This week’s episode of 9-1-1 is literally what the title says, “Death and Taxes”. Maddie and Chimney are in trouble with the IRS and get a life-changing suggestion as Athena works on a mysterious case. Meanwhile, Buck discovers a new meaning in life after meeting with a death doula during a call.
Keep reading to find out what happened in this week’s episode.
Death and Taxes
A man is trying to make it home from work but is busy looking through taxes, despite his wife trying to berate him about it over the phone, and lights keep flickering in his office. He gets back to his office after grabbing coffee, and an intruder accidentally lights himself on fire.
The 118 show up and find out the guy tried to save him, and he did. With Hen and Eddie working on him, they find his ID, and it’s discovered the perp was a client of the employee’s who was being audited due to his taxes.
Fascination with Life and Death
At a funeral, a car drives straight through the chapel. The 118 arrive on the scene and immediately get to work. A woman is underneath the car, and they successfully pull her out. Buck sees the picture of the woman, Marie, and apologizes for the loss of her twin. However, Marie points out it’s her. They were at a living funeral planned by her death doula, Natalia. As they get ready to transfer Marie, she points out that a lot of the people that showed up she hasn’t seen in years. She’s been fighting bone cancer, so she doesn’t know how much time she has left.
Buck offers to look at Natalia’s hand, clearly just a way to talk to her. She says her job is to help people accept death, and Buck tells her about his run-in with death after getting struck by lightning, and she finds it amazing. Natalia wants to take him out for coffee to get more acquainted. Marie is taken away through the crowd of people as she waves to everyone.
Natalia updates Buck on Marie’s condition, and Buck finds her job incredible, but Natalia is basically fangirling over Buck’s job. Buck tells her about what happened when he got struck by lightning.
Buck and Eddie are at the cemetery, at Marie’s grave. They talk about how Marie was alone, but she was still surrounded by her friends and family beforehand. Buck tells Eddie about Natalia and the lightning strike. He says there’s something different about her; she sees him for who he is and what he’s been through.
“I think she might even see more of me than I see myself.”
Eddie says that Buck hasn’t been the same since the lightning strike, and Buck admits he doesn’t know how to act. He feels like he has to be the same old Buck for the sake of everyone else. Eddie tells him that he doesn’t have to be anyone for anybody. Something like this changes someone. Buck says when he woke up in the hospital, he felt like he got away from something. Life could have ended, but it didn’t. Buck says he has to make the most of every single moment, so from here on out, “it’s all a gift.”
Suspicious Death
Athena arrives at an address for an arrest warrant for a man buying a yacht with the money from a charity he runs. She and other officers kick the door down and search the house. He’s locked himself in the bathroom, and before they can use the battering ram, he comes out after having flushed the toilet.
Athena’s on her way back to the station with the guy, Dominic, who keeps asking questions until he’s unconscious. She’s on with Dispatch, and Maddie helps her through it until an RA unit arrives. Paramedics take over, and they have a pulse, and Athena assigns officers to watch over him.
At the station, Athena’s answers questions about what happened. Luckily, she did everything right, and it’s all about paperwork. However, she gets word from Captain Maynard that Dominic’s dead.
Athena tells Bobby about Dominic and she admits she keeps replaying it. She says there’s always a reason. Athena goes down to the morgue on unofficial business to get more information on his cause of death. However, the M.E. tells her it will be another day or two due to a bus accident downtown, but she offers Athena to look at the body herself, unofficially. When the M.E. opens the bag, it’s not Dominic.
The body at the morgue is identified as Seth Davis, but there’s nothing unusual on the security footage. Officers found a medication bottle in Dominic’s bathroom, meaning he gave himself just enough for an overdose but not enough to kill himself. Athena calls Bobby, who has some theories about how the ER was crowded after the bus crash, and that was when Dominic made the hospital bracelet switch. She realizes that Dominic went back to his house since she told him how long the officers would be there for.
Athena and other officers catch Dominic in the act at his house and finally take him into custody. Unfortunately, Dominic collapses once again, and Athena and Maynard try to revive him. The 118 arrive after Athena and Maynard have been trying for seven minutes, and Hen and Ravi try to revive him, but it’s no use. They wait for a minute before calling the M.E. just to be certain this time.
Balance
Eddie and Chris are at the cemetery visiting Shannon’s grave, and they talk about how things used to be. Chris wonders if his mom can still hear them when they talk to her, and Eddie tells him, “Absolutely.” Eddie suggests going to the store to pick up supplies to make s’mores like they used to with Shannon, and they will also be making an extra one for her.
Eddie’s trying to balance his and Chris’ schedules while trying to set up a time to visit his mother. He promises his mom they’ll figure something out.
Eddie and Chris are watching a movie, and Eddie brings out s’mores, but Chris has fallen asleep on the couch. He tucks him in and still eats a s’more. A picture of Chris and Shannon falls on the ground, and Eddie calls his mother and finally schedules a time to see her in El Paso next weekend. It’s last minute, but there’s no better time than now.
Miscommunication
Maddie gets home to find Chimney with several pints of ice cream, thanks to a broken freezer at the grocery store, and half-off ice cream. As Maddie is going through the mail, she sees an urgent letter from the IRS. Chimney reads it, and it says that Maddie is being audited. While Chimney tells her that everything’s going to be fine, he gets the same one. They try to figure out what they did wrong, but Maddie thinks it’s just a simple mistake.
At the firehouse the next day, Chimney is still freaking out about being audited, and no one is helping the fact. Maddie and Chimney later anxiously wait their turn to meet with the IRS, and while Chimney’s trying to make a game out of waiting, Maddie’s convinced that there’s no problem at all. They get called up and find out they’re being accused of tax fraud. They haven’t been communicating as well as they thought when it came to their taxes and what to put down, like claiming head of household and Jee as their dependent, among many others. They just need to refile and determine who is head of the household.
Maddie and Chimney go through their taxes with an actual person rather than a computer, and it’s the guy from earlier helping them. He suggests they file together, and it will save them money, and they agree. All they have to do before they file next year …. get married.
At the Call Center, Maddie tells Josh about what their tax person said about marriage, and Maddie doesn’t know how she feels. She didn’t think she’d want to get married again, and even though she loves him, she doesn’t know why they need to get married when they’re already committed to each other. Chimney, meanwhile, is at home and looking up engagement rings online.
9-1-1 airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT on FOX. Check out our other 9-1-1 coverage here.
