This week’s episode of 9-1-1 puts a significant focus on Buck’s grief over Bobby’s death. He can’t stop thinking about Bobby, and we see him sitting at the empty table in the firehouse, remembering Ravi’s (Anirudh Pisharody) first meal with the 118. He later goes to confession and talks to Father Brian (Gavin Stenhouse) to try to feel close to Bobby. Buck tells Father Brian that he can’t feel Bobby (which I might have taken as a sign last week that Bobby was still alive, but which I now think is just a reflection on grief), and then Buck speaks to Bobby. Buck reveals that he’s trying so hard to keep everyone together, but that they’re all pulling apart from each other, which is the main point of conflict in 9-1-1 right now. He asks for a sign from Bobby, and believes he gets one in the form of a literal earthquake.
Separately, Eddie worries about Buck to Hen and Karen (Tracie Thoms), especially when it comes to the topic of telling Buck that he’s gotten a job at the firehouse in El Paso (which I thought was very odd, because it’s as if the captain has only hired Eddie now that his old captain that he might leave for has died). At this point, Eddie is comfortable and happy being back in LA, and Christopher (Gavin McHugh) even visits later in this episode (but couldn’t make it for the funeral for some reasons), so it just feels exhausting that 9-1-1 is drawing out Eddie being in Texas.
The two-part emergency starts, and the 118 tends to a patient and dentist who are affected by a fire caused by the methane in the water. This patient, Lorna (Phoebe Neidhardt), is actually someone they treated a while back when her skin turned blue, and that’s one of multiple callbacks in this episode (another being Bobby’s mention of the prenatal yoga emergency and the tapeworm in the flashback). Athena (Angela Bassett), too, is responding to calls, although hers are much more low-stakes. She’s likely just compartmentalizing her grief, but Athena acts very differently in this episode from the last one. She jokes around with May (Corinne Massiah) and Harry (Elijah M. Cooper), pours herself into the renovations on the house, and is officially back to work.
She ends up dealing with the cart cop, Graham (Sam Roach), again, when he’s policing the washing machines in his apartment building. This episode really just seems to contradict itself: on the one hand, the characters are telling each other to become comfortable with change, in Athena’s advice to Graham, and later, in Pepa’s (Terri Hoyos) advice to Buck. On the other hand, these are objectively bad changes for both the characters and the show. One change that I would like to see is Hen deciding that she does want to be captain, but I think she’s already made up her mind.
‘9-1-1’ Season 8, Episode 17 Gives Buddie More Focus, but It Still Doesn’t Feel Right I want to start the Buddie discussion by saying that I don’t need Buck and Eddie to get along all the time. In fact, the two major fights that they have had – both about the lawsuit in Season 3, and most recently, about Eddie’s move – are some of my favorite moments of theirs. They are full of angst and underlying feelings, and they are surprisingly hilarious. This fight is not that. Here, Buck and Eddie are acting very much like a married couple, but an unhappy one. Buck comes home with groceries even though Eddie said that he would buy them, and then he reveals that he heard about Eddie’s job offer. From there, the two essentially escalate to competing with each other about whose grief is worse.
There’s a way this fight could have felt like them, with Buck scared of Eddie leaving, and Eddie scared to admit how much he wants to stay. Instead, they are uncharacteristically cruel to each other about Bobby’s death. 9-1-1 mostly makes up for this later: Eddie goes out of his way to support Buck, by bringing Christopher and Pepa to his house for dinner. It’s incredibly sweet, and Pepa gives Buck some great advice in the kitchen while Eddie and Christopher separately catch up. Ultimately, though, that out-of-character fight has just left me with a sour taste in my mouth, and I hope they properly talk things out next week.
‘9-1-1’ Season 8, Episode 17 Continues To Leave Me Baffled About This Show. This week’s episode of 9-1-1 is the best that we’ve had since Bobby died, but it’s still not the 9-1-1 that I fell in love with. Buck is right about everyone pulling away from each other in the wake of Bobby’s death. Not only are Buck and Eddie harsh with each other this week, but Athena is avoiding Chimney. I would have understood if she were still mad at him about rushing the return of the body, but she resents Chimney for being alive in Bobby’s place. This is certainly realistic, but it makes me feel especially sad, and I don’t like that the only real sign of Athena’s grief in this episode is her misplaced anger towards Chimney.
