Never has the title of a 9-1-1 episode rang truer than this one.
The hit drama celebrated 100 episodes with 9-1-1 Season 7 Episode 4 an hour, a massive change of pace from the heavy, action-packed hours that the season began with.
The series got back to basics, and those basics were the characters. And it was undoubtedly an installment worthy of plenty of discussion.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the hour, major congratulations to the cast and crew of this series for reaching 100 episodes.
Back in the day, when networks gave series longer leashes to sink or swim, and the season episode counts were much farther north of 20, hitting that kind of milestone was much more commonplace.
But that’s not the reality of the television industry currently, as all of us who love the medium know very well.
And with the 9-1-1 Season 8 renewal news, it’s easy to see this series continuing for quite some time because, truly, what’s stopping it?
Getting into the momentous hour, there were two main storylines at play here, with Athena dealing with Harry’s unexpected arrival back home and Buck’s unexpected feelings about Eddie’s new friendship.
9-1-1 took a page out of The Bold and the Beautiful playbook and aged Harry up like we wouldn’t notice! They made a joke or two about his growth spurt, but it was more like a whole new actor spurt.
Harry came in cooking waffles, with a story at the ready, like it wasn’t entirely suspicious that Athena and Bobby weren’t aware that a teenager was traveling cross-country to come to stay with them.
Athena was so wrapped up in seeing her son and just having him back that her naturally suspicious instincts may have failed her momentarily, but she’s been married long enough to Bobby for them to rub off on him.
Finding out that Harry was lying wasn’t the shock, but that he was running from the law? That certainly wasn’t something I saw coming.
There have been a few times throughout the series where there have been fascinating and necessary conversations about Athena’s role in law enforcement and how it affects her loved ones.
Athena swore an oath to serve and protect, which she upholds in all aspects of her life. But as her loved ones, it must be difficult to separate her from the badge, as they’re so intertwined.
Harry did the wrong thing by running, and that was never up for debate. He was scared and he ran away, point blank. He was probably hopeful nothing would come of the altercation, and even so, he was optimistic that Athena would be on his side.
This story hit deep on so many levels, from Harry’s pleas to his mother to essentially choose who she was going to be in the moment: a cop or his mother, to Athena’s pleas for Harry to understand his position as a young black man in this society.
Athena Nash-Grant is a mother first. Still, during that initial conversation, with emotions running so high, Athena straddled that line between cop and mother, wanting to get the facts and already thinking ahead to what this meant for Harry in the long run.
It wasn’t like Harry was facing detention at school or something. There was a warrant out for his arrest, and it felt like she didn’t believe Harry fully understood the gravity of his choices.
But Harry wasn’t understanding why he wasn’t fully being heard by the one person on the planet he wanted to listen to him.
It was a miscommunication in its most basic form.
When the two met again to talk, it was with heavy hearts but more open minds. Harry may have skipped a few years in canon, but he’s still a kid, and he needed to have that conversation with Athena to fully realize the enormity of what could have happened and what was currently happening.
Is it fair to put the pressure of your community on the soldiers of a teenager? No. But it’s the reality of life as a black person.
Harry was being profiled unjustly and was naturally upset, disappointed, and probably terrified. He was feeling a host of emotions and was more than justified in feeling that way, but he put himself in a situation that could have ended badly.
Hell, if we’re honest, he may have reacted in all the right ways, and it still ended badly.
Harry: If what I did was so wrong, what would have been the right thing?
Athena: Sometimes it is not right or wrong. It is about making it home alive. And you are old enough to understand that now.
But Harry needed to have that conversation and understand that even when it’s hard, the correct reaction may be to walk away and see another day.
It was an intense story to welcome Harry back into the fold, but it was played so beautifully by everyone. And interspersing it with that devastating emergency involving the woman who killed her son? Heartbreaking.
The thing is, Athena wasn’t looking at a stranger when she saw Harry (let’s skip past the obvious joke, okay), but a kid who made a mistake and needed some guidance.
And we’re all guilty of that from time to time. It doesn’t make us strangers.
Someone who was a stranger, though, was Tommy Kinard. Well, he was a stranger to Buck, who didn’t know him much outside of his assist with the helicopter on 9-1-1 Season 7 Episode 3, but Buck wanted to know more.
Tommy has a checkered past, to put it mildly, and it was highly disappointing that his re-introduction this season has placed him firmly in the camp of “cool guy” without doing much, or anything, to address his past behaviors.
He wasn’t someone I would have ever considered cool when we met him, and no amount of Buck and Eddie fangirling over him will make that a reality.
Eddie especially seemed enamored with the guy in a way we never see Eddie behave. The man was giggling and downright in awe of the man, which isn’t the way you ever see Eddie act.
Buck quickly latched onto the suddenness with which Eddie was embracing Tommy, and it awoke something inside him that made him lash out in a way we haven’t seen from Buck in quite some time.
Eddie’s the closest friend Buck has ever had and one of the closest people in his life. When Eddie rolled up to that hangar, right in the middle of his bonding session with Tommy, you could see how thrown he was to be so out of the loop when it came to Eddie’s life.
Placing them in a literal triangle while they talked with Buck at the head was heavy-handed, but it got the supposed point across.
And it was that burgeoning feeling of resentfulness that crystalized in his gut throughout the hour, whether he was lamenting to Maddie about Eddie and Christopher’s new bestie or looking on forlornly as Eddie asked him to babysit instead of joining him for a night out.
Buck: Well, listen. I think it’s great, you know? You can’t have enough friends, right?
Eddie: Right. You know, it’s like that thing when you meet somebody, and you just click. You know what I mean?
Buck: I do. I really do.
It was easy to understand that envy radiating off Buck because everyone has been there at one point or another. And no, you don’t have to be a 14-year-old girl to feel traces of jealousy, abandonment, or anything else you want to call it when you feel like you’re losing the attention of your person.
But as the hour went on, Buck’s actions got increasingly erratic as he struggled to reign in his complicated emotions.
The whole basketball game was a mess from the start, and poor Chimney immediately realized that he was just a pawn in Buck’s complicated plan to drive a wedge between Eddie and Tommy and then insert himself in the middle?
His grand plan was unclear, but the anger was palpable.
Side note: get Eddie Diaz in a rec league because he was balling, while mostly everyone else looked like they wanted to be elsewhere.
But I digress. Buck may have been confused about whether he set out to hurt Eddie on purpose, but it was rather apparent that he got increasingly agitated the longer he was made to feel like the odd man out.
Pickup games probably see their fair share of hard fouls, and you’ll see a harder fall on the TNT game of the week, but Eddie still got bumped hard. Hard enough to cause some damage.
Did he want Eddie to twist his ankle? No. But he surely did cause it to happen.
We’ve seen Buck unable to use his words in the past, but this was hard to watch, especially in the aftermath when he essentially just packed up his ball and went home.
It would have been nice to see Buck step up and talk to Eddie instead of wallowing in his guilt, but that conversation should come down the road and will be wholly necessary for the sake of that relationship.
Buck and Eddie don’t really fight, especially in the past few years, as their relationship has deepened. While they will ultimately work through this because they’re Buck and Eddie, it was still disappointing to see Buck’s emotion reach such a crescendo that Eddie turned into collateral damage.
I wanted that conversation between Buck and Eddie so bad, but as the hour continued, I was glad it didn’t occur here because I don’t think Buck even fully understood where so many of his conflicting feelings came from until he stood across from it.
Nothing happening during the hour was framed to necessarily think that Buck’s behavior was coming from a place of wanting to get Tommy’s attention.
Perhaps during their initial moments by the helicopter, it was portrayed in a way that showed Buck’s clear eagerness to be around the guy and potentially learn from him. Then Eddie’s appearance effectively throwing cold water all over it.
The vibes weren’t giving ‘pick me…choose me…love me’ so much as they were giving ‘you killed it at driving that helicopter, I want more of that action in my life.’
And when Buck was getting basketballs delivered to his place of employment and trying to flex with extra weights so Eddie would turn his brown eyes in his direction, that was solely for Eddie’s attention, not helicopter man.
Apparently, I was as confused as Buck was, though, which seemed to be the point.
Buck didn’t fully grasp what his actions meant because he didn’t understand that his jealousy came not from Eddie having a new friend but from Eddie having something that Buck wanted.
Tommy’s appearance at the loft was unexpected for Buck and the audience. Who gave him Buck’s address? We don’t text people before we show up on doorsteps in 2024?
But it allowed Buck to admit aloud that he was acting childish and jealous because of his desire to have Tommy’s attention.
It’s all very casual, and the mood of that final scene is one of recognition and unease simultaneously. The moody lighting lends itself to an emotional conversation but plays more softly than heavily.
You could see Tommy’s surprise when Buck made the admission because, from his position as this interloper in a deeply rich and long-standing relationship, he was the problem.
He was the one taking Eddie away.
Nothing about their previous conversations felt like we were leading to a kiss, and you can debate whether or not that was a good thing or not because it left the kiss feeling like it came out of left field.
But that’s true to life in that moments do knock you out.
One minute, you think you have it all figured out, and then a man you’re fascinated by slowly makes his way across your dimly lit apartment that may or may not have a couch, and suddenly, you’re being kissed in a way that catches you off guard but also slots things into place.
Actually, I’d venture to say Buck did a marvelous job of hiding his shock because, if anything, it felt like the figurative light bulb went off over his head. In that moment, dots connected, missing puzzle pieces became known, and an angel got its wings.
I love where it feels like we’re going with Buck as he begins this journey to understanding himself better and feeling his feelings in the safest way possible.
But you could argue there were a lot of different paths to get to this specific point, and they didn’t necessarily have to involve Eddie in any capacity.
And it’s his inclusion here, and the bait and switch they almost play during the episode, that makes me wonder if there’s more to this down the line that we’re currently missing.
I’m still trying to understand why these men even like Tommy so much in the first place, so I’m sure to be missing something else as well.
For a show in its seventh season to allow for this storyline is significant and vital.
Television can be an extreme escape, where reanimated zombies come to take over the world, or people get trapped in a town they can never leave, but so much of it is rooted in realism.
And it’s crucial to showcase the real world we live in because representation matters.
You hear that a lot nowadays, and it can’t be overstated enough because it’s true.
Do you know how impactful a storyline like this could be for someone to see?
Buck is an adult man, seemingly about to embark on a sexuality journey, and he’ll be doing it with an open-minded and supportive family structure in place.
This is important for people to see.
Somewhere, someone will watch this and see themselves in Buck, and seeing him realize the self-reflection that needs to take place as he opens himself to new possibilities may help them do the same.
You don’t know how much it could mean to someone and help validate their experiences.
They’ve often given Oliver Stark a lot of material over the years that has showcased and highlighted his innate understanding of Buck. And I’m so excited to see how he delves into this story and where we see Buck go as the rest of the season unfolds.
Having said all that, it’s okay to be eager about the future but uncertain about the Tommy of it all. It’s not wrong at all to have those feelings.
Tommy’s coolness because he fights and likes cars doesn’t need to be rammed down our throats. His humanity and how he’s grown as a human should be highlighted instead of his connections and ability to fly a helicopter.
And that may come. I hope it does because it feels like a huge oversight to ignore his past.
9-1-1 can struggle in introducing and incorporating supporting characters, especially ones brought on to be romantic partners.
So often, we’re made to hear how neat someone is and how happy everyone is, but it’s never shown to us in a way that fosters those same feelings. You say you like these people so much, but we don’t know why.
This is truly just the beginning of this arc, and there are so many unknowns. So, instead of lamenting what may or may not happen, let’s live in the moment and reflect on what we do know.
Because we don’t know what this means for any kind of future for Buck and Tommy or if there are unresolved feelings that may impact Buck’s other relationships.
They could have executed the path to get this moment differently, but we’re here now. And it’s invigorating.
We know there’s much more to come for Buck’s story, from potential discoveries to revelations, and with 9-1-1, these things are always done with thoughtfulness and care. And I’m hopeful they will give this story the respect and time it deserves as Buck cycles through a myriad of emotions.
Buck’s been rinsing and repeating for years, and maybe he’s finally on the path to finding the sense of peace he’s been searching for his whole life.
I couldn’t be more thrilled to witness Buck’s journey.
Loose Ends
- The Bachelor emergency was a few minutes too long but genuinely hysterical. They leaned into the ridiculousness in a way only they could being on ABC. And shout-out to Joey Graziadei for being a decent actor. He held his own.
- Chimney spoiling the next Bachelor for Maddie and Josh and then finding that lady passed out in the limo? Peak comedy. No notes.
- Eddie mentioning that Marisol babysat Christopher that past week was a jumpscare. I feel like the show forgot Eddie had a girlfriend and added her in there to remind themselves they’ll have to deal with that eventually.
- Another jumpscare? Tommy calling Buck, Evan. Much like Evan Buckley, I am bothered and bewildered.
- Ravi returns! And will never catch a break. He’s always just a step behind and forced to do the dirty work. Welcome back!
- Buck and Eddie having a full-on personal discussion while that man was stuck in the sewer was very typical of them
- Though it came about because Eddie inhaled the spiked Tommy Kool-Aid, it was good to see Eddie smiling. He looked carefree on the basketball court, goofing around and relaxing before that ankle popped.
- Also, Eddie propped up on his couch with his ankle elevated and extra-strength ibuprofen pumping through his bloodstream, feeling BAD he hurt Buck’s feelings? Oh, Eddie Diaz, the firefighter single dad that you are.
- Was that not the most gorgeous and majestic basketball court you’ve ever seen?
- Maddie and Buck hanging out only while eating was such a sibling thing. You can come hang out, little brother, but ONLY if there’s food involved!
The 100th episode has now come and gone, and it was an experience. And while it didn’t have all the feelings of a 100th in tying all the characters and past stories together (where was Hen?), it was still a thought-provoking hour.
Coming off the intensity of the cruise ship, dialing things all the way back, and getting into some more character-driven stories was the perfect move. This hour mixed in the heart, seriousness, and humor that makes 9-1-1 what it is.
And what it is is currently at the top of its game.
A lot happened during this hour, and I’m sure you guys have a lot of thoughts.
We’ll be halfway through this shortened season next week if you can believe it.
So, let me know in the comments what you thought about the hour and where you’d like to see things go this season!
Whitney Evans is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lover of all things TV. Follow her on X.