After a run of disappointing episodes, 9-1-1 season 8 has finally delivered an hour of pretty great television. Henrietta (Aisha Hinds) steps back into the spotlight for a birthday that doesn’t unfold as she hoped. After the muddled reunion they shared in the previous episode, Eddie (Ryan Guzman) and Christopher (Gavin McHugh) have a full-hearted reconciliation that honors both of their characters and the father-son bond they’ve built. But the secret to the success of this episode, titled “Invisible”, has to do with the guest star at its center. The 118 repeatedly rescue a man who is decidedly down on his luck, getting into the absurd emergencies that make up this show’s bread and butter. It’s funny until it isn’t, and then it works its way up to being hilarious. It’s a reminder that 9-1-1 is quite skillful at switching between different tones when it wants to.
Archie Is Out Of Luck
His Situation Goes From Bad To Worse “Invisible” begins the episode with Archie, the episode’s main guest character. Timid and unassuming, Archie is getting fired from his job at a fast-food chicken restaurant. Though he begs for his job, explaining that he has a fiancée, as well as a cousin he needs to help, he’s told he’s too forgettable and therefore expendable. It could have been worse. Archie was supposed to be fired over the holidays, except that he was so forgettable that he slipped through the cracks.
Archie returns to his place, which he shares with his wife-to-be and his cousin. While cleaning up the mess they’ve made, Archie gets trapped under the bed. He soon discovers that his fiancée and his cousin are sleeping together, fooling around on top of him. He calls 9-1-1, and the 118 responds. Buck (Oliver Stark) is giddily excited at the chance to ram his way through the door. The opening scene is effective, establishing that Archie is not someone who likes speaking up for himself, even in the most extreme circumstances. Once he’s rescued, Archie is reluctant to go to the hospital because he feels like he’ll be a bother. More than anything else, though, by having an essentially recurring emergency that escalates throughout the episode, 9-1-1 ties Hen to Archie in a way that makes for a very satisfying payoff.
Hen Is The Only One Excited About Her Birthday
It’s Kind Of Funny
Hen wakes up with a bit of extra energy in her step. She turns on “Happy Birthday”, the 1981 song by the Scottish band Altered Images, and takes her time deciding what to wear. But when she goes downstairs to greet her family, none of them remember. Karen (Traci Thoms) and the kids can’t leave the house fast enough, almost not noticing that Hen is dressed up. To make matters worse, Karen asks Hen to get some takeout. Athena (Angela Bassett) does remember to give Hen a birthday call at least, albeit it only serves to contrast with the call that Hen gets from her mother a moment later.
Hen is gassed up by Athena, who is so confident that a mother wouldn’t forget her daughter’s birthday, though Antonia Wilson says that it must have been a butt-dial. It is a very amusing scene. Hen is gassed up by Athena, who is so confident that a mother wouldn’t forget her daughter’s birthday, though Antonia Wilson (Marsha Warfield) says that it must have been a butt-dial. She adds that she was planning to call her daughter later. Hen’s face lights up and then falls quickly when Antonia asks to borrow her car. It’s some great phone acting from Hinds and Warfield.
Hen’s mood lifts, temporarily, when she arrives at work to find that Buck, Bobby (Peter Krause), and Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) are ready to celebrate Hen Day. That, of course, refers to the high-efficiency nozzles that the 118 received. Henrietta’s face falls once again when Howard (Kenneth Choi) tells her to get excited, but she seems to be taking it in stride.
That facade begins to falter when the 118 responds to Archie, who has found himself trapped under a truck while attempting to retrieve a sentimental item. Hen is the only one on the team who remembers him without needing to be reminded that he’s the guy who was trapped under his ex and his cousin. Archie is recused for a second time, telling Hen that he’s been living out of his car since he was kicked out by his ex. He also says that no one helped him or even noticed him when he was dropped off at the hospital last time.
Hen tells him, rightly, that he is the one that’s making himself small and reminds him that he can stand up for himself. It’s sound advice, though Hen might be mostly projecting. During her rant, she accidentally lets slip that the 118 forgot that it’s her birthday. Archie wishes her a happy day. Bobby, Howard, and Buck are especially mortified. Hinds does a perfect balance of sincere and comedic as she tells Archie to “take up space” before snapping and blurting out that she’s actually talking about the fact that her friends and family forgot her birthday. That escalates when Hen returns home, delivering the episode’s best scene. Having been informed of the birthday blunder by Howard, Karen is all apologetic. The schedule has been packed, she says, and she might have deleted the reminder from her calendar. Whether it’s heists gone wrong or false treasure haunts, 9-1-1 works better when more characters are interacting meaningfully rather than being cornered off in their own separate vortexes.
Soon, the door begins ringing with presents: there’s a balloon bouquet from Chimney and gourmet chocolates from Bobby. Denny (Declan Pratt), Mara (Askyler Bell), and Antonia show up with cake. Just when it looks like the evening might devolve into a mother-daughter spat between Hen and her mother, who understandably points out that Hen is overreacting, the scene shifts back to comedy. There is some top-tier delivery from Hinds on a few lines, like when Hen says of Chimney: “He usually goes whimsical when he knows he’s done wrong.” It’s also great when she admits that “I’m yelling at people while holding a balloon bouquet; of course I know it’s silly.” The silliness continues when Hen wants to storm out of the living room, except she can’t because the balloons are too big to fit through the door.
What works best for me is that this is a storyline that involves nearly all the main cast. It even comes up, played well, during a conversation between Buck and Eddie. Whether it’s heists gone wrong or false treasure haunts, 9-1-1 works better when more characters are interacting meaningfully rather than being cornered off in their own separate vortexes.
