9-1-1 Season 6 Episode 4 - Animal Instincts

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9-1-1 Season 6 Episode Four! – Review 

Animal Instincts comes in with humorous and not too serious calls on top of some dramatic decisions being made by many of our 118.  While the episode kept me on my toes I can’t say I'm happy with the direction of some of the story, but more on that as we go.

A quick synopsis:

This episode features three main calls; bird watching gone wrong, sorority pup rescue, and a drunk driving mishap. None of them too serious but they come with enough energy and intrigue to keep you invested. Then we have many of our 118 faced with individual dilemmas. Eddie has to face Christopher wanting more independence, Buck is asked to be a sperm donor for an old roommate and his wife after he decides to try a say yes to possibilities thing, Bobby and Athena must face an empty nest, and Hen has to decide if she wants to fight for medical school.

All the calls were great, my biggest issue was with what they are doing with Bucks storyline this episode. But let’s start with the calls.

The bird watcher call had plenty of humor and I was there for it. I also didn't know trees could flip back up after being down, which is mildly terrifying but also cool. So, we start this call off having the park ranger narrate the people he’s watching was peak comedy. Curiosity killed the bird watcher? Great line. It was stressful seeing someone trapped under a tree like that and a great first call of an episode. Hen had good command of the situation in her continued interim captain role. Buck and Eddie shared some fun looks when they watched the park ranger trying to hit on the sister of the bird watcher who got trapped under the tree. A+ all around, my kind of call.

Second call was after Buck was asked to be a sperm donor. That is important. The call was a drunk driver who hit a cyclist. Seemed like a straightforward call until the drunk drive woke up and took off at top speed with chimney in the car with him. It was high intensity but Chim gave us little bits of humor that I always adore out of him. My favorite from this? “- To a hospital. Then jail, definitely jail.” The penultimate moment of this call was Buck taking off after the driver on the cyclist's bike and trying to stop the car with his body. Now is it just me or does Buck go and get extra reckless when he’s got something going on in his personal life, some struggle? What would possess him to think that that was a good idea? Oh, right, he’s emotionally a mess and takes it out on himself at work thinking he’s expendable again. Eddie was all of us in this episode, “Buck, where the hell are you going?!”

The last call takes us back to comedy. The call starts with an overdose at a sorority house and when they get there it’s a dog not a person. When Eddie and Chim are unsure how much Narcan to give a dog, Bobby calls Hen. Who is drunk. With Buck. Buck had showed up on Hen’s doorstep to talk about his problem and Hen not being able to do nothing couldn't be happier. So they drank and talked and we got some great looks out of Bobby, Chim, and Eddie when it comes out that they are, in fact, drunk at 2pm. But Hen does some impressive drunk math and saves the day. Bobby takes the dog into “protective custody”, which basically means he stole the dog. I could not believe Bobby Nash stole a dog but it was probably justified. Hoover is going to eat better than most people now that he’s in Bobby’s care. Athena has some questions though. How many others thought about the icarly meme where Spencer brings home an ostrich while holding a smoothie nd when Carly says, “what’s that?” Spencer says, “A smoothie.” That’s exactly how the moment felt when Athena comes home to Hoover.

Let’s talk about our individual stories now. Starting off with Bobby, when he returns from Florida he returns with an empty house. May is off at college and Harry is with Michael. Bobby hasn't had an empty house in a long time. It was probably inevitable that the Grant-Nash house was going to get a pet, and a dog at that. Hoover. Watching Bobby steal him was one of the highlights of the episode. Maybe he can even become the firehouse mascot. Of all the individual stories this one is the sweetest. At some point I bet Athena will be Hoover’s best friend, move over Bobby you might be replaced.

A smaller but still heartwarming and a little sad story had Maddie on a call with a woman and her daughter. The mom was undocumented and the father used the promise of a green card to abuse and manipulate her. She managed to run away with her daughter and go into hiding but unfortunately he found them. Maddie does her best to get help to them but the address wasn’t right. The new dispatcher helped her out and help made it in time. I don't know why they writer’s give Maddie all the domestic abuse calls, it’s like they want to continuously inflict pain. The call had me on edge, being so worried for the mother and daughter. I'm so happy they were ok. And Maddie was sweet to find the mother the help she needed to get her green card without needing her abuser. It made for a very nice conclusion.   

Then we have Hen revisiting fighting for medical school. When Bobby returns he tells her to take some time off which she utterly hates. She is bored out of her mind. Bobby had good intentions but Hen hasn’t had a quiet home in a long time. Buck comes over to talk out being a sperm donor since she and Karen know the struggles of trying to conceive and the two get…very drunk. Hammered, if you will. Still impressed at Hen’s math abilities while that intoxicated, I'm jealous. She gives Buck some great advice but once again he doesn’t hear it. Hen + Buck + alcohol = not a good combo. For Buck. But for Hen it was not a bad time. Buck told her she’d have made an amazing doctor and it got her thinking again or maybe was the last push she needed to go fight for another chance at medical school. Hen meets with her professor and Hen gets a second chance, a practical exam. I think Hen will do much better with a practical exam given her years of field experience. I still think I’d love to see Captain Hen, I know she will make an amazing doctor if that’s where they will continue to go with her story.

Buck. Buck, Buck, Buck. Jumping off of Hen let’s move onto my least favorite storyline. Buck has been trying this new thing where he says yes to all opportunities, but not life changing ones, that went well. Not.

So that leads to him to say yes to dinner with an old roommate and his wife. This dinner is when we get the reveal that they want Buck to be their sperm donor. They've been trying to have a baby and it turns out that Buck’s friend’s sperm count is too low. They could have looked through anonymous donors but they’d rather have someone they know is a good person, though that’s not exactly the most genetic trait. Buck is of course thrown for a loop but I had really hope after he thought about it for a little bit he’d say no. But all we get is Buck doing something reckless in the field because he’s faced with personal turmoil once more. Buck isn’t the kind of guy who can know he has a kid out there but can’t have any part of that kid’s life. While drunk with Hen seeking advice she tells him they are asking you to be a father and walk away. Donor not dad, as Buck put it. He has to be ok with walking away.

His friend gives him this really guilt trippy speech that is supposed to be Buck’s out but to me it only served to guilt Buck into it. Because of course he says yes. He told Buck how he feels like a failure as man, as a husband. How he thought it was his wife’s fault and tried all these things that didn’t work only for them to find out it was him. There was so much that would seal Buck in on a yes, he’s the first to sacrifice what’s good for him to help other’s and that’s exactly what he did here. I hope he changes his mind, for his own sake, later on or have a reason why he can’t donate because this not progress for Buck. It’s just continuing the cycle of doing things for other’s and not himself. If they don’t have him change his mind it will feel like a disservice to Buck’s character and the development he has been working towards. Saying yes is fine if it leads to a no for himself, but only then.

My favorite story this episode is, no surprise, Eddie and Chris’s. Chris is not only a condiment snob, come on kid a sale is worth it sometimes, but he is starting to want his independence from Eddie.

Eddie takes it in stride but it’s clearly hard on him. Not only that but we see Chris caught in his first lie. He wasn’t going to science club but instead meeting his friends at the park. Chim was on point when he said that it would make a good cover for something else and that’s what Chris did. We also had Eddie not noticing something was up with Buck? That was odd. But also it was telling and pointed that Eddie asked Buck if he knew that Chris had been lying. That out if Eddie didn't know what was going on with his son, Buck would. And Ryan came out with a stellar performance when Chris not only lies but breaks his punishment rules and Eddie has to lay down the law. He comes out hot, figuratively and literally, angry dad mode engaged. But before he gets too hot he takes a pause, he never wanted to be that kind of dad who yelled over talked. And we see that play out here. Eddie yells but he quickly deescalates, talking to Chris instead. He remains firm but he talks to Chris about why he’s been acting the way he has.

They continued progress with Eddie’s parents, having him facetime Ramon. His father gives him some good advice that maybe Eddie is overcorrecting with Chris because Ramon forced Eddie to grow up too fast. And how can Chris learn to trust himself if Eddie can’t show him some trust. At the end of it Eddie agrees to have a talk about Chris going to the park without him, though it looked like it broke his heart a little. He’s definitely not ready for Chris to really start growing up. I'm really excited to see where this story goes.

Overall, not a bad episode. Not in my top episodes of all time but slightly above average. I have questions about where Buck’s story in particular is going but it’s as a whole, enjoyable.

7/10 Biscuits