S03.E07: Athena Begins

[ESS]

ATHENA REFLECTS ON HOW SHE BECAME THE POLICE OFFICER SHE IS TODAY.

When a murder weapon from a case close to Athena in the early '90s resurfaces, flashbacks to 1989 show how Athena joined the LAPD and became the police officer she is today.

[tvgoddess]

I thought the casting of young Athena was a great choice. I'm not sure who she is, but she did a really good job. Other things I liked was Bobby and Michael bonding over being left in the dark.

I expected to like this episode more than I did, because I generally really do like the origin episodes. It had promise, but I still felt like something was missing. It didn't really tear at my heartstrings like it should have. Probably because we never knew Emmett.

Next week looks scary.

[Chaos Theory]

How to build an Athena.

I wasn’t expecting to like this episode mostly because these building episodes aren’t usually my favorites but this was a compelling and heartfelt episode.

 It did however remind me of the episode of Criminal Intent where we find out who killed Alex Eames’s husband.  This had the same theme.  A guy whose life changed just as dramatically by killing a cop and lived a better life but did it on the bones of the dead.   I did like the song  choice and Athena bringing the guy in with all the cops in the station.  

Edited November 5, 2019 by Chaos Theory

[bmoore4026]

Oh, my God those last minutes broke my heart.  Seeing the juxtaposition between 1991 and 2019 was very good editing.  And Athena breaking down in tears finally at the end blew me away.  Angela Bassett is A. Freaking, Queen.  Give her all the awards.  All of them.  She brought her A-Game tonight.

And what was the name of that song at the end?

Edited November 5, 2019 by bmoore4026

[bluemm]

Interesting! An episode of 9-1-1 without any 9-1-1 calls. It was a fair Athena character backstory though. 

[SuprSuprElevated]

The last two minutes were about all I really enjoyed on this one.  Really good two minutes though.

[meatball77]

It was a very good episode but it didn't feel like 9-1-1

[Irlandesa]

This was a mixed bag for me. 

The cliche game was strong in this one.  Of course Athena had to do it alone without anyone else's help.  Then her fiance was killed the way so many cops on TV are killed--not on the job but rather by stopping at a convenience store for something and interrupting a robbery. Then we discover that he had made something great out of his life.

How did Bobby know "Rick" well enough to be on a first name basis with him and yet Athena had supposedly never told Michael or Bobby about Emmet?

But things I did like included the touching penultimate scene when Athena visited Emmet's mom to tell her there had been an arrest. I liked seeing how Athena's mom didn't understand why she joined the force and the fight it caused.  I liked seeing Bobby and Michael bonding, although Michael should have paused a second when he complained that both he and Bobby had shared their secrets with Athena before marriage.  Umm...except for the fact that you're gay, right Michael? I liked that it wasn't revealed that it was one of the other two cops who actually killed him.  IT was just good old fashioned police work which closed this case.

4 minutes ago, bluemm said:

Interesting! An episode of 9-1-1 without any 9-1-1 calls.

No emergencies but the archived 9-1-1 calls did help Athena solve the mystery.

[gonzosgirrl]

Angela Bassett is a great actress. I love the origin stories and this one was well done. Bobby and Michael should get their own spinoff when 911 is over.

[DearEvette]

I much prefer the 9-1-1 crew going on their calls, but I do appreciate the 'Begins' episodes.  They've made me curious and each one is so different from the other.

I am glad they went with a younger actress and didn't try to make Angela Bassett look younger.  The resemblance was good.

They made her a Delta in college, Angela is a DST IRL.  So that was a nice little easter egg.

I got a small smile on my face when the killer guy turned out to be Glenn Plummer.  It was a mini Strange Days reunion (probably my favorite Angela Bassett role after Tina Turner).  Her character Macy in that movie was also a cop and Glenn Plummer played a rapper named Jeriko One

Spoiler

who gets shot by corrupt police.

Bobby and Michael's relationship is so great.  I especially loved the look they both exchanged when Athena's mother was going on about how perfect Emmitt was how he'd have beenthe perfect son in law.  LOL.

22 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

The cliche game was strong in this one.

One cliche I am glad they side-stepped is that Athena's TO wasn't a flaming misogynist or racist.  He just had abandonment issues because his female trainees left him to get married.  I liked that little element. 

Overall I liked the way the story played out.

Edited November 5, 2019 by DearEvette
added a spoiler warning

[SimoneS]

As usual, the show was hella emotionally manipulative and as usual, I was totally sucked in. I teared up in the final scenes, especially when Athena broke down and Bobby held her. I wasn't sure what I was expecting when Athena approached that door, but finding out that Emmett's killer had "turned" his life around just compounded the tragedy. His family will be destroyed by his secret crime.

The main plot point that I couldn't believe is that Athena's mother would have stayed quiet about Emmett. It is hard to believe she wouldn't have dropped his name in front of Michael over the 15 or so years that he was married to Athena. I did crack up at the look that Bobby and Michael exchanged when Athena's mother said that Emmett was the son she always wanted. Damn, she knows how to slide that dagger in hard. I liked the scene with Athena telling the children also.

I liked the actress who played young Athena. She must have been terrified trying to take on the role of a young Angela Bassett. She was outstanding and shone bright. The actor who played Emmett was hella handsome.

I like these "begin" episodes, but must everyone have to have these traumatic pasts?

I dread next week's episode after that preview with Hen crying. 

Edited November 5, 2019 by SimoneS

[SimoneS]

33 minutes ago, bmoore4026 said:

And what was the name of that song at the end?

Rise Up by Audra Day

[SuprSuprElevated]

49 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

I am glad they went with a younger actress and didn't try to make Angela Bassett look younger.  The resemblance was good.

Conversely, they merely changed the wig color on the actress that plays Athena's mother.  That was bad.  Also, Emmet's mother present day looked about the same age as AB.

34 minutes ago, SimoneS said:

Rise Up by Audra Day

Such a good recording.

51 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

One cliche I am glad they side-stepped is that Athena's TO wasn't a flaming misogynist or racist.  He just had abandonment issues because his female trainees left him to get married.  I liked that little element. 

Yes, plus I was sort of waiting for him to be the killer for some reason.  Glad that wasn't the case.

[Fireball]

12 minutes ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

Yes, plus I was sort of waiting for him to be the killer for some reason.  Glad that wasn't the case.

I thought that too. My thinking was oh he's going to be the killer because he doesn't want to lose another female cop to marriage/kids,

[tennisgurl]

Those last few minutes that tore my heart out, like god dang. Those flashbacks between young Athena telling her fiances mom that he was dead, and current Athena telling her that they found the killer were just heartwrenching, and Athena sobbing into Bobby's arms just sealed it for me. It does strain credibility that no one has ever brought Emmett up before, even to her kids or husbands, but I still really liked this as an Athena origin. And hey, she didnt even have to have a near death experience!

There were a lot of cliches here, but I am glad that, while they dealt with the racial issues of the LAPD, especially in the late 80s/early 90s with the Rodney King tape, they didnt make her older white guy partner a total racist and sexist asshole or a dirty cop. Once he realized that Athena was serious about being a cop, he seemed pretty supportive of her, so that was one aspect of the episode that I appreciated. I also kept expecting the killer to be revealed to be Emmett's partner or her partner or be some other big cop conspiracy going straight to the top or whatever, so I was glad to see them actually go more realistic here. The murderer wasnt a criminal mastermind or a monster or some shocking twist character as a part of a bigger crime, it was just some random drug addict with a gun, which is probably how most gun violence happens. Its not the crime of the century, its just some random idiot with a gun, and that often makes it even more tragic in how senseless it is. And the fact that the guy really did turn his life around, and now his own family will be torn apart, is just the sad cherry on top of this whole tragedy.

I continue to love the bond between Bobby and Michael, I especially cracked up when Athena's mom said that Emmett was "the son she always wanted" and they both exchanged a look! I guess this is not just the origin of Athena as a cop, but also of her moms constant disapproval of basically every life choice Athena makes.

[mittsigirl]

First time posting on here. I guess I am weird, or very sheltered here in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan, Canada, because I love every single episode, and this one tonight made me bawl like a baby! Looks like next week will make me cry again.

[Jillybean]

The actress playing young Athena was quite good.

Unpopular opinion: this episode, and especially the final scene, cemented my opinion that Peter Krause is totally miscast as Bobby. I keep imagining a stronger, sexier actor in the role and how much more powerful the S1 episodes would have been, while he was tormented by his past -- and how he would have been believable as a match for Athena. When Bobby held Athena as she broke down, it just seemed all wrong. HER part, of course, was believable. PK as Bobby is just too milquetoast for Athena.

I also wish they hadn't had Michael come out in S1 and then keep him in his family's life if he wasn't going to have anything else to do. He is one of the more interesting characters and I'd like to see him do more than hang out with his kids and have bro time with Bobby. He was in a relationship at one time, maybe all these lovely family scenes could include a new man for him sometime soon? In hindsight, I would've preferred that he and Athena had stayed married rather than him being gay and the marriage breaking up. He is a great match for Athena, much better than Bobby.

[Empress1]

16 minutes ago, Jillybean said:

Unpopular opinion: this episode, and especially the final scene, cemented my opinion that Peter Krause is totally miscast as Bobby. I keep imagining a stronger, sexier actor in the role and how much more powerful the S1 episodes would have been, while he was tormented by his past -- and how he would have been believable as a match for Athena. When Bobby held Athena as she broke down, it just seemed all wrong. HER part, of course, was believable. PK as Bobby is just too milquetoast for Athena.

I've said this before, but for some reason I just want Peter Krause to play Bobby ... sexier. I think Angela Bassett is sexy AF and Peter Krause can do sexy, but BOBBY is not sexy. (Well, sometimes he is - when he strides into a fire all "Bobby Nash, LAFD," that is sexy to me.)

I laughed at Athena interrogating May's date. "I'm not being nice?!" And like you all, I enjoyed that Athena's training officer wasn't racist or sexist. That was refreshing.

[SuprSuprElevated]

26 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

And because we can't have nice things, they have to add Maddie into the mix.

Agreed.  That was totally forced.  I also am still having trouble believing Athena & Bobby as a couple, let alone married after 5 minutes of kanoodling.  I like them both individually, but a couple?  Nah.

[Clanstarling]

11 hours ago, meatball77 said:

It was a very good episode but it didn't feel like 9-1-1

So much so that when they had the scene with Maddie, I thought "oh, it's a cross over episode." LOL

11 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

This was a mixed bag for me. 

The cliche game was strong in this one.  Of course Athena had to do it alone without anyone else's help.  Then her fiance was killed the way so many cops on TV are killed--not on the job but rather by stopping at a convenience store for something and interrupting a robbery. Then we discover that he had made something great out of his life.

How did Bobby know "Rick" well enough to be on a first name basis with him and yet Athena had supposedly never told Michael or Bobby about Emmet?

But things I did like included the touching penultimate scene when Athena visited Emmet's mom to tell her there had been an arrest. I liked seeing how Athena's mom didn't understand why she joined the force and the fight it caused.  I liked seeing Bobby and Michael bonding, although Michael should have paused a second when he complained that both he and Bobby had shared their secrets with Athena before marriage.  Umm...except for the fact that you're gay, right Michael? I liked that it wasn't revealed that it was one of the other two cops who actually killed him.  IT was just good old fashioned police work which closed this case.

No emergencies but the archived 9-1-1 calls did help Athena solve the mystery.

Bobby knowing the name of Emmet's partner did take me out for a moment, but then I thought Bobby might know him from either Athena's work (since they still work together) or from his work - despite the fact that the only cop they usually see is Athena. 😉

With you on "hey, there was that whole 'I'm gay' secret that took you awhile to reveal"

[Raja]

This talk of crossovers with the promos being aired got me to thinking that the murderer could have been tracked down to Austin Texas.

[Lady Calypso]

I thought it was a decent episode, but it turns out that I'm not a huge fan of Athena. I wasn't loving the episode as much as I hoped I would. I found my attention wandering a couple of times, but I will say that the ending was what made it a decent Begins episode. 

9 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

There were a lot of cliches here, but I am glad that, while they dealt with the racial issues of the LAPD, especially in the late 80s/early 90s with the Rodney King tape, they didnt make her older white guy partner a total racist and sexist asshole or a dirty cop. Once he realized that Athena was serious about being a cop, he seemed pretty supportive of her, so that was one aspect of the episode that I appreciated

Same here. I actually found myself really enjoying Athena's older partner and found that I would have been fine if there was no Emmett and they focused on their partnership for the flashbacks.

The Emmett case was done decently, but it wasn't anything new. We've all seen the cop gets shot at convenience store so many times now that it's a cliche. 

I think I still like some of the other Begins episodes better, but this wasn't bad, per say. I guess I wish I was more invested in Athena as a character. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more.

On the plus side, I did enjoy Michael/Bobby's scenes, and I did enjoy seeing Athena interact with Rick more. 

[Chaos Theory]

2 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

Agreed.  That was totally forced.  I also am still having trouble believing Athena & Bobby as a couple, let alone married after 5 minutes of kanoodling.  I like them both individually, but a couple?  Nah.

Why was it forced?  Is it because we are supposed to hate Maddie?   She works in the building.  She is friends with Athena.   Why wouldn’t she want to help?  

[izabella]

I know it's tv, but it was not believable to me that Athena would be able to trace the gun back through all those people.  Most of them wouldn't still be around for her to question.

[sashayshante]

14 hours ago, SuprSuprElevated said:

Also, Emmet's mother present day looked about the same age as AB.

In the show, I think Athena is supposed to be late forties. Angela Bassett is 60-freakin-1. 61! I'll have what she's having. All of it. Now.

[DearEvette]

2 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

The Emmett case was done decently, but it wasn't anything new. We've all seen the cop gets shot at convenience store so many times now that it's a cliche.

Back on the topic of cliches, You are so right the whole 'got shot in a convenience store getting milk/cigarettes/ gum' is a whole ass tv trope all by itself and not just with cops, but also with loving dads, big brothers, uncles just back from a deployment etc etc.

What I did like that I didn't feel was too cliche, otoh, was that the show made me feel a little sympathetic toward the shooter.  I honestly didn't care one way or the other about Emmit. I mean, I should feel bad about him being killed because  he is a victim, but the show gave Glenn Plummer's character such pathos.  And in such a small scene it invites you to ponder a lot of different ethical questions:  prison as punishment vs. rehabilitation vs. a means to remove someone who is a danger to society.  Criminalization of drug addiction  (esp. true in the 80s when crack was the drug and the users affected were mostly black) vs treating drug addiction as a disease that needs to be treated (esp. true now when the opoids/heroin is the drug and the users affected are mostly white).  So there was a lot more going on with the resolution, imo that moved the original crime beyond its normal cliche bounds.

Another cliche,though,  that was very much NOT welcome is the whole 'bring up a ton of dusty boxes' trope to look through to find old information.  I mean even with the internet, it can take some people awhile to find stuff.  Maddie and Athena seemed to find what they needed in a half hour. LOL.

[NopeX]

1 hour ago, izabella said:

1 hour ago, Chaos Theory said:

Why was it forced?  Is it because we are supposed to hate Maddie?   She works in the building.  She is friends with Athena.   Why wouldn’t she want to help?  

Exactly.  I don't understand the hate against Maddy/JLH.  It was a way to bring in the 9-1-1 aspect of the show, and JLH is a regular cast member.  Looking through old 9-1-1 records was an interesting part of the show for me.

1 hour ago, izabella said:

I know it's tv, but it was not believable to me that Athena would be able to trace the gun back through all those people.  Most of them wouldn't still be around for her to question.

That part did work for me.  Some people do live in the same places for years/decades.  Even if they weren't in the same places, as a cop, Athena would have been able to find them - that's how she found the shooter.  How else do you think real cops are able to solve cold cases now?

[Jillybean]

49 minutes ago, sashayshante said:

In the show, I think Athena is supposed to be late forties. Angela Bassett is 60-freakin-1. 61! I'll have what she's having. All of it. Now.

She looks amazing! Since we learned last night that Athena was in law school in 1989, that would put her at least in her early 50s in 2019.

[iMonrey]

Overall I thought it was a pretty good episode but I've got a couple of issues with it.

First of all, I'm not a big fan of the flashbacks where younger actors are required to play the characters. They didn't do that with Chimney or Hen when they did their origin stories, for example. Maybe they figured there was more of an age difference between this origin story and Athena's current age, but that being the case, why did the same actress play Athena's mom in both timelines? Her mom didn't age in the past 30+ years but Athena now looks totally different? That was weird. And it took me right out of it. Plus I saw no resemblance whatsoever to Angela Bassett. No offense to the younger actress but she just looked nothing like her.

Second of all, I'm really tired of Athena walking into dangerous situations without backup. She's damn lucky Emmett's killer turned out to be so remorseful and accommodating because she went there by herself, without anyone knowing where she was, walked into this guy's house, and confronted him. He could have just killed her and hid her body and nobody would have ever known what happened to her!

I know Athena is supposed to be head strong and impulsive, but that was positively stupid and reckless. I can't think of anything she could have done that would have been dumber. Yes she was clearly armed but that doesn't make what she did any smarter.

[tinderbox]

I usually don't like episodes centered on one character BUT I really enjoyed this one.

[tennisgurl]

3 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Back on the topic of cliches, You are so right the whole 'got shot in a convenience store getting milk/cigarettes/ gum' is a whole ass tv trope all by itself and not just with cops, but also with loving dads, big brothers, uncles just back from a deployment etc etc.

I will never ask any man that I care about to run to the grocery/convenience/drug store to grab me something, not ever! Its as almost as much of a death sentence as showing people pictures of your kids in an active war zone or before a shoot out! If I need extra milk, I dont care if my dad is five seconds from the store I will drive my ass over there and get it myself. Preferably while wearing a bullet proof vest.

[anna0852]

The actor playing Athena's training officer was on Hawaii 5-0 a few years doing an almost identical storyline, only in that one he was the killer.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Rise Up by Audra Day

No offense to any fans out there but that voice made me want to gouge my eardrums out.

[jewel21]

That last five minutes really got to me. The song was so powerful and I actually found myself crying much to my surprise at the final scene. 

[Moose135]

7 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

Why was it forced?  Is it because we are supposed to hate Maddie?

Some people believe we should.

[SuprSuprElevated]

6 hours ago, sashayshante said:

In the show, I think Athena is supposed to be late forties. Angela Bassett is 60-freakin-1. 61! I'll have what she's having. All of it. Now.

I think she is amazing, but I don't buy 40-something. 

[Kel Varnsen]

So I guess I missed something but how did Athena go from reading old 911 records about calls to the hotel to knowing the name and address of the killer?

[Raja]

48 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

So I guess I missed something but how did Athena go from reading old 911 records about calls to the hotel to knowing the name and address of the killer?

The 9-1-1 call lead to finding the ambulance and hospital records thus the name of the killer.

[Ohwell]

12 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

I didn't like this episode from the start.

From the dinner with the boyfriend getting grilled through to the end of the episode, it was just too much.

Then Athena has her priorities all screwed up by going it alone trying to solve the case of her murdered fiance (I don't know how to make that doohickey over the "e") even though she has kids at home to think about should something happen to her.

And because we can't have nice things, they have to add Maddie into the mix.

I hope next week's episode is a better one.  It can't possibly be worse.

I didn't like it either.  I'm just tired of badass, stoic, always-going-it-alone Athena.  Frankly, she wears me out.  However, I'm glad they got her story over so we can move on.

[Bramble]

13 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

Bobby knowing the name of Emmet's partner did take me out for a moment, but then I thought Bobby might know him from either Athena's work (since they still work together) or from his work - despite the fact that the only cop they usually see is Athena. 😉

The detective Rick has shown up on the show before. He was the detective Athena got involved in the case with Stevie Parnell (the boy who had been abducted years ago), and he was also involved in the mail bombing case.  Bobby and Athena observed him interview the bomber’s mother, so I’m sure they we’re at least introduced then. 

[kicotan]

Not only was there little physical resemblance, Young Athena didn’t talk like today’s Athena.  Angela Bassett’s Athena always talks like she’s delivering a line in some community theater production with slowed down, measured, punctuated speech that matches her rehearsed-in-the-mirror-100-Times facial expressions to match.

Ugh.

[stonehaven]

Great episode..not a typical 9-1-1.  The final montage had me having Cold Case flashbacks..emo song..slow-mo walk through the police station...perfect...

[vavera4ka]

On ‎11‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 8:36 PM, DearEvette said:

One cliche I am glad they side-stepped is that Athena's TO wasn't a flaming misogynist or racist.  He just had abandonment issues because his female trainees left him to get married.  I liked that little element. 

I'm glad I'm not the only one whose mind went straight there and was glad the show didn't.

I actually want to know more about that partnership. It seems like he was a pretty badass cop himself and a character. He had a very valid reason to not let Athena too close. I also needed some kind of closure with him. Yes, he wasn't part of the Emmit story, but I wish we saw him being there for her back then, or her going to him now for advice. 

On ‎11‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 9:26 PM, SuprSuprElevated said:

Yes, plus I was sort of waiting for him to be the killer for some reason.  Glad that wasn't the case.

I also had my fingers crossed the whole episode for RM not to make him the killer. There were many clichés in the episode already but we know RM likes to play with them. I just didn't want for him to cross the line from camp to "ughhh". And he didn't. good. lol

[Chaos Theory]

I thought the dinner scene was incredibly funny because of how realistic it is and that’s what makes it funny because it is a right of passage.  

[The Ringo Kidd]

17 hours ago, kicotan said:

Not only was there little physical resemblance, Young Athena didn’t talk like today’s Athena.  Angela Bassett’s Athena always talks like she’s delivering a line in some community theater production with slowed down, measured, punctuated speech that matches her rehearsed-in-the-mirror-100-Times facial expressions to match.

Ugh.

So true. A statue come to life.

Wait she is far from life like. 

A pompous cliche come to life.

There you go. Fixed it.

[DisplayyName]

3 hours ago, vavera4ka said:

[...] I actually want to know more about that partnership. It seems like he was a pretty badass cop himself and a character. He had a very valid reason to not let Athena too close. I also needed some kind of closure with him. Yes, he wasn't part of the Emmit story, but I wish we saw him being there for her back then, or her going to him now for advice. [...]

he was a good guy, I bet he's dead.

[auntiemel]

This episode had a very "This is Us" vibe to it!

[peace355]

On 11/6/2019 at 4:41 AM, stonehaven said:

Great episode..not a typical 9-1-1.  The final montage had me having Cold Case flashbacks..emo song..slow-mo walk through the police station...perfect...

I had exactly same thought I was waiting for ghost Emmet to be watching in the sidelines!

The episode was fine, agree that Athena doing everything herself can be a bit tiring.  I did like the flashbacks though.

On 11/5/2019 at 5:42 PM, DearEvette said:

What I did like that I didn't feel was too cliche, otoh, was that the show made me feel a little sympathetic toward the shooter.  I honestly didn't care one way or the other about Emmit. I mean, I should feel bad about him being killed because  he is a victim, but the show gave Glenn Plummer's character such pathos.  And in such a small scene it invites you to ponder a lot of different ethical questions:  prison as punishment vs. rehabilitation vs. a means to remove someone who is a danger to society.  Criminalization of drug addiction  (esp. true in the 80s when crack was the drug and the users affected were mostly black) vs treating drug addiction as a disease that needs to be treated (esp. true now when the opoids/heroin is the drug and the users affected are mostly white).  So there was a lot more going on with the resolution, imo that moved the original crime beyond its normal cliche bounds.

Yes this! I had those thoughts too. I was thinking what he's done in his life should count towards something, I would hope he wouldn't get too harsh a sentence.

[PamelaMaeSnap]

I confess I was so torn with Glenn Plummer's character's arrest, perp walk, etc. I know he killed a cop (and not just any cop but sweet awesome Emmett) but I felt so bad for his kids and all the kids he works with. And he's not the same person he was then ... I'm on my iPhone and my fat fingers are not good at pulling a quote but DearEvette's post said exactly what I felt  

Oh wait. Not a true story. I get so caught up in this show. And yeah, I got teary more than once during this hour. 

[Kel Varnsen]

10 hours ago, peace355 said:

I did like the flashbacks though.

The flashbacks were good. I was especially impressed that they didn't use the opening lines of Fight the Power by Public Enemy to signify that it was 1989 in the first flashback.