The last episode ended on a major cliffhanger when Josh’s fake date, Greg, who jumped him, took over the call center along with his buddies, leaving Josh, Maddie, and everyone else fearing for their lives. After a long two weeks, 9-1-1 is back and picks up right before the previous episode ended. The episode is nothing short of intense action as Buck, Chim, and Athena work together to find out what’s really going on with dispatch.
Find out what all went down and if everyone comes out safe in “The Taking of Dispatch 9-1-1.”
East Coast, the wait is over! An all-new #911onFOX STARTS NOW. 🚨 pic.twitter.com/uEeYYg5Vv2
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) April 14, 2020
We immediately meet the team behind the takeover operation. There’s Greg, Tiffany, Ellis, Oliver, and Foster. Ellis, Oliver, and Foster are changing into LAPD uniforms as Tiffany drives the van underneath a bridge, meeting up with even more guys, Van Cleef and Arpels. Everyone gets out and gathers around as Greg shows them administrator-level key cards and tells them what the plan is. They start rolling out police cars from a truck and head to the call center. At the building, Ellis and Oliver head to the server room, while Greg, Foster, and another guy head to the dispatch center and get into position.
Maddie gets to the dispatch center, the same scene that was shown at the end of the previous episode. Sue comes up to Maddie with Greg as Maddie is on the phone with Chim. Josh comes over, recognizing Greg, and drops his mug. Greg pulls out a gun and grabs Sue, telling Maddie to end the call, carefully. “I love you, Howie.” Maddie hangs up, and Foster grabs her phone.
Cryptic. 🤔 #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/nb75sSCdHB
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) April 14, 2020
The computers begin turning off, and people start realizing what’s happening.
“Ladies and gentlemen! We are taking control of this facility. Do not move, or you will be shot. You are now our hostages.”
Greg and the guys tell everyone to get up and move while Ellis and Oliver take over the server room and move Terry upstairs. The dispatchers have to give up their cell phones, key cards, wallets, smartwatches, everything. Greg tells the staff they’ll get back to work but under their supervision. Greg notes that since it’s morning, not everyone needs to be taking calls and picks just a few dispatchers to get to work while the others wait silently by the wall. Greg says they’ll be in and out in an hour; if anyone tries anything at all, they’ll shoot the person next to them.
“You guys like saving lives, right? Why don’t you start with your own?”
These guys are evil. 😡 #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/bMHsQV4uKn
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) April 14, 2020
Josh tells Maddie they have to warn somebody, and she admits she already did. “I just hope he gets the message.” Chim, meanwhile, can’t get over the fact that Maddie told him she loves him. That’s weird, right? He keeps pacing around his apartment, wishing Maddie would answer any texts, but there’s nothing. He tries calling, and no answer. “You’re being paranoid. She’s fine.” Chim contemplates calling 9-1-1, trying to stop himself, telling himself not to be that guy. He ends up calling, and the only voice he hears is an automated message about high call volume.
Chim then calls Buck, hoping he has some answers. “How come 9-1-1 doesn’t respond when I call?” Chim tells Buck when he called 9-1-1, he got the high call volume message, and Buck wonders why he’s calling 9-1-1, is everything okay? “Your sister said that she loved me.” Wasn’t that the whole point of that big date they had? Chim declared his love, and Maddie declared hers? Chim knows, but Maddie didn’t. She made this big deal saying that she couldn’t say those words, and then that morning, she blurts them out and hangs up on him. Buck still isn’t understanding the big emergency, and Chim thinks he just sounds insane.
“She’s at the call center. What could happen there, right?”
They both have no idea. 😩 #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/Z78j1BMp2b
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) April 14, 2020
Athena is driving in her squad car and gets to an intersection. She pulls up to the two vehicles in the middle of it, turning on her lights and siren. She asks the couple if anyone called 9-1-1, and the wife is confused. Isn’t that why Athena’s there? “Dispatch,” aka Ellis, comes in through Athena’s radio, requesting her at another address for assault and battery. Athena tells him her location at the intersection, and he says there are units already en route to that location and to proceed to the assault and battery in progress. Athena tells the couple that officers are on their way and heads off to the other call. Ellis watches Athena’s car leave the scene through the CAD, knowing they’re in the clear.
Will Athena be the first to catch on to what's happening with dispatch? #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/nlHVcbPGYD
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) April 14, 2020
At the call center, Josh is on his rotation while Greg is watching him. He walks over to Josh and leans over him. “You still feel like you’re making a difference?” Josh tells the caller it’s a crime to make a false 9-1-1 report; he could have her arrested. He deletes the address on the computer and retypes a different one, telling her he’s sending police now, just as Greg rotates out Josh and another dispatcher, Jamal. Terry starts shaking, not wanting to die in there. “No one is gonna die.” Terry tells Maddie that Jake’s dead; they shot him. They have to get a message out, and Josh admits he did; he dispatched an officer for a call from a woman he had, not exactly to the location she was calling from.
Chim’s on the phone with Buck, worried out of his mind for Maddie. He needs to go down to the call center for himself and make sure she’s okay. Buck tells Chim that she didn’t pick up when he called her either, he tried calling Josh, and it went straight to voicemail. “Now I’m definitely going.” There’s a knock at Chim’s door, and as Chim goes to grab it, Buck wonders if something really is wrong; maybe they should call the police. Chim opens the door and finds Athena standing right outside.
“I think someone already did.”
Athena’s on the phone with the police captain while Chim is still on the phone with Buck, who wonders what she’s saying. Chim says she’s making a case. “Now she’s folding like a cheap suit.” After getting off the phone, Athena tells Chim and Buck, who is on speakerphone, that the captain needs to make some calls, and as evidence goes, an “I love you” is less than convincing. But they sent Athena down to Chim’s apartment for an assault with a deadly weapon, that feels more convincing. Athena says they can send someone down there and try to get eyes on the building, but Buck tells her they can’t just send in SWAT. If there is someone inside the call center doing something, they’ll know they’re onto them. Athena tells Chim they’re going on a drive and hangs up on Buck, despite Buck’s pleas. Buck grabs his jacket and keys and heads out of his loft.
Athena and Chim are driving down to the call center, and a jeep passes them in a hurry. “Is that who I think it is?” Athena turns on her lights and siren, pulls the jeep over, and sure enough, it’s Buck. Buck gets into the back of the squad car, and they drive off. When they pull into the call center, Athena says if everything’s normal, she’ll be able to walk in the front door and go inside. And if it’s not normal? “I guess we’ll find out.” Oliver tells Greg about Athena when she comes in, and Greg notices she’s coming up. Sue tells Greg she can get rid of her, and she tells Athena they have a report of a Code 77, and Athena leaves. Oliver tells Greg and everyone that Athena’s leaving the building, and they’re clear. What’s a Code 77 anyway? Sue says it’s urinating in public or indecent exposure. Meanwhile, Athena’s on the phone with the police captain, saying they knew she was downstairs; they’re using the CAD to monitor their locations. Sue gave her a Code 77, so whoever’s running this, they’re doing it from inside the dispatch center. After getting off the phone, Chim asks Athena what a Code 77 is.
“Ambush. Proceed with caution.”
Athena disconnects the GPS locator on the squad car so they can be off the grid. Buck tells Chim he knows he’s worried; he is too. But Maddie is smart. “She can take care of herself until help gets there.” That’s what Chim’s afraid of. Nobody inside that building knows they’re coming for them. What if they get tired of waiting?
Never underestimate a Buckley. #911onFOX @oliverstarkk pic.twitter.com/vPLToDLCbH
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) April 14, 2020
As the LAPD and LAFD set up camp, Athena talks to Dave Morrisey from Valley Division, who wonders if she really figured all this out just because Sue gave her a Code 77. Athena says that was the last piece of the puzzle; calls have been weird all day. She asks Dave to see the call logs on his CAD so she can see the first piece of the puzzle.
At the call center, Linda falls off her chair. Maddie says she’s having an allergic reaction; she’s going to die if she doesn’t get her medication. Greg tells Maddie to get the EpiPen. Maddie finds the EpiPen and runs towards Linda, as Greg is right by them, freaking out. However, Maddie doesn’t inject the EpiPen into Linda, but into Greg. Maddie grabs the gun and points it toward Greg, but a couple more of his guys come running in. Some dispatchers take them down and grab their weapons.
Maddie's got something up her sleeve. #911onFOX pic.twitter.com/k3ELNPaG7r
— 9-1-1 on FOX (@911onFOX) April 14, 2020
Ellis tells Van Cleef and Arpels, who are in a museum stealing priceless art, to leave the rest of the paintings and go. However, when the two of them get to the back, they’re greeted by Athena and the LAPD. Foster, Ellis, and Oliver hear the arrest over the radio. The heist is blown. Foster returns to the dispatch center, but Sue shoots at him, nearly hitting him. Oliver tries to leave and is caught by officers. Soon, Greg isn’t breathing; Maddie must have hit a vein and stopped his heart. She starts CPR, and Josh takes over.
“You don’t get to die.”
The lights turn off, everyone gets down and puts their hands up, and SWAT comes in.
“Command, this is the squad leader. We’ve got Dispatch.”
Maddie, Josh, and the dispatchers have their hands up, crying with relief. The lights turn back on, EMTs roll in, and Greg has a pulse. SWAT leads the dispatchers back down as the computers are back up and running, and the off-duty dispatchers take their positions, taking calls.
Outside, the police are surrounding the area. The dispatchers walk out, SWAT arrests Greg and his guys, bystanders waiting, as well as Chim. Maddie finally comes out, and Chim sees her. He runs under the caution tape, straight towards her, embracing her as Maddie cries and Chim comforts her. Buck is off to the side, just watching, and Sue comes up to him, surprised he’s not over there with his sister.
“She already has everything she needs.”
Athena recounts to Bobby, Michael, May, and Harry about how she knew the museum was the target. In the car accident she encountered, they were trying to dispatch police away from a crime. She checked the dispatch log and saw that an alarm had gone off at the museum, which is just two blocks away from the accident scene. Maddie and Josh are also telling the story to Buck and Chim, and it turns out that Tiffany was the real brains of the operation, and Greg was just the hired hand. Tiffany had an inside man, Jake, the security guard. Tiffany fell in love with Jake and didn’t want to use him to take the fall. Josh was the perfect new target. When Greg jumped Josh, he copied his badge. Once Greg and his guys were in position, Jake was free to sneak out and leave with Tiffany with the stolen paintings. As they’re about to leave for their new life, Athena and the LAPD catch them; Jake’s phone had a GPS.
“I guess there really is no honor among thieves.”
9-1-1 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on FOX, streaming the next day on Hulu and the FOXNOW app.
