‘9-1-1’ Leaves Athena’s Fate in the Air as a Temporary Pilot Athena is now a captain.
In this week’s episode of 9-1-1, the second in a three-part season 8 opener, the aftermath of a “beenado” emergency results in a collision between two planes, with Angela Bassett’s Sergeant Athena Grant-Nash and prisoner Dennis Jenkins (Glenn Plummer) as passengers. With the pilot unconscious (and another sucked through multiple holes in the plane) and numerous injuries, Athena is forced into action as the 118 provides ground support.
Read on for a recap of what happened in Season 8 Episode 2, “When Boeing Gets Tough.”
Last week, Buck (Oliver Stark) struggled to adjust to the realities of being a 118 under the iron fist of Gerrard (Brian Thompson). Often criticized for just doing his job, the new captain also overlooks Buck’s more creative and helpful contributions as the crew battles an unexpected foe.
“I think going back to Season 1, Buck was a character who didn’t like having to follow orders and having people in authority over him,” Stark told Parade last week. “And then the growth that we’ve seen him have over the years as he’s settled into his role in 118, I think that’s just a testament to how important Bobby is to that. And so now, when you take Bobby out of 118, you see how Bobby Nash is a rock for Buck. Without him, he’s kind of back to his old self.”
Finishing off the first episode with a cliffhanger, viewers saw Buck wrestle Gerrard, inadvertently saving his life from a flying cut-off wheel. As Episode 2 unfolds, the upstart questions the details of his split-second decision. Did he intend to save Gerrard or just throw him to the ground out of anger?
Either way, Hen has now been appointed acting captain, prompting Chim (Kenneth Choi) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) to dance in celebration as Gerrard is taken on a stretcher to the hospital.
What happened on the plane?
As outlined in the first episode, Athena has reluctantly been assigned to act as a police escort for Jenkins, who personally requested her when he goes to testify in a case seeking justice for a sex trafficker and child molester. Working with the U.S. Attorney’s office, Jenkins—who killed Athena’s fiancé Emmett decades ago in Washington—will be released early from his sentence. But he won’t agree to the deal unless Athena approves.
What was initially supposed to be a fairly standard operation was quickly rerouted, as Athena and Jenkins faced fierce opposition along the way, in the form of hired guards trying to stop him from revealing the blacklist of serial rapist Maxwell Folton. As such, the two were last-minute additions to the flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles.
Related: 9-1-1’s Oliver Stark Analyzes ‘Absurd’ Beenado Debut: ‘It Feels So Silly and It Feels So Fun’ In the manner of 9-1-1, the routine flight soon turns into a catastrophic emergency when the remains of Beenado obscure the pilot’s vision; the plane crashes into a propeller plane and chaos ensues: the pilot is missing and unconscious, a high school athlete is in danger of losing his leg, and a man struggles to breathe at oxygen-deprived altitude.
Word of the incident reaches air traffic control, who work with the emergency call center to relay the 911 call, now fully aware of the risks posed by Athena being a passenger and the plane’s unwitting commander. With more than half of the Los Angeles Fire Department dispatched to the airport and all flights canceled, everyone must band together to land the beleaguered plane. Although Bobby (Peter Krause) had been unreachable on set, Buck shows up at the last minute to pick him up from the set in a makeshift fire truck. Not one to miss a beat, the former captain-turned-consultant expects nothing less than Athena to take command.
