After a generation-defying start, Episode 2 of Season 8 of 9-1-1 returned to the characters.
Family has always been a central theme of the series, from the flesh-and-blood stuff to the search for family and everything in between.
This wasn’t just an hour about family, it was about home. Bringing family home, wanting a family, and finding the perfect home for a family.
The epic plane crash/bee-nado event was a great start to the season, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t ready to get back to the characters’ journeys.
The characters will always be the heartbeat of the series, and while action-focused hours are necessary and welcome on a show like 9-1-1, more character-focused hours would be nice, too.
Or a healthy mix of both.
After surviving another dangerous encounter, Athena is in full house hunting mode, although her heart doesn’t seem to be in it. I hope we see this journey with the couple, and we get a little taste, though mostly to show that the two aren’t exactly on the same page.
As someone who has spent countless hours house hunting, which makes me an expert on real estate and everything related to buying a home, the biggest thing you’ll always hear during the house hunting process is that you’ll never find everything you want.
Bobby and Athena saw a beautiful house, but she didn’t like it, and that’s completely understandable. You can usually walk into a house and know right away whether or not you’ll feel safe and comfortable inside.
People can spend months or even years finding the “perfect” house, and Bobby’s slight frustration suggests that he’s worried that they might suffer the same fate.
The whole journey of finding a home must have been difficult for Athena, even if she didn’t show it outwardly at every turn. Having your home burn down is incredibly painful, and for Athena and her family, it was the home that was built for them.
The place where Athena, Michael, and Bobby helped raise May and Harry, with so many memories seen on those walls. And suddenly, overnight, it was all gone.
How can you replace something like that? I’m not sure you really can, although you can look for something that makes you feel like that home once was.
God love Athena. Her heart was in the right place, but she was so excited about the possibility of getting her home back that she didn’t see how rebuilding the same home that Michael had made would make Bobby feel.
There’s no doubt Bobby loves that house and lives with Athena and the kids, because it’s been his home for years. But just as he’s integrated into the Grant family, he’s integrated into that house. But it’s never been his in the same way it was hers.
It took a tragedy to get them to this point where they have to find a new forever home. It was important to make sure it conveyed something that made them both feel at home, and their conversation at the end of the episode is a great summary of what we know their relationship is usually like.
Bobby is open, honest, and dangerous, and Athena just listens to him. They’re able to build something that’s worthy of their roles, and that’s pretty cool when you think about it.
Finding a real home for him and Athena is a top priority for Bobby, but he’s also starting to really feel the effects of missing his other home, 118. Look, Hotshots had a great time. It was a clever way to incorporate some surreal humor and put Bobby in a situation where he’s a little out of place.
It also allowed Peter Krause to flex those comedic muscles he’s so good at.
But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Or will they?
Bringing Gerrard back as captain in Episode 10 of Season 7 of 9-1-1 was certainly an option, but what they chose to do with him this season was make him a rude, overbearing, domineering boss with few funny moments, which honestly didn’t sit well with me.
I’ve talked a lot about the 9-1-1 redemption pandemic, and they didn’t even give Gerrard the full redemption. But there’s still a significant change in tone in his presentation this season.
Is he still bad? Sure, but he’s presented to the audience in a ‘oh my god, he’s just an asshole now, right?’ way, which is in contrast to the racist, misogynistic man we saw in the Begins episodes.
Take his encounter with Bobby on the Hotshots set, for example, where he’s really excited to see Brad. Was that really necessary?
He’s shown a lot of
