It’s the fall finale of 9-1-1, and the Santa Ana winds are bringing a plethora of odd calls for the 118 and the Call Center. Meanwhile, Denny wants to know more about his birth parents, Buck shares big news with the team, and Bobby suffers a loss. Plus, a call brings Chimney closer to his dream home with Maddie and Jee.
Keep reading to find out what happened in “Red Flag.”
A Reckoning
The Santa Anas are bringing chaos to the 118 and the Call Center, and some of the calls are pretty wild.
Firework Caution
A dog is going crazy during fireworks, and when the dad comes home, the dog runs off. The mom, dad, and daughter go out to look for her, then come back in when it seems like there’s no use. The dad, Carl, offers to look for the dog again, but when he opens the door, Lenny comes back in … with a severed hand.
The 118 arrive on the scene, and Buck can’t help but point out the fact that every year he thinks they’ve seen it all, but every year the craziness just gets upped thanks to the Santa Anas. After Chim and Hen do a quick assessment of the hand, the mother, Charity, tells them about people setting off fireworks not far from them. As they go door-to-door to find the owner of the missing hand, Fitz and the Tantrums’ “HandClap” plays in the background, and I really can’t think of a better song choice for that moment.
After having no such luck locating the owner, a guy asks the 118 if they need a “hand.” He’s got a hand covered, and there’s blood on his shoes, and after Eddie tells him they don’t need help, he runs off with a small cooler. At first, the crew just watch him, and when Buck says, “Not it,” Eddie reluctantly starts to follow. The kid doesn’t get very far until he falls down, and Eddie notices he’s missing a finger. Chim and Hen check out his friend in the car, who has a complete amputation of the right hand due to a fireworks fight. The kid with the amputated hand comes around and pulls out a finger from his pocket, though surprisingly, it’s a thumb, which is not the right finger the kid lost.
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“Things just keep getting weirder.”
Murder House
Josh gets two dead-end phone calls that disconnect and notifies dispatch. When he looks up the address, there are articles calling it the Murder House.
Two officers show up at the house thinking it could either be a ghost or people squatting there, and as one officer looks around, he gets spooked by something he sees in the window. Chim and Hen show up and see the officer getting help from his partner, who shares that he got scared by a piece of trash bag that was blowing around outside.
As Hen takes care of the officer, Chim can’t help but notice how it has a great structure despite being known as a haunted house. Over the radio, Josh pleads to have the house stop calling him, as it somehow keeps dialing 911. Chim finds a landline and gets to work on fixing it.
Sleep Driver
With a sleepless night at the 118 (besides Buck, who is sleeping soundly in the bunk), the crew discuss their lives; Hen mentions what’s going on with Denny, and Chim admits he’s been looking into the Murder House and how there was a triple homicide years ago. Tires can be heard screeching, and a firefighter tries to stop a car from driving into the house.
The crew comes down to the floor to figure out what’s going on, and the woman in the driver’s seat is unfazed. She gets out, and Buck comes running out from the bunks and immediately averts his eyes after seeing that the woman is completely naked. Bobby has Buck grab a blanket while he and Chimney check her out. When Bobby suggests that Eddie look for an ID in the car, Eddie isn’t sure how that will work out.
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“She’s naked. You really think she thought to grab her purse before she went out the door?”
When Bobby puts the blanket on the woman, Lizzy, she wakes up mortified. She’s sleepwalked before, but driving while sleeping is new. When the guys wonder what to do about her car, Lizzy admits she doesn’t have a car.
Overworked
Josh’s day at the Call Center doesn’t start off great because of all the detours he had to take on the way to work. When he’s telling Maddie and Linda about how idiotic people can get during the Santa Anas (people hit by umbrellas and a parrot stabbing), the two dispatchers slyly look at each other, clearly up to something.
“How bad can it be?”
Josh comes in for another shift, clearly tired and overworked, even thinking about transferring to St. Louis until Maddie tells him they have tornados. He goes through calls like a boss, though, despite his tiredness.
While working his fourth shift, Josh tries to stay awake, and later in the shift, he tells Maddie and Linda the last few days have been the most draining of his career. He’s reached his breaking point. He leaves to tell Sue he quits, and Maddie and Linda admit that it’s been a prank since he always brags about not working during the full moon. They thought he could use a dose of crazy. Josh confesses he knew it ever since George called in with appendicitis since he approved his time off to get his appendix removed three years ago. He tells Maddie and Linda to watch out for the next full moon.
Denny’s Birthday Wish
Denny opens up birthday gifts from Hen and Karen, and the two tell him it’s his birthday, and they can do whatever he wants. To their surprise, he asks about his birth mother. He admits he saw a woman the other day that looked like him, and that’s what got him thinking about what she’s like. Karen suggests Hen bring out photos of Eva, and it makes Denny feel better. Denny goes off to play with his new toys, and Hen is scared of what might come, even though they’ve been expecting it for 10 years.
Hen talks to Eddie about what happened with Denny, and Eddie figures that he almost lost a mom, so it’s natural that he’s beginning to wonder about his birth parents. She later brings down a box with some stuff pertaining to Eva with not many pictures. She hides a folder, and Denny asks her about Eva getting sick. He grabs the box so he can look through it on his own, and Hen is still holding the folder.
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Denny apologizes to his moms about asking for his birth mother, and Hen and Karen assure him it’s fine; they want to make sure he’s okay and knows he can ask them anything. Denny says he’s not looking for another mom; he has them. And they’re awesome.
Denny rides his bike to a house with the folder and knocks on a door, telling the person who he is and that he thinks he’s his dad.
Return of a Friend
Bobby gets a visit from Wendall, his AA sponsor, who is checking in to see how he’s doing. The two talk about how Bobby is coming up on five years sober, and Wendall seems a bit off, but he tells Bobby he’s going to visit his family. He says he’s going to be gone for a couple of weeks and was hoping Bobby would fill in for him. Athena comes home, and Wendall was glad he got to say goodbye to her before he left. Before he leaves, Bobby asks him if he’s sure he’s alright, and although he plays it off like he is, Bobby isn’t too sure about it.
Later, Bobby listens to a voicemail Wendall left, slurring his words and basically saying goodbye and how he isn’t good enough.
As the crew sits on the roof of the firehouse, trying to relax after some of their crazy calls they’ve had while also going over the Murder House again, Bobby can smell fire, and soon everyone can smell it before the alarms go off.
The crew gets to an open field and tries to contain the fire before it’s too late. They’re able to put the fire out, and Bobby talks to a worried couple about it. Eddie calls over Bobby after finding a body, and Bobby spots a familiar-looking watch. Wendall’s. He sees a syringe by the body and tells Eddie he needs a second.
Facing a Loss
The team returns to the firehouse, and although Bobby says he’s okay, the team is worried about their captain.
At home, Bobby tells Athena that Wendall’s family hadn’t talked to him in weeks. Athena says she spoke to the detective assigned to the case, who said that the area they found Wendall in is common for people to use. The LAPD is constantly getting calls from the neighbors, and there’s a rehab facility less than a mile away. Athena figures Wendall went to rehab, and Bobby wonders why he didn’t tell him. She tells him that darkness is too deep.
“You can’t see the hands that are reaching out to help you.”
Bobby wishes Wendall felt like he could come to him like all the times he helped him. He later goes to the rehab facility trying to get information, but there’s a doctor-client privilege, and Bobby is escorted out, but not before he sees a newspaper article on the wall with the couple he saw at the scene of the fire.
Bobby later is staking out the rehab facility and watches the couple from earlier, knowing something has to be done.
Big News
Chim and Hen are on the phone and talking about the Murder House, with Buck soon joining in. Buck has news and calls Eddie so he can join the late-night chat. Buck reveals he’s officially responsible for the creation of new life. Karen and Connor are having a baby. After Eddie hangs up, Buck admits he’s happy and feels like he can finally get some sleep. He even has a little firefighter outfit for a baby on his nightstand.
With Buck off the call, Hen talks to Chimney about Denny and how she doesn’t want to be honest about Eva. He assures Hen that Denny is always going to be hers no matter how many questions he asks, and Denny overhears it all.
Chim takes Maddie to the Murder House (in broad daylight, luckily) and tells her the house speaks to him. If they fix it up a bit, it could be the perfect home for them. He tells her there was no murder: a father was driving home before Christmas with his three daughters, and they got into a car accident and died. The mom was home wrapping presents, and she moved after the funeral. She held onto it, and it got passed to her nephew after she died. Maddie spots a height chart and realizes that a family lived there.
“I think a family should live here again.”
9-1-1 is officially on hiatus until the spring, but 9-1-1: Lone Star will be premiering its fourth season on Tuesday, January 17 at 8 p.m. EST on FOX! Check out the rest of our 9-1-1 coverage here, including episodic recaps and more!
