Hello everyone! There wasn’t an episode last week because I had a busy week at work, but now that Easter is over, we’re back with a vengeance! Are you ready to see how the story between Maya and Carina continues ? Okay? Let’s go!
Today’s episode begins with the firefighters in their respective homes. The camera pans back and forth, starting with Sullivan and Andy in bed, Dean and Vic taking turns caring for Dean’s crying baby girl, and finally, Maya and Carina appear!
Maya is lying in bed while she looks enraptured at Carina, the doctor is speaking to her in Italian and of course, this language is what she has:
Carina: You are beautiful. You are strong. You are tenacious.
Maya: I don’t understand a word, but it’s helping me.
Carina: Go shine with your light, beautiful. Tell the truth. Give me a kiss.
Maya: Kiss you?
Carina: Yes.
So Maya listens to him and they kiss.
As a curiosity, I’ll tell you, in case anyone doesn’t know, that the phrase ” Dammi un bacio ” was not in the script, nor was what Maya says afterwards or the kiss they share; it was completely improvised.
Warren is exercising in the park and Pruitt pays him a visit. The doctor tells him that he needs treatment for his condition, at least palliative care to control the pain, but Pruitt doesn’t want to hear about it and changes the subject.
Travis and Emmett are in the locker room, each doing their own thing because Emmett still doesn’t want to talk, then Jack appears and Travis tells him that Vasquez is going to be discharged today and he also wants to know how Jack feels, he tells him that half the team doesn’t want to look at his face.
Then Andy shows up, Travis and Emmett leave and she and Jack are left alone, they start talking about what happened between them and then Sullivan calls her.
Andy arrives at Sullivan’s office and tells him that Maya, who is also there, wants to talk to them both. Andy doesn’t understand, but Maya quickly lets him know. It turns out that the captain wants Sullivan to give her the captain position because Andy has more experience and the team respects her. She lets him know that she made a mistake asking for the position and that she was somehow trying to protect her friend from the pain she was feeling. She also says that Andy deserves it more and that she no longer wants to be captain. Sullivan says he needs to consider it and tells them to get to work.
When they leave the office, they get a call and Maya tells her that she and Jack should go attend to the emergency, so while they’re on their way, Jack asks her what happened inside that office, but Andy doesn’t tell him. Jack wants to request a transfer because of what happened with Vasquez, but Andy doesn’t want him to request it and tells him that they’ll get over all the bad things that are happening now in the park.
The emergency is at a military supply store. It turns out a man is trying to hit another man with a bat, and the other man is carrying a knife and has injured the man with the bat in the arm. Apparently, the man with the knife pawned the knife at that same store for $20, and now that he wants it back, they’re asking for $40. Jack tries to improve the situation by giving the man with the knife money to buy it back. Andy radios for help, and thanks to her, we learn that the man with the knife is a war veteran with mental issues. The man with the bat, who is the owner of the store, ends up hitting him with the bat and throwing him against the counter. Afterward, they continue fighting, and Jack and Andy separate them. But it doesn’t end there, because how could things not get worse on a Shondaland show? So Kyle (the man with the knife) grabs a grenade and starts threatening them, saying that if anyone leaves the store, they should remove the pin.
Vic is at the park’s reception desk when a man with a walker enters the park. Vic asks if he needs help, and the man says he wants to see the chief. The firefighter tells him the chief isn’t there. Vic realizes the man isn’t thinking very well and decides to go along with it. They’re just then when Dean shows up and she tells him he’s the chief. Dean doesn’t understand at first, but Vic continues to treat him like he’s the chief, and soon he gets the hang of it.
After this scene, a flashback to 1999 appears in which we see a little Vic at home with her grandmother. Vic has gotten an 8 in Math and her grandmother tells her that they have to celebrate with popcorn and watching a movie.
We return to the present, Vic, Dean and the man with the walker get out of the elevator and take him to the park’s break room, Vic and Dean start talking and the firefighter thinks the man might have Alzheimer’s because he can’t even remember his name, so Vic asks his partner to play along to see if they can find out more about this man so they can take him home.
The rest of the firefighters, except for Warren who is spending the day with Pruitt, go to the military supply store where Andy and Jack are. Sullivan enters the store and Maya begins to give orders for Emmett and Travis to disperse the crowd so they can close the perimeter.
Inside the store, Andy wants to treat the owner’s wound, but Kyle doesn’t want to. Sullivan enters, and Kyle gets nervous, but the firefighter tries to reassure him by telling him he’s a Marine, too. After talking with the veteran for a while, they manage to get the owner out of the store to treat him. Jack leaves, but Andy decides to stay inside because he doesn’t want to leave Sullivan alone.
In the park, Vic continues trying to play along with the man on the walkway. She asks him if he wants her to keep his jacket. The man gives it to her and calls her “doll,” which, as is unusual, doesn’t please the firefighter at all. But it doesn’t end there, because he treats her like she’s his secretary and asks for a coffee. Vic leaves, and Dean and the man are left alone. The man is impressed that Dean, who is racialized, has become a chief, so he starts talking about him. Then we discover that he demonstrated alongside Luther King Jr., and the man is very happy because even though he got hit in the head, it served a purpose because, of course, Dean has become a chief. Vic arrives with the coffees and asks the man why doesn’t he call his secretary and asks her to come have lunch with them. Dean gives him his cell phone to call, and the man starts dialing, but when he puts the phone to his ear, nothing rings. Dean shows Vic the number and they make a serious face, and another flashback appears.
In this one we see a teenage Vic who arrives at her grandmother’s house all angry, dropping her notebook and saying that her life is over, oh how intense teenagers are… it turns out that a classmate in the theater group has mononucleosis and they’ve given her the lead role and she only has two days to rehearse.
Vic says she’s a disaster and her grandmother asks her if she’s on the level of the Titanic but Vic tells her that it’s more like Chernobyl, her grandmother tries to calm her down by telling her to sing a little, Vic tells her that she has to do “West Side Story”, so the grandmother starts to sing because apparently she knows the songs by heart but the lady starts to sing a song from another musical, the grandmother asks her again what play she was going to do and Vic repeats it again and begins to sing “There’s a place for us” and while she is singing it she turns off the stove because her grandmother had left it on without realizing.
Warren and Pruitt are in the car and he starts to get philosophical, saying that he has to accept that he’s dying and that we have to call things by their name, something we never do in Western culture. He’s not wrong, even if it’s sad.
Sullivan continues to try to get Kyle to keep the ring from being removed by telling him he served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we learn that Kyle has a brain injury from being hit by three homemade explosives.
Maya is still outside giving orders when Dixon, the Fire Chief, arrives. The captain begins to explain the situation to him, but he tells her he already knows what’s going on inside and wants to know what’s going on out there because sealing off the perimeter should be the police’s job. Maya tells him that Sullivan has also been in the war and that they’re not just firefighters, they’re also in charge of solving problems.
At the store, Sullivan tells Kyle to seek psychological help, but he says that every time he asks, he only gets made to wait 6 months. The situation worsens, and Kyle throws away the grenade pin.
Maya and Andy talk on the radio, Andy wants her to buy time and asks her not to bring the police in because they will make Kyle more nervous.
Vic and Dean continue with the man on the walker and Vic’s plan is working because little by little they are learning more about him. Now we know that this man was a police officer and that baseball games were organized between police officers and firefighters and we also discover that his name is Earl.
We see another flashback, Vic is now in her university days, her grandmother wants to know if she is going somewhere because she looks very pretty and she tells her that “The Pirates of Penzance” is premiering and that she is finally going to play the role of Mabel but her grandmother doesn’t know what she is talking about and she doesn’t remember her either, this is a very sad moment.
Back in the present, the firefighters continue trying to stop Kyle from throwing the grenade. Emmett and Travis argue because the former is very nervous just thinking about the possibility of Kyle throwing the grenade and blowing up the entire block, taking them all with him. I would be nervous too, to be honest.
Sullivan continues talking to Kyle and manages to grab his hand where he has the grenade.
Pruitt is on the steps of City Hall leaving fire boots, his intention is to represent the firefighters who have died on the job.
Returning to the emergency site, Dixon arrives telling Maya that they are taking too long to find a solution and to get her son (Emmett) out of there. Maya tells him no way, that Emmett is part of her team and that even if he is her son, he works for her. After this, Dixon signals to the police to enter the store, Maya says that she is putting her team in danger.
Sullivan finally manages to get the situation under control by telling Kyle that he certainly has someone he cares about in his life; apparently, the veteran is in love with a woman named Ashley.
Vic and Dean are talking about what to do with Earl, Dean wants to take him to the hospital but Vic doesn’t think it’s a good idea, so Dean starts playing the piano they have there, Vic thinks it’s a good idea because maybe the music will help him remember something, so Dean starts playing and Vic starts singing, this girl sings so well, the fact is that somehow it works because Earl starts singing too.
We see a flashback again where Vic is performing, his grandmother enters the theater and starts to approach the stage and sings as she walks, Vic realizes that his grandmother is there.
We go back to the present and a woman arrives asking for Earl. Then we see Sullivan and Andy still inside the store talking to Kyle and again we see Dean playing and Vic and Earl singing, we go back to the past, Vic’s grandmother goes up on stage and she and Vic start singing together, we go back to the present, while singing Vic approaches Earl and at the same time the woman who asked for Earl enters the room, at that moment we know that she is Earl’s daughter, also an awkward situation occurs in which Vic puts her hand on Earl’s shoulder and he falls and when Vic tries to pick him up he hits her and knocks her to the ground too, the music continues playing while we see the outcome of all these situations, Kyle, Sullivan and Andy finally leave the store and Sullivan takes the grenade and passes it to the explosive specialist unit, we go back to the past with Vic and her grandmother singing, in the present Vic apologizes to Earl.
Once everything has passed, the firefighters arrive at the park and Andy congratulates Maya in front of the entire team, telling her that she has managed to make a difficult situation become easy. Maya says that a boss is worth as much as his team.
Dixon, however, threatens her, telling her that if she puts her son in danger again, he will keep her doing paperwork for a long time.
Earl’s daughter apologizes to Dean and Vic, telling them that she just needed a break for coffee and that’s why she brought him there, so they could take care of him. Vic tells her that she understands what it’s like to need a break.
Emmett and Travis continue arguing, Travis tells him that he can’t have that job if he’s afraid of explosives, Emmett tells him that he was studying Art History and that the whole being a firefighter thing was his father’s idea and that he’s there because he wants to get into politics, Travis tells him that he doesn’t know how he manages to sleep because if he doesn’t do his job well innocent people could die.
The firefighters are in the break room watching TV, and then the news reports that there was a protest at City Hall for the firefighters who died of cancer that year. Pruitt comes on TV saying that firefighters’ medical expenses aren’t being covered and he wants to know why.
Maya is in the park kitchen cooking dinner. Andy arrives and tells her that the captain doesn’t have to cook, but Maya misses him. Andy tells her again that she did very well today and that he doesn’t want her to resign because Dixon wouldn’t allow another woman to be captain if she left the position. Maya thinks everyone hates her, and Andy tells her that everyone has their own battle. Maya tells him that she misses her, and although things between them are still not what they used to be, we see a little rapprochement.
The episode ends with Sullivan approaching the kitchen and telling Maya, Andy and Travis that Vasquez didn’t make it out of this and died, everyone is in shock and Maya doesn’t want to believe it.
As you may have noticed, this episode focused on mental illness, a very important topic. That’s it! See you next week!
