The second episode of the tenth season of ABC’s 9-1-1 aired last night, carrying over the high-stakes aftermath of a sinkhole that started spewing lava.
In this episode, we see the 118 starting to evacuate any news crews and people who have surrounded the volcano, as they’re scared it will erupt again.
Maddie is in charge at dispatch and is in constant communication with Chimney, trying to clear downtown. I did love the Dante’s Peak reference Chim made, as well as destroying a billboard for Avengers: Doomsday, which gives a little nod to the Disney company.
We’re also introduced to a few people stuck in traffic, including Paige, a woman who gets stuck in her car and, as she goes to flee, sees that lava is beneath her feet. This traps her and others in a river of lava, which the 118 helps make a mission to rescue. The team completes a lot of high-risk rescues, and as a guy refuses to wait, he jumps between cars and ends up falling into the lava.
Eddie finds a service dog, Biscuit, realizing it went through the lava. They end up finding out the driver has POTS and could be having a seizure. Eddie straps the dog to his chest and goes jumping from car to car, finding Ryland, his owner, and helps him come down from the seizure.
Buck finds Paige, the woman from earlier, and gets her out of her car, only to realize she’s pregnant. Buck talks her through jumping from car to car, with a gas station nearby ready to explode. They get blocked by an explosion, and Eddie shoots a wire line to Buck and Paige, but they can’t wait for a harness. Buck ties the line around himself and Paige, and they swing over the river and cars to the team, and to safety. As they get to triage, Eddie checks the baby’s heartbeat, smiling, and lets Paige hear it as well. This is a really sweet scene, shown in slow motion, as Buck looks on. I love that this gave a glimpse back into Buck in more of his wild-side rescues.
Later, Maddie tells Chim there’s a watch that registered a crash, but at an apartment building. Chim sends Hen and Harry to go check it out, and they find a woman, Leona (played by Angelique Cabral), lying in an apartment. Lava hit the building and fused the ceiling to Leona. She’s a doctor and realizes that the outlook is grim. Hen tries to call for help, but they’re obviously backed up, and it would take a while to get to her. She realizes that she’s not going to make it, and refuses treatment. Harry offers to stay with her until she passes, and this creates a sad moment between them as she talks about the first patient she lost at the hospital (and knows that she will be Harry’s). The acting and writing are incredible here. It’s a beautiful moment where Harry asks her how she’s so brave, and she starts crying, asking if she can drop it for a minute, saying, “Bravery is so exhausting,” which is a powerful line. One of the last things she says is, “Pack your grief wisely.” She passes away shortly after as Harry cries. Elijah and Angelique are truly phenomenal here, and their performances and connection through this really deliver a punch right to your soul.
Back at the hospital, May practiced IV insertions, and we see Ian again, as the first patients from the eruption head to the hospital. A married couple comes in, and Ian asks May to do the IV insertion, and Mat messes up, blood spewing out. May steps out with Ian taking over, and crouches outside of the hospital crying.
Ian comes out later to tell May that it’s a teaching hospital, but she has to tell him when she doesn’t know how to do something. She agrees to never do that again and be honest with him.
For Athena, we see her still underground, but this time she finds Harvey with Operations Management, and Matthew Sparks, an officer who was being trained by Athena temporarily (appearing in season 8), shoots a woman, thinking it was his taser. He’s now working with Harvey. On the surface, we see an LAPD officer enter the jewelry store where Athena crawled down into the tunnels from, but the owner she gave info to that she was down there is badly burned.
Athena, Harvey, and Sparks see that his radio is broken, and they’re trying to find a way out of the tunnels, but Harvey is concussed and can’t remember Athena (and we later find out he doesn’t remember that his wife died three months earlier). They finally make their way to the exit point, only to have the volcano erupt again and block them in.
Back with Maddie, OEM ends up crashing dispatch because their office is in the lava. Maddie is the next in line to be in charge, so she has to make all of the decisions about how the emergency services move. Maddie has to choose to defend two neighborhoods because they don’t have the resources for both. Maddie and Josh have a conversation, and Maddie talks to Josh about how Reina Heights is hilly with newer builds, and Soto Vista is 90% working class. She has to make the difficult decision to defend Reina Heights because they have to stop the flow of lava, or there will be a chain reaction of other neighborhoods going up in flames.
I loved the back and forth between Maddie and Chim this episode to coordinate the emergencies; it shows how great their working relationship is aside from their personal relationship, and how much they trust each other.
There were a lot of hard decisions that had to be made by Maddie this episode, and she makes the comment, “I’m not sure why they keep promoting me,” but it’s clear in this episode why they do. She’s incredibly smart, but still has feelings and empathy even when she has all the data to back up making the right decisions. I love how much they’re showcasing Maddie’s brilliance this season thus far.
The production value and the way the shots are set up really bring you fully into the disaster. You feel like you’re right in it with them, and you really do hold your breath as the team jumps from car to car to rescue people.
After seeing this episode, to me, this is their strongest opening disaster since the Tsunami. The high-stakes rescues, the stories interwoven, the performances from all of the actors, and the writing are all at their best. Every single moment you feel deeply, whether it’s the rescues, Maddie’s choices at Dispatch, or Athena trying to make her way out of the tunnel.
This is truly 9-1-1 at its best, and evidence of why it’s the best show on television right now.
9-1-1 stars Angela Bassett, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Oliver Stark, Ryan Guzman, Kenneth Choi, Aisha Hinds, Elijah M. Cooper, Anirudh Pisharody, and Corinne Massiah.
Watch new episodes as they air on Thursday nights on ABC, and you can watch them the next day on Hulu.