9-1-1 Season 6 Episode 2 - Crash and Learn
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9-1-1 Season 6 Episode One! - Review
We may not have had a two-part episode huge disaster but this season is bringing the character drama and we are only two episodes in. Crash and Learn gave us excellent performances from our 118, particularly with Hen, Athena, and Bobby. Episode two gives us a very Hen centered episode as we see her attempt to balance being interim captain on top of being a paramedic and continuing going to medical school. It’s an emotional roller coaster of an episode, and not just with Hen.
A quick synopsis:
Bobby and Athena find themselves in Florida to help out at her parents’ home after her father had driven their car into the house. Bobby assists in the remodel where he and the family friend contractor’s son find a body. There’s a call where a husband explodes his yard trying to eliminate a “pest” and Hen and Eddie get to make a citizen’s arrest. Hen struggles to balance her work, school, and home life while Buck struggles with being at ease and wondering what the key to happiness is. And our other call of the episode finds our 118 faced with an emotional loss, well mostly Buck. There was also some nice humor peppered in that did feel more like our early 9-1-1.
This was honestly a really strong episode and I'm not sure I have anything that didn’t work for me. So instead of what worked and what didn’t let’s just talk about the big moments, the calls, and the little things.
Aisha Hinds (Hen) gave us an incredible performance and definitely stole the show as our first big moment discussion. Her time lapse of work, study, family was a bit reminiscent of when Eddie started his dispatch job. Like Eddie, Hen started off on top, things were good but quickly went downhill. We saw the toll all of this is taking on Hen. She fell asleep driving home from night class, failed an important test, and forgot Denny’s robotics event. At the beginning, like Hen, I thought she had it but then life came crashing down. Her breakdown with Karen had a lot of raw emotions and feelings, you could see Hen’s pain. I hate to agree because I want Hen to be able to do it all, but it’s not realistic and Karen is right that Hen will have to make a choice: continue medical school and quit being a paramedic or keep being a paramedic and quit medical school. It’s also nice to see Hen and Karen as a couple. We don’t get them on screen a lot and I love Karen so I'm happy whenever we get more of her.
she failed at being captain. Despite all the stress she was under the job didn’t suffer. She kept her cool on both calls we saw, she made tough choices without breaking, got all the paperwork done, and still made time to talk to Buck despite it cutting into her scheduled study time. I love the idea of Doctor Hen but at the same time she was amazing as captain and she’s already an excellent paramedic that I think she should maybe drop medical school.
Our next big thing that had me really invested in this episode was the body found in Athena’s parents’ home. They set this mystery up very well in my opinion. We have Athena’s father still in the hospital in the medically induced coma, unsure about what will happen when he wakes up. Then we are introduced to Frank Jr. who is the son of the longtime family friend contractor who helped remodeled the part of the house that the body was found in. The body is likely the girl that went missing when Athena was nine. The murderer, in my opinion, has to be either the family friend contractor or Athena’s father. Or they were in on it together. No matter which option, it will be entertaining and heartbreaking to watch unfold. Part of me does want Athena’s father to be involved but I'm unsure if 9-1-1 will dabble into more crime drama territory and have Athena’s father be a murderer. With the breadcrumbs we’ve been given it does seem like they are setting up Frank Sr. as the culprit. Perhaps Athena’s father will be an accomplice if he’s not the actual murderer. I definitely look forward to getting that mystery solved. Also, Athena’s whole reason for becoming a cop was to solve that disappearance so…she’s finally going to accomplish that goal.
I have ruled out Frank Jr. mostly because he had to be close in age to Athena when all that happened. There was some good Bobby and Bathena content in these scenes too. Bobby stood up for Athena with her mother. Beatrice was having a hard time, everyone understood that, but she was still unfair to Athena and Bobby had his partner’s back. The softer moments were a nice change of pace and acted very well. I really enjoyed Bobby and Athena talking while it rained, we saw them connecting, it was sweet, and it hadn’t been a moment caused by one of them being hurt or in a dangerous call. The softer sides to Bathena are always a treat. The relationships on 9-1-1 are something this show does so well, for the most part.
Athena and Beatrice had a softer moment at the hospital too. Talking about what might happen if her father doesn’t wake up or if he does will he be the same? It was also something I think many could relate to. The soft moments were not limited to just couples. Athena and her mother have a tense relationship but they do love each other at the end of the day. We see Athena’s softer side quite a bit but we haven’t seen it too much from Beatrice. It was another well-done emotional moment.
Onto the calls! My favorite of the two was the first one early in the episode. It started out very chill, very mundane. You think maybe it will be a small gardening accident or maybe a sinkhole. But no, it’s much better than that. It turned out the wife of the man doing the gardening was cheating with the neighbor guy and he had dug a tunnel, underground, that connected their houses. All because the husband had cameras everywhere outside and would have caught the affair. So rather than just divorce her husband she and the hot neighbor guy had devised this very elaborate plan to have an affair. I loved this story a lot and would watch a movie that that elaborate plan was the plot. The situation escalated when the husband took to exploding the yard to get rid of the “pest”.
We then find out that he suspected it was the hot neighbor in the ground and not a mole or other rodent that does affect the yard and he still chose to explode the yard. Leading to Hen and Eddie making an arrest, which was cool because Eddie got to quote a fun random fact about firefighters. Firefighter’s can make an arrest since they are technically peace officers going back about a hundred years. It’s honestly a very Buck thing to do and I think speaks to his close relationship with Buck, taking on the traits of your partner. It was cute. Eddie also got to ziptie the husband’s hands and that was just a moment I loved for Eddie. This call wasn't so much intense and was more on the comical side. And while I don’t condone cheating, I have to say the wife had some taste in the man she chose to cheat with. He was built better than Buck and Eddie. Hen’s annoyance at being called cap was icing on the cake. I’d even go so far as to put this in my top three calls of the series.
The second call was our serious and emotionally taxing call of the episode. Poor construction of the building hosting a happiness retreat caused a structure collapse inside. A group of retired men on a friend’s trip ended up trapped under some of the concrete. A young man was also buried under the collapsed concrete. Two of the friends made it out fine and medically they went an interesting route having the one man’s leg bone cutting into his friend. But they bickered most of the time and eventually had a nice heart to heart amongst themselves with their third friend. The third friend, Lev, whose idea it was to come was in worse shape. Likely had a lot of internal bleeding. He was the one trying to find meaning or happiness. Lev and Buck share an emotional moment or two. Buck is the one talking to him to keep his attention, keep him awake. Buck, being in a similar quest, was shaken during his speech. He essentially tells Buck that his life has been a forty-year blur of work and family with never enough time. And then work stops and it all comes into focus, what was the point, the point of any of it. Buck again is taking that a little too personal. Like he did with Red. It’s not his future but Buck is in an emotional place right now trying to figure stuff out about himself and what he really wants in life. To hear this man say he had forty years that were essentially a blur and then to hear him question what was the point.
Then it gets worse when Hen has to make a choice, Lev or the young man with a potential punctured lung. Chim says that Lev is likely bleeding out and the slab of concrete is the only thing keeping him alive, so get the kid out first. Hen agrees and so does Lev. He supports getting the kid out first, where is he going, he said. The kid is saved and attention returns to Lev. He has this moment where he says he figured it out, and then he dies. Buck takes this the hardest. It’s never easy for them when someone dies on a call but this one hit Buck harder than usual. He was puzzled as to what he realized and was trying to figure it out the rest of the episode. Buck even asks Hen what it was she thinks Lev realized but Hen smartly says some things need to be figured out for yourself. And I think she’s right. Even if the answer was universal I don't think it’s something that would click until you get there. Someone else telling you won’t have the same impact. Some things may carry over but it is something you probably need to figure out on your own. Not that those close to you can’t give you their thoughts or things they found helpful but the answer is yours to find.
My takeaway from Lev was to appreciate the things in your life. He spent forty years in a blur, not making anything a priority and therefore was left feeling like he had nothing or nothing he could feel strongly connected to. He had a family but maybe wasn't there as much as he could be. And maybe he wasn’t as in love with his job as he’d like to be. Lots of possibilities but I think what he realized was to live in the moment. To not worry about what your missing or you’ll miss out on what you do have worrying about what you think is missing, which is Buck’s current problem. Lev was able to do something for someone else before he died, something selfless. Something maybe he didn't get to do with his actual family. I think he realized what was and wasn’t important. And that’s something Buck needs to find for himself but I think his trying so hard to find the answer is going to blind him to it. Spoiler, I think it’s Eddie and Chris with whom he is also most at ease but that’s for my Buck and Eddie blog.
With the calls out of the way, let’s talk other moments that were just good and enjoyable. My favorite being Buck, Eddie, and Chim dumping popcorn all over Hen. It was cute and had season one and two vibes where there was more lighthearted humor.
Buck and Eddie are bringing some peak comedy together once more, or maybe it’s Eddie but his best humor feeds off of Buck. Hen is sleeping in the firetruck and Buck suggests to maybe do something and Eddie goes, “Get her a pillow?” It’s a small thing, peppered into Hen’s struggling over the course of the episode, but it was great. 9-1-1 knows how to pepper in their comedic moments.
Another small moment was Eddie and Chim trying to cheer up Hen and Buck with breakfast. They share a look, clearly having planned this, and try to casually get them to join in. Neither do but they leave the offer open. I also think this is the first time we have Chim and Eddie hanging out alone, just breakfast somewhere familiar but still. Eddie is usually never alone with anyone but Buck. I wish we could have gotten a scene of Eddie and Chim at breakfast, talking perhaps about Buck and Hen but there’s only so much time in an episode.
Overall, a great episode. Well-rounded with a good balance of emotional moments and the humor I've been missing from the show. I hope we can keep up this good episode energy as the season goes on.
8.3/10 Biscuits
