9-1-1: Lone Star has been taking the reigns for the past two months, and now, the OG is back. 9-1-1 finally had its highly anticipated midseason premiere, and the episode was nothing short of insane, including a skydiving trip gone wrong and a home repossession. Plus, Chim meets his kid half-brother, and Athena, Michael, Bobby, and the kids come to terms with Michael’s condition.
Find out everything that went down in the midseason premiere of 9-1-1, “Seize the Day.”
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's the 118! The return of #911onFOX STARTS NOW, East Coast. 🚨 pic.twitter.com/HTzr3BpOnb
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 17, 2020
Starting off at a skydiving place, a woman has talked her daughter into skydiving. When the two, along with the instructor, Stefan, are on the plane, they open the back and get ready to jump. However, the plane experiences turbulence, and Stefan is knocked unconscious and is soon hanging out of the plane, being held by a rope because of the backpack he’s wearing. The 118 get to the scene and see that the skydiver is caught underneath the plane. Chim says they have a concussion and a possible spinal injury. They’re going to have to treat him for exposure. Bobby asks Buck how the leg is, and Buck says the screws are out and he’s feeling great. Bobby has dispatch get him on line with the pilot, and he has the pilot turn the plane towards the wind and make an approach. Bobby just needs the pilot to get low enough so that they can free him. They’re going to be right below the plane.
Eddie and Buck are on top of the moving firetruck to try to catch Stefan, but unfortunately, the plane is going too high and too fast for them to grab onto him. If the pilot drops his speed any slower, they’re going to stall. However, if he drops the flat, there’s no going back. He’s going to have to put the plane down. “Last shot.” Buck and Eddie are able to grab Stefan and free him just as the plane makes a landing in front of the firetruck.
They're baaack! #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/IqpB6f8qmS
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 17, 2020
Michael, Athena, and Bobby sit down with May and Harry. May’s wondering what’s going on because every time they sit them down like that, it seems to be bad news. Athena assures her it’s not. They just wanted to update her and Harry on what’s happening with their dad. Michael tells them he saw his doctor, and the good news is that his tumor didn’t grow. But the bad news is that it didn’t shrink, either. So what now? Athena tells May and Harry that Michael is going to have surgery. Bobby says surgery can be complicated, and that’s why they wanted to try the treatments first, and now doctors want to try something else. “So, they just take it out, and you’re cured, right?” Michael tells Harry, hopefully, yes. The doctors will take out as much as possible and then maybe do more radiation after that. May doesn’t like the idea of doctors cutting open her father’s brain with the slight possibility of not getting all of it, and Michael tells her it’s the best option. “That’s what they said about the radiation.” Athena assures May and Harry that Michael has a great team of doctors, and they’re going to trust them and stay positive. Michael says Athena’s right. They’re going to carry on business as usual.
At the hospital, Buck is getting one final check-up. Dr. Franklin says everything is healing nicely, and the bones have fused where the screws were. Buck tells him he feels good; he was standing on top of a moving firetruck the other day, not even a twinge. Buck asks about the blood clots, and Dr. Franklin tells him the scans are clear, with no signs of clots since they took him off the blood thinners. Dr. Franklin thinks it was the screws that were the source of Buck’s problem. So that’s it? They’re gone, and Buck doesn’t need to see him anymore? “As long as you don’t get crushed by another firetruck.” It is Dr. Franklin’s pleasure to give Buck a clean bill of health.
Maddie is trying to cook Chim a birthday dinner, despite him trying to help. When Chim grabs his phone, he sees he has a voicemail from his dad. Chim’s shocked, as his father never remembers his birthday. There’s a knock at the door, and Chim goes to get it, but Maddie tells him to listen to his message. Maddie opens the door to a guy, Albert, looking for Chim. Chim tells Maddie he’s his brother.
We missed these two SO much. ❤️ #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/91Jd46xrYA
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 17, 2020
Chim and Maddie sit down with Albert, and Maddie can’t believe Chim and Albert have never met before. Albert agrees. He’s 20 years old and has never met his brother. He apologizes to Chim about his birthday; if he had known, he would’ve gotten him something besides himself. Chim says he didn’t know; clearly, their father didn’t. All he could talk about was Albert running away from home. Albert says he did run away but from their father. Albert says it’s time to stop living in their father’s shadow. He needs to strike out on his own if it isn’t any trouble to Chim. Maddie assures Albert it isn’t. Chim says he can stay for a visit.
At the firehouse, Buck asks Bobby how Michael is, and Bobby says he’s fighting. Radiation was supposed to be his best shot, and now they’re all grappling with pinning their hopes on his second-best shot. Bobby tells the crew he thinks Harry’s okay, but he’s worried about May. She’s got a better understanding of what’s going on.
“That’s ’cause older siblings don’t have the luxury of blissful ignorance. They understand the truth even if they don’t want to.”
Buck guesses it’s not going too well with Albert, and Chim tells the rest of the crew that Albert is his younger half-brother from Korea. His showing up on Chim’s doorstep was not quite the birthday surprise he was expecting. Eddie and Bobby are ecstatic that Chim has a younger brother, wondering when they get to meet him, but Chim says that doesn’t really seem necessary. He’s going to be leaving soon anyways. Buck tells Chim he finally has a chance to get to know his brother. It just feels weird to Chim. They share some of the same DNA, but he’s still practically a stranger to him.
“Family comes to us in different ways, Chim.”
When Chim and Hen get back to the firehouse from a call, Albert is sitting down at the table with the rest of the crew. He wanted to see Chim and where he worked. Albert heard Chim saved a man’s life, and Chim tells him they don’t really talk about that stuff there, and he can’t really show up without calling. Buck assures Chim that Albert’s no trouble and even has time to give Bobby a tutorial on how to make Korean dumplings. Albert even sometimes snacks on them during ball games, and Eddie tells him they should go to a game together. However, Chim says he probably won’t be there for very long anyway. Hen tells Albert he probably has a lot of questions about his brother, and he does. “Do you know why they call him Chimney?”
Everyone seems to love Chim's brother except… well, Chim. #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/hxLwWzzhZr
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 17, 2020
Chim and Maddie get to a bar, and Chim can’t believe he has 23 messages on his phone. He’s heard more from his father in the past week than in the entirety of his life. But not one of those messages is about him. Maddie tells him the night is about him, so he needs to put his phone away and focus on the birthday boy. Chim apologizes. He’s tired of talking about Albert. Unfortunately, he spots Albert and Hen up on stage doing karaoke. Afterward, Eddie, Hen, Buck, Chim, Maddie, and Albert are all talking while Eddie, Hen, and Albert play pool. Buck says he gets it. Eddie says if he hadn’t enlisted, he’d still be working with his dad. Maddie tells Eddie not to encourage Albert to go off to war, and Hen says everyone has their path, “just do you, Albert.” He will; he just needs a little of his brother’s courage. Chim didn’t let their father dictate his life. He took a stand, got out, and came to America to follow his dreams.
Wise words, Hen. 😌 #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/U0GH3IKC9D
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 17, 2020
Chim says there was no stand. “I didn’t get out. I was left behind.” All Chim wanted was for his father to see him, to be proud of him, to be proud to call him his son. He says no matter what he did, he was always invisible. Albert is the only son their father cares about. Albert just walked away from it, which Chim guesses was easy because he’s never had to work for it. Albert says Chim doesn’t know what his life was like at home. “I know you have always had a family, and I have always been trying to piece one together.” Chim tells Albert he is not his brother. He had a brother, and his name was Kevin, and he died. He says Albert didn’t see him because he wanted to be his brother but needed something from him. Albert runs out, and Buck goes after him.
Later that night, Maddie gets off the phone with Buck and tells Chim that Albert’s okay and Buck’s going to let Albert stay with him for the night. She tells Chim she’s more worried about him right now, and the part about everyone liking Albert more than him is crazy. Chim admits his father does. They were never close. Even when they lived in the same house, they were always at a distance. He spent years trying to bridge that gap and finally gave up. It turns out he just wasn’t interested in being a father to Chim, so he says. Maddie says Albert’s relationship with his father can’t be a good one. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have shown up on Chim’s doorstep the way he did. Maddie knows she may’ve run from her husband, but she ran to her brother, saying he was the one person she could count on. The same mistakes her parents made with her, they made with Buck, too.
The next morning, Chim gets to Buck’s apartment and thanks him for letting Albert sleep there. Buck goes upstairs to let Chim and Albert talk, and Chim apologizes for the previous night and the things he said. Albert says he is right; they don’t know each other. Chim tells Albert why he doesn’t live with him and their father. He moved to California when he was young, when his dad went back to Korea, and his mom wanted to stay, and Chim wanted to stay with her. She got cancer and eventually died a couple of weeks before Chim’s 15th birthday. Chim would get emails from Albert’s mom and wish he had that kind of family. However, Albert says he thinks he likes Chim’s family better: Maddie, Buck, and the rest of the 118. Albert tells Chim it was nice getting to know them. Chim says he can stay.
Michael, Athena, Bobby, and the kids are all together, and Athena asks Michael if he should be drinking when he’s going into surgery the next day, and Michael says he’s not. He canceled it. His perspective changed; he was so focused on his death, but now he wants to be focused on his life and what he has. Although they don’t know what’ll happen if Michael doesn’t get the surgery, he’s not giving up; he’s going to keep fighting.
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen tomorrow. But what I do know is all that we have is today.”
The 118 is finally back after a three-month hiatus, and so much has already happened! Buck is finally medically cleared, Michael’s decided against brain surgery, Albert is here to stay and not mentioned here, but Hen and Karen officially became foster parents. There is still so much to come in this second half of the season, even bigger calls. Make sure to watch 9-1-1 every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, streaming the next day on Hulu and the FOXNOW app.
