Following the long hiatus, 9-1-1 had quite the dramatic spring premiere as a dry (then very wet) lightning storm overtakes LA causing some intense calls for the 118. Read on to see what happened in “In a Flash.”
Calls of the Week
The 118 returned to face two very different calls triggered by the storm. The first sees a family at the beach. The two kids decide it’ll be fun to bury their sleeping dad in the sand like they used to do. The dad plays along, and soon he’s buried in the sand up to his neck. He jokes about the tide, and the teen daughter playfully splashes a bucket of water over him. At that moment, a bolt of lightning strikes their nearby umbrella.
As anyone who has seen Sweet Home Alabama knows, lightning striking wet sand turns the water to glass. In this case, the superheated water turned to glass and punctured the man’s neck right at the artery. Luckily, it’s partly cauterized, but as the team digs him free, the glass has also cut the artery in his arm. They are able to tourniquet the arm and save him, all while Buck calmly keeps both kids distracted off to the side with several “fun facts” about lightning and glass.
The second call of the week sees an Uber driver rushing a pregnant woman who is in labor to the hospital. She refuses to take an ambulance, but a lightning strike startles the driver and sends the car flipping. Upon arrival, the team finds that the woman’s baby has actually been thrown from her body with the force of the accident. They have to work quickly to free the mother and search for the newborn. Bobby does this while Chimney tends to the driver. He’s able to find the infant, and they free it though the umbilical cord was ripped rather than clamped, causing issues, and the baby isn’t crying. Buck clamps the cord, and Bobby holds the baby when it finally begins crying, and they take the baby to the mother. The driver is also freed from the car, and all three passengers are taken to the hospital.
Family Matters
Maddie and Chimney are more than a little stressed as they prepare for Maddie and Buck’s parents to visit their newly purchased home. Maddie worries that Chimney is upset that her parents helped with the downpayment, but he says he doesn’t care because they got the house, and that’s all that matters. When they arrive, both Margaret and Phillip are surprisingly pleasant and say they love everything about the house Chimney and Maddie were sure they’d hate. Things are going smoothly until Albert arrives fresh off his flight with a big surprise, their father and his mother (Chimney’s stepmother) in tow.
Chimney pulls him aside as everyone sits down to eat and gives Albert an earful for not letting him know that Sang was also coming. He has a bad history with his father, but as they look through the window, Albert points out that Jee deserves to know her grandparents, and everyone is getting along almost like a family.
The following night as the family mills around the kitchen, Buck receives a sonogram photo that he shows Maddie without realizing he never told his family. Margaret sees it and immediately jumps to conclusions that Chimney and Maddie must be having another baby. They quickly shut that down, and Buck explains that he’s a donor for an old friend. Everyone seems shocked, and Chimney’s father is outraged that Buck’s are supportive. He calls Buck less of a man and says they shouldn’t let this stand. It’s that moment Maddie comes out with a scared Jee, who was startled by all the yelling. Of course, the power goes out from the storm at this exact moment, and they set about lighting candles. Later, Chimney is shocked when Sang apologizes to Buck for overreacting to his news. Things seem to smooth out from there as Buck tells Maddie he imagines this family gathering is how he imagines life would have been if their brother hadn’t died.
May and Athena Go Undercover
Following the death of Bobby’s sponsor and friend, May and Athena decide to go undercover at the center he was being treated at to try and sniff out any foul play. They pretend to be a mother-daughter duo who is looking for somewhere for Jada (aka May) to get clean. Alone on their own tours, Athena finds out the facility has a hefty price tag while May gets a former client who now works there to admit, not in so many words, that the facility allows clients to continue using. They believe in controlling the use and weening users off rather than a cold turkey approach. As such, the facility has had five deaths which they find suspicious.
Back home, May and Athena both wonder if Bobby needs to let his investigation go and let the state deal with the matter. However, May digs into the social media of the girl she met and discovers a lack of posts on the day that Wendell died. May corners her at a flower market, and after talking to her, two girl tells her what happened.
Buck’s Shockingly Bad Luck
Buck has a long history of bad luck on 9-1-1, and tonight was no exception as the crew raced to the scene of a building fire. The dry thunderstorm turned wet and pours down rain as the crew set up the ladder to start getting water into the building. Chimney prepares to go up, but Buck jumps up on the ladder truck and tells him it’s his turn. Chimney is surprised he’s keeping track (but we are not, let’s be real, it’s Buck), so Eddie straps Buck in, and Buck makes his way to the top of the ladder.
He barely reaches the top before he notices an odd atmospheric change and is suddenly struck directly by a bold of lightning. Everyone jumps into action as Buck dangles lifelessly from the top of the ladder, secured only by his harness strap. Eddie races to the top to help lower him down slowly. Hen and Chimney prepare a gurney for him as he’s lowered down. Buck lands on the gurney, but he’s in full cardiac arrest, so shocking him with paddles doesn’t make sense. Chimney immediately jumps on the gurney to begin chest compressions as they load them into the ambulance. Eddie runs to the driver’s seat, and they set off for the hospital with Hen and Buck working on him. All that’s left behind at the scene is Buck’s helmet on the pavement.
9-1-1 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on FOX! Stay tuned for our continued coverage on the series, including episodic recaps and more.
