This week’s episode of 9-1-1 marks the 118th episode of the series, a milestone only fans of the show will understand the significance of. This installment also finds Maddie grappling with the effects of her trauma and kicks off Eddie’s arc in Texas.
Here’s a recap of everything that happens in “Disconnected”.
Maddie Loses Her Voice
In this back half of the season, Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) has been put through the wringer. In the course of just a few episodes, we’ve seen her abducted, nearly killed, and forced to listen to her brother’s boy problems.
Five weeks after her kidnapping, she’s now facing the potential long-term effects of that trauma both physically and mentally. The episode opens with her starting a seemingly normal shift at dispatch, but quickly turns into something much darker. The voice she’s speaking to over the phone morphs into her own, and blood begins to gush from her neck as her coworkers go about their business. When the scene cuts to Maddie waking up in a panic, we realize it’s a nightmare.
In the morning, her husband, Chimney (Kenneth Choi), and their daughter Jee-Yun find Maddie awake and dressed in her dispatch uniform. While Chimney is hesitant at first about her decision to return to work, she admits that she’s been having nightmares and that she thinks they’re her mind’s way of telling her she needs to go back. Ultimately, Chimney supports his wife and her decision if she thinks it will help her move past the internal wounds caused by her ordeal with Amber Braeburn.
Maddie is greeted at dispatch by her coworkers, Josh (Bryan Safi) and Sue (Debra Christofferson), who are understandably concerned with her quick return to the desk. Right before taking her first call in weeks, Josh gives her a pep talk (as he often does), assuring her that nobody does the job like her.
That first call comes in the form of a boy trapped in an apartment fire with his unconscious father. Maddie is able to quickly locate the building he’s in, and it seems as though she’s settling back into her old skills with ease. However, as she talks to the boy and corresponds with the 118, her voice begins to give out on her. She ignores it and continues to do her job, attempting to help the firefighters locate the exact apartment her caller is in until she suddenly finds herself completely unable to speak.
Understandably, she starts to panic and Josh takes over the call. Maddie writes her instructions down for him, and although she isn’t able to vocally do her job, she’s still the reason the 118 is able to find the boy and his father and get them to safety. After the call, Josh and Sue attempt to figure out what’s wrong– thinking maybe she’s having a panic attack or even a heart attack, but Maddie has simply found herself unable to speak.
She’s accompanied by Chimney to have a scan done on her neck, but it comes out completely normal (besides the obvious healing wounds from her attack). When the doctor claims that her inability to speak is most likely not related to her injury, the couple brings up her past thyroid issues and wonders if that could be a factor. Once again, the doctor perplexes them by saying Maddie’s blood came back normal, but he quickly tells them what he thinks the problem is. He believes Maddie is suffering from a psychological condition triggered by trauma that renders one unable to speak.
Upon hearing this, Maddie is devastated. She struggles with the fact that her attacker has taken her voice from her, claiming, “My voice is everything.” This scene is a beautiful showcase of her and Chimney’s relationship, with him being able to convey everything she wants to say while understanding her pain.
This is shown even further as he attempts to coach her through some vocal exercises, but she grows frustrated over the fact that it’s getting worse. Chimney assures her that the both of them will do everything they can not to let Braeburn take anything else from her, including the job she loves.
Later on, Athena (Angela Bassett) shows up at Maddie’s door to provide some reassurance. This is a pairing we don’t get to see much of, but this season has proven how powerful they can be together. Athena admits to Maddie that she’s constantly scared while on the job, but she doesn’t let that fear stop her from helping others with their own. Referencing her own past traumas, she connects with Maddie through those personal experiences. The scene ends with her telling Maddie to text her at any time, and the conversation seems to put her mind at ease a bit.
She takes Jee to the park, and Athena texts her to check-in. While responding to her text, Maddie loses sight of Jee and naturally, she begins to panic. Unable to yell for her daughter, her distress builds until finally, her voice returns with a broken shout of Jee’s name. Jee comes running into her mother’s arms, and Maddie holds her tight in a flood of relief. And, as if the scene couldn’t get any more touching, Jee points out, “Mom, you can talk!” Not only does Maddie have her daughter safe with her, but she’s also found her voice again.
Maddie returns to work with confidence, sitting back at her desk with a new sense of purpose. The episode ends the way most of them open: Maddie starts her life again with the words, “9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
Special Delivery For… The 118?
Although this episode is quite emotionally charged, in true 9-1-1 fashion, the 118 find themselves responding to yet another bizarre emergency.
In a sequence ripped from real life, we see the beginning of a Zoom court hearing. We learn the defendant, Ozzy (played by Rob Benedict, who viewers may recognize from Supernatural), has been cited for driving with a suspended license before he is patched into the call. Once he appears, he is on the clock as a pizza delivery man… actively driving a car. Obviously, the judge does not take kindly to this, and sentences him to jail. However, just as the sentence is being read, our defendant gets in a crash on the other end, cutting his feed.
Somehow, Ozzy’s car has wound up dangling from the edge of a parking structure. Of course, our favorite firefighting crew has been called to respond. After securing the car (or so they think), Buck (Oliver Stark) and Chimney harness up and start trying to extract their victim from the driver’s seat. Suddenly, the car shifts, proving to be unstable. Ozzy is too scared to shift to the passenger seat in order to get out of the car, and as Buck attempts to coax him out he insists that they should just leave him.
Buck asks if he can just enter the car and pull him out, but Bobby (Peter Krause) tells him it’s too dangerous. Chimney comes up with the idea to extract Ozzy through the trunk of the car, and they manage to pull him out safely. Once on solid ground, Ozzy then turns himself into Athena, who arrests him. Immediately after that, his car ends up falling to the ground– right on top of her cop car.
Eddie Struggles in El Paso
While Maddie has trouble with the disconnect from her job in this episode, Eddie (Ryan Guzman) has his own battle to fight when it comes to settling back in Texas.
As we know, Eddie’s return to his home state was brought on by his need to be near his son Christopher (Gavin McHugh), who moved in with his grandparents at the end of last season. We begin to see Eddie make progress in mending his connection with Christopher, although a lot of that development was done offscreen.
This is the first time we’ve seen the father-son duo physically together in almost a year, and it pulls on the heartstrings.
He arrives at a firehouse in El Paso for an interview with the captain, who tells him Bobby has given him a stellar reference (as we would expect!). However, this proves not to be good news for Eddie, as Captain Morales explains he worries that he won’t stay for long after hearing Bobby say he’s always welcome back at the 118. Eddie advocates for himself in this moment, explaining his situation with Christopher and insisting that he has no plans to return to L.A. This seems to change the captain’s mind, who is touched by his vulnerability.
We also see a bit of Eddie dealing with his fixer-upper of a house. In the middle of that scene, we get a montage of his struggles with a leaky ceiling, unstable cabinets and shelves, and even some tragically ugly wallpaper.
After returning from his meeting at the firehouse, at dinner with his parents and Christopher he boasts about the job, clearly confident that he’s a shoo-in for the position. In the middle of their meal, a package comes for Eddie. It’s a video game console for Chris, who is ecstatic about the surprise. Eddie brushes off his mother’s concern that he’s already spent most of his savings on the new house, asking Chris where he wants the gaming system set up: at his dad’s house, or his grandparents’. His mom pushes the idea that it should stay at their house, eventually winning out, which dampens Eddie’s mood. He begins to question whether or not his son will ever want to live with him again.
Sensing his doubt, Eddie’s father reveals to him that Christopher has been bragging to his friends about him being back, proud of the fact that he’s a firefighter. This lightens Eddie’s mood and gives him hope that perhaps his son will come around after all.
Eddie gets a call from Captain Morales, who gives him the news that the department is on a hiring freeze. Devastated that he didn’t get the job, Eddie confides in his best friend, Buck. While on FaceTime, he starts to doubt his decision to move back to El Paso, starting to consider giving up and moving back to L.A. Despite how much we know Buck misses him, he tells Eddie that he can’t come back until he’s successfully mended his relationship with Christopher.
In an attempt to make money in the absence of his firefighting job, Eddie trades in his truck for a smaller car. We learn the reason for this soon after: he’s settled on becoming a ride-share driver.
Through a montage of him carting passengers through the streets of El Paso, it’s evident that Eddie needs some improvement in his chauffeur skills. He’s too chatty and is perplexed when he doesn’t receive any tips from his rides. That is, until one of his passengers gives him some advice which helps him up his skills and start earning the big bucks. Finally, he’s able to make enough money through driving to start supporting himself and Christopher.
However, his family is under the impression that he is working as a firefighter. That illusion is broken when Eddie goes to pick up a new set of passengers, who turn out to be Christopher and one of his friends. They don’t acknowledge each other past the initial shock, with Chris even going as far as calling Eddie “sir”.
After he drops them off, Eddie calls Buck again, needing a sounding board for his consequential spiral. He faults himself for being caught in another lie by his son and worries that Chris is disappointed in him yet again. Buck, always the one to bring Eddie down from the ledge, tells him to talk to Christopher. He says that, unlike last time, Eddie can reason with his son and explain himself, which he needs to do. Following Buck’s advice, he texts Chris to apologize for lying.
Eddie starts doubting himself again as his texts go unanswered until there’s a knock at his door. Christopher stands on the other side with his PS5 (if anyone’s wondering, he took an Uber), and he tells Eddie that he wants to return it. Disappointed, Eddie says he understands, but Chris explains that it’s not because he’s upset with him. It’s because if he wants to stay, he has to save his money, according to Chris. Eddie asks if he’s sure he still wants him around, to which he replies, “Yeah, you’re my dad.”
Although he’s relieved, Eddie still feels the need to apologize in person for his fib and admits that he just wanted Christopher to be proud of him. His son says he is proud of him despite everything, and in a tender moment Eddie asks, “Can I hug you?”
We’re glad to see the Diaz boys back together on our screen, even if it’s likely that they’re only scratching the surface with their reconciliation. We’re promised to see more of Eddie’s life in Texas in upcoming episodes, focusing more on the building back up of their relationship again.
“Disconnected” lives up to its title, with both Maddie and Eddie finding themselves adrift, and ending the episode with a semblance of being back where they belong: Maddie at her job, and Eddie with his son.
Catch new episodes of 9-1-1 on Thursday nights at 8/7c and stream the next day on Hulu.
