In last week’s episode of 9-1-1, Michael, David, and Bobby were well on their way to becoming amateur detectives. Meanwhile, Hen’s mother came for a visit, and Buck’s disastrous date somehow ended up working out in Albert’s favor. Keep reading to find out what happened in episode 8, “Breaking Point.”
We open at an airport, where a plane full of passengers is impatiently waiting for their turn to disembark. One thing soon leads to another and — already paying homage to the episode’s title — the lone flight attendant left to keep the people on the plane busy truly reaches her breaking point. She exits the plane via the evacuation slide with a bottle of champagne, and one of the airport workers rushes over to slow down her drunk and graceless tumble. In what’s certainly one of the more gag-worthy accidents, the 118 is called to help dislodge the cork from the bottle from the worker’s throat. Oh yeah, and this is the same guy they pulled out of the jet engine in season 3, episode 10.
Later, Eddie and Ana are in the middle of a riveting date … in which she’s teaching him math for Christopher. He eventually has to bail, because he promised Christopher he would be home in time to tuck him into bed. Eddie arrives at home to relieve Buck from his babysitting duties, and we learn that Buck may not have the best track record with bedtime stories. (A kid in a rotisserie? Think of it as a cautionary tale.) When Eddie goes to say goodnight to Christopher, his son immediately tries to figure out who exactly his dad had dinner with, but Eddie’s lips remain sealed for the time being. Buck heads back to his apartment afterward, and he’s perplexed to find a bra hanging out of a laundry basket in the living room. An awkward moment ensues as Buck discovers that Albert and Veronica have been “Netflix-and-chilling.”
Maddie and Chimney are video chatting with their doctor, and a wrench is thrown into their birth plans. The ER has been overwhelmed, which means that there’s no guarantee that she will be the doctor that’s there to deliver the baby when the day finally comes. The idea of delivering their baby … in a mask, with a doctor she’s never met, without Chimney in the building … is pushing Maddie over the edge. Her solution? A home birth.
Taylor Kelly has returned, and she’s reporting on a crazed gunman that has found himself trapped on a rooftop (much to the homeowner’s chagrin). As the negotiation tactics are further drug out over a period of 6 more hours (anyone feeling some nostalgia for the Spongebob timecards?), Buck commiserates about his tragic love life with Taylor, Chimney shares his home birth worries with Hen, Eddie discusses his dating woes with Bobby and Athena, and the 118 make bets how this rooftop debacle will ultimately play out. And props to Taylor, because when Buck explains that after therapy and working on his issues with his parents, his next step is meeting someone and starting a meaningful relationship, she smiles as she reminds him that his life is nothing but meaningful relationships thanks to the people he works with. The fed up homeowner finally climbs up on the roof himself and shoves the gunman to the ground. Back at Buck’s apartment, Albert apologizes for the awkwardness with Veronica and invites him to come for dinner on Thursday night. Buck then proceeds to invite Taylor.
Athena comes to the dispatch center to have lunch with May, and they’re both concerned to find how irritable Maddie appears to be with the 9-1-1 caller she’s speaking to. Athena sits down with her and the two have a heart-to-heart as Maddie explains her concerns about the upcoming birth situation, and Athena shares her own experiences with her pregnancies.
At the Wilson household, chopping carrots while talking on the phone almost results in disaster for Karen. Thankfully, her finger remains intact, and she has Hen (and the adorable little doctor in training Nia) on-site to patch her up afterward. Karen then tells Hen that the conversation she had been in the middle of was with the social worker; she wants to come see them because Nia has been in their care for almost a year, and it’s time to discuss permanent placement.
Athena responds to a noise complaint, in which a house’s alarm system has been going off repeatedly, and she eventually comes to find that the woman attempted to kill her husband and trapped him inside of a wall. It’s definitely a shame that their divorce didn’t get finalized pre-COVID.
Eddie decides to finally broach the topic of conversation that Christopher has been bugging him about, and he tells his son that he has a girlfriend. Christopher doesn’t take this well; he throws a salad bowl to the floor and storms off to his room. Meanwhile, dinner at Veronica’s crashes and burns almost immediately after Taylor’s arrival. Buck didn’t quite tell Taylor that his invite was for a double date. After a failed attempt at small talk, Taylor excuses herself. Buck runs out after her, and Taylor is upset as she lets Buck have it, calling him out on the way he handled the situation.
Eddie video chats with Ana to fill her in on the disaster with Christopher. She’s understanding, offering that they can take a break if needed, but Eddie’s not quite ready to throw in the towel yet. He goes to check on Christopher and is panicked to discover that he’s is missing. His phone begins to ring from under the covers of his son’s bed — it’s Buck. He frantically tells Buck that he needs help, but his best friend cuts him off as he tells him that Christopher used his phone to call an Uber to bring him to his apartment.
Over the years, we’ve watched a wonderful relationship develop between Buck and Christopher, and this next scene is a beautiful culmination of the trust that’s been built between them (not to mention that it speaks volumes that Christopher would go to Buck in the first place in this situation). Christopher opens up to Buck as he talks about the fact that his father has a girlfriend now and explains that it’s not only the loss of his mother that hurts, but the fact that he feels like he’s lost almost everyone that’s important in his life now due to the restrictions of the pandemic. He doesn’t want to lose anyone else. Buck reassures Christopher that he’ll see his grandma, his friends, and Carla again, but until then … he’s still got him, because he’s not going anywhere.
Chimney is uncomfortable to find Maddie’s intense home birth set up waiting for him in the dining room in the morning, and he finally tells her that he can’t do it. The amount of time to the nearest hospital — 13 minutes — is too much of a risk if something goes wrong. Seeing how distressed Chimney is, Maddie agrees to a hospital birth.
Taylor is reporting from the scene at a hospital that will need to ration care because it has reached full capacity due to COVID-19, and she almost begins to cry on camera as she’s overcome with emotion. She then learns that the hospital freezer broke, and they have 600 doses of the vaccine that have been thawed and must be distributed within two hours. She makes a quick phone call to Buck, and the 118 (and Athena) rush onto the scene. They get to work delivering the doses, and they even assist in setting up and running vaccination stations (and Michael gets his vaccine!) Despite the overwhelming feeling of being helpless while surrounded by so much tragedy, Taylor is relieved that they were able to pull off a miracle.
Ana arrives at the Diaz household, and Christopher is all smiles as he gives her a hug. Meanwhile, Maddie and Chimney are in good spirits as they prepare her hospital bag. Albert returns to the apartment and informs Buck that he broke up with Veronica.
In the final moments of the episode, Hen comes home to find Karen sitting with the social worker. The mood in the room is tense, and Diedra informs Hen that Nia’s birth mother wants to pursue reunification. They have to give Nia back.
Can we forgive the show for ending the winter finale with an emotional and heartbreaking cliffhanger? That remains to be seen when 9-1-1 returns on FOX on Monday, April 19 at 8 p.m. EST!
