S06.E02: Crash & Learn

[DanaK]

Quote

The 118 race to the rescue when a structure collapse at a "happiness convention" traps people under rubble. While on FaceTime with her mom, Athena's father suffers a stroke and crashes through the wall of his house. Hen stretches herself too thin with test prep and her new responsibilities at the 118, while Maddie tries to help new recruit get his bearings at the call center in the all-new "Crash & Learn" episode of 9-1-1 airing Monday, Sept. 26 (8:00-9:02 PM ET/PT) on FOX. 

[anna0852]

Snarky Hen is my favorite Hen.

A surprisingly realistic twist in the medical school storyline. 

Revisiting Athena's missing childhood friend.

No Eddie or Maddie angst.

Good job show!

[Irlandesa]

I enjoyed this episode.

I loved the very first rescue.  I know cheating is bad but I was like "get it gurl!"  And digging a hole in between the houses is quite a commitment.   You'd think a divorce would be easier. 

We rarely get a death but bye Arye Gross.

I find it hard that they'd want Hen to completely repeat a 2nd year.   She'd likely know if she were at risk.  They'd know.  If this came out of nowhere,  there's likely be other options on the table.

And the final was a great twist. It's probably her old childhood friend or his dad but I look forward to the mystery.

[stonehaven]

Oh this show...good but I was already weepy today from grief over my Mom..and this was our show but the lines about parenting your parents and the reality vs. hope discussions were too real. Something tells me the writers went through this recently.

[possibilities]

I'm kind of bummed out that they're introducing the crime mystery. I don't want this to be that kind of show. I want this show to be about the rescues. 

[Maverick]

1 hour ago, Irlandesa said:

And the final was a great twist. It's probably her old childhood friend or his dad but I look forward to the mystery.

 Oh it's totally one of them. 

[Lady Calypso]

23 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I'm kind of bummed out that they're introducing the crime mystery. I don't want this to be that kind of show. I want this show to be about the rescues. 

They do this occasionally, it shouldn't last more than an episode, which is good. But I'm fine with exploring this because it WAS a plot point brought up a while ago (what, back in season 2?). I've been curious to see if they'd bring it back up and I'm ok with it. 

I'm guessing the killer is Athena's childhood friend's dad. 

Once again, this season is already shaping up to be stronger than last season. The cases this episode went back to that....not necessarily Feel Good rescues, but they definitely were impactful. The case with the guy who died was really strong. The first case had its opening go on a bit too long but the end result was gold. 

Very glad to see this episode be a bit Hen-centric. Finally, some progress made on the medical storyline! Will Hen choose to be a doctor or will she realize being a paramedic is just as rewarding? For our sake, to keep Aisha Hinds AND Tracie Thoms on the show, I hope it's the latter.

A nice Buck subplot as well, and I'm glad for more Hen/Buck scenes. They've had some over the years, enough to hint at them being friends, but not nearly enough so I'm all for more of them. 

Loved the Athena/Bobby stuff with her parents.

[Redrum]

23 minutes ago, Maverick said:

Oh it's totally one of them. 

I mean it probably is but I so want it to be Athena's bitchy mom who killed the little girl so long ago. I mean, why didn't she want the room fixed? why did dad drive into the forbidden room to begin with??? Yes I am being silly but still....

I feel like Hen is going to University of Phoenix Medical School.

[preeya]

58 minutes ago, Redrum said:

but I so want it to be Athena's bitchy mom who killed the little girl so long ago.

I could see that happening and likewise I'd like it.

[Clanstarling]

9 hours ago, Redrum said:

I mean it probably is but I so want it to be Athena's bitchy mom who killed the little girl so long ago. I mean, why didn't she want the room fixed? why did dad drive into the forbidden room to begin with??? Yes I am being silly but still....

Well, Mom's resistance does seem to be a little incriminating . On the other hand, regardless of what happened to my house, I don't think I'd like my daughter and her husband trying to "update" it without my input - especially with a ramp when I'm still not accepting the reality of what's going on with my husband.

Even when I was caring for my obnoxious parent, I took his desires into account before I did anything. They may seem like kids, but they are adults and deserve respect, regardless of their medical situation or personality.

So I think it just might be a fake out. On the other hand, it's hard to see how a body could get buried in the house w/o one of the parents knowing. Frankly, my bet is on Athena's father.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Clanstarling

[Lady Calypso]

5 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

So I think it just might be a fake out. On the other hand, it's hard to see how a body could get buried in the house w/o one of the parents knowing. Frankly, my bet is on Athena's father.

Well, Athena talked about the family friend who was a contractor for them when they were younger. As we saw later, Athena's childhood friend showed up and he discussed how his parents were retired now so he took over. The fact that those parents are still alive hints to me that the contractor friend probably did it (as Athena's friend would have been WAY too young to commit murder and hide a body) and probably used the excuse of renovations to hide the body. 

And I'm willing to guess the childhood friend found out earlier or figures it out and tries to protect his family. 

It seems very obvious to me but 9-1-1 does tend to at least add a little twist to predictable storylines so I'm willing to see how it plays out.

I did forget to note this in my other post, but I enjoyed seeing the new female firefighter; not sure if we've seen her before but it was nice to see a non-main cast firefighter get a couple of lines!

[Redrum]

1 minute ago, Clanstarling said:

Frankly, my bet is on Athena's father.

Yeah, I wondered if this was where they were going. This way no trial but everyone knows, bitchy mom probably moves to California to live with Bobby and Athena angsts over the season on how she never realized her dad was a murdering pedofile.. Or its the friend's dad.

9 minutes ago, Clanstarling said:

Well, Mom's resistance does seem to be a little incriminating - on the other hand, regardless of what happened to my house, I don't think I'd like my daughter and her husband trying to "update" it - especially with a ramp when I'm still not accepting the reality of what's going on with my husband.

Ugh I have to be honest this was just such a throw back to my narcissistic parent bitching royally over how the not narcissistic parent was "faking" their dementia issues but how we were all being unhelpful because we weren't taking the complaints of the dementia like behavior seriously and narcissist parent complained mightily over how we kids weren't helping to the neighbors but neglected to mention how all help had to be approved and micromanaged to the narc parent's orders.... I was all "Athena, Bobby, get out NOW" during that. 

[iMonrey]

I'm glad they finally acknowledged that Hen bit off more than she could chew because she was bordering on Superhero territory. 

The guy who was buried in the tunnel should have been dead. How was he able to breath completely buried like that?

I agree the contractor's father is probably the killer.

I like the new 911 operator trainee. 

[shapeshifter]

13 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

And the final was a great twist. It's probably her old childhood friend or his dad but I look forward to the mystery.

12 hours ago, Maverick said:

 Oh it's totally one of them. 

11 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I'm guessing the killer is Athena's childhood friend's dad. 

Yeah, Athena's childhood friend would not have been digging up the foundation where either he buried a body or knew his dad had buried a body. However, Athena's childhood friend could have been responsible or appeared to be responsible in some way for the death of a neighborhood girl, and the father could have buried the body because he knew it would ruin 2 lives if his son was accused. 
But now Athena's father is going to be a suspect while he is in coma and can't defend himself.

[shapeshifter]

As soon as we saw the H!ITG! character actor with the 2 other guys at the Happiness convention, I knew something was going to happen to him (Arye Gross aka Perlmutter on Castle and in also seen in many other roles).  
He was perfect as the unknown character who leaves a main character and the audience with a glimpse of an answer to the meaning of life. 
IMDb says:

Quote

Extremely gifted character actor whose face is readily familiar to the public but they can often not remember why. He tends to turn minor supporting roles into perfect studies in human frailty, strength, passion, avarice or anything else demanded by the role. 
imdb.com/name/nm0343325/bio

Edited September 27, 2022 by shapeshifter

[tennisgurl]

The Hen plot ended on a surprisingly realistic note, I am not at all surprised that she failed her classes. Going to med school while also being a full time paramedic was always doing to be a recipe for disaster, she is going to have to choose. I am really glad that they showed her struggling so much, her doing both at the same time while also balancing her family life was a lot to swallow, even for this show, it seems much more real than Hen powering through everything with a can do attitude. 

Athena's mom was weirdly perky in the last episode, but now she's back and even more full of complaints than usual. At least this time she has more of an excuse, I did like moms scene with Bobby where she said she shouldn't apologize for standing up for Athena, even to her, and in general it was a good Bobby/Athena episode. I normally prefer when the show focuses on rescues and one off stories, but the mystery with the dead body is intriguing, and its bringing back an already established mystery. I definitely think that her friends dad is the killer, having Athena's dad be a child killer would be a pretty huge thing to dump on her. 

The rescues this week were all quite good, one funny one and one sad one. Not exactly a happy ending but not a sad one exactly either, more bittersweet. I wonder if Buck will come back to it again? 

So far this season is off to a strong start. 

[Redrum]

So I will say that despite my finding the "go to medical school and work full time" stuff ridiculous, I do feel bad for Hen in that she probably would have passed if she wasn't utterly exhausted.

[shapeshifter]

Moot question:  If Hen had head-on killed someone (not herself) while asleep at the wheel, would that have been the end of her career(s)?

Chim was the unsung hero in recommending to use their limited resources to save the victim who could survive.
If Hen hadn't been sleep-deprived, would she have been able to get reinforcements there more quickly?
It seemed like they wouldn't have been able to save Lev anyway, but she might always wonder.

[marceline]

3 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Moot question:  If Hen had head-on killed someone (not herself) while asleep at the wheel, would that have been the end of her career(s)?

She's already killed one person in a car accident so I'd like to think so.

Hen's story annoyed me. There was no reason for her to take on being interim captain.

[Redrum]

11 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

Moot question:  If Hen had head-on killed someone (not herself) while asleep at the wheel, would that have been the end of her career(s)?

Chim was the unsung hero in recommending to use their limited resources to save the victim who could survive.
If Hen hadn't been sleep-deprived, would she have been able to get reinforcements there more quickly?
It seemed like they wouldn't have been able to save Lev anyway, but she might always wonder.

To the moot question: No, by itself I don't think it would be a career ender. She wasn't drunk. She does have the prior accident but that was also an accident. And really, Bobby killed how many people when he burned his apartment building down? And was made captain.

As for the old guy dying, Hen called for assistance, it just wasn't going to get there in time and I don't think the way it was described that a full on surgical team could have saved that man. 

[Lady Calypso]

22 minutes ago, Redrum said:

And really, Bobby killed how many people when he burned his apartment building down? And was made captain.

148 people. That plotline was so ridiculous to me, I STILL have that number engrained in my mind.

27 minutes ago, marceline said:

Hen's story annoyed me. There was no reason for her to take on being interim captain.

To be fair to her, it was only supposed to be a week. She even said that it was only three shifts (even though they clearly played that montage like it was more than three shifts). 

[kwnyc]

Imaginary med school is hard, y'all!

Hen is capable of being a captain, and I wish that's the direction they had been guiding her in. She handled the situation with the dying man very well.

And I am very glad that Bobby stood up for Athena. The two of them have a pretty solid relationship. I just don't care about the body in the foundation. I hope they take care of it quickly.

[Redrum]

Agree on the "take care of it quickly" aspect.... I don't want Bobby and Athena solving child murders for half the season. But I do admit that I am enjoying this storyline reappearing. 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Noooooooooooooooo to the twist at the end! Please let Samuel and Beatrice be the good guys. I don’t want that for them. Hoping that the kidnapper/killer is their contractor etc.

Love the Tunnel of Lust storyline, a neighbour with benefit huh, niceee! 😆

Whoever did that sad version of Don’t Worry Be Happy…that’s criminal!

Is this the end of Hen’s becoming a doctor storyline? Enough already. 🙄

[Redrum]

It occurs to me that Hen fails medical school and has to repeat a year is a way to drag this storyline out so we aren't wondering why Hen isn't doing clinical yet.

[nokat]

21 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

I loved the very first rescue.  I know cheating is bad but I was like "get it gurl!"  And digging a hole in between the houses is quite a commitment.   You'd think a divorce would be easier. 

I was laughing at that one. You are seriously hard up for sex to do that. I then realize that someone probably did that.

2 hours ago, Redrum said:

It occurs to me that Hen fails medical school and has to repeat a year is a way to drag this storyline out so we aren't wondering why Hen isn't doing clinical yet.

I was think Hen was stretched too thin. I know many of us have been thinking how the hell is she doing it all?

[Emily Thrace]

11 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

So I think it just might be a fake out. On the other hand, it's hard to see how a body could get buried in the house w/o one of the parents knowing. Frankly, my bet is on Athena's father.

She was buried in the foundation of the house itself( the barrette they showed had cement on it) though not just in the backyard. Not something you would expect a lawyer to think of. So my money is on the contractor. 

So Hen has to choose careers. I feel like she has already done that. She just has to tell Chimney.

[Maverick]

 I'm leaning toward them having Hen stay a firefighter/EMT.   They seem to have lost interest in writing the medical school plot since it was basically non-existent last season.  In her conversation with Bobby, she mentioned that when she started the chief wouldn't even see her as a firefighter and that was something she was obviously still carrying with her as she was somewhat taken aback Bobby would consider her for interim chief.   I'm guessing the whole point of that was for to realize she's not only happy being an EMT but she also has a future and ability to progress with the FD.

[shapeshifter]

15 hours ago, nokat said:

I then realize that someone probably did that.

Good point.
I just Googled: 
    tunnel to neighbor house for tryst

[ninjakid]

I love that Buck is exploring the idea of being at ease with himself. I get the feeling he's never really had that.

[nokat]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Good point.
I just Googled: 
    tunnel to neighbor house for tryst

Someone did do it!

[Clanstarling]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Good point.
I just Googled: 
    tunnel to neighbor house for tryst

In keeping with their tradition of mostly using things that have actually happened. I would not have guessed that one was real, though. That's a lot of effort for a dalliance. (not to mention, does anyone really feel sexy after crawling through a tunnel?) Ew.

[CoyoteBlue]

On 9/27/2022 at 2:29 PM, kwnyc said:

Hen is capable of being a captain, and I wish that's the direction they had been guiding her in.

Then you end up in Chicago Fire territory where people will have to get promoted out of the house or it starts getting ridiculous. They were up to a battalion chief, a captain, and three lieutenants before Casey left. Does the LAFD have intermediate ranks like lieutenant as well? That would definitely be better than med school.

[Jennabelle88]

I was under the impression that the body found buried in the foundation was the neighbor girl who went missing years ago. A barrette was seen being carried away in a bag (after the flashback showed Athena telling Hen that only one was found in the woods), and also Athena said the girl's name. Is the girl's father dead too? That would be relevant information to have in order to even assume that the body buried could possibly be his. We don't really have much to go on right now, but my initial assumption was that the killer was Athena's dad, although I hate that possibility and hope it's not the case. Like another poster stated, it would explain why Athena's mom was so against having renovations done on her home. Although that could all be completely innocent too. Maybe she's just had her home for so long that she can't bear the thought of "losing" her husband and her home as well. She's already "lost" her daughter. I did love Athena's mom rejecting Bobby's apology because he should never apologize for standing up for his wife. 

As far as the tunnel tryst goes, that is some straight up dedication! Can't help but wonder about their intelligence though, seeing as how there was literally a sliding glass door inside the bedroom!

The Hen storyline got on my nerves a bit. Not that she's juggling medical school on top of her already existing career, but that she took on interim captain as well. She already had too much on her plate, and the minute your family becomes neglected, it's time to let some things go, not add more things! I'm glad she failed her medical exam. Let's get back to the Hen that we all know and love!

[possibilities]

I think people are speculating that the contractor's father killed the girl, not that he himself is the one buried under the house.

They said they couldn't use the door for tryst comings and goings because the husband had cameras everywhere and would see them if they entered other than underground.

[Jennabelle88]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I think people are speculating that the contractor's father killed the girl, not that he himself is the one buried under the house.

They said they couldn't use the door for tryst comings and goings because the husband had cameras everywhere and would see them if they entered other than underground.

Okay, all of that makes sense. Seems I wasn't paying much attention this episode... lol

[Giuseppe]

The hotel balcony collapse seems like it could have been partly based on an incident I recently learned about, where back in the 80s, a two-level hotel "skyway" collapsed on top of hundreds of people during an afternoon dance in the hotel's atrium lobby....I think a Hyatt Regency in Kansas City. The contractor modified the skyway's connections, and the structural engineer gave the change a verbal ok without reviewing it. That incident was obviously a lot deadlier than this, but that's what I was reminded of here.

Tunnel of love husband could've gotten away with it if he had just feigned innocence and said he really thought he was blowing up gophers, lol.

And I just realized that the theme of this episode was "Buried" , haha.

Edited October 1, 2022 by Giuseppe

[mbluecpa]

On 9/27/2022 at 8:24 AM, iMonrey said:

I like the new 911 operator trainee. 

Agree, nice to have an addition to the call center cast.  

His wanting to listen to old 911 calls and Maddie’s showing him how to access them struck an odd chord with me.  Not that a trainee wouldn’t do that, just that the writers made a point of including that scene…or maybe I’ve just seen too many soaps through the years and expect everything to be an anvil of future plot points.

[mostlylurking]

On 9/27/2022 at 10:24 AM, iMonrey said:

I agree the contractor's father is probably the killer.

I’m thinking one or both of Athena’s parents had to be involved though?  How could a body have been buried in or under their house without them knowing?

I don’t think contractors son is involved in anything, if he was he probably would not have been helping Bobby dig whatever they were digging.

I’ll say this even though a lot of things on this show are completely out there it keeps my interest.  I love all the different rescues.  Sometimes it’s a little too gory but I give them credit for going all out when a lot of shows don’t even attempt special effects anymore.  They must have an enormous budget, especially for a show that has a traditional network episode count.  I really enjoy this show.

Edited November 27, 2022 by mostlylurking

[maestroGoetz]

I am a high school audio video teacher and one of my students said she liked this episode because of how everyone worked together.