9-1-1 decided to just throw everything at the wall in the second-to-last hour of the season.
It’s an interesting tactic because, on the one hand, you want the end of the season to go balls-to-the-wall.
But on the other hand, too much can simply be overwhelming.
A consistent element throughout 9-1-1 Season 9 has been the hours fluctuating between highs and lows.
One second you’re laughing, and then the next you’re screaming, crying, throwing up.
9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 17 was very much the same in that respect, with storylines that had these nice and comforting moments of levity, and then switching quickly to something else entirely.
There’s no reason to beat around the bush or avoid starting with the big story, which involved Buck and Theo.
When Buck became a sperm donor during 9-1-1 Season 6, a lot of people figured the story would come back around in some way or another, even if it was basically wrapped up in a bow by the season’s end.
Buck helped deliver the baby, and Connor and Kameron were then reunited, completing their family.
The arc ended nicely, and even though we saw Buck experience moments during the decision-making process and during the pregnancy, examining what his potential role in the child’s life could be, he seemed to make peace with everything.
Considering we haven’t heard anything about Connor and Kameron since then, it felt safe to assume that would be the end of that story. At least I thought so.
And boy was I wrong.
Theo may be the cutest little boy ever, but he wasn’t interested in following any directions at daycare, so, in essence, he was behaving like a 4-year-old.
I’m kind of glad the show chose not to showcase a child climbing up a transmission tower because not only does it seem wildly impossible for a child to do, but no one should be getting any ideas.
Buck is often the one sent up the ladder for rescues like this (who will ever forget the lightning strike heard round the world?), but Chimney sent him up for this one partly because of the charming golden retriever energy he often exudes.
It’s sometimes said that Buck is a big kid himself, and while some may see that as a slight, like he’s immature or irresponsible, I don’t necessarily see it that way.
Buck’s kind, caring, thoughtful, and a lot of things that young kids can be.
Once he helped Theo down, he bonded with him right away, and the cutest scenes of the hour were watching the two of them bounce around the firehouse with the same boundless energy.
It was a small thing, but the whole daycare not even noticing Theo was missing and then it taking Connor and Kameron seemingly a while to come get their son, who was inches away from a power line, was a lot. But it was all done so we could get the big moment when Connor and Kameron came rushing into the firehouse.
I never thought much about whether Buck kept in touch with the pair, but he made a decision he felt worked best for him by stepping back from the family, and that was his right.
These kinds of cases are not black-and-white, especially when the donor has a relationship with the person or persons to whom he’s donating.
Connor and Kameron didn’t seem to have any negative feelings about that decision, but it was rather interesting that the moment they made contact with him, they immediately wanted to meet up again.
And it’s not as if the meet-up was truly just a catch-up session. They came with a whole agenda, and it makes you wonder if they’d been wanting to do this for ages, but respected Buck’s boundaries.
Then this completely out-of-left-field opportunity presented itself, and they just couldn’t stop themselves from seeking out his help.
Buck is too kind, because while I could slightly understand that Connor and Kameron were just looking for answers about their son, their approach was a little confounding.
It almost felt like they were trying to get Buck to diagnose Theo himself or to have him rehash his entire life story, so they could make sense of their child through him. But a parent’s past isn’t a blueprint.
Part of Buck Begins also showed us that, while Buck can be impulsive, many of those brushes with danger were about him seeking attention from his absentee parents more than about his need to act recklessly.
All the conversation seemed to do was push Buck into thinking he had somehow messed up Theo’s life just by simply being his biological father, which didn’t feel fair.
I hate to bring up Bobby, truly. And I have placed Captain Chimney into a totally different part of my brain, to the point where I try hard not to think of what Bobby would have done in the situations that Chimney finds himself in.
But that talk between Chimney and Buck was so Bobby and Buck coded.
He was second-guessing his entire existence, and he needed someone in that moment to validate his fears, not make him feel silly for having them, and to acknowledge the beauty that is Buck.
Sure, he runs into burning buildings for a living to save people, and he’s as admirable a man as there is. But Buck’s heart is one of a kind.
He’s not a perfect person, but no one is. He’s admirable and compassionate, and anyone would be lucky to call Buck their dad.
Of course, all that cuteness was going to go to hell pretty quickly because it’s 9-1-1, but it was downright dark to reintroduce Buck to his old friends and have him meet Theo as a precocious young child, to then kill his parents expeditiously.
Oliver Stark is always so good at emoting, and the way his face dropped when he realized why Eddie was holding him back was heartbreaking.
Side note: I loved that it was Eddie who was trying to keep Buck from moving forward, as his best friend and someone who’s gone through a painful ordeal while on the clock; it just felt like it needed to be him in that moment.
It was probably naïve to think Buck would forge a relationship with Theo, with his parents’ blessings, of course, when it was apparently destined to reach a point where the narrative could drop a baby on Buck’s doorstep. But there were so many ways to give Buck a child if they had to go there. So, why this way?
Deidra, entering the story as the only social worker in Los Angeles, would lead you to believe she’ll try to place Theo somewhere because he has no next of kin, and Buck will then step in to take him.
In real life, it would likely not play out nearly as neatly and tidily as it will here, but I think it’s safe to assume Buck’s going to end up with Theo permanently. And I’m sure there will be a lot of thoughts about this.
Ignoring how it all comes to be, and just taking the storyline at face value, Buck having a child is an intriguing place for him to go at this point in his life.
This season has established Buck as settled and very much unlike the Buck of 9-1-1 Season 1. He turned down the throuple, and he worried that people wouldn’t like the new version of himself as much as he did.
Now, he’s going to be a father in a way that was planned, but something he’ll enter into with his eyes wide open and his heart full.
I’m fascinated by this new development and the other avenues it opens for Buck’s story moving forward, even if I dislike how it came about, because it’s truly a shame that Theo’s parents had to be killed off to make it happen.
Storylines like Buck balancing work and life as a single dad and potentially dating at some point, alongside navigating Theo’s adjustment to his new reality, will be compelling arcs Buck for Buck to tackle.
It’s a good thing he has a very close relationship with a fellow firefighter who has experience with all of these things.
Speaking of Eddie, he and Hen stepped in to help out the migrants who were still hospitalized following the events of 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 16.
Considering Detective Hooks made that shady phone call at the end of the hour, it was only a matter of time before something went wrong. And that wrongness came in the form of ICE forcibly taking the migrants out of the hospital.
This storyline is very relevant to today’s society, and 9-1-1 has never shied away from showcasing topics that reflect the times we live in.
I absolutely hated watching the migrants be ripped out of the hospital, knowing they were basically going to be imprisoned, when it was not supposed to go that way.
I was glad to see Gabi back, if only briefly, because if there was ever a time for the best of the best in law to show up, the time was now.
But much like in real life, even the best can’t always get things done when you’re stonewalled at every turn.
Hooks was supposed to help them in the aftermath of their rescue, but he did nothing, prompting Athena to step in and do his job better than he did.
Though it wasn’t really about her doing the job better, so much as it was her doing the job at all when he was so clearly working for the Russians or in cahoots with someone or something that had a connection to them.
Even though it was obvious that Hooks was dirty, I must say, his little speech to Athena, where he basically tried to pretty himself up to be a good guy, had me for like 5 seconds before I remembered that he already screwed Athena over once, and he could not be trusted.
His inviting her along to the big takedown felt odd, and even though I don’t think there is a universe where this show kills off Angela Bassett, I was supremely worried for Athena being added to a big raid like this at the last second.
The scene was very much giving Scarface, except that at least in that movie, we had 2 hours to get to know every facet of Tony Montana, so we were heavily invested in his fate.
Nicolai Castor and his son are nothing but bad guys, but we don’t know them, and their capture or killing was necessary, but the only thing I cared about was ensuring Athena made it out of that mansion alive.
And that’s something we don’t know after Hooks shot her.
Again, 9-1-1 would never let Athena go out like that, but it’s still a sick and twisted cliffhanger!
When the finale starts with her gasping for air because the bullet hit her bulletproof vest, and then Hooks goes sprinting off before she can brand him a killer, I will smile victoriously because I know she’s going to make that man pay eventually.
As if everything with Buck and everything with the migrants, Hooks, and Athena wasn’t enough, there was also a side plot about Maddie and dispatch that, at one point, made me physically ill.
It’s interesting that I wanted the series to explore the changes that would inevitably come to the firehouse with Chimney ascending from co-worker to boss, but they chose to give the storyline to Maddie instead.
You could have the coolest boss in the entire world, but at the end of the day, they’re still your boss. They’re still the one who has to have the hard conversations with you, will fill out your performance evaluation, and help decide whether or not you get a raise.
When your boss is someone who used to work alongside you in the same role, there will be a shift, whether subtle or massive, because the workplace dynamics will change so drastically.
Maddie didn’t want to think she could be cut out of her work friend group so easily, but it didn’t sound like a personal slight so much as them choosing to have a carefree night with co-workers away from leadership.
But even knowing that it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with your title doesn’t make it any easier to digest.
Maddie trying to essentially buy them back made me sad for her, because everyone still loves her there, lunch or no lunch, but maybe she needed a massive food poisoning incident for her to see that trying to force herself back into the dynamic wasn’t necessary.
Even though we got this storyline with Maddie, I’m still hopeful 9-1-1 Season 10 will give us something similar-ish with Chimney and the 118, because there is no way you become the Captain of a whole firehouse, working alongside everyone as a peer for years, and NOTHING changes.
We’re in the business of realism around here, right?
Loose Ends
- The graphic vomiting at dispatch was NOT necessary. We got it the first time! It was almost like I could smell the nastiness through the screen.
- Detective Athena has to be coming, right? When she inevitably brings down Hooks, someone is going to see that her talents could be served even better as a detective. And then maybe that’s how we get more Romero next season!
- I’m SO glad they added that joke about the worker at the jump club admonishing them for saying ‘sperm’ so many times, because truly, why WERE they saying it so much?
- How did that balloon not pop?
- I love these little moments that used to be Ravi moments, but are now Harry’s, as he’s having to get caught up on the 118 lore.
Only one episode left this season!
This one was BUSY, and I’m sure you guys have a lot of thoughts. Please leave all your comments below so we can discuss!
You can watch 9-1-1 on Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.
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