9-1-1 Recap: Family Feud

When I said last week that I had faith in the writers to wrap up the rest of this season, I knew I was once again dooming myself to a backslide. It makes sense that the fallout from Bobby’s death would be ongoing, and I again commend 9-1-1 for not rushing closure. At the same time, the drawn-out dénouement makes for a wildly scattered penultimate episode, which tries to combine everyone’s lingering trauma with a high-stakes citywide emergency and some awkward comedic beats. Even a potentially powerful opening scene — we see Buck’s memory of a family dinner at the firehouse led by Bobby, then cut to him sitting at the table alone — is undercut by the fact that we started with a flashback featuring Bobby last week, and we’ve frankly seen more of him than I expected postmortem. The scene does hit on a key theme of “Don’t Drink the Water” that these characters are all family and they’re falling apart without their center, but even that ends up being a little inconsistent.

Buck seems to think that he’s spinning out on his own, but everyone is well aware of his struggle to move past Bobby’s death. While Eddie has finally been offered a job with the El Paso Fire Department, he hasn’t yet left L.A., as Hen and Karen can’t help but notice. It seems like that’s at least in part because he’s worried about Buck — though it’s also somewhat telling that Eddie’s still referring to L.A. as home. Buck, meanwhile, is looking for answers wherever he can find them, and that leads him right back to Hot Priest, a.k.a. Brian, whom we last saw in “Confessions” (and who I failed to note at the time was Bobby’s confidante in the show’s first two seasons). Buck says he’s trying to feel Bobby’s presence and can’t, which is something he’d ask Bobby’s advice about if the captain were still around. Brian says Buck can still talk to him, which leads to Buck breaking down. “You were wrong,” he says to Bobby. “You said I’d be okay, and I’m not.” What he needs from his former captain is a sign — and he sort of gets one in the form of a 2.8 earthquake in North Hollywood.

As far as signs go, it’s pretty well timed, but it has the unfortunate consequence of causing a crack in L.A.’s Headworks Reservoir, through which something not ideal is bubbling into the water. (I find it hard to believe a 2.8 would do that much damage in an earthquake-proofed city.) We see the results of that in the first emergency of the week, a woman named Lorna who starts breathing fire right into her dentist’s face during a root canal. You may remember Lorna as the woman who turned blue from taking too much benzocaine in the season-three Christmas episode — based on actual events, incidentally! — and I’m not entirely sure why they brought her back, except perhaps to emphasize that some people have really bad dental luck. The dentist gets treated for his burns, and Hen is able to cut the melted bite guard out of Lorna’s mouth. The tooth ends up coming with it, which at least spares her from having to go through the root canal. Also, and this feels pretty pressing, the water is flammable, though to be fair, the cause is not yet clear.

Before we can deal with the (again, urgent!) water issue, we have a major Buck and Eddie fight, my least favorite scene in the episode. I don’t say that because I’m precious about characters fighting — conflict is generally a good thing! — but because it feels so unearned. Buck is upset that Eddie didn’t tell him about the job in El Paso, asking if Eddie doesn’t think he’d be happy for him. “I know you wouldn’t be,” Eddie answers. “You’d make it all about you. The trials and tribulations of Evan Buckley, a tragedy in 97 acts.” Huh? Buck was indeed a selfish dick before Eddie left, but they hashed it out, and it’s Buck who supported Eddie and encouraged him to stay in Texas with Christopher. Eddie also takes offense to the fact that Buck hasn’t properly checked in on him about getting the phone call that Bobby had died, and while I’m sure that was really hard, it does pale in comparison to the horrors that Buck endured in that lab! When Eddie says he can’t know if he would have been able to save Bobby if he’d been there, Buck asks if he doesn’t think Buck did everything he could. Eddie says he doesn’t know because he wasn’t there. The whole thing comes off as remarkably cruel, especially in the context of the Fast and Furious–coded family theme. Families fight, yes, but there’s a mean streak here that feels misplaced.

Meanwhile, the water issue is finally explained as the result of the earthquake upsetting an underground gas pocket beneath the reservoir. Methane in the water can have explosive consequences, so L.A. residents are advised not to drink or boil their tap. This is an enormous crisis affecting millions of people, and it does not seem like anyone is taking it seriously enough. I get that it’s a silly emergency, in the sense that water is catching fire and blowing up, but it kind of seems like the 118 should be doing more. They do have to deal with one water-related call, as a woman named Erin tries to light candles for her bath and ends up setting the entire bathroom on fire. From 911 dispatch, Maddie coaches her on how to breathe air from the septic system (I’d rather suffocate, sorry) before Buck descends through the skylight to rescue her.

This is primarily an episode about the fracture in the family, though, so the bathtub fire is far less important than what’s happening over at Hen and Karen’s. Athena is visiting with Hen, who is debating accepting a promotion to be captain of the 118. (Please take the job. We can’t let it fall into Gerrard’s lap.) When Chimney returns with the kids, Athena abruptly leaves, refusing to acknowledge him. We obviously saw tension between them in last week’s episode, but I was surprised to learn she had cut him out completely. Karen later heads to Athena’s to try to talk her into repairing the relationship, in part because the strife is really getting to Hen. Athena knows Bobby’s death is not Chim’s fault, but she can’t look at him without seeing what she lost, and Chimney can’t look at Athena without feeling the guilt of surviving in the place of her husband. Athena says the best course of action is to keep her distance and get to a place of being professional colleagues, which sounds like when Real Housewives talk about wanting to be cordial with someone they can’t stand. Karen tries to tug on Athena’s heartstrings by giving her a framed photo from her and Bobby’s wedding. Those aren’t co-workers, she reminds Athena — they’re family.

Speaking of family, Eddie has, to his credit, realized he was being the worst (I still would have appreciated a real apology), so he brings Christopher and his aunt Pepa to Buck’s for a healing meal. Pepa is honestly much more supportive than her nephew in her one-on-one conversation with Buck. “Your captain was a good man,” she says. “You must miss him.” Buck explains that without Bobby at the core of the group, the gravity is off. He’s right that everyone is drifting apart, and I think there could have been a way to explore that idea in a more cohesive way. (Maybe without the flaming water. What do I know?) I didn’t love this scene either, though — Pepa is a character we haven’t seen enough of in recent years for it to really land, and comparing her stroke recovery to Buck’s grief over Bobby felt a little forced. At the same time, if generalities like “life is change, cariño” are what Buck needs to hear, I support it.

Here’s where I would talk about the episode’s massive recycling-center fire, but there’s not much to say aside from the fact that the 118 joins forces with several other firehouses to connect a bunch of hoses together so that they can put it out with non-methane water. It’s more important to take a moment to touch on Graham, the artist formerly known as Cart Cop, who reappears for the first time since the mid-season finale. Graham has brought his war against shirkers to his apartment building, where he takes out clothes that have been sitting in the washing machine for too long and puts them in the lost and found. (I don’t approve of his methods, but he’s completely right about this.) Athena is called in to repeatedly defuse the situation, though I think Graham’s actual purpose here is to remind her of the importance of embracing change. Or maybe it’s just a way to raise the stakes in the season finale: The episode ends on a cliffhanger when Graham’s building explodes and starts to collapse as Athena watches helplessly from her cruiser outside.

Call Log

• I’m fascinated by the decision to bring back so many bit characters. Were Lorna and Cart Cop people we needed to check in on? I’m not unhappy to see them, but their presence does contribute to the episode feeling all over the place.

• The uneven tone doesn’t help either. 9-1-1 has always done a great job of balancing life-threatening disasters with humor. Here, however, the goofy moments don’t quite mesh with the heaviness of the themes, especially in the immediate wake of Bobby’s death.

• I would like to see the Grove’s fountain show with an added fire element, though.

• Hen deciding not to become captain seems like the right choice for her, but I do hope she has some sort of expanded leadership role next season. Even if she’s not captain of the 118, she can still be the person who holds them all together.

• Who is going to be captain now? While Gerrard made it clear he was only serving in a temporary capacity, I’m nervous about his satisfaction forms. Is he looking for a more permanent appointment?