9-1-1 kicked off its third episode of season 10 last night with the conclusion of the epic volcano disaster opening in “Streets of Fire.”
Editor’s note: Spoilers ahead!
The episode starts off with Athena, Sparks, and Harvey trapped underground. Sparks jumps and holds onto scaffolding over the river of lava, but slips.
The lava continues to destroy Los Angeles, and Maddie and OEM are trying to control its flow. A new call comes in of a dorm building on fire. The 118 are there trying to help, but as they spray water, it creates acid rain. They have to shut off the water and try to evacuate the students. A student, Peyton, is trapped inside, and Chim ends up saving her as the building continues to burn.
At the hospital, we see Ian and May working as patients keep coming in. One of them is the owner of the jewelry store (Garen) that Athena gave her card to. As the camera pans away, we see the card in the bag of Garen’s things.
Back with Athena, we see that Sparks fell on a rock near the lava flow and was able to climb back up on the other side, but he’s clearly hurt. He puts a ladder over to the other side where Athena and Harvey are, and they have to climb across it over the lava. They all make it over to the other side. Harvey tells Athena there’s a phone, but it’s not working. There’s a grating that Athena sees, and Harvey says they’re below Union Street Metro Station. Sparks collapses, and they find out he’s bleeding internally. Sparks thinks he’s going to die, and Athena talks to him to keep him fighting. This is a big moment between Athena and Sparks – and they play it beautifully.
The 118 arrives at the hospital, and we see Ravi, Buck, and Harry look on proudly at May as she’s working, which was a lovely scene to see.
At OEM, they’re discussing the lava flow and how it’s headed toward Presbyterian Hospital, where all of their patients are being sent. Maddie calls Ian and tells them they might need to evacuate. Josh, Maddie, and the team try to work through where they can send the patients. Chim calls Maddie, who tells her about the K-rails, and Maddie thinks they have to move the lava. Maddie and OEM decide they’re going to try to move the lava back underground to the Metro Station.
The 118 has been deployed to move K-rails to manipulate the path of the lava, and the bomb squad is brought in to help blow up part of the street to help the lava flow downhill. The K-rails hold, and it sends the lava down the street as the bomb squad detonates their explosives, lowering the grade of the street and sending it down and away from the hospital.
Harvey fixes the phone, and Garen regains consciousness, and May finds Athena’s card and finds out she’s underground. May calls Maddie, and as Maddie’s on the phone with her, Athena calls dispatch.
Maddie calls Chim as the 118 is racing towards Athena. She tells him they have to break through the construction site and use old Prohibition tunnels to get to her. The team goes into the tunnels as they work on breaking through the walls, as the lava continues to race into the subway.
They finally break through, and Athena, Sparks, and Harvey are evacuated. There’s a really sweet moment between Harry and Athena once Athena is evacuated. Chim peeks in the hole that they took them out of and sees the lava has just gotten there, and the team rushes out of the tunnels.
Harry calls May and tells her that they got Athena out, and Maddie hears it too as she cries.
The next scene cuts to the news, showing the disaster is over, and the lava has hardened. May is seen leaving the hospital as Ravi waits outside, asking to take May to breakfast, but she responds that since Ravi just saved her mom’s life, she’s taking him to breakfast.
Maddie is back at dispatch and sees that Sue has arrived. Maddie realizes that Sue has returned because she’s been asked to fire Maddie. Sue said that she told them that she and Maddie were a package deal, and that she could use a co-manager. Maddie thinks it should be Josh instead, and we see Maddie return to the phones. I’m excited to see what happens from here!
Athena visits Sparks in the hospital, and we see that he’s going to be ok. She also calls Martha Bailey, the woman Sparks shot, and she visits him in the hospital. The scene ends as we see the two of them start talking.
The last scene of the episode features Eddie heading to Buck’s house, and as he enters, the house is a mess. Buck is making a volcano with Theo, and Eddie asks to speak to him privately. Eddie brings up that the volcano idea might be too soon, but Buck defends his decision, saying Theo was scared, so he was trying to help him not be. Eddie tells him that Theo needs a father, and Buck tells Eddie that if he doesn’t like his choices, he knows where the door is. Eddie leaves as Theo explodes the volcano. I really like the dynamic here, and it will be interesting to see how Eddie and Buck navigate this.
With the conclusion of the disaster, I can honestly say this is probably my favorite opening disaster since season 3’s tsunami. The epic high-stakes stunts interwoven with the heartbreaking scenes really put this at the front of some of their best episodes.
The way the episodes all fit together like one big action film, the incredible stunts, and the way the ash and fire looked were all spectacular. Every actor was at their best, and these are truly some of the best performances we’ve seen from them.
It may be the tenth season, but 9-1-1 is only getting better and has no intention of slowing down.