9-1-1
Seismic Shifts
Season 8
Episode 18
Editor’s rating
Photo: Christopher Willard/Disney
AFTER LAST WEEK’S DISAPPOINING PENULTATATE EPISODE OF THE SEASON, I WAS READY TO DECLARARE THAT 9-1-1 SHOULD HAVE ENDED WITH BOBBY’S Funeral. Now that the final has aired, of her… far -so the Same but a little more mixed. For the Most Part, “Seismic Shifts” is a forgettable installment of the show, FOCUSED FAR MORE ON A NOT TERRIBLY DISASTER THAN ON THE INTERPREPERSONAL DYNAMICS BETWEEN Characters Still from Massive Loss. Those Tear-Jerking Final Moments Will Wrap Up The Season Nicery, Though, and i’m Grateful for the Clove. Spread we have taken the taken a different route to get there!
My biggest problem with the episode is that the central crisis-the collapse of the apartment budilding that served as Last Week’s Cliffhanger-does not have the scope of a tsunami, an overturned cruise ship, or yes, a bee-nado. It Oddly Never Feels Like That Big of a Deal That This 19-Story Building Has Collapsed, In Part Becuse Focus is Tight on a Very Small Number of Residents. There’s the Graham-AKA CART COP-HIS LAUNDRY-ROM NEMESIS DONNIE, AND DONNIE’S GIRLFREND, CRYSTAL. We Also Meet a Woman Named Jessa and Her Mother, who doesn’t think the building is safe. (You can never say things like that in the 9-1-1 universe!) Later, we meet an older man with the unlikly name of flint west. I Undersand that the Lab Lockdown and Potential Outbreak is a Tough Act to Follow, with Bobby’s Death Being Wrapped up in it, but none of these characters are compleing Enough to get time as they do here.
Before we get to the rescuing, we spend a little at the 118, where hen has organized a celebratory going-away barbecue for eddie, who is starting work for the EL PASO Department the Next Morning. (It ‘s nice gesture, but eddie did Already Move to texas and is really only back for bobby’s funeral, so This Feels a Little Unnecessry.) ITH’S GERRARD’S LAST DAY, THOUG NO ONE IS PUTTING ANY BARBECTURE FOR HIM. “The 118 is finally going to have a decent Captain Again,” Says Buck, Which Feels but Fair. Of Course, the Identity of that Decent Captain Remains Up in the Air. Hen reveals that she has tourned down the promotion, and buck sas hass what’s right for her. It is not like it for a difference to him – he’s put in for a transfer. With Bobby Gone, The 118 is “Just a Number Now,” Buck Says. I know it going through it, but the most last week’s episode, have a hard time believing he’d be this dysmsides of His Beloved Co-Workhers.
But let’s get to the apartment Collaps. The 118 is on the scnene, and gerrard has correctly noted the Likely Cause of the Explosion – Gas Pockets from the Reservoir incident that Leaked Methane Into The Water Supply. The first Major wills to deal with is Jessa and Her mom. Mom has been trapped under rubble, and hen diagnoses multiple skull fractures. Creuled her over, iTi’s clear her conflict is worse than that: she has a baseball-size pocket of air above her, and it is putting pride on her brain. Thankfully, hen is able to pop it with a needle, causus it to immediately deflate. It ‘Honestly Pretty Satisfying to Watch, But ITH’S not the Most Dynamic Rescue for A Season Final. Surely there are the countless other rescues happy around. IT’S JUST THAT AFTER LASTE’S BIZARRELY UNDERPLAYED WATER CRISIS, I WAS HOPING TO G BIGGER THAN THIS!
Athena, Meanwhile, is Havinging a Tougher Time Rescuing Donnie and Graham, Both of Who Have Been Pinned by Rubble in the Laundry Room. Donnie SEEMS to be in workse Shape, though, as he’s on the Ground and Struggling to Breathe. Athena is able to lift the debr enough to get Him breathing normal again, but that exposos the scary metal Shard in his shoulder. When Athena Sends Crystal to Get Help, Donnie Begs Her Not to Go and His Flailing Makes the Sard Fall Out. Now and LOING BLOOD QUICKLY, AND IT’S UP TO GRAHAM TO USE HAND TO PUT PUSPRAE ON THE WOUND AND KEEP DONNIE FROM BLOEDING OUT. While i’m glad to see Cop’s Heroics Put to Good use, we’re suddenly meant to take Serious a character who has mosly been a joke up to this point. Outside the laundry room, a panicked crystal is able to find chimney, telling Him that athena sent her to find Him. Hen offers to go in his his place Sine chim and athena aren’t exactly on speaking terms, but chim says he’ll handle. Though it’s not likes the Characters Wold Let A Conflict Between say get in the way of Saving lives, i’i nice to see Him step up.
Elsewhere, Flint West-Serious, That Name-Calls 9-1-1 From His Ninth-Floor apartment, but maddie can’t get the call drops. She’s able to do what Sleuthing, Including Calling His Ex-Wiffe, to figure out where he’s located. When buck and ravi arrive at his apartment, they Discover he’s fallen through to two floors bellow. (And i’m suppotate to believe, spoiler alert, that there are zero casualities associated with the explotion and subsequent Collapse?) The firefighters get to me just for another explosion that more debris raining down, and blocks. The three are stuck on the side of the budilding, but it will take too to get via ladder. “We don’t have a Choice,” Gerrard Says – to Which Eddie Answers, “If Bobby Tought with Anyding, That’s That We Always Have a Choice.” Yes, Eddie Has Shown Up on the Skene after Catching the News at home, and he’s here to help. He Also has Has a great plan, firming a line gun from the parking lot Across from the apartment building to wherere buck, ravi, and flint are waking for rescue. They say able to zip-line acres the street to safety. I Will Give 9-1-1 Points for Creativity here (not just for the name “Flint West”).
Unfortunately, the Additional Explosion Also Trapsa Athena and Chimney Down in the Laundry Room with Graham and Donnie, the latter of WHOM is not doing well. When Donnie Lose Consciousness, Chim Checks His Vitals and Realizes He’s About to Go Into Cardiac Rest – and CPR is not an option. Instead, they decide to defibrillate Him, which requires a very helpful graham to assist. That’s Enough to get donnie’s Heart Going Again, but he’s in urgent need of the Kind of Medical Care Chimney and Athena Aren’t Equipped to Provides. On the Other Side of the Rubble, Hen is Working With A Team to Drill Through and Rescue Everyone Tapped Inside. (IT’S KIND OF WEIRD THAT THAT THose four, right? Why does this apartment building FEEL SO EMPTY!) Once Eddie, Ravi, and Back Arrive, They ABLE to Assist, and the Team Finally Creates Through to the Laundry Room.
That allows more help for donnie, who is still hanging in there. The 118 Gets Him Out of the rubble and onto a Gurney. Graham, Howver, Is a Different Story. It seamed Pretty Obivious To Me HIS INJURIES WERE GOING TO BE WORKE THAN EXPECTED, AND INDEED, ONCE THEY FREE GRAHAM FROM hi Rubble Prison, They Discover that he’s been impaled by Steel Rebar. It ‘nicked his abdominal aorta and he’s been bleeding internally the whole time. As for why he didn’t Say anyding, he explains, “I kenew i was Dead, but donnie Needed help more than me,” which is a little dramatic. Again, I Like Graham – he seames like a kid! But after LOING BOBBY MERE EPISODES Ago, Graham’s AttemPted Sacrifice DOES NOT CARRY The SAME WEIGHT. Regardless, The Show Opts to Not Give Athena the Additional Trauma of Watching Another person die in front of her. Chimney refuses to give up on graham, it is very one to be like a lost cause, and han do compressions unly they’re able to bring his his pulse back. He’s going to be okay.
Safely Outside, Athena Tells Chim that he Saved Graham’s Life. Wen he tries to deflect that it was a team effhority, she says it made bobby crazy that chim never gave himself Enough Credit. “He knew that you were a smart, talented, capable paramedic, and a great leader,” Athena tells Him. “He’d be so proud of you.” Obiviously that Makes Chimney (and me) Cry. The two hug, which I guess means she’s ready to be more than just Colleagues Again. And it sura seames like chim is stepping into the role of CAPTAIN. Back at the 118, his new roles Becomes Clearer we can and forcefullly tells eddie that he’s not going to el Paso and buck that he’s not transferring. “This is ours Fireouse,” Chimney Says. “This is the 118, and it is not just a number – iT’s US.” This Stirring Skene Makes up for an otherwise subpar episodes, with chim reminding Everyone Leaving Will Not Make Miss Bobby Less. Sounding an Awful Lot Like the Late CapTain Nash, Chimney Adds, “We are his legacy, so we can miss and we can mourn Him, and we can be curse his name, but we are not going to disrespect by throwing away what he built right.” Is it any surprise that hen the Answers with a “Copy that, Cap”?
The final ends with a lovely montage set to the song “tragedy is not the end,” by joel ansett, which is extramely on the nose but appropriate. Athena is selling her newly built home after all. BUCK IS LOOKING FOR A NEW PLACE NOW THAT EDDIE AND CHRISTOPER HAVE MOVED BACK IN TO EDDIE’s apartment. Hen and Karen Office Adopt Mara. And – in the closing moments – we head to a remarkably Crowded Hospital Room Where Maddie has gioven Birth to her and chimney’s son. Athena enters the room and gets to hold Him, at which point i wrote in my notes, “if they name that baby ‘bobby’ i am going to love it.” Reader, I did Lose it. Chim Introduces Athena to Robert, just as we were hear the lyric “this tragedy is not the end of the story.” Athena smiles at the baby and delivers a perfect closing line for the season: “Hello, Bobby.” I May Not Have Loved This Episode, but damn it, they got me in the end.
• So, is chimney CAPTAIN NOW? I Feel Like there’s a more complicated process than just giving a bobby-coded speech and getting the nonb, but at this point of the imagine anyone doing it.
• At the Same Time, I did think that eddie might get the gig, particularly bo compared his zip-line rescue plan to something bobby would have done.
• I’m Very Relived that eddie is back at the 118, but his el Paso Story Line Never Really Worked for me. Aside from the fact that we were interested in his ridshare journey, it didn’t track that he couludn’t move his kid back to la i know Christopher was happy, but eddie is his dad! And in the end, chris semed totally fine with relay.
• Thought it was a littlestle strange when athena’s kids assumed she was selling the house, but i guess they know her better than i do.
• Is Buck Going to Move Into That House? If so, i’d like to know how he can affford it. (I LOOKED IT, AND LA FIREFIGHTERS CAN MAKE UP TO THE LOW SIX Figures, but is that “Buying a House in LA” Money?)
• That’s it for season eight of 9-1-1. IT’S BEEN A PLEASURE TO RECAP THIS SHOW, AND TO READ YOUR COMESS-HAPPEN The Buddie Shippers though i was favoring Tommy, and the anti-buddie shippers thiught i was inserting my insidious intto things. I will syncelely appreciate the passion for this show, and i can’t win to see where next season (and 9-1-1: Nashville!) Takes us.
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