In this week’s episode, everyone is feeling like a fool in one way or another. Athena deals with a woman who got shot in the back of the head but didn’t even know it, Josh tries to find a new man in his life, but it turns out to be a bad idea, and Eddie tries to get Christopher to see that not everyone can do everything.
Find out all that went down in the newest episode of 9-1-1, “Fools.”
East Coast, let's do this! 🚨 An all-new #911onFOX STARTS NOW. pic.twitter.com/FaEpfkPmbt
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 24, 2020
Buck, Maddie, Chim, and Josh are hanging out and playing Poker. Josh thanks Maddie and Chim for having him, and Chim says all their couple friends were busy, so they went with the solos. If Josh didn’t know better, he’d say they were setting him and Buck up. Maddie likes Josh way too much to set him up with her brother. Though, she loves Buck too much to let him keep being, “So incredibly, tragically…” “Some might say embarrassingly…” “Single.” Josh tells them it’s LA; everybody’s always in their car or looking at their phones. Buck adds that they’re stuck with online dating. The catfishing, the randos, photoshopping. Buck asks where Albert is, and Chim and Maddie laugh. “He’s on a date.”
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Carla goes to Christopher’s parent-teacher night at his school with Eddie, and it’s all corny jokes until they get to Ms. Flores, the English teacher. Ms. Flores says all good things about Christopher and that Eddie is doing a great job with him. Afterward, Carla asks Eddie if he wants to tell her what that was about. “That I’m basically raising a funny, popular, young genius?” Carla brings up that pretty young thing for an English teacher. Was she pretty? Eddie didn’t even notice.
Carla: “I must have you confused with someone who couldn’t stop gazing into Ms. Flores’ big blue eyes.”
Eddie: “They were brown.”
Looks like Eddie might be in trouble. 😉 #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/61mDCdtNNY
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 24, 2020
Athena arrives at the hospital and meets with Dr. Calloway. Dr. Calloway called in a gunshot wound — a female, early 50s — who came in complaining about headaches and some disorientation. He tells Athena that given the scar tissue, he estimates the bullet has been there for at least two months, maybe three. Athena has to clarify: This is an old gunshot wound? Why wasn’t it reported the day it happened? Dr. Calloway says the woman, Joan, didn’t even know she’d been shot, not until today.
Athena comes into Joan’s room with Detective Romero; he just needs to ask her some questions. Joan thinks this has to be a terrible mistake; she promises she has never been shot. Romero says Dr. Calloway seems pretty sure, so they need to investigate and find out what might’ve happened to her. He asks Joan if anything happened in January or February that was unusual, and she says not really; her life is pretty dull; it’s just her and her husband. Her husband is currently out of town; he took an early retirement the previous year and is always looking for things to do. While Joan goes through her purse to grab information, Athena says she came into the ER with a headache. Does she get those a lot? Joan says she never used to, but now it seems like she always has one. She gives Romero a journal with numbers, notes, and information, and he asks if she normally writes everything down. Joan says she always prides herself on remembering things, but as you get older, you start to need a little help. Athena and Romero walk out of the room, Romero realizing that Joan really doesn’t remember being shot. Athena’s not sure Joan wants to; she thinks that no one ever really knows what goes on inside of a marriage. “Sometimes, not even the people inside it.”
Athena knows there has to be more to this story. #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/DKLtUJCI2T
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 24, 2020
Eddie arrives at Christopher’s school and meets with Carla and Ms. Flores. Carla tells Eddie he didn’t have to come; Christopher is fine, just some scrapes and bruises. Carla says as it turns out, Christopher and skateboards don’t get along very well. Eddie’s upset at Ms. Flores for letting him skateboard, and she apologizes; they didn’t know one of the kids had brought a skateboard, and she feels terrible. Eddie is angry that Ms. Flores had let the kids make a fool out of his son. “Let’s push the kid with CP around on a skateboard for fun.” Ms. Flores promises Eddie that’s not what happened. Christopher comes out with some blood on him, a bit scraped up, telling Eddie he’s sorry about his clothes. Eddie tells him not to worry about that, and Carla says she can run to the house and get some clean clothes for Christopher. However, Eddie says they’re done for the day. “But school isn’t over.” It is now.
Poor Christopher. 😭 #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/XnNbUp6C30
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 24, 2020
Later that day, Eddie gets off the phone with Christopher’s principal, and he tells Carla that the school sent the skateboard kid home early, and the principal’s going to meet with the parents in the morning and figure out what the punishment should be. “And what about the kid who fell off the skateboard?” Does Carla think Eddie should punish Christopher for getting hurt? No, but she thinks Eddie should talk to him about how he got hurt. Christopher already knows he’s different, Eddie needs to teach him what it means. “That he has limitations.” Eddie’s not going to tell his kid that. He sits down with Christopher, and Christopher tells Eddie he feels dumb. Everybody saw him fall, and Carla tells him people fall; it happens. Eddie says that boy should have never pressured him into getting on that skateboard. Christopher says it was his idea; it looked fun. Eddie wonders why Christopher did that; he had to know it’d be dangerous.
“You always said I can do anything. You lied.”
Buck and Eddie are having drinks, and Eddie tells Buck it feels different when it’s your kid calling you a liar. The thing is, Christopher’s right.” Eddie admits he lied to him, or maybe he lied to himself. “Either way, I feel like a fool.” Eddie says he spent years trying to convince his kid to believe in the Easter Bunny, but now he has to tell him none of it’s real. Eddie told Christopher he’s no different than the other kids, but he is; he has CP, and there’s a lot he can’t do. Buck tells Eddie the story of Jim Abbott, a baseball player born with one hand who pitched a no-hitter in the ’90s. Eddie likes the positivity, but he’s just not sure how any amount of practice is going to help Christopher stay on a skateboard.
Athena is talking to Michael about Joan, and she tells him the husband claims he has no idea how his wife got shot, and he actually tried to interrogate them. “Yeah, the best defense is a good offense.” As for his alibi, Athena says they don’t even know when Joan was shot. Without a specific timeline, they can’t prove anything. And the wife still doesn’t suspect him at all?
“They say love is blind. But in this case, I think willfully so.”
Joan went from having a great memory to forgetting the name of the doctor that she met an hour ago, never prone to headaches but now, “She’s chewing aspirin like they’re breath mints.” Joan chose not to seek help for months, and Michael says maybe she just can’t believe the man she married could ever hurt her; he’s her husband, and she thinks she knows him. “Yeah, sometimes you don’t know who you’re married to, and sometimes, they don’t want you to know.” Michael says the truth eventually comes out; with this, it’ll come out with the bullet. Athena gets a notification that the ballistics on the gun came back. It doesn’t belong to the husband but to the wife.
Don't forget your manners around Athena. 😉 #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/NXuiWXxd0N
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 24, 2020
Josh meets up with his date during a movie in a cemetery. The date seems to be going quite well, and his date says he remembers when going to the movies was about making out in the back row; he heard Rudolph Valentino’s grave is somewhere around there, maybe in the back row. The two of them start to walk away from the movie, and Josh says this is exactly what he said he wouldn’t do on a first date. “Oh, come on. This is the fun stuff.” Another guy comes up to them, saying it took him long enough. Josh is getting worried, saying he doesn’t know what they’re into, but it definitely doesn’t feel like his scene. “You know, for somebody who spends their days listening for clues, you sure managed to miss all of ’em.” The two guys start beating up Josh, kicking him, stealing his wallet, keys, and phone.
Because who doesn't love a movie night?! #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/8LUxg9LD8K
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) March 24, 2020
Maddie meets Josh at the hospital, whose face is all bruised and beaten. He tells her he got jumped, and for a minute there, he thought they were going to kill him. Josh says it was his date; he was the one who did it. He set Josh up; he and his friend Josh never saw it coming. He says he’s an idiot; he thought he was sweet and liked him. “You just trusted the wrong person.” Officer Branford comes in, telling Josh she had officers canvass the cemetery, and there’s still no sign of his phone, but they recovered his keys and wallet. Josh can pick up his things at the station, and a detective will take his formal statement then. Maddie offers Josh to stay at her place for the night, and she’ll drive him to the station in the morning. Branford asks Josh if he’s sure he didn’t recognize either man, and Josh says no, he’d like to just get out of there and put it all behind him. After Branford leaves, Josh tells Maddie he already feels like a fool; he doesn’t need the rest of the world in on the joke.
Athena and Romero visit with Joan again, saying it’d be best if Mr. Wallace stepped outside, and Joan says Henry can stay since her memory is terrible; maybe he can help. Athena says when they were looking through Joan’s journal, they noticed that there didn’t seem to be any entries about her trip or the living room remodel. Joan remembers the remodel but can’t seem to remember why since they did the house the previous year. Athena asks if she remembers what happened on January 11; maybe they were taking down Christmas decorations, but Joan says they always take those down right after New Year’s. Joan starts to remember herself lying on the ground and Henry shouting in the background, her feeling the back of her head and blood showing on her fingers.
Flashing back to that day, Joan is upset that Henry hasn’t been helping take down Christmas decorations and doing nothing during his retirement, smashing her ceramics, saying she’s not going to rule his golden years the way she ruined the rest of his life. Joan starts to take down the decorations by herself, and Henry grabs the gun from Joan’s purse and shoots her in the back of her head. Back in the hospital, Joan realizes what happened. Henry says he doesn’t know what came over him, call it temporary insanity. “Well, you are certainly within your rights to make that case to a judge.” Henry apologizes to Joan, saying he regretted it immediately after he did it. Athena tells Joan she’s going to be okay, and Joan says he played her like a fool. “And you just showed him that he was wrong.”
In the morning, Christopher tells Eddie he doesn’t feel well and doesn’t want to go to school. “I just wanna be like everyone else.” Eddie knows he told him he can do anything, which was a dumb thing for him to say. Not because Christopher has CP, but because, “Nobody can do everything. And yes. There are things in life that you’re not gonna be able to do. And there’s other stuff that you are gonna be able to do, but it’s gonna be a lot harder than it is for the other kids because you have CP.” Eddie tells Christopher it’s not about the skateboarding; he just doesn’t want him to be scared. He tried something, and it didn’t work out; maybe the next time it does. Eddie doesn’t want Christopher to ever stop trying but maybe until he gets a little older, Eddie suggests they can try new things together.
Watch the preview for next week’s episode below.
9-1-1 airs every Monday at 8 p.m. ET/7 CT on FOX, streaming the next day on Hulu and the FOX NOW app.
