Welcome to That Weewoo Show: a podcast where Alice, Ellen and Bex watch and discuss every episode of ABC’s TV show, 9-1-1.
In this episode we discuss the season five finale, episode 18 of the fifth season of 9-1-1, titled “Starting Over”.
The 118 race to rescue a cliffside wellness retreat guru and respond to an emergency call at an upscale hair salon. Maddie contemplates returning to work. Eddie and May make decisions on their future.
Content warnings for episode 5.18:
an alcoholic character considering relapsing, car accident (truck versus car), discussion of past homophobia, drug use, non-consensual dosing, maggots, memory loss, pregnant woman and baby at threat, PTSD, traumatic brain injury.
Listen here:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Mentioned in this episode:
- Hudson Williams – Buttons by Pussycat Dolls (via YouTube)
If you’d like to subscribe to hear more of our podcast, please check out the numerous ways you can do so on our Subscribe page.
Our intro music is “Tensions” by Northern Points.
Episode Transcript
Maddie: [00:00:00] 9-1-1. What’s your emergency?
Bex: Welcome back to That Wee Woo Show, a podcast where we watch and discuss episodes of the ABC show 9-1-1. I’m Bex.
Alice: I’m Alice.
Ellen: And I’m Ellen.
Bex: And welcome to the season five finale.
Ellen: Oh my God. We made it all the way.
Bex: Thank you to everyone who … We made it to the finale. Thank you to everyone who has been on this journey to the end of season five with us, uh, whether you have just been, uh, listening and lurking, or whether you have let us know what you thought about our past episodes on our social media posts or in Spotify, or if you’ve rated us in Spotify and or Apple Podcasts or whatever [00:01:00] podcatcher you are listening to that allows you to rate episodes.
We do appreciate any and all interaction that you have with us and the podcast. It makes us happy, and it also helps us get into more people’s ears, which not gonna lie, is slightly terrifying, but also a good thing. But before we get into discussing the season five finale, Alice, would you care to remind us what happened in last week’s episode?
Alice: Yeah. So last week on 9-1-1, Jonah kidnapped Hen and Chimney after they discovered he was killing patients to bring them back to life to be a hero. Meanwhile, Buck is mad at Taylor for using information given to her off record to report on Jonah’s crimes. Also, Eddie was in Texas.
Bex: Thank you for saying to be a hero and not to be a god.
Alice: Yeah, not to be a god.
Bex: ‘Cause that really ground my gears last week. In case you couldn’t tell.
Ellen: Someone says it in this episode too, and I was like, “No!”
Bex: I know.
Ellen: That’s not what happened.
Bex: I’m [00:02:00] pretty sure there’s all caps screaming in the notes about that as well.
Ellen: Okay. Look forward to getting to that point. Uh, so this episode is episode 18. It’s called “Starting Over”.
And the, uh, summary says, “Another day in the life of the 118 as its members race to rescue a cliffside wellness retreat guru after his followers turn on him. Then they respond to an emergency call at an upscale hair salon. Meanwhile, Maddie contemplates returning to work, Eddie and May make decisions on their future,” which totally sounds like they’re a couple.
I don’t know. Weird, weird choices of words here. Um, “as do Buck and Taylor, and the 118 gathers for a surprise wedding in the all-new Starting Over.”
Alice: Were you surprised? About the wedding
Ellen: I was surp- yeah, I was surprised because- … I’d forgotten that Toni was even there. But [00:03:00] she’s, when we got to that part I was like, “Oh, okay.” And then the ending. Anyway, we can talk about that later.
Alice: Uh, triggers.
Ellen: Triggers for this episode include an alcoholic character considering relapsing. No prizes for guessing who that might be. Um, we have a car accident, truck versus car. We have discussion of past homophobia, drug use, non-consensual dosing, uh, maggots, memory loss-
Alice: Maggots!
Ellen: Pregnant woman and baby at threat, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury. My goodness, that’s quite a list. It sounds like it’s gonna be, like, a really dark episode by that list of triggers, but it’s actually-
Bex: It’s not …
Ellen: it, it’s not. It’s not at all. I don’t think anybody dies. And-
Bex: Uh, except maybe the maggots.
Alice: Rest in peace, maggots.
Ellen: Yeah. I guess. [00:04:00] Um, yeah, we should probably say up front that I don’t think any of us actually particularly enjoy this episode.
Bex: Nope.
Ellen: So sorry if we’re, um-
Alice: If, if this is your favorite- …
Ellen: a bit negative …
Alice: ever season finale, um, sorry.
Bex: Ple- if this is-
Ellen: Yeah, sorry, I don’t know what to tell you …
Bex: your favorite season finale, please write in and explain to us why.
Alice: Explain your thoughts.
Bex: Yeah. And that’s, I’m genuinely curious about what you liked in this episode, ’cause I struggled with this one.
Ellen: I liked s- like, Eddie’s hair. There’s not much else.
Bex: Good. Eddie’s hair, Eddie’s, Eddie’s hair was particularly good. I liked Buck’s wedding outfit. I thought that was very sharp.
Ellen: Yes. Yes. Um-
Alice: Buck is very cute this episode, yep.
Bex: Yes. Um-
Ellen: I mean, they all looked great, but unfortunately the story did not lend itself to a season finale-
Bex: Greatness?
Ellen: … at all. Like- Anyway, we, we may as well start with, [00:05:00] um, the f- the, uh, what, what is this guy called?
Bex: Uh, I’ve been calling him the guru.
Ellen: He’s a wellness guru.
Bex: Which basically he’s, like, a middle-aged white guy with delusions of, um, Eastern religion, and he, like, cherry-picked all of the most popular aspects of Western re- of Eastern religions to peddle to unsuspecting people who are just looking to start over their lives.
Ellen: Ah.
Bex: Uh, this is a themed episode in case you have, in case you didn’t realize that the first time you watched it, this is a themed episode, except it’s a bad themed episode because you-
Alice: I was gonna say, is it a themed episode?
Bex: It is. If you, like, tilt your head and squint, all of the storylines have to do with starting over or re- or, like, starting again or redo. It’s not specifically starting over, but it’s sort of [00:06:00] starting over.
Ellen: I mean, I think-
Alice: Sure
Ellen: the only re- like, starting over thing about this particular emergency is that the guy says that, you know, “The butterfly emerges from the cocoon and you will be reborn.”
Bex: Yeah. See, so it’s-
Alice: Yeah, this one’s weird.
Bex: it’s like shades of starting over, but doesn’t actually specifically say. But yeah, so we have, um, guru dude who in his infinite wisdom has decided that the best way to help all of the people that he’s fleecing, I mean, trying to help spiritually, to, um, emerge from their cocoon, is to illegally and non-consensually dose them with mushrooms by putting them into tea.
Alice: The funniest thing was, like, he, he was going on, like, what was in the tea, and it was, like, black, green, chai, oolong teas mixed with matcha, dried mushroom, ginger and-
Bex: That sounds disgusting
Alice: … but, like, [00:07:00] he was going on about it, and like, he mentioned mushrooms, and I didn’t even blink because, like, mushroom coffee is a thing, and, like, was a thing at this point as well.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Yeah, not those kind of mushrooms.
Alice: Like, it’s not like he said shrooms. Like, it would’ve made more sense if he’d said, “Oh yeah, shrooms.” But, like, mushroom coffee was a thing at this point, I’m sure, because I was feeding my dogs mushrooms for the health benefits.
Ellen: You were illegally dosing them? No. I thought that the funny- the weird part about this particular emerge- like, this scene is that people who sign up for this kind of thing are usually fully on board with-
Alice: Yeah …
Ellen: everything that is gonna happen. Like, they’re, I don’t know, I don’t think they would be quite so upset about or, you know, questioning what was in the tea if, um, if they get handed… Like, I don’t know, it just, it was annoying when they started shouting.
Bex: Oh, the en- the whole thing was just annoying. Things… Like, [00:08:00] immediately it rubbed me the wrong way when the episode opens with, like, this big panoramic shot of this, um, all these tents, um, set up on a cliff side with a labyrinth with-
Ellen: They do look like nice kind of glamping tents. Like, they- Yeah … looks like a nice place to-
Bex: Um, and there’s a labyrinth with rocks right on the edge of the cliff side, and there are golf carts next to the labyrinth, except nobody is in the labyrinth. Everybody’s in the tents, so therefore what did they do? Like, ride the golf carts up to the labyrinth and then walk back to the tents? Shouldn’t the g- golf carts be at the tents so they can drive them up the labyrinth?
Alice: Yeah, it’s all very weird
Bex: So like immediately-
Alice: It’s also just-
Bex: I saw that and just went and got offside
Ellen: I didn’t think they were that far apart, like where the golf carts were and the tents.
Bex: Well, not really because it doesn’t take, um, uh, Eugene the guru that long to run from the tents to the edge of the cliff, which is what happens because um, [00:09:00] Karen finds out that she’s just been dosed, and gets very upset and, um, Eugene does the most logical thing which is make a run for it. And he runs, I don’t know if he was running for the golf carts or running for the cliffs. Motivations were unclear, but he’s running and he’s being chased by all of the people in the tent who are wielding yoga bollards and yoga blocks, and someone’s got the, um, the hammer, the banging thing with the giant gong that they were using for meditation. Um-
Alice: Like I’m pretty sure they could have just, um, like vomited to try and get it out of their system, but no, let’s chase the guru instead.
Ellen: What is, is one of the dogs scratching something?
Alice: Yeah, sorry. It’s the dog.
Bex: What is Hudson doing?
Alice: I was hoping Discord was gonna filter it out.
Bex: Nope.
Alice: Discord’s not filtering it out? Um-
Ellen: Nope.
Alice: No. Just, um, just ignore that. Uh, he’s so tired but he’s like not [00:10:00] wanting to go to bed yet. Oh. And so he’s just like lazily wandering around.
Bex: So the guru is running towards the edge of the aforementioned cliff. Um, he’s using his smartwatch to c- to get Siri to call 9-1-1. And as he runs into the labyrinth he trips on a rock.
Now, the thing is that when we did this like arching panoramic shot at the beginning of the episode it kind of established how far from the edge the labyrinth was, and it’s not far enough that tripping over one of the rocks would have yeeted this guy off the edge of the cliff.
Ellen: Yeah, I f- I-
Alice: Yeah, it’s real weird
Ellen: really don’t understand how he ended up off the cliff.
Bex: But apparently he tripped and then went flying-
Ellen: Yeah, he flew through the air
Bex: like another couple of meters- Yeah … over the edge of the cliff. I don’t understand the logic. The, I just, you need to absolutely switch your brain off in this episode because nothing about it makes sense.
Alice: Yeah,
Ellen: mm-hmm.
Bex: Um, [00:11:00] but long story short, he goes over the edge of the cliff. He was on 9-1-1 when he did that so, they know that they need to dispatch a unit and they do, they dispatch the 118.
Alice: Just for a change.
Bex: But, um, but when- Yeah … the 118 get there they don’t find an angry mob of, um, upset wellness retreat guests. They find a bunch of people high as a kite.
Ellen: Oh yeah, these guys are wandering around talking to themselves basically. And Chim’s looking at them and saying they’re, they, they look like they’re hallucinating. And Hen’s like, “How would you know?” And Chim says, “You looked like this when you were dosed.” And Hen’s like, “I did not.” I don’t think they were hallucinating. Um- If I remember correctly.
Bex: No, I’m pretty sure-
Ellen: Only, only Bobby was [00:12:00] hallucinating.
Bex: Well, Bobby was having very specific hallucinations. Um, Buck was thinking that, that, that he was either grown to the size of a giant or all of the children were like teeny-tiny fully grown adults.
Ellen: That’s right.
Bex: Eddie was, like, having existential crisis.
Alice: Could- couldn’t they see, like, auras around people too? I’m sure everything was like sparkling or something in the fire truck.
Bex: I’m pretty sure Hen said that Athena smelled like love, so she was having like-
Alice: Yep, there you go. She was having-
Bex: aura hallucinations Like not visual hallucinations, but she was definitely seeing or sensing something.
Ellen: Yeah. She was being reborn.
Bex: Um-
Ellen: She was starting over.
Bex: But thankfully even though everyone is, um, rocking out on the magic mushrooms, they are still cognizant enough that they’re able to help. They’re able to point the 118 in the direction of the edge of the cliff, which is where their, um, [00:13:00] their patient is.
Um, so Eugene has gone down the side of a cliff. He seems to have … His fall has been arrested about halfway down. He’s got a sprained ankle, but other than that he’s fine.
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Bex: Um, so-
Alice: And also high as a kite.
Bex: Well, no, I don’t think he had any of the tea.
Ellen: No, I don’t think he was high.
Bex: He’s fine.
Ellen: He had enough wits about him to run off the cliff. I guess that could have happened if he was high, but-
Bex: Well, no, no, he flew off the, he f-
Alice: He flew off, okay.
Bex: He flew off the edge of the cliff. Yeah. Not because he was high, but because of the magic rocks, like tripped him and yeeted him. Um-
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Bex: So Bobby starts issuing orders. They’re gonna go down and get Eugene. So Hen and Chim are prepping a basket for them to lower down to put Eugene into. Buck and Ravi are working the ladder. Lucy and Bobby himself are gonna go down. Bobby’s riding the ropes. At this point I just went, “Oh, for fuck’s sake. This is a Kristen Riedel episode, isn’t it?”
Because she [00:14:00] loves to put her blorbos in the middle of the action.
Ellen: In, in situations.
Bex: Yes.
Ellen: I mean, it, he’s also going through some stuff, so he wants to put himself in, in the danger, because he feels responsible for what happened before. But anyway, we’ll get to that later. He, he’s very quick to jump-
Bex: Okay, but then why is he-
Ellen: jump into trouble here, like always
Bex: Yeah, okay, so let’s take that logic. He’s, you know, throwing himself to the wolves. He’s putting himself in harm’s way. Why is he taking Lucy with him?
Ellen: ‘ Cause Lucy’s there?
Bex: Like is she also colla- Is she collateral damage? Like, he, Bobby’s gone, I’m, like I’m taking, I’m perfectly willing to take myself out. I don’t want any of the other 118 to like go down with me when I crash and burn, but I don’t care that much about Lucy.
Ellen: Yeah, Lucy’s the only one. So That’s harsh, but, you know. Depressed people do depressed things.
Bex: I [00:15:00] don’t know. It’s just, I don’t know. I think I’m coming from a, a Next Generation, um, perspective where commanding officers don’t do this dramatic bullshit. They have to stay slightly, um, back and let everyone else risk their own lives because the captain is the more valuable team member.
Ellen: Well, I mean, he hardly ever does this anyway, does he?
Bex: For good reason.
Ellen: He usually sends the others in. Like he’s a lot older- Yes … than the others. And-
Bex: But that’s, that’s, it’s like the, he’s Captain Picard. He needs to stay on the bridge and let Riker do all the dangerous shit, because there are like, uh, Rikers can be replaced a dime a dozen. Picard is a precious commodity that can, that cannot be as easily replaced. Yeah. Except for some reason in this episode, Bobby thinks he’s Captain Kirk. And I’m Spock over here going, “What the fuck are you doing? Get back to safety.”[00:16:00]
Ellen: All right. Well, keep your pointy ears on in this, uh- … the rest of this scene because, um, he’s sending, Bobby sends the, um, Buck to sort the ladder truck out because they’re gonna, they’re gonna rescue this guy by extending the ladder out over the edge of the cliff, and then dropping the ropes from there.
Bex: I will give them kudos that they did actually show how they use the ladder and the truck to act as a pulley for rappelling and abseiling and pulling people up. I don’t think we’ve ever actually seen the way they put the pulleys on the ladder and how they stabilize them on the front of the truck. So that was cool. I did like that.
Ellen: Yeah. Yeah, except- There’s just one problem. Um, they didn’t check to make sure the cliff was actually stable before they started doing this
Bex: Oh, oh my God, you just reminded me. They put the fucking outriggers on top of the loose rocks
Ellen: Oh yeah, that too.
Alice: Yeah, it’s so dumb.
Ellen: Like, when [00:17:00] I saw that I was like, “Okay, this is a recipe for disaster.” Like,
Bex: the rocks are just sitting on the soil. Why did they not, like, work out where the outriggers were going and then pull the rocks out-
Ellen: Move them away?
Bex: Of the way so the out- yeah. Like, in the, in the grand scheme of things it wouldn’t have mattered because the truck would still have fallen because it wasn’t the rocks that were the problem, it was, like, the whole fucking cliff side. But you would think basic OH&S would be don’t put the outriggers on unstable shit.
Alice: Yeah. Like, surely that’s rigs 101.
Bex: I don’t know.
Ellen: I mean, Buck was in a hurry, okay?
Bex: No, but, ah, but i- there’s an entire crew there, so surely, like, if Buck goes up the top, like, what was Ravi doing? Was, Ravi should’ve been scouting around to make sure that the areas were clear.
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Bex: I mean, in the end it doesn’t matter because that’s not what the problem is. The problem is that when they start, um, [00:18:00] after Lucy and Bobby have started, um, like, rappelling down the side of the, the cliff, the weight of the truck starts to destabilize the cliff edge and all these little spider cracks, all, all these cracks start spidering, um, under the truck, and the cru- the, the cliff starts, the ground starts shaking and it sounds like thunder.
Ellen: Bobby can hear, like, they work out what’s happening, and they, like, Bobby and Lucy are, they descend as quickly as they can to the area where the, the guru guy is, and then they unhook as quickly as they can so they can sort of get out of the way. But I don’t know where they’re gonna go because th- the, the cliff side is collapsing, so they…
I mean, they don’t even try to, like, run to the side or anything. They just, like, hunker down against the face of the cliff, which-
Bex: Very luckily for them, as the cliff crumbles, the truck starts to, like, slide down the [00:19:00] cliff, which, yes, they would 100% have been in trouble. But then somehow it tilts so that the, the ladder that has been extended kind of digs in and pole vaults the truck over the top of them.
Yeah. And then-
Alice: Yeah
Bex: … sends it tumbling down until it crashes at the bottom. I will give them credit, the truck did not explode. I will give them credit, the truck did not explode
Alice: this time. Yeah.
Bex: Um-
Ellen: I mean, uh, Lucy hopefully will be buying some lottery tickets again after, like- … this is another lucky escape for her to be honest.
Bex: Oh, good god. Lottery tickets and putting in her transfer papers
Ellen: Yeah. And but then after the, the truck is gone and crashes down, um, the rest of the 118 run over to the edge of the cliff again
Bex: To the edge of the fucking cliff!
Ellen: Yeah, which has- Like … has just collapsed. Like, this is not a good idea. But anyway, thank goodness, uh, [00:20:00] Lucy and Bobby and Eugene are fine. Eugene helpfully says, looks at the truck and goes, “That’s bad, right?”
Alice: Yep. Thanks, mate.
Bex: Yeah. Yeah, Eugene, that’s bad. Um, so- So that is the-
Alice: That’s why I thought that he was also high because, like, he just seems real dumb.
Ellen: I think that’s just him
Bex: Oh, no, I’m pretty sure it’s just, it’s just he’s real dumb. And they, or and/or someone thought that was a really quippy way to end that scene with, like, just the deadpan, “Yeah, Eugene, that’s bad.” um
Ellen: Mm-hmm
Bex: uh, so that is the second ladder truck that the 118 have destroyed.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: Possibly third, I’m not sure. But yeah. Adding that to my list. I, I really wish we, um, we c- we go to title card there, and we come back, [00:21:00] and the 118 have returned back to the station house, and they’re watching a news report on Channel Eight about the incident at the, um, at the wellness retreat, and it says that, like, the first responders needed second responders. And I kind of wish that we had seen, like, the 133 have to roll up to rescue them.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: And to retrieve the truck. ‘Cause I just, I, I remember that, that little snippet we had in Jinx where they’re, like, sitting in the truck and, um, with the power pole on them.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: And another c- another house shows up to rescue them and just, like, taking photos of the 118.
And
Alice: they’re just laughing at them. Yeah.
Bex: Yeah, yeah. I, I wanted to see that with, like, somebody ribbing, like, everybody ribbing the 118 for all the f- like, “For fuck’s sake, guys. You destroyed another truck?”
Alice: Like, another one, seriously.
Bex: And looking down at the, looking over the cliff at, like, “Oh, hey, Captain. Looks like you need a ride up,” or something like that. I think that would’ve been… Would’ve slowed down the episode, but I think it would’ve been fun. Anyway, Chimney has had enough of it, and he wants to, [00:22:00] um… He says that they should turn, turn it off. Why do we have to keep reliving it? Uh, but apparently it’s on every channel.
Must’ve been a very slow news day. Um, but they-
Ellen: Hey, it’s not every day a, a big truck goes off the side of a cliff like that. It’s dramatic.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: It is very dramatic. But I would also say it’s a very slow news day because the very next story they go to is a story about Jonah.
Ellen: Yeah, and Taylor Kelly has a fresh report on that.
Bex: And at that point, Hen turns the TV off.
Alice: Yeah
Bex: She’s okay with watching them be ma- uh, being mocked, but she doesn’t wanna relive that particular nightmare
Ellen: That, this must be a little bit, a little while later, ’cause they both are back to work, you know? Like, I would imagine they would have a bit of time off after
Alice: Yeah, well they were at least-
Ellen: They’d been through that trauma
Alice: kept in a- a- like overnight, so
Bex: I don’t think we actually-
Ellen: Oh, back to work the next day then.
Bex: I don’t think we [00:23:00] get a, like a time reference to know how long it’s been.
Ellen: Well, it, it’s gotta be a little bit later because Buck was saying that he had an interview with, you know, a he- like there was a hearing- Yeah
about what happened with Jonah, so the chief, um, interrogated him. But it wasn’t actually an interrogation, it was just asking questions about Jonah. But Buck’s like, “No, he was asking me about Taylor afterwards.” So this is where c- where Bobby kind of gets upset about this. He’s like, it’s kind of escalating, like he says, “It wasn’t your fault,” like to Buck, “We can’t even blame Taylor for this, she’s a reporter. And she, she wasn’t the one running around playing God right under my nose.”
Oh my God, not the God thing again.
Bex: No!
Ellen: No, it’s not God. But, and he says he should have known, it’s his job. But then he kind of apologizes to Buck for yelling at him.
Alice: I don’t remember Bobby’s job being like [00:24:00] catching serial killers, but sure.
Ellen: Yeah, well.
Bex: Yeah, like this entire scene Buck thinks that Bobby is pissed at him, ’cause Bobby is pissed. Um, but with that last line you realize that the only person Bobby is angry at is himself, and Buck’s just catching strays.
Ellen: Yeah. And he pours out his troubles to Eddie while they are redecorating Eddie’s bedroom.
Bex: Aw, putting his bedroom back together.
Alice: I was trying to remember when did, um, how many episodes ago did he punch a hole in his wall?
Bex: It’s been a while.
Ellen: Maybe three?
Bex: Like he went to Texas and left his bedroom like this.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: And it’s only now.
Alice: I’m just like, uh, when was it that like… ‘Cause for some reason I had the, had a memory of it being like directly after.
And then-
Bex: No.
Alice: I got to this episode and I was just like, “Oh fuck, they still haven’t done this yet.”
Bex: Nope.
Ellen: Well you know, it takes a bit of effort to patch holes in the wall, I guess. Maybe he’s been sleeping
Alice: Apparently
Ellen: on the couch for a little bit. [00:25:00]
Bex: He’s just been saving it up for when Buck needed to escape his apartment.
Alice: Apparently, yeah.
Ellen: Maybe Buck came o- like m- maybe he’s been avoiding it and Buck came over and was like, “All right, come on, let’s fix the, fix the walls.”
Alice: Yeah, just comes over with a bunch of plaster like, “I can’t go home, let’s go.”
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: You know what? I would buy that. I would absolutely buy that. Um, so yes, whatever, however you get to this particular scene, they’re patching up the holes and, um, having a little bit of a discussion about what is going on in Buck’s life. And, in this-
Ellen: And Bobby’s …
Bex: we see that, we see that the, the therapy is either finally sinking into Eddie’s head, or he’s in the situation where he can recognize what Frank is telling him in everybody else but not in himself. He hasn’t internalized it yet, but he can reflect it and deflect it onto everybody else.
Um, because Buck says [00:26:00] that Bobby is taking responsibility for everything. That’s probably what makes him a good captain, and Eddie’s like, “Hmm, taking responsibility for something that he didn’t do wrong, that’s a bad road to go down. You lose sight of things.” I’m like, Really, Eddie? Taking responsibility for things that aren’t your fault. I wonder who else does that.
Ellen: Yes. Well, at least he can recognize the, the patterns. Well And Buck wants to fix it because he’s the guy that always wants to fix everything, so that’s why he’s at Eddie’s place. So yeah, it kind of fits-
Alice: Fixing the wall.
Ellen: With the head canon.
Alice: I’m trying to think of any time that Buck has fixed anything besides Eddie’s wall.
Ellen: I don’t think we’ve seen him fix anything, like, physically.
Alice: It’s like, “yeah, I always want to fix things.” It’s like, hmm, I know you wanna cling onto things, but I don’t know about fixing things.
Bex: He’s not really a fixer. He doesn’t really fix things. Like, yes, he [00:27:00] does get incredibly-
Ellen: He help- he helps people get through things sometimes. Like, he’s got a bit of his own therapy sometimes with people.
Bex: Okay, sure, interpersonal things. Like, he helps fix relationships or, you know, tries to help people that way. Yeah. But you don’t really see him with a tool kit in his hands.
Ellen: Nope.
Alice: No, I, I definitely thought of it more as a metaphorical fixing, but then, like, the next line is literally “comes in handy when you have a bunch of holes in your wall.” It’s like, when? Okay, sure.
Bex: Okay, but I guess all of the different jobs that he did, didn’t he do construction at some point? Well, he went through- Or he was working his-
Ellen: He did, yeah …
Bex: he was working his way through the Village People, so I’m guessing.
Alice: I was gonna say he did work his way through the Village People. So I’m sure he hit construction at some point.
Bex: I’m pretty sure we saw a photo of him in a hard hat and a high vis vest.
Ellen: Yeah, I do remember the-
Bex: So he must have done-
Ellen: I do remember that …
Alice: that was literally just when he joined the Village People. That wasn’t him actually working construction.
Ellen: That was when he [00:28:00] was a stripper in, um-
Alice: Yeah. That, that was when he was a stripper-
Bex: In Mexico?
Alice: In Mexico. Oh, wait, no, that was a fan fic. Never mind.
Ellen: That was fan fiction, okay.
Alice: My, my bad.
Bex: Okay.
Ellen: Sorry.
Bex: Like, okay, I will give him that perhaps he has, like, house- construction repair possibility, some knowledge in that area. Um, but yeah, it, it’s very, I… Sure, let’s go with it.
So the, the need to fix things is also just a way to get out of the house because Buck and Taylor are still avoiding each other.
Alice: Yep. He’s literally just decided that instead of fixing anything, which apparently is his thing- Um, he will just-
Ellen: He’s gonna avoid it.
Alice: He’s gonna avoid it.
Bex: Yep.
Ellen: Very healthy.
Bex: Um, and, uh, apparently the part of the avoidance is because he is just angry. Um, and he feels like… [00:29:00] I will give him this part where he says that he feels like anything he is gonna say is just gonna be mean, so he’s just not gonna say anything. So I mean- Yeah … that, that part’s good
Alice: He, he learned like, If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.
Bex: Don’t say anything at all.
Alice: So he’s like, “Okay. Won’t say anything.”
Bex: Um, so then we get… Eddie’s next line of dialogue transitions us to the next scene, because Eddie says, um, that Buck can’t put it off forever. If he keeps the anger and resentment bottled up it’s going to snap. And as he’s saying that we cut to the Bathena residence where Bobby is holding a glass in his hand, and it’s very specifically a scotch glass in his hand, and he’s staring at it very intently and he’s holding it very tightly.
And when we get Eddie’s line of, “Eventually you snap,” the glass shatters under the pressure of Bobby’s grip.
Ellen: Oh my God, I don’t know how he’s done that, ’cause those, aren’t those glasses like crystal usually? Like maybe it’s made of glass.
Alice: Yeah, he might have glass ones.
Bex: Unless he’s got something really [00:30:00] cheap.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: But I don’t see Athena as buying cheap glassware.
Ellen: Like yeah, right. It’s not, it’s not easy to crush a glass with your-
Bex: But that’s-
Ellen: With one hand.
Bex: That’s how angry he is.
Alice: Yeah, he’s that mad.
Bex: He’s also possibly The Hulk. Yeah. Maybe he’s got leftover Hulk powers from when he was irradiated. Um-
Alice: Right. My bad. I forgot.
Ellen: Of course he does.
Bex: But yeah, it’s, um, that’s how mad he is, that he can crush crystal with a single grip. And it shatters in such-
Ellen: And, and half of it gets stuck in his hand.
Bex: Yeah, and it sh- it shatters in such a way that there’s this massive shard sticking out of the palm of his hand, which I, I mean, I’m not gonna go grab a glass and make it shatter to see how probable that is. Um- It seems slightly improbable.
Very dramatic.
Ellen: It is very dramatic. And we-
Bex: I’m not gonna test the theory, though
Ellen: We do get the, the sort of full emotional [00:31:00] impact of just how upset Bobby is about this whole thing, so. But just then, um, May arrives And she calls out to Athena or Bobby. And, um, she comes into the kitchen and s- and, like, sees the glass all over the floor, and she’s like, “Oh, what happened? What happened?”
And he says, “It’s just a scratch, and I’ll just clean this up.” And May’s like, ” I’ll, I’ll, I’ll clean it up. You go and change your shirt, ’cause you’ve got blood all over it.” He’s like, “Oh, so I do.”
Alice: It’s literally, like, two drops of blood, and he’s just like, “Oh, my bad.”
Bex: But it’s a, it’s a white shirt. Like, it’s- It is a white shirt … a white polo shirt. It’s very obvious that there’s a blood stain on it. Um, and Bobby goes, “Yeah, I should probably go do that. It’s probably not the most appetizing thing for your celebration dinner.” Like, he’s not usually this bad at keeping secrets, right?
Alice: No. No. That’s usually Chim’s schtick.
Ellen: Maybe [00:32:00] he didn’t realize it was meant to be a secret until now.
Alice: Maybe he was subtly giving her a heads-up.
Ellen: Well, I was, I was a bit confused by which side the secret was on in this part, because, um, like, May doesn’t seem to know about the celebration, but Athena and Harry already know. So, and she was coming over to reveal the, her sec- or, like, that the fact that she was going to college, but they already know about it.
Bex: I told you, don’t think about this episode too hard.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: Just, just don’t.
Ellen: It’s like everyone knows about the thing, but no one knows that anyone else knows about it?
Alice: Yeah, I-
Ellen: I- …
Alice: I don’t know.
Ellen: Anyway, it doesn’t matter.
Bex: Just don’t think about it. Um,
Ellen: because we don’t actually get to have a celebration, celebratory dinner, or maybe they do have it and we don’t see it.
Bex: Yeah. The, this scene, useless. Yeah. Absolutely useless, because the whole thing about May-
Ellen: Well, only only use is for May to see how upset Bobby is. That’s it. [00:33:00]
Bex: But does, but did she need to see that? Because it doesn’t come back at any point in this episode. Oh, no, it does.
Ellen: No, it does. She tells Eddie.
Bex: She has a talk with Eddie.
Ellen: About it later.
Bex: Yeah. She, she talks, yeah. But
Ellen: still, like, I don’t… It’s weird.
Bex: Yeah.
Ellen: I mean, it also tells us that, it gives us the information that May is going to college. But-
Bex: True …
Ellen: yeah.
Bex: Didn’t we… No, we kind of didn’t really. We suspected, but we, wasn’t confirmed.
Alice: Yeah, it’s now confirmed. Like, I guess Claudette told her to before she died, so she’s like, “Oh, better go to college.”
Ellen: Yeah. It was her last wish. Yeah. Um- Just-
Bex: Oh, no.
Ellen: She, um, May was-
Alice: While, while Jonah’s murdering her she’s like, “Tell May to go to college.”
Ellen: That’s dark, man. Um- Just to [00:34:00] check, um, this is not May’s last episode, right? Like she comes…
Bex: no.
Ellen: Back after she goes to college?
Bex: Well- Oh, I mean, we still see her even when she is at college.
Alice: Yeah.
Ellen: Okay. Right. Just checking. Because,
Alice: They forgot about her. They f- they forget about her for a bit down the line, but she is-
Bex: And I actually think that’s because Corrine was at college.
Alice: Yeah, Corrine was probably busy.
Ellen: Oh.
Bex: Cause there, was it last year or the year before, she made a big deal about the fact that she graduated.
Alice: Good for her.
Bex: Uh, she’s got a fancy degree too, so I’m wondering if-
Alice: And then she came back to-
Bex: … that coincided with
Ellen: She came back to be a, a TV star?
Alice: She came back to 9-1-1? Like, ugh.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: S- sorry, Corrine.
Bex: I don’t know.
Alice: Are you sure this is the hill you wanna die on? Um.
Ellen: What did, what did she study?
Bex: Uh, I don’t know. You guys start talking about Chim and Maddie and their fish taco date, and I will look up Corrine’s Instagram and tell you what she studied.
Ellen: Okay.
Alice: God, she’s pretty. Sorry, I just [00:35:00] went, like just Googled her-
Bex: She’s very pretty
Alice: and the first photo-
Ellen: She is …
Alice: just like, oh, yes.
Ellen: Yeah, for somehow, I don’t know who they left the baby with, but Chim and Maddie are on a lunch date without Jee-Yun. So, and they’re having fish tacos, and fish tacos are delicious. And-
Alice: Whenever I hear fish tacos, all I can think is the, what is it, the pishtaco from-
Ellen: That, yeah, that Supernatural episode? The pishtaco.
Alice: Mm.
Bex: Yes.
Ellen: Um, but they, they’ve getting fish tacos from this one place, but it’s not as good as the other taco place they normally go to apparently when they were still together. Um, so that’s a cute little moment that they have.
Bex: Uh, she had degrees in sociology allegedly.
Ellen: Okay.
Bex: She graduated from UCLA.
Ellen: There you go. Good job. But now you’ve got all this money from being a TV star, you don’t need to be a sociologist. Yeah, so Chim and Maddie they- …
Bex: did we go to [00:36:00] Supernatural? Are we
Alice: back?
Ellen: Yeah, no, we were just talking about fish tacos. Um, yeah, we
Alice: said
Ellen: we went
Alice: to Supernatural- But- … because
Ellen: of the fish tacos. The fish tacos.
Bex: But- Okay …
Ellen: Maddie- Right … w- she wanted to talk to Chim about something, and Chim just assumes that she wants to tell him that she wants to date other people.
And she’s like, “No, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.” So they have this little awkward like, “Oh, no, I don’t wanna date anyone else.” “No. Me either.”
Bex: And they want to- So- And they want to start the conversation over
Ellen: Oh.
Bex: Like, I told you. You gotta, you gotta tilt your head and squint. You, you get there in the end, but-
Ellen: Hmm
Bex: um, yes, no, Maddie doesn’t wanna date other people. I don’t know if she wants to date anybody right now except Chim. Um, she wants to go back to work, and when you have a child and you have childcare arrangements, that is kind of something that you do need to discuss with your baby daddy because it does impact them and your combined finances.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Um- [00:37:00]
Ellen: But Chim is, he, he says this line which, and he’s looking at her with, like, moon eyes and he says, “They’d be glad just to have you back.” I’m like, Oh, Chim.
Bex: Oh, the, the, the entire thing is- … like, are you talking about work or are you talking about the relationship? Because Maddie is, is talking about, um, she starts by saying that she never really realized how much the dispatch center mattered to her until she saw it burning on television, then she says, “I never should have walked away.”
Alice: She didn’t walk away though. Like, she-
Bex: Yeah, but I don’t think she’s talking about dispatch at this point.
Alice: No.
Bex: And then when Chim’s saying they’d just be glad to have you back, I don’t think he’s talking about dispatch either.
Ellen: No. So Chim goes home and Albert’s there. It wasn’t his last episode after all.
Alice: Yeah, he’s still- No … hanging out apparently.
Ellen: He’s still hanging around at Chim’s place. [00:38:00]
Bex: Yeah, I don’t think he’s picked a new, m- maybe that, I’m guessing that the apartment with the Narcissus machine was, um, was, was not a, a match for him, so he’s just crashing with Chim.
Alice: Still crashing on Chimney’s couch.
Bex: Um, he is apparently doing BuzzFeed quizzes on what he should do when he grows up, since he’s not gonna be a firefighter.
Ellen: Yeah. That it told him that he should be an archeologist.
Bex: Yeah, ’cause he has to start over ’cause he’s not gonna be a firefighter. So yes, archeologist, librarian, a sociologist, trial lawyer.
Ellen: Or a cosmetologist.
Alice: A cosmetologist. Um, speaking of cosmetologists-
Bex: Which is, which I don’t think is actually a legitimate, um, suggestion. I think it’s just so they can transition to this stupid scene.
Alice: I think it’s just a segue, yeah.
Bex: It’s a bad segue. Like, the entire thing, like, this [00:39:00] entire scene with Albert was just a series of bad segues. It was so bad.
Ellen: It was a strange conversation.
Bex: So yeah, so they brought John Harlan Kim back for that scene.
Ellen: Yeah
Alice: Like, I mean, he was-
Bex: I mean, money is money?
Alice: He was still in the- But- He was still in the parking lot. He hadn’t cleaned out his trailer yet, and they were like, “Quick, get in the scene. We need Chimney to say cosmetologist.” he’s like, “Okay, sure, whatever.”
Ellen: And for you to look like you, you think he’s stupid.
Bex: Yeah. Like, that’s, that’s his last appearance. It ju- just seems like such a waste. This entire episode is such a waste. Anyway, the hair salon of doom. Um, uh, yeah, so, um-
Ellen: I, I don’t think it’s worth going through all the details of this scene, honestly.
Bex: No. It was-
Alice: Maggots!
Bex: Bas- yeah, basically, uh, we have a, a woman who came in for [00:40:00] hair extensions, and she comes back in demanding that her stylist start over and do it right because it’s incredibly painful. She’s been having headaches, um, for a week. Um, and she threatens her stylist with a one-star Yelp review, which I don’t think has the weight that this episode thinks it has. Um-
Alice: Oh my God, literally. Like, he’s just like, “Oh shit, not a one star.” Like, what?
Bex: Like, she doesn’t even say, like, “I will put you on blast. I’ve got 2,000 followers on TikTok,” or something like that.
Alice: No.
Bex: Like, I feel like-
Alice: That’s very strange
Bex: … that would have more weight than a one-star Yelp review from some rando Karen.
Um- But it scares, it scares the stylist, and he yeets his current paying client, puts the Karen into his chair, takes, starts taking a look at her extensions, and then faints, and like face plants into the ins- the, um, like, tray with all of the brushes and combs and scissors on the next station.
Ellen: Yeah, I kinda thought, like, there was, like, [00:41:00] something, like gas or something in the room that was causing headaches and, like, him to pass out until the 118 arrive and have a look. I’d- Yeah … at no point did I expect there to be maggots in her hair.
Bex: Nobody expects maggots. I don’t think anybody expects maggots. Um, so yes, so the 118 are dispatched to deal with the, you know, the, the unconscious stylist. Um, the Karen is still, like, bitching and moaning about her hair. She demands that Hen, use the scissors from her med kit to cut her extensions out, and I’m like, girl, you’re in a salon with at least five other stylists. Can’t one of them remove her extensions for you?
Ellen: Yeah, I’m sure there are some scissors around.
Alice: Literally. Yeah.
Bex: But, um, while she’s, like, begging Hen to help her, Bobby is sort of looking at this woman’s head and asks Hen to come over and take a look, ’cause, you know, Peter Krause being, like, the giant that he is, he can very easily see sort of the back of this woman’s head without even having to go [00:42:00] up on tiptoes.
Um, and- When he sort of gently parts the hair at the back of this woman’s head, we see maggots have burrowed into the back of her head.
Ellen: Oh, it’s so disgusting. Um,
Bex: because apparently, apparently this stylist uses real human hair for his extensions, but it’s expensive and it’s hard, so he’s been purchasing hair from a funeral home.
Alice: Yeah.
Ellen: Yeah, and I don’t know why- So- … in particular. Like this-
Bex: No, don’t think about it.
Ellen: No, it’s just-
Bex: Don’t think about it
Ellen: I don’t even want to know-
Bex: It doesn’t make sense
Ellen: … if this is a real story that they’ve lifted.
Alice: And then literally that whole scene, like the, the last we hear is just that Athena goes over to the mortuary guy and is just like, “Hey, don’t sell human hair.”
Bex: I’m pretty sure that there are stories of, uh, mortuaries selling, like body parts and organs. The f- I, I feel like hair is the [00:43:00] lesser of the evils that they have sold. I don’t see how the maggots get involved though.
Ellen: No.
Bex: Because maggots are fly larva, so h- I don’t know how the, the flies would have got onto the hair if they’ve gone from the funeral home to being processed as extensions.
It just, it doesn’t make sense. It’s a stupid, it’s a stupid storyline. The only thing that it does, it’s another one of those starting over themes, ’cause the stylist has to start over with the extensions that he put in.
Ellen: It’s, it’s another day in the life of the 118.
Bex: Well, apparently it’s a stupid day.
Ellen: It is a stupid day.
Bex: Um, but then they use that to segue to apparently Hen telling the story at the dinner table. ‘
Alice: Cause yeah-
Ellen: Oh, here you go. Hen even says-
Alice: When, when else do you talk about maggots?
Ellen: F- uh, folks illegally harvesting tissue and bones from dead people. Toni and [00:44:00] Clive are there. Yeah. We haven’t seen Clive since his episode.
Bex: But D- Denny is also there.
Ellen: Denny is there.
Bex: So they’re discussing maggots burrowing into people’s heads at the dinner table in front of their child.
Ellen: Yeah, but Denny’s into it
Bex: Who is just fascinated by the concept …
Ellen: he’s like, “Do they burrow into your brain?”
Alice: Yeah. Classic, um, preteen.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: I don’t think they could.
Ellen: No, I don’t think so, unless they can get through bone. But if any, but like- But like e- even if they’re nesting in your scalp, that’s gonna hurt like hell. But anyway.
Bex: Oh, yeah, 100%.
Ellen: Delightful.
Bex: Um, thankfully Karen is on my wavelength and she’s like, “Okay, we need a new topic of conversation.”
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Bex: Um, and Toni has a new topic of conversation that she’d like to bring up.
Alice: This is also weird, but sure.
Bex: Yeah.
Ellen: Yeah, from maggots to, um, their-
Bex: Matrimony …
Ellen: they’re announcing their [00:45:00] wedding.
Alice: I like that, maggots to matrimony.
Ellen: That could be a, that could be like a, a reality TV show, honestly.
Alice: That’s a great band name.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: It’s the name of my first album.
Ellen: Uh, Clive and Toni want to get married at Hen and Karen’s house. And, well, at first Hen’s like, “Oh, so a, a family trip to Vegas, that could be fun.” And Toni’s like, “No, no, we wanna do it here in the backyard.” And, um, Karen just, like, gets up and walks out of the room. She’s like-
Bex: yeah, Karen, Karen was totally on board with Clive and Toni getting married. She looks absolutely devastated when they said that they wanna get married in the backyard, so she gets up and storms out.
Alice: Yeah, it’s so weird. Like, Oh my God, I can’t believe you wanna do it here. It’s like, O- okay. Sure.
Bex: So after the commercial, Hen has sort of followed her wife out to be like, “What the fuck [00:46:00] was that?” Um, and apparently Hen and Karen, when they got married, they got married in the backyard of that house. Um, and Toni refused to attend that wedding, and so Karen is very upset that she refused to come to her daughter’s wedding in the backyard, but now she wants to get married herself in the backyard. Um-
Ellen: Did we know previously that, that this happened?
Bex: Nope.
Alice: No.
Ellen: Okay. I didn’t think so. Not at all. I was like, Is this, like, a homophobia thing? Like, why did … Like, we don’t think we get much of an explanation except that later she says that she was wrong. But, like, I was like, did we hear about this before?
Alice: Yeah, it’s very weird.
Ellen: But no, okay.
Alice: I don’t even-
Ellen: Oh, um, we’ll just retcon
Alice: … when Toni showed up again, when, no, when Toni first showed up there was some, like, animosity. Like, Hen was like, Oh, like she didn’t believe her.
Bex: But that was-
Ellen: That was, that was related to-
Bex: That was about her dad
Ellen: her father. Yeah.
Alice: Yeah, I don’t fucking [00:47:00] know.
Ellen: Didn’t she, like, walk out on the … Oh, I can’t, no, I can’t remember. Well she- It’s too long ago.
Alice: I, yeah, I don’t remember. Or care.
Bex: I feel like there w- it was something about, like … ‘Cause Hen’s father was, like, was abusive, and then they left. Yeah, but basically everything that we knew about their, sort of their interpersonal relationship and their sort of family drama was about sort of Hen and Toni and Hen’s father, her, um, Toni’s husband.
There was nothing about Karen involved in that.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Um, so this is, like, completely out of left field, and I don’t know that it makes any sense.
Ellen: No, I don’t remember. It doesn’t really matter, um, because Karen decides that-
Bex: It’s also slightly homophobic m-
Ellen: Yeah,
Bex: it, yeah I feel like it’s slightly homophobic making a queer actress play out this homophobic storyline. Yeah.
Ellen: Oh, is [00:48:00] she queer herself?
Bex: Yes.
Ellen: Yeah, that does feel a bit, a bit wrong. Yes. Um, th- I mean the whole thing is-
Bex: Especially just this, like, random homophobia. Like, “Oh, I just, I thought it was wrong. Turns out I was wrong.” Like.
Alice: Yeah, it’s strange.
Ellen: Yeah. But, um, Hen has already found it in her heart to forgive her mother for this apparently. And so-
Alice: Yeah, Hen’s like, “I don’t care. It’s fine.” And H- Karen’s like, “Seriously? Okay, I guess I’m fine with it too.” Like, what?
Bex: Yeah, but ’cause that’s the thing, Karen has this massive dramatic reaction to the idea of them getting married, storms out, but then as soon as Toni comes to apologize, she immediately does a 180 and goes, “No, no, it’s fine. You can get married.”
Alice: Yeah. Like, girl. “Let me plan the wedding for you.” Like, I don’t know, it’s so weird.
Bex: If you’re going to, you are entitled to your feelings. You are entitled to keep your feelings. Just don’t have feelings and then back flip on them.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: Otherwise, there’s no point having the feelings and having the dramatic reaction in the first place.[00:49:00]
Ellen: I, a lot of the things that happen in this episode are, like, storms in teacups.
Bex: They’re so, like, nothing burgers, like you said.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: It’s just drama for drama sake. Like I said, it, it
Ellen: starts out being a bit dramatic and then all of a sudden it’s fine. There’s like nothing- Yes … that comes out of it.
Bex: There’s- There’s no consequences. There’s no lingering effect on anything that happens in this episode. Except for Buck maybe, ’cause he’s gonna lose a couch.
Alice: Not the couch!
Ellen: And a housemate. Oh. All right, so Maddie goes back to work, except it’s not work because work burned down. So- … they’re in this other workspace with all desks set up. They’ve got equipment in there, so I don’t know where they pulled that all out from.
Bex: I don’t know. It’s-
Ellen: Um, but Josh says everyone hates it, and they, they, [00:50:00] they have buzzword salad on the walls. This is like, I’ve-
Bex: Yeah …
Ellen: I, I work in places like this now and then. It’s like this is like every, uh, communal workspace. It’s so, it’s soul destroying. Um, but it’s- … it’s quite n- it’s a nice building. It’s got, like, these little arches on the walls and stuff. It’s, it looks a lot nicer than the, uh, steel concrete ones we have here.
Bex: Uh, but Josh says that it’s just temporary until the new space is ready for dispatch, um, which will be about mid-September, like, just in time for season six.
Alice: Yeah. Funny that
Ellen: Oh, convenient. ‘
Bex: Cause that’s usually when season premieres, right? Around September.
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Alice: Look, probably, and then there’s 18 hiatuses, and then they air episode two.
Ellen: They’re sharing the break room with an accounting firm, and they always have donuts. Yeah. So I mean, that sounds pretty good to me. [00:51:00]
Bex: So the, like, the basic there is just this is Maddie’s returning to work, and she’s very apprehensive about doing it because she thought that she was coming back to work, but now it feels like she’s starting over at dispatch.
Everybody grab your drink. ‘Cause this is … Like, all of, all of the episodes have been kind of hinting and, like, possibly heading toward the direction. Maddie’s just outright said the, title of the episode.
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Alice: Okay, hang on. Sorry, just going back because I’m literally going through our, like, the transcript that we have for “There Goes the Neighborhood”, which is when Toni came in.
Bex: Mm-hmm.
Alice: And Hen, like, when Toni’s talking about leaving Nevada, Hen specifically says, “I still can’t believe you gave it all up, Ma. I mean, we could barely get you to leave Nevada long enough for our wedding.”
Ellen: Oh, no.
Bex: Oh, no.
Alice: So she was at the wedding, [00:52:00] clearly. Barely, but she was at the wedding, and then, oh, never mind.
Ellen: Whoops.
Alice: Also, hey, guys, remem- remember when Hen was in medical school?
Bex: We, I mean, yeah, like, these writers are, are not the best at, like, continuity.
Ellen: Continuity? Yeah.
Bex: Continuity is not something that the writers are very familiar with. There are a couple of writers who do it really well. I’m looking at you, Juan. I’m looking at you, Andrew. Um, the rest of them, it’s like hit-and-miss with continuity. So I’m-
Alice: Yeah …
Bex: I’m so very much not surprised, but that’s incredibly blatant that they’ve just retconned what happened.
Ellen: Yeah. Yeah. The … I thought it was funny when Maddie was walking around, and she’s saying hello. Like, so she doesn’t s- actually really say hello to anyone.
Everyone says hello to her. And like-
Bex: Yeah …
Ellen: Linda says, “Oh, hi, Maddie, welcome back,” and she just, like, gives her the, you know, the cut direct. Like, she doesn’t even say anything. I’m like, “Dude, [00:53:00] you could at least, like, go over and say hello. How have you been?” Like, you know.
Alice: Oh my God, I missed you guys. Nope, back to work.
Ellen: Nope.
Bex: I’m here to work, not to socialize, not to eat donuts, just to work.
Ellen: And, and she does. She just goes to her desk, puts the earpiece in, and says, “9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” Just like that.
Bex: Just like that. And here’s how much- I hate this episode because the next scene is usually one of my favorite kinds of scenes for this show. It’s where everybody is trapped in the back of the truck-
Ellen: Oh yeah, this is a weird truck scene …
Bex: while they’re driving somewhere, and they’re like- Yes … oversharing about their personal lives. And it’s usually, like I said, it’s one of my favorite scenes because this cast can do it really well. It’s fun watching them all interact with each other.
You really see that either they’re amazing actors or they really do all like each other. [00:54:00] I hated this scene. This was so fucking awkward.
Ellen: It was really awkward, and I d- I don’t wanna say that it was Lucy causing the awkward, but like she- But Lucy it was … she’s never in any of the other scenes that you like, so
Alice: Yeah.
Ellen: Sorry. Sorry, Lucy.
Bex: See, I lo- I, I wanna love Lucy. Please let me have Lucy. Let me have the hot female firefighter that does the cool shit, like rappels off cliffs and jumps into trucks. And yet the show is conspiring against that. The show is so misogynistic.
Alice: I wish they’d, I wish they’d just made her gay, but they were like, “Oh, Hen’s gay-“
Bex: Oh, she-
Alice: so like we can’t have another gay one.”
Bex: Oh look, my head canon that she’s queer.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: She has to be. I mean, I know she doesn’t have to be, but she does in my head.
Ellen: She doesn’t say anything particularly awkward-
Alice: Yes, exactly …
Ellen: in, in her defense. Um, but they all are equally awkward with their, [00:55:00] um, Hen’s trying to get, rope everyone into coming to her mom’s wedding, um, and they talk about a partner.
“Isn’t that what we all want in a partner, knowing that they have you, have your back?” And then he looks at Buck, and Buck’s like, “Yeah, until they stick a knife in it.” So yeah, the Taylor thing’s going well.
Bex: Yeah, there’s this weird thing going on with Buck and Chim. Um, and-
Alice: I do gotta say, like the only, the best, the only thing this episode is good for is the Buddie like voiceovers and the Buddies of it all. So like when Buck is helping Eddie patch the holes in his wall, big Buddie scene.
Bex: Yep.
Alice: Um, and then the, “Isn’t that what you want in a partner?” thing is a voiceover in like so many Buddie videos.
Ellen: Oh, yeah.
Alice: And then the bit with, um, Buck and Maddie talking as well later-
Bex: Yeah …
Alice: is big in Bu- Buddie videos as well.
Bex: I mean, that makes sense, ’cause like the knowing that they have your back, wasn’t [00:56:00] like the first thing they said to each other when they-
Alice: Mm-hmm
Bex: … stopped hating each other was that- Yep … “You can have my back. I’ll have, maybe I can have yours,” or so-
Alice: Mm-hmm
Bex: … “You can have mine,” or something like that.
Alice: Yep.
Bex: Um, anyway, so Lucy says to Buck that he really needs to talk to Taylor, and Buck is just like, “I, I think maybe I’m just gonna hope that it works itself out.”
Um- Hen makes a, like a little jab, like, “Just stay away from the tequila until you work it out.” And then Chim says, “Yeah, ’cause we like Lucy, so the next time you go kissing her, you’re the one that’s gonna have to leave.” And everyone in the cab is like, like, “Shut up, shut up. Ixnay on the issing Kay.” Um, Buck is like making the, the slashing motions at his throat.
Hen is glancing over her shoulder to see if like Dad in the front seat heard. Dad in the front seat definitely heard, and he whips around and is like, “When the fuck did you two kiss?”
Alice: Two months ago, apparently.
Ellen: I do- I don’t [00:57:00] know how he never found out about it, ’cause I’m pretty sure Hen told everybody.
Bex: Because as Athena s- No, she told Chim. I’m really surprised that Chim didn’t tell everybody.
Alice: Chim was in Boston.
Bex: So it’s like-
Alice: He couldn’t tell anyone.
Bex: No, no, but he came back, remember? They had that scene where Maddie and Chim… so I’m surprised that as soon as he found out that he didn’t tell everybody until now. But like as, as Athena said, “you didn’t find out because it didn’t matter. They were, apart from that one day when they were acting really weird with the diver dude,” um-
Alice: Yeah. …
Bex: “they, they figured the shit out and they were working together well. Like you’ve forced them together and they figured it out. So you didn’t need to know.” and he’s like, “I still should’ve known.”
Ellen: He’s having a hard time with it for some reason. He’s like, well, what is all this stuff happening behind my back? You know? It’s like, Bobby, you don’t have to be involved in every single thing. [00:58:00] It’s fine.
Bex: He is. He’s dad. Dad needs to know everything that’s going on with his kids.
Ellen: Yeah. And, and Athena suggests that maybe they need some time off, like they should go on a holiday. They have never been on a holiday together since they got married.
Bex: Oh, this was another s-
Ellen: They never had a honeymoon …
Bex: another fucking awkward segue.
Ellen: It was, it was very awkward.
Bex: Like we’re talking about you.
Ellen: Because Bobby just says, “Oh no.”
Bex: We’re talk-
Ellen: Like, “I can’t have a-“
Bex: No, because like-
Ellen: “… I can’t have a vacation now. What are you talking about?”
Bex: Yeah, ’cause they’re talking about Bobby, and then suddenly Athena goes, “You know what? I’m jealous of May.” Like, what does May have anything to do with this conversation?
Ellen: Well, I d- in my head, she was like clocking that Bobby’s probably getting a little bit too involved in all of this and maybe he needs to take a little break. So she’s trying to-
Bex: Oh, no, like I mean, it makes sense. It’s just the super awkward segue to bring it up. Just the entire, everything is so [00:59:00] clunky.
Ellen: All right. Well, speaking of clunky, no, I, I wouldn’t describe a, a pregnant woman- … a heavily pregnant woman as clunky. She’s just very, very pregnant.
Alice: Oh, God.
Ellen: She’s in … She, she reckons the baby’s coming right now, and they need to get moving, so her, her partner is just working, uh, on a laptop so he’s like, “Nah, yeah, in a minute.” she’s like, “No, now.” He’s like, “Okay, okay.” So they, they get everything ready. They go out their extremely beautiful front door. The s- the sets in this episode have been really lovely. I, I enjoyed the scenery, at least. And they get in their-
Alice: Their entire budget went to the sets this, this week-
Ellen: Yes …
Alice: apparently.
Ellen: Yes. Um, they get in their very nice wood paneled car. I don’t know what t- what kind of car this is. It look, it kinda looks like a taxi, like I don’t … But it’s not, it’s their car. Uh, [01:00:00] and then they pull out into the street and are immediately swiped, like T-boned by a truck.
Bex: Yeah, which I don’t know how fast that truck was going to cause the amount of damage to the car.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: Literally, like it’s a residential street, mate. You shouldn’t be going-
Bex: Exactly …
Alice: 200 kilometers an hour, enough to flip a car.
Bex: Exactly.
Ellen: And when the, like the guy manages to call 9-1-1. I don’t know if it was, like, he’s got one of those phones that calls 9-1-1 for you if they detect, like, a, an accident. Because he-
Bex: Was that technology around back then?
Ellen: Yeah, haven’t we had it in an episode already?
Bex: ‘Cause this was 2020… No, we had- I th- … a dude with, like, an, um, automated car that was driving for itself, and then he told it to take him to a hospital, so it started directing him to the hospital, then when it crashed-
Ellen: No, I’m sure we’ve-
Bex: I think it called 9-1-1
Ellen: … I’m sure we’ve spoken about it before when you, [01:01:00] when, like, if you’re, uh, running or riding a bike or something, if your, if your phone detects an impact it will call emergency services for you.
Bex: Oh, that technology definitely exists. Did it exist back when this episode aired?
Ellen: Yeah, it was only a couple of years ago now. Actually, having said that, it was four years ago. Um-
Bex: Yeah, see-
Alice: I think. I think, yeah … it’s not that long ago.
Ellen: I’m sure we’ve talked about it before. Maybe I’m making that up. Anyway, doesn’t matter. Um-
Bex: Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know how this guy-
Ellen: He doesn’t look like he’s in any kind of-
Bex: called 9-1-1 either
Ellen: state to be calling anybody.
Bex: Nope. And he looks incredibly confused-
Alice: He does look very confused
Bex: … um, that someone is talking to him.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: That 9-1-1 is talking to him.
Ellen: So that’s what made me think that maybe the, his phone had, like, called on its, on its own.
Bex: I don’t know. Um, I’m guessing somebody else saw the accident because even as Maddie is saying that help is on the way we already hear sirens. [01:02:00] Um, so I’m guessing-
Alice: They were just around the corner. It’s fine …
Bex: either that or they’re trying to beat Eli on, like, the fastest response time possible. Which I don’t think is possible with LA traffic
Ellen: Yeah, well the way that truck driver was driving, everyone must get around really fast.
Bex: Yeah, in the s- in the suburbs, but you get the freeway and you’re in, like, gridlock for hours.
Ellen: Yeah, gridlock. Yeah.
Bex: So not only was the dri- um, the driver, Cole his name is, um, incredibly confused about 9-1-1 being on his phone when he reported to Maddie about the accident, he also failed to report that his pregnant wife was in the car with him. Like, he just had no concept that anybody else was in the car with him.
And so the 118 are very surprised when they rock up and there are two victims in the car.
Alice: One of which is a very pregnant woman.
Bex: Yes.
Ellen: Yeah, I think they’re both unconscious at that point, but they can’t actually get them out of the car or th- and [01:03:00] they can’t get themselves in yet, um, because they’re … The tops, like, the doors are all smushed in and so they have to cut the top of the car off.
Bex: Well, when the, the car got hit, it sort of spun so it’s now wedged up against a, another parked car. So the, um, Amari, who is the, the pregnant wife, her door is next to a parked car, so Hen can’t get in that way. Um, so Buck and Lucy, who are on saws and jaws, they pull the back pa- back driver’s side door out so Hen can crawl through the backseat.
Um, like, they make a big deal about, “Oh my God, these guys are trapped. We can’t get them out,” and then all of a sudden, like, they just get them out off camera.
Ellen: They’re out.
Alice: They get them out very quickly. It’s- Yeah, it’s not, like-
Bex: F- for all of the, the drama it, it doesn’t ev- eventuate to much, ’cause they get them out rather easily-
Alice: Yeah
Bex: it seems.
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Bex: Um, but so we’ve got Amari, who is 38 weeks pregnant and in active labor, um, so, [01:04:00] like … And Hen is having trouble finding a fetal heartbeat, but that could possibly just be, you know, the, the position of Amari in the front seat- Yeah, she’s- … and the fact that Hen’s using a stethoscope. Um-
Alice: She’s, she’s like, “Yeah, it’s not, not a big deal. It’s fine.” Like, Amari’s just like, “What the fuck is wrong with my baby?” And she’s like, “Nothing probably.”
Ellen: “It’s, it’s cool. Don’t worry.”
Bex: It’s user error. It’s me.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: It’s me. It’s not you, it’s me. Um- The other issue is that Cole apparently has a brain bleed because one pupil is non-reactive.
Alice: Yeah, Cole’s not doing great.
Bex: No. So they get them out. Amari gets in one ambulance with Hen. Uh, Cole gets in another ambulance with Chim. Amari’s fine. She’s like, Hen is still struggling to find a fetal heartbeat. Um, but it’s fine Although I, like the writing is Ama- she’s using a, her stethoscope to try and find the fetal heartbeat and as she’s saying this, she’s saying that [01:05:00] like, “Your, um, your waters were clear, no meconium, you’re eight centimeters dilated and almost fully effaced.”
But she’s saying this as she’s running the stethoscope around Amari’s belly, and I’m like, Hen, I know it’s been a while since you’ve been to medical school, but you kinda actually ne- do need to be in another position to check for dilation and effacement.
Alice: Yeah, like it doesn’t look like they’ve held that-
Bex: You can’t tell that
Alice: it’s not like they’ve put a gown on Amari or anything. She’s literally just there in like her, like jeans and a T-shirt. Yeah, she’s- And she’s just like, “Yeah, you’re, you’re real dilated right now.”
Bex: like, I’m sure that this is just, like Hen has done that examination, then she’s gone back to try to find the fetal heartbeat, so she’s just like reminding.
But the way it’s sh- the way that she delivers it and the time that she delivers it, and the fact that we didn’t see anything else, it really just makes it seem like Hen thinks that she can see how dilated Amari’s cervix is with her stethoscope.
Alice: With her stethoscope.
Bex: While Amari is still fully dressed.
Ellen: She’s listening to it all.
Bex: And like I know that, I know the 118 have like magical diagnostic skills at times, but [01:06:00] that’s kind of stretching the um-
Alice: Yeah, it’s ridiculous …
Bex: stretching belief. Um, s- so while that’s happening in that ambulance, back in the other ambulance, Cole is struggling to pass a simple like cognition test. He doesn’t know what year it is, and the president is that old guy.
Alice: Yep. Yeah.
Bex: Which could mean any- It’s, it’s- … of the last couple presidents …
Ellen: It’s always that old guy. Yep. They’re all old guys.
Alice: Literally, like no, no idea what year it is, but it is indeed that old guy.
Bex: I mean, we can rule out the years that Obama were president, ’cause I’m pretty sure that like he’d be able to remember if the old guy was also Black. Um.
Alice: This is where Chim-
Ellen: Maybe. He’s still an old guy …
Alice: “you’re also Black.” “I’m Black? Oh my God.”
Ellen: He’s only lost a few years. Um. Not like his entire life.
Bex: But then, but Chim’s like, “Okay, [01:07:00] oh shit, this like, this is not good. This guy doesn’t, um, know who the president is,” and but he’s trying to reassure his patient. He’s like, “It’s fine, you know, you’re just a little bit foggy.” Um-
Ellen: It’s like, “Fine, don’t worry about who the president is. You don’t wanna know.”
Bex: We just, um-
Alice: Literally, don’t think about it, it’s all good. We’re fine
Bex: he’s like, “You’re just foggy from the head trauma. We need to keep you alert and awake. Believe me, having your first child will definitely do that for you.” Do what for you, Chim? Keep you alert and awake? Like keep alert. Or make you foggy?
Alice: Keep you alert and awake. Yeah. Foggy. Make you foggy, I think, but it was-
Bex: Again, it’s- Yeah it’s, it’s like the, they need to get the information to Cole that he’s having a kid. It’s just incredibly clunky dialogue. Um- Yeah … but then we get the, the oh shit moment because Cole goes, “I’m having a kid?” And Chim realizes that it’s worse than just not knowing who the president is
Ellen: Wait, wait, I’m a woman?
Alice: He’s, like, looking down, like, “I’m pregnant?”
Ellen: “I’m having a kid?”[01:08:00]
Bex: Okay, that would’ve been good.
Ellen: Anyway. Apparently, apparently he’s got some amnesia, because when they get to the-
Bex: Just a touch
Ellen: … emergency room and they both get wheeled in, Amari’s trying to work out if he’s okay, and Cole’s like … It- she says, “Oh, my, my sister’s gonna record e- everything so you don’t have to miss it.”
And Cole’s like, “Miss what? Do I know you?” Which is absolutely not want to hear, what you want to hear from your husband? I don’t, I can’t remember if we saw them getting married in a flashback, but-
Alice: Yeah, I think it, I think the hu- yeah, husband.
Bex: Um- We saw them getting engaged. We didn’t see the wedding, but we’re gonna presume husband.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Yeah. And he’s incredibly confused.
Ellen: It’s not what you want to hear from your husband just when you’re about to have a baby.
Bex: Especially when they, the nurses start to wheel him off, ’cause obviously he needs to go into surgery. Um, and he’s asking the nurses, like, “Do I know her?” Like, they don’t know, dude. They just met you.
Ellen: Yeah. Yeah. Well, he doesn’t know [01:09:00] anything at the moment. Um- He’s got no idea what’s going on.
Bex: No, he doesn’t. But then that’s kind of it for that emergency, ’cause the next thing is Buck and Maddie.
Alice: No, no. We go back to them.
Ellen: They come back, they come back later, yeah. We just leave them for a little while.
Bex: Yeah. And I d- I, I don’t like that next part. But it just, like, for the actual emergency part of it.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: It’s-
Ellen: Yeah. Well, they have, they leave them at the hospital doors now apparently.
Bex: No they don’t. They, like, go to surgery with them and stand up in, like, go up into the theater, like, watching room- … with all of the, like, medical students, and, like, taking bets on- No, no,
Ellen: today-
Bex: like, which one is 007 … they’re,
Ellen: they’re saying goodbye at the doors.
Alice: Jesus Christ. Can we just change to a Grey’s Anatomy podcast?
Ellen: No, please don’t make me watch a medical show.
Alice: No, you have to watch The Pitt.
Bex: You have to watch The Pitt.
Alice: Let’s just go to the-
Ellen: Oh, yeah. [01:10:00] Okay
Alice: … let’s just go to a, we- we’re gonna be a Pitt podcast from now on, guys.
Um, after today’s season nine episode, we’re, um, pivoting. We’re going to The Pitt. Um, don’t know how many times we have to-
Bex: Pivot . Pivot!
Alice: We don’t, don’t know how many times we have to ask you not to call it The Pitt, but we are going to, um, The Pitt. Gonna go hang with Dr. Robbie.
Bex: Yes. Uh, Dr. Abbott, please.
Alice: Yes.
Bex: Back to 9-1-1.
Alice: Oh, do we have to? Yeah.
Ellen: Yes. Come on.
Bex: We do, because I, can we pl- can we please marvel at the, I don’t know if it counts as interior decorating if it’s on the patio, which is on the exterior, but the exterior decorating that Taylor has done for Buck’s patio balcony, ’cause it looks good.
Alice: It does look good. I didn’t even rec- realize it was Buck’s. I assumed it was Maddie’s house, even though Maddie doesn’t have a house and is living off out of her car. I don’t think she has a car either, but, you know.
Bex: Well, she has to be living somewhere. She can’t be sleeping on the streets with Jee-Yun.
Alice: She was [01:11:00] sleeping in the qui-
Bex: Pretty
Alice: sure s- She was sleeping in the quiet room at dispatch until it burned down. That’s why she’s so upset.
Bex: I’m pretty sure CPS would have something to say about that. Um, so yes, the Buckley siblings are day drinking, um, and talking about the, um, the amnesia case.
Ellen: Yeah. There’s a chance his memories might come back.
Alice: Um, yeah, apparently he’s lost six or seven years. And yeah, Maddie is like, “Oh, there will just be a big black hole in the middle of his life if the memories don’t come back,” which is a bit sad to think about.
Bex: Which immediately reminds Buck of 50 First Dates.
Alice: Literally. He’s just like, “Hey, remember that Adam Sandler movie? Because all I watch is Adam Sandler movies.” And she’s like, “Big Daddy?” And he’s like, “No, the other one.”
Bex: And he’s absolutely outraged because, uh, th- about the fact that 50 [01:12:00] First Dates was marketed as a comedy. He seems to think it’s like a psychological horror film. Because it-
Ellen: He says, “It sounds like a nightmare.”
Bex: He’s…
Alice: Oh my God, I would be… So like, it actually does sound like a night- If you were that woman, right? Like-
Bex: Yep.
Alice: Jesus Christ, imagine waking up eight months pregnant and not knowing how the fuck you turned out to be eight months pregnant, and then waking up with a baby and, and not understanding-
Bex: Oh my God
Alice: like, that you ha- like, you have to have a baby, and like feed the baby, and look after the baby, and it’s just like, “Okay, cool.” And then it’s like, “Oh, now I have a teenager living in my house. I still feel like I’m like 19, but this is fine. Apparently I have a teenager that’s just like, ‘Oh, it’s fucking…’” Nah.
But yeah, waking up like eight months pregnant is actually my nightmare. I have had ni- I’ve had literal nightmares about h- being like cryptically pregnant, and it terrifies, like scares the shit out of [01:13:00] me.
Ellen: Oh. Um- well, good news
Alice: But anyway, we have, um-
Ellen: It won’t happen.
Alice: We have another, um, we have another line that’s used in Buddie fan vids everywhere, which is, is that, uh, where Buck goes, “Is that really love? Shouldn’t it be when you’re at th- your worst and they’re at their worst, and you have every reason to give up and you still decide you wanna try again?”
Ellen: Hmm.
Alice: Maddie’s like, “Yeah, I guess.” And it’s just like, “No, no, we’re, we’re talking about Buddie now.”
Bex: Yeah, so we’re, we’re also, we’re d- desperately trying to bring it back to theme because Buck says that the whole concept of 50 First Dates sounds like a nightmare because you’re having to start over every day.
So take a drink. Um, but he sees it as, I don’t think he, he doesn’t quite grasp the idea that in 50 First Dates the woman doesn’t remember. Like, he’s going on and [01:14:00] on about, like, always doing the same thing and making the same mistakes, never having a chance to learn, like, or make a different decision. She can’t because she doesn’t remember making any decisions.
Like, she’s- Yeah … she can’t learn and grow.
Alice: No. But yeah, no, I’m with Buck. It’s h- horrific. No, thank you.
Bex: Yeah. And so from there-
Ellen: It feel, like we’re, we’re having another, um, episode where there’s lots of endings because this feels like it should be the end, but it’s not.
Bex: I don’t know. We go back to the hospital where Kristen tries to desperately David Wallace these two people to make us care about them. I don’t fucking care about them.
Ellen: Well, neither one of them is about to die, so I don’t-
Alice: Yeah, like Co- …
Ellen: what, why, why bother?
Alice: Cole’s upset because he doesn’t remember his wife and his son, and she’s just like, “Oh, that’s okay. I’ll just tell you our love story,”
Bex: and then they can start over. So like, bam, there we get the theme. Do we [01:15:00] need the next montage of showing their love story?
Ellen: I don’t know. It’s kinda cute-
Alice: It’s really cute. Yeah … but I don’t care for a season final.
Ellen: It is, it is very cute, but like it goes on for a long time.
Bex: Yeah. But the point-
Alice: It just keeps going. Uh,
Ellen: yeah.
Bex: It’s, it’s a season final. We should be focused on our core main ensemble, not the peripheral characters.
Alice: Yeah. Yeah.
Bex: Unless their storyline somehow impacts our main characters.
Alice: It’s like they, um, they got to 517, and they’re just like, Oh, we did such a good job, you guys. Like, see you next season. Uh, what, what?
Bex: Wait, so it was one more?
Alice: 18? Oh, fuck. Um- Uh, can someone call the gu- that guy- … who plays Albert back? Um, who the fuck else is in the lot?
Ellen: Is this what happened-
Alice: Wait. Has, has-
Ellen: … with season 15 of Supernatural as well?
Alice: Yeah.
Ellen: And they went, “Oh yeah, we have to write a, a last episode? Let’s just make it the same as episode one.”
Alice: Quick, go to a pie festival. Um-
Ellen: Anyway, uh, saltiness aside, um, it, it is really, it’s a very cute [01:16:00] montage, but yeah, I don’t know. I, because at the end of it he looks like he might remember something, and then it cuts out and we never see them again.
Bex: Yeah. There’s-
Ellen: So- …
Bex: nothing. I don’t know. And I think, ugh, I just … Episodes like this make me so mad because there are, like we discussed a couple of episodes ago, this show can do the emotional manipulation so well
Alice: Yeah
Bex: to the point where you can sob every single time you watch an episode, no matter how many times- And like we- … you’ve seen it … we
Alice: just had this, like, two episodes ago with the, the girls and, like, losing their mum.
Bex: Yes. Yes.
Alice: And I fucking cried.
Bex: That’s exactly what I’m talking about.
Alice: Because it wasn’t a season finale, I didn’t want the story to be like, “Okay, let’s, like, move the, like, move the main character’s storyline along.”
It was a really good fucking episode, or a really good fucking scene from the episode. I don’t even fucking remember the episode. Um, but it’s a really good scene [01:17:00] from the episode. And then this we’re just like, “Oh yeah, season final, let’s talk about these characters we’re never gonna see again.” And I’m just like, that’s great, if it was, like, three episodes ago.
Bex: I don’t think it would even work three episodes ago. I think the emotional manipulation is just not there. It’s too obvious, it’s too blatant, and it’s not good enough to actually tug at any heartstrings. Yeah. Maybe I’m just the Grinch, maybe I don’t have any heartstrings left anymore.
Alice: Look, after watching um, the season nine episode today, this show has d- like, my heart has shrunk. You know how at the end of The Grinch-
Bex: His heart grows three sizes?
Alice: His heart, like, grows? Yeah. My, the, like, the season nine episode this morning made my heart shrink three sizes.
Bex: All right. Well, anyway, speaking of hearts shrinking, um, we’re gonna go b- to Buck’s apartment, or back to Buck’s apartment, um, where Taylor is slinking in.
I don’t know whether she’s, like, coming in to try and pack her shit while Buck’s not there. Um, [01:18:00] Buck is there, and for some reason he’s sitting on the staircase waiting for Taylor. It’s the creepiest fucking thing.
Alice: Literally.
Ellen: It is creepy.
Alice: Taylor’s like, “Buck, are you home?” And then she, like, walks in and Buck’s just sitting on the stairs.
Ellen: He doesn’t even say anything.
Alice: It’s like, you could have said yes. Like, the fuck?
Ellen: Anyway, they agree to, they agree to actually speak to each other.
Alice: Um, I love that Taylor Taylor just, like, she’s so done with his shit. She’s just like, “Ah, I guess we’ve moved past the avoidance stage.” And Buck’s like, “Yeah, it was getting ki- it was starting to get ridiculous.” um, but Taylor just says, “I’m sorry you’re still upset about the story.” And-
Bex: That’s not an apology, Taylor …
Alice: yeah, and rightly Buck goes, “You’re not sorry for what you did though.” And Taylor’s like, “Nah. Story was gonna come out regardless. If I hadn’t broken it, someone else would have.” And, like, Buck’s upset because he wanted Taylor to call him first, and she just figured that it’d be fine and he’d get over it. And Taylor’s like, “It wasn’t about you.” [01:19:00]
Bex: Yeah.
Alice: Like, “I was trying to get the truth out there. The public deserve to know.” Um-
Bex: Oh, this bit …
Alice: yeah. And Buck’s like, “This is literally our first argument all over again.” And Taylor’s like, “Yeah, you knew who we were, who I was when we started dating.”
Bex: And then Buck says, “Yeah, I guess I thought I could learn to live with it.” And what the actual fuck?
Ellen: That’s mean, Buckley.
Alice: That’s so mean.
Bex: Buck, I thought we had resolved not to say anything until we were gonna be nice.
Ellen: Yep. He did say-
Also- …
he thought he’d say something mean
Bex: Also though, there has been no previous indication of this aspect of their relationship.
Alice: No.
Bex: They- Like, this has come completely out of left field.
Alice: Honestly, they just wanted Buck to be single at the start of next season, so they were like-
Bex: Yeah, they b- they, yeah, they needed to break them up …
Alice: we don’t wanna give Taylor a p- we don’t wanna give Taylor’s actress a pay rise, so we’re just getting rid of her. [01:20:00]
Bex: It’s just, it is, it’s in… Yeah, they’ve just, We need to break them up. We’re just gonna break them up.
Alice: As I said, I believe I said it at, in the last episode, I believe Taylor has been one foot out the door since she found out that Buck cheated on her. I don’t believe Taylor would have made the… Like, yes, she cares about her career. Yes, obviously it’s a big i- big important thing, like her, um, like, her, her search for the truth and stuff.
I don’t believe this would have gone down the way that it went down if Buck hadn’t cheated on her.
Ellen: Maybe.
Bex: That’s interesting.
Alice: Because, like, they break up and Taylor is like, “Okay.” Like, she doesn’t argue. Like, he, like, you know, she’s like, “Yeah, yeah, like, I’m willing to try.” Uh, ’cause Buck says, “I, I want things to be d- I need things to be different.” And she’s like, “Yeah, yeah, I’m willing to try that, a clean slate.”
And he goes, “Yeah, not together.” And then the next time we see them, like, she’s just like, “Okay, here’s your key back.”
Bex: No. Uh, [01:21:00] I don’t know. I think it’s just the writers are just like, “We just need Taylor gone.”
Alice: Oh, the writers absolutely, but I-
Bex: And we, and we’re not going to put any effort into- …
Alice: try- trying to look into this as a character study here- Mm
um, I bel- I believe she’s been one foot out the door since she found out that he cheated. Because she moved in, she was so enthusiastic. She was so all in, and then he was like, ” Oh yeah, I kissed someone.” And she has been colder since then.
Bex: But it’s not just- Yeah … that he kissed someone. He kissed someone and then he trapped her in his apartment.
Alice: Yes, exactly.
Bex: He, like, manipulated her until she h- had no choice but to stay with him.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: And so, like, when you look at it from that aspect, he trapped her in his apartment, and then he breaks up with her, which means that she has to now move out.
Alice: Yeah. She’s gotta now find somewhere else. But it’s okay, ’cause hopefully she got a really good pay, like, ho- hopefully she got real good pay for bringing the Jonah story. Um- Um, so hopefully she can [01:22:00] afford-
Bex: I don’t know. I just-
Alice: … a nice apartment
Bex: I really don’t like what they did with Buck in this episode
Alice: Oh no, I hate it. I hate the way that they end Buck and Taylor’s relationship. I really like them bo- like, I don’t know if I like them together.
Bex: I like them together as fuck buddies.
Alice: Yes.
Bex: I don’t know that I like them together-
Alice: I don’t know if they would have made the distance anyway
Bex: … as a relationship. No.
Alice: Because Taylor is, at this stage in their lives as well, Taylor’s a lot more mature.
Bex: Oh, hell yes.
Alice: Um,
Bex: which I think was why-
Alice: And Buck is hot
Bex: … we had a conversation one episode about like what is their age difference, ’cause I’m p- I’m adamant that Taylor is older.
Alice: No, I think Buck’s just immature.
Bex: I mean, you’re not wrong. Um, but like- But he could also be immature and younger than her.
Alice: Buck’s got the whole like, you know, he’s strong, he’s tall, he’s cute, he saved her from the helicopter that one time. Um, and so she’s just like, “Yeah, like I’ll st- like, you know, [01:23:00] I’ve banged guys for a lot less. I get it.”
So yeah, I, but I do believe that she was a lot more in the relationship before she found out that he cheated.
Ellen: Yeah, well, I- Yeah … I guess it would be the same for anybody, like if the trust is gone.
Alice: Yeah. Mm-hmm. That’s it. So yeah, on Taylor’s side, fuck Buck.
Bex: Oh yeah, yeah, I hate Buck at this point. Taylor didn’t, no matter what she did, she did not deserve this.
Alice: I am proud of Taylor for putting her career over Buck, because Buck was never gonna stick around, like it was never gonna be a long-term thing, and if she hadn’t broken that story, someone, as she said, someone else would have.
Ellen: Yeah, I don’t think she did wrong by breaking the story. Buck just felt bad because he was left out of it.
Bex: Ditch Buck. Go find Lucy.
Alice: Yeah. But yes, anyway, fully in support of Taylor. Women’s rights and [01:24:00] wrongs, but I don’t actually believe Taylor was wrong in this.
Bex: No.
Alice: Like, don’t use a reporter for her footage and then be like, “Oh no, but you can’t, you can’t do it.” It’s like fuck off. She kept her promise. She did not break the story before it happened, and then as soon as it all went down she was like, “Yep, cool. Got my window.”
Bex: I mean, like, like, like we discussed in the last episode when this actually happened, obviously the LAFD would not have wanted this story broken at all, and even Bobby at the beginning of this episode had said they w- they, LAFD would have wanted to control the narrative in order- Yes … to protect themselves and to stop any panic from breaking out.
Um, so like there are-
Alice: But like there’s not even any consequences with that. Because-
Bex: It’s, it’s one of, it’s one of those things where whatever angle you look at it from- Like the perception and the rights and the wrongs sort of shift. Everybody has, everybody is right in their own thoughts, everybody is somewhat wrong in their own thoughts in this situation. Nobody [01:25:00] is 100% right or wrong.
Alice: Oh, that, that just brings it to like what would have been a good episode to have following Jonah and following the whole like serial killer paramedic. Whereas yeah, if the, like if the 118 came to a job and they were like, “We don’t trust you.” But instead it’s literally just business as usual.
Bex: Yeah, we don’t actually see any consequences.
Alice: Like there’s no, yeah, there’s no fallout for Taylor releasing this story.
Bex: Nope. Other than a, like Buck has to sit through a couple of interviews.
Alice: Yeah. Which like honestly he’s done fucking worse at the department.
Bex: And that all happens off camera.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: Anyway, that is not the end of this episode.
Alice: No, it’s, we’re still going.
Bex: We still have to keep going. Yeah.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: So we’re going t- we’re gonna go back to dispatch.
Ellen: Eddie’s gonna check up on dad.
Bex: Well, first he’s gonna check up on his like new little sister first to [01:26:00] get the info on dad.
Ellen: Oh yeah, he doesn’t, he doesn’t want, wanna know how May’s doing, he just wants to know how Bobby’s doing. Uh, apparently Eddie got a million followers, so that’s cool.
Bex: Like Eddie p- Eddie personally or just like the L_A_F_D_?
Ellen: I’m pretty sure it’s the LA-
Bex: I think Twitter accounts-
Ellen: L_A_ I think it’s
Alice: the L_
Bex: Or whatever, whatever the hell, like handle they came up with- Yeah … for the episode.
Ellen: Oh, God. Two days of tweets about traffic collisions and, and trash fires should-
Bex: Should reduce his follower count, Yeah, probably. Yeah.
Ellen: Um, but he He really wants to know how Bobby’s doing. And May looks at him funny and she’s like, “Why would you ask me that?” And he’s like, “Probably the same reason you’re looking at me like that.” ‘Cause yeah, something’s up.
Bex: And so she decides to tell Eddie about the glass breaking.
Ellen: It was [01:27:00] weird.
Bex: Yes. And it was weird because of the, because it felt like she was, she felt like she was interrupting more than just a broken glass, whatever the fuck that means. Uh, so speak of the devil and he doth appear. We then cut back to the Bathena residence where, uh, red flag number one, Bobby is coming in through the back door, um, the, the door that leads straight into the kitchen.
Um, and red flag number two is he’s carrying a brown paper shopping bag.
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Bex: And he’s on the phone to Athena clearly just checking to see where Athena is. And she is on shift.
Alice: Yeah, it’s, it’s a little bit sus. It’s totally not, you know, Bobby’s gonna relapse o’clock. Um, ‘
Bex: Cause it, there, there is no reason for him to be coming in through that back door because the, they park their cars up by the front door. So he’s had to, like, go down past the side of the house to loop around to come [01:28:00] in through the patio.
Alice: Yeah. But yeah, like Athena asks how Bobby’s doing and Bobby’s like, “Yeah, I’m good. I’m probably just gonna have an early dinner and call it a night.” And Athena’s like, “Yeah, good to hear.” It’s like, uh. But luckily there’s a knock on the door.
Bex: And Bobby’s like immediately, “Uh-oh, someone’s at the door. Gotta go. Love you. Bye.”
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: Athena’s like, “Uh, okay.”
Ellen: Athena must be on night shift ’cause she says, “See you in the morning.”
Bex: I think so. Yeah. So h- uh, Bobby opens the door and it’s Eddie. And I, I don’t know what he’s doing with this look, like the hands behind the back and, like, the looking up at Bobby through his eyelashes. It’s, it’s the weirdest thing. Like-
Alice: Oh my God, it’s like the Ted Mosby look where- … when, um, in season two w- of How I Met Your Mother, when Marshall and Lily are broken up, Ted’s teaching Marshall how to, like, flirt with the girl at the coffee shop. Oh. And he’s like, “Put your hands in your pocket, [01:29:00] put your head down, look up as, like, a sign of shy vulnerability.”
And Marshall’s, like, trying it and failing miserably, and he just looks, like, awkward. And then it cuts back to, like, Ted telling Robin about the story, and Robin’s like, “That’s, that’s a, like, that’s a look that you are specifically doing? ‘Cause I think I slept with you because of that look.” And Ted’s like, “Yeah, it’s a good look, right?”
But yeah, that’s the, that’s the look that Eddie’s doing.
Bex: That’s the look.
Alice: That’s the look. And I’m like, Eddie, what are you trying to do with Bobby? Bobby did just come through the back door. Um.
Ellen: Oh, no.
Alice: Anyway, um- But yeah, that’s the look.
Ellen: Well, Eddie is not there for long. He just, he, he needs to go and pick Christopher up, but he, he said the, the line is, “I wanted to say Jonah wasn’t your fault.” It’s like, you just came here to tell him that?
Bex: It’s, it’s a r- it’s the most random conversation.
Ellen: It’s weird. Yes.
Bex: Like, “Hey, Bobby. Can’t stay for long. Jonah wasn’t your fault. Okay, I love you. Bye.”
Ellen: [01:30:00] Yeah.
Alice: Literally, that’s all it is.
Ellen: And he’s like, “You can’t carry someone else’s weight. It’ll take you under.” What does that mean? Um, Bobby’s trying to take responsibility, but Eddie’s like, “You didn’t know him. Y- everyone missed something,” blah, blah, blah. Oh, he thought he was a god. No, we’ve been over this.
Bex: No, Eddie.
Ellen: Not a god.
Bex: Like, Eddie, you weren’t even on the scene. You were at dispatch. You have no idea what was going on.
Ellen: Eddie, you weren’t there.
Bex: Stop. You weren’t there. Um, but apparently it’s like, um, “You’re not all-knowing or all-seeing.” Neither are you, Eddie. Um, i- but he tells Bobby that he is just a good man. And Bobby’s like, “Yeah, no, I’m, I’m not a good man. I’m really not.” Um, Eddie tells him that he saved, that Bobby saved Eddie’s life and he saved Christopher’s life.
So whatever responsibility he takes for everything that happens with [01:31:00] Jonah, he therefore has to take responsibility and the credit for everything that happens with Eddie and Chris. And then he’s like, “Yeah, I gotta go. I’m out. Peace.”
Ellen: Yeah, Bobby’s like trying to get him to stay- See you … for dinner, but he’s like, “No, no, I, I really need to go and get Chris.”
Alice: Yeah, Chris has friends over with Carla. Like it… Okay, sure. Why not?
Bex: But i- wasn’t he gonna go pick up Christopher?
Ellen: Yeah, I think, I think he’s just making excuses for not-
Bex: Like he literally said in the beginning he’s gonna pick him up … actually s-
Ellen: hanging around with Bobby …
Alice: Yeah, “I need to pick up Christopher,” but Christopher has friends over. Like, who wrote this script? Did they even read what they were writing?
Bex: It’s Mad Libs. Like one writer wrote the first line, then they passed it on to the next writer who wrote like the next line of dialogue and it just went- Yeah.
Alice: But they weren’t allowed to-
Bex: until the scene was done
Alice: … they were only allowed to look the, the direct line ahead of theirs. They weren’t- Yes. … they weren’t allowed to look back, yeah.
Bex: But like it’s literally like, um, “Whatever responsibility you take for Jonah, you gotta take credit for me. Okay, now I gotta [01:32:00] go.” And then Bobby’s like, “Thanks for stopping by.” Eddie’s like, “Literally the least I could do.” It’s just weird. Anyway, so Eddie leaves.
Ellen: It is weird.
Bex: Bobby heads back into the kitchen and he continues unpacking his shopping bag, which as well as lettuce and whatever else that he unpacked, I wasn’t paying that much attention, it also contains a bottle of Glencallen, which I had a little bit of a laugh about. Um, which I’m guessing it’s like Glenfiddich vers- and versus like Macallan.
That’s, that’s this, that’s like a mashup of Scotch names.
Alice: Oh. I guess. Yeah, it’s like, um, like How I Met Your Mother’s I think is Glenmaca- macaL- MacLennan. I can’t remember.
Bex: Yeah. It’s basically, it’s trying to, uh, say to the audience-
Ellen: It’s trying, trying to look like a whiskey bottle …
Bex: this is a bottle of Scotch without having-
Ellen: But yeah, not actually being one
Bex: yeah, without having to pay the license to use actual-
Alice: Yeah …
Bex: um, [01:33:00] bottle. Um, so then he takes the bottle out, he looks at it, uncaps it and pours it down the sink.
Ellen: Yep. And then he like-
Bex: And I have thoughts.
Ellen: He leans over the sink to inhale the fumes as it washes away down the sink.
Oh, no, he looks- Oh, my God … he looks quite relieved actually that he’s made that decision.
Bex: So here’s my, here’s my issue. I, um, it’s probably gonna be a little bit hypocritical because I constantly bang on on this show about how the fact that people get trauma and then they’re never allowed to have trauma for very long.
Like, they have trauma and then they have to get over it. Mm. And we never come back to the fact that they should have a chronic injury or, you know, the fact that Bobby is an alcoholic and is surrounded by people drinking all the time. Um, so it might be hypocritical for me to say that I hate the fact that we’ve got Bobby relapsing, but [01:34:00] it’s not because of that, it’s because this is the second time we’ve had a season finale where Bobby is suspected of relapsing.
Because this is exact- Like, the storyline from, um, “Suspicion”, which was like, I know that “Suspicion” was the penultimate episode of Season 4, but those episodes were, it was a two-parter, so I’m calling it one episode. The season finale of Season 4, Athena suspected Bobby of drinking, and he wasn’t. He was being a mentor for the woman that had, like, the massive crash on the freeway that nearly killed Albert.
Um, but she thought that he had relapsed. And so now we’ve got another season finale where Bobby almost relapses or is suspected of relapsing or it’s something about Bobby relapsing, and I’m just … This is a more- Is,
Ellen: is it, is this the only drama that Bobby can ever have? Yes.
Bex: Exactly. And see, I like this storyline because I think that this is realistic for Bobby.
He is [01:35:00] under incredible stress. He’s probably got the brass of the LAFD coming down on him about the story with Taylor and with Jonah. He’s got his own sort of self-recriminations about what happened with Jonah and Claudette and Ch- Chim and Hen. Um, everything’s kind of spiraling. Eddie’s gone. All of this shit’s happening.
It makes sense that he would turn to drink. But because we did, “Oh my God, Bobby is drinking again,” last season, this almost feels like the alcoholic who cried wolf, and I hate it. So those are, that’s my thoughts on this storyline, that I like, it’s, I think it’s realistic, but they cheapened it by hinting at it last season.
And guess who wrote last season’s episode with Bobby relapsing?
Alice: Oh. Gee, I wonder. Yeah. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even watch the show. She just- … comes in, writes Bobby relapsing, or [01:36:00] almost relapsing, and then leaves again for the rest of the season, and then comes back like-
Ellen: And, and then, and writes Athena getting into scrapes
Alice: 15 episodes later and it’s just like, eh. Yeah.
Ellen: Yeah. No, I agree, it’s real- this is realistic though, ’cause, like, obviously it’s … I, I don’t really know anything about alcoholism but, in particular, but it’s hard, it’s difficult to get over it completely. Like, you, you’re gonna have these thoughts sometimes, right? Over and over again
Bex: Yeah, well, isn’t it the thing that you’re like, you’re always an alcoholic. Yeah, yeah. You never, you’re never cured.
Ellen: Yeah, it’s-
Bex: You have to live with this disease for the rest of your life …
Ellen: the urge to do it is always gonna be there, but I don’t know.
Bex: Yeah.
Alice: Yeah, absolutely.
Ellen: But yeah, if it, if it happens, if we see it too many times and they make it a dramatic deal out of it every time, then we, we are gonna get like-
Bex: It cheapens it
Ellen: sick of it. Yeah.
Bex: It’s like, “Oh my God, Bobby’s relapsing again.” Like …
Ellen: All right, we’re still not finished.
Bex: I also think like the fact that it was, no, [01:37:00] that I’m still, I’m not finished either, but I will-
Ellen: Okay, continue your soapboxing.
Bex: I will put … No. I will put my soapbox away so we can finish this damn episode.
Ellen: Okay. You can get it back out. May- maybe you can-
Bex: Can I get it back out for whoever dressed Ryan in this next scene?
Ellen: I thought we liked what they were wearing to the wedding.
Bex: No, no, no. I liked what Oliver was wearing.
Ellen: Oh.
Bex: I liked what Buck was wearing. I think that Ryan’s jacket is a crime against fashion.
And I don’t know whether it’s … And I don’t know whether it was two different stylists or whether like the actors had something to say about it, but whoever was responsible for that jacket, they need to be burned along with the jacket.
Ellen: Oh no.
Bex: ‘Cause it’s, it does not fit Ryan, and he’s got one button done up.
And I’m like, I’m not a guy, so I don’t have to ascribe by the whole like buttons thing, but even I know that if you’re standing up, you do all your [01:38:00] buttons up, and then depending on whether you’re sitting down or not, that’s when you can start to unbutton the buttons. And that jacket clearly has two, if not three buttons, so they should all be done up.
Or it needs to be-
Alice: Yeah, so now I just have “Buttons” by the Pussycat Dolls stuck in my head. And all I can see is Hudson pole dancing on the train. Um, thanks for that.
Bex: Okay, now I got a really weird image of a dog pole dancing and
Alice: Not my Hudson. Jesus Christ. Hudson Mildred Williams pole dancing on a train.
Bex: Why was he on a train?
Alice: Have you not seen the short movie?
Ellen: I don’t think I’ve seen it either.
Alice: Oh my God. Okay, hang on. Oh, fuck, I need to find it.
Ellen: He’s got a lot of different short films that have him in
Alice: various things. I was s- still trying to find the short film that, um, I mean, not the short film.
Bex: Is this the land leopard one?
Alice: No. God, I love that one too.
Bex: It’s a different one?
Alice: Um, no. At first I was trying to find the edit that Bec, that, not this Bex, my friend, my other friend Bex did [01:39:00] of, um, those quotes from this episode. And so I’m like scrolling through my videos, trying to find that video, and now I’m gonna have to find my video, ’cause I know I’ve got it saved somewhere, of Buttons.
Bex: Okay.
Alice: Um, but yeah, he was pole dancing on a train. Okay. It’s a really weird short film, but like most of his short films are weird, so like that’s just par for the course. Yeah. But yeah, it’s about like a guy, like finding his inner, like-
Ellen: Pussycat Doll?
Alice: Yeah, pretty much
Ellen: Okay.
Alice: That’s, that’s pretty much it.
Bex: All right. Well, you do that, um, we’ll finish off
Ellen: Yeah, let’s keep going or we’ll never-
Bex: this damn episode.
Ellen: Get to the end.
Bex: Yeah, so, um, it’s wedding day, and Hen and Karen … Yeah, like Karen’s like full on, fully into planning this wedding for Toni and Clive. Um-
Alice: Which is weird because she was very against it, but sure … but,
Bex: cause she’s [01:40:00] very against it. Like, she’s completely done the 180 and like thrown herself fully into hiding her feelings through napkins and linens and flower arrangements. Yeah. Um, and she’s getting all stressed out about, um, linens when like The Three Stooges show up dressed in their best kind of, um, casual spring wedding look, which-
Ellen: Yeah
Bex: Ryan looks terrible. Kenny looks good. Oliver is immaculate. No notes.
Ellen: It’s all- Yeah, pretty much … it’s very white shirts and, um, you know, boat jacket type thing. Like …
Bex: Yes.
Ellen: I’m, I’m gonna have to go back and look at the scene again to see what they’re wearing now. Because I remember, I remember Buck’s look was good, and I remember Chim looked great. Buck’s did. But I don’t remember.
Bex: They did. Maybe you blocked it from your memory because of how terrible it was.
Ellen: Maybe.
Bex: Um, um, but it, the, how they look is not surprising. The [01:41:00] fact that they are there at all is surprising, which is surprising to me because wasn’t Hen earlier in the episode bitching because May was going-
Ellen: Yeah, she was trying to get them to come
Bex: yeah. She was trying to r- like round up more people to attend so that there would be a peop- actual people at this wedding. So wouldn’t therefore she have roped everybody in to come to said wedding?
Ellen: And then she and Karen are being like really mean about it. They’re like, “What the hell are you guys doing here?” It’s like- … “We’re coming to the wedding. What do you think we’re doing here?” It was just, it was a bit mean.
Bex: And they both think that the other p- the other one has invited these three, and I’m going, Look, but you would have invited … You wouldn’t, wouldn’t have invited them. You would have 100% told them to be there-
Ellen: Yeah, it was fucking weird
Bex: to support this. Um-
Ellen: And they were like, “We’re standing right here. Do you want us to leave?” They don’t say that,
Bex: but- So Buck s- Buck says, no, Buck says, “You know we weren’t gonna miss this.” And Hen’s like, “Miss what?” [01:42:00] And the three of them look at each other. Everybody’s like looking at each other very confused, and I don’t know why everybody was-
Ellen: Yeah, I’m also confused
Bex: well, I know wh- Everybody’s confused. I don’t know why everyone is confused. Um, but Chim, uh, who has no chill whatsoever says, uh, “You should talk to your mother,” and then all three of them go to find the bar. And then we cut to Hen tracking down her mother and having a, a conversation with her about the fact that, um, Toni is not getting married today.
Alice: Yeah, that was what it came down to. It’s like, “Oh, okay. That, yep, cool.”
Ellen: I’m like, There is no surprise wedding?
Bex: Well, there is a surprise wedding because Karen has four dozen deviled eggs in the fridge. Apparently she doesn’t eat those as she’s making them. She just eats cupcakes as she’s making them. Yeah. So Toni has decided in her infinite wisdom that because she was, because of her, homophobic reasons, but [01:43:00] she apparently retconned that she was not at Karen and Hen’s first wedding, she wants to see them get married now.
So they’re gonna have a vow renewal so Toni can be here for them.
Ellen: She’s basically forcing them to get married again because, I mean, obviously they’re on board with it, but she’s like, “No, I’m not getting married today. You are.” And they’re like, “Uh, okay.”
Bex: Can we just talk about, like, um, Toni sprung this on them, yet both of them have something white to wear.
Alice: Like, are they wearing their original wedding clothes? Were they-
Ellen: Yeah, I, I figured that was just their wedding gear. I don’t know. I don’t know how long they’ve been married for, but maybe they still had it in the back of their closet. Like, I still have my wedding dress around here. Hell, I would not be able to fit into it. Like, maybe one, one leg could fit into it.
Bex: Well, that would be the second th- That would be the other thing. So yes. So Toni’s like, “I was a homophobic bitch. I’m sorry. Please get married again so I can be here for you this time.”
Ellen: And
Bex: they’re like, “Yeah, sure.”
Ellen: It was just a nice sentiment, but do we have to do [01:44:00] it on the day?
Alice: E- even though I actually was here the first time, that the writers just forgot.
Bex: The only thing I like about this scene is the Indigo Girls, because “Closer to Fine” plays over this, like, wedding montage thing. Because we get, they do this thing where everybody is at the wedding watching Hen and Karen get married, and as the camera sort of pans to each member of the 118, we kind, they cut to a different time, whether it’s before the wedding, after the wedding, a different universe, I don’t know, just to wrap up their season five storyline.
So for instance, um, we cut to Buck to watch him and Taylor officially break up as Taylor gives back her key.
Alice: Yeah, not mad at all. She’s just like, “See ya.”
Ellen: Yeah, they’re fine.
Alice: “Taking my couch and going.”
Bex: She kind of even looks at him like, “You’re a fucking idiot, Buckley.”
Alice: Literally.
Bex: It’s, it’s like it’s sh- she’s looking at him like he’s, she’s a f- he’s a fond toddler that she’s, you know, gonna [01:45:00] miss.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: Um, and then it cuts to, um, to Chim Uh, who has managed to track down, uh, Andreas’ food cart so he can get some of those fish tacos that are, like, really, really good
Alice: The fish tacos?
Bex: Yes. Um, and apparently Maddie had the same idea because she is also picking up food from Andreas, and so they decide to eat-
Alice: With Jee. That’s cute …
Bex: with Jee. So they decide to stay and eat, but, like, Maddie picks up her food and then Chim says, like, “Why don’t we, like, stick around and eat?” And so they go and eat, but Chim doesn’t pick up his food, so he’s just- Yeah … eating Maddie’s food.
Also, Maddie was planning on heading back home with Jee. She doesn’t have a baby bag or anything. She’s, [01:46:00] like, wildly underprepared to be having a meal out with a toddler.
Alice: It’s fine. They’ll be fine.
Ellen: They’ll be fine. They’ll be all right. She- Yeah … she’s accidentally run into her boo, so all plans go out the window.
Alice: Exactly.
Bex: Apparently. Uh, camera pans over to Eddie. We have a, like, a quick moment with him and Christopher where, um, we get confirmation that Eddie is still going to therapy, thank God. Um, it’s working, but he still needs a lot more of it. And Chris- we get acknowledgments that Christopher is still, like, a little, little font of wisdom because Eddie does not look like he wants to go to therapy at all.
He’s really not looking forward to it, and Chris says, “Remember, talking about it makes it less scary,” which is obviously reciting what Eddie has told him before.
Ellen: Mm-hmm.
Bex: Also, during this entire thing, [01:47:00] we don’t actually hear anything about the vow renewal. We just get shots of Toni presiding over Hen and Karen standing there holding hands.
Ellen: Oh yeah, they don’t say anything.
Bex: Nope.
Ellen: Yes. But, and also, uh, after, after it’s all over and they’re sitting, everyone’s sitting around at tables, and Athena is wearing a beautiful dress. Um, she always scrubs up well whene- whenever they have, like, a formal occasion. She’s always just looking immaculate. Um-
Bex: Yes
Ellen: but there’s, she’s sitting at a table with Bobby. Bobby pulls out an envelope from his jacket and hands it over, and Athena’s like, “What’s this? A cruise?” And apparently Bobby has got over his shit and has booked them a cruise. And then-
Bex: Where the only baggage they’re taking is actual luggage.
Ellen: Apparently, but [01:48:00] We know they’re both lugging around quite a lot of baggage so who knows? And then they do that, that cute little smoochy smoochy that all the, the little k- like tweens go, “Ew, Mom and Dad kissing.”
Bex: It’s like the, the, the massive pursed lips and like the, the peck on the lips.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: It’s almost like a social distancing kiss. Like a mwah. Yeah. And then we finish with like the Avengers Assemble, um, moment where we cut to the 118 station house where an alarm is going off, and so we see the 118 A team, uh, emerge to answer the call.
Bobby comes out of his office. Chim and Ravi are running down the stairs from the loft. Hen and Lucy race out of the locker room. Someone comes sliding down the fireman’s pole, and it’s Eddie. Back with the 118.
Ellen: Yay, Eddie’s back.
Bex: Um, [01:49:00] and then Buck is there. Like, he just spawns out of nowhere. And so as a group, the 118 plus Lucy, they sort of are very casually doing their, um, Avengers walk down the engine bay.
You’re going to a fucking emergency call, guys. How about a little bit of hustle?
They eventually … I really hope this isn’t a medical emergency, ’cause that person’s gonna be dead. Um, they eventually get into the trucks. All the trucks roll out. The engine bay is empty, and that’s the end of the episode and the season.
Ellen: Yeah, I mean, it’s an, it’s a great sort of closing scene. But, um, yeah, bit of hustle would be good.
Actually, I, it’s funny that we, um, saw, like in the last episode we got Eddie being a firefighter again, and we just assumed that he was back in. Maybe that was two episodes ago. But in this, in this [01:50:00] episode, the beginning of this episode, he’s at dispatch, like doing the tweeting thing.
Bex: Yeah.
Ellen: So we don’t actually see him quitting or any of that being resolved.
Alice: No, it’s just- But- It’s done now. We’re good.
Ellen: Yeah, he’s, he’s back. That’s it.
Bex: But also, like he came to see Bobby and he said, “I don’t have any transfer papers. Like, I’m not coming here asking for my job back,” yet suddenly he has his job back.
Alice: Yeah. Yeah, well he t-
Bex: So did Bobby just turn around?
Alice: He told, he told, he told Chris that he had an appointment, um, and I, we can only assume that the appointment was to, like transfer.
Ellen: A, a job interview?
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: No, but like the talking about it makes it less scary. I thought that was therapy.
Ellen: That therapy makes more sense.
Alice: Oh, yeah, maybe it was. I don’t fucking know then. Yeah.
Ellen: No idea. Maybe Frank said to him, “I think you’re finally cooked.” Go and, go and put your transfer papers in.
Alice: Please, I’m so sick of you.
Bex: Go with God, my son.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: Or did, like, Bobby turn around and come back to Eddie on bended knee going, “Please come back to the 118. I [01:51:00] need to get rid of Lucy”?
Alice: Lucy’s still there, though.
Ellen: Poor Lucy.
Alice: But yeah, Bobby found out that Lucy and Buck kissed and sh- he’s like, “Get the fuck out of my house.”
Bex: I don’t need people hooking up on my shift. And we’re just like-
Ellen: So he puts Eddie back in?
Alice: I don’t need-
Ellen: Like, dude.
Alice: I don’t need Bob- Yeah, I don’t need Buck h- hooking up with anyone but Eddie in, on shift, so you’re on.
Bex: Yeah. No, no, that’s what it is. He’s like, he’s afraid that if Lucy sticks around that, like, Buddie will never happen, and he really needs Buddie to go canon, so he’s, like, yeeting Lucy and bringing Eddie back in so that he can make his Buddie dreams come true.
Alice: Bobby is trying his best, fam. He’s trying his best here.
Ellen: Poor Lucy.
Alice: Jesus Christ.
Bex: But that’s it. That’s the end of the season.
Ellen: Oh. Yeah. I got to the end of this- Yeah … and I was like, Jeez, that, that was a weird fucking season finale.
Alice: Yeah. It just keeps going, but, like-
Ellen: But nothing really happens
Alice: … nothing happens.
Ellen: Yeah. All right. All right. We’re [01:52:00] at the end.
Alice: Okay. We’re at the end.
Bex: Yes, my soapbox has been put away.
Ellen: All right. You can bring it out again next week. That’s fine.
Bex: I will definitely be bringing it out next week.
Ellen: I’m sure. Uh, I think as, I think we said at the beginning, if you’re hearing this now, we have probably already recorded our, um, wrap-up episode, unless we can’t record next weekend, in which case you do still have time to get, um- So I think, I think the best idea-
Alice: We, we don’t know what we’re doing at this point.
Ellen: No, we don’t. No. Um, I think it’d be best to-
Alice: We have more hiatuses than season nine of 9-1-1.
Ellen: If you, if you’re hearing this and you have feedback to send to us, just send it to us anyway, or you can go on our social media and check, and I’m sure that we will remember to put a post up if we are, um, delaying the f- the, uh, season wrap-up so that you’ve got time to get your stuff in. But yeah, we still wanna hear it.
Bex: Regardless of [01:53:00] whether you get it … Yeah, regardless of whether you get in, get your thoughts about season five in on time to be included in, discussed, read out during our episode on season five, we still do want to hear your thoughts.
Alice: Yeah. We do. Um- We like hearing your thoughts.
Ellen: Absolutely.
Alice: Um, sorry that we hated most of season five. It’s not gonna get better in season six.
Ellen: We didn’t hate most … There were some good episodes in this season Like there, okay, yes, there was some-
Alice: There was at the end of the season
Ellen: terrible episodes too, but The, I’m sure there was more than, like, just the last few that we actually liked.
Alice: It was just, it was just so funny because Supernatural Then and Now just did their season nine wrap-up.
Nope, season eight wrap-up. And yeah, that was, it was so paralleling season five of 9-1-1 because they were going through the first episodes in the season and they were like, “Wow, that was shit. Wow, that was shit. Wow, that was shit. Wow, that was shit. Wow, that was shit. But oh, that [01:54:00] one was good. Wow, that was shit.
Oh no, we’re getting better now. Oh yeah, that one’s good too. Oh, we like these ones.” And I was like, “That was literally season five of 9-1-1.” We were like, “We fucking hate this show. Why is this show still here? Oh, that’s cool. Okay, this is shit again. Oh, no, no, we’re g- we’re good now. This is fun.” But yeah, I’m like at least it’s not just our podcast being really negative, ’cause Rich fucking hated all of season eight. It was great.
Ellen: Okay. So let us know in all the usual ways, so leave comments on the episodes post on thatweewooshow.com, or on Spotify or YouTube or on social media. Um, thank you for listening this week, and next week we will, uh, be wrapping up season five, so stick around. No, I don’t even know where I was going with that.
Um, we’re gonna wrap up season five. See you then.
Bex: Bye.
Alice: Bye.
Ellen: 9-1-1 is a [01:55:00] 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’re not alone. You can call or text numbers in your country for help. Just Google crisis support in your location to find out the number.
If you enjoy our podcast, you can help us out by leaving us a review on Spotify or your preferred listening app, and by sharing our social media posts. Find out more at thatweewooshow.com.
[outtake 1]
Alice: Hi, what are you doing? Hello. Hello. Do you wanna be on the podcast? Come tell everyone how cute you are. Hudson says he was very brave for his vaccination today.
Ellen: Aw.
Alice: He was very brave for his bath today. He was very brave for his nail clips today. He was not so brave for the dryer today.
Ellen: Oh.
Alice: The dryer was scary, wasn’t it, bubba, hey? You didn’t [01:56:00] like the dryer? Oh, excuse me, that’s my hand.
[outtake 2]
Bex: Which however you get to this particular scene, they are patching up Eddie’s- The holes in the beddy, the… Oh, good Lord
Alice: The holes in whose walls?
Bex: They are patching up the holes-
Ellen: Beddie’s?
Bex: … in the bedroom walls of Eddie’s. No, no. No. They’re- Jesus Christ. They’re, they’re patching up the holes-
[outtake 3]
Alice: Oh my God, I just looked over and Hudson is, like, sleeping halfway out his crate. This is dog Hudson now. Sleeping halfway out his crate.
Bex: Oh, I didn’t think you had Hudson Mildred Williams in a crate in your house.
Alice: Oh, I wish, guys. Um,
Leave a Reply