S05.E15: Fomo

[jewel21]

The members of the 118 race to the rescue of a social media influencer when she has an accident in a sauna, then to an emergency at a reality show wedding, and finally a tragedy when a mother and her daughter go hiking. Meanwhile, Maddie worries she has missed too many firsts with Jee-Yun, May questions Athena’s career path and Hen and Karen attempt to recapture the fun in their relationship.

Airdate: 04/25/2022

[shapeshifter]

1 minute ago, jewel21 said:

and Hen and Karen attempt to recapture the fun in their relationship.

Hoping there’s some fun in this plot, because the others all sound pretty depressing.

[Crashcourse]

1 hour ago, jewel21 said:

Meanwhile, Maddie worries she has missed too many firsts with Jee-Yun,

If she's so worried now about missing too many firsts with Jee-Yun, then she shouldn't have, you know, LEFT!  Surely, she could have gotten some therapy close to home and still would have been able to spend time with her daughter--and Chim. 

[gonzosgirrl]

I'm willing to suspend a lot of disbelief for these shows, but I struggle with the idea that Hen is allowed to do all these medical procedures in the field, med student or not.

[ajsnaves]

I would watch an entire series of “Hen and Karen PI”. They solve crime Murder She Wrote style. 

[scruff]

So   not  only    did   they   Completely  RUG SWEEP   everything   that   Maddie  did,   but   now   she  is    'mother  of the year'    huh ?   WOW... just   WOW...

[Irlandesa]

So the theme of this episode is tempus fugit. 

I remember reading spec that Jonah was going to be stalker boy (which I'd hate since I like him) and thought that's where the car break-in was going.  It still might but overall that was a good episode for Hen and Karen.

I think this was the first episode in a long time where there was a significant death of one of the rescues. 

I really wanted the groom to end up married to the "spinster" sister.  She was cool. 

I love Buck and Maddie scenes so very much. 

 

[possibilities]

Hen being in med school AND working full time AND having time to hang out and relax with Karen... it's fun to wath but kind of drives me crazy that they've inserted the med school story and then totally act like it takes no time at all to be in med school.

I didn't think they were making Maddie mother of the year. She's just being a nromal mother. She's healthy again now that her thyroid issue is resolved. That does make a dramatic difference in a person's mental state.

I get the re-evaluating ones life and scanning the "what ifs". I was surprised to see that happening with such young people (the "influencer" and May) but I suppose the sooner you do it, the sooner you can at least try to answer the questions about what you want to do and whether you're already doing it. I've been looking myself over with those kinds of eyes lately, but I'm in my 50s.

I thought the TV show would just do a re-enactment with actors, to show the rescue, or parts of it, and continue with the wedding, since it would probably get big ratings. And if the groom answered all their questions honestly, I don't see how he'd be out of contract. But I don't get how TV works, I suppose. And maybe they thought it was a more dramatic story to end it the way they did.

The mom... yikes. 

I noticed they sent the entire crew to each rescue this time, even ones that didn't seem like they'd need them. I get it when it's a fire or a major disaster. But one woman injured at a house, or one woman who fell... it's like they left the entire station empty to take two big trucks and the entire team with them. Did they always do that? I don't remember.I feel like it's been so long since they've done multiple episodes about these small rescues instead of things like the tsunami.

[Mediocre Gatsby]

There can't be writers who think "What our viewers really want is MORE MADDIE ANGST," can there? They must be thinking "we're paying these actors, we need to use them" or something like that. 

[Empress1]

As a viewer of Married at First Sight, I love that they spoofed it. And while nobody on MAFS says “I don’t want to be like my spinster sister,” there are definitely people (almost always women; the biological clock is real and it’s less socially acceptable for women to have never married than men) who are like “I want to get married because time is running out.”

What is Karen’s job? They kept talking about how she’d gone full-throttle after her career but I don’t know what she does.

The mom of the three girls (who all had amazing curls - gorgeous hair on all three of them) had me tearing up.

May should go to college, in my opinion. Dispatch will always be there. (Was that her apartment she and Athena were in? It’s nice! How much do dispatchers make?)

[EllaWycliffe]

47 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

What is Karen’s job? They kept talking about how she’d gone full-throttle after her career but I don’t know what she does.

She's some sort of rocket propulsion scientist at JPL. 

48 minutes ago, Empress1 said:

May should go to college, in my opinion. Dispatch will always be there. (Was that her apartment she and Athena were in? It’s nice! How much do dispatchers make?)

May should at least consider college because Dispatch will always be there and there's not a lot of promotion opportunities without the college degree. No I am not a pusher of "Everyone should go to college" but she wanted to go, its not easy to get into USC, and employers do look for the college degree. Per a quick google search 911 dispatchers in LA make around 50k a year so her apartment might be a bit much. 

[Lady Calypso]

I will say, they haven't gotten me to cry for this show in...a long time, actually. The call with the mother and daughters was sad and I'm surprised with how easily it got to me. This season has been more miss than hit, but this episode was one of their better ones.

I'm always down for more Hen/Karen. I do love that they gave Karen her own storyline and got to voice her thoughts. Plus, I enjoyed Karen being excited to go hunt down the fraud who used Hen's credit card.

I do agree that May should go accept that offer at school. She can always go back to dispatch. She has an in anyway, and she could also do some part time work while she's at school. She gets her degree and then that's something else on her resume. Like she said, she didn't plan to become a dispatcher and from what she told Eddie, it doesn't sound like being a dispatcher is necessarily the thing she wants to do now. She's still thinking about school, and she's still exploring her options.

A lot of repetition with Maddie's storyline. Her feeling like she's missed out makes sense, but hopefully she makes some progress with her guilt soon. And I liked her scene with Buck. It's been a while since we've had Buckley family scenes. 

[kwnyc]

Solid episode! I like that the Buck/Lucy thing seems to have disappeared, and she's being an active, competent firefighter. The Buck/Maddie scenes bring out the best in both of them, and Rain Man Buck offered another gem: Maddie raised HIM.

While it was upsetting to see the mother die...she DID fall 80 feet and they can't save everyone. 

Eddie was actually useful! And I think they are setting up an arc for May to go to college. Even if she wants to concentrate on emergency services, there are a lot of great degree programs for that. (Also, Athena successfully threaded the needle with May so as not to let her own opinion come through).

As for the girl who passed out on the sauna rock...third degree burns? She's going to have a lifetime reminder of THAT.

(At least it wasn't a volcano).

And yes, I liked Hen & Karen playing detective at the club...and staying afterward to dance. That was fun!

 

[iMonrey]

Another theme episode. Did they get new show runners or something? Too many of these are going to seem gimmicky.

Quote

I'm willing to suspend a lot of disbelief for these shows, but I struggle with the idea that Hen is allowed to do all these medical procedures in the field, med student or not.

She wouldn't be. In fact someone should have either sued her or fired her by now. Even Chicago Fire is more realistic about what EMTs can do - and that's saying a lot. 

Quote

There can't be writers who think "What our viewers really want is MORE MADDIE ANGST," can there? They must be thinking "we're paying these actors, we need to use them" or something like that. 

I'm sure they want to get their money's worth out of JLH because she doesn't work cheap. I get that they were in a tough spot when she had to take maternity leave but this storyline is endlessly depressing and the show was better when she was gone. I assume she will replace May in the call center now that the latter is headed of to college.

Quote

Eddie was actually useful! 

{donning my tinfoil hat} - you know, I'm suspicious something is going on with this actor, because as we've all pointed out this PTSD thing sort of came out of nowhere and it came right after some rather unflattering comments made by the actor went public. I have to wonder if there aren't certain cast members who said they didn't want to work with him anymore, hence the character's removal from the fire station. 

[marceline]

I assume that May will go to college and Maddie will get her job back.

The two 9-1-1s are starting to copy each other. Both episodes had a rescue go bad and both had rescues of social media influencers who got injured while making videos.

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, EllaWycliffe said:

3 hours ago, Empress1 said:

What is Karen’s job? They kept talking about how she’d gone full-throttle after her career but I don’t know what she does.

She's some sort of rocket propulsion scientist at JPL. 

Sometimes I can't tell when all y'all are kidding or not.
Karen is a rocket scientist?

 

1 hour ago, Lady Calypso said:

I will say, they haven't gotten me to cry for this show in...a long time, actually. The call with the mother and daughters was sad and I'm surprised with how easily it got to me.

The actor who played the mom, Ariel Jackson, doesn't have a lot of credits on IMDb, but she sure made the most of her dying lines.
Mirabelle Lee, who played the oldest daughter, was great too. 

 

13 hours ago, possibilities said:

I didn't think they were making Maddie mother of the year. She's just being a nromal mother. She's healthy again now that her thyroid issue is resolved. That does make a dramatic difference in a person's mental state.

Thanks for reminding us that Maddie had a documented, treatable, chemical imbalance that caused her to make some bad choices. 
But, to be fair to all those who are WTF??? about her character arc, the script really needs to mention her illness in each episode. That may seem like a waste of a line, but that's what happens when you give a main character a medical condition that effects their behavior and then fix it. 
IDK. 
Maybe the show runners are just assuming that most viewers know the whole disappearing-mother-of-newborn arc was just to give the actor real life maternity leave, and those viewers are going to hand wave it now that she's back. But that kind of feels to me like the writers resented having to temporarily write her out for maternity leave. 
But again. I know nothing.
I don't even know that something that could make you "crazy" wouldn't also cause serious physical impairments, or that you could come back completely from it.
I get that this show has a heavy emphasis on medical issues, but I do really wish they'd just given Maddie the ol' soap opera coma treatment. Or maybe a boink on the head and amnesia, followed by another boink to bring her back. I realize neither of those stories would have let them bring suicide and mental illness to light, but sheesh, now they're stuck dealing with this for the rest of the show's run. 

[Crashcourse]

I didn't like Hen and Karen shoving the camera in the women's faces in the club.   Just because someone stole Hen's credit card didn't give her the right to do that.

The mom dying was sad, but I'm glad it was realistic and there wasn't some kind of miraculous rescue. 

[Irlandesa]

16 minutes ago, Crashcourse said:

I didn't like Hen and Karen shoving the camera in the women's faces in the club. 

It wasn't a camera, it was a flashlight on the phone.  Annoying, sure, but they weren't taking pictures.

[kwnyc]

1 hour ago, Crashcourse said:

I didn't like Hen and Karen shoving the camera in the women's faces in the club.

But hey! They might have been social influencers! Who didn't fall on a hot rock! 

[tennisgurl]

Hen and Karen playing club detectives was really fun, I was glad to get a fun story with the two of them, most of their personal stories tend to be pretty high drama. Karen was so excited to go catch a thief was cute, and I am glad they stayed and danced. Although, I do wonder how Hen manages to be a pull time paramedic, go to med school, and have time to go out with Karen and be with their kids. Does she have a time turner stashed in a closet somewhere? 

They went so long without theme episodes, I guess now they're making up for lost time. I thought this one was pretty good, mixing quirky rescues with one tragic one. The mom dying was rough, but she did fall a very long way down, there probably was no way they could have saved her in any way that was realistic. I appreciate that they cant save everyone, it makes the show feel more real. Or as real as a show this frequently soapy ever gets. 

I hope that May goes to school, she can always go back to the caller center if she wants to later. It sounds like she still isn't sure what she wants to do or if the call center is the right place for her, college would be a good place for her to figure things out. Her talk with Eddie was nice, good to see him contributing to someone else's plot after spending so much time in his own bubble. 

I am glad we got to see Maddie and Buck talking, they clearly needed to check in on each other. Buck reminding Maddie that she was basically his mom was sweet, hopefully we are moving closer to being past this story. Its not that its been bad, its just gone on for a really long time.

[Crashcourse]

2 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

It wasn't a camera, it was a flashlight on the phone.  Annoying, sure, but they weren't taking pictures.

Ok, ok, but it was still rude and annoying and Hen should've been punched in the face.

[chlban]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Another theme episode. Did they get new show runners or something? Too many of these are going to seem gimmicky.

She wouldn't be. In fact someone should have either sued her or fired her by now. Even Chicago Fire is more realistic about what EMTs can do - and that's saying a lot. 

I'm sure they want to get their money's worth out of JLH because she doesn't work cheap. I get that they were in a tough spot when she had to take maternity leave but this storyline is endlessly depressing and the show was better when she was gone. I assume she will replace May in the call center now that the latter is headed of to 

I can't figure out how she works at all, for any price, she ruins every show she's on. The fact that there is more angst, that is all JLH can do. 

As for May, of course she should go to school, but since that puts Maddie back in the call center, I wish she wouldn't.

Edited April 26, 2022 by chlban

[mojito]

19 hours ago, possibilities said:

But one woman injured at a house, or one woman who fell... it's like they left the entire station empty to take two big trucks and the entire team with them. Did they always do that?

Just saw that earlier this morning, no kidding. Two firetrucks and a police car for what seemed like a medical emergency. A few people in uniforms were hanging out front, who-know-what going on inside the house. So yeah, it happens that way, at least in my neck of the woods.

I don't understand all the JLH hate. It's pretty comical to see such passion behind someone who's just another character on a show to me. I'm someone who doesn't expect or see "chemistry" between two people paired on a show, and don't care if May goes to college or not, so I guess I'm on the indifferent side.

I do want to see more call center (sans Eddie would be okay since he's not really adding anything but filler to this show). 

 

 

[gonzosgirrl]

Am I the only one who had to Google what FOMO means?

[Gramto6]

15 minutes ago, gonzosgirrl said:

Am I the only one who had to Google what FOMO means?

Nope! Old lady here, can't keep up with all the letter salads.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Gramto6

[Snazzy Daisy]

The show needs to decide whether they want Hen as an EMT or an ER doctor, not something in between. Not interested in her and Karen’s personal lives.

Maddie’s character needs to have a purpose other than being Jee Yun’s mom.  Her fomo and regrets of leaving her daughter are getting so lame and repetitive by now, make it stop!

I never imagine Eddie and May will share some scenes together but hey, great conversation re life choices.

Edited April 26, 2022 by SnazzyDaisy

[BooksRule]

21 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I think this was the first episode in a long time where there was a significant death of one of the rescues. 

I think so, too.  It reminded me of the one with the tsunami where the guy was stuck in his attic with the water rising (I think he had an axe or something but dropped it into the water).  The dispatcher (Maddie? Abby?) couldn't do anything but just talk to the guy until the phone went dead. 

[izabella]

8 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I hope that May goes to school, she can always go back to the caller center if she wants to later. It sounds like she still isn't sure what she wants to do or if the call center is the right place for her, college would be a good place for her to figure things out. Her talk with Eddie was nice, good to see him contributing to someone else's plot after spending so much time in his own bubble. 

College would be a great place for her right now, to explore what interests her now after a year of working at the call center.  She's learned and matured and changed as a person over that time, so that puts her in a good place to get the most out of school.

I liked their talk too.  Eddie was such a surprise with his good advice.  I'm glad he's going to therapy because I like him much better when he isn't a mess.

[iMonrey]

Quote

I don't understand all the JLH hate. It's pretty comical to see such passion behind someone who's just another character on a show to me.

I'm not overly familiar with her other work, but there appears to be some residual hatred towards her for "ruining" some other show she joined midway through its run. I've actually defended her in the past when she first joined the show in Season 2, but this post-mortem arc was really a bad idea, IMO. I can see where it might have looked good on paper as an important subject to explore, but it seriously compromised a character that was already unpopular and another character that was popular (Chim) along with it.

Edited April 27, 2022 by iMonrey

[Jillybean]

Based on the discussion forums I've read, JLH is an extremely polarizing figure for some reason.

I didn't think that they had dropped Hen's med school until now. I just don't see how she could still be in med school, and it hasn't been mentioned in quite some time. Where the heck are their kid(s)? 

[possibilities]

Maybe the kids are too young to be vaccinated so too young to be on set?

[Jillybean]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

Maybe the kids are too young to be vaccinated so too young to be on set?

Right, I don't need to see them, I just wonder who's caring for them on all these spontaneous nights out that Hen and Karen are enjoying. 

[PrincessTT]

18 minutes ago, Jillybean said:

Right, I don't need to see them, I just wonder who's caring for them on all these spontaneous nights out that Hen and Karen are enjoying. 

She did say in this episode that she’ll tell Toni that they’re going out - so I assumed that her mum was watching the kid(s).

[Snazzy Daisy]

5 minutes ago, PrincessTT said:

She did say in this episode that she’ll tell Toni that they’re going out - so I assumed that her mum was watching the kid(s).

Hen and Karen’s kid is only Denny right? I remember that cutie pie Nia went back to live with her bio mom.

[PrincessTT]

5 minutes ago, SnazzyDaisy said:

Hen and Karen’s kid is only Denny right? I remember that cutie pie Nia went back to live with her bio mom.

Yes, but then after Nia they had 2 more short-term foster kids; and Karen mentioned in this episode about their foster kids - so while Denny is their only child, there may be more than 1 child living in their house.

[AdorkableWitch]

1 hour ago, Jillybean said:

Right, I don't need to see them, I just wonder who's caring for them on all these spontaneous nights out that Hen and Karen are enjoying. 

Hen's mother is living with them 

[Jillybean]

16 hours ago, AdorkableWitch said:

Hen's mother is living with them 

Thanks for the clarification. I knew she had been around but I didn't recall she was living with them (and apparently on call 24/7 for child care).

[Kel Varnsen]

On 4/26/2022 at 3:06 PM, chlban said:

can't figure out how she works at all, for any price, she ruins every show she's on. The fact that there is more angst, that is all JLH can do. 

I figure she must either be the nicest/easiest to work with person in Hollywood, or she is super well connected, or she has dirt on a ton of people. Because while I don't think she is terrible she isn't the greatest actress in the world and yet it seems like she has been working pretty steadily in tv since the 90's, usually as a lead or main cast member. She is like the female David Boreanaz. While at the same time a lot of similar hot 90's tv actresses aren't still working like she is.

[WinJet0819]

As others have mentioned, I do wonder what has become of Hen's med school storyline? It has barely been mentioned since last season. I believe it was last mentioned in the prison episode this past fall. With all the free time she's had after work to go visit Athena, go on themed date nights with Karen, and even play detective, is she even still going to med school? If the writers went through all that trouble building that storyline, it makes no sense to barely even touch on it.