3.01: Kids Today

Welcome back to That Wee Woo Show, a podcast where we watch and discuss episodes of the ABC show, 9-1-1. My name's Ellen.

I'm Alice.

And I'm Bex.

We made it to season three, guys. Hooray!

We may not make it past season three, but we made it to season three.

It seems so long ago we were on season one, but also not that long ago.

Oh, well, here we are in season three. Um, thank you everyone who has been listening to all of our episodes so far. We love you. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it if you, if you like what we've done so far with the podcast, if you would let other people know by sharing our social media posts or, just telling, just tell everyone about it, everyone who, you know, who likes 9-1-1, um, that'd be awesome.

We can get through the season eight hiatus together.

Yeah, I know it's only just started as we're recording this today, and I'm trying really hard not to, not to find out what's happening at the moment in Season 8, so don't tell me anything. Anyway, um, all right, so how, how shall we start? Should we, do we want to start with having a quick talk about what happened previously?

Yeah, we'll do a summary of Season 2, uh, so last season on 9-1-1. Uh, we were introduced to Buck's older sister Maddie, along with new 118 recruit Eddie Diaz and his son Christopher. Uh, Bobby and Athena's relationship grew stronger with them getting married at the end of the season final. After breaking up with Abby, Buck moved out of her apartment, couchsurfing at both Chimney and Maddie's houses.

That's a terrible connection. Oh, I want a divorce. Boom, you're dead.

That's what happened.

Yeah. Literally, basically what happened.

I know, but just to say it like that.

It actually sounded like when you were saying it, it sounded like she asked for a divorce and then Eddie went, boom, that's it, you're dead.

And the writers were like, yeah, we don't need her anymore. We'll just get rid of her.

Oh yeah.

Poor Shannon.

God, still mad.

The official summary for this episode says that Athena enlists the 118's help when a teenager speeds out of control on the freeway. Meanwhile, a routine traffic stop uncovers a shocking kidnapping and Buck struggles with his recovery. The all new episode, "Kids Today". And our triggers for this episode include mention of blood clots.

Yeah, we're in for a wild, um, next couple episodes.

Yeah, but this one is, like, I guess it starts out quite dramatically. So we have, we're starting with a channel 8 news Broadcast?

Channel 8 News.

It's not Taylor Kelly. In the helicopter. I don't know if she does helicopters anymore.

I miss Taylor.

After

I think she thought she was above helicopters, which, um, Ironic.

I think she thought she was terrified of helicopters and just pretended to be above helicopters.

Well, I mean, if I'd been involved in a helicopter crash, I probably would be terrified of helicopters from then on.

Was it a crash? It was just an ungentle landing that they, you know, couldn't safely exit out of.

I still wouldn't want to be in a helicopter every day, so.

No.

No, that's fair enough. But yes, uh, we are watching a high speed pursuit on the 710 freeway.

And Athena is driving along in her patrol car after this car, which is zooming down the highway, going Apparently, Athena says he's doing 105 in a 65 miles an hour zone. There's just one guy in this car. But then

Well, we don't even know if it's a guy because Dispatch asks Athena if she can confirm that the suspect is male and she just says, suspect is a blur.

Oh my god, so 105 miles is 168. 98 kilometers.

Wow. Yeah, that is fast.

Holy shit. I don't even think cars could get that fast unless they were like professional race cars.

Oh, they definitely can.

If you've got a, like a, a flat bit of highway,

Okay, maybe my little car won't get to 160. Mine starts to get the shakes at about 125.

Speaking from experience there, Bex.

You've tried that out, huh?

Sometimes you have to go super fast to pass somebody on the highway before you run out of the overtaking lane.

That's true, yes.

I'm just shocked there are other cars on the highway in Tasmania.

Okay, no, like, I was going to say, like, state ism, like, that's not, anyway.

State ism.

State ism. Um, all right, so they're chasing, there's more than one police car chasing this guy, this car. And,

Yeah, isn't it like three plus Athena?

Yeah, I mean, Athena's the one who starts it by, she says that he passed her a few miles back, but yeah, she's got a bunch of different people who were chasing this one person. And then, randomly we cut to Maddie at dispatch and she answers a call and it's, there's a guy on the phone who says, "I'm on the 710, there are a bunch of police cars," and Maddie's like, "yes, yes, we're aware, like, just pull over and let them go."

I love how exasperated she sounds, because this is probably like the 15th call she's got of them reporting in a police pursuit. Just like, yes, just move to the side, get out of their way.

People call 9-1-1 to tell them about a police chase? Like, what? Anyway, um, but then the guy says, yeah, "I'm, I, they're chasing my car. I'm the driver."

And then we cut to the driver and we find out that it's a kid. Yeah. Like he's a teenager.

Yeah. So he's 15

and clearly terrified.

And, and Maddie's just like, "Why aren't you pulling over?" And he's like, "I can't! Hit the car broken. It keeps speeding up and I can't stop." Very tense little, uh, sort of opening to this episode.

Yes.

Um, Josh is in fine form in this episode, by the way. He's very, he's in like full snark mode. Because Athena asks, asks them, like, Josh has now patched himself into the call as well. Um, Athena says, "Do you think this kid's telling the truth?" And. Because apparently Athena's still on the phone. I'm not sure how this is all working because the way they're all talking, it sounds like they're all on the same call. But I think that Maddie's on the phone.

No, I think I've worked it out. I think that Maddie's on the phone with Tony, who is the kid. Josh is on the phone with Athena, and he's relaying the information that Maddie is getting to Athena as they're talking.

Right, okay, that makes more sense.

So rather than having like one party line, yeah.

Yeah, because it kind of sounds like they all know exactly what's happening at any time, at any stage.

It's like, yeah, but I think that's what's going on.

Anyway, Josh says that he thinks children as a rule are pathological liars. I'm like, Josh, is that really important right at this stage?

That cracked me up so much.

Um, Athena's like, you know, worried that he doesn't even have his learners, so they really need to shut down the freeway so they can try and stop the car. And, um, But Maddie tries to talk him through it. He can't use the brake. It's not working. It started shaking. Um, Tony's getting more and more sort of worried. And he says he, like Maddie says, the car isn't important. Only you are important. And Tony's like, no, my dad is going to kill me if anything happens to this car.

Apparently he, his dad doesn't even drive this car. He just sits in it listening to Phil Collins.

Which sounds oddly specific to say but becomes relevant later on. So it's really interesting, Athena and Josh start brainstorming what they're going to do, and I am not a car person at all, but they're going through all these different manoeuvres and different police tactics. Ellen, you apparently hit on what everybody else on Reddit immediately thought of, which When you were, um, live reacting to this in the group chat, which was why didn't they tell him just to turn off the engine?

Yeah. Well I didn't even know if you could do that, like while you were driving along, but it's an older car, so you should be able to, right? Like I don't,

you should just be able to turn off the car.

Yeah.

And if your brakes are not working, you can still lose power, you know, lose speed through not having any power anymore.

Yeah. Yeah, eventually. Eventually the friction of the road on the tires will slow it down. Um, I think even our friend at the fire department chronicles did a little green screen himself into this episode and he mentioned Why didn't you just turn off the engine?

But they always need to take the most dramatic route to resolve.

Well instead they discuss possibility of using the "pit maneuver", which I looked up and holy shit Um, the pit maneuver is basically if you're in if you're pursuing a car You You're in the police car, you come up alongside it so that your front bumper is in line with their back bumper, and then you swing in sideways to knock their back bumper, spinning them around like a top. And then when they've done like a full 180 and they're suddenly facing the other direction, you box them in.

No, that...doesn't sound safe at all. Not even when

It doesn't sound safe for anybody to do, let alone in this situation. Yeah. Um, there are other options is to throw the spikes out, but as Athena quite rightly says, um, if he hits those wrong, he'll end up flipping the car as well. And Josh points out to the audience that Tony is driving a convertible, so they definitely don't want to do anything that's going to involve flipping the car.

Yeah. They work out that he could hit something bigger, though.

Yeah, Josh suggests that maybe if they told Tony to aim for the spike strip specifically, um, and Athena questions whether he would be able to hit something that small, but he might be able to hit something a little bit bigger. So then we cut to that something a little bit bigger, which is the 118.

Heh heh. Yeah. Oh, you mean their truck, right, yeah, cool.

Yeah. Like it says, we cut to Bobby, um, but no, but also kind of, yes, because he's chivvying everybody into the trucks, um, filling them in on the situation that the kid is, uh, moving like a runaway freight train and they've got a plan to slow him down. And Chim says, "Oh, so we're on cleanup duty." And Bobby says, "Not exactly."

And then we cut to Tony's dad.

Who's losing his ever loving mind.

So the car is a 1970 Ferrari Daytona Spyder.

Um, okay. It's a car, it's yellow.

Tony's car's, uh, Tony's car. Tony's dad is, um, very worried that they're going to put a scratch on it, which isn't really their plan. And yeah, Maddie is like, um, yeah, "The kid's already more afraid of hurting the car than he is of hurting himself. But like, this is kind of cementing it."

Can I just put my hand up and go, why the fuck is Maddie making this call?

Yeah, it seemed weird, but I mean,

a weird choice, but sure.

Because she literally had to put Tony on hold in order to call his dad. So why isn't she passing this information on to the police to call Tony's dad while she can stay on the line with the scared 15 year old?

I also thought that she was calling him so that she could. patch him into the call so he could talk to, um, to Tony. But that happens later, like he's on his own phone talking to Tony.

Yeah, at this point, this is just Maddie is doing the police work by reaching out to his father.

Yeah.

Which is ridiculous because she then, she dispatches a cruiser to go pick him up. So surely the crew, the cop who went to pick him up could explain this whole situation when he picked him up, Maddie did not need to be making this call. I am very frustrated with the fact that Maddie is doing so much police.

No, cause they don't want to pay another officer to speak.

Well, it doesn't need to be on camera. We could have just assumed it happened off camera. But yes, I understand that logically that's why they're doing it, because why do you get another actor in and possibly have to pay them their SAG rates when you can just give the lines to an already established actor and character on the show, yada yada yada. It's You know me, I don't like all the drama. I want reality.

It's not a documentary, Bex.

But that's what's happening. It's fake?

Are you kidding? This isn't real? I mean, they're often, usually they're based on real life emergencies, right? I mean, I wonder if this actually happened to somebody. I'm sure it has in the past.

I am going to say that nobody in reality would think that slamming a car into the back of a moving fire truck would be the best way to resolve this situation. Um, but no, I have not looked up to see if this was a rip from the headlines one. So,

Anyway, she, Maddie tries to convince, um, well, she tells Tony's dad that he has said that he loves the car more than him. And his dad's like, he said that? And Maddie's like, yes, he did. So he's a bit taken aback by that. So he convinces him to talk to him and to tell Tony that he's wrong about that. And he needs to you know, calm down. And

I totally don't love my lovely car more than you, you stupid child.

Yeah. But is this important for Tony to know right now? Like,

well, that's the thing, right? So like his dad's telling him like, you know, it could happen to anyone. I love the car, but like, you're so much better. And Tony's immediate thought is, Oh my God, I'm going to die. You're telling me this, like, so that your last words aren't yelling at me. It's like, yeah, that's why you probably shouldn't patch him in.

I could understand them patching him in if Tony was doing something reckless and he was in control of the situation. It was, yeah, now I'm trying to talk him down. He's going to talk you down and you will therefore stop doing what you were doing. But Tony is completely out of control. It's not as if his dad reassuring him is going to magically fix the gear shifter thingy that's broken.

Yeah. I would have thought it'd be more important to, to do something to get him to, to like, help him actually stop. Before they then brought his dad in to tell him everything was going to be okay. But anyway,

I do love that, that Tony immediately just assumes that he's, his dad is there to like say goodbye, say goodbye. Cause he's about to die.

Poor Tony.

Uh, but eventually he manages to calm Tony down and say, "look, they have a plan to stop this. Maddie says she has a way to stop the car, specifically, and I need you to listen to her and do exactly what she says." We're then going to cut to the 118 who are in the engine truck, um, on their way.

Not the ladder truck, which was just replaced after, um, it exploded and fell on poor Buck.

No, cause I think the ladder, the, The ladder truck that they replaced it with that was the loaner, I think, has like a wibbly wobbly extra bit at the end, which would just not work if they slammed a car into the back of it. So they needed the stability of the engine truck.

Well, that, that, and, um, they did promise not to blow up the new, um, ladder truck. So they're like, I guess, I guess we'll use the engine truck.

I guess we'll use the engine truck. So the plan is that the engine truck is going to get onto Woodley Avenue, I don't know why they have to specify what the road is, but they do, um, the kid will hit the brakes, we hope he slows down a little, and that's where we come in.

Um, Chim points out that it's a vintage car, and Eddie's like, "What, you're worried about damaging a classic?" But no, Chim's worried about damaging the kid, because airbags weren't standard until the 80s.

Yeesh, Hen points out that they're lucky that the car even has a shoulder harness, which I went, well, yeah, of course it's got a seatbelt, but then I remembered, and of course everything's got to come back to Supernatural, um, when Jensen brought the Impala back to Texas, he had to get seatbelts specifically put in so he could drive it legally on the road. Because it doesn't have seatbelts in it by standard.

Yeah, okay.

So he can drive it on set, um, as is, but to make it roadworthy he had to put seatbelts in it.

Didn't they have seatbelts in the show? I guess not.

Do they?

I don't know. I don't, I never

You ever see them put on a seatbelt?

No, but I never really thought about it before because when I get in a car I put my seatbelt on, so just, I never even thought about it.

Okay. That's why in fics there's like, mention of, um, Dean putting like a lap belts in it, like installing lap belts in it to stop Sam complaining. Yeah. Anyway, so they, they want to, they want to slow the car down to 60 or 70, um, to try and like help it, which is why they're trying to get the kid to slam on the brakes. Um, but Hens like, "what kind of crazy person came up with this plan?" And Bobby just turns around and goes, "My wife."

I'm like, Oh, that's right. They got married.

And they just leave it there. Yeah. But we later find out it has been five months since the end of season two. So he and Athena have been sitting on the fact that they are legally married for five months, and he chooses this moment to drop that bombshell on the team.

Oh, you think this is the first time they're finding out about it?

Yes. No. Yes. Surely not.

Not yet. No.

Yes! Because there would have been a lot more like, "you're what?"

Yeah, no, I don't, I don't think this is

No, no, my head, my headcanon is that he, he, nobody told them. Until today. Oh, that would be And that's the hill I'm going to die on. That would be hilarious if that was the case. Bobby Nash is a dramatically bitch when he wants to be. He's just been waiting for the perfect moment to drop it.

And he drops it right at the same time as Phil Collins. The drum, the downbeat on the, the gorilla playing the drums.

No, no, no, that comes in later. So we just get the, um, we just get Phil Collins, the, the song "In the Air Tonight" starts playing.

Oh, yeah. Okay. It's when he, when he hits the truck later... Okay.

Yeah. So that's why they specifically mentioned that his dad just sits in the car and listens to Phil Collins because they then start playing Phil Collins. Um, so. They get Tony to take the exit off the 710 onto Woodley Avenue. And the plan is that he's going to hit the brakes. Um, constant pressure. Don't pump them. It's car is going to shake. That's fine. He starts to slow down, but the car starts to shake. It gets to 80. It's not going to go any lower.

And I was so involved in this, in like watching this episode going, Oh my God, what's going to happen? And then all of a sudden, this song starts playing and I'm just cracking up laughing.

And every drum beat, like every doo doo is a different part of the collision. So we get the car hitting the truck. We get Tony's face hitting the steering wheel. We get everyone in the 118 being jostled by the collision. It's just, it's so ridiculous, but it's perfect.

It works really well in the end.

It really does.

Kudos to the editor for cutting that together to make it work like that.

Love it. So they, um, and as they're slowing down and everything, the wheels of the car are still spinning because obviously the power's still on.

Because they still haven't turned the car off.

Yeah, they sort of pry open the convertible top and pull him out, pull Tony out.

Maddie and Josh high five in the, um, back in the dispatch center. Yeah. They're, um, like, they're spraying the car down with a fire extinguisher because the tires are still spinning. So everything's smoking.

The tires have caught fire. Yeah At one point. We're actually seeing the rubber has ignited from the friction.

And then Tony's dad is there for some reason I don't know how he like he Joined in with the police because they picked him up and I don't know.

Yeah Yeah, because they picked him up and then decided that the best thing to do would be to include a civilian in a high speed pursuit

Yeah, why not?

Yeah Why not I mean, we're doing everything else crazy, why not just add another level of crazy onto it?

That's it.

Well, he needed to be there to make everything okay with Tony.

Did he though? Couldn't he just wait until they got to the hospital? I mean, what if this had gone completely wrong and he was there to witness firsthand his son go up in a fiery ball of flame? I know

that that could have happened, yes. Well, I was fully, like, I wasn't expecting because I knew it would work because It always works in this show, but, um, if he'd hit the truck and not held the wheel steady, he could have spun out and flipped like it could, you know, cause he, the wheels had to stay, anyway, it's extremely risky, the whole thing.

All of the things that could have gone wrong, yeah, maybe it would have been safer to do the pit manoeuvre.

I don't know.

But he's fine, he's got a, uh, a broken nose, possibly a concussion, um, apparently everybody's magical diagnostic tools have failed them for this call, because everything is possibly, or we need to get you to the hospital to get you checked out, nobody is willing to diagnose him on the spot.

Well, it's not a heart attack or a stroke, so, they're out of their depth.

Chim diagnosed a bilateral pneumothorax a couple of episodes ago, just by looking at a woman. But he can't tell if the kid's got any sign of what, uh, chest trauma. Broken wrist, or Yeah. Maybe it only works if you're wearing the captain's hat, and like, because he had to give back the captain's hat, he's lost that ability. Maybe, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But it doesn't matter because Eddie is currently using the diagnostic brain cell because he pulls, he looks, he pulls the gear shifter out of the car, and Why?

Why? And he says Like, why are you fucking, fucking with a car scene, uh, crime scene, Eddie? And, like, why are you calling a gear shifter a clutch?

Yeah, the clutch is a separate part for the car.

The clutch is like the, the pedally thing, right?

Yeah, well, the clutch is what pulls the, is, okay, I'm, I'm going to attempt to describe something mechanical that I don't actually really know much about, but it's what disengages the gears when you're changing gear. So you, you pull it off one gear with the clutch, It's spinning, you engage the second gear, um, and it's not, it's connected to, like, it's in the gearbox, but it's not the stick. The stick is what moved the gears around, so.

He said a lot of car words in a row that I don't actually think make logical sense.

Yeah, the throttle. I don't know cars. I mean, I don't know cars. The throttle must have gotten stuck wide open.

But he specifically says It's like From the linkage brake. The gear shift broke off clean under the boot. Throttle must have gotten stuck wide open from the linkage brake. I don't think that's how it works. I mean, I don't know cars. I know even less about cars than I do about medicine, but apparently it's easier to Google the medical shit than it is to Google the automotive shit. So if anybody out there knows cars and wants to explain what the hell is going on

I just Googled 1970 Ferrari clutch, and one of the first results was a TikTok video of this scene going, hey car people, what the fuck? And everyone is just like Well, like half the people were like, Oh, why doesn't he just shift to the lowest gear? And I was like, no, the gear shift's broken. So that's fair. Um, but then everyone else is like, just press the clutch in

and put it into neutral.

Yeah. Brake. But everyone else is just saying, just turn off the ignition. So if you get stuck in a car that will not stop accelerating, just turn off the car.

But does that still work on modern cars that Do not have a key to turn Can you can you turn off a push button?

I don't have a push button, so I haven't tried it

One of my cars has a push button, but I have not ever tried it. I don't really want to try doing that while I'm driving along.

I was gonna say, well now we know what Ellen's doing tomorrow. Even if the um gear stick was broken He could still have Um, push down the clutch and disengage the gears completely, disengage the gears. Someone else just goes, that only works to that specific Phil Collins song.

He doesn't, like the details of it doesn't like, it's completely unrealistic maybe, but the effect is quite good and exciting. So it's okay. It's a fun. Okay.

Yeah, it's one of those things that you switch off your brain and like, oh, it's so cool because they do it to the music and it looks cool, but as soon as they open their mouths and start trying to explain it, it all falls to pieces.

Yeah, they shouldn't have had Eddie say anything because it just made it worse.

Well, even what Bobby said didn't

To be fair, it was, to be fair, Bobby, I think made it even worse because I would have completely accepted if Eddie just held up the gear shift and went, Oh, it was the gear shifter thingy. I would have gone, Okay, pretty boy. Yep. Believe whatever you say. But then Bobby tries to

And instead of having that stupid exchange, what they should have done is had an exchange where Tony was just like, the way they were like, Oh, just turn the key off. And when Tony tries to turn the key, it just breaks in the ignition. Yeah. Because like, if it's an old key, it absolutely could do that. But instead they're just like, "looks like a loose clutch" while holding the gearshift. It's like, why not? No.

They could have had the dad go over to the car and have a look at it and go, oh look, this thing's loose. Like he probably knows a lot more about cars if he has old ones.

I'm gonna say that he buys them simply for the aesthetic. He has absolutely no idea about cars. Yeah. He just likes them because they look pretty.

That's fair.

So, in the next, like, stupid exchange, which makes absolutely no sense, and if anybody would like to explain to me what it means, then please go ahead. Um, as they're wheeling Tony into the ambulance, his father who has somehow completely gotten over the destruction of his beloved spider, says to Tony that there is a Testarossa coming up for auction, maybe we could get that instead. And Tony kind of jokingly, but not really jokingly, says, does it have airbags? And everyone's like, ha ha ha!

Yeah, like, he's asking for airbags

how is that an appropriate response to what Tony just said?

Like, oh, kids today wanting car safety.

Yes, exactly! Like, Kids Today would have been a response to this, when Tony was going through the reasons why he stole the car, because he was trying to prove to everybody that his dad really had this great car and he thought it would be blah blah blah. That would have been the time to go, oh, Kids Today. Yeah. Not, this child is concerned about his future safety in a car.

Yeah, you're right, it doesn't relate to anything that just

No! None of the Kids Today stuff makes sense.

In this context. If, if anybody was wondering what the episode title is for this today, it's "Kids Today". Yes, and apparently there was a quota on how many times they needed to get the episode title into the episode, so they're just shoehorning it in at every possible place they can. I didn't realize this episode was gonna make me so angry, but apparently I'm gonna be in full rant mode today. So be warned everyone.

It's alright, the next two will just be crying hysterically, so. Get your angries right now. You're like, and then the sea went out and there was a wave.

Shh, no, that's spoilers. Don't tell them. Okay, so after the commercial, we are straight back into the action because there is a house on fire and there's like we, I can't remember why we know that this is Buck. How do we know it's Buck?

He speaks, I'm pretty sure, very early.

Yeah, we do know it's him though. Like, I, I'm just having like a blank on how the scene begins. But he's, he, he jumps down.

Because he's talking through the radio, so it's very like, just hear his voice.

Okay, that's fine. Well, he's, he jumps down through like a hole in the floor and to, to rescue somebody. And then

Yeah, just to really be like, hey, look, his leg's fine. He's all good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Um, I, I'm guessing, so this is, you said this is five months later? Okay. His leg's not

Yes, five months after the accident.

He'd be probably still kind of sore. Anyway, that's great that he's fully healed up in this time. Yeah,

I'm, after watching this episode and noticing this particular detail where he opens the grate and drops through it rather than taking the stairs down to the next floor, The next part that happens to Buck makes perfect sense. Yeah. Like, yes, of course, what happens next happens to you because he did this shit, you stupid man.

Yeah. He's pushing pretty hard. So then he runs out of the building with this person over his shoulder. He sort of slumps down to the ground and we find out that it's not a real person. It's one of those, you know, Like when Chim was carrying Tommy out of the thing, it looks like

The pantyhose stuffed with the newspaper?

Well, I mean, to be fair, when he was running out of the building, I did actually think it was a person he was rescuing until I dropped it on the ground and I'm like, Oh, it's a dummy.

Yeah, they definitely frame it in a way that it looks like a person, like it's even, it's better framed than "Chim Begins", because like "Chim Begins", you're just like, well, that's clearly a dummy and not Tommy. Whereas this, it's like, oh, like he's back at work, but not with the 118, like what's happening? And then, yeah, when he throws it down, it's actually a dummy. Um, so he has got a new record in the baby doll factory and he has also passed the, like, LAFD, training thing again?

The recertification test.

Yeah, the recertification test. There you go.

Yep. So, yes, we discovered that the house that was on fire was the house at the LAFD training center that we've seen Chim and Hen training at during their Begins episodes. Yeah.

So he's back. Hooray.

He's back. And then we get Star Lord dancing through the

Ah, yeah, I the music in this episode is great. And I was like, Oh, we're back in Guardians of the Galaxy. I love that movie. It's so good.

So good.

Did this episode run short again? Sorry, I'm just looking at your notes.

I think so, because there, I started counting how many seconds the establishing shots of LA lasted, and there were a lot of them, and they ran a long time, so I am voting for they cut something out of this episode, and then they needed to shove in all of the establishing shots to make up time.

They also had, later, I noticed, um, in, maybe they wanted this for dramatic effect, but there were a lot of staring into people's eyes. moments in this? Like, like, there's a certain amount of looking at each other that can be done and when you're having a conversation with people, but when it goes on too long, it just feels a bit like it starts getting awkward. And even on TV, when that happens, you're like, um, why are you?

Oh, hang on. I did. Hang on. I just checked the wiki to see if there was anything on there. Cause sometimes the wiki has interesting stuff. Sometimes it's useless, but There was apparently an entire emergency cut from this episode. Oh, there you go.

Oh! Well noticed.

So, yes.

Was it at a movie theatre? Because we're still waiting for that.

No, but apparently they reused the footage for a later episode.

Oh, interesting. They do that in Season 7 slash 8 as well. Mm hmm.

Um, so yeah, this episode ran Is running short, so there's going to be lots of establishment shots, which was good for us because it means we can speed through it faster. But we are now at the, the Grant Nash household. I just realised that should be. Um, and there is a party going on.

Oh, the beginning of this scene is so great. I love them seeing them all so happy. They're all having a, well, getting ready for a party.

For now.

Um, so yeah, so Hen and Karen are arriving, um, Michael's there, Athena's there, obviously, Chim and Eddie also there, um, May and Harry are there, did I miss anyone?

May is there, did we see Harry?

I don't think we saw Harry at all, but he

They mention Harry, but, so like, they mention Harry later, so

They mention him, but we only see May.

Yep, I think you're right.

But that's fine. Um, Bobby's grilling out in the back. Looks like Eddie's helping set the table for food.

Um, when Karen arrives, Athena asks how the IVF shots are going. And Karen says she's feeling like a human pincushion, a very weepy pincushion.

So she takes every opportunity during this episode when we see her to burst into tears or get angry at people.

Or both. At least, that was. Because. Hormonal women are so funny, aren't they? Aren't they funny when women are hormonal?

So funny, you guys.

Sorry, it made, that made me angry. I mean, I know it's meant to be played off for laughs, but apparently everything in this episode just made me angry.

It was, it was a little bit much. Um, and Michael is, seems to be having a hard time with the fact that no one was invited to the wedding.

I think that it's, that he wasn't invited. Like, he's sulking around the entire party, just like, Uh, not gonna invite me! Uh, can't believe I was invited today! Um, and it's like, yeah, well, you're the ex, like, why would you be invited?

Yeah, well, it wasn't just that, it was like, no one was invited.

Yeah, exactly! That's it, it was literally just Bobby, Athena, and the kids.

Apparently he's taking it personally.

Like, it'd be different if they invited the whole 118, and not Michael. But, it was just, anyway. So, Michael's sulking. There's, like, calls that they're, they're almost here.

Bobby's cooking up a storm, as usual.

Yeah, then the doorbell rings, and Buck and Maddie walk in, and Buck, like, I don't know if it's the, like, if Oliver's forgotten how to act between season two and three, or if, like, if he totally guessed, and, yeah. Like that there was a surprise party happening and he's just like over dramatically reacting because he's like fully like jumps back, clutching his chest, like, Oh my God, I can't believe

it. Yeah. It's either, we have been so beguiled by Oliver Stark's Beautiful Blue Eyes that We haven't noticed that he can't act. My personal head canon is that either he guessed because no one at the 118 can keep a secret, or Maddie said to him on the car over, it's going to be a surprise party. I need you to be on your best behavior and act surprised. So this is Oliver pretending to be Buck, pretending to be surprised and doing it really badly.

Like, he totally guessed, like, I can guarantee he would have been like, "Oh, like, what are you guys doing tonight?" And Eddie would have been like, "Oh, I'm busy." "That's a cool, what are you doing?" "No, I'm just busy." Chim who can't keep secrets is like, "I'm just working."

I know they say later on, Buck says to Maddie and Jim, I can't believe you kept this a secret, but I refuse to believe that they actually did keep it a secret. He found out somehow.

Because yeah, the, like the reaction is so over the top. It's hilarious. Yeah.

And then as we get, um, "come and get your love," and then he leaps into Eddie's arms

No, no, no, it's even better, it's not just that he leaps into Eddie's arm, it's that Bobby literally pushes Eddie at him.

Bobby number one buddy shipper, um,

Yes, and so they do this, this like really tight embrace and then they pull apart, but they sort of, they're holding each other at arm's lengths and then Bobby's just like, oh no, that's too much, and like cuts in and whips Buck away from Eddie.

Bobby's like, wait, shit. Eddie, your son's here. Stop frotting in public.

Uh oh.

Oh! No!

Um, I like the note here that's just, I hate Eddie's hair this season, cause yeah, same. It's the worst.

I hate his hair this season!

It's not a good look. It's too short.

He was, I, I didn't I didn't really notice it until, um, the scene in the kitchen of the station house a little while later. Um, that's when you kind of really get a focus on Ryan and you can see the horrific haircut. The first part of this episode, he's wearing his helmet so you can't see it. This is the first time you see what he has done to his hair. And I hate it.

It's Lego man hair.

Yeah, I hate it. Yeah, I hate it. Like they, yeah, I hate it.

Yeah.

Anyway.

I prefer the mustache. If you had to put it between Ryan and a mustache, and Ryan with this haircut, I would take Ryan with a mustache.

I love the mustache, but could you, oh my god, no, wait, so the mustache works, the mustache works because of his whole look.

With the long hair.

Yes, with the long hair. Imagine the mustache with this hair? No. No! No.

No. No. The mustache with this hair, he would be on a list somewhere and allowed within, you know, a mile of Christopher's school.

Literally. Like, Carla would have to drop Chris off because Eddie wouldn't be allowed to. Like, the mustache works so well with the long, like, flowy hair, like, that like falls over his eyes. It works perfectly. But this hair, it's just, I hate it. I hate it. I hate it so much. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Anyway, they're having a lovely party. And Christopher is there and he gives back a card. Um, and

it's so cute. The card.

It's so cute.

So the card has, um, a photo, like a drawing that apparently Christopher's done. Um, a drawing on the front.

I debate whether Christopher would have that good hand control to draw that.

Yeah, like, not only that, he's only like, seven.

He's eight.

He must be eight by now.

Or nine, even, by now.

But yeah, looking at the drawings that my nine year old does, my nine year old couldn't do that.

Um, anyway, so it's Buck in his turnout, so like, in his firefighter gear, on the beach, because what else do you wear to the beach? Um, there's also a smaller figure with glasses, which is, on and there's a surfboard in between them and on the top it says Buck and then in brackets it's got BFF underneath it. And it's so cute.

I didn't notice that. It's adorable. It's so cute. And Christopher explains for everybody that it's him and Buck and Eddie leans over to, um, put in that it's a, it's him and Buck and a surfboard because Christopher is obsessed with surfing. Which for the fact that the lessons cost a hundred and fifty dollars an hour, I would hope that he's obsessed. And then on the inside of the card, it says, "Dear Buck, you are an awesome firefighter.

Oh, it's so cute. Yeah, so then we get like various shots of the party, um, Maddie and Hen are like chatting and laughing together, Buck's thanking people, um, Chris and May, uh, looking at the cake which is like a giant sheet cake and it has "one buck is worth more than a million dollars" on fire across the top. Oh. So they're still like,

I didn't see what it said.

It's fine. They're still in their awful cake like slogan phase. Yeah. Which is great.

Yeah. I, I still, I still think the buck got ripped off though.

Yeah, there was no firetruck on it, on its side.

I, no, no, I want to see a three dimensional cake firetruck landing on top of a tiny little fondant bar. Exactly, right? Like, like, why did Chim get like a full on bust with a licorice rebar and little matchbox cars reenacting the accident around him and everybody else just gets a sheet cake?

To be fair, Chim does mention later that they had to have two cakes because they had another on standby in case he crashed and burned and it said "better buck next time". Yeah, okay. So they had to make two cakes so they didn't have the money and the time to, like, yeah. Anyway, I would have loved a fire truck on top. Um, then we go to Buck talking to Henren and Hen's showing a photo of, like, a kid on her phone. And Buck's like, "Oh, so that's your future baby daddy. Looks a little young."

Yeah, first of all, she's angry at Buck for referring to their sperm donor as a baby daddy and smacks him. Um, and then when he later says that he's sure that the sperm donor and Karen will make a beautiful baby, she bursts into tears and wraps him up in a big hug while Hen is standing behind her shaking her head and mouthing, "I am so sorry." to the absolutely perplexed Buck.

Buck's not really sure what to do with extremely hormonal Karen, so he

I mean Buck's not great with women regardless, so

Now that's Eddie, Buck's not too bad with women.

You just can't keep them from running away. Um, anyway, so then we get the exchange about the two cakes. Um, Maddie's feeding Chim cake. Also, did you like, did you see the random woman who gives Buck the cake?

Oh yeah, I saw her.

Who is this woman? Where did she come from?

She had like the, you know, that crazy girlfriend meme. Like the, she had those, those eyes, like, you know,

the crazy eyes, like, who, who is she?

I don't know.

I kind of wanted to say the caterer, but then it looks like Bobby did all the cooking.

Yeah, I think Bobby did all the cooking.

Why? Yeah. Who is she?

Another member of the 118?

Like there's no one there who's not coupled up. Like, yeah, maybe she's just part of the B shift.

Just a random person who we don't know.

It's just random.

It was just so weird because like you couldn't get anyone else to like hand Buck a bit of cake. You had to get a random extra. Like where did this woman come from?

But I mean, why didn't Maddie just turn slightly to the side and pick up the piece of cake and hand it to Buck?

Literally, it's so strange. Um, but yeah, so Maddie's feeding Chim cake and Buck makes a joke about like, oh, you guys going to get married? And Michael just appears and goes, don't forget to invite us. It's like, yeah, okay, Michael.

And then walks away again. We talk about Josh being sassy, but Michael is just, like, top tier in this episode.

That's true, seriously.

Yeah, we did have another random Michael scene, which, um, probably didn't really make sense first time around, but in the context of the episode, of the season as a whole, it does make sense.

Mm hmm. I just figured he was having some bitterness issues about the whole thing.

Yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, so basically Michael for some reason is prowling around the house while everybody is at the party and he ends up in the master bedroom, which creepy dude.

Yeah, it's not your bedroom anymore.

There is a prolonged shot of him staring at a photo that Athena has on her dresser which was taken at the registry office, which is her and Bobby and the kids.

So he's still a bit mad about that, I guess.

So yeah, Michael's bitter. So then we get a conversation with Buck and Bobby. Bobby says that they're sending him the paperwork in the morning and Buck will officially be back. And Buck says he's glad it's over. Um, he hated not being with, uh, like with the 118. Like during this scene as well, he's like rubbing at his chest a bit. Like he's clearly uncomfortable, but he's trying to brush it off. Mm. Um, Bobby's like, yeah, like we missed you too.

Yeah, he thanks Bobby for being there for the surgeries and the rehabs. Um, and my question was, where the hell were your parents through all of this? Like, I know he's a grown ass man. But even as a grown ass woman, if I were in hospital, um, my, my mother would be there.

Oh god, my dog was in hospital and mum was there.

Yeah, so, um, it's not looking good for the Buckley parents right now, that Bobby was the one by his bedside. Um, I do like that Buck's going like, yeah, I know I'm not the easiest person, and Bobby's just like, oh my god. God, you were terrible.

Rough.

But yeah, Bobby's like, no, you weren't that bad, and Buck's like, you know, you should tell that to my ex girlfriend.

But he's, he's coughing as he's saying this.

He's started coughing now.

Like, he's, he's really struggling to get the words out around a coughing fit.

But yeah, so like, everyone sort of starts looking now because he's having a full on coughing fit.

And he starts backing away from Bobby on, I guess, the assumption that if he's, you know, coughing, he doesn't want Bobby to get it. Um, but then he spits and there's blood in his hand. And then he looks up at Bobby and just, the blood just starts pouring out of his mouth. Yeah.

And then he collapses.

And he collapses.

Yeah. Scary! Like, oh no.

Because, apparently, he had a pulmonary embolism, according to, um, Apocalypse World, Dr. Michael.

Yes. He came on the screen, I'm like, oh, this guy's definitely from Supernatural. And I'm sort of looking at him going, pretty sure this is Michael, and I looked it up and went, yep, that's him. Yeah, he's way too nice in this scene. Like, I'm not used to you being nice.

Yeah, like even in the boys he's slightly an arsehole too.

Ah, who is he in the boys? He's not in it all the time, right? He is. He's just

No, he's A Train's brother. Oh. Okay, so he's in it every so often. But yeah. Because apparently if you know Eric Kripke, you're pretty much guaranteed for work.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he just pulls in all his buddies.

No matter how tangentially you know him. Yeah. Yes. But yes, Dr. Apocalypse World, Michael says that, um, Buck had three blood clots which caused his pulmonary embolism.

Yeah.

He had one in his lungs and two in his legs.

Yeah, but Buck got lucky because most people who suffer that don't do it surrounded by trained medical professionals, and that's what saved his life. So it was very serious.

Yeah, and he had pain in his leg. He thought he pulled a muscle or something, but that was probably the clot that he could feel.

Yeah, I love this. Chim, Chim's going, but you know, "this, this came out of nowhere. I don't understand." And the doctor's going, "oh, so there was no pain or tenderness in the leg?" And you can just see Buck starting to look really shifty. Yeah. And like refusing to meet Maddie's eyes. And Maddie's just like looking at her brother going, Evan, what did you do?

Um, and Buck's just like, "well, I'm not dead. You found the clots. When can I get out of here?" Yeah. Yeah. Um, but the doctor says they're moving him to a room and they're keeping him on anticoagulants, uh, blood thinners, and tomorrow they're going to run some more tests and then they'll see. Um, so the

He's not happy about this.

The doctor leaves and Chim is immediate, just like, "yep, I'm gonna go, bye, I'm gonna tell everyone that you're okay." Um, Maddie is so mad.

Because the anger is radiating out of Maddie. And Chim knows that she is about to blow up at Buck and he does not want to be anywhere in the vicinity when that happens. So he's just like, I will go and tell everyone you're okay, love you, bye, and just, boom, he's gone.

Yep. So then she does get mad at him.

Oh yeah, she's pissed.

"No, you need to be more careful. If this had happened when you were alone, you could have died." Buck's like, "But I didn't."

I didn't. I just keep thinking of that conversation he had with Allie at the end of last season. Like, you could have died, but I didn't. But you could have, but I didn't.

Yeah, I'm fine.

But he didn't, he didn't, doesn't remember that he vomited up blood. And he's a bit taken aback when she tells him that. He's like, "I I vomited up blood at Bobby and Athena's house? Oh no."

I love that he's not he's not upset or worried that he was vomiting blood, he's upset that he got blood out in Bobby and Athena's place.

I know, right?

That's what's worrying him.

Bless his heart. Yeah, this is where we get Athena mentioning Harry, so Harry and May are at Michael's place. And Harry keeps asking if they're, they're sure that it's not Ebola. I'm like, how does Harry know about Ebola? Has he been watching that horrible movie that scarred me when I watched it as a teenager?

What did you watch that scarred you as a teenager?

That movie about Ebola, whatever that, I can't remember the name of it. Outbreak? Or is it called Outbreak? There was a movie about Ebola and it was like, You know how it came to like the U. S. or whatever and everyone was dying and it was just a horrible movie and ever since then I'm like, oh my god.

Is Outbreak the one where it was like the bat ate the fruit and then the fruit went in the market and the blogger ate the fruit and got the bat transmitted virus and then came to the U. S. It basically predicted coronavirus.

Yeah, basically, yeah. It's, it's It's the prediction of a pandemic in general, but in this case, it was like a flesh eating bacteria rather than COVID, which isn't great, but better than Ebola at least. But the real, I think I had to like, it was, it was actually causing me like some, you know, paranoia at the time, I had to look into it and I'm like, Ebola is not as infectious as they made it out to be in the movie.

Jokes on Harry, um, all infected people, like, people infected with Ebola show decreased blood clotting. So.

Yeah.

Shows what he knows.

Anyway. Ebola related, uh, tangent. Um, Bobby's sad that their first party as a married couple didn't really work out, but Athena's like, "well, maybe they'll stop complaining that we didn't have a wedding reception." It's like, no, they're not going to forget that ever guys. Like wedding receptions are the best parties ever. Anyway, he's, he gets a message from Buck on his phone saying that, um, Buck's sorry about the blood. And hopes he didn't ruin anything.

See? He was just worried about the blood.

Yeah, literally.

I mean, at least he was out, at least he was outside on the patio, so they could just like wash down the flagstones. It's fine. Imagine if it had actually happened...

It wasn't on the carpet.

Yeah, it could have been worse.

Yeah, it wasn't inside the house. It could have been much worse. Um, so they have a little bit of a conversation about Buck. Um, and it's very much. Like, the entire thing about this episode is about kids, and this is so much a dad worrying about his son. Even though he actually says the words, "Buck is not my kid," it's very much, Buck is his kid. I mean, I was just like, yeah, okay. I'm just so worried about him.

Mm-Hmm.

And the last line of that scene is Athena saying, " You've got to let 'em grow up sometime." And then we cut to a 9-1-1 call at a retirement villa, which is an interesting segue, . Yeah. Apparently, apparently the, uh, the moral of this story is no matter how grown up you get, you're still gonna act like kids . Alice: Yeah. Um, so yeah, a very like. indifferent caller?

Oh.

Interesting.

The father is Jack, the son is Dave. We don't know what the daughter's name is. She's never named.

The daughter is daughter.

9-1-1 Name Your Female Characters Challenge.

That's so strange. Anyway, this is a, it's a very nice building, this um, retirement village.

Must be expensive.

It's got like that kind of um, Mexican kind of uh, tiles and wrought iron kind of look to it. It looks really nice.

So the daughter called 9-1-1 for her father, Jack.

Apparently her name's Sarah. She is credited.

Sarah? Yep. Not in the transcript. She's not.

She is on IMDb?

Like I know.

Oh, so whoever's preparing the transcript has got a problem with female characters being named.

No, no, no. Like they literally do not say the name Sarah in the scripts. So, when they cast, she was cast as the role of Sarah, but she's never named in the episode, so it doesn't count. She doesn't have a name.

Um. I don't think anyone says Dave's name.

Yeah, Sarah introduced me. Yeah, they do.

Oh, okay.

She goes, um, we came to have lunch with him, he was acting weird, and then, Dave, that's my brother, he noticed something on their father's stomach. I want to know how they saw their father's stomach, because where we wind up with scratching at

it or something.

Yeah. But where that rash is, it's quite low down in his stomach, so how, but anyway, um, She says that they tried to get a closer look, but he kicked them out of their, out of his room, and locked the door, and nobody in the damn place can seem to get the door open.

Yeah, so there's two maintenance workers there, and, Like Dave is fully blaming them for not being able to open the door and they're just like, like, what do you want us to do? And Bobby's like, well, the lock's not the problem. There's something on the other side. And the maintenance workers are like, yeah. And they like exchange a glance and then like storm off. And I'm like, yeah, good acting random extras. Um, but yeah, so Bobby knocks on the door and like says, it's LAFD, let us in.

Okay.

Um. But yeah, so Jack opens his little peephole, I don't know why it's in an internal door, but I guess so that they can see who's out there.

No, that's his little apartment, isn't it? Like, his room.

Yeah, and, um, and he says he's not not coming out until the ungrateful vultures stop circling and the son's like, "Ungrateful? Who do you think pays for this place?" And the dad's like, "You sold my house to pay for it."

Meanwhile, Bobby quietly sort of grabs his radio and says, Eddie, Jim, we're going to have to storm the Bastille. Which apparently means get the ladder truck, bring it around the back of the building and extend the ladder so you can climb up onto the balcony.

And just bust in.

You're climbing in the window.

Um, so the guy who plays

I don't think they even need to bust, everything's wide open.

Everything's wide open. It's California. Um, the guy who plays the father as well, plays Joey's dad in Friends. So, that was, that was amusing because his character's very Joey. So, yeah, so Dave says that he's, like, his dad's acting like a child. Uh, Mr Tribbiani says, "I am not," which is a very child response.

They basically have a giant, like, argument through the door while Chim is climbing in through the window, or through the balcony. And, um

The daughter is like, you know, he's old, he's sad and lonely, he knows he's dying. And then Hen's like, "Oh, your father's ill?"

Hen perks up.

And the daughter's like, "oh, I didn't mean dying, dying. Just like, you know, he's 82."

He's 82. But Chim gets in, thankfully. And I guess he gets the door open, so everybody comes in, And they get to examining Jack. I love that Hen takes one look at him and then just walks away.

Yeah, she's like, that's not rash. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. And, I mean, it looks fairly gross. And after they have a bit of a discussion about what it could be, they think it might be MRSA to start with, Which is, um, a Basically an antibiotic resistant staph infection that apparently runs rampant in hospitals.

And they're all like, uh, I don't, I don't.

There's a exchange of glances.

And Hen is still, like, all the way over there. Chim looks at Hen, Hen looks away. Chim looks at Eddie, Eddie's like, no.

Yeah.

So Chim's like, "Okay, fine, I'll look." And he

He pulls Yeah, they're still all just standing around. Like, he doesn't go somewhere private to have a look down his pants.

Oh, I don't think Jack cares because when Chim says, I'm going to examine, he's just like, you know, knock yourself out. Um, but as he peels back the waistband of whatever Jack's wearing, there is this wet, ripping, gross flesh peeling sound. And I just, I don't know why Foley felt the need to include that, because if, like, if he was literally peeling the flesh away, peeling the pants and pulling the flesh away, surely that would have been painful.

Foley were just having way too much fun.

Yes, exactly. I think Foley just threw that in at the last minute. But, Chim thinks that the rash, which apparently goes all the way down, um, is it's a sexually transmitted genital ulcer disease, which basically eats away at the skin of your groin and genitals.

A flesh eating STD.

It sounds horrible.

A flesh eating STD. Yes. Apparently it's, um, very common in kind of the, the tropical areas, I guess, where things are hot and humid and skin gets sweaty and sticky. Probably not the sort of thing you would see in a retirement village in California.

Probably not. None of them can work out why an 82 year old would have an STD, but Eddie is pretty much Oh, that happens more than you think.

His abuela's been telling him stories.

Oh,

and the daughter's like, when I went to college, you gave me a can of mace and a box of condoms and told me to protect myself. What the hell?

And then I love that Dave goes, wait, you got condoms? All I got was mace. And his father goes, well, nobody was going to have you.

So they questioned, they questioned Mr. Tribbiani on, um, who the woman is that he's been seeing. And Bobby's like, okay, you're not required to tell us, but you do have to tell them at the hospital because she needs to start a course of antibiotics.

But

Dave's just like,

fuck this.

Yeah, the son just walks straight into, there's like a, it's like a little lounge sort of area, um, And, like, there's a whole bunch of people.

Apparently everybody is there.

Yeah, they're like looking out at the hot firefighters. Um, and, yeah, he's like, "hey everyone, my father Jack here has a flesh eating STD, so whoever he's been sleeping with should come to the hospital with us for immediate treatment."

And I love this, there's this moment of silence and everyone's kind of looking around going, wait, who's been sleeping with Jack? And this woman at the back just slowly stands up and there's sort of gasps like, Oh my God, not Mirabelle. Um, and Bobby says, okay, come with us. And then three more women and a man stand up.

When the man stands up, Hen's like, Oh, um, but he's like, "No, no, what if you slept with one of the women that he slept with?" And, Eddie's like, "Oh, you should probably get that checked out too." So then like everyone stands up.

At which point, everybody stands up.

The first time I watched this, um, I didn't hear the man say the, the, what the line about, what if you slept with one of the women? And, and I was just like, Jack, you bisexual king, like look at, look at this. And then, um,

Well, you know what, I would not have, I would not discount that because he seemed very willing for Chimney to look at his junk.

Yeah, I mean, yeah. So, you know. And he wasn't ashamed when the man stood up at all, so. No. No.

He kind of gave this proud little grin, so. Maybe when that man slept with the woman that Jack slept with, he was literally sleeping with her at the same time that Jack was sleeping with her?

I mean, who knows what goes on in retirement homes. One day we'll find out, I suppose.

Is, is this, um, is this, uh, a retirement home or is it the, um, Odyssey cruise ship?

Look, I've heard some things about that show.

It's where the crew of the Odyssey cruise ship go when they're retired.

And, and Dave is like, Dave and the daughter, sorry, what's the daughter's name again?

They're disgusted. We don't, she doesn't have a name. Yes, Sarah. She didn't get a name. Allegedly her name is Sarah, but she, no.

Yeah, they, they, they're like, what kind of place is this, like, I can't believe you.

The daughter says, "You were supposed to be a role model," and Chim just sort of laughingly says that he is to some people. The daughter storms off. Eddie looks at Chim and Jack and goes, "Huh, kids today." What? What? No!

Like, is he, is he saying that the ungrateful brats are upset about the orgies?

They're not even children! They're older than you are, Eddie!

Bring up the um, the Miley Cyrus meme of like, What does it mean?

Anyway,

I don't know. You should not have to have this much discussion over a line of dialogue. No. If nobody knows what the fuck you mean, don't include the dialogue. Simple as that. But I don't know if Bobby and Hen understand what he means, but they're finding it hilarious, and they kind of, you know, exchange a glance, and they're walking out of the villa after the gurney. Looks like Hen's about to bust a nut laughing. But then Bobby's phone rings, and it's Chief Alonso.

I

think Chief called him about Buck.

Yeah, he was saying they don't want Buck to go back to work. So Bobby had them to go to the hospital to tell Buck about it.

Yeah, like Bobby didn't just want to call Buck.

It's a weird segue to go, oh, Chief Alonzo, you're calling me, and then boom, he's at the hospital.

Yeah, it's a little awkward, I guess, like the first time you watch it, there's a, like, a delayed kind of working out what's actually happening, because you, you don't find out what Chief Alonzo wanted for a while, for a little while. So, but anyway, Bobby's taking Buck for a little walk around the hospital because they want him.

He's taking his puppy for a walk.

They want him to walk around, it's good for the blood flow. So, but they still don't know what caused the clots, but he's, he gets to go home tonight, though.

Yeah, the meds are working. Um, they're sending him home, and he immediately asks, do I need the hospital to sign some kind of form or anything for the department, um, for his clearance, and Bobby's like, uh, you're, you're not cleared, not yet.

Yeah, he's like bracing himself for Buck to get cross about this, because he knows what's coming.

Yeah.

And Buck's just like, what do you mean? I passed my tests.

I passed all my tests.

I can come back. And he's like, no, Bobby says it's the blood thinners, like we, we, they haven't worked out what's causing it. So you can't come back to work.

It's a liability issue for the department, apparently.

Which makes sense. But Buck is not, not okay with this. He's like, if something happened to him on a call he would have two paramedics standing next to him. Like, you would have three paramedics standing next to you, Buck. Are you forgetting somebody?

Thank you very much. I know that he usually gets, like, tasked with you to play firefighter, but he is a trained paramedic. But also, those three paramedics would have other people that they have to go to.

Yeah, they're busy.

That's true. They can't, they can't be watching out for Buck.

They would be busy. They don't, they don't have time.

While they're trying to do their job.

It's not like, oh, we've got, you know, um, a woman bleeding out from multiple stab wounds, but oh, our co worker has got a cut. We need to deal with him first. No, you would, you would be a hindrance to the team if they constantly had to be looking out for you. That's true. So, I'm 100 percent on Bobby's side. No, you need to sit this one out, Buck.

He needs to rest. But he And get over, and like, recover.

He takes it so hard, especially when Bobby says that when Chief Alonso thinks, I love that he's like, Chief Alonso thinks that in a few weeks you can be cleared for light duty, aka desk duty. And you would have thought that Bobby pulled out a kitten and slaughtered it in front of Buck with the reaction that light duty gets.

Yeah. He's really upset about it.

He's got his little sad voice on.

This is the part where he's like, staring at Peter Krause, like right in the eyes for ages. And I'm like, whoa. Look at the cross here. Out there in the world. That is helping people. That is where I belong.

And this is where we find out he spent, I've spent five months fighting to get back. To this job. So that's where we get the, the time reference. Um, and he, he basically says he doesn't want light duty. And if it's the option between light duty or nothing, then he quits. Yeah. He's not doing it.

And then he storms off with his compression socks covering up those leg tattoos.

Does he have the leg tattoos in this season? Or are they a later edition?

I think he's got one or two. Like, he's got more now. I don't know.

Oh yeah.

Um, because I think he just hates the make up team. Um, like the minute that they stopped filming season 8 he got more on his legs too and we're all just like, f ing calm down mate. Um, don't calm down, I love it. More tattoos, Oliver, more tattoos. Um, anyway, yeah, so he storms off wearing his white compression socks.

Bobby's just standing there going, well, that didn't go well. So, back to the, uh, 118 station house, and they're all cooking in the kitchen together. Except Buck, obviously. The four of them are cooking.

This is where I finally notice Eddie's hair. Just

Yeah, it's not great.

Uh, but apparently we are a week later, because

Oh yeah, Maddie says Buck hasn't left the apartment in a week.

Buck has not left his apart yes. And he won't even take Bobby's calls. And Eddie is very unfeeling in this scene. He just like brushes it off. He's just like, yeah. He's like, "he's sulking, Cap." And Hen's like, "Hey, like, he, this, this was a body blow to this guy. He is allowed to have time to mourn."

You know, find that weird, it's a weird, like, character flaw to have on since Buck's like, the mainest of the main characters, pretty much, um, and he doesn't have anything outside of work at all, he doesn't, like he everyone's got something they do outside of work, even if they just watch TV all the time, he doesn't. We never see him doing anything, except working.

Yeah, but I guess if you think about it from Hen's perspective, she's got Karen and Denny, Chim now has Maddie, Eddie has Chris.

He doesn't have any people outside of work.

He doesn't have any people outside of work, but also I think because he was so young they probably think he, I don't know how much of Buck's past they know, but maybe they think he never had like a career. So like the rest of them, they had jobs. Before they got to the 118.

Yeah,

maybe they think that Buck just rolled sort of straight out of college straight into firefighting So he's never had it like an actual job before because I don't know how much they know about him.

He does talk a lot about how like this job's his life This job's all he's got like even in the pilot when Bobby fires him like

oh, yeah No, I'm just saying on the writers part like he doesn't have any other things That yeah that we know of Yeah, Bobby says that he's got us, so they're going to have to stick up for him, so.

Meanwhile at 9-1-1 dispatch centre, Maddie and Josh are having an almost identical conversation.

Yep. What's Buck going to do for the rest of his life? Maddie's like, "I don't know, I'm not sure he even knows what he's going to do with the rest of his day." Which made me laugh. "Although, I suspect lying on the couch and binging cooking shows will play a part." Um, Josh makes a fat joke that we don't need to know about.

I did have to laugh. I didn't, not at the, the, um, fat phobia, but just at the reference to, um, Buck taking his feelings and turning them into cooking. Yeah. Um. Yes. So Maddie sits down and, oh god, we've still got to get through all of this storyline.

Yeah. We can speed through this part because it's, there's a, this, this emergency is, um, has a lot of moving parts to it, but I think that it moves forward quite quickly, like it's,

yeah. So Maddie, uh, sits down and takes a 9-1-1 call from a woman named Jill. And Jill is begging for help. All she can tell Maddie is that someone took her. She has been stabbed. She is bleeding, but she doesn't know where she is.

Maddie tries to get her to find something that she can put on her stab wound to stop her from bleeding. And the line goes empty, like she can't get any response out of Jill after this. So they, they start trying to work out where this Jill person might be.

Yeah, they can, we see Maddie, we see from Maddie's screen that she's kind of, she's pinged the cell phone tower so she can kind of get a general location for where Jill is, but that's really not that helpful without any further information that can help Maddie narrow the search. Josh has found, Josh has contacted the phone company. And found the account for the number that Jill was calling from and has found Jill's husband's phone number.

And Maddie is doing the police work once again.

Yes, again, which, yeah, I understand that in order to keep the movie, the story moving forward, rather than having Athena exposition all this later, which is kind of rather boring. If you've got a good actress there, you may as well just use them. So yada, yada, yada, but still frustrates me. Still weird, yeah.

She makes up some bullshit story about how she's working, she works for the city and she needs to know where his wife is, and he's just like, "I don't know. She said she was going shopping, I don't know."

But yeah, the um, long story short, they discover that Jill was pregnant. That's basically the whole important point.

Very pregnant.

Um, her husband doesn't know where Jill is, but she is pregnant. So now, not only do we have a woman who has been stabbed, and taken, and bleeding, but she's also pregnant, so now we've got a baby to worry about as well. While this is going down, Athena is making a traffic stop.

Yeah, how's her luck?

Yeah, and of course it's Athena.

This woman was speeding, and she put, went through a stop sign, so, I mean, at least she was behaving erratically, so, we have some reason for her to actually

She also has this, like, manic grin on her face the entire time.

Yeah, she's got the crazy ex girlfriend energy too.

Yeah, she's slightly unsettling. Um, and then we get Athena doing some really, really shady police work, which works out in her favor in the end, but would not recommend police act like this in reality, because she gets the license, registration, proof of insurance from this woman, notices that the woman has some blood in the cuticles of the hand that she's nervously rubbing on her face. So she gets the woman out of the car and cuffs her. Yeah, immediately cuffs her.

What if she just had a blood nose?

Yeah. Yeah, there is, there could have been many, many reasons why she had blood on her hands. And she takes the woman and sits her down on the curb, handcuffed, and asks her to explain whose blood is that. And says, and we see that, um, not only has she got blood on her hands, she's got blood sort of smeared up and down her shins. But Athena would not have been able to see that blood from inside the car.

Yeah, we never find out, we never find out anything more about her story after this. Like she's,

it's a really weird storyline.

She says she needs to bring a baby,

because 9-1-1 don't like,

yeah, yeah, they don't follow through.

9-1-1 don't like actually resolving their trauma, trauma. They just like to dump the trauma, use it for the storyline, and then get rid of it once it's served its purpose. But yes, um, I'm gonna say this woman has significant mental health issues.

Yeah, and or an abusive husband who

And or an abusive husband, um, and so she has convinced herself that , she needed to have a baby and has lured poor Jill, performed a field cesarean, removed the baby and is going to pass it off as her own. And actually has convinced herself that it is her baby.

Yeah. And she has like a pregnancy, um, prosthetic like stomach in the back of the car as well,

which I'm guessing she's been pretending she's been wearing a little while. She's been pretending

to be pregnant.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, but after this scene, we never see her again or hear anything about what happened.

No, and I actually, I really don't like the way Athena is dealing with this woman. Because she's treating her as if she is, that she consciously or intentionally inflicted this damage and like intended to kidnap this woman and stab her and steal the baby for, you know, malicious or evil purposes. Whereas this woman is quite clearly ill, mentally ill.

She's disturbed.

I would not.

And distressed. Extremely distressed. Like, it's, yeah, it's not the way.

It's another, like, oh look, cops don't know how to deal with mental illness.

Right. Right. I just wish that she had been a little bit more possibly understanding that there is something else going on other than just a woman being evil.

I feel like she had more sympathy to the woman who cut up her boyfriend on Valentine's Day.

Yeah. But she did try and convince her that. you know, to do the right thing.

Yeah. I feel like that they, they might've resolved this situation a little bit quicker if perhaps they had been nicer to Nancy.

Like, Hey, what did you and your baby do today? Oh, you know, we went to this fair thing. Oh, okay, cool. Go to the fair, go to the fair, go to the fair.

Yeah. I, I don't know. I just, the way Athena, the way they wrote Athena dealing with this woman just sort of rubbed me the wrong way. Um, I did not feel. angry at this woman. I felt sorry for her because it was quite clearly she was not operating with a full mental capacity.

Yeah. Uh, the 118 ambulance, I want to say, show up. Um, and Chim takes the baby. And Bobby is sort of standing with Athena trying to work out what's happening.

Yeah, we've kind of skipped around a little bit.

Well, we can, yeah, I mean this scene. Yeah. Yeah.

Basically, the 118 arrived, um, the baby was in respiratory distress, um, so they work on that. Um, Hen says that the baby's also lost some blood because the umbilical cord wasn't tied off properly, and the baby can't be more than an hour old.

Yeah, and that's at, it's this point where they find the, the prosthetic stomach thing, and Athena says, this baby, this, this woman is not the mother, like, I thought you'd already established that.

Oh, we had, but we just got to make sure that the slowpokes in the audience are caught up with the rest of us. Um, somehow Maddie is continuing to do police work from 9-1-1 dispatch. So from talking to Jill's husband, she then gets in contact with Jill's sister, who tells Maddie that Jill met up Basically, Jill met up with somebody who was selling baby clothes on Facebook Marketplace. It wasn't Facebook Marketplace, but that's, like, that's what it was.

I wonder what they cut out. I'm interested now.

Um, it, well it comes up in a later episode, but it's, um, it's a, I mean I can tell you what it is. It was a, a kid. Because of course everything in this episode is about a kid. Um, a kid who gets stuck in a washing machine at a laundromat.

Okay

Sure

I guess it didn't fit...

Kids these days, huh?

Yeah, kids these days. That makes more sense than the retirement, like

see Kirsten Rydell, are you listening? That's how you deploy it properly.

Honestly, the fact that they haven't hired us as writers, although having read both of your fan fictions, uh, 9-1-1 would have to move to a much later time slot.

I mean, Eddie saying it to the, the old man made more sense arguably than Athena saying it first up. But anyway. Uh, they're at the park, they're trying to work out....

They're at the park and the Bathena Investigation Agency is back on the case.

And they're talking to some guy who remembers the burgundy Cadillac, um, because it was different, different to the other cars that they normally get there. But it wasn't her driving it, it was some other lady.

Yeah, Athena is showing him a photo of Jill, and he says that it wasn't Jill driving, it was some other lady. So then, Bobby and Athena waste precious seconds spitballing the scenarios. Yeah. Like, so this is what happened. So why would he move the car? Nancy meets Jill, shows her the baby codes, they're out in the open, people can see them. She can't take the baby here, she's gotta get Jill alone. So Nancy walks Jill to her car, offers, I'll help you put the clothes in the trunk.

and it blows the whistle and they're like, Oh my goodness.

Maddie said there was a whistle. There's a whistle. And they look over on the other side of the park to sort of I guess where the train has come from and there is a loading bay with some dumpsters and just peeking out between the dumpsters is just the very front part of a red car.

Yep, so they off they run.

Like literally they run across the park.

Yep. The door is locked, but the they break open the boot and Jill is there and she's alive. She's been in this car for some time

At

least an hour. Yeah. Two hours. Bleeding out.

Yes.

Through a hole in her stomach.

Well, I mean, To be fair, if Chim can survive bleeding out for, what, three weeks, Jill can survive an hour.

I mean, Chim, Chim is arguably only there for a couple of hours as well. In the 9-1-1 timeline. Which we already know is a bit wibbly wobbly.

I mean, yeah, yeah. She must have been putting some damn good pressure on that wound to, um, to stop the bleeding enough that she survived.

Um, Maddie's also apparently still on the phone somehow,

yeah, because Jill never hung up and Maddie never hung up. Um. Yeah, she's just Maddie's

voice just going. Yeah, she's just, Maddie's like, I'm not allowed to hang up, I'm 9-1-1.

And apparently she can take, like, she can call other people while she's on a phone, but she can't hang up this one. So yeah, she's like, "Jill, Jill, can you hear me? If you can hear me, please say something. Jill, Jill," and Athena, um, Athena picks up the phone. Just goes, "oh, hey Maddie."

Hey Mads, what up?

Oh my god, Athena.

"Do you hear what that Karen did? So funny. Remember when Buck coughed up, like," "What about Jill?" "Oh yeah, she's fine."

Yes, Maddie, uh, finally finds out that Jill is alive, she's safe, and she just, like, she and Josh do their little, like, congratulatory high five dance that they do. And then we cut to a hospital. Because Maddie, being the creeper that she is, has used the information that she got from the phone records of Jill's husband to track him down to the hospital that they've taken Jill to, and she's visiting them.

Athena and Bobby are there in civvies.

Everyone's at the hospital.

We've completely, completely disregarded the whole "we don't cross the glass doors."

Oh yeah, no, they live in the hospital now.

Um, yeah, for everybody. Every single person.

Including random people who have just had babies. Yes.

Yeah, I don't know. Um, I assume that the surgery to put her back together after a, like, field caesarean would be probably a little more involved than an actual caesarean. Um, so she probably wouldn't be sitting up and like smiling and looking at the baby shortly after surgery, like,

Yeah, how long has this been?

Yeah, she looks very chipper for someone who's just

Yeah, they still haven't come up with a name yet Um, and this is the first time that the baby's meeting Like the mum's meeting the baby too. So like, why are, why are, yeah, cause they're like, "ready to go meet your mum?" And Maddie, Bobby and Athena are just like staring through the glass door.

Oh, it's so bad because yeah, they wheel the baby in and Jill's husband walks in and like closes the door to give themselves some privacy, but the door is floor to ceiling glass. So when Bobby and Athena and Maddie are like gathering around to watch they can see these creepers just standing in the hall staring at them. It's so weird.

Um, I gotta say, I do love this exchange though. Oh, yeah. So Maddie's like, "Oh, she's so tiny and sweet!" and Bobby's like, "Oh, are you and Chimney thinking about?" And Maddie just like cuts him off and goes, "Well, you two just got married, are you?" And Bobby's like, yep, point taken. But yeah, so Athena says they grow up so fast and they do, um, sort of, but I'm not interested in resetting the clock for another 18 years. And Maddie's like, "18? Buck's 28, and I still have my hands full."

I love Bobby says like, what do you, like, "what now?" And Maddie just looks over his shoulder and glares at him. Yeah. Say, ah, yeah, okay. Fair call. Later, I'm guessing later that night, because we do get a prolonged um, shot of the beautiful LA skyline at night. Um, we cut to Chimney's apartment and Maddie is I guess, telling Chim what happened at the hospital and she's saying that everybody around them has baby fever.

As you do.

Well, I mean, not me. I don't really have that. My boobs are not probably good for catching, um, popcorn. But.

Oh man, like even when I'm wearing like a high cut top, if I eat popcorn, there's gonna be some in my boobs. Don't know how it happens. It just happens. So I guess Chim's just trying to cut out the middleman.

He'll find it later. Um. Anyway, uh.

That's what I was thinking!

Yeah! Sounds itchy.

It does, doesn't it?

So yeah, so they have the do you want kids conversation. Um, Maddie did want to have kids, but then got married and it never felt safe. Chim's still adjusting to the idea that he's not a kid himself. Um.

And then he put, he catches popcorn in his mouth and it's like, you are a kid, shut up.

Um, but yeah, he says he, he doesn't know if he'd be a good parent himself. And Maddie says, like, same. And so basically they, they agree that they don't know and they're a firm maybe someday. Then they're like, wait, are we the only people we know who don't have kids?

And then there's a beat, and then they simultaneously say, "Buck." And look, I know that that is supposed to be, oh yeah, Buck doesn't have a kid.

No, Buck is their kid.

No, but that's what I mean. I'm sure it's meant to be, wait, Buck doesn't have a kid, but because we had Maddie in the earlier scene saying, you know, he's 28 and I still have my hands full with Buck, I thought that they've looked at each other and gone, no, wait, we do have a kid. It's Buck. He's our kid.

Like, he did just live with them all last season, so. Yeah.

And then Chim's got this popcorn bowl and does this like, dorky little dance.

It's like this little shimmy thing.

And Maddie just cracks up, and I'm like, What are you guys doing?

I 100 percent will put money on that being Kenneth just goofing off trying to make Jennifer laugh. Yeah, maybe. And they've kept it in.

It's cute. They're so cute, though. I love them. I love Madney so much.

They are adorable.

So speaking of Buck

Speaking of Buck Well, we don't actually know that it's Buck quite yet. It's just a bed.

It's Buck's bed.

Bed, with, um, big mound of covers, and an arm reaches in, grabs the covers, yanks it back, um, to reveal Buck curled up underneath, um, and apparently, Eddie has decided it's time for Buck to get up.

So, okay.

How did Eddie get in?

Eddie lets himself in his apartment. Yeah. Yep. And just whips the doona up.

Yep. Apparently, he's very confident that he knows what Buck's sleeping arrangements are like, that he's not worried that he's just going to pull the covers off.

I don't think he I don't think he doesn't care. Like, he Yeah. Just walks in like Buck could Buck could have been awake, Buck could have been doing anything, Buck could have been anything under that cover, but no, Eddie just lets himself in. So, Eddie has a key, clearly, but yeah, so Eddie has let himself in and then just whips the covers off Buck. And clearly he, he went up there alone, so he's not completely confident that Buck's got clothes on.

To be fair, those stairs are difficult for other people to climb, so it's probably easier for him to go up alone. Um, but then they engage in this little sort of tug and war back and forth with every time Eddie whips the covers off, Buck pulls them back over the top of him, himself. So then Eddie walks around to the other side of the bed and tries again, and Buck pulls them back on. To the point where

Yeah, they just keep going for ages.

Until Buck just gets like this, what the fuck dude? Look on his face and goes, fine, I'm gonna get up. And sort of stomps his way downstairs.

So Eddie says that Buck needs to get out of the house and take a walk around the block and get some fresh air. Buck's like, what's the point? And Eddie's like, well, point is your life's not over just because you're not a firefighter. Buck's like, well, says the firefighter.

Eddie tells him to, um, to stop feeling sorry for himself, that the blood clot could have killed him, but it didn't, so take that as a win. And Buck kind of glares at him, and starts to stomp back up the stairs when this little voice goes, "Hey Buck!"

Yeah, Christopher's there!

Buck sort of peers around the stairs, and there's Christopher! On the couch.

Just looking at him. One of the cutest scenes that, like, I think All 9-1-1, and definitely all Buddy fans, have watched a million times. Yeah. Where Buck goes, "what are you doing here?" And Eddie just goes over and goes, "He's hanging with his Buck today!"

Yes, he's not hanging with you, he's not hanging with Buck, he's hanging with his Buck. His Buck.

And he gives him like his

I have to go to work today.

He gives him a hug, and I'm like, oh, this is weird, like, why is he doing that? And then he goes. Then he says, because I have to go to work today. I'm like, oh, he's dropped him off. Surprise babysitting.

Oh, yeah. Once again, Eddie's just taking advantage of anyone. Like, Chim's in a coma. He can babysit Buck. He can babysit Chris. This is fine.

Yeah.

Buck's not working. He can babysit Chris.

And Buck's like, where's Carla?

Carla is unavailable. Carla went to Morongo. I don't know where Morongo is

Morongo is a, well, there is a town called Morongo, I think, but there's also a casino and like a spa kind of hotel place.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I like the idea that Carla's at a spa somewhere.

It's just outside of LA, like, on the way to Big Bear kind of thing. Like, out that way.

Good for Carla.

I actually read a, I read a fic recently that it was like a rewrite of this season. Um, and the implication was that Eddie had actually paid for Carla to go to Morongo. Oh. To force Buck to look after Christopher for the day. Oh. So, now I just look at this scene and go, wait, did Eddie actually tell Carla to go to Morongo?

Well, she's got to have holidays sometime. So yeah, he's, he's forcing Chris on Buck so that Buck will get out of the house, um, "go out, have some fun." Then he leans in and goes, "he never feels sorry for himself. Love you, buddy. Bye."

And then Buck, Buck puts on this happy face, like. And like, so, "what do you want to do for, what do you want to, what do you like to do for fun?" Um, but before we get to the fun, I want to know if anybody else gets the ick with that line that I get. I don't know whether I just, I'm getting hypercritical and so I'm picking fault with everything, but that line has always rubbed me the wrong way. And I want to know if it's rubbed anybody else the wrong way.

Yeah, what?

And it's actually taken me a while to work out why it rubbed me the wrong way, and it was only sort of today that I found the exact words to put it, that it's inspiration porn.

Oh, yeah.

Where he's using Christopher's disability to make Buck stop complaining. Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

It's that feeling of when you're, like, having a hard time and you're feeling sorry for yourself, and someone says to you, you can't feel, you can't feel bad about your situation because somebody else has a worse situation.

Yeah.

So it's, it's like Eddie is saying, you can't feel sorry about the fact that you've had major surgery, several major surgeries on your leg and can't work because my son is disabled and yet my disabled son who is never going to have the same opportunities that you have in life is always happy and sunny and never complains, never feels sorry for himself, so you don't get to complain and feel sorry for yourself.

He's also, like, seven, eight. Yeah. He's a kid.

Like, kids get frustrated at the best of times. Let alone when, you know, your wiring doesn't quite work as well as everybody else's, and so you struggle to do things. Um, so just, you know, to put him up on this pedestal as this rosy, you know, always happy, you know, he is the, the, the patron saint of disabilities because he's, you know, so happy. Um, it just, I don't know.

I think partially it would have been better if he hadn't said to Buck, "he never feels sorry for himself." It would have been better because, you know, you would have taken that, um, inspiration part of it out. Because sometimes spending time with kids is a good way to lift your spirits

Yeah, it's just spending time with kids.

Especially someone as sunny and happy as Chris. I think adding that line is what is the problem, right? It makes it seem like he's doing it to make Buck feel like he's making a big deal out of nothing. Because he shouldn't worry, because look at Chris. Yeah, you're right, it's not the best.

Like you are, yeah. It's not the best, and I think the fact that it's coming from, like, Eddie's perception of Chris, and Chris's disability, not Chris himself and his own existence, and his everyday, like, how he feels.

No, that's really interesting. Um, like, I'm glad you found that article and everything. We can link it in the, um, notes on this episode as well, just so other people have a read and

And I, any, for our, uh, like our three listeners out there, um, in Spotify land, um, if you have any thoughts on that particular line reading. Let me know, because I'd be curious. Like I said, it's always rubbed me the wrong way, I'd be curious if anybody else out there, if it's rubbed them the wrong way, too.

Yeah, it's just a shame that that one line

Yeah, one bad line doesn't make the whole show bad.

It could have just been like, hey, you have to, like, you get to hang with my kid today, and I know how much you love my kid, so don't disappoint him!

Even if they just stopped with the, maybe you'll learn something.

Yeah, exactly.

I think I probably, it wouldn't have struck me as badly of go out and have some fun, maybe you'll learn something.

Yeah, because like, the whole episode was like, you know, kids today, so it's like, maybe you'll learn something from this child that I'm dumping on you while you're miserable.

Poor Buck. He just wants to lie in bed and feel sorry for himself.

Instead he has to go to Santa Monica Pier.

It's so hard for him. I mean, it is. He

has a, he has a fun day, for some of the day at least. For the most part. Uh, they go to Santa Monica Pier, they go on the Ferris wheel, they do a, like a little Sideshow Alley game, where they win a great big teddy bear.

I loved it because the first time I watched this, um, it's a, like it's a water pistol game, so you've got to shoot at a target and the water goes through something and fills up a reservoir, and um, Christopher says he wants to win the bear. And there is a tiny teddy bear sitting on top of this platform, and as you use the gun to fill up, I guess, a reservoir, the platform goes up and up and up and up.

He's struggling to hold it.

It's literally like this Chris sized teddy bear, and it's like, oh, that's not, okay, yeah, cool.

That's, that's the bear, okay.

But yeah, it's really cute, like, they eat fairy floss together, they take photos in the photo booth together. After they've won the, like, shooting game, Buck hears a siren, and it's a crew from the LAFD. And they're working on a man who's in like a mascot costume, and he's just like staring at them longingly.

And Christopher has to get his attention back on him, he's like, oi, you're here with me. Yeah. And he's looking after me. I need help with this giant teddy bear, help me with my bear.

Um, but Chris is like, are you okay? And Buck goes, yeah, the universe is mocking me, let's go feed the fish.

I love that both of you just completely glossed over my joke about Buck being too tall to ride.

Oh, I didn't even see that.

I didn't even see that.

For the listeners out there, in my notes on the, the little montage of Chris and Buck at the, at the pier, um, it says it cuts to shots of the rollercoaster and a vertical spinny ride and Chris and Buck are standing at like the height measurement. Um, Chris apparently meets the height requirement, but Buck is too tall to ride, uh, parentheses, oh no he isn't, insert evil smile, close parentheses.

Oh

my God, just ask Taylor Kelly. Anyway, um, I go to the edge of the pier and there's, Buck is sitting on a park bench type thing and Chris is standing up on it.

This is like the most, like, it's the most uncle thing ever. Like

it's, as a, as a parent, I appreciate the grip

Yeah, I have 100 percent done this.

that Buck has got on Chris's shirt.

I've absolutely done this.

So Chris is standing on the bench looking out at the water and Buck's just sitting on the bench, not even looking at Chris, but his. He's like, holding on the back of Chris's shirt, like, gripping it so that Chris doesn't, like, topple down.

Yeah.

And he's just like, and I'm just like, yeah, I feel that as an auntie who gets very tired by the toddler, toddler nephew, literally just like, yeah, just let me, just do your own thing. Just let me sit for a minute.

Yeah, I'm gonna make sure that you're safe. You're not going anywhere, but I just need a break. And then the teddy bear is sitting next to him on the bench with Christopher's clutches.

Yeah. Then they have this. It's this, like, cute little exchange where Buck asks what Christopher, like, wants to be when he grows up. And Chris wants to be an astronaut or a pirate. Buck's like, "Yep, good choices, cool outfits." And Chris is, like, you can see him thinking cool outfit and he's like, "Oh, a firefighter." And Buck's like, "Yeah. Me too."

Oh, Buck.

And he gives Chris this speech about, he hopes that Chris will find something that he loves, something that he's good at, and that makes Chris feel like, feels like he matters, um, because that is the best feeling. Something he could do forever, yeah. Yeah, and he really hopes that Chris gets that, um, because apparently Buck has lost that. He's really sort of projecting his feelings on this kid.

And it's like, Buck, are you talking Yeah, Buck, are you talking to Chris or are you talking to yourself?

Yeah, it does sound like he's having a bit of an epiphany himself.

Um, and then Chris reaches a hand down and goes, "You're gonna be okay, kid."

And just the way he like, he cups Buck's cheek, you can 100 percent tell that that's something that Eddie does. Yeah. Yeah. And he's just copying. He's doing to Buck what Eddie does to him. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but as he sort of cups Buck's cheek, it turns Buck's head because he turns to look at Chris and then something out of the corner of his eye catches his attention and he looks over his shoulder. And then he slowly stands up and looks out at the ocean.

But the ocean's not there anymore.

Yeah, the um, the camera pulls back and we see kind of everyone standing on the pier looking out at the ocean and that keeps pulling back and we see the supports of the pier all covered by barnacles and the rocks that they're built onto, which is slightly worrisome because we're not supposed to be able to see that because that's supposed to be underwater And there is no water anywhere near the pier.

Yeah, it's a really clever shot, actually. It looks amazing.

All the water has been sucked back out and is currently building into a giant wave.

Yes.

And we get a quick shot of Buck's oh shit face and blackness. End of the episode.

Yep, nothing like a, a disaster, um, cliffhanger to end the episode.

Welcome, welcome to the Season 2 Disaster Era.

Yeah, well it's a great start to the season, this, um, this episode.

I have a note here that my friend Beckett, who wrote in for, um, our Season 2 wrap up episode. Yep. Um, this was the first episode he ever saw of the show. Oh.

Oh no.

So I think I have, like, I think he thought, like, he was starting at season one and it... I'm, yeah, I'm pretty sure that, if I remember the story right, I'm pretty sure his, like, Whatever app he was using to watch it was just like oh, yeah This is the episode you want to watch instead of season one. And so he's watching he's like, oh no How how does everyone know like there is no establishing anything in this show

Yeah, no, that's not a very good pilot episode Yeah

Oh no.

No one gets introduced at all Yeah, so all I could do at the end of this episode was sort of immediately go on to the next one

See? Yeah.

Yeah. I didn't wait around for next week for this.

But could you imagine if you were watching this live? Yeah. And you just, you see this massive wave building and then you have to wait an entire week to see what happens next.

Yeah. Terrifying.

I do, I do, I do want to bring this something up because I did mention at the end of season two, but I'm starting to doubt myself now. Um, so I made a, I'm pretty sure it made it into the final cut, but I made a, um, a mention in the 218, which was the, the family barbecue. Oh yeah. It was that, that episode, and I told everyone to watch or to look at Eddie's shirt very carefully because it was going to come back. So in that scene, he was wearing a white Henley.

I did not notice that.

But see, here's the No, but see here's, so I'm gonna drop a link in the group chat, which is a GIF from, um, that episode, and you can see like the Henley up close. And it, at first glance, it kind of does look like it's inside out because it's got the raw seams.

Yeah, it looks like an undershirt.

And there is like a, and there's like a tag at the back of Ryan's neck, but it's not the same Henley though, because the one that he was wearing at his abuela's only has like three buttons and this one has like four buttons

It's a weird shirt because you're right the seams are on the outside, but the buttons are in the right place, but he's also

Yeah, and there's this little, um, embroidery thing on his left hip that kind of looks like a, it should be there. But yeah, the tag is on the outside.

Oh, what a weird looking shirt. Maybe it's reversible or something.

So I'm gonna have to, I don't know. So I'm gonna have to retract my statement, which was keep an eye on the Henley because, um, they fuck it up and he wears it inside out because I think it's a different Henley. It's just,

It's just a weirdly designed one.

It's just a weird looking Henley. It's the same, it's the same costumed person who picked Athena's wedding dress and her undergarments. They've seen this Henley and gone, yes, a tag hanging out the back of Ryan's neck. That's, that's perfect. That's what we need. I'm just gonna watch this gif on loop because Ryan's bending over in those jeans and That's quite a nice sight.

Are you okay, Bex? It's like, first the, um, Buck's not being too tall to ride, and now

This is a raunchy episode, in the end.

I have been single for a very, very long time.

Oh, I feel that, honey. I feel that. Anyway, welcome to, um, That Wee Woo Show after dark.

Welcome to season three.

Where the thirst just keeps coming.

Oh, it's gonna get worse this season. I swear to God, it's going to get worse.

Oh yeah. Like kitchen scene, anyone?

Is that this season?

Mm hmm.

Oh boy. Okay. Okay. But that's not next week. No. We have to get through a tsunami first.

Yep. All right, so we have a summary for next week.

The summary for next week is literally a massive tsunami hits the pier, placing Buck and Christopher's lives in danger. Yeah. That's it.

No spoilers. That's exactly what happens. Nope. Uh, I think next, next week, I think we're going to have, we're going to do episodes two and three in one double podcast episode. Simply because we don't want to talk about

I think it's going to be torturous.

We don't want to talk about half of the episode, and not the other half at once. Yes. So, stay tuned for that. Anything else to say? Oh, do we want to mention triggers?

Uh, there's a natural disaster.

A tsunami. People drown.

It's a tsunami. Well, yes, because there's going to be lots of water, there's going to be lots of, like, deaths by drowning, death by electrocution, because of said water. Funnily enough, multiple people and children at threat. I don't know if you saw that one coming. Um, and randomly a car accident. Oh, and I'm, I think we're probably going to have to throw in depiction of, um, corpses and some gore. Oh yeah. Or blood.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

I remember that. It's bad having seen these already because I don't get to listen to the triggers and go, oh, this sounds awful.

No, you know exactly what's coming.

I know, I know what you're talking about, yeah. Yes.

Yeah, so now you also understand when Alice and I are reading them and like, what is that trigger? Oh, yeah, it's that one. Yeah, so yes. Um, do we need to do season, do we need to do episode three as well, or do we just like, um, second, first, same as the first?

Well, we sort of covered it, right? Like, there's not much else. Oh, there's an amputation.

There is a, yes, but I think that's the only new element to it. Otherwise it's, um, Athena, Maddie, Bobby and the 118 race to save lives after a massive tsunami hits the Santa Monica Pier. Though the summary, um, the prompt, the Fox promo would also think it's very important that we know that Ronda Rousey guest stars in these episodes. Okay.

Yeah, I forgot she got, like, was in so early in season three.

Uh, Ronda Rousey plays, um, Lena Bosco, the uh, the fire lady.

Yeah.

Um, she is. That one was like, sure.

Yeah, I know. Yeah. I know. Cause Eddie goes, the fire lady. I'm sure she's,

yes. Um, she is an MMA star. Yeah, I thought I, Or an MMA fighter.

I was gonna say, isn't she like some kind of sports person? So yes, I did recognize her name, but I wasn't sure.

But yes, I think that's pretty much. That is it for the, the summaries and the trigger for the next two episodes, which are called, uh, "Sink or Swim", and "The Searchers".

I was gonna, I was trying to think of anything like we wanted to say about what's happening with the characters for the beginning of season three, but I think the only thing that's happening, happening with all of them shortly is that they're all gonna be involved in the tsunami in a moment, so. Yes. Maybe we can talk a bit more about that after this next episode.

Yeah, let's get the, the tsunami arc out of the way.

Yeah.

Because everyone's going to be a little bit busy for a little while.

Yeah, and no one's really moved forward that much in one episode, so.

Buck's moved backwards, if anything.

Yes. All right then. Um, well, if any of you listeners, lovely listeners have, um, things that you'd like to share with us about this episode, uh, you can get in touch with us in a bunch of different ways. And they're all listed, including our social media. Although I haven't put our Blue Sky account on there yet. We are on Blue Sky now, as well as other locations. But, The information on how to contact us is all on our website, which is thatweewooshow.

I'm so not ready. Ah, it's coming.

I've already said see you then. See you then.

Bye.

Bye.

9 1 1 is a fictional show, but many of the situations portrayed happen in the real world too. If any of the topics we've discussed in this episode have affected you, please know you're not alone. You can call or text numbers in your country for help. Just Google crisis support in your location to find out the number. If you enjoy our podcast, you can help us out by leaving us a review on Spotify or your preferred listening app.

can't believe you never watched it. Um, Yeah, it was literally my, like, my entire personality when I was like 13.

Were you a Kat or a Bianca?

I think I just, I wanted to be a Kat.

Yeah.

But I also had the biggest crush on Bianca and, um, Joseph Gordon Levitt. Oh, yeah. Whatever his name is. Yeah.

Yes, it would have been, if I'd watched it when it was new, I would have loved it as well. But, I don't know how I avoided it for so long.

Yeah, right? That's what I mean.

Neither do I.

I mean it was, when it was new, I was, like it was, it came out in like, 99, right?

Really?

I think so.

Uh, I hear you googling so I won't.

Yeah, 1999, holy shit. Yeah, so. I got into it late then, because I got into it in like, mmm, 2006.

Yeah, well, I was like 19 years old, that's like peak, like going to the movies age. Like why?

Right, exactly.

Why would, why did I not do that? I don't know. Um, but anyway, I'm glad I eventually saw it. It was good. I enjoyed it.

We got there eventually.

Yeah. Great music.

Great music.

Loved the music. I was obsessed with Letters to Cleo for like months afterwards. And then I found out that they were the band behind Josie and the Pussycats when that came out in that era and just, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, no, that, I, the, yeah, the live music in it, it kind of, I, I guess it was probably around the same era as, um, like Buffy, like maybe a bit later than Buffy.

And the Bronze?

Yeah, yeah, it felt like that. Like when they'd go and they'd actually watch real life music.

Friday night at the Bronze, and they'd have a, yeah.

And then kill some vampires on the way home, you know. Ah, yeah, great. Very nostalgic.

Didn't I, didn't I, didn't I see you crying?

My name's Ellen.

I'm Alice.

Anyone there?

Alice?

Did we lose Bex?

Did we lose everybody? No, I'm still here.

Did we say it at the same time and neither of us got picked up on either?

I don't know. I didn't hear anything. I was just like, did I drop out? What's happened?

Normally Bex goes last.

Yes. But I didn't hear you.

I definitely said it.

Oh. Oh, I didn't hear you.

Um. Alright, let's try again.

Let's just try again.

I mean, I'll just say mine because you can cut it all together. And I'm Bex.

I'll cut out all the laughing.

Oh, this is going to be terrible.

It's alright. It's okay.