Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 11.After the heaviness of Maddie’s (Jennifer Love Hewitt) storyline in the past two episodes of 9-1-1, it is a relief that this week’s episode picks up a few weeks after Amber Braeburn (Abigail Spencer) almost killed her. Maddie is a little further along in her pregnancy now, and her throat injury has since scarred over. Additionally, the construction is really coming along on Bobby (Peter Krause) and Athena’s (Angela Bassett) new house, and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) is now officially back in Texas.
Although it’s sad to have an episode without Eddie, his absence hangs over the whole installment. Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) is back with the 118, but Bobby can’t stop mistakenly calling the poor guy “Eddie.” Meanwhile, Buck (Oliver Stark) feels the loss of Eddie very strongly, especially now that he’s living in his house. Buck’s way of dealing with this is spending his nights at Maddie and Chimney’s (Kenneth Choi) house, but hey, at least he comes bearing baked goods. And, as Maddie points out, she still feels unsafe after what happened with Amber, so it’s comforting for her to have both Buck and Chimney there. Meanwhile, both of the emergencies that the 118 tend to this week tie back to Bobby’s family, as he runs into his mother, Ann (Lesley Ann Warren), and brother, Charlie (Sean O’Bryan), for the first time in decades.
Bobby Reunites With His Mother and Brother in ‘9-1-1’ Season 8, Episode 11

The introduction of Bobby’s mother, a megachurch preacher named Ann Hutchinson, opens like any typical call would, with a scene to show the events leading up to the emergency. Ann gives a sermon and then “heals” a hopeful woman named Greta’s (Adriana Sevan) bursitis in front of the entire church, as assisted by her son, Charlie. Then, Ann prepares to heal a skeptical man named Rodney’s (A.J. Tannen) gout, but he starts shaking and then passes out. Suddenly, the entire church is afflicted with his condition, as they all start passing out in waves. It turns out that the church is using a gas generator that gives everybody carbon monoxide poisoning – except for Ann and Charlie, who conveniently get out at the right time.
After the 118 helps everybody, which includes encouraging Greta to get down from the roof with some surprising assistance from Ann, Bobby runs into Ann outside in an overly polite and uncomfortable interaction. She says that he looks well, and he returns the statement, calling her by her first name. Bobby then tells Chimney, Hen (Aisha Hinds), and Buck that Ann is his mother. This is news to Athena as well, who, the next day, reveals that she always assumed that Bobby’s mother was dead. It would be unbelievable that Bobby hadn’t mentioned this to her before now, but after seeing what Bobby’s childhood was like in last season’s flashback episode, “Step Nine,” it makes sense that he would compartmentalize to such a severe degree. Bobby reveals that the last time he saw his mom was right before his wedding to Marcy (Laura Allen), when they had a fight, and he decided not to invite her. Athena encourages Bobby to mend fences with Ann now, but he is resistant to the idea.
Charlie goes to visit Bobby at the firehouse, and he tells Bobby that Ann wants to see him, before then inviting Bobby and Athena to lunch. The meeting turns out to be an absolute disaster, though, and they don’t even make it to lunch. Ann cruelly throws the apartment fire in Bobby’s face, and Bobby gets defensive when she criticizes his father (John Brotherton). Bobby then expresses his anger at Ann for leaving his father, and for the pressure that he felt to take care of his father as a child. It’s then revealed that Ann didn’t invite them to lunch and that Charlie arranged the whole thing. Bobby calls Ann a fraud, and then he leaves, followed by Athena.
Buck Tries To Fill the Void of Eddie’s Absence

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After Buck spends yet another night at Maddie’s house, she says that he will have to spend the night in his new place eventually, and then she suggests that he start making new friends. Buck tells her that everywhere he looks in the house reminds him that Eddie is gone, but as it turns out, this is true even outside of the house. Buck sets his sights on Ravi as a new best friend, but he comes on way too strong, which makes Ravi think that he’s pranking him. When Ravi says that this is coming very late, Buck says that it took him a while to warm up to Eddie… “almost a whole shift.” Buck can’t help but bring up Eddie’s hobbies as suggestions for things to do together, and then when he finally goes out for drinks with Ravi, he will not stop talking about Eddie. The most over-the-top example of this is when Buck tells Ravi, “Eddie would never do something illegal; Eddie has a Silver Star.”
Ravi becomes fed up with Buck constantly talking about Eddie, pushing him to take shots, and beating him at quarters. Ravi then spots Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) at the bar, and he not-so-subtly uses the opportunity to pawn Buck off on Tommy. The first interaction since their breakup is awkward; Buck immediately starts rambling about Maddie’s abduction and her pregnancy, and, of course, Tommy doesn’t care enough to ask follow-up questions. He asks about the 118 and is surprised to learn that Eddie has moved back to Texas because the ever-loyal Eddie stopped speaking to him after he dumped Buck. As soon as Tommy learns that Eddie is gone, he tells Buck that he’s been wanting to call him for months, and then they hook up… in Eddie’s bedroom.
Tommy Addresses the “Buddie” Elephant in the Room

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The morning after his hookup with Tommy, Buck wakes up to find Tommy cooking a massive breakfast for him. Tommy has completely changed his tune; he now dotes on Buck and is even ready to get back together. When Buck is confused about why Tommy is suddenly not scared that Buck is going to break his heart anymore, Tommy hits Buck with a massive bombshell that actually changes everything, and that has been a long time coming. Tommy tells Buck that he’s not worried about it as much anymore, “now that the competition’s out of the way,” referring, of course, to Eddie.
Buck’s arguments against Tommy’s suggestion about him and Eddie are… interesting. When Tommy points out that Buck is living in Eddie’s house, Buck says that Eddie was actually renting it. Plus, Buck says that Eddie is straight, to which a disbelieving and surprisingly perceptive Tommy actually scoffs. Then, Buck shoots himself in the foot when he says that he doesn’t have to want to sleep with everyone he has feelings for, and that he doesn’t have to have feelings for everyone he sleeps with. Tommy doesn’t react well to Buck’s accidental confession of his feelings for Eddie or to his implication that their hookup meant nothing, and he leaves. Although Buck feels a little guilty, he doesn’t end up patching things up with Tommy, and this seems to mark the closing of the door on their relationship for good.
That night, Buck ends up at Maddie’s house, baking banana bread muffins for Jee-Yun (Bailey and Hailey Leung) and telling Maddie all about his conversation with Tommy. Buck reflects on what he thinks is a strange correlation: Tommy’s idea that Buck living in Eddie’s old house means that he’s in love with him. To this, Maddie asks the million-dollar question: “Are you?” And denial, thy name is Buck, because he insists that he isn’t. Of course, the gentleman doth protest too much, by saying that everyone seems to want him to be hopelessly pining for his “straight best friend,” and then by pointing out the hole in his life with Eddie gone. Buck realizes that his hookup with Tommy was just a way to handle missing Eddie, and he decides not to try to rekindle that relationship. Maddie suggests that Buck learn how to be alone again, so he ends the episode redecorating Eddie’s place.
Bobby Finally Works Things Out With His Mother

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The next call in this episode is not directly related to Bobby’s family, but it does lead to a moment of clarity for him. It’s also the perfect mix of disturbing and creative that is unique to 9-1-1. A medical pendant alerts 9-1-1 that its wearer has fallen, so the 118 go to treat a man named Elmer (Ron Orbach). They find Elmer in his garden, where he has fallen… while burying his wife (Miriam Flynn) alive after putting cyanide in her soup. The scales of justice are in her favor, though, because he dies when trying to kill her, and she makes it out alive. When she reflects on all of the wasted time with her husband and the life that she could’ve had, Bobby tells her that she’s out now. Bobby’s own words have a major effect on him, and he decides that he is willing to let go of his anger over the past.
Bobby goes to the church to visit Ann while she is in the middle of a sermon about how ordinary she actually is and how she doesn’t actually have the power to heal people. Ann then collapses, and Bobby rushes over to help her. Later, while waiting for Ann at the hospital, Bobby is able to finally understand why his mom needed to leave his father. It turns out that Ann has terminal cancer, but as she tells Bobby, she is not afraid to die. Bobby and Ann have a touching conversation, and they finally reconcile. The episode ends with Athena leaving for The Odyssey to kick off the Doctor Odyssey crossover.
New episodes of 9-1-1 air Thursday nights on ABC, and are 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