‘9-1-1’ Midseason Premiere: Chimney Kicks [Spoiler] out of the 118
Spoiler Alert
What To Know
- The 9-1-1 midseason premiere sees Hen continue to try to hide her health issues from Chimney and the rest of the 118.
- Meanwhile, Buck and Ravi’s attempt to help Eddie with his love life leads to an unexpected encounter for one of the firefighters.
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 7 “Secrets.”]
We have to admit: The ending of the 9-1-1 midseason premiere, which aired on Thursday, January 8, hurt. After all, it involves our favorite ride-or-dies on TV, Chimney (Kenneth Choi) and Hen (Aisha Hinds).
When the episode, titled “Secrets,” picks up, Hen has yet to inform anyone at the 118 or her wife Karen (Tracie Thoms) of what’s been going on with her, including a hand tremor and passing out. Instead, she’s trying to diagnose herself. Meanwhile, Buck (Oliver Stark) and Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) decide to be wingmen for Eddie (Ryan Guzman) after comparing his love life to a very 9-1-1-esque call.
All in all, this episode is a return to form for 9-1-1 and exactly what we expect from the first responder drama: just the right combination of wild calls and character-based stories. It feels like the show may be settling into its new normal post-Bobby’s death in a way it couldn’t when the focus was on the space emergency for the first four episodes of the season. Read on for all the highlights.
The truth about Hen comes out in the worst way possible
As we learn through a conversation Hen has with another woman hooked up to an IV at the medical spa, she’s been there once a week for the past three months, tried every treatment the place has to offer, and still has “no idea” what’s going on with her. But she does have to face questions about the money she’s spending there and the vials of pills she has when she gets home. Karen has discovered both and calls her out on her recent behavior. Hen admits to having weird symptoms (rashes, muscle aches, migraines, nausea, and fatigue) and every blood test and scan being inconclusive. Hen says she’s running the show while the doctor at the spa is just making recommendations. Karen also tells her she needs to tell Chimney, as both her best friend and her captain, and she knows her wife hasn’t because she doesn’t want to get benched. If she doesn’t, Karen will.
Hen does fill in Athena (Angela Bassett), who, too, asks why she hasn’t told anyone. Hen admits the longer she kept quiet, the harder it was to confess. She knows she has to tell the others, but she loves her job and she’s not ready for this to be the end. Athena suggests it’s not, just the start of a new chapter.
After Hen has to have Eddie help her deliver a baby during a call because of her hand tremor, she does try to tell Chimney, only for him to talk about how she’s stronger than the rest of them. But it’s on a call that interrupts them that Hen becomes experiencing more symptoms and just makes it out of a structure fire after rescuing a young girl — before collapsing in front of the 118!
At the hospital, Karen realizes that Hen never spoke to Chimney, and so once the paramedic/firefighter is awake, that tough conversation happens. Chimney asks why she didn’t tell him, and she explains that she was afraid talking about it would make it real, whatever it is. But as he points out, two dozen people saw her collapse at the scene of a fire, and now the entire LAFD command structure is calling him. What would have happened if she’d collapsed inside the building and been unconscious with a kid in a fire? She apologizes, and he tells her he’s sorry, too.
“I can’t have someone on the team who puts her life and the lives of her coworkers and the public at risk. I don’t believe you would’ve done this if Bobby were still in the captain’s chair,” he says. (Ouch! But is he right?) She doesn’t think that’s fair, and he knows it’s not, but, “You don’t trust me, Hen, and I need to be able to trust you, and right now, I can’t. If this were anyone else, I’d have to let them go.” She doesn’t think she should be any different, and he agrees. “You’re done at the 118,” he tells her before walking out of her hospital room. Wow. Something tells us it’s going to be harder for their friendship to recover than their working relationship.
Buck, Eddie & Ravi’s night out leads to a couple twists
After a call involving a man wearing a chastity belt that the 118 needs to cut off, Buck decides that Eddie can relate to him. “You are wearing a chastity belt of your own,” he tells his best friend. He hasn’t looked at a woman in a year. Eddie tries to argue that Buck hasn’t either, but Buck says that’s not true or the point. But Eddie can’t forget that the last woman he looked at sent his son halfway across the country, and so his focus is on Christopher. (Buck then says he’s using Chris as a chastity belt, and our reaction is the same as Eddie’s: Don’t put those two together, Buck.) Buck thinks he’s punishing himself and enjoying it, and so he and Ravi decide to play wingmen for Eddie so he can meet a woman in real life.
Disney/Christopher Willard
But rather than Eddie go home with someone’s number, it’s Buck who does — with both Jade (Jillian Murray) and Zane’s (Dean Geyer). He then goes out with both and brings both back to his place. The sex was “mind-blowing” with both, he tells Eddie and Ravi. In fact, he hasn’t felt something real with anyone since Tommy, and now he has two someones … who, as Ravi discovers by looking at their socials, seem to be siblings! He even bonded with Zane over both of them having a sister. Buck doesn’t think it’s that bad, that there’s a ton of gray area in modern love, but he still knows he needs to break it off with both of them.
And so he does just that, with what he calls a classy text. (Quote of the episode from Ravi: “Was it a group text on their family plan?”) However, then both show up at the 118 together, and Buck has Eddie and Ravi stay with him for the conversation that ensues that sheds some light on what’s really going on. Jade and Zane aren’t siblings but rather a married couple who practice ethical non-monogamy and are looking for a third. They want to keep seeing him together. Buck turns them down since he’s still figuring out how to be a half. The couple makes it clear the invitation remains open before Jade looks to Ravi and Zane to Eddie, leading to both firefighters walking off.
What did you think of the midseason premiere? Let us know in the comments section below.
9-1-1, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC
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G
Where do you begin. First Chimney cannot be called “Cap”. There is only one “Cap” and Chimney is not it. Next he has to stop chewing the gum it is very noticeable. I can’t even begin to discuss Buck and the two partners. I don’t think Bobby would be very proud of him right now . What ever happened to to the nice realistic comforting show from before that left you with a good feeling .This is just ridiculous and not very well written . I am sure kids were glad to watch it before they went to bed .
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J
"Realistic"? 911? When?
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C
Chimney made the right decision. You have to be medically and physically able to do the job they're doing. Bobby would've done the same thing. Best friends do things like that job wise. No one should be working if they are SICK!!!!
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V
I enjoyed this episode very much. The cast did an excellent job with their character portrayals. Chimney did the correct thing in the removal of Hen from the team. I just do not want her to leave the show.
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J
I'm not watching this show anymore. Don't like the throuple story line, I want Hen to be healthy and I want Bobby back.
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J
Ugh! I can only surmise, from the overdone (and mostly out of character writing this week) that something I suspected from the date of Bobby's unwarranted demise, is that the B team of the writing staff is now fully ensconced on the OG show while the A team is busy shoring up the less than scintillating Nashville sidekick.
How I can tell? OG Hen would NEVER have done any of these things! EVER!
Bobby (the actual character, not Peter Krause -- though I'll bet he might be having similar feelings!) must be rolling over in his you-know-what, thinking: THIS is what I was "killed" for?! This and the oh-so REALISTIC storylines we've seen so far this season!?
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J
I actually think it's very IC for Hen to do this. She cheated on Karen, then dealt with Eva behind her back, then enlisted in medical without telling her, accepted Interim Cap without telling her, confronted Ortiz without telling her, went to rescue Bobby and Athena at the boat without telling anyone... Hen is EXTREMELY secretive and distrustful
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J
Thanks for replying! I agree with some of that, definitely -- and I had taken into account her dishonesty around the ex-wife etc. because she didn't want to hurt Karen. Bad judgement, agreed! But I don't believe Hen has ever knowingly endangered anyone's life in her firefighting line of duty. That doesn't feel like Hen, to me. She saves lives, she doesn't put lives in danger on purpose. Which was why she was so "crippled" after she killed the young woman in the intersection a few seasons back.
When she knew something was wrong physically -- as she had collapsed and been unconscious for a number of hours in a previous episode -- I just don't believe she would have gone back to work, period. I think she would have taken sick leave. (I'll give you the silly sinking ship thing but, to me, that was just another dumb 2-parter that I discounted as absurd from the moment I saw the ads for it. Everybody was out of character in that one! Just like her going to space this year! Puh-lease! The whole show has seriously gone off the rails in the past couple/3 years. And it's only getting worse. (Which makes me very sad as I miss the old earlier Fox network days on this show. Not just Bobby's o-so realistic "death", but the whole show!)
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J
Thank you! Really nice to chat with othe fans of the show, specially when they are so friendly <3 I believe she endangered Ortiz's son, albeit he had it coming. I always thought Bobby would have forced care upon him lol. She also endangered everyone when she tried to tackle both medical school and interim cap duties at the same time at the cost of sleep, and she never once looked for help or backed out, seeing she wasnt sleeping. She wa snot at 100%. She endangered Eva's life when she OD'd and she considered for some seconds not getting her help. I sympathized with her then as a human being, but you can't avoid mentioning that. I think you raise a good point though: why is she so fearful of being benched? The series seems to be telling us she feels she could be benched forever, for some reason. Maybe she's feeling her age? We know such a storyline is coming for Buck, could also be coming for her in a different way. I don't think the show has gone any more off the rails than having a zombified guy eating people's faces or Buck needing a tthracheotomy due to bread (season 1), the whole Ocean's 9-1-1 plot (season 2), the underground fighting club (season 3), the naked guy stuck to a billboard (season 4), the firefighter serial killer thing (season 5), the zoo escape and the zeppelin (season 6)... the show has always been far fetched, absurd and silly. Its Bobby's death that's out of touch with it and makes me sad 🙁
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A
Hen has become a real drag, even before her mystery illness (I’m guessing Parkinson’s) She is serious all the time, and what makes this show special is drama leavened with humor. I don’t mean jokes and silliness, but rather not taking yourself too seriously.
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C
Disney show promoting homosexuality, threesomes, sex out of marriage, the use of ouija as something just for fun?... Yeah, all that we can expect in Disney nowadays.
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