Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 17.After last week’s lackluster funeral episode for Bobby Nash (Peter Krause), I was feeling particularly wary about where the last two episodes of Season 8 of 9-1-1 would go, especially with the knowledge that they’d consist of another two-part emergency. The penultimate episode of the season, “Don’t Drink the Water,” is a significant improvement from “The Last Alarm.” We get a sweet Bobby flashback, some moments of humor that feel like the old 9-1-1, and more of a focus on Buck (Oliver Stark), Eddie (Ryan Guzman), and Hen’s (Aisha Hinds) grief.
Here’s the thing, though: Bobby was never the only thing I loved about 9-1-1, but in his absence, everything I love about the show is taking a hit. The comedy feels out of place, the characters are turning on each other in their grief, and, to rub salt in the wound, even Buddie’s dynamic is completely off. At this point, I’m not expecting all of 9-1-1’s problems to get fixed next week, but hopefully the post-season hiatus will give 9-1-1 time to regroup and get back on track.
The Main Theme in ‘9-1-1’ Season 8, Episode 17 Is Accepting Change, but That’s Easier Said Than Done

This week’s episode of 9-1-1 puts a significant focus on Buck’s grief over Bobby’s death. He can’t stop thinking about Bobby, and we see him sitting at the empty table in the firehouse, remembering Ravi’s (Anirudh Pisharody) first meal with the 118. He later goes to confession and talks to Father Brian (Gavin Stenhouse) to try to feel close to Bobby. Buck tells Father Brian that he can’t feel Bobby (which I might have taken as a sign last week that Bobby was still alive, but which I now think is just a reflection on grief), and then Buck speaks to Bobby. Buck reveals that he’s trying so hard to keep everyone together, but that they’re all pulling apart from each other, which is the main point of conflict in 9-1-1 right now. He asks for a sign from Bobby, and believes he gets one in the form of a literal earthquake.
Separately, Eddie worries about Buck to Hen and Karen (Tracie Thoms), especially when it comes to the topic of telling Buck that he’s gotten a job at the firehouse in El Paso (which I thought was very odd, because it’s as if the captain has only hired Eddie now that his old captain that he might leave for has died). At this point, Eddie is comfortable and happy being back in LA, and Christopher (Gavin McHugh) even visits later in this episode (but couldn’t make it for the funeral for some reasons), so it just feels exhausting that 9-1-1 is drawing out Eddie being in Texas.
The two-part emergency starts, and the 118 tends to a patient and dentist who are affected by a fire caused by the methane in the water. This patient, Lorna (Phoebe Neidhardt), is actually someone they treated a while back when her skin turned blue, and that’s one of multiple callbacks in this episode (another being Bobby’s mention of the prenatal yoga emergency and the tapeworm in the flashback). Athena (Angela Bassett), too, is responding to calls, although hers are much more low-stakes. She’s likely just compartmentalizing her grief, but Athena acts very differently in this episode from the last one. She jokes around with May (Corinne Massiah) and Harry (Elijah M. Cooper), pours herself into the renovations on the house, and is officially back to work.
She ends up dealing with the cart cop, Graham (Sam Roach), again, when he’s policing the washing machines in his apartment building. This episode really just seems to contradict itself: on the one hand, the characters are telling each other to become comfortable with change, in Athena’s advice to Graham, and later, in Pepa’s (Terri Hoyos) advice to Buck. On the other hand, these are objectively bad changes for both the characters and the show. One change that I would like to see is Hen deciding that she does want to be captain, but I think she’s already made up her mind.
‘9-1-1’ Season 8, Episode 17 Gives Buddie More Focus, but It Still Doesn’t Feel Right

Image via ABC

I want to start the Buddie discussion by saying that I don’t need Buck and Eddie to get along all the time. In fact, the two major fights that they have had – both about the lawsuit in Season 3, and most recently, about Eddie’s move – are some of my favorite moments of theirs. They are full of angst and underlying feelings, and they are surprisingly hilarious. This fight is not that. Here, Buck and Eddie are acting very much like a married couple, but an unhappy one. Buck comes home with groceries even though Eddie said that he would buy them, and then he reveals that he heard about Eddie’s job offer. From there, the two essentially escalate to competing with each other about whose grief is worse.
There’s a way this fight could have felt like them, with Buck scared of Eddie leaving, and Eddie scared to admit how much he wants to stay. Instead, they are uncharacteristically cruel to each other about Bobby’s death. 9-1-1 mostly makes up for this later: Eddie goes out of his way to support Buck, by bringing Christopher and Pepa to his house for dinner. It’s incredibly sweet, and Pepa gives Buck some great advice in the kitchen while Eddie and Christopher separately catch up. Ultimately, though, that out-of-character fight has just left me with a sour taste in my mouth, and I hope they properly talk things out next week.
‘9-1-1′ Season 8, Episode 17 Continues To Leave Me Baffled About This Show

Image via ABC

This week’s episode of 9-1-1 is the best that we’ve had since Bobby died, but it’s still not the 9-1-1 that I fell in love with. Buck is right about everyone pulling away from each other in the wake of Bobby’s death. Not only are Buck and Eddie harsh with each other this week, but Athena is avoiding Chimney. I would have understood if she were still mad at him about rushing the return of the body, but she resents Chimney for being alive in Bobby’s place. This is certainly realistic, but it makes me feel especially sad, and I don’t like that the only real sign of Athena’s grief in this episode is her misplaced anger towards Chimney.
This episode at least balances between the big disaster and the character-heavy moments more than I expected. There is still the firewater situation that dispatch and the 118 have to deal with, but in their personal lives, everyone continues to struggle in the wake of Bobby’s death. Now, as of the end of this episode, the firewater situation seems to have been resolved after the 118 tended to a fire at a recycling plant, and the methane is apparently clearing out of the water. There is a new disaster at the end in the form of an exploding building, which is likely related to the methane, and which I expect will take up much of next week’s episode.
I just can’t get over how different these last two episodes have felt. The funny and more traditionally 9-1-1 moments feel so out of sync with the post-Bobby version of the show, and I felt thrown off every time the show attempted it. The moments of grief are much better than last week’s episode, but I don’t like seeing the 118 found family so fractured in Bobby’s absence. Even if it’s considered “realistic,” it is just not what I want from 9-1-1. As we head into the Season 8 finale, in a perfect world, 9-1-1 would retcon Bobby’s death and reveal that he’s still alive. Thinking more practically, next week will probably be much more focused on the emergency than on the characters’ feelings.
Best case scenario, we will see the characters moving back together after Bobby’s death, and we’ll get some sort of reconciliation between Athena and Chimney. I also think it’s realistic to hope for Eddie and Christopher to move back by the end of the season. I don’t think that Hen will change her mind about becoming captain, but I can’t think of anyone I would want to take her place, except for the probably-unwilling Chimney. Ultimately, even the likely bittersweet ending that we will get at the end of this season isn’t enough for me. After having 9-1-1 with Bobby, the show has a lot of work to do to fill the gap he leaves.
The Season 8 finale of 9-1-1 will air next Thursday on ABC, and will available to stream the next day on Hulu.

9-1-1

Release Date

January 3, 2018

Network

ABC, FOX

Showrunner

Tim Minear

Directors

Bradley Buecker, David Grossman, Brenna Malloy, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Jann Turner, Jennifer Lynch, Marita Grabiak, Sarah Boyd, John J. Gray, Barbara Brown, Robert M. Williams Jr., Kristen Reidel, Marcus Stokes, Tasha Smith, Millicent Shelton, Juan Carlos Coto, John Gray, Greg Sirota, Alonso Alvarez, James Wong, Kevin Hooks, Varda Bar-Kar, Shauna Duggins, Sharat Raju

Writers

Tim Minear, Andrew Meyers, Brad Falchuk, David Fury, Ryan Murphy, Christopher Monfette, Nadia Abass-Madden, Nicole Barraza Keim, Erica L. Anderson, Matthew Hodgson, Stacey R. Rose, Taylor Wong, Tonya Kong, Adam Penn

Pros & Cons

‘9-1-1’ explores more of Buck, Eddie, and Hen’s grief.

Aside from essentially cutting Chimney off, Athena’s grief has almost completely been dropped in this episode.
Buck and Eddie are being uncharacteristically cruel to each other in their grief.
‘9-1-1’s return to structure confirms that it will never feel the same again without Bobby.