Buckle in, because things get EXPLOSIVE in the newest episode of 9-1-1! As the 118 deal with a bomb threat, Maddie and Buck are dealing with their parents, played by guest stars Dee Wallace and Gregory Harrison, who have been keeping a secret from Buck his entire life. And now Chimney is left with keeping that secret from him, too, no matter how hard it is. But what is that secret?
Keep reading for a recap of the 50th episode of 9-1-1, “9-1-1, What’s Your Grievance?”
Maddie is at Buck’s and she tells him about their parents coming and Buck doesn’t understand how she’s just now telling him. Buck was in Texas and Maddie wasn’t completely sure they were coming. She’s just telling him now that they have crossed the California state line, and it’s too late for him to talk her out of it. Though, Buck’s still not sure who talked her into it. Maddie says no one, she guesses she just wants her little girl to have a normal family. Uncles and grandparents that she might actually know. Maybe this will be a good thing. Maddie suggests Buck could talk to their mom and dad, tell them how he’s been feeling. Could be good for his therapy. “Or cause me to need more of it.” Maddie thinks she’s willing to try, maybe their parents are too. Buck gives in, telling Maddie they’re a team. A united front. She is not allowed to leave him alone with them. She won’t, she promises, Chimney will be there too. And Albert.
Buck, Chimney, and Albert get the place ready for the parents to come and soon it’s time. Maddie answers the door as Buck gets ready and they come in, bearing gifts for their new granddaughter. Chimney introduces himself, saying it’s nice to finally meet them. He and Albert lead Margaret and Phillip to the couch, as Maddie and Buck stand next to each other in agony. “We got this.” “United front.”
Phillip tells Buck that Maddie told them he’s been seeing a therapist. Buck tells them there’s nothing to be worried about, it’s that the job can be stressful. It’s good to try to get a clear head. Margaret admits that she and Phillip went to see a therapist. After all this business with Maddie and “the husband who shall not be named,” they felt like there were some things they needed to work through. Maddie’s shocked that her parents went and talked to a therapist about her problems and Phillip says it wasn’t as if she wanted to talk to them about it. Buck had to call to tell them that Doug was dead. “Well, I didn’t want you to find out on Dateline.” Chimney is going to start bringing the food and rinks into the kitchen and Albert helps so they can leave the Buckleys alone. But Buck decides to help to get away. Margaret tells Maddie that Buck looks good. After her call she didn’t know what to expect. He seems fine. Maddie thinks he’s better at that than they think. Seeming fine.
May comes into the Call Center and Josh tells her it’s a big day. He walks her over to a desk and May realizes it’s not the training desk. “Congratulations, graduate.” Today, May flies solo. He tells her to trust her instincts, trust herself. Josh leaves and May gets started. Most calls are fairly simple, non-emergency. Until May gets a call from a guy named Stan, telling her she sounds nice. Maybe she can help him. He asks if she knows why people lie. “Like, they say they care, but they don’t.” May says she doesn’t and Stan tells her someone needs to teach them a lesson. He’s going to teach them a lesson. May motions Josh over so he can listen in, Stan saying he’s going to blow their lying heads right off. May tells Stan he sounds upset, maybe she can help. Stan says she can’t help, he just wanted to make sure everybody understood. This wasn’t an accident, he knew what he was doing. “And they all deserved it.” Deserved what? Stan’s sorry he buried the lead, telling her his name is Stanley Whitworth, “and I just planted a bomb.”
The 118 pull up to a building after May and Josh dig around on Stan’s social media and find out where his first job was. They’re being told they’ve already started evacuating but they need to shut off gas and power as a precaution. Bobby tells Eddie he’s on electrical and Buck to go up the street to shut the gas off at the main.
Eddie tells Bobby that the power’s out but he just got word that a janitor might have had an asthma attack and collapsed in one of the stairwells. Bobby sends Chimney his way and Chimney heads in. The bomb squad arrive on the scene and Bobby tells them the building is almost clear, no sign of any explosives yet. Chimney gets to the stairwell, passing Eddie on the way, and asks him if he found the asthma guy. He checked the main stairwell, no signs of anyone. Chimney suggests the garage underneath and tells Eddie he’ll check it out. Eddie will clear the rest of the lobby and make sure nobody’s in the elevators. Chimney finds a guy, telling him he needs to get out of there and somebody said he was having trouble with his asthma. He’s a paramedic, has some basics. If not, he can get him to the ambulance where he can help him. Chimney is cut off by the sight of the bomb, and the guy holding a trigger. “No one can help me now.”
Over radio, Bobby tells Chimney he has the bomb squad and asks if they’re clear. Chimney doesn’t respond and Bobby keeps telling him to come in. Stan tells Chimney if he blows this, the. mezzanine goes. Then the whole building. Chimney’s going to take his word for it. Bobby keeps trying to get him to respond, as Chimney continues talking to Stan. He understands he’s an expert on this kind of thing. Stan had to disguise himself as the help just to get in there. After he gave them two decades of his life, they kicked him to the curb. And now he’s going to make them a pile of rubble on that same curb. Eddie comes down, telling Chimney the squad’s moving in. Chimney says they’ll be out in a minute, indicating Eddie to not come any closer. He tells him to make sure everyone clears out, and Eddie notices the trigger. Eddie leaves, saying he’ll let the Cap know. He runs out the building, telling everyone Chimney is in there with the bomber.
After having it bottled up inside him, Chimney tells Stan the Buckley family secret. He tries talking him down and Stan starts coughing. Chimney gives him an inhaler, but hitting him with a pipe before doing so, knocking him out. “We all got problems, Stan.” His doesn’t give him the right to blow up innocent people, or him. Chimney gives the all clear, thanking Stan for listening to him.
Margaret is glad everybody’s okay and Phillip mentions it seems they all have very dangerous jobs. Maddie tells them not really, most of the time it’s just run of the mill. And Chimney says that Stan wasn’t a bad guy, he just needed someone to see him. “To understand how much pain he was in.” It still seems very risky, from what Phillip hears, Buck spends quite a lot of time in hospitals. “From what you hear?” They could’ve come, seen for themselves. They’re not good with hospitals, he gets it. Margaret says she’s not good at seeing her children in them, he doesn’t know. Phillip asks Chimney where he put the box they brought and he grabs it. Chimney brings over Maddie’s baby box. Margaret thought Maddie might want some of these things for her little girl someday. Buck didn’t know they had these and asks when he gets his. Chimney sees the tension and tells Buck he’s not even grown up yet. They’re probably still adding stuff to it. Maddie looks through the box, surprised her parents kept all of it. They never gave up hope that she would come to her senses.
They never gave up hope? Maddie tells her brother to not do this, but united front. Their parents didn’t even go to her wedding. Margaret says Maddie was making a terrible mistake, they told her that. People make mistakes. “Doesn’t mean you give up on them. But you did.” Maddie married Doug and they cut her off. At the time, Phillip says they thought it was for the best. They swear they didn’t know what was going on. They didn’t know he was hurting her. Buck tells his parents they should have known. They were right there in the same town. How could they not know? Buck says it does track because they barely knew what was going on with their own kids when they were under the same roof. Maybe they never gave up. “You sure as hell gave up on her. You gave up on both of us.”
Buck gets up to leave, but not before telling his parents that the reason he’s in therapy is because he’s spent his entire life feeling a constant disappointment. And they want to talk about their jobs? They think his job is dangerous? “I have walked through fire every single day of my life because of you. That is why I am in therapy. Because nothing I ever did was good enough.” They tried but Buck never made it easy on them. Were Buck and Maddie supposed to? They were kids. Margaret tells Buck she doesn’t know what he expected them to do. “Love me anyway.” After Buck leaves, Maddie goes to her room in tears.
At the firehouse, Buck is angrily punching a punching bag as Eddie just watches. Two dinners is all it took and he is 12-years-old again, trapped between his sister and his parents. And now he’s planning his awkward apology. What does Buck have to be sorry for? Did he say anything that wasn’t true? Buck says no, and Eddie tells him maybe he could’ve come at it a little differently but if that’s how he feels, how they made him feel, he has every right to say so. Buck tells Eddie he doesn’t need any more therapy. “I just wanna hit things.” Eddie’s been down that road, he doesn’t recommend it. Buck’s phone rings, Maddie calling him again. She’s worried about him.
Maddie asks Buck if he’s okay and he says he’s embarrassed about the way he went off on their parents. He doesn’t have to defend her, she can take care of herself. Buck tells Maddie she shouldn’t have to, not from their own parents. But he’s sorry. He knows she’s trying to fix things with them, not just for her, for him too. He shouldn’t have to carry the weight of their mistakes. He deserves better than that. Maddie tells her brother he has never been a disappointment.
Buck brings out Maddie’s baby box, saying this was a surprise. He never knew their mom and dad were so sentimental. Maddie says they used to be different, happier. She stops herself, saying maybe they weren’t. Your age takes things on differently as a kid. As Buck is looking through the box, he spots a picture of a little boy, assuming it to be him. Maddie tells him that’s not supposed to be in there and Buck tells her it’s selfish that no baby pictures of him are allowed in her baby box. Buck notices the house in the picture does not look like their house and looks at the back to see when it was taken. July 4, 1988. “This can’t be right. I wasn’t even born yet.” Buck sees his sister’s expression and asks her who the kid is. “That’s Daniel. He died. He was our brother.”
Honorable Mention:
Not everything can be recapped but we just had to mention one of our favorite moments of the episode! During a call, Eddie and Buck go back and forth with theories after a woman was fatally shot and fell into her pool, and Athena asks if they’re making a True Crime Podcast. If only!
With the secret finally out in the open, what more will happen? Catch “Buck Begins” this Monday, February 15 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on FOX! Check out the official synopsis here and photos here.
