9-1-1 fully accelerated last night, bringing Buck and Eddie to a standoff, with Athena listening to her gut above all else, and an incredible performance by Kenneth Choi that decimated fans in the last few minutes of episode 5 of season 10, “Who’s Your Daddy?” Let’s dive in!
Editor’s note: Spoilers ahead!
The episode kicks off with Buck and Eddie having a conversation about Buck giving up Theo, on the heels of the previous episode where Buck thinks that he traumatized him. Eddie is mad that Buck is giving him up, and there’s a sweet moment where Theo gives Eddie a truck with cars for Christopher.
Eddie and Christopher head over to Hen and Karen’s for dinner, and we see that Denny is in school in New Hampshire. Maya is still there and asks Eddie why Buck and Theo didn’t come. Karen and Hen tell Eddie after Maya leaves that they’re being careful in how they tell her; and Hen comes to the defense of Buck, saying it was a hard decision and they had each other, but who did Buck have?
We see another new emergency at a girl named Jules’ 21st birthday party. She sees her parents (Sonya and Mitt), and we see that Jules also talked to her boyfriend, Andres, about how she’s pregnant. They’re interrupted by another man, Cotter, who is her parents’ friend. All of a sudden, Jules’ face is swelling and red. Hen, Chimney, Ravi, Harry, and Eddie are assessing, and they don’t think it’s an allergy. Eddie says they’d have to crike her (cut her throat) to help her breathe. Cotter stops them and says to use Icatibant, which is a medication used for hereditary angioedema, which is a genetic condition that causes swelling attacks brought on by various triggers. They get clearance to give it to her, and Chim tells Cotter, “Great job, Dad.” Mitt interrupts, saying that he’s the father, but Cotter was just the best man at the wedding, which then leads to them finding out that Cotter is actually her father.
Chim and Maddie arrive at the hospital looking for John Lee, and they find Anne in the hospital with John. Chim goes to talk to Dr. Hoffman with Maddie and Anne, and he tells them he’s in a medically induced coma with cellulitis, and turned into sepsis after cutting himself in the garden last week. Dr. Hoffman asks Chim if he’s the power of attorney, but he tells him he’s not his son biologically. He asks Anne what his wishes are, and she says he wants to live.
At home later, Chim and Maddie talk about seeing John and Anne, and Maddie says she thinks Anne was wanting him to weigh in on his DNR, but Chim says he loves them, but they’re not his parents. Maddie says they see them all the time, and the kids call them Grandma and Grandpa. Chim still thinks it’s overstepping.
Hen talks to Chim, and Chim says it would be so much easier to pull the plug on his actual father. She tells Chim that John loves Chim and the kids. Chim says John has never said he loved him, and Hen asks if he’s said that, too. He refers to him as John and his biological dad as Dad, and that it feels a bit backwards. Chim talks about how John was there for him, and how after he lost his mom, he and Anne took him in, and they became everything to him. Chim’s nervous that he doesn’t know where he stands with John, and Hen tells him to ask and be there for him.
We’re brought to another emergency with a father, Alberto, and son, Santi, who arrive at a worksite to turn wood into mulch. There’s a big wood chipper there, and Alberto is inside trying to remove a branch that’s stuck, as Santi accidentally hits the lever to turn it on with his shoulder, causing Alberto to get his legs stuck in the blades.
The 118 arrive and see just how bad it is. Chim calls Maddie, asking where USAR is, but they’re stuck and can’t get there. Chim sees how grave it is, and realizes that Alberto is probably not going to make it out of there. Santi asks to see him, and when Chim tells him he might not make it out, he agrees. He tells Santi how much he loves him, and as he crashes, the team lifts the blades and gets him out. They’re doing CPR when a helicopter arrives with blood, and Chim tells Maddie he loves her for getting them there. Alberto comes back, and he’s transported to the hospital.
A call comes into dispatch about a body being found in a park, and Athena and Newell arrive to investigate. His name is Chip Larson, and he has a gunshot wound to the chest.
Later at the station, they continue to investigate. Captain Callahan comes in and says he has a transient person in holding who was wearing Chip’s shoes and confessed. Athena and Newell question the man, Marshall, who has schizophrenia. Athena’s not buying his confession. He tells Newell that Chip’s dead and was shot. He doesn’t say who shot him, but that they both were there and he took his shoes. He tells them the gun grew wings and flew away into the sky. Callahan says he had gun residue and Chip’s blood on his hands.
Newell finds Chip’s kids, and they bring them in. Athena and Newell talk to them, and they find out that Chip was a deadbeat dad. He took an insurance policy out and named both of them beneficiaries, so they run with the theory that the kids set up his death. However, that turns out to be not true. Athena asks Marshall where he was in November 1963, and he says he murdered JFK, which shows just how not reliable his stories or confessions are.
Athena tells Newell she has a hunch, and that he had correspondence about weather balloons, and how much helium would be needed to lift two pounds. Newell said that could be a camera, but Athena says that could be a gun.
Athena and Newell go to Callahan’s office after, saying they found the gun that killed Chip on a rooftop not in the park. They reveal that it was a suicide, and it wasn’t Marshall at all. Chip had retired, his wife had died, and his kids hated him, so he had no will to live.
Later, we see that they got Marshall some help with medication, and they called his daughter, who didn’t know how to find them, and they reunited.
Meanwhile, Eddie sees Christopher writing a letter to Buck, and Chris says it’s an angry letter. He’s angry at Buck for giving up Theo, and Chris says it will hurt more that Buck sent him away. Chris says he remembers, but that Eddie came back, and Theo needs a Dad that always comes back.
I love the running theme of this episode about found family, which eventually leads us into the final scenes of the episode.
Chim arrives at the hospital and goes to John’s room, only to see an empty room and a stripped bed. In what is an incredible performance by Kenneth Choi, who immediately breaks down, thinking that John has passed. As a nurse asks him what he’s doing there, we hear John’s voice say, “It’s okay. He’s our son.” (This decimated all of the viewers.) Chim goes over to John and Anne and gives him a giant hug and tells him that he loves them.
Towards the end of the episode, we see Buck packing up Theo’s things, and he looks outside to still see the small trampoline he built for him. When we see him again, arriving at Eddie’s house, Buck is on crutches and says he doesn’t want to talk about it, but this was a way for them to write in Oliver Stark’s own ankle injury in a cheeky way.
Buck sees that Eddie has already eaten, and sees three plates. He then hears Theo’s voice and sees Theo playing in Christopher’s room. Eddie tells him it’s an emergency placement and Theo is living there. Buck is livid, and the two argue back and forth, throwing low-blow shots at each other before Buck storms out, and the episode ends.
If you’ve been a fan of these two characters (and actors) for a while, you can see just how great this scene was. Oliver’s performance as he hears Theo and turns around, and the anger is so evident on his face, was fantastic. You could feel how much he was seething (and it was sort of terrifying!) Ryan also did a great job showing controlled emotion as Eddie, and not rising to meet Buck’s anger, and it really is just a well-done job between both established actors.
The only thing that I wish was shown was more of Buck’s reaction to Theo leaving; we only really saw him in the beginning, and then two scenes at the end where he’s packing up Theo’s things and the fight with Eddie.
Season 10 of 9-1-1 is honestly shaping up to be one of my favorite seasons. It’s been packed with great stories and heartfelt moments. The ratings are showing it, too. Next week is the midseason finale, and I know it’s going to be explosive after these last few episodes. I can’t wait.
9-1-1 airs on Thursday nights on ABC. You can watch it the next day on Hulu.