Recap: “Suspicion” Is Raised in ‘9-1-1’ Season 4, Episode 13

Brianna
16 Min Read
Jack Zeman/FOX

9-1-1 has maintained its high octane energy as season 4 has progressed, and the penultimate episode was no exception. With heart-wrenching emergencies and a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, “Suspicion” is one fans will talk about for weeks to come. Let’s jump in.

The episode opens with two women in a darkened room, one hooked up to a lie detector machine while the other drills her with questions about her secrets. That’s when someone charges into the room, and it’s revealed the interrogator is a bride-to-be, getting married in just a few hours. Her mother interrupted the questioning to get the other girl to make up. The bridezilla walks out to the prep room where wires crisscross the floor, and she yells about which bridesmaid has been trash-talking her wedding plans. When no one confesses, she drags the lie detector machine into the room and hooks it up to the nearest socket causing a power surge, electrocuting herself and catching the room on fire. The 118 put out the fire while Chimney and Hen check on the bride. Hen insists she go to the hospital while she continues trying to find the snitch. The mother confesses to being the online snitch, and the bride sends her out which is when she sees her dress has been completely burnt. “Good luck with the wedding!” Eddie calls as the team exits.

Hen and her fellow med school students study in her living room as her mother, Toni, heads out to a farmer’s market. Toni cringes in pain from her back just as she’s leaving, and Hen notices she’s sweating with a possible fever. Toni waves her off and promises to take Ibuprofen. Meanwhile at Athena’s, May, Harry, Athena, Michael, and David play charades as Bobby charges in late from “lunch with a friend.” He quickly makes his way to their bedroom saying he just needs to change and shower. Athena thinks it’s odd but lets it go.

Toni peruses the various booths at the farmer’s market when she suddenly collapses. Bystanders quickly call 9-1-1. Hen arrives at the ER to find Toni awake in a bed. The doctor tells her that Toni’s heart rate and blood pressure suddenly dropped. Hen tells the doctor about her earlier back pain and possible fever; however, the doctor brushes her off with a quick “Stay off WebMD!” and discharges Toni.

Eddie rearranges the pillows on the couch yet again as Ana and Christopher watch. Ana tells him it looks fine as they hear a knock on the door. They open it to welcome in Carla who is finally able to visit in person for the first time in a year. Christopher is ecstatic (as are we!), and they sit down to dinner. As Ana and Chris head to the kitchen, Carla and Eddie visit about her absence with her father and how Ana fit into their family. Eddie says it’s easy being with her, and Carla tells him to “be sure you’re following your heart, not Christopher’s.” That’s when Ana and Chris come in with not one but two birthday cakes to make up for missing Carla’s birthday twice!

Jack Zeman/FOX

At the dispatch center, Maddie is dead on her feet as she chugs coffee. She tells Sue that Jee isn’t sleeping, and it’s the way she cries that’s hurting Maddie. No matter what she tries, nothing calms her down. Maddie takes a new call: a young boy calls about his mother who has fallen through a balcony floor. He says he’s sick and can’t leave the apartment to check on her. The 118 arrive to find the mother’s legs have been cut up, and she in danger of the whole balcony giving way. Buck and Bobby make their way to the balcony below where Buck asks the neighbor if they can borrow the balcony for a bit. He welcomes them in after yelling up to Sheila who screams a hello back. Eddie takes the ladder up to Sheila and puts the rescue harness around her to secure her. She reassures her son she’ll be ok, and Eddie waves a hello. Sheila jokes about being a single mom and having no one to pull her out of the balcony floor. Eddie tells Charlie he’s a hero for calling 9-1-1 so quickly and lets Chimney and Hen in the door. Eddie and Buck pull her out of the floor and onto a gurney, where Hen assesses she’ll need to go to the hospital. Sheila objects because Charlie has an autoimmune disease and can’t go to the hospital, so Eddie volunteers to stay with him until she gets back. With that, they head out.

Jack Zeman/FOX

Athena gathers the laundry at home when she notices a smell from the basket. She fishes out Bobby’s shirt and sniffs it. At Michael’s, she tells him the shirt reeked of bourbon. Michael defends Bobby, but Athena says she’s worried about a relapse, plus Bobby has been acting strange. Michael thinks she should talk to him but, she’s worried about how it’ll sound.

Eddie and Charlie FaceTime with Carla and Christopher who joke about Eddie’s cooking abilities, when Charlie accidentally knocks his drink over. Eddie grabs paper towels from a cabinet filled with medications including eyedrops. Charlie tells Carla and Christopher about how he’s not allowed to go to school, they move around a lot, and are always going to see a new doctor. He doesn’t know what kind of doctors are assessing him, and Eddie asks about Sheila’s work. Charlie says they get donations from fundraising pages, which is when Sheila arrives home. She comments that Charlie has a sensitive stomach, but he assures her he feels fine.

At the station, Hen calls to check on Toni who hangs up on her for it. Hen tells Chimney about their bad hospital experience, and he suggests a specialist. Hen wishes she had some idea of what was wrong first, and he reminds her she has the perfect people to bounce ideas off, her classmates. Back home, the trio sit with Toni and ask her a barrage of questions as they slowly compile possible options (and then rule most of them out). As Toni stands to leave, she collapses again. Hen notices she’s got a fever and a possible aortic aneurysm, so they rush her to the hospital again.

Chimney arrives home to hear Jee still crying. He goes in, and Maddie quickly hands her off to him. She tearfully tells him it’s the way she cries like she’s in pain and Maddie can’t help her. Slowly, Jee calms down for Chimney which causes a few tears from Maddie who rushes off to take a shower.

Sydney quickly distracts the front desk person at the hospital while Hen takes Toni directly back and tells the nurse they need an electrocardiogram to verify Toni’s possible condition. Hen is commanding, and the nurse quickly jumps into action to follow her orders. Afterward, the same doctor from Toni’s earlier visit sits with Hen to confirm Hen’s diagnosis. Toni is being prepped for surgery, and the artery can be grafted. Hen points out that Toni would have died because of the doctor’s negligence. He apologizes for missing it but points out “we caught it in time” and that should be the focus. Hen points out she has to make huge calls in the field with minimal tools, but here in the hospital he had everything at his disposal and still got it wrong. She tells him he needs to start believing patients when they say something is wrong.

Jack Zeman/FOX

Eddie and Carla help Christopher pack up some toys he wants to send to Charlie. Ana calls them into the other room. She looked up Sheila and Charlie’s donation page and thinks there’s something wrong with Sheila. Ana shows Eddie and Carla three different pages for “Sheila and Charlie” that all have different names in different cities around the country. Eddie tells Carla that Sheila never said what was wrong with Charlie, and Carla says they could be doctor shopping. There’s a chance Sheila is lying about everything. They read through the comments on the donation pages that call Sheila a liar, scammer, and suspect she’s making Charlie sick.

Athena finds Bobby doing the dishes after dinner and proposes a stay-in date night as both kids are out of the house. Bobby says he’s tired and wants to crash, and Athena asks if everything is ok. She knows he has meetings, but she wants to be able to help him with that part of his life too and offers to go to a meeting with him, perhaps the one tomorrow. Bobby quickly says he doesn’t have one tomorrow, but she could come on Saturday, so she agrees and he heads to bed.

Sydney brings Hen a coffee as the doctor gives her an update. It’s good news: Toni is going to be ok. Toni wakes to find Hen in her room, and Toni tells her she’s proud to have Hen as her daughter. She’s the one who saved her life, and she tells Hen to keep going no matter how tough things get. The world needs more doctors like Hen.

Buck and Chimney arrive for their shift early to find Eddie already there. He fills them in on what they discovered about Sheila and Eddie, believing she has Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy and is poisoning Charlie with the eye drops he saw in the kitchen. Chimney confirms that could cause all the symptoms and never show up on a toxicology screening unless they are looking for it specifically. Suddenly, Eddie gets a phone call from Charlie who says he thinks he did a bad thing. The camera pans to Sheila lying on the floor, clutching her throat.

Jack Zeman/FOX

Athena calls Michael from her car to confess she followed Bobby. He went to a meeting even though he told her he didn’t have one today. As they talk, she sees Bobby talking with a woman with an ankle monitor — the very woman who caused the pile up a few months prior. Bobby spots her in her car.

Buck, Eddie, and several other paramedics arrive at Charlie and Sheila’s apartment to find Sheila not breathing. They attend to her for tetrahydrozoline poisoning. Charlie confesses to Eddie he sees her putting drops his food all the time, and he wanted to see what would happen so he put it in Sheila’s food, too. Buck tells the other paramedics that Charlie will need the same treatment. Meanwhile, Chimney calls Maddie to tell her about the case as Maddie puts Jee down for a nap. Chimney says he’s almost glad Sheila fell so that Charlie will be safe and far away from her. Maddie comments it’s as if he’s better without her, and Chimney agrees: “Some people just aren’t meant to be parents.” This seems to resonate with Maddie who almost starts crying. Maddie seems distant as they hang up.

Bobby confronts Athena about following him to his meeting. She recognizes Rachel, the drunk driver, and Bobby tells Athena he’s trying to help her. The bourbon on his shirt had been Rachel’s; she fell off the wagon and called for help. Athena doesn’t understand why he kept it from her, and Bobby says he didn’t feel he needed to tell her. Athena doesn’t tell him half her decisions and they argue about the power differential in the relationship. Bobby feels like Athena doesn’t trust him with anything, and he questions whether their marriage is working at all. “We’re not partners, because that’s how you want it.”

Jack Zeman/FOX

Outside the apartment building, Charlie and Sheila are loaded into separate ambulances to go to different hospitals for treatment. Eddie explains this to Charlie as Sheila yells for her son. Buck says Charlie is lucky he met Eddie, and a paramedic offers Eddie the option to ride with Charlie to the hospital. Eddie starts to agree, but a gunshot suddenly echoes. Eddie is shot through the shoulder, and blood splatters all over Buck who stands frozen in shock. Eddie collapses to the ground. A second shot is heard, barely missing Buck as Buck is tackled to the ground behind the firetruck. Panicked people run everywhere looking for cover as the shooter continues targeting the first responders. Buck and Eddie maintain eye contact from under the firetruck as Eddie slowly bleeds out with no one able to get to him. His eyes close as he passes out, and Buck can only watch.

The 9-1-1 season finale airs Monday, May 24 on FOX at 9 p.m. ET/ 8 p.m. CT.

Nerds and Beyond is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Share This Article
By Brianna
Brianna works full time in the publishing industry, passionately building books to bring to the masses. Her first fandom was Harry Potter, which she joined at age 11. Her love for books took her abroad to earn her Masters Degree at University College London, after which she lived in New York City, and now resides in Austin. She loves all things fandom including Supernatural, Doctor Who, and more. Ever the introvert, she can usually be found reading, playing with her dog, listening to music and practicing yoga. Brianna joined the Nerds and Beyond staff in 2018 where she unites her love for all things "nerd" with her passion for writing. Find her on Twitter here: @bookbag09
Leave a comment