Oh, it’s good to be back with the 118.
9-1-1 Season 5 Episode 11 starts the second half of an uneven 9-1-1 season 5 and it’s a decent starting spot. We have a time jump, some new dynamics to explore, and on the whole, this hour is not terrible of the imagination.
But that raises the question, with only seven episodes left, how exactly are we heading this season?
The basis of this whole hour is that everyone is going to get something. Maddie and Chim are still gone, and Eddie’s abrupt termination at the end of 9-1-1 season 5, episode 10, leaves the 118 two people.
It’s understandable why Bobby would hold out as long as he could, to fill the two seats, because Chimney and Eddie are irreplaceable. You can fill them out, but you never will, and even though everyone knows it, there’s still the point where you need to move on.
But what does that really mean? Can you ever really move on from something as deep as the 118s had with each other?
Bobby, Hen and Buck all fight in their own way, with Hen especially holding anyone who steps in for Chimney at arm’s length. But at this point, Chim has been gone for a long time, and the reality of the situation requires acceptance rather than defiance.
The new guy seems nice enough, if not the exact opposite of Chimney. He’s much less silly and he lacks Chimney’s overall charisma, but he’s competent and he and Hen work well together. Honestly, Hen could work well with anyone, but things will be better for everyone if she can at least accept Jonah.
They never become best friends, but they could be reliable colleagues.
118 is a family, and families are expanding and changing. That does not mean it will be easy, but everyone should at least give it a try.
Eddie’s replacement comes in the form of Lucy, whom we meet when she flies up through the air and effortlessly channels her inner Keanu Reeves. She seems to have a bit of a daredevil, and she’s obviously meant to be the female version of Buck from the start.
It would be good if she was set up to be his work partner and thought of as a different kind of partner than Eddie. Where Buck is noisy, Eddie is milder, but they have developed a partnership that allows them to exist without words. They work together and are a true team, even though their personalities are not completely synchronized.
Buck and Lucy could have been two sides of the same coin who found a good balance when they were forced to work with a different version of themselves.
But no. We can not get that. Why should we get it?
Buck does not need a friend! Of course not! Buck needs another love interest!
Listen, I’ve said Buck and Taylor are a terrible match. Not only is there no chemistry, but nothing about their relationship has felt deserved because it was so neglected. Who are they as a couple? We do not have a single clue.
They hit the milestones of these relationships, and the results are often so eerie because we have no idea how they got there.
But if the solution to breaking the two was to get Buck to cheat and jump into another relationship, then the series took it completely wrong.
And even though at times he still struggles with a wide variety of issues, one thing Buck is not is cruel. But here we get him to kiss Lucy and then double his relationship with Taylor to alleviate his guilt.
Really?
Nothing about this story is appealing and I say it without any sender glasses on my face. Because this is not about shipping, it’s about characterization.
Buck: Okay, you make me sick. I need you to choose side.
Hen: Honesty. Honesty is the best policy. It is also the easiest to remember.
This notion that Buck might settle for Taylor when his heart is not quite with, I can buy. He cares about Taylor, but in no way, shape or form does this feel like a couple meant for the long term. And if they intended that Lucy’s introduction should spur that realization, then okay.
But that’s not what they’re doing here.
Nothing about this feels right for Buck, and the last thing he needs is to be in a love triangle. Nor do we need him to end his relationship with Taylor just to jump into another one with someone exactly like him. It feels like they took all of Buck’s character development and threw it away for a love triangle that exactly zero people would have.
And all this is not to say anything about Lucy being his new work partner, besides being a romantic interest. Because we needed the extra drama on top of everything else, right?
Can Eddie just come back already?
Buck, you have to move on. I have.
Eddie
So no. No, he can not because Eddie is FIGHTING.
One thing 9-1-1 often does is erase traumas because they simply do not give themselves enough time to get into the naked attire of trauma therapy. You may get a session or two on screen, but that’s it.
Playing the ‘who’s had it worse’ game with the characters is silly because they’ve all been through it. But especially Eddie comes off with a hard trauma after being shot, and so is Christopher.
It’s perfectly normal for Christopher to be afraid that he might lose another parent because he already did! And that Eddie chooses to step away from 118, even though it’s a hasty decision, does not feel like it’s wrong.
Of course, Eddie could be hit by a bus while out on a morning jog. But the chances of something happening to him increase exponentially every time he is at work, and that’s scary.
But clearly, this hour proves that Eddie has more going on than just missing the firehouse. In time, he becomes a shell of himself. He looks awful and there’s a cold in his eyes that I can not remember seeing with Eddie, even after Shannon died.
As he walks into the bar and sees his friends laughing and continuing after a hard day at work, he looks lost. Firefighting is not his whole life, but it’s a big part. And being away from it and forced to sit in an office all day and fight the dreaded copier has taken his joy and given him time to think.
And no matter what he thinks about keeping him awake at night, it’s not good because Eddie is about to lose it.
Bobby has ever been the wise captain, and knows a cry for help when he sees one. And until Eddie gets some color back in his cheeks, he has nothing to do with being in a high-pressure job like firefighting.
What he said to Bobby was out of line and harsh and born from a place of anger that something else was out of his control, but he is lucky that Bobby has a good heart and will forgive him because it is such a man he is. I hope so at least, because he would be within his rights to cut Eddie out.
Eddie needs help in the worst way, and if he pushes Bobby away, he might want to let someone else in. Hint, hint Buck! Because they’re supposed to be best friends, and we have not seen near enough of that relationship this season.
The man literally left Buck his son in case something should happen to him. And if we do not get some kind of scene between the two who confide and help each other, it will be a serious failure of epic proportions.
I know the beginning of this season suffered from an abundance of melodrama, and although there was all sorts of drama here, this round felt more reminiscent of the old 9-1-1. The rescues were daring, and the stories introduced here are intriguing, though I’m extremely disappointed with where things seem to go with Buck.
But is the 9-1-1 we all fell in love with, back, guys? After an hour, the jury is still out.
Loose ends
- It’s been a minute since I saw Speed, but they played the music from Speed during that bombing sequence, right?
- The initial quinceanera rescue was nothing to write home about, but the bomb rescue was excellent and these rescues are vintage 9-1-1. Although the neighbor hamster is a pipe bomb expert, came out of nowhere.
- The montage of Eddie, who slowly lost his mind over the monotonous life, which is the typical 9-5, was very well done. You could feel Eddie slowly slip away.
- When will we get Chimney and Maddie back? That’s 87 years ago.
- I miss Buck and Eddie and Chimney and Hen together, but Buck and Hen together are a very underrated duo!
- Eddie should not have hijacked a 911 call because he is not a coordinator. And if he had made a mistake, it could have caused significant problems. But Josh was a little harsh on him. Granted, he does not know Eddie is going through it, but still it felt very hard.
- It’s a shame we did not get more of that dinner with Eddie, Buck, Taylor and Christopher, because I just know it was awkward.
Despite my continuing concerns, I missed 9-1-1 significantly! It was good to be back with the family again and I’m excited to hear what you thought of the episode!
Throw all your comments below and make sure to watch 9-1-1 online so you can join the conversation!
Whitney Evans is an employee writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.