pays a visit to a still voiceless Maddie. If there’s anything that can cure Maddie, it’s an Angela Bassett speech. Like Maddie, Athena has faced her fair share of trauma — it’s only thinking about the people who need her help that has allowed her to overcome it. “I have tussled with ghosts, too, Maddie,” she says. “I can’t undo what the monster did, but that fear, I can work with that.” Although Bassett obviously sells the hell out of this moment, Maddie’s voice remains missing. I was actually fine with Maddie staying silent for the next few episodes — she’s been carrying the back half of the season so far! Instead, she briefly loses Jee-Yun at the playground and gets her voice back by screaming for her daughter. Frankly, this seems like additional trauma that would only exacerbate the situation, but again, I’m not a professional. The episode ends with Maddie working the phones at the dispatch center. Logic aside, it’s good to see her back where she belongs.
