Welcome to That Weewoo Show: a podcast where Bex, Alice and Ellen watch and discuss every episode of ABC’s TV show, 9-1-1.
In this episode we discuss episode 12 of the second season of 9-1-1, titled “Chimney Begins”.
Chimney relives his evolution as a firefighter, looking back at how he joined Station 118 and became the firefighter and paramedic he is today.
Content warnings for episode 2.12:
Character bleeding from stab wounds, multiple building fires, gas leak and explosion, pregnant woman at threat, daddy issues, bullying, racist language, hazing behavior, graphic vomiting, blood.
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Episode Transcript
Maddie: [00:00:00] 9-1-1, what’s your emergency?
Ellen: Welcome back to That WeeWoo Show, a podcast where we watch and discuss episodes of the ABC show, 9-1-1. I’m Ellen.
Alice: I’m Alice.
Bex: And I’m Bex.
Ellen: Thanks very much to everyone who’s been listening to our episodes so far and shared our social media posts. We really appreciate everyone who’s rated, given us a rating on Spotify and Apple podcasts and left us reviews.
That’s great. Awesome. We really appreciate your help in spreading the word and getting more people to listen to our podcast. This week, we’re going to talk about season two, episode 12, which is titled “Chimney Begins”. But, Alice, first, you want to give us a rundown on what happened last week?
Alice: Yeah. So last week on [00:01:00] 9-1-1, uh, the 118 saved a shark while Athena rescued two kidnapped boys.
Maddie made the leap to serve Doug with divorce papers, but not before he stabbed Chimney!
Poor Chimney is bleeding out on the ground right now.
Bex: The official summary for “Chimney Begins” is literally, “Look back at how Chimney joined Station 118 and became the firefighter and paramedic he is today.” Short and sweet. Which, as I said last episode, it doesn’t really express the everything that happens in this episode.
Because it kind of makes it seem like, oh, we’re gonna get another one of like, “Hen Begins”, where we’re just going to sit back and watch Chimney’s story. But it’s not as simple as that. Because he is still actively bleeding out on the ground at Maddie’s apartment complex.
Ellen: Oh my god, [00:02:00] it feels like so long because we’ve had a bit of a break between recording the last episode and this one and I still haven’t watched episode 13. So I’m just like, Chim’s been lying there on the ground bleeding for like weeks at this point, and I’m just like, I’m so sorry, Chim.
Alice: Like, we just have a joke now that every, like, couple of days, we’re just like, and Chim’s still bleeding out. Chimney has been bleeding out longer than it’s taken Eddie to put on his shirt, which is saying something.
Ellen: I know.
Bex: Every so often, somebody just sort of runs up and pumps more blood into him to make sure that he’s going to keep going.
Alice: What a man is for some reason playing in the background.
Ellen: Did we, didn’t mention the triggers for this episode?
Bex: No, we better discuss, um, what you can expect.
Alice: Pretty dark episode, this one.
Bex: So it’s a very dark episode. So other than the fact that Chimney is actively dying throughout the entire episode from the stab wounds, courtesy of Doug, [00:03:00] um, we have multiple buildings that are going to be on fire. Uh, we have a gas leak, an explosion. This is not in chronological order, I’m jumping all over the place.
We have pregnant woman at threat. We have some daddy issues, if that’s a particular, um, thing for you. And then, of course, it’s, Station 118 version 1. 0, so we’re gonna have some bullying, we’re gonna have some racist language, we’re gonna have some hazing behavior, um, directed at Chimney, and uh, if like me, you are not a fan of, uh, vomiting, if you have a very, very sensitive gag reflex, there will be at least two scenes that you will want to turn away from.
Ellen: All right. So, apart from, like, we said that Chim’s going to be dying through this whole episode, but we don’t actually see him actually doing that all that much. Like, we see
Alice: We get it a bit.
Bex: We get [00:04:00] it in flashes.
Ellen: Yeah, now and then. Like, you know it’s still happening, and obviously This, the events that happen in this episode are kind of flashing back to Chim as he’s lying there, like his life is flashing before his eyes.
Bex: Yeah, it’s exactly, that’s the conceit of the episode is that this, we are watching his life flash before his eyes as he dies in Maddie’s apartment complex.
Ellen: Why this particular sequence of events is flashing before his eyes, I’m not entirely sure at this point, because like, I would have hoped that there would be more happy things to flash back to than you know, the things that happen in this episode. But anyway, uh, we do open with, um, you know, Chim, you can hear his heart sort of beating and he’s lying there on the floor bleeding.
Bex: It’s a really interesting opening sequence because it flashes to images that are the past for Chimney, but are the [00:05:00] future for us, because we have not seen them happen yet.
So there’s, um, there’s an image, there is an image of a firefighter in silhouette against this orange backdrop, which is just this, the, um, the fire through the smoke, and it’s a beautiful image, um, but it’s going to take us three quarters of the episode before we figure out what that scene relates to.
Alice: Yeah. The foreshadowing in this episode is actually really good.
Bex: It’s, um, it is so good.
Alice: It has really good re watchability.
Ellen: Who, who wrote this one? Do we know who the writer was?
Bex: The writer of this one was Erica L. Anderson, who also wrote “Point of Origin”, which is Bobby’s origin story, and she also wrote “Haunted”, so she’s good with symbolism.
Um, and it was directed by
Alice: Which one was “Haunted”?
Bex: Haunted. It’s the one with the ghost calling 9-1-1.
Alice: Oh, like the recent one.
Bex: Yeah, and [00:06:00] Buck leaving the apartment because he’s no longer haunting Abby’s. Yeah, that one.
Ellen: That was season two? It feels like ages ago.
Bex: I know.
Alice: That’s, that’s because Chim has been bleeding out for seven weeks.
Bex: Um, but what I found really interesting was that this was directed by the same director who did “Hen Begins”. So stylistically it’s so different. I thought perhaps they’d brought in a ringer director who’s gone, look, we’re going to try something new. But no, it’s an established director on 9-1-1 who’s just gone, hey, we’re going to try something new this time.
Ellen: Yeah. That’s working for them.
Alice: Hmm. That’s good.
Ellen: I like how you’ve got, uh, you’ve written in these notes that Chim’s in the empty.
Bex: I was, so, for those of you listening at home, I literally was trying to pull every, pull this opening sequence out frame by frame, and I was trying to find a shorthand for describing the scenes where Chim is either standing in complete [00:07:00] blackness in his LAFD zip top or he’s lying on the floor.
Also in complete blackness, but he’s bleeding out, and the only shorthand I can think of was, it looks like he’s in the Empty. Because I’m a Supernatural fan, so I’m going to bring everything back to Supernatural. But when, um, Alice was talking about foreshadowing to, uh, to really sort of kick that off, this whole sequence of flashing of images from Chim’s life, the last thing that we hear is Chim’s voice echoing, going, “Everything’s gonna be just fine, you’re gonna be fine.”
And then we cut to an establishing shot of Los Angeles, and suddenly it’s 2005. And Chimney has two words for us. Sleeved blankets. This part made me laugh so much.
Ellen: I mean, sleep, he was ahead of his time. Like sleeved blankets are [00:08:00] totally a thing.
Bex: And I love the idea that Chim was so close to inventing the Snuggie.
Alice: Yeah, if it wasn’t for the banker, that was just like, no, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
Ellen: Yeah. She’s, she’s a wet blanket. She’s just like, no, you don’t have an idea. You don’t have a calling.
Alice: The worst part is though, because obviously the Supernatural to 9-1-1 pipeline is so short. Every time that, like, every time I hear about Snuggies now, all I can think about is DTA.
Bex: Yes! Cas! Cas buying all the Snuggies!
Alice: And so the whole time, all I could think about, like, this whole, like, oh my god. Anyway, yeah, so, Chim’s discussing, like, how if you’re on the sofa watching TV and you get a little chilly, so you wrap yourself up in a blanket, “But now you get thirsty. So you want to grab your glass of water, but your arms are under a blanket. What do you do?”
And the banker is like, “take off the blanket.” And he goes, “yeah, but what if you don’t have to? What if like I had sleeves?” And he’s so [00:09:00] like enthusiastic about it and like has this spark. And the banker is just like, “No. Last month you came in talking about fitness centers for children. The month before that, it was pampered pet parties, like an Avon lady but with squeaky toys and rawhide.”
Bex: Which, as a pet owner, would you go for that? Assuming that he didn’t set it up as some kind of evil MLM.
Alice: Uh, well, rawhide’s actually really bad for dogs. So, but, uh, but no, like pampered pet parties. Absolutely. My dogs deserve the best birthdays.
She, she did just stop in very briefly, but she’s gone again, but yeah.
Bex: So the idea is that Chim wants to be an entrepreneur. But he doesn’t have
Alice: And a financial mogul.
Bex: Yeah, but he doesn’t have a concrete idea. He’s just like throwing stuff at the wall to see what’s gonna stick and so far nothing is sticking.
Alice: Like it’s, it’s very Tom Haverford in Parks and Rec, where like, [00:10:00] just making up random things all the time.
Ellen: Yeah, she does, she’s not interested.
Bex: But he’s not even inventing them himself. He’s like, I’m gonna have the idea and then I’m gonna pay somebody else to do it. Yeah.
Ellen: Right.
Bex: Regardless, it doesn’t work. April, the banker, denies his 350, 000 loan for sleeved blankets. Sorry, sweater blankets.
Alice: So in, in another universe, um, Chimney does not go back to the karaoke bar where we’re about to see him. He ends up on Wall Street walking, working for Jordan Belford, as I may have just watched Wolf of Wall Street, like last week.
Bex: Is that because you saw the clip in the training video and then you went, Hey, I should watch that movie again. You know
Alice: what’s funny? I actually watched Wolf of Wall Street before the weekend before last while I was doing training. And then a new training video came out, and it had Wolf of Wall Street in it, and I was like, are they? Is this fucking play about us? [00:11:00]
Bex: No, but in this universe, yes, he does go to a karaoke bar.
Alice: He goes back to the karaoke bar. So he works at a karaoke bar, which is kind of cute considering he took Maddie to a karaoke bar.
Ellen: Yeah, and he’s, but he’s doing karaoke, he’s singing, “I’ve Got Friends in Low Places” and trying to get everyone to sing along.
Alice: And he’s hyping up the crowd.
Ellen: Yeah, everyone’s enjoying it, they’re, you know, cheering and singing along. So he, he goes to this, the place where you go to sign up for karaoke and a woman comes over and, you know, she requests a song and, uh, Chim tries to chat her up a little bit. He’s like, “Oh, I just help out here from time to time. I’m actually an entrepreneur.”
Alice: Such an L. A. thing to say,
Bex: such an L. A. thing to say.
Ellen: And um, and she’s like, “Oh, I’m actually studying business right now.” And yeah, anyway. And then,
Alice: so Chim’s doing a bit of flirting [00:12:00]
Bex: and it looks like it’s working too, but then her douche canoe of a boyfriend comes up. And he sort of scoffs at her and says, “you know, what are you doing flirting with the busboy?”
And she immediately, to save face, is like, “I was just being nice, it must suck to be him.” And for some reason, even though it’s an incredibly noisy karaoke bar and they are like halfway across the bar, Chim hears that conversation clearly. Poor Chim.
Ellen: Yeah, so Hollaback Girl starts playing and we all dance around in our seats a little bit.
Yep. Chim is explaining to somebody at the bar, um, about how this banker wouldn’t give him a loan. And we get, let me see, okay, it is in this bit. I was trying to remember whether it was this bit or it was a bit later. But we get, like, this is Kevin. So this is his…
Alice: This is Kevin.
Ellen: Friend. Who’s about the same age.
This is his
Alice: house, like roommate, he’s younger. Yeah, like his brother. Like his brother, [00:13:00] yeah.
Bex: The brother he wished he had.
Alice: Yeah, so Chim lives with Kevin’s family, um.
Ellen: In America. Because his family is back in Korea. This episode has, like, because it’s only a one off episode and it’s in the past, we get some quite, I guess you’d call them succinct kind of world building, like, you know, information dump kind of things.
Like there’s a lot of exposition that is, that is given to us in dialogue.
Bex: Yes. Um,
Ellen: at points throughout the thing. So we find out quite quickly what’s actually going on. Like they work at this karaoke bar to, to, you know, people don’t have a calling. They just work, they get, they get a job. They can stomach that pays enough.
And then they do something that. brings them joy elsewhere. Um, Chim says he’s been hustling since he was 16. He’s had over a hundred jobs, nothing stuck yet. And Kevin says, your first job stuck babysitting me when you [00:14:00] moved in with my family and you’re still doing it. So yeah. Um, then, so that’s basically how we find out that Chim’s living with them and, uh, since he’s been in the country, I guess.
Bex: Yes, but the conversation gets derailed because Chim looks down the bar and asks what the other bartender, Marco, is doing.
Alice: Fucking Marco.
Bex: Marco has created a tower of shot glasses, kind of like a champagne tower, but with shot glasses. Um, has filled all of the shot glasses with hopefully not top shelf booze, has taken a shot himself.
So he’s drinking on the job, um, and then decides, with his infinite wisdom, that he’s going to set the shots on fire. And he pulls out, rather than using a cigarette lighter, he pulls out a [00:15:00] blowtorch, and instead of igniting the booze that is already in the shot glasses, he decides he’s going to ignite the extra booze that he starts pouring, which,
I don’t know that this is possible, but I’m just gonna let it go because that’s the only way I can survive 9-1-1 episodes. Um, it turns it into a flamethrower, and the alcohol ignites into this massive fireball, which goes straight onto the cute girl that Marco was obviously trying to impress, setting her on fire.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Again, I don’t think alcohol does acts like that, but we’ll just go with it.
Alice: It’s fine. Physics, physics in this, this L. A. are a bit weird. Yeah. But yeah, basically there’s a woman on fire, um, the, the, there’s sort of like a time skip and we see more later.
Ellen: [00:16:00] Yeah. It’s hard, it’s hard to work out what, like I had to watch it a few times to try and work out what had happened in this bit.
Alice: Yeah. Like there’s a fire and then it’s. Everyone’s outside, and there’s sirens wailing, and Chim’s getting applauded, and, like, someone says that he’s a hero, and he’s, like, basking in the praise. Oh
Bex: yeah.
Alice: But, like, we don’t actually see what happened until later. Um, so this is where we get the title card.
Bex: Yeah. And we, after the title card, we head to the Lee residence, which is where Kevin and Chim are living. Um, and Kevin is telling his parents about what happened at the bar, and how great Chimney was. And this is where, as he’s explaining that, um, Howie, because he’s not Chim yet, he’s still just Howie.
Alice: He’s baby Howie.
Bex: He was totally cool and [00:17:00] he, he took charge and Kevin had never seen him like that before. He started guiding people out, he kept everybody calm, he got 9-1-1 on the line, and we see sort of in slow motion this happening, um, as Kevin is talking.
Ellen: And Mrs. Lee tells him that he’s a hero.
Alice: Yeah, like.
Ellen: He says, I don’t know about that, I just did what I needed to do. Yeah. And he calls her Mrs. Lee, which is really sweet. But um, and Miss, Mr. Lee says, “I’m glad it burnt down and that no one got killed. You, you two need to get out of that place. Um, you can go out and look for real jobs.” And then Chim reveals that he has actually, “The real job has just found me. I applied to join the LA fire department to be a firefighter.” He sort of shares a look with Kevin as he says this. It’s like, what’s going on? Uh,
Bex: I love this.
Ellen: And, and Mr. Lee’s okay with it. He’s like, “Oh, that’s a noble pursuit.” Like, cause Chim says it’s feels [00:18:00] like something he’s been called on to do. And Mr. Lee says that he should call his father. And Chim’s plays that down. He’s like, “Oh no, it’s, it’s too hard. The time difference is difficult.”
Bex: We’ll wait to see if he’s accepted first. Yeah. Mrs. Lee is worried. And Kevin reassures her that the fatality rate is less than 0. 3%. “So, statistically, we’d have to be on the job for over 300 years before we’re likely to die.”
And his father picks up on the use of the we, and he questions it, and he goes like, “We?” And Kevin’s like, Yeah, I applied too. And suddenly, it’s not a noble cause, it’s not a man’s decision, Um, it’s are you out of your mind?! Yeah. So it’s one thing for Chim to go out and risk his life, it’s a completely other thing for his son to do it.
Alice: Yeah. The foreshadowing about like statistically we’ve been on the job for over 300 years.
Bex: And for Kevin to be the one to say it is just,
Alice: [00:19:00] yeah, right. File that away for later. Um, so then we get to the training, which. is very similar to Hen’s.
Bex: It is literally the same as Hen’s. I went and pulled back my transcript of “Hen Begins” and what, um, inspect the trainee, trainer said, and it’s word for word, exactly the same.
So you can imagine this guy just has this script memorized. So he just stands there and just recites it. Um, but we don’t get the same training montage. I do like that they do, they take, um, Kenneth and the actor playing, um, Kevin, and they actually took them to the real life training center that the LAFD use.
And did, like, an establishing shot of the exterior of the building to sort of set this in the real world. They’re not just using sets, they’re actually taking them out on location for establishing shots.
Alice: That’s cool.
Bex: And while the trainer is talking about [00:20:00] Uh, whatever it is he’s talking about, because I didn’t actually write it down this time because I figured we’d already talked about it once, um, Kevin and It’s about how there’s a badge and,
Alice: like, not many of them will actually get to wear the badge.
Bex: Yes, that’s it. And as they’re,
as they’re, as we are hearing this, um, Kevin and Chim are staring at a 9 11 memorial that’s been set up in front of the training center. And it’s a giant, um steel beam that they salvaged from the World Trade Center. And with a plaque in front of it that says, we will never forget.
Alice: This is interesting to me, because like, obviously it’s real.
Bex: Oh, yeah.
Alice: That they, Like, got the vertical support beam and transported it from New because like, I’d understand from if it was in New York, but it’s in LA. So they’ve transported it from New York to LA to put in front of the firefighters.
Bex: Because it’s a memorial to the New York firefighters that perished at the World Trade Center.
Alice: Yeah, but it’s but we’re in LA. But I know, but it’s It’s just Yeah, it’s [00:21:00] just interesting.
Ellen: It’s a long way to take a piece of metal.
Alice: Yeah, that they, like, like, did they put it on a train? Did they put it on a truck?
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: That was also carrying 22 million killer bees? Um,
Bex: I don’t know the logistics. Wikipedia did not go into that.
Alice: I feel like it should be mentioned that, um, we are recording the same day that season eight, season eight aired. Yeah. Uh, premiered. So there’s going to, there may be bee jokes in this. I’m really sorry if they come out, it’s just what’s going to happen. Um, Anyway. Yeah. So that’s just really interesting. And now I kind of want to know how the steel beam got from New York to LA and how many more, like, are they all over the country at fire houses?
Like,
Bex: I don’t know how many still, but
Alice: I’m, I’m actually fascinated.
Bex: If anybody listening knows anything about nine eleven memorials at firefighting training centers, um, let us know.
Alice: Your, your, um, naive Aussies want to know.
Bex: Yeah. [00:22:00] So they head into the training centre, um, We don’t get shown the same prep training that Hen went through. They seem to go straight to the physical practical training at the
Alice: I guess because we’d already seen Hen do the
Bex: Yeah, you don’t, it’s going to be too repetitive to, to show them climbing ladders and dragging chainsaws around.
Alice: It’s also interesting too, because Hen knew she wanted to be a paramedic, so she was doing a lot of the paramedic stuff straight up.
Yes. Like, they showed that. Whereas, you know, Chim comes in gung ho to be a firefighter, so they’re showing The firefighter stuff. The firefighter aspect, which is cool, because it means that we’re not seeing the same thing I guess.
Ellen: But we also get the important part, which is them testing a roof for stability when they’re walking across it.
Yes. And the instructor tells them that the perimeter is your friend, it will support you, everything else will collapse under your feet. Um, you know, this is important information for [00:23:00] the story.
Bex: The most important rule of rooftop is never cross country on impulse. And we were talking about foreshadowing, so this is important.
Never cross-country on a rooftop. on impulse. The perimeter is your friend. They, uh, so there’s more, uh, firefighting, there’s more dragging hoses upstairs, um, there’s more how to climb a ladder safely, and
Alice: Talk about how heat rises.
Bex: Yes. Um, and they They survive training and they graduate, they become probationary firefighters in the LAFD and they are given their station assignments and unfortunately for them, uh, they are split up.
Kevin is sent to the 133 and Chim is sent to the 118.
Alice: Um, when they’re all, so like all the graduates are in a line getting their, um, like where their, um, getting sent to. Yeah. Their assignments. Yes. [00:24:00] Um, and Chim is so tiny. He’s like in the middle and he’s the shortest one and he’s so little and I’m just like, aw.
But he looks so proud. Like, I love Chim so much.
Bex: He does share a bit of a look with Kevin, like, oh, it’s a shame we’re not going to be working together, but it’s cool. It’s fine.
Alice: Yeah, we got this.
Ellen: It made me smile when they said that he was a 118. I’m like, oh, here we go. And then when he shows up, He shows up at the firehouse, and I’m like, oh no, it’s these arseholes again.
Bex: See, the worst thing is because we’ve seen “Hen Begins” by this stage, so we know what the 118 is like.
Like, the way they treated Hen was a complete shock to us, but we’re kind of expecting it this time. Um, and they still manage to surprise us, because they are worse when Chim got there than they were when Hen got there.
Chim must have softened them up or something between him arriving and Hen arriving.
Ellen: I guess
Bex: because Hen at least had Chim, so we had, like, that, that, like, glimpse [00:25:00] of Chim’s got Eli a little bit. Later, yeah. Uh, so Chim arrives in the middle of lunch, dinner, a meal. They’re all sitting at the table, eating a meal.
They are eating. some variety of Asian. There is those little like Chinese, uh, takeaway boxes. There’s noodles and rice on the table. And as Chim walks up to the table, Tommy looks up and goes, Hey, Eli, did you forget to tip the delivery guy?
Ellen: Yeah. He just sort of laughs awkwardly.
Bex: Yeah. Cause of course, Chim heard that. Tommy did not say it quietly.
Alice: Yeah. Yeah. So. Chim introduces himself, um, We’ve got Captain Gerrard back, who snaps that he’s late. And Chim goes, “Oh, I was told 6:30.” And Gerrard goes, “No one wants their firefighters showing up on time, they want them early.” And like, I, I, [00:26:00] guess, but like, you don’t know that there’s a fire earlier, so like I don’t want firefighters turning up while I’m cooking, just in case I set the place on fire.
Bex: Could you imagine how creepy that would be? You’re standing in your kitchen cooking, and all of a sudden you look up and there are three firefighters just standing there going, No, no, it’s alright, we’ll wait. We’ll wait.
Alice: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, though. Which three firefighters?
Bex: This, this generation of the 118.
Alice: Oh yeah, God, no.
Like if it was Chim, Eddie and Buck, like, absolutely. I’d leave my door unlocked. Oh, putting water near some hot oil.
But no, these guys, no, creepy, creepy. Don’t want Tommy in my house ever. Thank you. Um, so yeah, Chim just goes, yep, of course. Um, and then the bell rings and Chim’s like, “Right, where do you want me?” And Gerrard just tells him to take care of the table, clean the kitchen, and then the crapper. [00:27:00]
Ellen: Yeah, I would say at this point that seeing, watching this the second time, um, with Captain Gerrard was really strange, because after Bex, you told me that this actor who plays him is in X Files.
It’s like the season two episode where he’s like the alien hunter, like a bounty hunter, like he’s an assassin type thing. And which is the episode that, um, the Monster of the Week guys are up to at the moment. So I just watched this, that double episode. And every time I saw him, his face, I was like, Oh my God, it’s that guy again.
I don’t like him.
Alice: He looks like a toad and it just bugs me. And I, apparently the actor is absolutely lovely.
Bex: Of course he is. Especially in that ex when he’s in the X Files, he’s got like that trench coat and it’s sort of like, his shoulders are up around his chin, um, because he’s like an awkward alien in a human body and he doesn’t quite know what’s going on, but yeah, as soon as, as soon as somebody pointed that out to [00:28:00] me, I cannot unsee that every time I see and hear Gerrard talk.
Ellen: No. It’s, yeah, really strange. And I didn’t recognise him until until you said it, and then I was like, yeah, it is that guy. Anyway, obviously he’s a lot younger because it’s like, yeah, 30 years ago or something. Yes. But, um, anyway, interesting fact. Um, so poor Chim is left behind, or sorry, Howie is left behind as everyone leaves in the trucks, and he gets to work.
He cleans.
Alice: He does get to work.
Ellen: He cleans the station from top to bottom.
Bex: We get this montage of Chim cleaning, like, he takes care of the table, he pulls, he throws away all of the rubbish, he does all the dishes, he scrubs down the table, he opens some new sponges. Yeah, he, he does his very best to clean, and then [00:29:00] he goes home and hears Kevin talking about the amazing call that he went on.
And then they go back to the firehouse and it’s Chim cleaning, and it’s the same, it’s the same shots of him picking up the table, scrubbing down the kitchen, doing the dishes.
And as, as he’s doing this, he’s hauling a duty radio around with him so he can hear what the station is, what the 118 are doing out there while he’s in there.
But what I found really interesting was that in “Hen Begins”, when Hen got sentenced to staying back at the station house. She really fought against it. Whereas Chim kind of embraces it. He’s a little bit more optimistic. So he takes the opportunity to try and just become the best firefighter he can be. So he makes flashcards for himself.
So that he can study. He practices getting in and out of his turnout as fast as he can. How quickly can he put on an O2 mask? How quick can he go down the pole? Yes!
Alice: It’s [00:30:00] so cute. He’s working so much.
Ellen: It kind of feels like he was just bored out of his brain. So he just came up with things to entertain himself.
Alice: That’s it. Yeah, Buck and, Buck and Chim are my favorite characters. So like anything they do, I’m just like, my babies, look at them go. Yeah. He’s so clever.
Bex: And meanwhile, Kevin is actually going out on calls, and using the jaws of life to get people out of cars and um, talking about somebody bleeding out and, and Chim is just like, yeah, I scrubbed the toilets.
Alice: Chim’s been listening to the radio to like hear what the 118 are doing while they’re on the calls, and so he just sort of parrots back like what they did.
Bex: Yeah, and thank God the Lees don’t ask for any details, because he can tell them, Oh, yeah, it was a five car pile up, and they’re like, Oh, tell me more about that.
Like, he would not have been able to give any more detail.
Ellen: [00:31:00] No. Yeah, as I was listening to him doing this, it made me wonder if this is where he, like, started making up stories to…
Bex: it was very reminiscent of Tatiana, right?
Alice: I made that, I made a note of that. But like how, yeah, in season one he was lying to his girlfriend.
It’s very Chim version one. Um, about like, oh yeah, like I totally like went down that mountain. Like,
Ellen: yeah. I mean, it seems to work on his family. So maybe he just takes that forward, um, to, uh, what are the, what is that website called again?
Alice: Oh, oh, Romancing the Uniform? I got on that very quick. I’m sorry. Means nothing. I swear. Um, anyway, yeah, it’s interesting.
Bex: It is very interesting. and the, it seems like, Like, obviously it’s awful for Chim that he’s being left behind, but he is absolutely making the most of it, and he seems to be doing really well, because there’s flashcards, it [00:32:00] looks like he’s getting better at them, he’s beating his time for getting into his turnouts, he’s perfected his pole techniques, but then
Alice: His mopping’s getting better.
Bex: Oh, the mopping, I they and then we realized that things are really shitty, because he spends all day mopping the floor of the station, and then the 118 come back absolutely covered in mud, and just Tommy walks towards him and just goes, oh, you’re still here, and walks off, just leaving muddy footprints on the floor.
Gerrard walks up and goes, “uh, see what you can do about the floor, Probie,” like shakes off some more mud off his boot.
Ellen: These episodes are just awful.
Alice: But we do get, did we mention Eli?
Bex: He’s not there yet. We’re not there yet. Oh, Eli is starting to soften towards [00:33:00] him a little bit.
Alice: Yeah, Eli’s starting to soften. So like he, Eli, who’s the paramedic, is like doing his own dishes. Which is a, like, glimmer of niceness in between all the shit.
Bex: Yeah, so he finishes, he’s finished eating first, and as he gets up from the table, Chim immediately gets up to clear Eli’s place, and Eli’s like, “No, no, no, you finish what you’re eating.” Chim’s like, “Oh my god, I can finish eating my lunch? Thank you so much!”
Alice: But yeah, so we get the whole, like, the montage with the cleaning, the mopping, the poles sliding down, the flashcards, um,
Ellen: Is this where he does his little dance?
Alice: Yeah. His dance, yeah. It’s so good. So cute. But this day, um, a car drives into the empty firehouse. So the others are all out on a call. He’s doing his little thing. Um, he’s in his turnout gear.
Bex: I love the look on his face. It’s so much like the parents have come home and caught him in the middle of doing something he absolutely should not have been doing,
Alice: [00:34:00] right?
Yeah. So this car drives in and the driver is a woman and she like gets out and she’s freaking out. She’s like, “help me, help me. My husband’s having a heart attack. Please help me, help me, help me.” Um, so Chim like runs to the passenger side of the car. And starts questioning, like, the what, the husband and wife.
So the pain started a few minutes ago, his chest hurt, and now he’s having trouble breathing. And the husband says that his hands are tingling, but it’s just his hands. So, like, Chim questions him and, like, goes through the motions and it’s just his hands. It’s not running down his arm.
Bex: You can just see Chim pulling up that imaginary flashcard in his head that’s got, like, what are the signs of a heart attack?
Alice: Right, like, he’s running through, like, yeah. He’s running through all his little questionnaires. Yes. [00:35:00] and so Chim gets him to breathe and, like, asks what they were doing and, you know, before the pain started and they went to brunch, and then they had a walk on the beach
Bex: and brunch was a buffet
Alice: brunch was a buffet and Did did did Dave just have one thing or did he have a little bit of everything?
Bex: Oh, yeah, little bits of everything cuz that’s how you do a buffet, right?
Alice: That’s how you do a buffet. Little of this, little of that.
Ellen: The wife is just like, “Don’t you think you should be using the paddle thingies or something?” But Chim, Chim’s saying that he thinks he’s doing better and he is doing better.
He feels better. And then he just lets out this huge burp and he starts farting. It’s like, okay, we’ve gone to the fart jokes again. Um, it’s just indigestion and he’s having a bit of a panic attack. It feels a bit like a heart attack, but it’s okay, you’re gonna be alright.
Bex: Yep. I just love that Dave is sitting [00:36:00] here, like, pulling faces and waving his hands in front of his face the entire time, because obviously what’s coming out is just not, not palatable.
Ellen: Yeah. Farts fix everything, apparently. Uh, so Chim’s feeling pretty, pretty happy with himself.
Bex: He’s so proud of himself.
Ellen: He is, yeah.
Alice: He’s so proud.
Bex: And the 118 come back and he is desperate to like, “Hey guys, you will never guess what happened today.” And they completely ignore him and just continue talking about the, what they’re going to have for dinner.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: Um, yeah, and an interesting, interesting conversation where Gerrard asks Tommy if his girlf wasn’t his girlfriend supposed to come cook his dinner? Yeah. And Tommy’s like, uh, next Tuesday.
Bex: Gerrard says “Promise?” Which makes me wonder if, like, maybe Gerrard is a divorcee and he’s just missing a home cooked meal, so he’s dragging [00:37:00] in anybody who has a female partner to come into the firehouse and cook a home and cook for them so that he can get a home cooked meal every once in a while.
Ellen: I don’t want to feel sorry for him but that’s kinda sad.
Alice: Please don’t feel sorry for him. But yeah, so Chim’s just sad facing and Eli stops and like looks at him and then walks away.
Bex: Eli notices that he’s just been completely ignored by everybody else and like the wheels start turning in Eli’s brain.
Alice: So then we go to the Lee’s house which is where Chim’s still living and Chim’s outside in the garden with his computer and he starts skyping because it’s 2019? 2018? 2019? 2019, yeah. It was
Ellen: before,
Alice: before the Zoom days. Before Zoom, yeah. And when the call connects, it’s this young boy sitting in front of the camera [00:38:00] and then Chim’s father comes into the frame and like, shoos the kid away basically.
Bex: Like, Albert, don’t touch that. Go away.
Alice: Yeah, I’ll let, um, let Bex take this.
Ellen: Go on, tell us all about it.
Bex: Uh, which one do you want? Do you want the TikTok video or do you want BTS?
Ellen: Oh, just give it, just give it all this. Go on.
Bex: Okay, so, um, BTS, if you don’t know what that is, it is a, uh, boy group from South Korea.
Um, there is eight members, and Suga is
Ellen: Really? I didn’t realize there were that many of them.
Bex: Eight or seven. Hang on, now I’ve got to count.
Alice: Isn’t that not even a big K pop group? Like, isn’t there one that’s got like 20 or something members?
Bex: There’s, uh, 17 that has 13 members. Wow. And then I think there’s NCT that has like 21 or [00:39:00] something.
Alice: Yeah, there you go.
Bex: Yeah.
Ellen: Jesus.
Bex: So yeah, BTS is relatively small. Suga, who is my bias, which is my absolute favorite of the group, he is the second eldest in the group, and he’s kind of like the black cat of the group. He is just, he does not, he does not like being loved on. Um, and he is kind of the elder of the group, but the rest of the group love him.
Even though he does not sometimes appreciate how much they love him. So they’re constantly trying to hug him and kiss him and squeeze him and he gets this absolute put upon look on his face and it’s just like, “hajima! Hajima!” Just don’t. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. So it’s the first word I learned in Korean because when you do, um, one of the great things that they do with K pop groups is they do lots of [00:40:00] behind the scenes things, like they shoot little reality TV series.
So they’ll
Alice: Hang on. Would you say it’s BTS BTS?
Bex: Oh, I get so confused when people talk about BTS for a TV show. But like somebody was talking about. Like there’s a Twitter account called BTS, which is like supposedly behind the scenes. And they’re talking about BTS shipping funny and like going. Wait. Wait.
Alice: The whole group.
Bex: The whole group ships Buddie? They get 9-1-1 in Korea?
Ellen: As they should.
Bex: Um, yeah, so we get these little like snippets of who they are offstage, so you get these wonderful moments of Suga just, you know, absolutely yelling at his members to leave him alone. Um, and so that is how I learned the word “hajima”. And it’s always said, like, hajima! In this really aggrieved tone of voice.
So there you go.
Ellen: Love it.
Bex: But what’s [00:41:00] interesting about this scene is after Howard’s father shushes Albert out of the way, is that he doesn’t even realize that the Skype call had connected. So he’s trying to, he gets Albert away from the computer instead of looking at the computer and seems very surprised to see Chim on the screen.
Ellen: Yeah, I thought the funny thing with this scene as well is that he, like, his father speaks in Korean, but Chim speaks to him in English.
Bex: Yeah.
Ellen: Like, it
Bex: Which makes me wonder how much Korean Kenneth knows.
Ellen: Yeah, I don’t, I I mean, I assume that he is actually of Korean descent, but maybe he hasn’t been there much.
Bex: He is Korean American, but I have a feeling maybe the American is… Yeah, yeah
so maybe it’s easier to, rather than Kenneth butchering Korean pronunciation, it also sets up the divide between the two of them that his father only says. Okay. That’s true. Okay. So
Alice: Kenneth was, Kenneth was born in America too, like his parents are Korean. Okay. So he probably, yeah, yeah.
[00:42:00] Probably isn’t strong with his Korean.
Bex: But it works well because we get the, Chim only speaking English, his father only speaking Korean, but Chim knowing enough Korean to be able to understand his father. So when his father says absolutely horrible things to him, to his face in Korean, he knows exactly what they’re saying to him.
Like when his stepmother appears, uh, in the camera and it’s like, “Uh, what is, what, how it is Colin? What does he want?” And looking dead at the camera, his father says, “I don’t know, maybe he wants money.” Like, sir, your son can understand you. He understands Korean.
Alice: Well, he’s right there and he can understand.
Yeah. Chim literally then replies, “Dad, I don’t need money.” Yeah. But yeah, when Chim’s dad, like, ushers his younger brother away from the screen as well. He’s like “Howard?” Chim’s like, “yeah, it’s your other kid, the one you actually like.” So [00:43:00] clearly there’s a lot of tension there.
So yeah, Chim says that he’s got some news and his stepmom literally just rolls her eyes and leaves.
Which is lovely. But yeah, so Chim lets, lets his dad know that he got a new job and he’s joined the fire department and he’s, you know, doing fire and rescue, saving lives, and, his father just goes, “Oh yeah, you know, Albert’s on a pretty strict schedule, bye. Like, you sure you don’t need money? Nope, okay, bye.”
Bex: Yeah.
Ellen: Yeah, he’s very distracted.
Bex: And Mrs. Lee is watching all of this happen from the kitchen too. She’s been keeping an eye on Chim. And she obviously can hear clearly enough that she’s understanding what’s happening.
Alice: So then they have a chat, and then we find out a bit more about Chim’s role in the Lee family?
Or their [00:44:00] role in his family? Yeah. I do love that Mrs. Lee doesn’t even hold back in this. She, like, pulls him aside and she’s just like, “you know, your father.” And Chim’s like, “I know, he’s a very, very busy man.” And Mrs. Lee just immediately goes, “He’s a jackass.” And she goes, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be calling him names.”
And Chim’s like, “no, no, no. I like where this is going. Continue.” So Mrs. Lee knew Chim’s mother. And apparently she was a very vibrant, full of joy woman and ended up marrying such a colorless man. And we find out that she and Mrs. Lee were best friends and she died and they took in Chim. And. consider him family.
Ellen: Yeah, it’s a really beautiful scene actually.
Alice: And I’m just sobbing at the corner over there.
Ellen: Howie’s having to cry as well and that makes everyone else cry.
Alice: So it’s another one of [00:45:00] those like found family, yes, situations. Um, and yeah, you can tell that like they mean a lot to Chim and Chim means a lot to at least Mrs. Lee, but.
Ellen: Yeah, you get the feeling that Chim doesn’t have. much contact with his family back in South Korea. Like he’s, if he tries to get in touch with them, they kind of brush him off or whatever. They’re not that interested in what he’s up to, or at least they’re too busy with their own lives to bother.
Bex: With the new son. Which is really interesting watching this scene now, having seen the rest of the series. and. I’m not going to spoil anything, Ellen, but these little nuggets that they’re dropping in this episode, we get bigger and bigger nuggets, and eventually we’re able to piece together Chim’s story and the relationship with his parents.
So knowing that, coming back and watching this episode [00:46:00] is, it’s even sadder, I think. Speaking of sad
Alice: We’re back at the 118.
Bex: Yes. And Chim is determined to make friends. The point
Alice: He’s doing his best.
Bex: To the point where he pretty much corners Tommy in the locker room.
Alice: Which is not where you want to be cornered, but you know.
Bex: Well I mean, no, definitely not. But he’s just so desperate to make, to connect with Tommy. He’s just like, “Tell me what your thing is and I will make it mine.”
Which again, it’s very Chim 1. 0. He is willing to do whatever it takes to just get that connection, to get what he wants. Tommy looks at him, and then looks away, [00:47:00] and ignores him completely.
Thankfully Eli comes to the rescue. Oh no! Eli doesn’t, Eli is not quite fast enough for Tommy to absolutely deal the, the, um, the death blow. Which is, um, Chim says, uh, “You just don’t like me that much, do you?” And Tommy finally turns around again and says, “You know, if I thought about you at all, honestly, I probably wouldn’t.”
Ellen: Ugh. It’s just so mean.
Bex: And I, and I hate,
Alice: So mad!
Bex: I hate that Eli tries to rationalize it and it, it kind of, the rationalization kind of makes sense, but it’s still horrible.
Ellen: It’s still awful, yeah.
Bex: Because there’s, there is protecting yourself and then there’s being racist and being outwardly mean.
Alice: Yeah, exactly.
Ellen: Yeah. [00:48:00]
Alice: So obviously when Eddie started in season two, which was 11 episodes ago, Buck tried to do similar in that, like he held him at an, at arm’s length and was like, no, you can’t just come in here and like fit into the family straight away. But like, he wasn’t, he wasn’t this bad. Like, and the others were just like, “yeah, it’s, it’s okay. We have a new BFF now.”
And Buck’s like, “No, I’m your BFF.” Yeah, it’s just because like Buck sort of tries this and fails miserably after like day one. So it’s, yeah, it’s definitely interesting, like getting Buck in season, like in episode one and then getting “Hen Begins”. And then obviously “Chim Begins” where they do just completely ignore them or treat them like absolute shit.
And the rest of the team are like, no, we’re not doing that. Like Eddie’s new, he’s fine. Yeah.
Bex: [00:49:00] He’s pretty.
Alice: He’s pretty.
Ellen: But they also, they also have a much better culture in the, yeah, in the firehouse. Like, Bobby is, like, very inclusive of everybody.
Alice: Yes. And let’s be real, I’m pretty sure the only reason that Buck was doing that was because he had some, um, feelings he wasn’t sure how to express.
Ellen: Yeah, yeah, he was struggling with, uh, with some feelings.
Bex: Oh, there were lots, there were lots of issues going on there for poor old Evan. But thankfully Chim has Eli. Who has cleared with Gerrard that even though he’s not a paramedic, uh, Chim is going to ride with Eli today.
Alice: I do love, like, Eli’s trying to be nice and Chim goes, “But I’m not a paramedic.”
And Eli just goes, “Well, you’re not much of a firefighter either.” It’s like, ouch!
Ellen: Yeah, ow. It’s like, hang on, I thought you were the nice one. But you just say, like, this is a careful what you wish for situation, like. Don’t be too happy about it. And so then we’re [00:50:00] followed by this montage of just horrible shit happening in the ambulance.
Bex: So this is the point where if you’ve got a sensitive gag reflex, you might want to fast forward through because we get, um, you know, pretty shots of the rescue ambulance zooming around the street, zooming through tunnels, meanwhile, inside, uh, patient number one leans over and vomits all over Chimney.
Alice: Yeah, all over.
Bex: It’s like, it’s exorcist level vomit, all over Chim.
Ellen: He’s got a bucket, but it’s just missing, yeah.
Alice: Like, you know how a lot of the time in TV shows, like, the vomit doesn’t look real?
Bex: Oh, that’s, this looks real.
Alice: This looks real.
Bex: You can smell it through the screen. I mean, yeah, he has a bucket, but Eli hands him the bucket after he’s already completely pointed, so the bucket’s doing absolutely nothing.
Ellen: It’s just going everywhere.
Bex: and when Chim is not being covered in vomit, he’s being covered in blood, because their [00:51:00] next patient has a brachial artery bleed, and it’s getting all over Chim, because he is struggling to stop the bleeding.
Ellen: And they keep showing, like, the both of you, like, switching between different ones.
And Chim’s going, ah, no!
Bex: And Eli’s just sitting at the, like, the head of the gurney going, “come on, you got this, let’s go!”
Alice: Yeah, you’ll be fine.
Bex: But there is, uh, a little bit of foreshadowing in this scene is that the dude who is vomiting all over Chimney just sort of lies back at one point and goes, “Oh, I’m dying.”
And Eli says, “You’re not dying, sir, you’re going to be just fine.”
Which then Chim tries to say to our brachial artery guy, except he follows it up by like giving him a friendly slap on the arm, right above where he’s bleeding, and sends more blood. [00:52:00]
Ellen: Eventually they get back, they get, they deal with all of the blood and vomit, and they end up back in the firehouse and Chim’s looking at something in the, in the ambulance, but
Bex: I think he’s, I think he’s taking being a paramedic to heart. So I have a, I think, I didn’t do a zoom in, but I think he’s reading like a medical text. Maybe he’s considering taking the paramedic test.
Ellen: And he looks longingly over at the two, two guys across the, you know, firehouse who are playing foosball.
And no, they’re having a laugh and whatever. And he’s like sitting over there on his own.
Bex: And then Eli comes over and hands him an empty cup of coffee. Um, it’s not personal. This is the rationalization for why Tommy is being such a jerk. Um, that when you are in this job, being a firefighter, uh, friends die.
So they’re not just going to become your [00:53:00] friend until you earn their respect. They’re protecting themselves from being hurt. And his analogy is, you don’t name a puppy until you know it’s going to pull through.
Alice: Okay, so, as someone who has, like, been there for the birth of several puppies
Bex: You name your puppies, like, well in advance.
Alice: Oh yeah, like, I have, like, lists of names for the puppies. We have lost one of our puppies, and we named her after she’d passed, because we Like she deserved a name. Yeah. So that’s the, it’s just the weirdest thing.
Bex: It is the weirdest analogy.
Alice: But yes, all our puppies have names. Some of them even keep their names that they get from birth, which is cute.
Cause I’ve actually named like several puppies that people now own. But yeah, Chim goes, “So in this scenario, I’m a puppy?” And I’m like, yes, you were a puppy.
Ellen: You are a puppy.
Alice: My little puppy. I think that’s why Buck and Chim are my favorites. [00:54:00] Cause they’re both just puppies. Yeah.
Bex: Chim and Eli have a bit of a heart to heart where it’s interesting that, uh, we kind of see their motivations in why they’re doing what they’re doing.
Chim is still very much, he wants to be the hero, he wants the adrenaline rush, he’s still trying to catch hold of that feeling that he had at the bar when he saved that woman and everybody loved him. That’s what He
Alice: wants to look good for the girls. Yes.
Bex: Yes. Whereas Eli has a completely different story, and he says to Chim that if the rush and the thrill and the adoration is why he is doing this job, then he is sorry in advance for the lesson that you are going to learn.
And again with the foreshadowing.
Ellen: But then the bell rings and they’re off to a fire. And Gerrard points [00:55:00] to him and says, “You too, Probie.” And so, Chim just looks so excited. Um, he’s, he’s finally getting a go. Um, but he’s, he’s going to go with Eli.
Alice: How long do we reckon between Chim passing the firefighters thing?
Do you, like, after Chim passed that, do we think he joined Romancing the Uniform? I don’t know.
Like, was he even, had he even had his first shift?
Bex: Where did that thought come from?
Alice: I don’t know.
Ellen: I mean, the next day? I don’t know.
Alice: Yeah, like, like, had he even started at the 118 and he was already, like, cause, no, cause he, like, he’s basically saying it that, like, you know, he wanted to be a hero.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Well, I mean, then we have to think, this is 2005, when was Romance the Uniform set up?
True. Like 2005, I don’t know. I cannot remember what the dating scene was like.
Ellen: No, there were online dating.
Alice: There were websites.
Ellen: It must [00:56:00] have been fairly early on, I imagine.
Alice: There were websites. There weren’t apps, but there were definitely websites. So I’m sure that there was some version of Romancing the Uniform.
Bex: Yeah. Well, it’s probably not going to be anytime soon, because he’s about to go through a bit of a shit show.
Alice: Yeah. So. Back on track.
Bex: Back on track. Uh, Chim is in the back of the, despite having been stuck with Eli, or put with Eli for the last couple of calls, he is in the ladder truck, sitting in the back with Tommy.
And he’s got his eyes closed, and you could almost think that, you know, he’s trying to calm himself and, and prepare for arriving at the scene, but that heartbeat starts to To beat again. We get that sound of the heartbeat and we start getting flashes of Chim in a hospital waiting room crying and Chim in the empty and fire and Chim [00:57:00] bleeding and Just
Ellen: When this started happening because I’d been in the past in this scene with him And then all of a sudden you’re reminded that this is a flashback like this is He’s remembering this in the future.
Bex: It’s the little reminder of like, he’s still dying. This is still just his brain just frantically firing neurons. Um, and he even, he hears Maddie’s voice and he sort of snaps out of it and looks over trying to find Maddie, but it, he’s at the scene. He doesn’t have time. He’s got to focus on the job at hand, which is an apartment building that is absolutely engulfed.
Ellen: Yeah, and one of the, one of the firefighters runs up to Gerrard and says, “It’s like an inferno in there.” I’m like, I think you’ll find that is the definition of an inferno. Like, it’s a fire.
Bex: It’s not like anything, it is an inferno.
Ellen: It is an inferno.
Bex: Um, there has [00:58:00] been a 9-1-1 call. There are multiple residents still inside the building.
So it’s not just putting out the fire, it is a, it is a search and rescue as well. Um, so Gerrard takes command of the scene, and he sends pretty much everybody up to the roof to get the roof ventilated. Which is good, because Chim’s had plenty of practice in ventilating a roof. Um, and he looks absolutely whispers, He’s finally, um,
Ellen: he’s finally seeing some action.
Bex: Finally some action. Uh, so, Chim’s up on the roof. He’s got a he’s got a pike pole and he’s banging it on the the roof trying to find the weak spots. Whenever he finds a weak spot, uh, some dude with a chainsaw behind him cuts the ventilation hole.
Ellen: What is this roof made of that they can just?
Bex: I don’t know.
Ellen: Chainsaw it apart?
Bex: I don’t know.
Ellen: Like, I don’t know. [00:59:00] I would have assumed it would be concrete, but
Bex: That chainsaw seems to be going through quite easily, doesn’t it?
Ellen: It looks like paper mache.
Bex: It looks like plaster.
Maybe they have different, I mean, we already know that they sometimes have different construction standards in LA. Bobby’s already pointed that out to us. Maybe this is another one of those dodgy buildings. So, Chim keeps working on this, this roof, such as it is. Um, when he’s tapped on the shoulder by One of the other firefighters is working the roof and Wouldn’t you know it, the 133 have also responded to this call and Kevin’s up on the roof, and they look absolutely overjoyed to be working a call together.
Maddie: They do.
Bex: So they start working on the roof, and just in case we forgot, we get the ghost of, um, it. Instructor Thomas telling us that the perimeter is our friend, it will support [01:00:00] us and carry our weight, everything else can and will collapse under our feet. And this is important because suddenly the door to the fire escape, fire door, some kind of door leading from the building up to the roof flies open and one of the residents who had been reported as still in the building comes stumbling out straight into the middle of the roof.
She’s going cross country on impulse.
Ellen: Ugh.
Bex: And
Ellen: They start shouting. Everyone starts shouting.
Bex: Yes. Don’t
Alice: Like it’s loud and chaotic and she’s scared and
Bex: Yes, she’s having It’s awful. She’s struggling to breathe because she’s obviously been inhaling smoke for the last couple of minutes. And they’re trying to tell her to stay still, that they will come to her, um, and it’s not working and there’s this moment where Kevin looks at Chim and Chim looks at Kevin and then Kevin just bolts across the roof.
and shoves the woman. [01:01:00] He kind of like bolts across, sort of U turns around behind her, shoves her at Chim just as the roof under his feet collapses in a perfectal square shape, and he disappears into the flames below.
Ellen: Yeah. And Chim just screams, “Kevin, no!”
Alice: But he keeps working because
Bex: And this is where, um
Ellen: He makes sure she’s okay.
Alice: He’s got a job to do
Bex: Yeah, the shot that I mentioned from Chim’s flashes at the beginning of the episode of the firefighter in silhouette with the orange behind him, that’s Chim and this woman on the rooftop, just as Kevin has died.
So many layers in this episode. It’s amazing.
Ellen: It’s so sad too, because like from this section after this, because obviously Chim has [01:02:00] then got to go and wait in a hospital to find out we’ve got. Mr. and Mrs. Lee are there. We’ve got flashing scenes from all of, all of the things we’ve seen so far. Poor Chim is just really going through it.
And a doctor comes into the waiting room and he just shakes his head.
Bex: They weren’t willing to pay the SAG rate for him.
Ellen: He doesn’t, he doesn’t speak. Um, Mrs. Lee runs off, but Mr. Lee turns to Chim and he, you know, Chim just says, I’m sorry. And they sort of, embrace, um, yeah, it’s awful.
Bex: It’s beautiful and I do love that it would have been so easy for them to have the Lees turn on Chim at that moment and either exclude him completely from their grief or blame him.
Ellen: Get angry, yeah.
Bex: And get angry at him, but instead they’re almost, they are [01:03:00] crying on his shoulder. They are using him for support and he is crying along with them even as he’s apologizing profusely. Um, and I was doing okay and then they started the funeral and that’s when I started crying because this funeral, oh my god, it is a full, almost military esque, full honors funeral.
Ellen: Yeah, they’re ringing a bell to signify the ending of his shift, you know, the end of his service.
Bex: And Chim’s the one ringing the bell.
Ellen: They fire guns. I don’t know what the obsession with firing guns at funerals is, but, I mean, okay.
Bex: Make a note. Ellen wants guns at her funeral,
Ellen: Please do not fire guns at my funeral.
I’m sorry, I’m sure it’s some respect, it’s a respectful thing for a military funeral, but I [01:04:00] don’t get it.
Bex: It’s beautiful like they’re The ladder truck for the 133 has a giant wreath attached to it and it drives slowly into the funeral with the 118 and the members of the 133 parading next, parading around it.
Um, I’m wondering if maybe the casket is on the truck as it’s coming in. Um, and Chim is in front of the truck carrying Kevin’s helmet.
Ellen: Mmm.
Alice: Oh, it breaks my heart.
Bex: Yeah, and I’ve, and I’m, I’m sobbing as Chim is like trying to stay restrained as he rings this bell and watches as the honor guard fold the flag and present it to Mrs. Lee.
Ellen: But, uh, life goes on and so does going back to work. We do get a bit more of the, of the, the flashing back and forth kind of thing with them. lying on the top of [01:05:00] the roof with the woman, like, as the flames are around. But.
Bex: But he’s, like, Eli is shocked and pleased to see him. Like, “I, it’s good to see you, I was sure you’d be back,” and Chim just very deflated, very monotone, it’s like “I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
They are called out, and Chim is allowed to come out on this call to a, the fashion outpost in Encino where the floor is collapsing. Cause you know, that’s exactly what Chim needs to be going to. Another call where the floor is collapsing under people’s feet.
Alice: Um, yeah, I’m sure this is fine.
Bex: Um, the engine truck rolls in and an LAPD officer waves it in and starts reporting to Gerrard what is happening.
And Chim gets to meet Athena for the first time.
Ellen: Oh yeah.
Bex: Because she is the officer on the scene.
Alice: Yeah, they’ve still got to give Athena a paycheck for [01:06:00] this episode, so they’re like, shit, what can we get her to do?
Bex: I’m pretty sure that Angela Bassett has been, I think Angela and Kenneth are the two that are in every single episode of 9-1-1.
Alice: Doesn’t Kenneth have a day off, like, isn’t he off when, with the rebar? Huh?
Ellen: Yeah, there are a few episodes where he’s, I don’t think he’s in them at all.
Bex: I’m trying to remember, because they made this big deal about how many episodes they’d all been in.
Ellen: They mention him in those episodes, but I don’t know if he’s in it.
Bex: And Kenneth was pretty proud that he was in a very high number of episodes, and that Angela was the only one that had beaten him.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: And this is why, because she has to be in every scene. Yeah. This is why she ends up in every single scene, because they contractually must require.
Alice: She’s even in Lone Star. Like, she just turns up. Yeah.
Bex: Like, is she literally on screen in Lone Star?
Alice: Yep. Yep. Only one episode, but yep. Ha! She’s credited as an executive producer, but [01:07:00] yeah, there’s an episode where she’s literally in Lone Star.
Bex: Interesting. So this call that Athena tells Gerrard about is that the shopping centre is expanding its underground parking garage and somebody screwed up because the floor of the biggest store has just collapsed in on itself.
It doesn’t appear to be, like it’s, I’m guessing that there was either nobody in the store Nobody in the parking garage, because it seems like most of the injuries that they’re dealing with are customers and staff who are dealing with headaches. Not like fall injuries or crush injuries. And not headaches as in they’ve banged their head.
Alice: Like they’re talking full on migraine symptoms.
Bex: Yeah. And Chim sort of decides that he’s going to help Eli rather than help the um, the firefighters and he’s examining some of the people who are [01:08:00] complaining of um, having migraines and he’s like palpating their skulls and he’s not finding any physical injuries that would explain the headaches.
Alice: Yeah, like one girl says that it, like her headache started before the floor collapsed. She also goes on this tangent about how it’s all the folding she does, because she works the fitting rooms and no one ever folds their clothes. And I’m sitting there like nodding like, yep, I feel you. I also always have a headache every day.
Wouldn’t even think it was weird. The floor had collapsed and I’d be like, it’s just another day. I wonder who’s going to clean this up.
Ellen: But Chim sort of notices a bit of a pattern here. Yes. So he goes and
Alice: And with all his flashcards he…
Ellen: Yeah. Well, Athena says that some people have been hurling for the last hour, she says. So
Bex: The construction crew, the guys down doing the work, have been vomiting. So yeah, Chim [01:09:00] puts two and two together and comes up with um, Gas Leak.
Which Gerrard immediately dismisses because he says if it was a gas leak we’d be smelling it. Chim just goes, okay cool, what kind of gas wouldn’t have a scent to it if it was leaking? Oh shit, get everybody away from the building, I think it’s a methane gas leak. And they look around
Ellen: They realize, they realize that Tommy’s missing.
Bex: Yeah, because Tommy went into the store with his trusty circular saw.
Uh, with one of the other guys, and the other guy has come back out. Uh, but Tommy is not there.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: So Chim goes racing into the building, um, screaming for everybody to get back. And what I like is that Gerrard is like, “What the fuck are you doing, Probie?” But still
Alice: Ah, he, he’s independent thinking?
Bex: Yeah, Gerrard doesn’t like independent thinking.
That’s [01:10:00] gonna get him K.P. , but because Athena immediately starts telling everybody to move out back and Eli is immediately, everybody get back, Gerrard kind of goes, okay, fine, I guess everybody get back. Um, and it’s a good thing that they do because immediately this rolling explosion happens starting and a window on one side of the building and just cascading along all of the windows and um, I don’t know why it did it like that.
It was very effective, it looked very pretty. I would have assumed it would have kind of all happened at once. But um, I’m not thinking.
Ellen: Might have blown along a line or something?
Bex: Maybe. I’m not thinking about it, I’m just enjoying the pretty expressions. I don’t know, it was pretty. Yeah. And then laughing my arse off because Chim appears with quote unquote Tommy over his shoulders, but because you’ve got Kenneth Choi, who is, you know, this high and this body [01:11:00] build, and
Alice: Kenneth Choi, who is two apples tall.
Bex: And then, you know, giant mountain man, Lou Ferragno Jr. Obviously, they couldn’t have Kenneth literally have, Lou across his shoulders. So they’ve given him some kind of dummy, which I remember back in like primary school we would make these dummies by getting sort of pantyhose and stuffing them full of newspaper That’s what this dummy looks like!
Oh my god, it does! Because the arms are too long and they’re bending in the wrong way and they’re flopping all over the place and the body is just Not there’s not enough of it to be an actual body
Alice: It’s so funny.
Bex: It makes me laugh every time I see it. It’s just these arms and legs flailing as Chim’s like, determinedly running out of a fireball behind him.
Alice: Anyway, yeah, so Chim has saved Tommy’s life.
Bex: Thanks, Chim!
Alice: Yeah, thanks a lot, Chim. Um, no. Wait, [01:12:00] yep. Anyway. Continuing.
Bex: He did a good thing.
Alice: He did a good thing. So yes, he has surely earned their respect by now.
Bex: Hopefully. Uh, but it looks like, um, Tommy’s in bad shape, so they get him off to the hospital, and this is the scene that when people in the fandom talking about “Chimney Begins”, this is the scene they’re talking about.
This is the sequence that they’re talking about, like, oh my god, this is amazing. This is cinematic, this is art. Because we have Chim in the hospital. But there’s like three different levels of Chim in the hospital, and all, while this whole sequence is going, you have Radiohead playing over the top, and I defy anybody not to be moved when there is Radiohead playing.
Ellen: It does make it feel a lot more strange and you know, I guess, unreal. Um, because he is sitting [01:13:00] in the waiting room in the hospital trying to keep himself awake, like, waiting for news of Tommy. But he’s also dreaming, potentially.
Bex: It’s so freaky. So you’ve got, it’s so Inception esque. So you’ve got, like, Chim in the atrium.
And then sort of either directly under that one or sideways to that one is you’ve got Chim’s consciousness in the empty, um, and then you’ve got Chim in the hospital room waiting for Tommy to come out and he is asleep. And then he is dreaming of being in the hospital room waiting for Tommy. And you can differentiate the two of them because they’re wearing different LAFD uniforms.
But then occasionally we get. Uh, and the Chim that is awake in the hospital room keeps having flashes of all the horrible things. You know when that brain, when your brain just sometimes goes, hey, you know, this would be a great time to [01:14:00] go through all of the horrible things that you’ve ever had happen to you in your life.
We’re just going to remember them one after the other. That’s what’s happening to Dream Chimney. He’s having to remember.
Ellen: He’s remembering Kevin and what happened with that, uh, like, his, his You know, his death and all of those things. But then also he keeps, keeps like touching his stomach and like, you know, looking uncomfortable.
Bex: He’s remembering getting stabbed as well.
Ellen: Yeah. And then there’s blood dripping from his hands and then at one point he like, wipes it all over his face.
Bex: Like there’s like, there’s the Chim, there’s a Chim that’s asleep. And then for a second there is the Chim who is asleep is awake, and he rubs his hands over his face after sort of touching his abdomen, and one hand is coated in blood, so now his face is coated in blood.
Ellen: Yeah, but then he kind of wakes up and it’s gone.
Bex: Yeah, and there’s just [01:15:00] so much symbolism, like he’s sitting in the, the hotel, he’s sitting in the waiting room, and the television screens in Dream Chimney’s reality is showing Kevin falling through the roof. As part of the news. And then, later on, another television scene is showing, um, like the morning news, but then it cuts to Chim holding a cup of coffee, but the cup of coffee is full of blood.
And that’s foreshadowing, because once all of these sort of sequences collapse when Eli wakes him up, Eli hands him a cup of coffee.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: It’s just
Alice: It’s so good.
Bex: It’s so good, and it’s definitely, it took me forever. Again, this is one where I went through frame by frame to pick what was actually happening so I could kind of figure out all of the different levels and all of the different layers, and the more that you look into it, you know we talk [01:16:00] sometimes about this show that the more you look into something, the worse it gets.
Like, you can’t stop thinking about the details, otherwise it all falls apart. This episode and this sequence, the more that you think about it, the better it gets.
Alice: Yeah, there are so many layers, and like, it’s episodes like this, that have, like, with sequences like this, that make us so obsessed with this show.
Bex: Yes, because we will suffer through “Karma’s a Bitch” if we can get this.
Alice: Because we’re, like, yeah, like, we will It’s the dumbest show and like, I think that’s why the pipeline from Supernatural is so small, so short, because it was the same thing. Like you’d get such dumb episodes and you’re like, why do I like this show?
This is the dumbest show in the world. Like who, why is this show still getting funded? And then you’d get amazing episodes that you’d just be crying and you’re like, why am I crying over a network television show? Funnily [01:17:00] enough, they both have had episodes with bees.
But yeah, like, it’s just, this episode is so good. And the, like, cinematography and the foreshadowing and the story, it’s so good.
Bex: It’s, it is absolutely brilliant, and I love that they obviously had such success with telling the story this way, that it changed how they do Begins episodes. They just went, okay.
This is a winner. We’re not gonna do the, the talking to the hot priest, although I wish they would bring hot priest back. We’re gonna do it like this from now on, because this is more successful. But yes, so Chimney, asleep Chimney who is awake suddenly feels a pain in his, his stomach and he lifts up his hand and his hand is covered in blood and he’s staring at this, uh, His bloody hand and Radiohead goes into a crescendo, and then we just hear
Ellen: Yeah, it kind [01:18:00] of builds and builds and builds.
Bex: And we hear Eli go, hey! And then snap. Chim’s awake.
Alice: Yep, we’re back to the flashback.
Bex: Back to reality, quote unquote.
Alice: So we find out Tommy’s resting, and actually looks better than Chim does.
Bex: Mm.
Alice: And Chim mentions that his shift starts in about an hour. And so he’ll clean up at the station, and Eli just goes “Hand it off. Like, everyone gets hurt, they all signed up for it, um, they raised their hands and said yes please, to the burns and the broken bones, the cartoon bruises, and the two weeks without eyebrows.” but that’s not the hurt that Eli’s talking about, and it’s the things that can’t be treated with ointment and a splint that are the things that’ll kill us.
The guilt, the loss, the images.
Bex: The images. Considering this entire episode is the images.
Alice: Has just been images. Um, “we can’t drink or sniff or screw them [01:19:00] away. Hand it off.”
Bex: Yeah, but Buck’s gonna try.
Alice: He’s doing his best!
Bex: Buck 1. 0 is gonna try.
Alice: Buck is doing his best. Anyway, poor Chim is thinking about his dead brother, and you’re thinking about, yeah, anyway.
Bex: Am I wrong?
Alice: Now I’m thinking about Buck 1. 0. But yes, uh, Chim is Kevin died, it’s very sad.
Bex: Yeah, Chim is trying to argue, like, “I can’t just hand it off, Kevin died,” and Eli’s like, “and Tommy didn’t, because of you,” and continues with his, “we treat the wounded, we hand them off, because that way we can go pick up the next guy and at the end of the day, maybe we’d be able to pick up ourselves” because if they don’t hand it off, then Chim finishes the thought, realising they become the patients.
Alice: Yep, and the world has too many patients. Yes. What it needs is more caregivers.
Ellen: Yeah, so suck it up, Sunshine. [01:20:00]
Bex: Yeah. Go give care. Holds him up to his feet and says, I’m gonna find, let’s go find better coffee and breakfast. And Chim’s buying. As thanks for that wonderful rousing speech.
Ellen: Hmm. He’s like, you have your wallet, right?
And Chim’s like, uh, no, I think someone stole it.
Bex: Actually, Doug stole my wallet.
Ellen: Yeah, someone stole it. You’ll have to get it.
Bex: He likes it. Nah, you got, you got your wallet.
Alice: So then we go to, like, it’s, it’s night time. And we don’t know how long it’s been, but Chim’s in his apartment that we have seen before.
Bex: It’s his, at this point in time, it’s his new apartment, but for us it’s like, hey, it’s Chim’s apartment.
Alice: It’s Chim’s house, which is definitely an apartment, not a house.
Bex: This one is definitely an apartment. Yeah. I guess it was too hard living with the Lees after Kevin died.
Alice: Yeah. It [01:21:00] sort of, it’s kind of insinuated that he moved out after Kevin passed.
Because Mr. Lee isn’t ready to see Chim yet.
Ellen: Yeah, it must be hard for them. If the, if the, him and Kevin had been inseparable as it sounds like they, that they were, um, to see one without the other one must be pretty hard for them.
Alice: And Chim sort of says, you know, “It’s not your fault, I’m the one who got Kevin into this, I’m the reason that…” but Mrs. Lee says she knew her boy. It must be. when he was sad, when he was happy, and she had never seen him happier, being a firefighter, finally having something important to do. All Chim did was help him find his purpose.
Bex: And then if you weren’t crying before, you’re gonna start crying again.
Alice: Definitely crying.
Bex: Because Chim says, I don’t know what I’m going to do without him, [01:22:00] and Mrs. Lee says, he will be watching over you, along with your mother. Both of them so proud. All of us proud. And Chim is like openly sobbing and hugs Mrs. Lee. Just like buries himself in her shoulder and keeps crying. And I’m crying.
Ellen: Oh, at least he’s got part of his family back.
Bex: Got his mother figure back and it looks like he’s maybe about to get a new friend. Because we cut back to the 118 and Chim is in the locker room getting ready for his shift when Tommy walks in and out of nowhere says, “Love Actually, monster trucks, craft beer.”
Which, like, one of those things is not like the other.
Ellen: Yeah, I missed that he said that until now. I’m like, really?
Alice: Because this man is just so boring. Um, anyway, Chim [01:23:00] asks, how Tommy’s head is, and Tommy says, “Still fat but clearer,” and thanks Chim for saving his life, and holds out his hand, and Chim shakes it, but then Tommy hugs him.
Ellen: So all it took to get in Tommy’s good books was for Chim to save his life. I mean, how hard is that? Ugh,
Alice: monster trucks.
Bex: And I love that while this conversation is happening, Eli is kind of sprinted into the locker room, ready to run interference in case Tommy’s going to be a dick again. But then realises that they’re actually having a nice moment.
I would, I would pay money to see Chim get into monster trucks for Tommy.
Because I could see him with Love Actually, that’s fine. I could see him with the craft beer, but,
Alice: I mean, Chim’s seen all the movies, so he’s probably already seen Love Actually. He’d know all about it,
Bex: but Monster Tracks, [01:24:00] that’s a new one.
Alice: It just, it reminds me of, um, have either of you watched Brooklyn Nine Nine?
Ellen: No. Yeah, parts of it. I haven’t seen all of it.
Alice: Amy dates this guy named Teddy. And he’s obsessed with like, it’s craft beer or like brewing his own beer or something like that. And that’s all he talks about. And like, Amy just finally snaps after they date for like a good six months or something. And then Amy snaps and is like, “I can’t deal with the fucking beer anymore.”
Like, I can’t deal with it. He’s like, like, monster trucks and craft beer. I was just like, oh, for fuck’s sake. He’s just boring. Anyway, so, yeah, Eli has actually come into the locker room to let Chim know that somebody out in the garage wants to talk to him. And it’s the woman from the rooftop with her baby.
Bex: Which is the biggest looking baby for
Alice: Oh my god, I [01:25:00] literally wrote a note saying this is the biggest damn baby.
Bex: I mean, I I know like
Alice: Like it hasn’t been a fucking year since
Bex: But the way they’ve got it, like, wrapped and, like, swaddled in her arms, it’s obviously meant to be a younger baby, but it, yeah, it definitely looks like it should be eating solids by now.
Alice: Yeah!
Bex: Uh, so, this is baby Adam, and his mother, who does not name says that she’s still looking for a middle name. And
Alice: for her 12 month old baby.
Yes. Uh so a Howard, Chimney immediately offers Howard and she pulls this face.
Ellen: Yeah, she’s like, “oh!”
Alice: Poor Chim!
Bex: So he belatedly goes, “you know what? I think Kevin. I think he looks like a Kevin.”
Which
Alice: He does mention first that like, he needs a cooler nickname, which is a funny like, [01:26:00]
Bex: Yeah. Like foreshadowing of
Alice: I don’t, I don’t know if Chimney’s a cool nickname, but sure.
Bex: But the thing is, that kid’s, if she does take his advice, that kid becomes Adam Kevin.
Alice: Yeah, that’s a terrible name.
Bex: Adam Howard sounds so much better as a name.
Alice: Adam Howard sounds way better.
Bex: Yes, even like Adam Howard Wilson or whatever her surname is, like, Howard is a much stronger name with Adam.
Alice: Shout out to my brother, by the way, whose name is Adam.
Bex: hi Adam!
Alice: I don’t know if he’ll listen to this. I’m so sorry that you’ve had to listen to me thirst over Buck, but maybe don’t listen to my podcast.
Bex: So while…
Alice: But yeah, his name is not Adam, Kevin, however, um,
Bex: okay, cool.
Alice: Or Adam Howard, but you know.
Bex: So while Chim and Adam’s mother are talking, Eli and Tommy are kind of lounging against one of the trucks, [01:27:00] watching this, and Gerrard’s kind of lurking in the background too, I don’t know why. And in a complete non sequitur, Tommy turns to Eli and goes, Paramedic, huh?
And Eli goes, yep, damn good one. And then we get The final montage of the episode, which is pretty much the same montage we got from the first time Chim got in the ambulance with Eli, except this time he is a damn good paramedic. Like, they’ve got a gunshot victim and Chim’s got the bleeding under control in a snap.
The victim starts to retch and Chim’s immediately pulling out a vomit bag and sticking it under his head, um, while Eli kind of looks on like a proud father, and he says, the gunshot victim is like, “uh, I’m dying!” And Chim’s like, “Sir, you’re gonna be fine. You’re just in [01:28:00] shock. You’re gonna be fine. Everything’s gonna be fine.”
And he looks at Eli as he says, everything’s gonna be fine. You’re gonna be fine for the last one. And Eli just sort of nods and goes, yeah, you’re gonna be fine. And there’s this really upbeat music playing through all of this, and it seems like such a, an inspirational high point to finish the episode on.
Like, Chim’s gonna be fine, he’s a damn good paramedic, but he is still actively dying at this point.
Alice: He is actively bleeding out.
Bex: And the music, I don’t know how to describe it, but the music goes from this really upbeat poppy like, “doo.” And we cut to just, Chim lying on the ground in the atrium, bleeding out, and then black.
Ellen: Ah, poor Chim.
Bex: And he’s still there dying.
Ellen: He’s still there.
Alice: He’s still dying.
Bex: He’s still dying. We didn’t, nobody saved him. [01:29:00]
Alice: Eddie is still shirtless and Chim is still dying.
Bex: So, I mean, it’s a great episode.
Ellen: Tommy is still alive.
Bex: We, like, we got to see, as the neurons are firing in Chim’s brain and we got to see his life and how he became, uh, the firefighter paramedic he is today.
But there’s no resolution to the episode!
Ellen: No.
Bex: Because he’s still dying! And which is why I, when you said you were going to watch this one and you were watching “New Beginnings” and then you were going to immediately have to watch “Chimney Begins”, I’m like, no, you can’t because you are going to need to go on to the next episode because you’re not going to get a conclusion out of this one.
Ellen: Yeah, and no, I just got way too busy before I went away. I didn’t get to watch the next one.
Bex: I am amazed that you have not got to the next one yet.
Ellen: Yeah, well, I figured it by now, like two weeks later, I should probably just let Chimney just lie there until I’m ready to go on.
Bex: It’s not like, you know, he’s [01:30:00] doing anything.
Ellen: He’s fine. He’s fine. He’s not going anywhere. He’s been there this long.
Alice: It made me laugh because like I wrote notes for like the episodes the first time I watched them because I knew that I’d be re watching them for the podcast. And in my notes, I had a note during these episodes Um, about Chim having the worst luck in this show, and like, looking back, I’m like, oh, yeah.
So naive.
Ellen: Oh no, it gets worse?
Alice: Oh dear.
Ellen: No, don’t tell me.
Bex: Um, as far as Chim goes, no, I think this is the, this is as bad as it’s going to get for Chim. I’m trying to think if he ends up in hospital again.
Alice: That’s if he survives the stabbing. Ahem.
Bex: I’m pretty sure that everybody knows that he’s survived the stabbing.
Alice: Have we all seen the videos of him, um, brushing Eddie’s moustache? Yes?
Ellen: Yeah, yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s still around, like, nowadays, so he’ll be fine.
Bex: Unless it’s the ghost of [01:31:00] Chimmy haunting him, I think.
Ellen: It kind of lowers the stakes a bit when you know, like, that the cast members are still around, like, several years later.
Bex: Just, just a little bit. But then, I mean, on the other hand, it’s network television, I don’t think they were gonna pull a Ned Stark and, and kill off somebody who is beloved by the audience.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Like, Sean Bean is not in this series.
Alice: Yet.
Bex: Nobody is gonna be dying like that.
Ellen: Yeah. Gosh, I’m all, all emotionally wrung out after talking about it again now, after watching it.
It was like, whew.
Bex: It’s, it definitely, it does not pull its punches. It is.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: It’s so good, and like, the show, I feel like this is where the show really starts getting heavy.
Ellen: Yeah, the heavy episode.
Bex: Yeah, I’d, I’d agree with that.
Alice: Yeah, cause like, next week’s is heavy.
Bex: I mean, cause [01:32:00] next week, which is episode 13, “Fight or Flight”, that’s, this is a three story arc.
Yeah. So, “New Beginning”, “Chimney Begins”, “Fight or Flight” is almost like part one, part two, part three.
Alice: But then, like, the end of this season as well, and then the start of next season, like, it just doesn’t pull the punches.
Bex: I think maybe they realized that the audience, um, could handle the longer stories, that they didn’t have to contain everything to one episode. They didn’t have to
Alice: I guess when they had more episodes to play with as well, because obviously season one is only 10 episodes. Yeah. And so they’ve got to set up all the characters in only 10 episodes, and now they’ve got a bit more to play with, and the same with the next couple as well. Yeah. So they can just absolutely devastate us and then
Bex: And put us back together and then devastate us all over again.
Alice: That’s it, that’s it.
Ellen: It’s the tried and true formula for network television. [01:33:00]
Bex: Yeah. Um, so if you thought that you were emotionally wrung out after this episode, um, next episode is, is going to hit you pretty hard too, in a different way. But it’s still going to be a hard watch.
Ellen: Can you, can you give me the summary without spoiling anything?
Bex: The summary literally says, “the first responders rallied together to search for a missing Maddie”, because we’ve forgotten that while Chimney is bleeding out, Doug had come in, and punched Maddie. That was the last thing we knew of what happened with Maddie.
Ellen: Oh my god, so Maddie’s been going through it all.
Bex: Maddie has been having her own trauma while Chim has been lying there dying for the last couple of weeks. Yep. So now we’re going to get Maddie’s side of the story.
Alice: And you went camping, Ellen. You just went to camping.
Ellen: Okay, I feel really bad now. Poor Maddie.
Bex: Yeah, uh, poor Maddie because she is, I mean, I I don’t think it’s a [01:34:00] spoiler considering the end of “New Beginnings” to say that she is with Doug in the next episode.
Um, so
Alice: Yeah, it’s heavy. Like, yeah.
Bex: And we, we’ve all now well aware what Doug is like. So, pretty much imagine the worst, and that’s what you’re gonna get in this episode, the trigger warnings. It’s just like bold and highlighted and big letters, strong warning for like domestic abuse. There’s, uh, physical abuse, there is some gun violence, there is a couple of minor character deaths on screen, there is some stabbing, there is lots of blood, um, there are
Ellen: Jeez.
Bex: There is a trigger warning for cops doing what they want, which I’m guessing is very pointedly referring to Athena. But they do add a caveat, which is like, oh no, but it’s [01:35:00] good this time.
Alice: Yeah, for once.
Ellen: Okay.
Alice: But yeah, it’s, it’s heavy next week. Yeah. We will try and cover it respectfully. Yeah. Because it’s a lot.
Bex: Yes.
Ellen: I’m really looking forward to this now.
Anything else we wanted to say about “Chimney Begins”? Just how good it was. It was a great episode. In like a sometimes hard to watch kind of way, it was quite full on.
Bex: Yeah, the, the content, the storyline is, is difficult and the storyline is sometimes not the most. comfortable to watch. I just enjoy the way that it was put together.
The artistry behind it.
Alice: That’s it.
Bex: I don’t know what they were doing before they got to this episode, but they definitely had their Wheaties for this one. It really [01:36:00] shows. Yep.
So if you would like to share your thoughts with us about this episode, there are lots of ways that you can do that.
You can email us at contact at thatweewooshow. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or Tumblr, all at thatweewooshow. Or you can drop us a comment on our website thatweewooshow.com, or you can leave a comment within the episode if you listen on Spotify. If you decide to go the route of leaving us a comment on our website, you will also be able to find the show notes for this episode, transcripts for this episode, as well as for all of our previous episodes.
Thank you so much for listening, and we will see you next time for episode 13, “Fight or Flight”.
Ellen: Bye!
Alice: Bye.
Ellen: (outro music) 9-1-1 is a fictional show, but many of the situations [01:37:00] portrayed happen in the real world too. If any of the topics we’ve discussed in this episode have affected you, please know you’re not alone. You can call or text numbers in your country for help. Just Google crisis support in your location to find out the number.
If you enjoy our podcast, you can help us out by leaving us a review on Spotify or your preferred listening app, and by sharing our social media posts. Find out more at thatweewooshow.com.
(first outtake)
Bex: Okay, I’m putting my phone down. It’s on silent. I’m putting it down.
Alice: Mine’s about to go flat because all I’ve done all day is scroll twitter and every time I go back it’s just, it’s just even more, like, good stuff.
The fucking bees, man. The fucking bees. I can’t. I did not expect it to be this good. It was just so good.
Ellen: Okay, okay, like, give me a ballpark. Like, did you actually enjoy it? Or was it just, [01:38:00] like, so bad that it was great?
Bex: When we, when we say good, we don’t mean that it’s like cinematic masterpiece. It means it’s, it’s so stupid it’s circled back around and it’s now good.
Alice: Okay. So there’s only been one, there’s only been one other episode of 9-1-1 that as soon as I finished it, I’ve been like, Oh, I want to watch that episode again. Um, and that, oh, no, it’s season four, so there’s only been one other episode that I’ve literally like finished the episode and been like, fuck, I want to watch that again right now.
And I didn’t that time, but I did this time because like, Bex was like, I’m going to watch it. And I’m like, me too. Um, cause I watched it live this morning. At 10am.
Bex: But I had to wait till I got home because my boss had the audacity to make me work.
Alice: But yeah, like, oh my god, like I was crying with laughter and then just crying and then crying with laughter again and I, like, it, I hope that the rest of the season is this good.
Is all I can say. Because. Like, after the shit that was Season 6, and then Season 7 just [01:39:00] felt like they were trying to fix Season 6?
Bex: Oh, Season 7 was totally Tim trying to fix what, um, Kristen broke when he walked away.
Alice: Yeah. Like, cause there was so much that was, like, open ended in the, at the end of Season 6 that wasn’t, like, that he just had to sort of patch back over.
Whereas this is just, like, this is back to, its roots, basically, and it’s just so bad, like, in the best way possible, like, it’s literally a bee-nado.
Bex: Which I thought was hyperbole, and they were just, you know, they were just emphasizing shit to get people to watch, and then there was an actual frickin funnel of bees on my screen.
I’m going, oh, they actually made a bee-nado.
Alice: There’s a bee-nado.
Ellen: Awesome.
Alice: And like Buck said, the episode title, and like, we were all just very happy about everything. We’re back. We’re back.
Ellen: I can’t, I can’t wait to eventually [01:40:00] get to watch it in some year’s time.
Alice: Oh my god, like, oh, I just want to talk about it now.
Bex: Well, you can’t. We have to go through some trauma first.
Alice: And the thing is though, there’s some really good episodes coming up that I really want Ellen to see too, which is why I’m like, can’t you guys just. quit for like a month and we’ll just speed run it and then
Bex: yeah, sure, you’re gonna pay my rent for that month?
Alice: Sure, I’m not even paying my own rent.
Ellen: Well, we can talk about that offline. Um, yeah, let’s do this.
Bex: Okay.
(second outtake)
Bex: Maybe this is another one of those dodgy buildings.
Alice: What the fuck are you two doing? What? They’re barking at the kitchen.
Bex: Ooh. Is that it’s time for food?
Alice: No, they’ve already eaten. I’m like a there a ghost.
Ellen: Is there a bug in there like a…
Alice: May? Is it [01:41:00] 22 million killer bees ?
Bex: Interestingly, we do not have Africanized honeybees in Australia.
Alice: No. We do have the Italian ones that they bred the um, African ones with, but we do not have killer bees over here.
Ellen: Thank goodness.
Alice: I was asking my American friends if they were real. I’m just like, what the? Like, killer bees aren’t real. And they’re like, ah, yes they are. And I’m just like, what? Yeah. Turns out killer bees are real.
Bex: Turns out that yes, they are an incredibly aggressive varietal of bee.
Alice: Yeah, they bred, um, they bred the African ones to the Italian ones, and they became real mad about it.
Like, valid.
Bex: I wonder which side is the most mad, the Italian side or the American side? The African side.
Alice: Are we done? Are you done barking? Autumn, what are you doing? Come here.
Bex: Autumn, can I keep going?
Alice: Are you finished? Is it Bex’s turn to speak now? [01:42:00] No. I believe so.
Bex: Okay, good. Um, thank you.
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