3.17: Powerless

Welcome to That Weewoo Show: a podcast where Ellen, Bex, and Alice watch and discuss every episode of ABC’s TV show, 9-1-1.

In this episode we discuss episode 17 of the third season of 9-1-1, titled “Powerless”.

The 118 races to rescue a little girl in a runaway hot air balloon and help with a city power outage caused by a hijacked tree-trimmer truck; Athena’s investigation into a serial rapist case puts her life in jeopardy.

Content warnings for episode 3.17:

discussion of cancer, a child at threat, claustrophobia, gun violence, graphic assault, major character injury, a police officer at threat, suspected cheating, sexual violence/rape, train derailment.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• @thatdisasterauthor on Tiktok: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZShay9op7/

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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 A B C show, 9-1-1. I’m Ellen,

Alice: I’m Alice.

Bex: And I’m Bex.

Ellen: Thanks to everyone out there who’s been listening to our episodes, we are almost at the end of season three. Oh my God, how did, how did we get here?

But, um, we really appreciate everyone who’s been commenting on Spotify and other places. We’ve gotta say a shout out to Kiera again this week, who, when we were having our long tangent about coffee a couple episodes ago, reminded us that like, that’s Starbucks coffees are quite different to Australian coffees in that like a [00:01:00] macchiato is not what we call it in Australia.

So it’s like, you know,

Bex: you think just Starbucks coffee is different from coffee anywhere. Whatever you consider is a coffee, Starbucks is different.

Ellen: Yeah. They’ve kind of made the language their own. Yeah.

Bex: Yeah. And we forgot that. So

Ellen: but anyway, um, coffee is definitely different all over the world.

We are all snobs here about coffee apparently compared to other places. But anyway, thank you Kiera for telling us about that. So before we get stuck into episode 17, Alice, can you tell us what happened last week?

Alice: Uh, yeah. So last week, uh, buck met his older self in the form of an elderly firefighter hen performed life-saving surgery in the field, and Athena inadvertently discovered a serial rapist while attending an electric scooter crash.

Bex: Whoops. This week, Athena’s investigation puts her life in jeopardy. According to the official promo, we are told that the, the [00:02:00] official, some, the official promo for this episode says that the 118 races to rescue a little girl in a runaway hot air balloon and help with a city power outage caused by a hijacked tree trimmer truck.

Lemme say that three times fast. Meanwhile, Athena’s investigation into the serial rapist case puts her life in jeopardy. And the triggers for this episode are a doozy. And once again, they are not in any kind of chronological order that, but this episode will deal with discussion of cancer, a child at threat, uh, multiple instances of claustrophobia.

Gun violence, um, graphic assault, major character injury, a police officer at threat, suspected cheating, uh, sexual violence slash rape, and a train derailment.

Ellen: Damn. When you list ’em all like that, all out like that, it sounds awful. This episode, there’s so much

Bex: There is. Yeah. [00:03:00] Although for some of them, like the cancer is what Just mi The fact that Michael appears in this episode, and I think maybe he mentions once he has cancer and he is having the scans to determine, um, how he’s going.

So the, the, the triggers are not, like the severity of the triggers is all over the place. Yeah, because the, the trigger of cancer is nowhere near the trigger of the graphic assault, for instance.

Ellen: We didn’t mention it already. Um, and it will become pretty clear early on in this episode that the title is “Powerless”.

Bex: Get your shots ready and

Ellen: Yeah, because yeah, we really need to line up a few shots for this one

Bex: because, uh, we should mention that, right off the bat that this is a Kristin Reidel episode, so, uh, you know what that means when it comes to themed episodes,

Ellen: but it was co-authored though with Lindsay Beaulieu. So hopefully Lindsay has pulled this back from the, [00:04:00] the brink of

Bex: Oh,

Ellen: thematic overload.

Bex: I don’t… to the, I think the fact that you were able to identify very early on that this was a Kristen episode, it kind of, it kind of indicates that yeah,

Ellen: maybe

Bex: she didn’t, I mean, it’s nowhere near the level of “Karma’s a Bitch”, but it’s still pretty on the nose.

Ellen: It’s overwhelmingly powerless.

Bex: Yeah. Powerless to resist the theme of this episode.

Ellen: All right. Where do we begin?

Bex: Uh, we are gonna begin with, uh, Sophie and her mom going for a hot air balloon ride. Which I think is the mother’s attempt to blatantly buy her child’s affection in the divorce proceedings.

Ellen: It does sound that way, doesn’t it?

And the kid’s not really having any of it. He, she’s like, you and dad are getting a divorce and you are trying to make me feel better. And the mom’s just like, get out of the car. [00:05:00] Let’s just do it. She’s very grumpy, this child.

Bex: I’d be, she’d be fair if they’re getting up for a hot air. Those things are normally like sunrise.

Yeah. So how early would they have had to get up in order to do this? So she’s being dragged out of bed at God knows what time to drive, God knows how long to get in a hot air balloon that she did not wanna get in in the first place.

Ellen: Yep. I’d be cranky too.

Alice: I would absolutely be cranky. I’m not a morning person

Bex: to go with the theme of the episode being powerless, Sophie is, um, feeling a little bit powerless in her family. She, um, she’s powerless to stop her parents from getting a divorce and she almost, that’s almost verbatim what she says. She says that she’s a kid, she doesn’t have any power. Her mother and her father get to make all the decisions.

Ellen: Yeah. ’cause you’re 10 years old, kid. That’s how it works.

Bex: Yeah. And [00:06:00] you have no, you have no concept of your parents’ relationship, so just butt out.

Ellen: But when you’re 10, everything is, is huge. And I can understand, you know, that she’s a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: But, um, she agrees to get in the balloon. Her mom says, “It is magical.” And Sophie goes, “It’s not magic, Mom. It’s hot air. That’s what makes it fly.”

Alice: The kid’s very cynical. The kid’s more cynical than Bex is.

Ellen: Oh my God. Whew.

Bex: I do. Before we go on with my cynicism and Sophie cynicism, um, not only does this episode on the nose for, uh, thematic references, but the music supervisor was having a ball this episode.

Ellen: Oh yeah.

Alice: Oh yeah. He really was.

Bex: Because while, uh, the mother and like, once again, the mother does not get named. We know it’s so [00:07:00] we know Sophie’s name. She’s, but mom is just mom. Um, while they are floating around, um, a song from the sixties called “Up, up, and Away” is playing, which is all about being up in a balloon.

Ellen: It’s very upbeat.

Bex: It’s, it’s very, very cheery.

Ellen: It’s happy. Yeah. So, you know, something’s gonna go wrong.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: They’re so excited,

Bex: uh, which is exactly what happens. Um, after way too much footage of a hot air balloon floating around, they’re obviously trying to get their money’s worth of being out in location and having this hot air balloon, and God knows what equipment they had to haul out there in order to get all these aerial shots.

Ellen: Mm-hmm.

Bex: There is a, a gust of wind, which kind of jostles the basket and knocks everyone around. And Nick, who is our hot air balloon operator, um, decides to make an emergency landing. The winds are pushing [00:08:00] too hard, he’s gonna bring the basket down and it’s a, it’s as much of a crash landing as you can get when you’re in a non-powered vehicle.

I guess it definitely would not have been fun. It bouncy. It’s very bouncy.

Ellen: It drags along the ground a little bit, but they, they’re all okay. They’re, they’re fine. Um, and then they just need to get out. So Mum sort of says to Sophie, “Let me get out first so I can help you.” And so she and the instructor guy or the operator, I don’t know how you, the pilot? Like, what do you call a hot air balloon person?

Bex: I’m going, operator? Yeah. Yeah. Um, Nick, he’s, he, he gets a name.

Ellen: Yeah. Does he introduce himself at the beginning? I dunno.

Bex: Um, he, he’s talking to the other guy and he over the radio and he says, Gabe, this is Nick. As if anybody else is gonna be on the radio that morning. I don’t know, maybe they’ve got multiple balloons up. Who knows. But that’s how we get his name.

Alice: Well, I mean, here in [00:09:00] Melbourne when they do it, there’s a lot of balloons.

Bex: Yeah?

Alice: Um, yeah, like, ’cause they do like the early morning flights and Yeah. It’s usually like a whole group of them. You just, okay. Obviously they could only afford one.

Bex: Maybe Gabe does have other people that he’s meant to be monitoring.

So anyway, Nick gets a name. So, um, yes, but with both Nick and the mother, disembarking the basket at the same time, suddenly the basket is very, very light and starts to lift off again.

Ellen: Yeah. With Sophie in it.

Bex: Well, yes. ’cause Sophie has not been lifted outta the basket yet. And somehow as the basket lifts up, it knocks Nick off balance, spins him around 180 degrees and he falls flat on his back, cracking his head on a rock.

So he’s out of action, and so the mother is powerless to watch as her daughter floats off without her.

Ellen: Yeah, the ropes are trailing on the ground, but she just stands there having a. [00:10:00]

Bex: Yeah.

Ellen: Panic, um,

Alice: just waving, bye!

Ellen: Although I feel like maybe if she grabbed one of the ropes, maybe she would’ve ended up like dangling from a rope. So maybe that’s a bad idea. But

Bex: she doesn’t do this. I, I like, I understand. In a panic she probably like did not think to grab the ropes. Even though, even though I’m sitting at home with like backseat hot air ballooning, going, “Just grab the rope!”

Ellen: Yeah, me too. Or tell her to jump out into your arms. Um, yeah, no, she calls 9-1-1 instead.

Bex: And while this, um, 9-1-1 call has not made my list of the worst 9-1-1 calls for the season, it’s still not exactly helpful. Um,

Alice: yeah, it probably should have,

Bex: I mean, I can add it. The list is gonna keep going until we get to the end of season, end of episode 18. Um, but she tells Maddie, ’cause it’s Maddie that takes the call that she’s lost her daughter.

And so Maddie’s like a immediately in like missing child mode. Um, yeah, but [00:11:00] she, the mother can’t tell Maddie the location where the child was last seen because she’s like up, up and away in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, she’s flying away. Maddie’s like, uh, did you say flying? Yes. So of course the 118 get dispatched.

Um, which is actually hilarious because they’re obviously told, you know, we’ve got a missing child in a hot air balloon. And so Buck is very grumpily sitting in the back complaining that, you know, hot air balloons look so romantic until someone has to call 9-1-1

Ellen: Oh. Because he is been there before. But Eddie doesn’t know that, so he just gives him like a look to say what are you talking about,

Alice: it’s such a weird exchange.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: So Buck’s explanation for his, um, like cynicism when it comes to hot air balloons is that, you know, “I, I heard that dispatch get a lot of calls about these things.” And Eddie’s like, “okay, that makes sense. Maddie told you that?” And Buck’s like, “uh, no, [00:12:00] someone else told me that.”

Alice: Yeah, someone else. Like what? Why, why are you not talking about your ex to Eddie?

Ellen: Yeah, I’m sure Eddie knows about Abby, like,

Bex: oh, 100%. Eddie knows all about Abby. Um, but obviously not this,

Ellen: why are you being cagey about it?

Bex: Not this story, but I just love that like they’re having this exchange and Bobby’s just got this little grin on his face.

’cause he remembers this exchange.

Alice: Oh yeah.

Bex: Because if, uh, for the, any of you who have forgotten, uh, buck tried to take Abby on a hot air balloon date, and she kind of went, “You do, you know how many calls I get about these sort of things?” Um, and they didn’t end up going on the date because, uh, Patricia was, um, in trouble.

So Abby had to go and then Buck, who had probably begged the morning off from Bobby. Immediately just went back to work and then had to explain to Bobby why he was at work and not up in a hot air balloon with his, um, with his girlfriend. [00:13:00]

Ellen: Oh, that’s right. Poor Buck.

Bex: Poor Buck.

Ellen: Uh, well, they arrive at the scene. Well, I assume the hot air balloon hasn’t gone too far because they, they can still see the balloon, like it’s still right there.

Bex: Yeah. Those winds seem to have dropped.

Ellen: Yeah, I guess so. Um, and Bobby asked how old the her daughter is and the mom says she’s 10. She doesn’t have a phone with her, but there’s a radio up in the basket apparently, um, Gabe has now arrived, the other hot air balloon guy, and so he says we can get her on the radio.

So they try that.

Bex: Yeah. So they load Gabe up into the back of the truck. And they’re chasing the hot air balloon across the fields, um, to get in radio range so that Gabe can teach Sophie how to use the ropes to lower herself down.

Ellen: So this is another case where [00:14:00] we are outside of the city. Like we, we are going across fields on rolling hills, like how close to LA is this and why are the 118 there?

Alice: Yeah,

Bex: I mean, considering that Buck took Abby there, I don’t think it’s that far out of the city. It’s, I don’t think it’s farmland. Like we were actually in the last couple of episodes

Ellen: actually I was just thinking Yeah, you’re right. Um, and I was just thinking that they do once, when the mom and the the girl are up there, they get a view over the city as well, don’t they?

Bex: Yeah. Yeah.

Ellen: So it can’t be too far away, but yeah.

Bex: Uh, so they get in range. Sophie is able to grab the radio, and her mother is trying to convince her that she is able to help herself ’cause Sophie is scared. She doesn’t want, she, she thinks she can’t. And so her mother says, and [00:15:00] we’re going to get our shot glasses ready.

Um, that she knows that Sophie feels powerless, but she’s not. She has all the power right now, and that bolsters Sophie. And so she gets up and follows Gabe’s instructions and the amount of, the amount of footage that they have of the hot air balloon and the trucks driving across the fields. They, they really went, you know what, we’re spending a lot of time out here.

We’ve spent a lot of money hauling the trucks out on location. We are going to use every damn second of footage that we have filmed.

Alice: Oh yeah.

Ellen: Yeah, so they, it’s the balloon is dropping now. It’s like, it’s coming up too close, like too fast. Um, Sophie’s sort of saying that she’s gonna crash, but um, they do like, it comes in to land. Like it doesn’t even, does it bounce on the ground? Like it doesn’t, they just sort of jump on it and drag it [00:16:00] down the last little bit?

Bex: Yeah, I think it gets close enough to the ground that they can reach, everyone can reach the ropes and like, we see, you know, Evan “Long Legs” Buckley, sprinting across the field.

Yeah. To, to grab one of the ropes.

Ellen: He just yeets himself into the basket with her so that she, he can like help and

Bex: Bobby hanging off the side as well to add a little bit more weight to it while there, the rest of them heave on the ropes.

Ellen: So Sophie gets out and gets back to where her mom is and. Then she’s like, “You were right, Mom, I do have power.” It’s like, oh my God.

Bex: Ugh.

Alice: “And so I think you and dad should go to therapy.”

Bex: I think Kristen needs to spend some time with 10 year olds and figure out how they actually talk.

Alice: Yeah. All they want’s Roblox.

Ellen: Yeah.

Alice: Um, I just looked up like where you can go Hot Air ballooning in

Bex: In Los Angeles?

Alice: In LA.

Bex: Okay.

Alice: And it’s like fairly [00:17:00] low, like fairly out of the city. It’s like where all the wine like wineries are.

Ellen: Oh, so it’s like a That’s where they go, isn’t there? Isn’t it a winery in, in season one when Buck and Abby go?

Alice: Probably

Bex: okay. Well, I mean, it can’t be too far. ’cause Big Bears only what, two hours? Out a, even though Doug takes apparently 24 hours to drive there,

Ellen: uh, we already know that the 118’s range covers like the entirety of

Bex: everywhere.

Ellen: Santa Monica Beach all the way out to Yeah,

Bex: they are the only house. They go everywhere.

Alice: Yeah, that’s it. But um, yeah, it looks pretty like if anyone’s in LA or in California and wants to go on a hot air balloon ride, you can go over the wineries.

Bex: That does sound nice.

Ellen: It does. All right. We’re going to Hen and Karen’s house.

Um, and Hen is having trouble putting the kids to bed now that they have two of them. [00:18:00] Uh, there’s a hostage situation, apparently negotiations. Karen’s like, “Well, who won?” And Hen says “They did,” which totally accurate for getting small children to bed.

Bex: I mean, Nia, Nia is probably easy to put to bed. It’s gonna be Denny. Denny’s gonna be the one that’s gonna be pushing it.

Ellen: Mm-hmm.

Bex: But while Hen has been doing that, Karen has been doing their finances. She looks like she’s going through bank transactions, or maybe it’s a budget spreadsheet, I’m not entirely sure. But she is, she tells Hen that they need to cut back on eating out. They’re spending far too much money, they’re spending more on takeout and eating out and on restaurants than they are in groceries.

And then she notices a particular transaction for a teppanyaki restaurant, and she asks like, “Wait, you went to teppanyaki without me?”

Alice: Yeah. Who’d you go with? Um, so Hen [00:19:00] says that she went out with Chimney because she never took him out for his birthday. And Karen’s like, “but you didn’t invite me. I love teppanyaki.”

Bex: She’s so pouty when she said that. It’s so cute.

Alice: It’s so cute. But then we get another interesting interaction, um, where Hen says, “You know how it is, I invite you. So he invites Maddie. Maddie invites Buck. Buck invites Eddie. And now I’ve gotta invite Athena and Bobby.” Why is Buck inviting Eddie to the triple date?

Bex: Yeah, it’s like every, every person that they just mentioned was a couple. So you’ve got, you know, Chim’s inviting his girlfriend, they have to invite Athena and Bobby ’cause those two are a matched set. Um, so yeah, all of a sudden Buck and Eddie are being

Alice: Maddie’s inviting Buck. Yeah. Maddie’s inviting Buck because like, Buck feels left out if Maddie doesn’t invite him to things, but Buck invites Eddie. It’s like, okay, sure.

Bex: And it’s not just like…

Ellen: besties!

Bex: It’s that everybody in the 118 understands this immediately. Yeah, those, [00:20:00] those two are matched pair

Alice: and outside of the 118, because Karen’s not in the 118, but she knows that Buck and Eddie are a package deal.

Bex: Karen seems to buy this as like, yeah, okay. That does make sense. Um, and kind of gets sidetracked by the, uh, the frugalness of Hen and, and finds that very, very sexy. It’s a side of, um, Hen that she’s never seen before. So they get in a little bit of, um, like

Ellen: it’s a strange thing to find sexy. But anyway, I guess your kink is not my kink. It’s okay.

Bex: Hen starts flirting with like, “oh, did I tell you that I was thinking about getting a Costco membership?” And Karen literal literally gasps and starts purring,

Ellen: but they do get interrupted from being all, you know, smoochy-woochy by a little voice from the other room [00:21:00] calling. So, uh, Karen says, “Oh, I guess I’m being summoned now,” but hen tells her to stay put and she’s gonna, she’s gonna go get it.

Bex: So as Hen leaves her phone, chimes beeps, she gets a message and Karen checks it. I don’t know why she checks it. I mean, I know why she checks it ’cause she needs to be able to check it to see these text messages to kick off this storyline. Um, because the messages that pop up on Hen’s screen that say, “are we still on for tomorrow? This time it’s on me” from somebody named Imelda and Karen is speaking for the entire audience when she looks at the phone and goes, “Who the hell is Imelda?” The, oh boy, we have another cheating storyline for Hen ’cause apparently that’s the only storyline she gets at the moment. Yeah, it something to do with kids or with [00:22:00] cheating

Alice: or sticking your hand inside someone’s chest.

Ellen: I mean, she could have just asked Hen who it was, maybe? I don’t know. Anyway, that would’ve been dramatic enough. So for the drama, um,

Bex: oh, this entire episode is gonna be for the drama with like extra sparkles.

Ellen: Anyway, we’re gonna go to Michael. Hang on. Where are we? Are we at Bathena’s house?

Bex: No, we are at Michael’s. We’re at Michael’s apartment because Bobby is there to pick up the kids because Athena is still at work. Although Bobby is super early because the kids are just sitting down for dinner. So he gets invited to join them for dinner.

Ellen: Yeah. And but Athe is, like Michael says, like he thought Athena was coming to get the kids and she’s been picking up a lot of overtime lately.

And then. Um, Bobby says it’s because ever since she caught this case, which apparently [00:23:00] May knows all about, she’s like “The realtor rapist.”

Bex: She saw on the news.

Ellen: “Mom’s on the task force.” Yeah. She saw it on the news. So

Bex: yeah. And the, the, the news have given, um, Jeffrey a, a cool name. He is the, as you said, the realtor rapist.

Yeah. You gotta stop naming these dudes.

Ellen: Yeah. Anyway, Michael tells him to, to, let’s not talk about that. It’s not a dinner table subject. So yeah. May’s having her prom this weekend, and so she wants to talk about the schedule for Saturday because Athena’s gonna take her to get her hair and makeup done at 12 o’clock.

So they should be done by three. Oh, you have to start so early for these things. I don’t know. Just reminds me of like wedding day, having to get up at crack of dawn so you can get, start getting ready for these. Yeah.

Bex: The main point of this [00:24:00] conversation is the photos. So after hair and makeup, Darius who obviously survived dinner with the whole family, um,

Ellen: oh yeah. He’s still in the picture.

Bex: Is continuing to, he’s continuing to date May, um, is picking her up at four o’clock, which will give Michael 45 minutes for pictures. And Michael’s like, “That’s not long enough.” And I’m like, and I’m thinking, how long does it take to shoot a couple of pictures?

Ellen: Yeah. 45 minutes?

Alice: Yeah. To take some photos.

Bex: Yeah. And he’s, he starts bartering for more time. He’s like, you know, “Don’t you think I should have a little extra time, you know, an account of my, my brain tumor?” which is what going to render him incapable of using a camera. Um, yeah. Which I find ironic that like it’s him taking the, like him bartering for more time to take the photos when it turns out that Harry is the photographer of the family.

Alice: Yeah.

Bex: But anyway, uh, May just like flat out denies the cancer card.

Ellen: No, she’s going to, he’s [00:25:00] she’s gonna tell Darius to come earlier. Yeah. He’s gonna get an hour instead of 45.

Bex: Not because the cancer card though, she can’t deny the puppy dog eyes. ’cause he is like, he plays the cancer card. She, UNO reverses him. So he’s like, gives it the puppy dog eyes and he’s like, okay, fine.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: He gets an hour for Harry to take photos.

Ellen: Like, does photos not take like, you know, five minutes? Like you just

Bex: I thought so.

Ellen: I won’t argue. Yeah.

Bex: Although I’m guessing based on kind of what we see at the end of the episode. It’s not just photos of May and Darius, it’s photos of May and Darius with all the combination of siblings and parents and stepparents and God knows who else.

Alice: Yeah. It’s, it’s like wedding photos where they’re just like, yep. Bridesmaids. Yep. Groomsmen. Yep.

Bex: All right. Now just the brides family.

Alice: Alright. Third cousins twice removed.

Bex: Yeah. So that possibly might take a little bit longer, but Yeah, I don’t, I don’t [00:26:00] see, it would take an hour anyway. It doesn’t matter. It becomes a mood point anyway.

But it does bring us back to the Michael’s cancer storyline because um, Bobby tells Michael that he’s not gonna be able to play the cancer card much longer because he’s got a, uh, a scan tomorrow.

Ellen: Oh yeah. And Harry is sure that he’s gonna crush it. Yeah. And Michael says that he’s feeling pretty good. He hasn’t had any headaches or dizziness, but you know, we’ll see how it goes kind of thing. The last time it was bad news, but hopefully this time it’ll be okay.

Bex: And then Bobby says, the very ominous thing that about bad news, the thing about bad news is you never see it coming, dude.

Ellen: Yeah. Which is a weird kind of segue because

Bex: it’s a very weird segue, isn’t it? It doesn’t really make sense.

Ellen: It’s not like that other episode we had recently, which were like really [00:27:00] snappy, like segues that just went into each scene.

Bex: Yes. The really clever point. It just goes to, yeah. No,

Ellen: it just, it just goes straight to Athena being on the case.

Bex: Yeah, yeah.

Alice: Well, she’s beating herself up over it.

Bex: Yes. Because, um,

Ellen: they can’t find this guy,

Bex: Jeffrey has vanished into thin air, which Athena finds impossible to believe since it’s 2020. Yeah.

Ellen: He hasn’t used his credit cards. Uh, we’ve got Lou back again, the, the detective who was in the last episode.

Bex: Yeah.

We’ve got Lou and Stafford, uh, obviously working this case. Um, yeah. And they are going to be interviewing in number of, um, Jeffrey’s victims.

Ellen: Oh, yeah. These poor women. Um, they sort of, they make them watch the videos, which is, I don’t, I don’t know if this is normally how these investigations go, but you know, they, yeah.[00:28:00]

They watch the videos and they’re like, “Is that you in the, in the video?” These poor women are just not enjoying having to live relive through their trauma again?

Bex: No, because, um, I think it, it’s adding a level of a layer to their trauma that they didn’t even know existed. Because when. As far as they were concerned, yeah, as far as they were concerned, this guy just broke into their house and raped them and now they’re finding out that he stalked them in advance and then he filmed the attack Other,

Alice: yeah, he put a camera in the smoke detector.

Bex: And now not only have they been assaulted, but this guy might have been rewatching the assault and now all of these police officers in the room have watched them be assaulted.

Ellen: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It just seems like unnecessarily cruel to make them relive the whole thing

Bex: to actually, yeah. I think you probably could have achieved the same result by just taking a, still like snapping a screenshot and going, we is like, “Can you confirm that this is you? This is from a video. We’re not gonna make you watch the entire thing,” but [00:29:00] for the drama of this episode. Um, and the interesting thing with this scene is that it’s kind of the same interview, but with six different women and it keeps going backwards. It sort of cuts between each woman answering the questions.

Ellen: Yeah. I’m not sure how they found all these people. Like did they just identify them from the videos or like match them up with people who’d reported assault?

Bex: Yeah. I’m gonna assume that they probably went through everybody who had reported being sexually assaulted and matched them maybe.

Alice: Well, no, because one of them reported it as a break in, not an attack.

Bex: Maybe Jeffrey was very anal and had marked all of the addresses on the videos, so they just went to the homeowners and

Ellen: maybe, yeah,

Bex: who knows? For the drama, they were able to [00:30:00] find all of these women.

Alice: But yeah, it’s, it’s awful. It’s a horrible scene to watch.

Ellen: It’s awful. And the, uh, one of the women actually says that, “I was wearing a necklace when he attacked me and he took it with him when he, when he left.” So they realize that if he’s taking the souvenirs or trophies, um, they can find, you know, see if anyone else is missing anything personal. And then if they can track that stuff down, then it might help to give, yes, to bring evidence.

’cause at the moment they don’t have any evidence against him. ’cause he is, he was wearing a mask and everything. So, but if they can find these, these things in his possessions, then they can use that Yes. In court. Um, so I, this episode is a lot, a lot of short kind of scenes jumping between storylines again.

Bex: Yeah, it is. So we go to a commercial when we come back, Michael is in the [00:31:00] M-R-I machine. Can I say MRI Machine? Magnetic radio. Yes. I can say MRI machine. Yeah.

Ellen: Medical Imaging

Bex: just wanted to make sure wasn’t like,

Ellen: I dunno what it stands for.

Bex: Make sure it wasn’t like an ATM machine. Machine. Yeah, yeah.

Ellen: No, just have an M on the end. So I think you okay?

Bex: No, we’re good. Okay. So Michael’s in the,

Alice: oh my God, I don’t know if either of you have watched Breaking Bad, but I almost turned it off in like season one because an ATM gets stolen at one point and they just keep saying ATM machine. Oh. Oh no. And the person I was watching it with was just like, you know, like they’re uneducated, rah rah.

And then like, um, the main character comes in and says ATM machine and he’s a teacher and I like almost threw something across the room. Like it’s a fucking ATM!

Bex: Anyway. ATM machine and pin numbers,

Alice: Pin number. Oh my, my God.

Bex: Yeah.

Alice: Especially working in retail, I have to say like, just enter your pin. Or like people all the time will be like, oh, what’s my pin number?

And I’m like, Twitch.[00:32:00]

Ellen: MRIs are like one of the worst. Like I haven’t ever been in one, but it just, I I’ve heard that they’re extremely noisy and claustrophobic.

Alice: Yeah. Apparently they try and like play music now and you can’t, you can hardly hear it ’cause it just bangs the whole time.

Ellen: Right.

Bex: Well apparently Michael was in quote unquote that coffin for 45 minutes.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: Um,

Ellen: that’s a long time to be lying flat on your back like that too,

Bex: especially with all that banging. Yeah. Um, so he’s finished the scan. He is still in the hospital. He’s on the phone with Athena. I dunno why we don’t actually get really anything out of the scene except that he’s done the scan and he needs to go upstairs, um, to get blood taken.

So it’s kind of the, the, um, leading into him getting into the elevator later on. Otherwise, it’s a pretty superfluous scene. [00:33:00] But it also then segues into Athena, um, in the LAPD headquarters, um, going back into the official “criminal investigation room” where they have all of the, um, all of the cases, case files and files, uh, like the board with all of this stuff up on it for Jeffrey’s investigation.

Ellen: Oh, yeah. They, they don’t have any red string, but it’s there in spirit.

Bex: It’s pretty close.

Ellen: They’re trying to work out where he’s been, by tracking his, where, like they went through the credit card stuff again, but Stafford says that maybe if they look at where he, he had been spending money, they could work out his movements.

Alice: Yeah. So everything’s pretty obvious. Like his house is green, his office is red. The real estate listings are yellow, but then there’s a blue pin way out of the way of him [00:34:00] and it’s a coffee shop and he’s been there seven times in the past six months, but they can’t work out why he’d go there. And that’s the point of that scene.

Yeah, that’s it. Like, I dunno, it’s odd, but it’s probably nothing. And then we go to the dispatch

Ellen: and then we know that it’s probably not nothing because otherwise you wouldn’t be telling us about it.

Bex: Yes. Yeah. Athena gets that like, um, that, that look on her face where it’s like mm-hmm.

Ellen: The wheels are turning. Yeah.

Bex: Yes. But yes. Dispatch, um, we’re in the break room. Josh is on the phone.

Ellen: Is Josh’s turn to feel powerless?

Bex: Yes, because the district attorney has, as he tells Maddie, when Maddie comes in, um, the district attorney has been calling him because Greg is coming up for his sentencing hearing and they want Josh to appear at the sentencing hearing and [00:35:00] give a victim impact statement, not just write a letter like the rest of the, um, dispatchers have to do, but actually stand up in court.

Ellen: Yeah. Which is going to put like, there’s a lot of trauma going around in this episode, isn’t there?

Alice: There is, but yeah, Josh doesn’t wanna see him again and doesn’t wanna talk about what he did to him while Greg’s sitting there looking at him.

Ellen: Yeah. He thought he wouldn’t have to face him again, but, uh, but he says like, not going makes him feel more like a coward, but, ’cause he’s like, Greg is now in jail, but it feels like he’s the one with all the power because Josh feels like basically scared to face him.

Bex: He’d be powerless to face him?

Ellen: Yeah, I guess so. I don’t think he actually says the words in this scene, but

Bex: No, it’s, it’s “all the power”. But I’m still flagging it as you’re like powerless, adjacent.

Ellen: Yeah. So, um, speaking of [00:36:00] power, we actually have literal, electrical power coming now.

Bex: I did love that you’re watching this episode and you’re like, “oh, there’s literally a power outage.” and both Alice and I are like, what did you

Ellen: expect?

the literal power goes out like

Alice: Yeah. What did you expect?

Ellen: I don’t, I dunno. But I should’ve seen this coming.

Bex: It’s an episode called “Powerless” by Kristen Reidel. Of course there is going to be a literal power outage.

Ellen: Oh. So this scene is so dumb like this.

Bex: Oh, it’s so stupid.

Ellen: It’s just ridiculous. Um, this woman is walking her dog and she comes across two, uh, workers who are cutting trees, um, away from power lines.

Like they’re just trimming them. They’re not cutting the down, I don’t think.

Alice: No, they’re just trimming them.

Ellen: Yeah. And she actually asks them like, “What are you doing?” And they’re like, “Trimming the trees?” And she says, “You mean murdering them?” [00:37:00]

Bex: Apparently they cut another tree or trimmed another tree a while ago, and the other, the other tree has not recovered. It’s not doing well anymore from being trimmed, which, I mean, trees don’t bounce back instantly. They take a while to grow. They are very slow growers. So if it’s only been a year, yeah, it’s probably not gonna grow, have grown back just yet.

Um, but the worker tells the woman who I’ve nicknamed in the notes as Karen, not like our Karen as in a, I wanna speak to your manager, kind of Karen. Um, that if she has an issue with what they’re doing, they, she needs to call the city because the city are the ones that have all the power.

Alice: Yeah. Um, they’re just doing their jobs.

Ellen: Have we counted how many powers we’re up to now, like power less?

Bex: I have not been counting, but I’m glad I’m only taking metaphorical shots because I feel like if I were actually taking shots, I would be like three sheets to the wind by [00:38:00] now.

Alice: Yeah. We’d be drunk by now. Um, but yeah, so this, this Karen goes on about how their botanical butchers and that trees are like show dogs and without the right cut, the entire aesthetic is wrong and they’re not made for crew cuts.

And I’m just like, what? Like, I’d really like to say that not everyone who shows dogs is insane, but,

Bex: but she, she also has like this tiny little like white fluff ball of a dog. Which I wanna say is like a Bichon Frisé or something, but I don’t know. It’s it’s tiny. It’s white. It’s it’s very well groomed.

Alice: Yeah. I didn’t look too closely at it, honestly. But like, my breed is a breed that you like, don’t,

Bex: yours is just fluffy.

Alice: I don’t trim. Yeah. Um, and trimmings actually looked down on, so I am just like, what?

Ellen: But these, these workers are so, so uninterested. They’re just like,

Alice: yeah. They don’t care.

Ellen: “I, it’s what stops the trees from taking the power [00:39:00] lines down? So go away so we can do our job.” So, um, they start doing it and the one of the guys gets up in the, I don’t know what you call that thing.

Bex: It’s a bucket. So

Alice: it’s a bucket.

Ellen: A bucket. It’s a little, it’s a little a cherry picker.

Bex: It’s a little bucket.

Ellen: It goes up in the air.

Bex: Yeah. Yeah. But his saw doesn’t work. So he tells the worker on the ground to go and get the other saws, which requires the worker walking around to the other side of the truck and in the like 10 seconds that it takes him to walk around to the other side of the truck, um, the Karen decides to jump into said truck and the workers have apparently left the keys in the ignition because she drives off.

Alice: Where does she put the dog?

Bex: The dog’s left on the side of the road.

Ellen: She, yeah, it’s just

Alice: so, she just leaves it [00:40:00] on the side of the road?

Bex: She leaves it, it’s just sitting there because as the truck drives away with, the work is still up in the bucket, worker number two is just left staring at the dog in like, what the fuck?

And the dog’s just looking back at him going, yeah, no, I don’t know. She’s crazy.

Ellen: And the guy stands there looking at the dog for the longest time. Like he, he’s just in shock, like. Is like the truck. Where’d the truck go? You didn’t wanna run after it or anything?

Bex: I mean, the guy in the bucket didn’t notice the Karen climbing into the truck and say something?

Alice: No.

Ellen: Oh, and Karen, I, I’m so sad that she didn’t actually get a name. ’cause I have a friend called Karen and she’s not like this. But anyway,

Alice: Hen’s Karen is also lovely, but you know,

Ellen: she, she, she starts cackling.

Bex: Oh, it’s such a cackle,

Ellen: in the driver’s seat, and she’s like, “who’s got the power now?” Another power.

Bex: You’re about to have all the power, lady.

Alice: [00:41:00] And then it’s not the one who was left on the ground who makes the 9-1-1 call. It’s the one who’s in the bucket.

Bex: Yep.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: He reports to Josh that he’s been kidnapped. And again, it’s not like the worst, but it’s not the most helpful. Um, because Josh is like, “Okay, cool. Is your captor armed? Are they known to you?” And the worker’s like, “They just stole my truck.” And Josh was like, “Hang on, wait, um, are you reporting a kidnapping or a vehicle theft?” And the guy’s like “Both. I’m a tree trimmer, I’m up in the bucket and some psycho just jumped in my truck and took off.”

Ellen: Yeah. At least. Yeah, he does say a location at this point, so I guess that’s good.

Bex: He gets like, we’re on, you’re heading east on, he gives a street name and then he looks up and sees and do they really string power lines across streets like this? Really? [00:42:00]

Ellen: Well it’s gotta go across the street somewhere, but it is quite low, this one

Bex: I forgot to check while I was driving around. Um, today, I don’t know. I don’t remember. I’m not gonna like, swear on anybody’s grave that I’ve never seen power lines go across the street. Um,

Ellen: well, they have to go across some streets, but our power around here is,

Alice: yeah. Got no idea.

Ellen: Our power’s underground, so

Alice: Yeah. Same in our, in my old suburb, the power is underground. Anyway,

Bex: in this, on La France, apparently the power lines go across the road and either they are very, very low or this bucket is up very, very high. Um, because the worker sees said power line coming towards him and tells Josh that “You might wanna send an ambulance,” before yeeting himself out of the bucket into the open top of a UPS truck.

Ellen: I think he like crashes through the top of it, [00:43:00]

Bex: how that’s worse.

Ellen: Yeah. I don’t, I don’t how,

Bex: I don’t think that the, the truck should, like, the roof of a truck like that should be fragile enough that a person can go through it.

Ellen: I don’t remember exactly, but I assumed that the top of the truck wouldn’t be open to the air. Like that just seemed like a weird

Bex: Well, I, it’s either,

Alice: it’s like a, a mail ute.

Bex: It’s either the truck is the, the top is open, which sounds stupid or the, the roof is so fragile that a human body can fall through it easily.

Ellen: Yeah. I,

Bex: I think, think both of them are ridiculous. Um, anyway, so he’s leapt out of the bucket none too soon because Karen has completely forgotten about the fact that she’s driving a bucket truck and drives the bucket straight into the power line, which, um, rips the power line, like drags the poles, rips it from the transformer.

There’s sparks everywhere she gets electric, but she gets a shock through her. [00:44:00] It’s a mess.

Ellen: Yeah, they don’t disconnect anything. Um, unfortunately, like they don’t just rip the power lines completely down.

Bex: I think she does disconnect a line because I think to remember Buck and Eddie, like dodging…

Ellen: there are some sparks

Bex: a line that’s dancing around at some point.

Alice: Okay. So I just checked the straight near my old one that did have power lines and that like, they literally go across the street to the houses. So yes.

Bex: Okay.

Alice: Power lines across the street.

Bex: Yeah. Okay. I don’t know why I am overthinking this scene. There’s so much that is stupid about this scene. I should just write the entire thing off.

Ellen: Yeah, yeah. Let’s just suspend our disbelief for a minute. Um,

Bex: oh, several minutes. Okay.

Ellen: The 118 show up.

Bex: Of course they do.

Ellen: Uh, Bobby says to everyone, “Stay where you are. Don’t [00:45:00] try to get out of the truck.” Or, you know, there are sparks coming out of some of the power lines so they know that the power is still on.

Um, Bobby radio’s in to ask dispatch if they can, um, tell DWP to shut down the power.

Bex: Thank God Jamal is not working. ’cause he would’ve just come back and gone, “I’m not showing that the power’s out in that area, Cap.” Yeah, that’s the point. Jamal. We need the power to be out.

Ellen: Yes. But Josh says it’s gonna be 10 minutes. Um, and Bobby’s like, “See if you can shave some time off that because we’re kind of in a hurry here.”

Alice: Mm-hmm. But yes. So then the, the driver of the mail truck does say that the guy fell through the roof, but Hen says there’s no broken bones. Just a couple of bumps and bruises and maybe a concussion because the cardboard boxes bore the brunt of the fall.

Bex: So what was the… no, I’m not even, nope. Nope. [00:46:00] Nope. Um, and then we,

Ellen: it’s made of the, like, thinnest aluminum you’ve ever heard of.

Bex: Nope. Not even gonna think about it. Moving on. We learned from Chimney that cardboard boxes are sometimes used as crash pads for, uh, stunts in movie and tv. Um,

Alice: but of course those boxes are usually empty.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: Yeah. These ones were full of people’s mail. Wanna hope there’s nothing like kind of slightly sharp in them or anything.

Bex: I think it’s like their Amazon packages.

Alice: At least the Porch Pirate’s not still around.

Bex: Oh, she would’ve had a field day.

Ellen: Yeah. So they know. So Buck says, this is a great line though.

Um, “I thought those truck cabs are supposed to be grounded. Why does her hair look like that?” Because the, because Karen’s hair is all like static, like sticking up in the air with the static. Mm-hmm. So they. They realize that the, the truck is still quite electrified. [00:47:00]

Bex: Well, she had, she, her hands are still on the steering wheel. Um, so whatever power is going through the, um, the, the truck I guess is passing through the steering wheel?

Ellen: Apparently

Alice: it’s just a lot of static electricity around her. ’cause even though she’s not getting electrocuted, there’s still a lot of electricity around.

Bex: Well, it’s enough to addle her brain because she sees LAPD pull up behind everybody and she’s like, “You came for the tree murderers.”

And Eddie gives her like, what the fuck, lady look? And Buck’s just like, yeah. No, I don’t think that that’s who they’re here for.

Alice: I don’t think that re I think she’s just a nutcase.

Ellen: Oh dear.

Bex: So while this is going on, Michael is. Still in the hospital. So this is happening concurrently to his storyline. Um, he is getting in the elevator, [00:48:00] getting to either go up to have bloods taken or this is, he’s going down because he’s finished getting bloods uncertain.

Um, but as he gets on, a gentleman calls for Michael to hold the elevator. So Michael very bravely sticks his hand between the doors and thank god this is the episode “Powerless” and not like “Trapped” or “Stuck”. Um, holds the doors so that the gentleman can get onto the elevator with him,

Ellen: I was getting “Stuck” vibes. So isn’t there someone who else, who gets stuck in an elevator during “Stuck”?

Bex: Yeah, it’s the, the mother and the son, they get stuck in the elevator. Um, the elevator starts to fill with water and then as soon as they rescue, oh, sorry. The, the mother immediately throws her son out of her house.

Ellen: Yeah, yeah, that’s right.

Bex: David gets onto the elevator with Michael. We go back to uh, La France, um, and Eddie is [00:49:00] looking at the Karen in the truck going like, we need to get her outta the truck. Um, any update on when the power is gonna get turned off, and as if answering his prayers, there’s one final spark from the transformers and the power dies, and they’re like, sweet.

They get to work. Bobby radio’s into Josh to thank him for getting the power turned off, and Josh is like, uh, DWP says they’re still four minutes out.

Alice: And then just in time Bobby goes, well, if you didn’t shut the power off, who did? And then immediately the lights all start going off in dispatch.

Bex: And then we get this, this like rolling scene where the lights clunk out and Josh looks up and goes. “Seriously?” And then the lights go out in the elevator in the hospital and Michael goes, “Seriously?”

And then back on the street there is a, the sound of a car accident. And Bobby turns around to see two cars have collided ’cause the traffic lights have suddenly cut out and says, “Seriously?” [00:50:00] And I’m like,

Ellen: yeah, I don’t know what it is about…

Bex: Seriously?

Ellen: LA, Like as soon as traffic lights go out, people start crashing into each other. It’s like, are you not looking where you’re going?

Alice: No, I get, did you not see that there’s no traffic lights? Like,

Ellen: like not even that. Just like you can see people coming the other way and anyway, nevermind, for the drama there is a traffic accident and the lights are all out,

Alice: maybe it’s an electric car. Ha ha ha ha.

Ellen: Um, Buck says, “I’m on it, Cap,” and he runs off towards the car crash. I’m not sure what he’s gonna do there, but maybe he’s checking to see if anyone’s been injured,

I think he’s just checking to make sure everyone’s okay. Possibly trying to get the road…

Alice: And maybe doing some, um, traffic control.

Ellen: Is he authorized to do traffic control?

Bex: No. Should,

Alice: yeah, they usually have,

Bex: one should be LAPD doing it.

Alice: Yeah, it should be, but I’m pretty sure they have training on it. the SES here do training on it.

Bex: LAPD are on the scene, so, you know, they should just yeet Williams up the road to get him to do it.

Alice: Oh, they tr Yeah, [00:51:00] true.

Ellen: Anyway, back in the hospital elevator, um, the two guys sort of just look at each other and go, uh, probably an outage.

Bex: It’s, it’s the most like dick measuring without dick measuring. It’s like, yeah, it’s kind of funny. David’s like, “Oh, you know, it’s probably an outage.” And Michael’s go, “Well, you know, no, I’m an architect and my, a architectural teaching has told me that the generators are supposed to kick in.” And David’s like, “Well, I’m a doctor and I know that at the hospital, the generators are reserved for like the ICU and the operating rooms, and they’re not gonna bother putting power to the elevators.”

Michael’s like, “Oh, doctor, huh? Really?”

Alice: Like eyeing him up and down.

Bex: He really is.

Ellen: I can’t remember what point it was that I first thought there was something going on between them. Um, I think it was, it might’ve been right from the start.

Bex: I think it’s, I think it, it’s, David says to Michael, “You know, look on the bright side, there’s worse places [00:52:00] than this elevator to be trapped.”

And Michael gives him a Oh really? Kinda a look like, yeah. Okay. Like the odds of you being trapped in an elevator with a handsome gay man are, you know, very, very slim. But they’re not none. So let’s just

Ellen: Yeah. And you’ve managed it this time, so lucky you.

Bex: Uh, speaking of other people who are trapped inside, but this dude does not have a cute gay man, gay doctor with him.

Um, no. We cut to Gordon, who has called 9-1-1. He’s got Maddie. Um. He says that he is over at the host wholesale meat and fish, and he wants to know if the power went out.

And Maddie’s like, “Yeah, the the power’s, uh, power’s out. We are recommending that people shelter in place.” And he is like, “Yeah, you know, I’m, I’m not going anywhere. That’s, that’s kind of the problem. Um, ’cause I’m trapped inside it, you know. Do you think you could send someone to get me out? ’cause it’s getting [00:53:00] pretty cold.” And Maddie’s like, “where did you say you were?” And he is like, “I’m in a walk-in freezer. I’m stuck in the inside the freezer.”

Ellen: Yeah. And there is a sign on the outside of the freezer that says “27 days without a lost time accident.”

Bex: The irony,

Ellen: um, that’s about to become zero again.

Bex: Well, unless, unless they do dodgy things like one of my previous employer used to do, which was if they had a, um, a field member, like somebody who worked out in the field had an injury that meant that they couldn’t work out in the field. They would just bring them into the office and have them do like basic admin photocopying shit, because then they could say that they were still working, so they hadn’t lost any time.

Therefore, they didn’t have any lost time injuries.

Alice: Oh, is that what it means? There you go. I thought it just meant like a waste of time ac like an accident that

Bex: No, it’s employees who have lost time [00:54:00] from working because of the injury.

Alice: Yeah, there you go.

Ellen: Wow. Why do you need a sign to count that? Like what is going on in this workplace?

Alice: A lot of um, OH&S violations, clearly. Yeah.

Ellen: Apparently. Anyway. Maddie actually has a, like an action chart for what to do if you are trapped in a freezer, or,

Bex: I mean, we knew that something, we knew that dispatchers had that because back in the tsunami, she tells one of the callers that, um, she had a, an how to on getting someone to escape through the roof of their house.

Alice: Yeah. In event of flood. So,

Bex: yeah. So I’m not surprised they also, but the, like, the, we actually see it,

Alice: there much have manuals on everything. Like our triple zero’s the same,

Bex: but we actually like see it on the screen. It’s like a, a little flow chart thing, and it has the script that Maddie has to say and then the um, the, like, if they say [00:55:00] yes, this is what you say. If they say, no, this is what you say and this is where you go.

Ellen: Yeah. Yeah. So she’s coaches him through getting, um, you know, as insulated as possible so that he doesn’t lose too much body heat.

Alice: Yeah. So the emergency, there’s usually an, um, an emergency release knob inside the freezer, but it’s frozen over. Um, and he’s tried whacking it and it’s pretty thick,

Ellen: but later, like obviously they, they have a, a cut to a overhead kind of skyline shot to show that time has passed. And she asks him how he’s going, and he’s pretty cold and tired and then he kind of slowly just tips over

Bex: and, but he’s also, he’s followed Maddie’s instructions. So on the, the manual on what to do about how to conserve body heat, it’s, um, they need to insulate hands, head and body with like a plastic curtain or a sheet, tinfoil can be used as an insulator for the head. [00:56:00]

So Gordon has made himself a little nest with cardboard boxes. He’s got a tinfoil cap on, and he’s got a plastic, um, wrap wrapped around him like a blanket.

Alice: Yeah. Poor Gordon.

Bex: But it doesn’t work.

Ellen: But it’s not enough because it, yeah, he falls asleep.

Bex: Yeah, he’s, he’s got hypothermia pretty bad, but pretty much just as he passes out the 118 arrive and,

Alice: um, so clearly they weren’t needed for that car crash.

Bex: Well, I mean the car crash was, it’s must have been like an hour or so ’cause we saw the sunset.

Alice: True.

Bex: Um, and they, they must have been at car accidents because whether that one or any others, because when Eddie tries to use the saw, the little like miniature saw to saw through the hinges so that they can like literally yank the door out of place, the saw dies and the backup battery is also flat because he says they’ve had too many car accidents in one day.

Alice: Oh yeah, true. [00:57:00]

Bex: So they can’t saw him out. They can’t, they probably could smash the window open, but that’s not gonna help them because nobody can go through the window. So I look this is, this is a pretty cool idea. Um, the door Bobby notes should have an electronic emergency door release, so they find another way to get power to that electronic door release by using the defibrillator.

And it is an absolutely brilliant idea, but every time I watch this scene, I’m more distracted by the fact that they’ve got a guy stuck in a freezer suffering hypothermia. And the music supervisor decided to play “Ice, ice baby.”

Ellen: Yep. Yeah, it made me laugh, I have to admit. Uh, perfect, perfect choice.

Bex: No, not perfect choice. Incredibly on the nose choice!

Ellen: Oh yeah. [00:58:00] But like, if you’re gonna have a ridiculous music choice, then it’s the perfect one for that. But yeah, I don’t know if this would actually work if you use the, I mean, it’s delivering an electric shock to a patient, isn’t it? So.

Bex: Yeah. And I mean, they, they do go through this thing where they, they pull the, the panel off the door release and they’re stripping wires and there’s from that circuit board, and then they’re stripping the wires from the defibrillator and putting the two together. And I don’t know, and I don’t know if it would work in reality, but it does in this show.

They mm-hmm. They hit the door with two charges and the second charge tips it over the edge. There is enough power for the door to be powered on and open.

Ellen: Yeah. So they managed to get, get him out in time and, um, pump him full of warm fluids and [00:59:00] they, they got to him in time and they think he’s gonna be all right.

So Maddie’s relieved ’cause she actually got to hear the outcome of that one.

Bex: Yeah. So I’ve discovered a a 9-1-1 creator on TikTok. Who is 9-1-1 dispatcher.

Ellen: Oh.

Bex: So that’s interesting. They have some very interesting insight and one of the insights is that she knows fuck all about what happens after the calls because nobody gets back to her.

And somebody mentioned you like, oh, maybe it, you know it in the show it’s more realistic because you know, you’ve got Buck and you’ve got Chi. They’ve got a connection with Maddie and she’s like, my husband is a firefighter. I’ll send him out on calls and then I will not hear for him for hours.

And then the next time that I hear from him, he’s like, left work. And he’s been at home and I’m still at work wondering where he is, thinking he’s still on a call. So [01:00:00]

Ellen: that’s rough.

Alice: See, because that’s the thing is like, that’s what season one was all about.

Ellen: Yeah.

Alice: Like Maddie’s like Yeah, like in, I mean, Abby is saying, Hey, you never find out and rah rah rah. And then from like, as soon as Maddie gets in, they’re just like, oh, we’ll just tell her everything and just keep her on the line the whole time. It’s fine.

Bex: But Maddie also had a big thing where she never found out what happened afterwards.

Alice: Yeah. And so she was like, do I go back into nursing? Like,

Bex: and they had to stage that big intervention with her to prove that what she was doing next was, you know, what happened after the fall.

Ellen: That’s right. Yeah.

Bex: She was still making a difference.

Alice: And I’ve been watching the, um, the Australian Ambulance show, which is a real, like a show about real life, like with real paramedics and real dispatchers.

Ellen: Are you saying this isn’t real? Okay.

Alice: And, um, they often like mention how they don’t know what happened.

Bex: Could you imagine the volume of calls that they’re getting through [01:01:00] that dispatch center and Maddie is just sitting on one call the entire time? Yeah. Like how long has she been sitting on that call with Gordon?

Ellen: I mean. Sitting on the call with Gordon, okay. ’cause she’s not allowed to hang up, right?

Bex: Right.

Ellen: They have to hang up the, the person calling has to hang up.

Bex: Yeah.

Ellen: But like,

Alice: I dunno if

Ellen: Yeah, for her to hang around long enough to hear that he’s okay, I guess.

Alice: Yeah. I don’t know if that’s true because like, there’s so many times where they’re just like, “Cool, call me back if you need anything.” like in real life.

Bex: No, but I think we’ve established in this show, because remember during the, the floods, Linda, like, Sue literally had to hang up on one of Linda’s calls because the caller had drowned, but because the smartphones were water resistant, the phone

Alice: Oh yeah.

Bex: Wouldn’t drop. And Linda’s like, “No, we are not allowed to end the call.”

And Sue’s like, “They’re dead, honey.” And hangs up the,

Ellen: yeah, [01:02:00] yeah, yeah.

Bex: Anyway, Gordon is fine. Maddie is relieved to hear that, um, while he’s been turned out of being a Gordon-cicle back into a human being, David and Michael are getting their flirt on.

Um, by the way, I don’t think we actually find out David’s name in this, but I’m just gonna call him David ’cause I know that’s his name.

Ellen: Yeah. I’m assuming he’s coming back. Uh, this is where they have their little relationship conversation in that, um, you know, Michael is just, has been talking to the kids, I’m guessing? Uh, I don’t know. We don’t find out. But David asked him if the kids are okay and Michael’s like, okay, “Do you have anyone you need to call?” And basically finds out that no, he doesn’t have anybody.

Bex: But it’s such a, a sly way of doing it. ’cause David’s like, “Oh, you know, I mean, I’ve got Oscar,” and Michael’s like, “Oh, Oscar. yeah.” And [01:03:00] David’s like, “Yeah, but he’s not expecting me until seven.” Like, “Oh yeah, yeah, that’s good.” “‘Cause you know, he’s a dog.” Like, “Oh. He’s a dog, Right. Yeah.”

Alice: Yeah. “He’s, he’s probably not good at returning texts.”

Bex: Yeah. Yeah. No. And then David’s like, to answer,

Ellen: Michael’s on a bit of a rollercoaster at the moment. He’s like,

Bex: David’s like, “You know to answer, the question behind the question. No, I don’t have anyone special waiting at home.” Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Ellen: Mm-hmm.

Bex: I’m also not, you know, adverse to you thinking that I had a man at home waiting for me. You know, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Ellen: Ah. But anyway, Athena is going to investigate the coffee shop that Jeffrey has been visiting.

Bex: Yes. At night, in the dark at night by herself.

Ellen: It does say close due to power outage on a sign on the door, and it’s nighttime. Coffee shops don’t

Bex: usually open at night anyway?

Ellen: Open at night anyway.

Bex: this scene would not play the [01:04:00] same in daytime, so they had to make it at night for the drama. She does helpfully call Lou to let him know where she is because after she realizes that the coffee shop is closed, she turns around and discovers that there is a self storage company at that location. And that kind of explains the coffee shop charges. He’s not driving all the way up to West Hollywood to get coffee. I mean, it could be amazing coffee up there, but the coffee is incidental to Athena’s newly formed theory that he is, that Jeffrey is visiting a storage locker where he’s storing his trophies

Ellen: And it’s closed. Nobody’s here because of the power, so she needs Lou to call the manager

Bex: in. But Athena, this is a, we are going to check this out tomorrow during the daylight when the manager is here situation, this is not a [01:05:00] go in by yourself in the dark situation. Except it is because it’s Athena.

Ellen: But when does Athena ever let common sense get in the way of the drama?

Bex: She, she does at least hang up with Lou and call dispatch and get herself marked as at the studio storage, um, doing a welfare check. Um, although she kind of like buries the lede a little bit. ’cause she just tells Maddie she’s just doing a business check and it’s not like, Hey, I am checking out a business that has a connection with a serial rapist.

Yeah. Um, which I think she should probably have mentioned.

Ellen: Or, or she could have called for backup or,

Bex: or she could have waited until the next day.

Ellen: Or wait until tomorrow. Yeah. Brought some other people with her maybe. But anyway, she goes, she finds a door that’s open a little bit, so she goes inside, she can hear there’s somebody else in there. There’s like footsteps.

Bex: And then we, the audience see that [01:06:00] Jeffrey, Jeffrey is in there.

Ellen: Yes. He’s, he’s like lurking. He’s,

Bex: he’s lurking and, and he’s standing under an emergency light, so he’s bathed in red.

Ellen: Oh, it’s very evil.

Alice: Creepy. Yeah.

Bex: Yeah. Just like hitting us over the head with the symbolism. Like he’s bathed in red in red guys.

Athena’s in like the blue and white light and then he’s in the red. Do you get it? Um, but Athena doesn’t know that he’s there yet. She does find a storage locker that looks like Jeffrey’s been living out of it.

Ellen: Yeah, there’s like a little bed made up on one of the shelves,

Alice: Plus a box that says Serial rapist trophies.

Bex: So Athena does the sensible thing and calls for backup. She says she needs backup and detectives dispatched to Studio Self Storage. Um, but before she can finish, Jeffrey attacks her. [01:07:00] And for some reason, when he attacks her, he damages her radio, but not so much that it won’t, that it stops transmitting, but that it continues to transmit.

It keeps, even though she’s not holding the button down, he’s like, he’s knocked the button and locked it into on position. Um, so everything that’s happening, dispatch can hear,

Alice: but apparently everyone in dispatch can. I don’t, like, I watched this scene twice because I was trying to work out if everyone in dispatch could hear Athena or if everyone was just responding to Maddie’s frantic

Ellen: or like somehow Maddie had like turned it on to broadcast so that everyone could hear.

Bex: I don’t know. It’s weird. Sometimes I feel like everyone can hear everything. ’cause Josh will be like four stories down and Maddie will get a call and then suddenly he’s right there because he’s heard what she was on a call for. Yeah. [01:08:00] Um, yeah, it’s weird.

But then not only can Maddie hear it, but then in her infinite wisdom she decides to transmit Athena’s call to everybody with a radio in Los Angeles. And so as she’s calling for backup for officer in distress, everyone can hear said officer in distress, including her husband.

Ellen: Yeah. This, this is really strange.

Bex: They are finishing up at wholesale meat and fish. They’re about to take Gordon to the hospital. Um, when all of a sudden they get Maddie over the radio saying, “Officer in distress,” and they could hear Athena’s grunts and cries of pain and the sound of her being attacked.

Ellen: Oh, it’s just awful. I mean, not only that, um, Athena is getting beat up so thoroughly, but also that everyone can hear, and you know, Bobby can’t really do anything about it except he’s, um, you know, tell Hen to take [01:09:00] old mate to the hospital and everyone else, lets go.

So they, Dr. They’re driving and he’s just listening and it’s awful.

Bex: Would you say that he is powerless to do anything?

Ellen: Oh, absolutely. I mean, not in so many words this time, but yes, absolutely powerless.

Bex: But even as Maddie is telling everyone to switch off from that channel, uh, Bobby is powerless to, to do that. He’s like, you know, if I, I am going to sit here and I’m going to listen to this entire thing, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna force y’all to listen to it as well.

Alice: Yeah. It’s like that thing where they’re just like, oh no, where will I find, like, you better tell me that, where that horrible thing is. So I don’t ever look at it.

It’s like, oh, don’t, don’t listen to channel two guys. There’s a police officer getting beaten up and everyone just goes to channel two. Yeah, it’s just

Bex: the drama is good. Peter k [01:10:00] Crower does a really good job with his facial expressions in this scene.

Ellen: Yeah. He looks so horrified.

Bex: and the, the tension with the music.

It’s, it’s a very emotionally wrought scene. It’s just so fricking ridiculous. So we kind of cut backwards and forwards at this point to, um, gom Athena getting the crap beaten out of her to dispatch listening in horror to Bobby listening in horror. As the 118 race to studio self storage, we get a little quick shot of Athena’s gun dropping to the ground.

And then getting kicked away. And then it cuts back to Bobby in time for a gunshot to be heard over the radio. And once again, if actors could control their like physical reactions, he would be like whiter than white at this point because

Alice: like he fully flinches and he just looks, [01:11:00] ugh.

Bex: Because all the sounds of the assault stop. It’s like gunshot and then silence. Yeah. And so he’s immediately,

Alice: because at least like when he was listening, he could still hear her like even if it was grunts in pain, he could still hear her.

Bex: Yes. She was still awake and alive and fighting at some point, but now that’s the silence thing.

Alice: And now there’s nothing

Bex: his immediately thought, his immediate thought is Athena got shot.

Ellen: Yep. Yeah. The gunshot seems to have fixed the radio.

Bex: Yeah.

Ellen: Or maybe it, it broke it further because Yeah. She hasn’t told anybody that she’s okay.

Alice: Athena shot the gun. Uh, shot the radio.

Ellen: She shot the radio, which was attached to herself? No, that’s not it. Yeah. Um, but anyway, by the time the 118 arrive at the scene, um, there are other LAPD officers there for backup, and they try to stop Bobby from going in and he’s just like, no. And then keeps [01:12:00] going.

Bex: It’s not, he grabs an axe, he goes to the storage locker, grabs the fire axe, and just

Alice: marches into the building with said fire axe.

He’s

Ellen: on the rampage.

Alice: Yeah. Like, he like, do not stop that guy. His wife is in trouble. Let him the fuck through. Yeah. Um,

Bex: they get there and they discover that Jeffrey is alive. Um, he looks in pretty bad shape and he is handcuffed to a pipe. And Bobby just stands over him with the axe in his hands. Um, and like Jeffrey’s just looking at him going like, what, what, what is going on?

Because he has no idea who Bobby is.

Alice: No. Bobby’s not wearing his “Athena’s husband” t-shirt today,

Bex: but it’s under his turnout so no one can see it. Um, thankfully Williams recognizes Bobby and he is like, dude, she’s over here. Um, and we [01:13:00] get a quick shot to see that the gun is in Athena’s hand.

Um, so it wasn’t Athena who got shot, it was obviously Jeffrey who got shot, although he seems to be rather quiet for someone who just got shot.

Alice: Yeah. Yeah.

Ellen: Maybe she missed, but yeah,

Alice: I, I think she did just shoot the radio

Bex: that’s like attached to her chest?

Alice: But yeah. So Chim and Hen check her out. Her pupils are equal and reactive, which is good. Uh, she may have a fractured rib. Her arm’s definitely broken and she’s like, Athena starts waking up and just goes, “I got him.”

Bex: At this point Lou arrives. I don’t know what he’s been doing. Um, he’s more interested in this situation. He like checks in with the other LAPD, “Is the suspect down?” Um, Williams reports that he is alive and he’s wounded.

Um, Ransone turns to Bobby and says, “Let’s get a medic.” [01:14:00] Bobby just goes, “He can wait.”

Alice: Yeah, Bobby’s said nothing since he got in, he has said nothing. He’s just standing there with an axe

Bex: staring at this man. But the see the

Alice: staring at this man and then, yeah, let’s get a medic and he can wait. It’s like, oh fuck. Okay. Yep. Not fair.

Ellen: Yeah, he mad.

Bex: But the thing is they, because Chim and Hen are fixing up Athena, but once again, everyone has forgotten that Eddie is a paramedic. So if he really needed medical attention, they could get Eddie to look at him. But Bobby’s just like, no, I’m denying this man all medical attention. None of my people are touching him, and Ransone’s like, okay, we’re gonna need somebody not from the 118 to come up here and fix this guy.

Alice: We’re gonna need someone who has not been in Bathena’s house for dinner.

Bex: Have you got like somebody from Oregon? Can they come down? Like, I know it’s a bit of a drive, but um, I think they’re probably going to be the [01:15:00] ones with no conflict of interest in this case.

Ellen: Well they managed to get Athena out to the ambulance and Bobby is, yeah, so they get her on again, hovering, looking so, so distressed about the whole thing. And Athena also, now that she’s awake, she’s like calling for Bobby and he’s like,

Bex: yeah, he immediately dives into the back of the ambulance with her. There is no stopping him. Um, he’s riding in the back.

Alice: I don’t think anyone would even try at this point. They’re like, Bobby, do you wanna drive? Like where are we going here?

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: No. So Chim gives up his place. So it’s Bobby and Hen in the back with Athena.

Ellen: Yeah. So quick look back at the elevator. They get the other firefighters who are not at the storage place get the doors open to let them out, and Michael’s like, “Finally, I’ve had enough of this place.” And then he turns to David and goes, “No offense.”

Alice: And then David tries [01:16:00] to like make com. He’s just like, “So listen.” And Michael’s phone immediately starts vibrating.

Bex: Yeah. So Michael’s just like, hang on, just leave the flirting for a second. I gotta answer this call. He’s like, “Hey Bobby. Bobby?” And then immediately just sprints out of the hospital leaving David with his, so listen, just standing. Oh, in the hallway in the dust. Like, oh, so Michael and Bobby. Okay, cool.

Ellen: Yeah, sorry David. This is gonna happen a lot. ’cause Michael will like drop everything and run to…

Bex: Bobby,

Ellen: help his family. So.

Alice: Yeah.

Ellen: To Bobby. When Bobby calls Michael is powerless.

Bex: The David’s already written like he’s, he’d be sitting there going like, I thought he was single. He said he didn’t have anybody.

Alice: Yeah. Who the fuck is Bobby?

Ellen: This Bobby called, and he immediately just legged it out of

Bex: here.

Like dropped everything.

Alice: Look, honestly, being in queer spaces, if someone said [01:17:00] that they were single and then dropped it, dropped everything for like someone else, I’d be like, oh, their emotional support ex. That’s fine.

Ellen: That’s kind of like, I was gonna say, that’s kind of like what Athena is, but no, it’s Bobby, right? Yeah. He’s like Michael’s support person.

Bex: Yes, yes.

Ellen: at the moment. Bless them. So Michael has brought the kids to the hospital where Athena is,

Bex: which I’m assuming is a different hospital because this one appears to have power or maybe, yeah.

Got the power fixed. Yeah. Later.

Ellen: Yeah. Later, after the power came back on. Um, and like he’s sort of preparing the kids for like, the fact that she’s been beaten up. Like, “she’s probably not gonna, she’s hurt and she’s, you know, not okay, but we’ve gotta be strong to help her through it.” And they’re like, “okay.”

Bex: To May’s credit, she immediately just takes her mother’s appearance in stride and just goes [01:18:00] over and it’s like, “Mom, I’m so glad you’re all right.” Gives her a hug. Um, ’cause she does, she, she’s not looking, I mean, I’m, I do not wanna say that Angela Bassett does not look good because she still looks,

Ellen: yeah, she always looks beautiful,

Bex: looks good, but she’s got, um, like her hair is really working for her in this episode.

Um, but she’s got like two black eyes, one eye’s nearly swollen shut. She’s got that, that tape that you use to tape stitches together, bruises all over her face. She’s got a cast and a sling. Harry looks absolutely horrified.

Alice: Poor Harry,

Bex: and Athena’s like, “It’s okay, baby. You know, come and come and give me a hug.”

And Harry’s like, “I don’t wanna hurt you.” And she’s like, “Oh, you’re not gonna hurt me. Your hug from you is exactly what I need.” So he literally throws himself on her. Yeah. And God bless. She’s like fighting back the screams of pain, like trying to control her face. And she’s like, [01:19:00] “oh yes, that’s exactly what I need. And I’m feeling so much better already.”

Ellen: Yeah, she’s gonna be out of there soon, but Bobby says that he’s gonna stay with her for, she’s gonna stay for a few days, so Athena’s like, “Oh, that’s, I don’t want anyone to make a fuss.” It’s like,

Bex: just, yeah, because Bobby says that he’s gonna get a rollaway bed set up in the corner so he doesn’t have to leave her side.

Alice: Yeah,

Ellen: yeah. And she says she’s fine. She and, and Bobby’s like, “No, you’re not fine. Just let me do this,”

Bex: which translate as I’m not fine. I need to do this for me.

Ellen: Yeah, yeah. He’s like two seconds away from a complete meltdown here. He’s like, “no, I need to do this, please.”

Bex: Thankfully, she sees that and she’s like, “Okay, it’ll be nice to have the company,” but then we go from that scene to, I, I don’t know who made the decisions, like what order they’re going to put all of these little [01:20:00] snippets in. Um, but we go from that like emotionally wrought scene to, um,

Alice: yeah, I thought that that was gonna be the end, and then the show,

Bex: it just kept going.

Alice: Just kept going. I was like, oh fuck. Okay.

Bex: It’s like The Return of the King. It just kept going. You thought you got an ending, but then there’s another ending.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: Um, we go over to the Wilson household where, um, Karen is ransacking Hen’s, belongings, trying to find evidence of other things that she’s kept from Karen.

Ellen: Yeah. And then she, she actually mutters to herself, “What else are you hiding?”

Bex: The only reason I’m accepting this scene is because it, it ends up quite cute in the end, but I’m, I’m not loving. The Hen is accused of cheating storyline again.

Alice: Yeah.

Ellen: Hen’s arranged a babysitter for the kids so that they can go and visit Athena in hospital. But Karen’s like, “no, I’m not, I’m not really feeling too well. So [01:21:00] just give Athena my love. I’ll, I’ll stay behind.” But as, as we sort of end the scene, we see that she’s got some paper in her hand that she’s hiding behind her back, which is,

Bex: yeah, she’s pulled something out of… something out of Hen’s wallet. And then for some reason we go back to Dispatch. Like it would make sense. Oh. Not gonna think too.

Alice: Nothing makes sense.

Bex: Nothing. We’re not gonna think too hard about it. Um,

Ellen: we’ve, we’ve gotta progress Josh’s, um, storyline for a bit,

Bex: but do we have to storyline, progress Josh’s storyline now? Could we have not like, finished off the Hen stuff and then jumped over to Josh? No, not even.

Ellen: Oh, I don’t know.

Bex: We, anyway, we’re back at, we’re back at dispatch. Yeah.

Ellen: Yeah. So Maddie and Josh are, um, talking about what happened, you know, they’re gonna have nightmares about hearing Athena over the radio, because they were powerless, they couldn’t help her. I don’t actually think they say that, but that’s what’s happened.

And then Maddie says, oh, that’s, oh no, hang on. [01:22:00] Josh says, “it gives us something new to talk about in therapy.”

Bex: He sounds really excited about that. And then Maddie says, “well, that’s great because I thought I was starting to bore Frank,” and shout out to Frank.

Alice: Hey. Apparently he’s the only

Bex: yes

Alice: therapist in the entire, um, first responder circle.

Ellen: Yeah. She says that he should talk to Frank about going to court, and Josh is like, horrified. He’s like, “You think I should do it.” But he, but Maddie says, “No. I think you should consider what it means if you don’t do it.”

Alice: Mm.

Ellen: “So you can get your power back.”

Bex: Yes, we do actually get the episode title. “Like you keep saying that you feel powerless.” He hasn’t said it on camera, but I’m assuming that she’s like paraphrasing here.

Ellen: Everyone else has said that they’re powerless

Bex: and Maddie wants Josh to consider that perhaps if he faces Greg and tells him how he’s feel, he will get his power back and she bounces leaving to [01:23:00] Josh to consider this. While he is considering this, we go back to Karen who has, I’m assuming rehired the babysitter? Or maybe she told Hen that she would take care of the babysitter and then told the babysitter that no, they did actually need them for that evening. ’cause she is now at Chimney’s apartment.

Ellen: Yep. She’s ditched the kids

Bex: and Chimney looks very confused to see Karen standing on his doorstep and Karen greets him with, “Who’s Imelda?” and Chim’s like, but like, “Who’s Imelda to you too? Like, what the fuck are you talking about?”

Ellen: Yeah. And Karen holds up a phone with text message notifications on it and which turns out later to be a photo of Hen’s phone. Yes. Confusingly.

Alice: But yeah, so Chim’s like, “What am I looking at here?” And Karen’s like, “Proof that Hen’s cheating on me.”

Chim’s like, “What? Hen would never [01:24:00] do that. I mean, not after what happened the last time she did that.”

Bex: So Karen starts presenting all of her evidence, um, which is like the, the text messages, the slip of paper, which apparently contains dates and the name of a hotel, which Karen thinks is like future, um, rendezvous with this Imelda.

Alice: Um, yeah. ’cause you’d write them down on a slip of paper, obviously,

Bex: And stick it into your wallet. Exactly. Um, Chimney wants to know if Karen found anything else on Hen’s phone, and Karen said “no. The, the phone was locked. I couldn’t get into it. I just took a photo of the, the text messages,” and Chimney’s, like, “well, did you use her thumb to like unlock the phone while she was sleeping?” And Karen is horrified. Like, “Ew, no.”

Alice: Ew.

Bex: But then she thinks, what?

Alice: “Wait, did you do that?” And Chim’s like, “No, of course not. Buck did it to me once after I got stabbed. Anyway,”

Ellen: I, I [01:25:00] did this whole scene made me laugh I have to admit

Bex: I, I mean, as much shit as we give the writing, this scene is very well written. I do love this. It’s, yeah, the little throwaway references to like throwaway callbacks to previous episodes and previous storylines.

Ellen: Yeah. Yes. Very, very clever.

Alice: Um, and then we get the, um, “There’s a charge in our credit card for a teppanyaki restaurant. She said she took you there for your birthday. Is that true?” And Chim, rather than covering for Hen, and saying like, “Yeah, we went to teppanyaki.” Instead, he shakes his head and he is like, “I can’t believe she, she lied about that because I love teppanyaki.”

Bex: It’s like his allegiance to Hen has been completely destroyed by the fact that she used teppanyaki.

Alice: Yeah. But just like, not the fact that she might be like, oh, but I do, I love teppanyaki. And the funny, like, this was Karen’s reaction too. Yes. Like, which just like, oh, you didn’t invite me. I love teppanyaki. Which like,

Ellen: there’s a reason they’re all [01:26:00] besties. You know?

Bex: I mean, it begs the question if Karen had said, like, she said that, you know, you went out for drinks or like you went to this rest, this other restaurant, would Chim have gone, “oh yeah, we definitely did that.”

Alice: Uh, yeah. Prob yeah.

Bex: But because teppanyaki is sacred, he’s like, I am not, I’m not lying. I’m not lying about teppanyaki.

Alice: And yeah, so. Karen’s mad because Hen lied to her right to her face. Chim’s mad because she was using him to lie to Karen. And like, yeah, Karen’s like, we’re, “We barely survived the last time. Now we have two kids to think of.” Chim’s like, “I really wish I knew how to help you.”

And she goes, “I, you got anything to drink?” and he goes, “I got coffee.” And they just stare at each other. And then he is like, “I’ll, I’ll, I’ll get something stronger.”

Ellen: I love it.

Alice: Like this whole thing is just the best part of this episode, honestly. It

Bex: really is. Um, I don’t know what they found, but when we return from [01:27:00] commercial, we’re back at Chimney’s apartment.

Except this time it’s Maddie opening the door to Hen and Maddie is like, “Oh my God, thank God you’re here. I found them like this. I don’t think Karen can drive home.” And we see Karen and Chim like almost passed out on the couch.

Ellen: They’re just, they’re extremely drunk. And Maddie must have got home and just went, oh my God. And just immediately rang Hen.

Alice: Chim still has a bottle in his hand,

Bex: but he is also, he found bubblegum somewhere.

Alice: Yep.

Bex: Um, and if you thought that Karen and Chim best was good when they were sober, when they’re drunk, it’s amazing.

Ellen: So funny.

Alice: It’s so funny

Bex: because Karen immediately starts sticking it into hen and Chim is right there.

He’s like, Karen’s like “I am sick of the lies.” And then he hear Chim going, “lies!” “I’m sick of the betrayal.” “So much [01:28:00] betrayal!”

Alice: So much betrayal.

Bex: And Maddie is very diplomatically like, “Hey Chim, maybe we should, you know, give them some privacy.” And Chim’s like, “Why do I have to leave? It’s my apartment. And she is the one that’s cheating.”

Ellen: When Hen does this big double take, she’s like, “I’m, I’m not cheating.”

Alice: And they both just like, Ugh. Yeah.

Ellen: Eventually, eventually they get to the bottom of it. So,

Alice: but it’s just, I just love the, like she hold, holds up her phone and Chim’s like pointing at the phone and

Bex: like gesturing and she

Alice: pulls out the slip, the slip of paper and Chim’s like gesturing to the paper.

Ellen: So silly.

Bex: Long story short, we eventually discover that Imelda is Dr. Royce, who was the surgeon that performed the surgery that Hen got dragged into because she wouldn’t let go of the guy’s artery. And Hen,

Alice: which was really stupid and reckless by the [01:29:00] way. Thanks Chim.

Bex: Yeah. Maddie’s like, “You should stop talking now.” And Chim’s like, “She had a meet cute over an open chest wound.”

That’s not right. Um, it turns out it wasn’t a meet cute, it was just a meet because, um, Dr. Royce has been talking to Hen about Hen possibly taking her MCATs, which I think is like the entrance exam to get into med school. Yeah,

Ellen: yeah, that’s right.

Bex: Because Hen is thinking about becoming an actual doctor and I love that Karen just immediately turns on a dime. She’s like, “You, you wanna become a doctor?” Oh, we do have, we do have to mention

Alice: “You’d be an amazing doctor!”

Bex: That, um. That when Hen tells them that Imelda is Dr. Royce, Chim’s like “A doctor? Least it’s better than the last one she was cheating on you with, Karen,” and Karen’s like, “but I’m a doctor. Why is she cheating on me with a doctor? I’m a doctor!”

Alice: “I have a PhD!” [01:30:00]

Bex: Anyway, Karen is absolutely in love with the idea and very supportive of Hen becoming a doctor. Chim, on the other hand, not so supportive.

Alice: Chim goes straight back into sulking.

Bex: Yeah, yeah. But no one’s,

Ellen: I’m choosing to head canon that they went home and act like maybe after Karen sobered up, um, they actually had a, a discussion about how she automatically assumed that hen was cheating again.

Bex: Oh yeah. Yeah. They definitely need to have that talk.

Ellen: We don’t get any kind of resolve of this actual storyline because

Bex: No, that’s not sexy. Instead we get, um. Like apparently can, uh, Karen has a doctor kink because she dresses Hen up in the doctor’s coat that Hen got given in the last episode. Um, yeah. And then I guess takes it off her later possibly with her teeth.

I don’t know. [01:31:00] Yeah. But no,

Alice: Good for them!

Bex: No actual like discussion about the fact that Karen immediately assumed that Hen was cheating.

Ellen: Yeah. I feel like Hen would’ve been a little more upset about it.

Bex: Oh, she should have been. 100%.

Ellen: Yeah. We don’t see that.

Bex: No, because that, that’s like actual character stuff.

Ellen: We don’t have room for that in the episode apparently.

Bex: No, we don’t.

Ellen: Uh,

Bex: we could have taken out this scene and had some actual character growth.

Ellen: Yeah. We got prom night. Yeah.

Bex: But no, we get this instead.

Ellen: Oh yeah. So it is, it is prom day. Uh, may is at the salon. Michael has dropped Harry off at the Andersons. Who are the people up the road that he set fire to the front of their house, is that correct?

Bex: I think so.

Ellen: Is that them? Um, anyway, he’s, he’s checking, he’s come to the house to check on Bobby to see if he’s, if he’s okay

Bex: and Bobby is not okay.

Ellen: He is not fine, but “I’m managing.” [01:32:00] Um, but yeah, seeing her like that makes him feel powerless. I, I hope I can say this is the last time you actually say the words, but I think there’s a voiceover later, which probably,

Bex: no, I don’t see any more highlights. I think we’re good. Think this is the last one.

Alice: I’m trying to work out when this is because Bobby was gonna stay at the hospital. Why is he back at the home alone?

Bex: I’m, I’m assuming like when he said he was gonna stay at the hospital, like he was gonna sleep at the hospital, um,

Ellen: maybe he came home for a shower.

Bex: The last time we saw him, he was in duty uniform still. So I’m guessing he’s come back, he’s now in civvies in this scene. But yeah.

Alice: Yeah. Maybe he went to get pajamas or something. I don’t,

Ellen: yeah. He might have gone home to change.

Bex: Don’t, don’t think about it.

Alice: To get Athena’s phone charger.

Bex: Don’t think about it. Just let’s just get through it. ’cause this is so ridiculous.

Yes. So Michael says that, you know, Bobby feels powerless. Um, and Bobby agrees that [01:33:00] he, he doesn’t know what to do with that feeling of powerlessness. And Michael says, “Well, you know what? A wise man once told me that he couldn’t offer me any sage advice. All he could offer me was a hammer.” And said, wise man, like, Michael’s throwing Bobby’s words back in his face. ’cause that’s what Bobby told him in “Rage”.

Ellen: Yeah. At first, um, I, I must have missed these couple of lines because they, one minute they were talking about being powerless and then I looked back and they were

Bex: swinging hammers?

Ellen: Like smashing stuff up with a hammer. I’m like, what? Did they go back to the smash room place?

Bex: That would make sense.

Ellen: So I had to rewind it a bit. I’m like, no, no, they’re actually smashing up the house. Okay.

Bex: Yeah. He goes, Bobby goes, okay, cool. Not, what do you want me to do with a hammer without missing a beat? Like there’s, Michael obviously had this idea the entire time because he just looks straight at the fireplace and goes, “I never did like that.”

Like I built it, but I never did like it. Then why did you build it?

Alice: Yeah, right. He’s the [01:34:00] architect.

Ellen: Well sometimes you build stuff and then you look at it and you go, oh, actually I don’t really like it. That happens. But anyway, he’s Bobby’s like, “Athena’s going to kill us.” And Michael’s like, “Don’t worry, I’ll build you guys a new one.”

Bex: I mean, that’s not gonna fix Athena killing them ’cause they’re gonna be dead. They can’t, you can’t build ’em a new fireplace if they’re dead.

Ellen: Yeah. I mean they just lay into the wall with the sledgehammer.

Bex: And can I just thank, I mean, thank God Athena is in the hospital and they do end up taking prom pictures at the hospital.

Could, could you imagine trying to take prom pictures in this destruction?

Ellen: In the house? Yeah.

Bex: Like I know that there like indu, like industrial chic is a thing and it’s very in to have like wedding photos and like industrial parks and you know, but I, I don’t think the construction site is really what May was going for

Ellen: [01:35:00] no. Broken bricks and dust.

Bex: But they look like they’re having a great time.

Ellen: Yeah. Obviously works to get all the anger out because by the time they actually go back to the hospital for prom photos they both look a lot more relaxed about everything.

Alice: Way more relaxed.

Ellen: So they’re taking photos in the, in the hospital room.

Bex: Yeah. ’cause ma didn’t wanna Athena to miss out.

Ellen: Yeah. And Harry is taking the pictures. Yes. As you said before. He thinks they should pay him for his services. Uh, and Darius, bless him, says that, um, Athena has to be in a photo and she’s like, “Oh, no, I’m, I’m not in any condition for a photo,” but May insists because “I couldn’t be more proud. You got him, you won.” And she wants pictures to remember this moment.

Bex: Really?

Ellen: Yeah. Yeah. It’s, it’s a very cute sentiment. But also they’re gonna look back at the pictures and go, oh, that’s right. You were in hospital [01:36:00] after being beaten up by a bad guy.

Bex: You’re like, you know, this was my high school graduation. This was my prom night when my mother got beat up by a rapist. Um,

Ellen: oh yeah.

Bex: Especially, you know, consider, yeah. It’s, it’s not photos that May’s ever gonna wanna look back on.

Alice: Yeah, no.

Bex: And then we’re gonna get just like little wrapping up of the storylines just to tie this episode off in a nice bow. So Josh takes Maddie’s advice and decides that he’s going to reclaim his power and he is gonna give a statement in court.

Chimney is still drunk or very rapidly sobering up

Alice: Very hungover. Yeah.

Bex: And having to, having to deal with the fact that, um, Hen is potentially leaving him

Ellen: Aw.

Bex: For another specialty.

Ellen: He’s so sad about it.

Bex: Yeah. Um, Hen and Karen are getting it on with their, like, Dr. Dr. Dr. Kink. Yep. [01:37:00] Athena poses for prom photos. Harry’s very cute. And she’s, she’s posing and he’s telling her, oh, I get it, mama. Everybody’s laughing. Everybody’s smiling, and she still looks gorgeous. She still does look amazing.

Ellen: Half of her face is all bruised.

Bex: And you’d think that. This would be the perfect place to end the episode. Like on a high note. Everybody’s happy. We’re all good, right? No, no, no. We’ve got one more ending.

Ellen: Wait, there’s more. There’s more.

Alice: There’s another ending.

Ellen: But wait, there’s more.

Bex: No, but wait, there’s more. Um, we have, I have a last minute 9-1-1 call, which appears to be, yeah,

Alice: Maddie teleports to dispatch.

Bex: I’m gonna assume it’s the next day or later on. I don’t know, because Yeah, we just saw Maddie trying to deal with her,

Ellen: with Chim. Yeah.

Bex: Drunken slash hungover boyfriend who is, um, having sads and then suddenly she’s taking this [01:38:00] 9-1-1 call. And it’s a very professional 9-1-1 call. The caller immediately gets to the details. “There’s been a train derailment. Here is the location. We started off at this location where we’re heading into here. We’ve crashed somewhere in this location.”

Maddie tries to jump in to start asking all of the questions that she’s supposed to answer. And the caller’s like, “There are multiple injuries. This is a mass casualty situation you need to send out every available RA unit. We need USAR, we need LAPD for traffic control.” Just starts listing off all of the things that Maddie would normally be doing when she knows that it’s a mass casualty event.

Alice: Um, yeah. And all, all through this as well, the callers walking through the train carriage, but with their back to us, like we’re over their shoulder so we can see all the injuries and the damage and destructions, but we can’t see who’s on the phone.

Bex: Maddie’s frantically typing.

Ellen: We can only see the caller’s beautiful hair.

Bex: We can see them. We can see the beautiful hair. The [01:39:00] voice sounds oddly familiar. Um, yeah. And while Maddie and Josh jump to getting a mobile command center up getting us a getting LAPD, getting LAFD. Um, Maddie tells the caller, “It seems like you’ve done this before.”

And the caller says, “Yeah, but I was on your end.” And then we see the caller turn around as they say, “I used to be a 9-1-1 dispatcher.” And it’s Abby.

Alice: It’s Abby!

Ellen: Abby!

Bex: Which when I first watched this episode, I was very excited about because I love Abby and I thought it was great that they brought Abby back.

Ellen: Yeah,

Alice: yeah. We’ll find out your thoughts about that next time.

Bex: Yeah.

Alice: Anyway, I dunno how I was surprised the first time I watched it. Like, and I have in my notes like, “oh my god, Abby” with a question mark. But like, look, now that I know that she is like in the next episode. [01:40:00] Like the last two episodes have been Abby, Abby. Abby. Abby. Abby, Abby.

Ellen: Yeah. They have been recalling her like a lot, I mean, yeah. And then

Alice: it’s like, oh, look, Abby’s here. What a, how strange.

Ellen: Well, I probably wouldn’t, I probably would’ve been more surprised, except at the end of the last episode, you were like, “Oh, I wonder why they keep matching Abby.” I’m like, oh, okay. She’s coming back.

Bex: Like, I mean, it kind of made sense when they had that big thing about Red, um, because, you know,

Ellen: oh, yeah,

Bex: Red was Buck all grown up and he, you know, there was the patient with dementia, so Oh, yeah. It’s, it’s natural that they’re going to have the, the Abby parallels, but also,

Alice: and then the hot air balloon.

Bex: Why did they have to have so many Abby parallels and then you throw in…

Ellen: There was a lot.

Alice: They just needed to remind people who Abby was.

Bex: I think that, I think that was it. I think that was, they needed to like, Hey, remember Abby? Remember Abby? ’cause you’re gonna need to remember her to get the [01:41:00] maximum impact, like two episodes down the line. But thankfully that is the ending for this episode.

Ellen: Yeah, that is the final ending.

Bex: We don’t have any more endings after this.

Alice: We, we get, we do end with a big, like, sweeping shot that’s like an overhead shot of the train and like, it’s bad. One of them’s almost vertical. Everything’s on fire. Um, and that’s where it ends finally.

Ellen: So next week, um, train disaster?

Bex: Funnily enough, yes, the 118 rush to the scene of a train crash. There is other shit that happens. But that’s all we hear about for this episode. Yeah. Like there’s nothing I know that you’ve seen there isn’t. There is a, a pretty major guest star in next week’s episode. No mention of her.

Ellen: Oh yeah.

Bex: It’s just all about the train crash.

Ellen: Yeah. They could have said that she returns.

Alice: Well, the [01:42:00] summaries usually come out earlier than the episodes,

Bex: but like remember when, um, Lena was there, all of the promos were like guest starring, um, you know, Rhonda Rousey.

Alice: Yeah. Because they wanted people who were into Rhonda Rousey to watch, obviously.

Bex: Um, yeah, no mention of Brook Shields.

I would’ve thought that for a show that was pushing Angela Bassett and Peter Krause and Connie Britton as kind of the, these are the actors that you wanted, that are in this show that you wanna watch, Brook Shields kind of fits that demographic. I would’ve thought they’d have pushed her pretty hard too.

But there’s no mention of her.

Alice: Yeah, right. Yeah, it’s a big one.

Bex: The promo summary does not also mention like three quarters of the triggers that are gonna happen for this. For the next week’s episode, which as well as the train derailment, mass injuries and fatalities, including children at threat, um, we’re gonna have continued [01:43:00] discussions of cancer.

We are going to have flashbacks to Athena’s assault in the previous episode and discussions of rape and sexual assault. Yep. ’cause we’ve still gotta tidy up that whole Jeffrey storyline too.

Ellen: Oh yeah.

Bex: But that’s not sexy. Train derailments are sexy.

Ellen: Yes. Yeah. So next week being the season finale, that’s amazing and I can’t believe we’ve made it all the way to the end of season three.

So the “Powerless” episode, I mean, we’ve already spoke about what we thought about the overuse of the word powerless every, every in, every scene,

Bex: and it going from like metaphorically powerless to being literally powerless,

Ellen: literally power being powerless.

Alice: Yeah. Like the HenRen stuff and the Karen Chimney stuff was the best part of the episode, which is saying something.

Ellen: I mean, not even the Hen Ren stuff like, [01:44:00] I mean they were cute and everything, but it was like, do we need, did we really need her to be like suspected of cheating again?

Alice: Yeah, right.

Ellen: It seemed a bit pointless.

Alice: Bobby having to listen to Athena getting beaten up was absolutely devastating.

Ellen: Yeah,

Bex: that I think every decision about storylines for this one was what is the most dramatic way that we can possibly do this? Does not matter if it’s realistic. There is no room for realism in this episode. We just want drama.

Ellen: Yeah. It was all very over the top. But anyway, I didn’t, I didn’t hate the episode. I, I thought by the, there were very funny parts to it, especially Karen and Chim being drunk together. That was great.

Bex: Yeah. And the, in the,

Alice: so much betrayal

Bex: I think we, I think we need to do like a ranking of Kristen Reidel episodes. Like it’s not the worst Kristen Reidel episode.

Alice: Um, no, but it’s definitely not the best.

Bex: But she’s done better. Yeah.

Ellen: Yeah, [01:45:00] yeah. I mean, I’m wondering whether she wrote, because there were two writers for this one.

I wonder if they wrote different storylines and they all got shoved together again. Like, um, sometimes happens when with co-writing. I dunno. Um, but there were so many, there were so many moving parts in this episode that all had had like little choppy scenes that came one after the other that, yeah, I don’t know.

It’d be difficult to work it out, I think

Bex: Fly on the wall. Would love to be a fly on the wall in a writer’s room sometimes.

Alice: Yeah.

Ellen: Anyway. Yes. Onwards to the finale, right?

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: Um, speaking of which, this is probably the last opportunity that you guys, listeners have to send your feedback for, for season three, because after this, after you’re hearing this, we are gonna be recording our wrap up.

Oh God. Which means I need to look at the list of episodes and decide which one, which ones I [01:46:00] liked and which ones I didn’t like better do some homework.

Bex: Yeah. So if you would like, if you would like to do your homework from previous wrap up, we usually discuss, uh, the best and worst. Including best and worst episode.

Best and worst character for the season. We also like to discuss our favorite emergency call for the season. Um, this season we’re also going to go the best and worst 9-1-1 calls as in the literal call into 9-1-1 that the dispatchers have to deal with. Yeah, I’ve got a list. I went through all the episodes for season three.

Um, it’s dismal, my God, and hilarious. Yes. So if you have thoughts about any of those things, please let them know and don’t forget, you can also give feedback on That Weewoo Show’s season three. Were there any outtakes you found particularly hilarious? Did were there any rants or tangents that you found interesting?

Alice: Have you learned more about [01:47:00] Australia?

Bex: Do you have any questions for us? That you would like to ask us either as watchers of 9-1-1 or as Australians, um, no matter what feedback or questions you send in, please remember that Ellen has only seen up to the end of season three, and we are trying to keep her as spoiler free as possible.

We’re not succeeding. She does know some stuff, but we’re trying really hard to keep her shielded.

Alice: Yeah, I should mention that as, as of recording, uh, season eight, I mean, yeah, season eight, episode 16.

Bex: Yeah, we just watched 16.

Alice: I just aired. Um, so we are aware of what is currently happening in 9-1-1. Uh, Bex and I are choosing to ignore it, just like Nick Fury in The Avengers. It’s a stupid ass decision and we’ve elected to ignore it. So, um, yeah. We are aware, um, Ellen is somewhat aware, but we’re still shielding her

Bex: and we’re not going to talk about it with [01:48:00] her

Alice: just season three

Bex: because we don’t want to make her any more aware of it. Um,

Alice: that’s it. So just season three. Um, but we are aware and are ignoring it.

Ellen: Oh, you are making me so worried. Okay.

Bex: See, this is also why we don’t wanna talk about it because we don’t want to like influence your thoughts about future seasons.

Alice: It’s fine by the time you get to season nine, uh, eight, eight, you’ll forget

Ellen: probably it’s gonna be a long way off if we are currently going at this rate one, one episode per week.

But we’re almost done with season three. So you can send us feedback for the whole season to via email or dms or comments on the website. Um, you go to that we wish share.com. You can find ways to get in touch with us, uh, or you can leave comments directly in Spotify about this particular episode as well.

Um, thank you for listening this week, and we will see you next time for episode 18, the finale, which is [01:49:00] called “What’s Next?” See you then.

Bex: Bye!

Alice: Bye.

Ellen: 9-1-1 is a fictional show, but many of the situations portrayed happen in the real world too. If any of the topics we’ve discussed in this episode have affected you, please know you are 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.