After 6 long weeks, fans of the hit show 9-1-1 can breathe a sigh of relief as their favorite show returned for the second half of season 4. Of course with this show, that sigh of relief lasted for only a second as it delivered punch after action-packed punch in the latest episode, “Blindsided.” Let’s jump right in.
The Spring premiere opens with Maddie jolting Chimney awake with possible contraction pains. After a moment she decides it’s nothing, and goes back to sleep. Thus begins a montage of 42 week pregnant Maddie doing everything in her power to bring on her labor while Chimney watches in horror at her tactics. She chugs a quart of hot and sour soup, tries exercise, eats pineapple and drinks raspberry tea, but nothing is working. Maddie is still very pregnant the next day as Albert drives them to the hospital at the posted speed limit much to Chimney’s dismay. However, she’s only experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions and is sent home.
Meanwhile, Karen and Hen take Nia to her scheduled meetings with her birth mother. Nia cries as she’s carried away from them and Hen is very upset. Hen tells the social worker, Deidra, that they want to meet the birth mother but Deidra says that’s not allowed. Hen is concerned about whether the woman is capable of caring for Nia and wants to fight to keep her. Deidra tells them it’s normal to feel this way but the reunification is the purpose of foster care and they will continue to check on Nia after she returns to her mother’s care. Hen is upset that Karen seems calm about losing Nia.
May arrives to the dispatch center just as she receives a Facebook friend request from Laila Creedy, the very bully who caused her suicide attempt. She’s so distracted she slams into Josh who asks if he should respond on her behalf but she says she’s going to ignore it. In the break room, Linda and Maddie visit about her pregnancy and their night shift. Maddie shares that they don’t have a name yet and Linda regales her with the tail of her brother’s birth. Their parents didn’t have a name for him yet either, and their mother was so overcome with emotion in the delivery room that she named him after the doctor, Norman. His name is Norman Bates. Maddie texts Chimney in a panic saying they need to have a name ASAP. At the station, Chimney asks Buck and Eddie if they have any name suggestions. Eddie says they should wait to meet her, that’s how they knew Christopher’s name. Maddie isn’t happy with that idea. Chimney restocks the ambulance as he talks to Bobby, yelling for Hen to come help even though they just did this.
Maddie takes a call from a terrified child, Jacob, who says his mother isn’t responding. They are driving and she seems lost but won’t answer his questions. Maddie has him put her on speaker but the mother only mumbles and looks confused as she continues to drive with Jacob in the backseat growing increasingly scared. The woman slams into cars next to her, managing to correct enough to enter the freeway. But she’s going the wrong direction and Maddie calls for officers to respond. Calls begin to flood in reporting the vehicle going the wrong direction. Cars swerve out of the way, but she slams head on into an airport shuttle bus. Vehicle after vehicle crash into each other with explosions, causing a huge pile up. Jacob and his mom are both unconscious as Maddie continues talking to him.
The 118 respond to the scene where dozens of vehicles are involved, many on fire. Athena also reports to the scene, where she finds Bobby directing the crew to be wary of vehicles until airbags have been deactivated. There are three casualties so far and a dozen injuries. They approach the original vehicle where Buck and Eddie are doing scans and trying to get inside. They have heat signatures so believe there’s at least one person inside. Athena tells them about Jacob and they jump into rescue mode, breaking out the heavy equipment to get to him. Jacob is unconscious but alive. The mother comes to as Hen tends to her and is confused by what happened. Athena finds a nearly empty bottle of alcohol in the floor board, answering everyone’s question as to how this happened. She was driving drunk. Athena snaps, “How many people have to die tonight because she was drunk and stupid?” The comment seems to hit Bobby hard. Chimney gets Jacob out of the car and onto a gurney for transport. Bobby check in with everyone as the teams continue to pull victims from vehicles. He finds Renfrow talking to a victim in a car but as Bobby approaches the airbag explodes, severely burning Renfrow and the driver. Bobby and Buck manage to pull the man out.
In dispatch, Maddie takes a call from a diabetic person stuck in the traffic caused by the pile up but she can barely making it through a sentence because of her contractions. Sue notices that she’s in labor and sends Maddie to the hospital even though she wants to finish her shift.
On the scene, Athena confirms what hospital the drunk driver will be taken to, she’ll be placed in police custody. Sue announces on the radio to the 118 that Maddie is in labor and headed to the hospital. Everyone congratulates Chimney and Bobby tells him to go meet his daughter. Athena offers him a ride, she’s headed to the same hospital anyway. At the hospital, Chimney heads upstairs as Athena offers him some advice, “If she tells you to shut up, shut up.” As Athena begins to leave, she overhears a man yelling at a nurse. His wife’s room is listed as secure and he’s unable to see her. Athena steps in and informs him that she’s in custody because she was the cause of the pile up. The man is shaken and says his wife swore she wouldn’t drink and drive with Jacob in the car. Outside, he calls the children’s hospital to confirm his son is still in surgery. He tells Athena that he believed she would stop drinking once Jacob was born. Finding out that Jacob made the 9-1-1 call is the final straw for him, and he breaks down.
Meanwhile, Chimney arrives just as Maddie is ready to push. Maddie asks for her breathing beads and Chimney tries to call Albert who has the baby bag but he doesn’t answer.
In dispatch, May takes a call from a victim still trapped in his car after the pile up. May tells him the teams are on scene and he should see them but he says he can’t. That’s when it’s revealed that the victim is Albert. He’s bloody and trapped in his car upside down.
In a flashback one minute before the crash, Albert drives along as he sees the oncoming car. He calls 9-1-1, swerving to avoid it and gets hit, rolling his vehicle several times. The call goes dead only a few seconds after it connects.
Sue informs the 118 that there is still someone trapped, but Bobby says they’ve cleared the scene. May calls him back, and realizes it’s Albert Han. She tells Bobby she thinks it’s Chimney’s brother, and Buck asks her what his voicemail message said, confirming that it is Albert. We flash from the team’s search to Maddie and Chimney in the hospital who is about to deliver the baby. As she pushes, Bobby realizes calls began before the accident and they figure out Albert is three exits back. Maddie pushes as everyone jumps into the firetruck and they race to the exit. Maddie pushes again as they find Albert unconscious in his car. In the ambulance, Albert is hemorrhaging and Hen begins compressions when his heart stops. Maddie gives a final push and the baby is born, but Albert still isn’t responding. Just as it seems like he won’t make it, his pulse comes back. Maddie and Chimney are handed their new baby girl. “She’s perfect,” Maddie says.
The next morning, Josh announces to the dispatch floor that the baby is 6 pounds, 1 ounce and they all applaud. Linda, Josh, and Jamal plan to go for drinks and invite May along but she’s still underage. She also has the notification about Laila again. Sue tells her that Albert arrived alive and is now stable. Relieved, May heads home. Buck arrives at the hospital with their baby bag. Chimney asks about Albert and Buck looks heartbroken as he realizes he has to tell him about the crash.
Hen arrives home to find Karen has packed Nia’s suitcase for her overnight stay with her birth mother and is cooking pancakes. That’s the final straw for Hen who had a terrible night and she and Karen argue about Karen’s apparent lack of fight for Nia. Karen informs her she wants to keep Nia but this is their job as foster parents and she’s choosing to hold on as long as she can. She asks Hen not to make her hold on alone and Hen seems to relent.
Chimney sits by Albert’s bedside and tells him about the baby’s birth and that he’s a dad now. He jokes that they’ll name her Albertina or Alberta, thinking he’d get Albert to wake up. When he doesn’t, he begs Albert to wake up,
“So you’re gonna be all right, ’cause you’re my brother. And I don’t know when that went from being a biological fact to an emotional reality for me, but there’s not turning back now. You know, I finally have everything I ever wanted. A family of my own. Maddie. The baby. And you. Yep. Today could be the best day of my life. ‘Cause I have my beautiful baby girl and my brother didn’t die.”
Just as Chimney bows his head after asking Albert to open his eyes, he does. Albert mumbles that it hurts and Chimney smiles and says they have plenty of time. He can rest easy, Albert is awake.
Home from their shifts, Bobby tells Athena that Albert is going to be ok and asks about Jacob. The surgery was a success and he’s going to live, Athena says the mother was lucky too and the father had no idea the mother was drinking again. Bobby is clearly upset, Athena apologizes for her comment at the crash site and he tells her she wasn’t wrong. He says he’s exactly like that woman, then heads out to an AA meeting. At the front of the room, he shares that he thought he could balance life between being an alcoholic and living his life. But he knows life will always try to pull you down and being at the bottom isn’t the end. You can find the clarity to pull yourself back up. As he says this, we see Jacob wake up and his mother handcuffed to her hospital bed. Eddie gives Christopher a hug in their kitchen while Hen and Karen hug Nia before she leaves for her stay with her birth mother.
Maddie and the baby video chat with Buck from their living room as Buck wishes he could meet her now. They have to wait a few weeks but they can meet soon. As Chimney sits down, Maddie says goodbye to Buck. Chimney marvels at the fact they are allowed to leave without filling out the birth certificate with a name. That’s when Maddie confesses that she actually did name her at the hospital, her name is Jee-Yun Buckley Han, after Chimney’s mother. Maddie spoke with his stepmother who kept wishing his mother could see the baby, and Maddie just knew that was her name. Chimney loves it.
9-1-1 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. C on FOX.
