6.13: Mixed Feelings

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 (our 100th!) we discuss episode 13 of the sixth season of 9-1-1, titled “Mixed Feelings”.

The 118 races to a spin class; Buck discovers new cognitive abilities post lightning strike; Hen and Karen are concerned when they find out Denny has been seeing his biological father; Maddie and Chimney have a suspicious neighbor.

Content warnings for episode 6.13:

adoption/birth parent issues, sex-related injury, depiction of gambling

Mentioned in this episode:

• Bex’s fic! To Sleep, Perchance to Dream (via ao3)
• Fic: Your love got me slippin’ by An_Optimist_Prime & Tails89 (via ao3)

Listen here:

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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 WeeWoo 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 our 100th episode. That’s right.

Ellen: Hooray!

Bex: You, you could possibly have been sitting here listening to us 100 times since we’ve started this podcast. So congrats-

Ellen: Oh my God, please go, please go outside for a little bit, like, I don’t… Really, that’s- that’s scary So-

Bex: Congratulations to us. We’ve done this. Yes. Does that mean we’ve done this for 100 weeks as well, if we record once a week?

Alice: Over 100 weeks, because we have skipped a fair few [00:01:00] weeks, so.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: Wow.

Ellen: Well, good job us.

Bex: Yes, good job us, and good job you out there for coming along this journey with us. We do really appreciate you.

Alice: We really do.

Bex: Um, and we also appreciate everything that you do to help get us and our 100 episodes out into more ears, whether that’s sharing our episodes, sharing our social media posts, uh, leaving reviews where it’s possible to leave reviews, and also sending us in your thoughts on the episodes that we discuss, and our episodes as well.

So thank you so much. I- I wish we had more of a banger episode for our 100th episode. We really didn’t plan this, uh, well. But at least we get a cute Buddie episode to, uh-

Alice: We- we get-

Bex: … to celebrate 100 episodes with everyone

Alice: … we get the Buddie date.

Bex: We do. We get the Buddie date-

Ellen: It’s, it’s very cute

Bex: … with Buck’s velvet smoking jacket, which [00:02:00] is amazing.

Alice: It really is.

Bex: Um, but before we go on to discuss that, um, Alice, could you remind us what we suffered through in last week’s episode?

Alice: Last week on 9-1-1, the Wendell storyline was finally, finally-

Bex: Finally

Alice: … wrapped up. And Buck dealt with the feelings around having died and being revived.

Ellen: Okay. So this week in our 100th episode, we are going to discuss episode 13 of season six, which is called “Mixed Feelings”, which used to be called “New Sensation”, but they changed it, and even after watching the episode, I’m not really sure why they did that.

Maybe it was like a copyright thing with the song or title or who knows?

Bex: I don’t know. I could not find any explanation anywhere on the interwebs as to why they did it. Yeah. The only kind of thoughts on Reddit were perhaps “New Sensation”, uh, was very specific for the emergencies and didn’t really [00:03:00] encompass everything in the episode, so “Mixed Feelings” allowed them to talk about all of the different storylines, but that’s conjecture.

Ellen: Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. The summary for this episode says, “The 118 race to the rescue” it’s that Paw Patrol thing again.

Bex: Mm-hmm.

Ellen: Um, with emergencies at a spin class, in a hair salon, and a husband and wife in a compromising position. Buck discovers new cognitive abilities post lightning strike. Hen and Karen are concerned when they find out Denny has been seeing his biological father behind their backs.

Maddie and Chimney enlist Athena and Bobby’s help with a suspicious neighbor. And the triggers … Now, we only have a very short list of triggers for this episode. And they include adoption and slash birth parent issues, sex-related injury, and we’ve added a depiction of gambling in case that one-

Bex: Just in case

Ellen: is a trigger for you. [00:04:00] Yes. I think in general, there were parts of this episode that were great and, and other parts were just Just not really that interesting Yeah But anyway, we’ll get into it. So we may, this may be another quite short one because there probably will be bits that we just sort of hurry through because we’re just not interested really in them.

Bex: Like the opening emergency, which the least amount of time that we can spend on this one, the better, because it’s really a nothing burger. Um-

Ellen: Well, before we get into that, can I just firstly say, uh, thank you to Julia on, um, Spotify who left us a comment this week, but um, it was about the “In a Flash” episode, and who said that they did do the, the makeup for the lightning scar.

I remember how we were talking about that, but I don’t think we ever mentioned in the episode that there was, um, like a photo of Oliver that had the, the scar on his torso. Like, I don’t think we actually [00:05:00] mentioned that we had linked that in the episode post. So there, there is a photo of it, and I think the, the video that we’ve linked in the episode post, um, is one that Oliver put up because someone had asked him about it, and he was explaining that they did the, the makeup, but they hardly ever show it in the actual, you know, the episode itself.

Alice: I don’t think they show it at all So, um- Um, it was just in case they- No … had to.

Ellen: You can sort of just see it when they… Yeah. Anyway, thanks Julia for letting us know about that. And we did, we did see it at the time, we just didn’t mention it. I don’t think we mentioned it on, in the actual episode. But yeah, the, the link is in our, um, episode post for “In a Flash.”

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: Maybe “Another Life”. I don’t know which one of those episodes I linked it on, but yeah.

Alice: One, one of the two, yeah.

Ellen: Anyway, let’s go on to Mixed Feelings. So this spin class, I was like, I can’t… I feel like this is-

Alice: Got mixed feelings about it?

Ellen: … very American. No, [00:06:00] it’s a very American thing that the, you have like this fitness instructor who is out the front of the room yelling at everyone to-

you know, try harder and get their energy up and everything because, um, and that… Like, we have it here obviously, but it’s, it’s come from an American thing, I guess. Does that make sense? I don’t know. I’m, I’m gonna keep-

Bex: Yes. No, it makes sense.

Ellen: The best thing about this scene is that they play, um, “New Sensation”, like the song.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: So I’m sitting there watching it.

Alice: Yeah. Yeah.

Bex: Gotta love INXS, which makes sense- Mm-hmm … when you think that the original title of the episode was “New Sensation”. Um-

Ellen: Yeah

Bex: S- it’s a nice, uh, r- needle drop. Um, so yes, we are at Cam Lewis’s Taut Tummy Bootcamp, hosted by your host Cam Lewis, who is a combination fitness guru, health influencer, and grifter, um, essentially.

Ellen: Yep. [00:07:00]

Bex: Um, it’s Cam on a spin bike in front of God knows how many women also on spin bikes. Everybody is sucking down water from the Cam Lewis Taut Tummy Bootcamp promotional drink bottle, and there are supplements, and specifically the Cam Lewis Taut Tummy Tea available for purchase on the tables off to the side.

Um, spin class is going well. Everyone’s looking good. They’re suffering, but it’s like good suffering. No pain, no gain. Um-

Ellen: Mm-hmm

Bex: … then Cam collapses and falls off his bike, necessitating the 118 to arrive at the fitness camp. Um-

Alice: Yeah, not Cam Lewis from Cam Lewis Fitness. Like, how horrible.

Bex: Um, the whole emergency is, the only point of it is to get Buck doing math in his head.

Alice: Yeah. Like quickly too.

Bex: So they, Cam is, Cam has collapsed. [00:08:00] He looks like he’s dehydrated once they start going through his vitals, but the women who are t- um, talking to Hen and Bobby and kind of giving, um, the information are saying, “No, he’s been drinking water the entire time. We’ve all been drinking, but not just water.

We’ve been drinking this Tummy, Taut Tummy Tea.”

Ellen: Taut Tummy Tea.

Bex: Taut Tummy Tea. Say it f- five times fast. Um-

Ellen: Mm-hmm.

Bex: Then other women in the gym start to collapse as well, which means the paramedics have got all their hands full. Um, and Hen starts to put two and two together, and she’s very suspiciously wonders aloud, “What is in the tea?”

Buck, who is not medical so he doesn’t have a lot to do in this scene, has wandered off, found the promotional table, and is looking at the ingredients on the back of the Taut Tummy Tea. And he tells Hen what is in the tea, and specifically it has 50 milligrams of [00:09:00] B3 per serving and magnesium, and then works out in his head that she’s having 7.3 times more the RDI of B3 magnesium than a woman should be having, which stuns the 118.

Not because that’s a lot of B3, but because Buck did math in his head.

Alice: Yeah, Buck just did math in his head.

Bex: And it was correct.

Alice: I have no idea. Like, every time they were doing math in this episode, my brain falls out. Like, I, I don’t, I don’t do math.

Ellen: I just love that, that Chim and Eddie just can’t believe it. They’re like, “Did he just do math in his head?” And Eddie’s, like, peering at Buck going, “I think so.” They can’t, they can’t get over it. Um, and then, and Bobby’s, like, watching all the people pass out around him going, “Uh, hydration all around.”

Bex: Yeah, so-

Ellen: Let’s get some water into everybody. So, um-

Bex: Everybody who’s collapsed gets a saline drip. [00:10:00] Everybody else just gets water And that’s it

Ellen: That’s it. That’s the whole thing.

Bex: That’s literally the whole thing That’s it, yeah The whole thing was just a vehicle to, “Hey, Buck can do math, big math in his head correctly. Isn’t that amazing?” that’s our opening emergency. When we return from the title card, um, as a-

Alice: I, I do just wanna say, like I know that that was m- like very much a nothing scene. Um, they do kind of set it up so, like, the, the two main girls in it, one of them is, like, very skinny and fitness-y and being like, “You promised to help me on this journey.” her friend is just, like, an average woman.

Bex: Oh, I just-

Alice: Um- …

Bex: did not wanna touch any of that with a 10-foot pole, ’cause there are-

Alice: Yeah, but-

Bex: … just so many issues with that

Alice: Oh, so many issues. But they really make it seem like it’s going to be the average non-workouty friend who-

Bex: Yeah

Alice: … has the issue. Like, they keep, like, zooming in on her and, like, it’s…

Like, she’s… You know, her friend’s like, “Oh, you need to hi- [00:11:00] like, keep drinking the tea. Like, make sure you’re drinking it.” Yeah. Um, and then it’s the fitness coach instead. Not like 9-1-1: Nashville, who very, very, very fatphobic in their opening episode.

Ellen: Oh.

Alice: So I was like, “Ah-

Bex: Oh, yeah

Alice: … how nice that, like, back ni- like, back then they didn’t make it the, like, to- totally normal-sized person. Um, even though they definitely make you think it’s going to be.

Bex: Yeah. I mean, this is season six, so Tim doesn’t have anything to do with this, whereas he’s-

Alice: No. So clearly-

Bex: … the villain in Nashville, right? So Tim’s the fatphobic one is what we’re saying.

Alice: Yeah, yeah. Tim’s the issue.

Bex: We don’t usually say that Tim’s the issue, but apparently in that instance-

Alice: That Tim’s the issue …

Bex: Tim is the issue.

Alice: I’m calling it out, Tim’s the issue. Um, but yeah. So then we get the title card, and apparently the opening emergency at a fitness center has i- inspired [00:12:00] Bobby Because

Bex: yeah

Ellen: Yeah

Alice: His, like he’s-

Ellen: It wasn’t just that, that it apparently Wendell was always trying to get him to work out, so now suddenly he’s gonna start trying to get fit again.

Alice: Yep.

Bex: In Wendell’s honor.

Alice: Yeah. Um, because yeah, apparently he used to run before he hurt his back, and now he’s running.

Bex: I, I do like that someone remembered that Bobby has a back injury. After me harping on all last episode about Bobby picking people up in ways that would not be conducive to his back injury. I do like that they went, “Oh wait, didn’t he, like, have something wrong with his back?” Like, yes.

So yeah, Bobby’s gone running, um, which Athena is surprised at because Bobby usually reserves his workouts for the firehouse. Um, and then she also says the next time Bobby goes running, he should invite her along, and I, I do have to sort of slap Bobby at this point. He’s like, “I didn’t know you liked to run. I [00:13:00] thought you were a cheerleader.” Like, dude.

Alice: But she’s a cheerleader.

Bex: A cheerleader who also ran cross-country.

Alice: Which, yeah, he never knew. So there you go.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: And apparently finding this out makes him a bit horny, so he tries to lean and get a kiss. And she’s just like, “No way, you stink. Go away.”

Alice: Yeah.

Ellen: Basically. She’s like- Like- “… go take a shower and then, then maybe you can get some.”

Bex: Like she’s literally, she’s sitting there reading a book, and he leans in and he, she just holds the book up in front of his face to… like, “No.”

Ellen: She’s like, “Go away.” And Bobby’s like, “You don’t want some of this?” And I’m like, “Oh, mom and dad-“

Bex: Ew

Ellen: “are flirting again.” No, I joke about it, but it is ni- it, it is nice to see some older people actually showing a bit of this sort of thing. ‘Cause in a lot of the times on TV you just don’t get that anymore.

Bex: No.

Ellen: It’s like, you’re old, you’re not allowed to have sex anymore. That’s it. [00:14:00]

Bex: Pretty much, yeah.

Ellen: But no, it’s cute. It’s real cute.

Bex: It is real cute. And like as he’s-

Ellen: Except Athena doesn’t actually want it when he’s all sweaty, so go away.

Bex: Which, I mean, I don’t blame her. N-

Ellen: No, I, I don’t blame her either.

Bex: Like sweaty and, and smelly, like no. Nope. Especially first thing in the morning, like ew, no. Uh, so that’s, that’s pretty much the Bobby and Athena storyline for this episode, is them-

Alice: Literally, yeah

Bex: running and having sex. It, that’s-

Alice: That’s it

Bex: … pretty much all they’re doing. Yeah Or not having sex-

Alice: That’s all they’re doing

Bex: … as the case may be. Um- So there’s not a lot there, so we’re gonna move on to start the Denny storyline. Um, where Hen is having quite a morning and has called Chim to come and pick her and Denny up, um, to take them to work and school.

And Denny is sitting out on the porch apparently very wisely avoiding Hen. Um- And [00:15:00] Chim takes a moment to have a bit of a chat with, uh, young Master Wilson Squared, as, um, as Pigeon calls him. Because she’s decided that, Karen’s-

Ellen: Oh yeah, Karen’s s-

Bex: Karen’s surname-

Ellen: Karen’s maiden name was also Wilson

Bex: … was also Wilson, which makes Denny, Denny Wilson Wilson. Um-

Alice: Yep.

Bex: And I fully support that.

Ellen: Love it. Yep. This is a really cute scene though, ’cause it’s like Uncle Chim talking to Denny

Alice: I was a little confused at the start when like, it kind of feels like we’re dropped like halfway through a scene, honestly. Um, ’cause Chim’s like, “Oh, I heard you guys had quite the morning.” And like he goes to knock and Denny’s like, “No, no, don’t do that.”

But like Denny explains everything to Chim. So like did Hen just text and go, “Today sucks. Come over”?

Bex: She might’ve t- she might’ve just said-

Ellen: He’s gotta get to school somehow

Bex: … we need a lift.

Ellen: Yeah.

Alice: Yeah. I don’t know. Like, he did … ‘Cause Denny’s like, “Oh, I missed the bus, then mama’s car wouldn’t start, [00:16:00] and Mom’s in Barstow.”

And Chim’s just like, “Oh, yep. Yep. Mm-hmm.” Um, but like, what, shouldn’t Hen have told… I don’t know. It was just weird.

Bex: I mean, maybe, maybe Hen did, but Denny doesn’t know that. All he knows is that Hen has called Chim, and so Chim’s rocked up and done that small talk, “Oh, I heard you had quite a day.” And Denny’s like, “Oh, he doesn’t know what happened?

Let me explain to him-

Alice: Maybe

Bex: … and therefore the audience.”

Alice: I just … I don’t know. It’s- I know it was exposition and it just bugs me.

Bex: It’s just, it’s a really, like it’s a cute scene. I like, um, the interaction between Denny and Chim, but the writing is a little weird, especially Denny sounds like he’s a 40-year-old man at some times.

Yeah,

Alice: right?

Ellen: Oh. Yeah. Yeah, a little awkward the dialogue, but he knows all about what’s happened with Chim and his family. Like, “I heard your dad was in town.” It’s like, what? No, no 10-year-old would say that.

Bex: Nope.

Ellen: Um, but-

Bex: But Denny has daddy issues, so he wants to [00:17:00] talk to someone else who is s- he apparently resolved their daddy issues.

Ellen: Mm-hmm. Yep. “You and your dad don’t really get along,” and Chim’s like, “How did you know that?” But um, apparently he heard-

Bex: Children hear everything.

Ellen: … he heard Hen and Karen talking about it.

Alice: Naturally.

Ellen: But apparently Chim’s got over whatever is going on with his dad, so apparently now they’re fine.

Alice: Yeah, he couldn’t bother dealing with it, so he was just like, “Whatever, I’m getting over it.”

Bex: Denny is rather transparent in this scene, because he’s like, um, you know, “Why was it complicated with your dad? I mean, it’s your dad,” you know. And Chim’s trying to explain, and Denny goes, “Well, I, you know, I, I guess I’d be pretty mad if my dad hurt me. You know, if I, if I knew him, which I don’t. Like, I’ve never met the man. Um, but if I did-“

Alice: Yeah. Do, do I even have a dad? Ahem

Bex: … he, he’d never hurt me.

Ellen: And Chim [00:18:00] gives him a kind of a what, what the hell are you talking about look.

Alice: Yeah, what the fuck?

Ellen: But then, um, then Hen turns up and she sees Chim there, and she’s like, “Oh, when did you get here?” But like that’s the end of that scene.

Bex: Yeah.

Ellen: There’s just like little snippets of th- things that don’t ever come back later in the story. Like I guess obviously Denny’s thing comes back, but they, they just tied off that little end of Chim and his dad.

Alice: Yeah. Yes. Chim’s dad’s gone. Bye guys.

Ellen: Anyway, now it’s time to go to Buck’s place where Chris i- Chris and, uh, and Eddie are testing him.

Bex: Well, Chris is testing him.

Ellen: So I … Is this the morning? Like what is happening in the time here? Like there is-

Bex: I don’t know

Ellen: … Denny needs to go to school, but Chris is doing- Yes … like math stuff. No Like his homework.

Bex: I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. The time, the time is so timey wimey. Mm. ‘Cause you could [00:19:00] say that it’s morning, um, but then Buck and Eddie are not at work, and Chris doesn’t need to go to school?

Ellen: Yeah, he’s doing his maths homework at Buck’s- So- But at Buck’s house. Like, I’m t- uh, this whole scene is very strange. But anyway.

Bex: No, look. The, the, the-

Ellen: It doesn’t matter

Bex: … doing the maths, the doing, the doing the maths homework at Buck’s house I can actually understand because Eddie would be going, “We’re g- I want to see Buck. I want to hang out with him. I wanna check on and make sure he’s okay. I need to bring Christopher with me because I, you know, I can’t throw him out at anybody’s… We’re only gonna be there for a short amount of time. He loves Buck, too, so that’s fine. But I need something to occupy him so that Buck and I can make heart eyes at each other and talk. But I don’t wanna put him in front of a screen.”

Alice: Honestly, I wondered if, um-

Bex: I’m not just gonna dump him in front of the television.

Alice: I wondered if Chris was like, “I have maths homework,” and Eddie’s just like, “Oh my God, get in the car. We have to go see Buck.”

Bex: So I do appreciate-

Alice: Yes, speaking of people who know maths

Bex: … that they’ve gone, “We want Chris in this scene, [00:20:00] or so we’re gonna give him something to do.”

So like in a previous episode they played Boggle while Buck and Eddie talked. Um, in this one it’s math homework, which ties in nicely to Buck’s brand new maths skills. Um, but it, it’s just a way to keep Chris occupied while the grown-ups are flirting. Talking, I mean talking.

Ellen: Yep.

Bex: Um-

Ellen: It’s a v- it’s very cute, this scene, too.

Bex: It is very cute. Buck is absolutely loving his new math skills. He’s bragging that he calculated how many gallons of gas he would need to get himself to the firehouse. Like, he didn’t just fill up his tank. He worked out the distance, the amount of, uh, gas he uses per mile, and then filled up that exact amount.

Alice: Sure.

Ellen: And Eddie has been Googling this, and, um, apparently people can get new cognitive abilities after an injury to the central nervous [00:21:00] system, which Buck definitely had.

Bex: Mm-hmm.

Ellen: Apparently some guy got, literally got the power of electricity after he was struck by lightning. The lights would turn off and on every time he walked into a room, and Buck is like trying to click his fingers to see if the lights will go off. But it doesn’t work. What a shame.

Bex: It’s very cool. And they start talking about superheroes, and maybe Buck’s power’s gonna get stronger, and the being struck by lightning was his origin story. Um- And then petitions for Buck to use his newfound superhero powers to help Chris with his math homework, and like tries to hand Buck his math homework for Buck to do. And Eddie’s like, “Uh-uh, no, no, no, no. You’re doing your own math homework.”

Ellen: Why bring him over to the maths genius’s house if he’s not even gonna help him with his homework?

Bex: But he, Chris doesn’t want him to help with his homework, he wants Buck to do his homework for [00:22:00] him. Do his test, yeah. There’s a, there’s a very big difference there.

Ellen: Yeah. Anyway, they’re very cute, all of them.

Bex: They are very cute, even though they’re in some sort of time limbo and we don’t actually know when and where they exist. Yeah. But it’s fine. Yes. Um, but then we go back, then we go to the murder house and Maddie is getting ready for work And so then that throws the whole time thing into question again, because is this, like is this all happening simultaneously, so it’s morning?

Or is Maddie doing a different shift and it’s later in the day? I don’t know, but she’s on her way for to work. She is late, um, and she’s flustered, and she’s running around the murder house doing that thing where you list off all the things that you need to have with you before you leave the house, and trying to find them as she’s running around.

Alice: Mm-hmm.

Bex: Um, and it doesn’t help that as she’s trying to get out the door, um, there is someone standing in her [00:23:00] doorway.

Alice: Yeah, it’s Pameron Tucker.

Bex: It’s who now?

Alice: Pam Tucker. Pameron.

Bex: Okay. Okay.

Alice: It’s Cam’s sister from Modern Family. Her name is… Uh, so there’s Cameron Tucker, who’s the main character. Yep. And then his sister is Pameron.

Bex: Are you serious?

Ellen: Pa- That-

Alice: Yeah …

Ellen: is actually her name.

Alice: That’s her name.

Bex: Pameron and Cameron?

Alice: Yep. So it’s-

Ellen: Are they twins?

Alice: … Pam and Cam.

Bex: Oh my God.

Alice: I think Pam’s older.

Ellen: Such a crazy show, that.

Bex: What the hell?

Ellen: I’ve seen her in some- … in some episodes, but I ha- I didn’t know that was her name.

Alice: She, like, has a kid, and then something happens, so they end up raising the k- her kid for a while, and I’m pretty sure the father of the kid is James Van Der Beek.

Ellen: Oh.

Bex: Dawson? Aw.

Alice: Yeah.

Ellen: Anyway, [00:24:00] her name’s Carol in this one. Oh, well, she says her name is Carol.

Bex: No, she says her name is Carol. Her name is not Carol, but we’ll get to that. Um, but yeah, she introduces herself as Carol Sykes, who lives two doors down, um, and she was coming to introduce herself to the people who had moved into the house.

Um, she’s been away. She hasn’t had a chance to come over and say hi, and she brought muffins.

Ellen: She did bring muffins. Yeah. And Maddie is like-

Alice: She’s very neighborly

Ellen: … trying to say, like, “I, I, okay, that’s, that’s really nice, but I really have to go.” And, um, Carol just keeps talking.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: Um, she gives her- Her phone number so they can have a play date ’cause she has a kid too.

Bex: Yes, because-

Ellen: And Maddie’s just like, “Okay, thanks. Bye.”

Bex: At some point, Maddie just, Maddie’s phone was ringing, and she realized that she’s l- um, left the phone off the list of things she needs to grab, so she’s gotta go back in to grab her phone, and when she comes back to the door, Carol has let herself in and is sort of [00:25:00] looking around the living room and notices all of Jee’s toys and like, “Oh, you’ve got a kid. I’ve got a kid. Let’s get our kids together. Here’s my phone number. Here are the muffins.”

Um, eventually Maddie manages to get her out of the house, and I love this detail. It’s like she gets Carol out, and even though she’s running late, she shuts the door behind Carol and looks out the peephole to wait for Carol to have left before she then leaves.

Alice: Mood.

Bex: Yeah. Cause it would’ve made more sense to, like, walk out of the house at the same time, but then she would’ve risked being c- trapped at the car for God knows how much longer, so.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: I very much feel the I’m just going to hide until you are gone, um, feeling of Maddie.

Alice: Yep.

Ellen: Um, but after the commercial, um, she’s still in the house. I’m guessing this is, like, later that day after her shift because Chim’s home now. [00:26:00]

Bex: It feels like it’s now evening. Yeah, it feels like it’s evening because, um, Chim’s doing the dishes. That feels like an after dinner activity

Ellen: And Maddie is sorting through some mail. Um, God, I feel this. We went– After we moved into this house, we used to get so much mail for other people, and no one had lived in this house for a while be-before we moved in because it was like a, oh, it’s a long story.

Alice: Murder house?

Ellen: We had a… It was, it was a, a rental but, um, we’d had this huge storm and these, like, giant hail that had destroyed the roof of this house and so, and, and like a lot of houses in this area.

And, um, and it got repaired eventually, but no one had lived in it until the repairs had happened and then after it had been repaired they sold it so then we bought it. So somehow whoever had lived here before, like several people, like not just the previous owners but the ones before them even had not changed any addresses so we just had, got so much mail for [00:27:00] ages from other people.

Alice: When, um, when I moved into my last rental, like the people before me had, I don’t know if they were kicked out, but like their lease was not renewed. Um, they’d trashed the house. The carpet was all shit. Um, the like walls were all scuffed up and stuff.

Ellen: Mm-hmm.

Alice: Anyway, they had like just not, like I don’t know what they’d done when they left but like the internet was still connected so we had to call their internet company and be like, “Hey, we’re trying to connect the internet. You need to disconnect yours so that we can connect ours because we’re not paying your bill.” Um, and like the electricity switched over fi- like automatically so that was fine. But um but we just kept getting mail and it was like radio rental mail and they just kept get- being like, “It’s overdue.

It’s gonna get repossessed.” And we kept calling them and being like, “They’re not here anymore. Like we don’t know where they are, but like please don’t come and repossess our stuff.” “They’re not at our address.”

Ellen: That’s scary. [00:28:00]

Alice: Um, and yet we just kept, like, writing return to sender in big letters. So, like, we knew who was there j- the tenant before us, but then there was someone else who’d been there before them, and we kept getting their random stuff.

They had, like, a business, and we’d get random business stuff from them and I’m like- Yes … I sure hope they’re paying their business insurance, ’cause-

Bex: Oh my God, yes. Um- I’ve, I get a, um… I’ve lived in the place that I’m living now for, God know, uh, five years and I’m still getting mail for a local, like, community club.

Alice: Yeah, like what the hell? Yeah, yeah. Um-

Bex: And for the first year I was really good about returning everything to sender and now it just goes straight in the bin.

Alice: Yeah. Yeah, same.

Bex: So I hope that the club is okay ’cause they’re not getting their correspondence.

Alice: That’s it. I gave them 12 months and, like-

Bex: Yeah

Alice: returned everything to sender and then after that I was like, “It’s all going in the bin.” Um, I got a Myer gift count, uh, gift card at one point. Ooh.

Bex: Oh.

Alice: Um, it was like a special offer or, like, rewards points for one of the previous people and I was [00:29:00] like, “Cool, thanks for the card.” Um- And then we would randomly get, like, sample invitations.

Bex: Oh. Oh.

Alice: So about once a year for the first, like, good f- probably three, four years, um, we would get this big book of sample invitations that were from, like, Singapore or something like that. Like, they were from inter- like, um, overseas. Mm-hmm. And it was, like, all, like, this card stock and, like, fancy patterns and all sorts of stuff, so that was interesting. Um-

Ellen: Wow

Alice: But yeah, it was just annoying ’cause it was like, “Please stop. I don’t want your shit.” Like, I never got any mail. It was always for the old tenants. Anyway, if you’ve had-

Ellen: Anyway …

Alice: previous tenant’s mail, what have you-

Ellen: I mean, it, it-

Alice: what do you get?

Ellen: It is hard to… Like, that’s one of the things that’s most annoying about moving house, is having to change your address with every single thing.

Alice: Oh, absolutely. But like- But you can do a mail redirection.

Ellen: Yeah. Anyway, Maddie, Maddie has a bunch of mail. I mean, they’ve, [00:30:00] they’ve lived there for several months at this point as well,

Alice: right? And no one lived there beforehand, so.

Ellen: Yeah.

Alice: So like we don’t know who-

Ellen: Um, and not all of it belonged to-

Alice: … Ingrid Jones and Samford Tils are.

Ellen: Yeah, not all of it belonged to this other lady.

Alice: No.

Ellen: She’s putting all of that aside and, uh, “maybe it requires a personal touch.” He’s like, “Just leave it all there and I’ll take it myself when I get a chance.” Where are you gonna take it, Chim? Like to the post office? ‘Cause all they’re gonna do is tell you to put it in the post box again, right? Like write on the return sender.

Bex: Maddie says she’s reached out, Maddie says she’s reached out to the post office and so Chim is threatening to go down and yell at some poor person behind the post office counter to get the mail redirection working, I suppose. Um.

Ellen: Hmm.

Bex: It doesn’t really matter because he gets derailed, um, because he’s doing the dishes, he’s putting away everything, and he picks up the muffin dish that quote unquote Carol, uh, brought over, and he doesn’t know where to put it because it’s not [00:31:00] theirs. Um, and I love the fact that he knows that it’s not theirs.

Alice: Right? So nice.

Ellen: But Maddie tells him about, tells him about Carol. Two doors down, blue house, pink mailbox. So she’s gonna take it back to Carol.

Bex: Yes. So she goes two doors down to the house with the blue door and the pink mailbox, knocks on the door.

Alice: And meets Carol.

Bex: Door opens. Who is not the same Carol as she met earlier

Alice: No, it is not Pameron Tucker

Ellen: And the real Carol is like, “Uh, yes, I’m Carol, but that’s not my pan.”

Bex: And if you haven’t seen the episode yet, um, Pameron, the, uh, the, uh, quasi Carol Sykes, was an older white woman with ginger-ish hair. Um, the real Carol Sykes is a tall, a statuesque Black woman. So very, very different [00:32:00] people.

Ellen: Very quite different, yes.

Alice: As someone with face, like with, like face blindness, I was actually really appreciative ’cause if they’d- … hired just another white woman, I would’ve been like, “Is this not Carol?” Like … did they re- Like, was, was Pameron busy this day and they just hoped we wouldn’t notice? Like, but no, it’s, it’s very much not the Carol that she met.

Bex: Um, and this storyline will not end because we then go to the 118 station house the next day, I guess. It’s lunchtime. Chim is setting the table while Bobby gets the food ready, and they’re still talking about Carol Sykes

Ellen: Yeah, and unfortunately-

Alice: It’s a slow day apparently

Ellen: … Bobby is really interested in this. Um-

Bex: It’s a mystery

Ellen: … he’s like, “Did she ask you for money or, you know, take anything?” And Chim’s like, “No, but she did mention a play date with her kid and Jee-Yun. Great, [00:33:00] another thing I have to worry about.” Poor Chim. So Bobby’s just thinking about the worst case scenario.

He’s like, “She was casing the joint and so she could come back later.” and when Chim says that, “Why did she bring muffins and leave a dish behind?” And Bobby’s like, “She left a dish? Maybe there’s fingerprints.”

Alice: Detective Bobby on the case.

Ellen: It went through the dishwasher, so no.

Alice: Um, but yeah, so Bobby says the, the, “I guess the only thing left to do is call somebody in law enforcement.” and Chim goes, “Well, perhaps you and law enforcement could come over to our place for dinner.”

Bex: So it’s kinda cute. So Bobby is on the case, and w- we were talking about Bobby needs more hobbies, and I, I mean, I was thinking ice hockey or ice skating or, you know, he’s running again. But no, apparently Bobby yearns for his detective agency.

He is a man- Oh, yeah … that wants to solve crime.

Ellen: Yes, he’s got, like, a whiff of something being slightly weird. [00:34:00] He is onto it.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: Um, and he’s dragging Athena along as he does.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: Although she-

Bex: Because as you said-

Ellen: … is quite willing.

Bex: As you said last time, those two are enablers for each other.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: Yeah, Athena is not gonna set him straight. She’s going to provide him with the props and toys and information that he needs.

Ellen: Yeah. Meanwhile …

Bex: Meanwhile, um, Buck is making good use of his newfound math abilities by, um, basically-

Alice: I thought you said mouth abilities for a second there. And I was like-

Ellen: I did too. I’m like, wow … It’s that kind of episode today.

Bex: I mean …

Ellen: Woo-hoo. I’m sure I’ve read about that. Anyway, um- … Buck is,

Alice: is-

Bex: No, math abilities Yeah, math abilities And he’s basically fleecing the members of the 118 by getting them to place bets that he can’t do complex math equations in his head, and then taking them for everything that they’ve got when he, it turns out, in fact, that [00:35:00] he can.

‘Cause there’s a gaggle of firefighters following Buck around as he’s reciting, uh, some massive number, and one of them has his phone out and sort of staring intently, which I’m guessing he’s got his calculator app up, and he’s counting- Yeah … along with Buck to make sure that he’s getting the answer correct, which of course he does.

Ellen: Yeah, and he takes all the money, and then Eddie is, must be, um, also in on this, and is just takes the money off Buck, ’cause he’s- Eddie, he- … apparently the bookie

Bex: No, he gives it- Now … but he gives it back to him. I think, I think he sees what Buck is doing, and he doesn’t really approve of it to start with, so he snatches the money away from Buck.

But then when they sit down at the table, he does give Buck the money back ’cause then he’s sitting there gleefully counting it. But it also probably is what inspires what happens later in the episode. It’s got the wheels turning in Eddie’s head that, like, if Buck can make money just doing math equations, what else can he do with [00:36:00] his math equa- with his math abilities?

Alice: Yeah, Eddie’s sitting there like- Mm … “Oh, I do like seeing Buck ca- count money. How else can I get him to count money?”

Bex: Lemonade stand out the front. No.

Ellen: Buck says he’s a savant now, and Chim overhears this and turns to Bobby and says, “I guess savant means idiot in French.”

Alice: So mean.

Ellen: Yeah. Come on, Chim. Not even to his face, like, just behind his back.

Alice: Right? Plus in, like, two episodes ago, he said he’s not actually an idiot.

Ellen: Yeah. But sometimes you just can’t let something like that go without being mean about it.

Um, It is his father-in-law. It’s fine … but stick to that scene. It’s very cute. There’s a lot of cute scenes. It is very cute. Most of the cute ones involve, like, Buck and Eddie being in them. But anyway. Buck, yes.

Bex: Yes. Which is nice. I mean, he was really going through it last episode. It’s, it’s nice that [00:37:00] both Buck and Bobby have a lot, little bit more of a lighthearted episode after all of the trauma of last week’s episode.

Ellen: Yeah. Definitely.

Bex: Um, this next r- the emergency is absolutely ridiculous, because nothing comes of it. It’s a massive setup for almost nothing.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: Except to get Hen into a place to continue her storyline.

Alice: Yeah.

Ellen: So we can go through-

Alice: I mean, it’s, it’s a-

Ellen: … pretty quickly

Alice: … it’s an emergency, I guess. Yes. But yeah, it’s just a boring emergency.

Bex: But it’s not like, do you remember when they used to have emergencies that actually required the 118 to do something?

Alice: Yeah.

Bex: Like, this one didn’t require… They were basically Uber drivers in this one. Like, they showed up, they picked everybody up and took them to hospital. There was nothing that they actually needed to do once they arrive at the emergency, which is at a hair salon, because we, uh, these two girls have skipped school because they’re getting fire haircuts, which is actually [00:38:00] a technique.

Alice: Yeah, it’s actually a thing. Yes. Especially on-

Ellen: Yeah, I- …

Alice: TikTok.

Ellen: I hadn’t heard of this before, and I had no idea what they were talking about until, like, basically the, like, the end of the scene where he’s gonna blowtorch her, her hair. I’m like, “Oh, it’s actually cutting the hair with fi- like, what?” Um- Yeah.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: But so they are skipping school to go and get haircuts, and one of the girls doesn’t want to.

Bex: So one of the girls is set up as, like, her mother is very controlling, trying to keep this girl in, like, a bubble, keep her very sheltered. Her friend is, uh, trying to convince her to break out of that bubble and go and live her life.

Um, we find out that the reason that the mother is keeping this child in a bubble is because she has a very serious medical condition, um, which is that she is allergic to water.

Alice: Yeah.

Bex: Um, because so it makes sense that the mother is worried because, you [00:39:00] know, the slightest splash of water on this girl and she’s gonna be in a world of pain.

Ellen: Um- But we don’t find that out Until later

Bex: No. But why is- We don’t find out until we find it out

Alice: Also-

Ellen: Yeah

Alice: … why is she at the hairdresser and not, um, divulging this? Because you usually get, like… Oh my God. Anyway.

Bex: It’s, it’s so ridiculous. So they g- they skip school, they go, they’ve apparently won a competition through Instagram to get fire haircuts.

Um, except that-

Alice: Like, literally fire. Like, not like fire as in really cool

Bex: As in, like, it’s fire, as in, no, he’s going to be using hot, um-

Alice: He’s got a blowtorch

Bex: … hot scissors and a blowtorch to cut her hair

Ellen: To cut your hair.

Bex: Yeah Um, but, uh, Cherry, it’s Cherry and Mikayla. Cherry is up first. Um, Cherry is, like, our bubble girl.

Cherry is freaking out every time the stylist comes near her with the blowtorch, um, even though he’s trying to keep her calm, and [00:40:00] the final time that he comes near her she swats his hand away from her, sending the blowtorch flying. It lands in a basket of towels, which then catch fire, um, which sets off the overhead fire suppression system, which is water sprinklers, which then triggers Cherry’s allergic reaction.

It also means that the floor gets wet, so people are slipping over. Somebody ends up with scissors in the back of their hand. I don’t even know how, ’cause if that’s the scissors that he threw at the beginning when he’s saying to his livestream audience, ’cause he’s livestreaming this whole thing, that, “We don’t use scissors here, we use fire,” that woman’s had that scissors in her hand for a good 30 minutes, and all we got from her was a, like, “Ow, Rennie.”

So I don’t know what’s going on.

Ellen: Yeah. Yeah.

Bex: And literally the 118 just kind of rock up and go, “Oh, hey, you’re hurt?”

Alice: Sucks to be you

Bex: All right. [00:41:00] Let’s get you an ambulance

Ellen: Oh, you’re allergic to water. Don’t see that very often.

Bex: Yeah.

Ellen: That’s it.

Bex: Um, it’s the whole… What I feel the whole point of this scene is, um, Cherry’s mother has been tracking her daughter’s location through her phone, comes to the salon, sees her daughter literally burning up because the water ha- from the sprinkler system has touched her skin.

Um, and has a heart-to-heart with Hen about parenting, where Hen gets to be a hypocrite because she tells this mother, um, “All you can do for kids is show up for them when they need us.” And then proceeds to take Cherry to the hospital, and we see whether she can put her own words… Whether she, whether she can talk the talk, whether she can say as she does, whether she can do as she [00:42:00] says-

Alice: Yeah

Bex: on all of this stuff. Um, because she gets to the hospital, um, and she gets a panicked ph- phone call from Karen because Denny was not on the school bus home.

Ellen: Yeah. And she, and no one knows where he is. There’s no after-school thing.

Bex: And apparently Karen and Hen don’t track Denny’s phone, or either Denny doesn’t have a phone, or they don’t track it.

Alice: But also, like, apparently he hasn’t been taking the bus home from school in months, and none of them know how he’s been getting home like,

Bex: I’m assum-

Ellen: Yeah, his friends.

Alice: So, like, has his dad been dropping him, like, down the block and he’s been walking?

Bex: I’m assuming so, yes.

Alice: But then how’s he been spending time with his dad if his dad’s just been dropping him home?

Bex: I’m guessing that it, the school bus takes a route, which means that it could take, like, 20, 30, 40 minutes for Denny to get home after school ends. So he’s going, instead of s- riding on the bus as it goes around its route, he’s, [00:43:00] um, going to the park, hanging with Nathaniel, and Nathaniel is dropping him off.

You are putting way more thought into this than the writers were.

Alice: Yeah, I’m just ve- I was just, yeah, very confused.

Ellen: Well, the long, the long story short here, um, is that another LAFD crew showed up, and they’ve got someone in a wheelchair, and, um, Denny is with him and them, and Chim’s is-

Alice: Yeah, Denny just, like, walks in and is just like, “Oh, hey, Mom,” and she’s just like, “What the fuck?”

Ellen: Chim’s like, “Hen, Hen, Hen, look.” And Hen’s like, “What are you doing here?” She’s like, “It’s okay, Karen, I’ve got him,” and then, um-

Alice: Yeah … so yeah. No, so Hen’s like, “Oh, Karen, he’s here. I got him.” And Karen’s like, “Hang on, he’s where?” C- it’s like, does she know that he’s in hospital? And then it is- ‘Cause that’s concerning.

Bex: No. No, yeah. So could you imagine Karen? She’s like, “What do you mean? Where are you? Why do you have him?” And then Hen hangs up.

Alice: Yep.

Bex: Poor Karen. Um-

Ellen: Yes. [00:44:00]

Bex: The paramedic who has accompanied, um, Denny in is very trusting of the fact that both Denny and Hen seem to know each other, and so she starts giving Hen the rundown.

Um, Denny was in a car accident. He, they, I don’t know if Denny was doing a lot of driving, but they were driving through an intersection. Someone ran the light. Uh, the driver’s side was hit pretty hard. Your son seems fine, but your husband might need surgery. And Hen’s like, “My what now?” What?

And the paramedic’s like, “Oh, shit. Um, sorry. I just assumed that’s why we-“

Alice: Don’t tell HIPAA. It’s fine

Bex: … that’s why we don’t assume things, Patricia. Um, Denny said that the man in the car was his father. Um, Hen looks at Denny with like, “Your what?” And Denny’s got this like, “Ha, ha, please don’t hate me. Ha, ha, ha” look on his face.

Ellen: Yes. He looks very scared.

Bex: He knows he’s in trouble.

Ellen: Yep. So after the commercial, we stick with, with these guys. [00:45:00] Um, Karen gives Denny a hug and, but then they both kind of like turn on him, sit him down and like, “Okay, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.” Um, and then, uh, so this conversation sort of goes on for a little while.

Like, he wanted to s- he wanted to see his dad. Um, Hen’s like, “This is why you’re so suddenly interested in baseball. This is irresponsible.” On and on and on it goes. They tell him that, “We know what’s best for you. You have to trust that as your parents, we know what’s best for you.” And Denny’s like, “It’s always about what you want. What about what I want?” And he runs off. So that went well.

Bex: I will say that, uh, this scene, they wrote, um, Denny as an actual child.

Ellen: Yeah. Yeah.

Bex: He reacted very much like a kid would. Um, and Declan did a really good job in this scene. I was so annoyed with him the entire time, which was perfect, like 10 out of [00:46:00] 10.

But yeah, he doesn’t understand why his moms are so upset because in his mind that’s his dad. So like his dad would never hurt him. He was like with his dad the entire time, it was fine. And he doesn’t understand how that’s a problem for them because they didn’t know where he was. Typical kids and adults conversations.

Alice: Yep.

Ellen: Yep.

Alice: Probably.

Bex: I don’t know.

Alice: I have a dog, he ran off after a rabbit, then he came back. It’s, it’s as much parenting as I’ve done for today.

Ellen: Uh-huh. Um, all right. So we’re gonna go off to the murder house for the, um, you know, detectives having their dinner. Boop. Um, apparently this is the first time that Bobby and Athena have been over since they moved into the place because Athena has d- has been dying to see the house.

Bex: Yeah, that tracks.

Ellen: And Chim’s like, “Oh, seems, seems like a lot of people feel the same [00:47:00] way.” Um, ’cause-

Bex: Does that mean… They, they had moved in, they had to fix the place up. Before they even finished fixing the place up both the Buckleys and the Hans descended, and then Buck got struck by lightning. Um, and everyone stuck around a little bit longer.

So yeah, I’m guessing housewarming parties and inviting everyone around has kind of like been a low priority.

Ellen: It looks like they’re having a nice dinner though.

Bex: It does.

Ellen: Um, apparently the phone number that this lady left is a burner phone, which means they can’t track her. So Athena’s already got the police like resources onto it.

Bex: Mm-hmm.

Ellen: Um, there are scams where people come to the door and pretend to be your neighbor, but they usually ask for money or, you know, they, they ask, say they need cash for something or other. But she didn’t ask Maddie for anything. She just wanted to come back and have a play date or something.

Bex: Which it could be that she is casing the place for a future robbery. [00:48:00] Um- And Chim’s like, “There’s nothing here that anybody could want. We’re not exactly dripping in antiques and jewels.” So Athena says that there is something that they can do to figure out who, quote-unquote, Carol is. Um, but Athena doesn’t think they’re gonna like it. But before we figure out what that is, um, it’s Buddie date night. My favorite.

Alice: It’s Buddie date night!

Ellen: Yay. Well, as soon as they show up in this scene and, and start talking about their fancy dress code, and Eddie’s like, “It’s a nice place.” And I’m like, are they going on a date?

Alice: They’re going on a date.

Bex: They are going on a date.

Alice: They’re both looking so dapper in their suits.

Ellen: But it looks t- Like, I was looking at Buck going, he… like, do you think Buck owns this jacket, or did he, like, rent it from a costume [00:49:00] shop or something? I’m just looking at it going, why would you own a jacket like that?

Alice: Maybe his mom brought it- It’s got- … when she was visiting, and he’s just like, “This is suave, right?”

Ellen: I don’t know. Anyway, they both look very nice. But-

Bex: They both … I can imagine that-

Ellen: It’s an odd style …

Bex: it’s the kind, it’s the kind of jacket, like Buck was do- was in a thrift store one day and he found it and he thought it looked amazing. It’s just been sitting in his closet for years.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: And then Eddie tells him that he needs to, like, put on a suit or, like, dress up, and he doesn’t have anything in his closet, so he’s like, “Well, I guess I’m wearing this one.” um-

Ellen: Yeah, and Eddie shows up and he’s like, “Is this okay?” And he’s like, “Yeah, I guess. You look great, so I don’t care.” Oh. Anyway, Buck doesn’t know where they’re going. He’s like, “Are you sure about this?” And Eddie says, “It’s a good place to put your new skills to use. Then maybe we can put them to use in Vegas.” I’m like, oh [00:50:00] no. They’re gonna do some gambling.

Bex: Yes. It’s okay. It’s a low stakes game, literally- Mm-hmm … it turns out. Um, so they end up in the, um, the back door of, uh, some kind of Italian restaurant, um, where Julie Rosen, who used to be at the 118, I’m guessing she’s moved on, um, opens the door and

Alice: leads- I’m pretty sure she, like, she was there last week when Maddie was sending people to see Buck.

Yeah.

Bex: But then she said… Yeah, they did name drop her, but then later on in the episode she’s like, “I used to work with Buckley.” I’m like, “Okay.”

Alice: Yeah. I- I

Bex: don’t know. So where are you, where are you at the moment? Um, yeah-

Alice: She left last week. It’s fine.

Bex: She literally left last week. Buck got hit by lightning and she’s like, “Shit, I’m out.”

Alice: She’s like, “I’m, yeah, I’m, I’m out.” “I’m done. I’m not doing this firefighter shit anymore.”

Bex: The 118 is way too dangerous.

Ellen: The guys are way too… Yeah.

Bex: They get shot. The guys have [00:51:00] got- They get fire engines dropped on them. They get struck by lightning. I’m gonna go to the 133. They are

Alice: safe. I’m pretty sure it’s, it’s after this episode that I started getting really into the background firefighters because the 118 was so boring. Um, but not this episode because… Buddie are finally on a date.

Bex: Yep. Uh, so yes, Italian restaurant. Julie sort of leading them through the, the sort of the back rooms of the restaurant, like-

Alice: Buck’s worried that it’s a mob …

Bex: like, through the he’s going through the kitchen. Eddie has apparently been there before, ’cause he’s, like, fist bumping all of the kitchen staff as he’s walking through.

Yeah, Buck thinks that it’s a mob establishment. Uh, Eddie reassures him that it’s a different kind of family, and because it’s the firefighter family, because they get to sort of the bar space at the back of the restaurant.

Ellen: Yeah, but he says it, this some kind of mob establishment and then, but didn’t he recognize Julie

Bex: Well, like Julie is one, Julie is one person

Ellen: Yeah

Bex: Like maybe Julie’s with the mob [00:52:00]

Ellen: Maybe. I mean, I didn’t recognize Julie.

Bex: So we’ve seen, we’ve seen Julie’s face twice, very, very briefly, and she was in uniform with a helmet on, and she’s in like full glam in this episode.

Ellen: Yeah

Bex: So like I don’t think if, um, Eddie hadn’t said her name, I wouldn’t have known who she was

Ellen: Sorry, when people say Rosen I just think of like Becky.

Alice: Yes. Oh my God, same

Bex: Supernatural brain rot rears its ugly head again.

Ellen: Yep. So they get into this room they walk into the back of this restaurant, but it’s like a really beautiful room with like, um, you know, a, a bar set up and all this like … It looks like a gambling den. As it should, ’cause that’s what it is.

Bex: ‘Cause, yes

Ellen: Um, there’s a poker table [00:53:00] and Chief Williams and Captain Mehta are there. We haven’t seen them for a little while, but familiar faces.

Bex: I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t recognize Williams.

Ellen: Nope, me neither

Bex: I don’t know if we’ve ever seen her. I mean, Mehta we have seen before. He’s been in a couple episodes. I’ve n- I don’t recall having met Chief Williams before. Uh, but apparently Eddie knows her.

Ellen: Her name sounded familiar.

Alice: I’m sure she’s in it all the time. Doesn’t she, like, doesn’t she hang out with Athena all the time?

Bex: No, that’s Elaine. That’s LA, this is chief from LAFD, not LAPD.

Alice: Oh, I have no idea then.

Bex: Well, I didn’t think you would because you never recognize anybody.

Alice: Yeah. Um, I literally thought she was a cop and I was like, “Why is there a cop at the-

Bex: No, no. No, it’s LAFD. She’s chief in the, she’s a chief in the LAFD. Um, she-

Alice: Oh, no. Apparently she has been in it. She was in the 7.1 earthquake, so that’s like season one.

Ellen: A long [00:54:00] time ago that feels like

Bex: That was like four years ago. Well, she didn’t leave any kind of impression on me, ’cause I’m looking at her going, “Okay, cool.”

Alice: Yeah. She was in “7.1”, which was season-

Bex: Two …

Alice: two. Um-

Bex: Maybe they should have brought, um, Sam Smith back. I would have recognized her at least.

Alice: Right?

Ellen: I know.

Alice: Uh, then “Help Is Not Coming” she was in, and then “Alone Together”, which is in season four. Yeah. And then this one in season six. So yeah, we haven’t seen her in two seasons.

Bex: Yeah.

Ellen: Okay.

Alice: And yeah- And- Apparently not a- I think- Apparently not a cop, so there you go. That, it does explain why they were playing poker with her and like-

Bex: A- and again, even if we did see her, she would’ve been in uniform, I’m assuming, and looking very different than the glam version sitting at the table.

So-

Alice: Yeah …

Bex: probably still would not have recognized her. Um-

Alice: See, we’re equal opportunity face blind-ers. We don’t know what anyone looks like.

Bex: Nope. Nope.

Ellen: [00:55:00] Apparently not.

Bex: Uh, apparently this is her poker ring though, because she welcomes, um, Eddie, and she says that she’s not used to having three of the 118 in her house.

Ellen: Yeah. I, if you hadn’t told me about Julie before, I’d be like, “Who else is there?”

Bex: Julie.

Ellen: But yeah, I realize it’s Julie now, but I didn’t … I didn’t hear her say, like, I, I obviously I was blinded by the fact that they were there looking so great, and I didn’t hear any of the conversation that went on. Yeah. Like- I was just like looking at them like-

Alice: You know, it’s pretty easy-

Ellen: They’re on a date! It’s so cute!

Alice: … to get distracted by what they look at. Yeah.

Bex: Yes. Very, very fair, very valid.

Uh, so they welcome, uh, Buck and Eddie to the table. The dealer hands them a stack of chips each, which I was a little bit confused about to start with, so I’m like, “Why [00:56:00] they … How much money have they put in? When did they put in the money? Why are they getting chips straight away?” Um, but again, it makes sense by the end of the episode.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: Um, and so they start playing poker

Mm-hmm And then we get the classic line from this episode, ’cause Mehta is starting to make some small talk, and he’s asking Buck about being struck by lightning and the fact that he was dead for three minutes. Um, to which Eddie corrects him and says that it was three minutes and 17 seconds.

Alice: Yep.

Bex: Which is why Alice-

Alice: Eddie was very quick to answer that

Bex: Which is why Alice and I’ve been harping in the last couple episodes that it’s, he’s been dead for three minutes and 17 seconds, ’cause Eddie also wants you to know.

Ellen: Yeah, I was thinking that was very specific. I don’t, I didn’t know where you got that number from, but-

Bex: We got it from Eddie

Ellen: … now I don’t know where Eddie got that number from.

Alice: We’re channeling Eddie

Ellen: So he was either counting-

Bex: Eddie got that number because he was literally counting every second that Buck was dead.

Alice: Yep. [00:57:00]

Ellen: Apparently. Because I mean, there wasn’t it, like they were on the site when, while he was like that, so the only way that they could know that number is if somebody was counting.

Bex: He was counting. That’s the implication.

Ellen: Yep. Anyway, um, Buck wipes the table with them. Um, he just wins and wins some more. Yes. And wins all of the chips.

Alice: All he does is-

Bex: Yes …

Alice: win, win, win, no matter what.

Bex: He’s, he’s very lucky. Um-

Ellen: He’s having the time of his life, and so is Eddie, just looking at him with the smuggest and most fond look.

Bex: Um, Williams is kind of getting a little bit suspicious of how well Buck is doing, um, and brings up that she’s heard that people get struck by lightning sometimes develop special skills. And I love the fact that even though they’re playing poker, Buck has absolutely no poker face.

Alice: Yeah. ‘

Bex: Cause he’s like, “Oh- [00:58:00] Mm … special skills? Like what? Woodworking?” W- And Williams is like, “No, like language or math. Like math, you know? Like counting.” Math.

Alice: They get real good at counting cards, Buckley. Dunno what you’re talking about.

Bex: Which is when Julie says, “You know, I’ve worked with, um, Buckley before. Math is not his thing.” Yeah. Um …

Ellen: Yeah, I always th- I always thought card counting was more like a ide- eidetic memory kind of thing. Like, you just remember which cards have been played, and then you know which ones are left.

Bex: Well, it’s, from what I could gather, it’s the pro- it’s the more the probability, because you liter- you, you can’t tell every single card until, like, it’s all been played.

So the idea is that you are looking at the cards you’ve got, you’re looking at the cards that are in the river, you’re looking at the cards people have discarded and played, and so you’re working out the probability of what everybody has. So that’s where [00:59:00] the, the math stuff is coming in.

Ellen: Hmm

Bex: So it’s not just counting the cards, which would be sort of the eidetic memory part. It’s counting them and then working out the probability of, “Oh shit, I’ve got like, I’ve got a four in my hand. There’s a four in the river. What are the odds that someone else has that four? Do I keep this four? Do I discard it? Is someone else gonna make a run for it?” That sort of thing. Uh, which is not illegal, but it is highly discouraged by casinos.

Alice: Yeah. Yeah, I have no fucking idea how to play po- Like, I know how to play poker in theory, but I have zero idea how to play poker.

Ellen: Yeah. I f- I feel like even if you can, I like, calculate the probabilities of all that stuff, it’s still something you probably need to learn how to do.

And like, Buck’s just been thrown into this. Like, Eddie’s just- I only- … dragged him along. Like …

Alice: I only know like the … ‘Cause you know how like there’s full houses and that sort of stuff. Mm-hmm. Um, like I have no idea what is better than what, which is [01:00:00] why like I suck at it because I’m like, I don’t know if I’m winning because I don’t know which one.

Like, I feel like I need like a key next to me to be like “This is better than this.” And then I’ll be like, “Oh, I have that one. That’s good.” Um, but the only reason I even know like what a full house and stuff is is because I used to play Yahtzee all the time with my mom as a kid.

Bex: Yes. Oh, yeah. I love Yahtzee.

Ellen: Yeah, we used to play Yahtzee.

Alice: Um, but I don’t know what’s higher than what. Um, I do know how to play blackjack. That’s about as good as I got. Yeah. Um, so I was-

Bex: That’s 21, right?

Ellen: You’re trying to get to 21. Yeah.

Alice: It’s, it’s, yeah. It’s literally just 21. We played it in high school-

Ellen: It’s, it’s a bit simple, more simple

Alice: in math class.

Ellen: Than, uh, yeah, than that.

Alice: But yeah, you’re playing against the dealer, and it’s annoying because like it’s, it’s all luck.

Bex: Pretty much, yeah.

Alice: Yeah. Um, but yeah, you can play blackjack in Stardew Valley.

Bex: Yes, you can once you unlock the casino.

Ellen: Luck and bluffing.

Bex: Yes. Buck’s not so good at the bluffing, but he’s really good at the, the math, and his [01:01:00] luck is definitely on his side, um, because he ends up winning the game.

Eddie at some point, I think around the time that Williams starts accusing him of counting cards, decides that he’s out. So he pretty much just sits behind Buck’s or stands behind Buck’s shoulder and just like beams at him the entire time.

Alice: Oh, he, yeah.

Bex: He’s such a supportive boyfriend.

Alice: Yep. Oh. He’s just lovely

Bex: Um, so they take th- they, they win, or Buck wins, um, sweeps all of the chips into his, his greedy little hands. Um, and then Williams asks how he wants his winnings. And Buck sort of turns around and looks at Eddie like, “I don’t know, babe, how do we want our winnings?” Um.

Um, it turns out that when Eddie said it was a low stakes game, he literally meant low steaks, ’cause that’s what the [01:02:00] winnings are.

Alice: Yeah.

Bex: Steaks.

Alice: Steaks. Um, which, hey, like I, I wouldn’t be mad.

Bex: Quite a lot of them. I just kept… It reminded me so much of like he’s, he’s won the meat raffle. It’s like-

Alice: Yes. Yeah Just, oh my God, does America have meat raffles?

Ellen: He’s going home with… No, they don’t. This is the most Australian thing.

Bex: No, they don’t. This is…

Alice: Oh my God, how do they go through life without having a meat raffle?

Bex: I don’t know.

Ellen: You’re gonna have to explain what a meat raffle is now.

Alice: Like, no, I’m just- Okay … I’m just gonna let them guess.

Bex: Um. If you’re listening to this episode and you have no idea-

Ellen: Yeah, tell us what you think a meat raffle is.

Bex: Yes. Send us in your best guess of what you think a meat raffle is without Googling

Alice: it. But like, but also Americans, like get a meat raffle started near you. Like, how do you guys not have meat raffles?

Ellen: Yeah, it’s funny ’cause it… I’m gonna give away what it is now, but, um, in, [01:03:00] in the Queensland, um, climate, meat raffles are not a great thing. Like-

Alice: Yeah, you’d need a fridge to…

Ellen: especially if you’re gonna spend any amount of time-

Alice: Yeah …

Ellen: at the pub. Anyway.

Alice: Um.

Ellen: Uh.

Alice: Yeah, we, we used to do, like, um, my mom was in the SES, which I’m also not gonna explain, but, um, they had a, a meat raffle on every Tuesday night at the local country club. Mm. And so we’d go and like, you know, spend some money on raffle tickets and get the, like, and occasionally we’d win.

And I remember once, like Mom won two and she was just chuffed.

Ellen: Yeah.

Alice: And it’s good ’cause like Mom and I like certain cuts of meat and Dad likes certain things, so like we’d-

Bex: Oh, nice

Alice: … like just have like a big cook up and like it’d last us like two, three days.

Bex: Perfect.

Alice: So yeah, so Williams says that Diaz is always welcome, but leave the human calculator at the firehouse until his lightning superpowers wear off.[01:04:00]

Ellen: Yep.

Alice: And Buck’s like, “Ah.” And they’re like, “Yeah, we know.”

Ellen: That’s assuming that they’re ever gonna wear off.

Alice: Before we get into the outfits, I have a tweet here that I saved back in-

Bex: Ooh

Alice: … 2024.

Bex: Oh my God.

Alice: For this episode. Going back a while. Um, so the tweet reads, “It is actually so fucking insane that canon-ly,” can- canonically I think it should be. Canon-ly.

Bex: Canonically.

Alice: Eddie… Yeah, like this is what the tweet says.

Bex: Okay.

Alice: Um, “Eddie dated a teacher and has a math kink, and Buck was a teacher in his coma dream … and woke up to freaky super math powers. Like, this was a conscious writing choice.”

Ellen: Oh. Well, either that or the writers had, like, math kink and-

Alice: Just needed to, to point that out.

Bex: Oh my God

Alice: That [01:05:00] canonically Eddie dated a teacher and had a math kink, and Buck was a teacher in his coma dream and woke up to freaky super math powers.

Bex: I mean, even if you just re- if you remove the teacher part and you just go, “Eddie has a math kink and now suddenly Buck is good at math.”

Alice: Yep.

Bex: Like, you can just end the sentence with that and I’m just dying.

Alice: Yeah. Yep.

Bex: Oh my God.

Ellen: That explains this whole thing.

Alice: Yep.

But yeah, oh my God, the outfits. So good. So Bex has inserted a screenshot- … which Ellen, I, like I, I propose we use this screenshot- Yeah … shot, if you can get a good still-

Bex: Yes

Alice: … um, for the-

Ellen: Yeah, absolutely

Alice: … the banner. So while you’re watching this episode, I’m sure you’ll be able to see the banner of this episode. Uh, it’s Buck with his jacket off and like over his shoulder, and Eddie just checking him out, and it’s such a good shot.

Bex: I th-

Ellen: And Buck’s got his sleeves rolled up underneath.

Bex: Mm. The smo- the smoking jacket was delicious. [01:06:00] He looked great in it, but- Jacket off, shirt sleeves rolled up- Mm-hmm … 50 times sluttier.

Mm-hmm. 50 times-

Alice: I was-

Bex: … more delicious

Alice: I was actually really disappointed. So I’ve been out all day, um, was out all yesterday, uh, was out the d- all the day before. Um, and so the only time that I had to watch this episode… Well, actually, I could’ve watched it last night, but I couldn’t be bothered. Um, the only time I had to watch this episode was an hour before we started recording the podcast, and I was watching wall- simultaneously watching a TV show with Ellen and my dad. Ellen was in a different state, but we were still watching it together.

Ellen: We were watching it at the same time, yeah.

Alice: Um, but I was also watching 9-1-1, the 9-1-1 episode on my phone. Um, but I was quite disappointed, because I w- would’ve really liked to take my time with this episode, and I couldn’t pause it, I couldn’t go back. I was like, I, this is down to the wire. I have to watch this.

Bex: Speed run it.

Alice: Yeah. So I [01:07:00] will be re-watching this scene at some point, because yeah.

Bex: I will, um, confess that I watched it once to get the notes, and then I may have gone back and watched it a couple of times.

Alice: No judgment here.

Bex: Once the notes were done.

Um, yeah, I mean, in all fairness, I think in the screen capture that we’ve got in this scene, um, Eddie is actually watching Captain Williams leave, but just the way that the frame- No, he, no, it’s fine. No … No, no, no. The way that the frame is set up, 100% he’s checking Buck out.

Alice: It looks like he’s checking Buck out.

Bex: He’s… And I, I do not, I, I do not judge, I do not disagree, ’cause, like, I love a man in a suit, but there’s something about a man half out of a suit, i- it’s even better.

Alice: Mm. Yep. Yes.

Bex: Yeah. Like- Forearms. What the fuck? Forearms.

Alice: We all, like, it’s just so funny how [01:08:00] we all turn into, like, like 16th century men when men roll up their forearm.

Like, it used to be like, “Oh, no, a woman’s showing their ankle. How scandalous.” And we’re like, “Oh, forearms. Ooh.”

Bex: Forearms.

Alice: “Slutty.”

Bex: And it’s just the dichotomy between Buck has started stripping off, he’s rolled up his sleeves, he’s unbuttoned the shirt, and then Eddie is just, like, fully buttoned up. He’s got a turtleneck on.

Alice: Mm-hmm. He’s b-

Bex: He’s

Alice: very covered.

Bex: I would like to say, whoever did wardrobe for this episode, thank you so much for putting Ryan in a jacket-

Alice: We love you

Bex: … that actually fucking fits.

Alice: Yeah. Oh my God, yes. Mm-hmm. Wardrobe this episode- What, what- … we, we admire you Yes. We, we would love to, to thank you forever.

Bex: Yes.

Alice: 10 out of 10 for this whole scene.

Bex: Yes.

Alice: Unfortunately, this scene is now over, so-

Bex: Well, um-

Alice: … we can go back and re- Um- Let’s just repeat it. Um, so they get to the restaurant- That’s, that’s-

Bex: And … that’s the end of, that’s the end of the episode. Thank you so much for watching. We will see you next week.[01:09:00]

Ellen: Unfortunately, there’s a bit more to go.

Bex: No.

Ellen: But we will keep … I’m just gonna keep this screenshot here on my screen. Yep. I might be distracted for a little bit through the rest.

Bex: If Ellen suddenly stops talking, you know why.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: Yep.

Ellen: Oh, okay, I’m scrolling away for focus reasons. Okay.

Alice: Oh, I haven’t played Sudoku tonight.

Bex: Oh, good Lord. Maths.

Ellen: So He- Oh, maths … Hen and Karen are drinking wine in bed, as you do.

Bex: Yes.

Alice: Obviously.

Ellen: But well apparently-

Bex: I see no issue with that …

Ellen: um, Hen’s just been on the phone anyway. Um, Nathaniel got out of surgery, and he’s okay. He’s gonna be all right. Karen’s like, “Oh, that’s good. I mean, I’m still mad at him, but I’m glad he’s not dead.”

Alice: Yeah, like I guess.

Ellen: Basically.

Bex: Apparently Karen is the better person in the relationship.

Ellen: At the moment, yes. Um, [01:10:00] but Denny’s still really upset with them apparently.

Bex: I think Karen’s always the better person in this relationship. I’m just throwing that out there.

Ellen: Generally speaking, yeah.

Bex: Yeah.

Ellen: Um, that’s, that feels mean to say, but, no, you’re right.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: Yep. And, and yes. Um, Hen is, um, she’s like, “Oh, he j- he just lied to our faces and ran around behind our backs. I don’t like this feeling.” I’m like, “Hen, you were the one who was doing the same thing not so long ago.” Uh, it was quite a long time ago now, but- Yeah.

Bex: Like mother, like son.

Ellen: Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, um, at least Karen says what we were, like repeats what we were saying the other week, like, “He is the adult, he should’ve known better. Like, why did he go along with this?”

Alice: Yep.

Bex: Mm-hmm.

Alice: Yeah, like no judgment on D- Denny, he was a curious child. What the fuck was Nathaniel doing?

Bex: Yeah. But even, like, when they had their confrontation with Denny, um, I think they even mentioned that [01:11:00] Denny’s like, “Well, we didn’t do anything wrong.” And it’s like, “But you are lying about it to us.

So if you-” Yeah … “weren’t doing anything wrong, why couldn’t you just tell us?” Mm-hmm. If it wasn’t s- if it wasn’t so bad, you should’ve been able to tell us. The fact that you didn’t means that you knew that it was wrong. Yep. But yeah, 100% Nathaniel should have also been the adult in the situation. This is why you don’t have any parental rights, dude, ’cause you let a 10-year-old convince you to hide your relationship with the kid from his parents.

Alice: Yep. Yeah. Like, as soon as that kid showed up at his door, he should have been contacting Hen and Karen and being like, “Look,” like, “Denny wants to find out. I’ll let you guys handle… Like, wants to know me. I’ll let you guys handle it.”

Bex: Especially ’cause they had an agreement. Like- Yep … Nathaniel was not supposed to have anything to do with Denny. So it wasn’t even like he was calling them up out of the blue and going, “Hi, you don’t know me. My name is Nathaniel. We’ve never met. I’m Denny’s biological father, he’s just found me.”

Alice: Mm.

Bex: It’s like, “Hey, I know we met up a couple of years ago, and I told you that I would [01:12:00] relinquish any rights to Denny. Uh, I’m telling you now that I, um, changed my mind, and I actually-” Yeah

“wanna get to know him, ’cause he’s at my freaking front door.”

Alice: Yeah.

Bex: Um, but- Yeah, fuck Nathaniel … apparently all of, all of this is, is too much for Hen to handle, so she calls in reinforcements in the form of Grammy. I.e., Toni. Um, I think Hen and Karen are going out.

Ellen: Yeah, that-

Bex: They’re like, they’re, they’re kinda-

Ellen: I got that impression that they’d called her to come and look after him while they went out.

Bex: Yeah.

Ellen: Or went to work? I don’t know.

I’m not sure what’s going on. But anyway, Toni is, we haven’t seen Toni in ages so I was like, “Oh, it’s Toni. It’s, hi Toni.” She’s like, I s- Karen says, “I swear I’ve never met a kid so stubborn.” And Toni says, “Oh, I have. You’re married to her.” And, um, Hen just gives her this little look over her shoulder like, “Shut up, [01:13:00] Mom.”

Alice: I don’t like that they’re going to Toni for parenting advice because until, like, last season she was a really shit parent.

Bex: Was she a shit parent though?

Alice: I mean, she ditched her daughter just for…

Bex: I mean, like, once Hen was an adult, yes, her behavior was not the best, but from what we kind of gathered, she was a decent parent to Hen as a child.

Alice: I mean, like, we, okay, we don’t know heaps about Hen’s childhood. We know that her father left. We know that she was shot when she was, what was it, like, 12 or something, and we know that she ended up in a shitty job until she went to a life coach

Ellen: Yeah.

Alice: I’m not sure-

Bex: But we also-

Alice: … we can credit Hen’s, like, now personality to Toni

Bex: But we [01:14:00] also know that, like, Toni was single-handedly raising Hen, and she tried to shield Hen from all of the bad shit that was happening in her marriage, and that she was trying to do the best that she could from Hen, ’cause she told that story about when Hen was getting bullied and didn’t wanna go to school, so Toni would, like, take her to the library.

And, like-

Alice: Yeah, I just- …

Bex: she knew-

Alice: I just hate the fact that they made Toni a bigot and then just walked back. Like, they’re just like, “Oh, no, but, like, she’s a really good parent.” It’s like, she’s not though, because she didn’t like the fact that her daughter was gay.

Bex: Oh, yeah. Like, that part-

Alice: Like, if they ju- they just shouldn’t have done that. Like, that just shouldn’t have been, like, a thing if they wanted to make her a regular

Bex: Yeah. When, I do not like that part of the storyline. Agreed that they, if they wanted some sort of conflict they should have found another kind of conflict- Yeah … to bring into the situation. Um-

Ellen: Yeah, I think we said that at the time when they revealed that that was what had happened, that w- it felt weird compared with the rest of her character.

Alice: Yeah. [01:15:00]

Bex: I don’t like that they brought Toni in because she is advocating so strongly for blood family.

Alice: Yeah, that too. She’s like- When she kicked Hen’s father out, like, Nathaniel could be abusive. You don’t know him

Bex: But it’s the fact that he’s biological father, therefore Denny has every right to know him, and you have to let him in because he’s biological family, he’s blood.

Alice: It’s like, no.

Bex: Like, uh, no. Which is basic… So Grammy comes in, she’s got food for Denny, ’cause apparently Denny’s been on a hunger strike. Um-

Alice: Sure …

Bex: and she basically tells Denny that she’s on his side.

Alice: Yep. Oh, it’s fine that you went behind your mother’s back. Like, no. It’s, it’s really not. Mothers is, that was mothers plural and possessive.

Yeah. Yep. Um, yeah, no. I don’t like any of this part, and frankly- Nope … stopped listening to Toni after a while ’cause I was like, “Shut the fuck up.” [01:16:00]

Bex: I, I think in these scenes it was one of, another one of those scenes where I was very bitterly regretting that Disney does not have a 2-speed option.

Alice: Yeah. Yep.

Ellen: She was trying to sort of cheer him up a little bit, ’cause he was, you know, sulking and mad at his mums. So she at least brought him food.

Bex: He put himself in danger for months.

Alice: Yep.

Bex: He deserves to sulk for a little bit.

Alice: Like, can we also remember Nathaniel met Eva in rehab. Like, he, I know that this show loves to be like, “Oh, all, all addicts are perfect as soon as they’re cured,” but they don’t know that. Like, they’ve nev- like, oh my God, there’s just so much that is dangerous. And Toni’s like, “No, it’s fine. He just needs to know his dad.”

Bex: Yeah, the whole he’s my dad, he would never hurt me, as if we haven’t seen multiple examples of abusive parents.

Alice: Yep.

Bex: Yeah, I’m with you. I don’t like this storyline.

Alice: Yep, no. Not a fan.

Bex: Um, do we wanna move on to a completely random emergency [01:17:00] that has no-

Ellen: Sure

Bex: … bearing on anything else in this episode?

Ellen: This was extremely random.

Alice: I fucking guess so. Oh yeah, this was re- really weird.

Bex: Yeah.

Alice: I didn’t really watch it though.

Ellen: So yeah, this caller calls 9-1-1 and Maddie is like, “Can you tell me the nature of her injury?” and the guy’s like, “Oh, can you just send someone? I don’t really want this part recorded.” And Maddie’s like, “Okay. Um, this is a weird one. I’d better send the 118,” as usual.

Alice: Yeah, I want to hear the goss afterwards, so I’m sending my husband and brother.

Ellen: Yeah, then I’ll find out what happened. Um-

Alice: Exactly … so.

Bex: Oh, I need to interject, ’cause it just, that just reminded me, I read a fic the other day where, um-

Alice: You wrote a fic the other day.

Bex: No, no, no. No, no, no. Uh, this one’s relevant.

Ellen: You did, yes. Everyone go and read Bex’s fic.

Bex: Shush. No, no, no, no, no.

Ellen: I can’t read it-

Bex: No, no, no, no …

Ellen: because it’s not for me yet, but-

Bex: Nope, it’s not for you yet …

Ellen: it’s [01:18:00] out there.

Bex: So, um, it, Buck and Eddie, a sort of established relationship, they have an accident in the shower. They are injured. Eddie calls 9-1-1. They get Maddie, and she’s like-

Ellen: Oh, no.

Bex: He’s like, “We need an ambulance,” because I think he broke his ankle, Buck had a concussion, so neither of them could drive. She’s like, “Okay, I’m sending an ambulance. Oh, shit.” And Eddie’s like, “What?” She’s like, “You’re not gonna like this. It’s automatically selected the 118.”

Alice: Oh, no.

Bex: But so it just reminded me, ’cause in, in like in that fic, for the purposes of the drama, Maddie doesn’t pick which house gets called. S- but I think I like our version better where she’s got like a quota or she chooses that, like, for the drama, she’s gonna pick the 118 every time, because then she gets the goss.

Ellen: Yeah, the weir- the weirdest ones get the 118. Yeah.

Bex: Yeah. Yeah. Um, the, that sex fic is, um- You can read [01:19:00] that one, Ellen, so I’ll drop the link in the in the group chat-

Ellen: Okay, thank you

Bex: … ’cause it’s, it’s absolutely spoiler-free for everything, but it’s just fricking hilarious.

Ellen: Sounds good. Anyway, so this very strange, um-

Bex: Yes

Ellen: emergency. The, he wants, he wanted to take his wife to the ER, but every time he tried to move her she started screaming, which she does now. So she’s sitting on the couch fully clothed-

Bex: Mm-hmm

Ellen: … I think. She’s wearing clothes, right?

Bex: She’s got like a dressing gown on? Yeah.

Ellen: You know, getting really, she’s in a lot of pain. Can we deal with whatever the fuck puffy vest Buck is wearing?

Bex: Scroll down. It’s-

Ellen: Wow, yeah. No, I didn’t notice that at the time. Yes. It’s like, is it cold or … But his bare arms like-

Bex: But he’s in, he’s in short sleeves

Ellen: Oh, what is that all about? Anyway.

Bex: It’s v- I mean, this coming from a, a state where sort of our national uniform-

Alice: [01:20:00] I was gonna say, aren’t y-

Bex: in winter is shorts and a Mountain, um,

Mountain Designs puffy

Alice: Yeah, Melbourne and Tasmania are very much like … Oh, it’s um, oh fuck, what, what’s the brand?

Bex: We use, it’s mostly Mountain Design. Sometimes it’s Kathmandu but …

Alice: No, ours is …

Bex: But yeah, puffy, puffy coat and shorts in winter. Um, so I, I shouldn’t really be throwing stones, but yeah, I, I don’t know. We’ve never seen him wear this vest before. I don’t know why they decided.

Alice: North Face.

Bex: A North Face jacket.

Alice: Melbourne’s is North Face, yeah.

Bex: Ah, okay.

Alice: Always North Face in Melbourne. It’s the in thing

Bex: Um, I also don’t even know why Buck is at this call, ’cause it’s medical

Alice: They just have to go. It’s a thing.

Ellen: Oh, they’re, they’re all there. They just go together. They’re-

Bex: No, it’s, it’s Hen, Eddie, and Buck. That’s the only three that have responded. It would make sense if Bobby was there-

Ellen: Oh, the others aren’t there?

Bex: … Buck was also there, but Chim’s not there and Bobby’s not there. So-

Alice: I don’t know …

Bex: why is Buck there? Except to show off his vest. Maybe [01:21:00] they’re-

Ellen: It’s because Buck and Eddie have to just grill the, the, the husband to find out exactly what was going on.

Alice: Buck just wanted more math skills or something. I don’t know. I don’t think he does any math skills in this, but he has to do math skills.

Bex: He does. He does.

Alice: Oh, he does? Yeah, cool.

Bex: Because when, um, when the husband starts explaining why they got themselves into this predicament, he was talking about, um, satisfaction between partners and, um, he was worried that he wasn’t satisfying p- his wife, and that’s why they ended up in this predicament.

And, um, then, uh, Buck started doing the math about all the partners he’s been with and whether he’s satisfied any of them.

Alice: They can’t yet know.

Bex: Mixed feelings- Mm. Well- … ’cause that’s-

Ellen: So,

Bex: um- … episode title …

Ellen: this, the wife’s name is Patsy. Apparently. She’s-

Bex: Poor woman

Ellen: … gets a name this time. So that’s good.

Bex: I w- I will say that I do love that she gets a name and her husband doesn’t.

Alice: [01:22:00] Yay. Women’s rights.

Ellen: But she’s really upset that he’s called 9-1-1. She’s like, “I told you not to.” And he’s like, “I wasn’t gonna let you die on the couch.” And she says, “Better than dying from embarrassment.”

Which I feel. Um, but I mean, I can guarantee the paramedics have seen it all before anyway.

Alice: Yeah, like stop being embarrassed. Just tell the medical professionals. They don’t care, they just wanna fix you.

Ellen: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Um, she has stabbing and shooting pains, and then this buzzing noise starts up, and Hen’s like, “What is that?”

They, she, they don’t know how it happened, but apparently Hen’s like, “The buzzing’s coming from inside the house.”

Alice: Yeah,

Bex: pretty obvious.

Yeah. Hen pulls out her stethoscope and she’s listening to Patsy’s abdomen to try and locate the buzzing. Buck is looking around like there’s a giant housefly in the room. And he’s, like that’s what’s buzzing, and he’s trying to find it. Um, but no, it’s coming from Patsy. Um- [01:23:00]

Ellen: Yeah. Yeah, I just assumed that, like it was up her butt and they’d lost it. ‘Cause the husband goes, “Um, I just, I just lost it.” And I’m like, well, but apparently- Well, that

Alice: would make more sense because that’s where yeah. But anyway …

Ellen: apparently it’s in her bladder, and I’m like, okay.

Alice: Sure.

Ellen: How, how is it in her bladder?

Bex: Do you want me to explain now? Or do you wanna finish the scene, and then we’ll come back and I’ll explain?

Ellen: No, you can explain it.

Bex: Okay.

Ellen: Go on.

Bex: Um, so yes, I was also, when I watched this scene again, very confused because the, the, the thing is that the husband explains that like they were being intimate, um, which means that from the buzzing I assumed that they were using a vibrator.

But when I think of vibrator, I think of like the Rose or the Bullet, something that’s quite large that there’s no fucking way it could end up in your urethra- Yeah … in your [01:24:00] bladder. Um-

Alice: Yeah, no, I assumed it was one of the, like really little ones

Ellen: Well, it has to be pretty little to get inside that

Alice: They’re pretty, they’re thick though, yeah

Bex: Those, they’re not meant to be used internally though, so-

Alice: Oh, God, no.

Bex: You know, don’t use them internally. So, um, I’m gonna drop some f- no, I’m gonna drop some photos in the Discord for you. Um-

Ellen: Oh my God, I don’t

Bex: … illustrations to go … No, no, it’s fine. So-

Alice: Mom, I’m scared.

Bex: It’s fine. Um, so I assumed that they were using, like, a normal vibrator. Um, but I did some googling, and there was a case report in an OBGYN journal about a 29-year-old woman who presented to the ER in this situation.

She and her partner had been intimate, and then they lost the vibrator, and it ended up in her bladder. The … She … They were using, what is known-

Alice: Oh, that’s right. You did send me this

Bex: … what is called … Yeah. Well, I didn’t send it to you, I just put it so that I could find the link. Um, so they were using a [01:25:00] kind of vibrator called, um, so it’s called a Vespa, and it, for those of you who aren’t looking at what we’re looking at, um, if you’ve ever watched Mad Men and you remember the pen that Joan Holloway used to wear around her neck, it looks exactly like that.

It’s this long, thin pendant that you wear in a chain around your neck, and in the journal they say that-

Ellen: It looks like a giant nail

Bex: It does. Um, apparently, its selling point is that you can basically carry it around with you anywhere for stimulation on the go.

Alice: Sure.

Bex: Anytime you need it, it’s there for you.

Ellen: Okay. Great.

Bex: So, in this instance, our, uh, patient was stimulating herself with the Vespa vibrator, um, when her partner suddenly initiated vaginal penetration. Mm. And that’s when they lost the vibrator, because as the doctors disc-

Alice: How the fuck?

Bex: Because when the doctors got it out of her, they realized it’s [01:26:00] only, like, one centimeter wide, which is-

Alice: Yeah, but it’s so long

Bex: But it’s only one centimeter wide which is the same width as a catheter. So the idea was that she was using it to stimulate herself clitorally, and when the guy-

Ellen: A centimeter is huge, though. 1.2 centimeters

Bex: But it’s, it’s … They measured it, and in the journal they said it’s the same size as a catheter. So she’s using it to stimulate herself, her partner enters her, it slips, and it enters her urethra, and every time he thrust into her it moved further and further up her urethra.

Ellen: Oh, that sounds so horrible.

Bex: And that’s how it ended up in her bladder

Alice: Oh, how does she not feel… Like how did, it, ugh. Oh. Ugh.

Bex: Yeah. Um, yeah, so that is the real life story that inspired this scene. Mm. Um.

Ellen: Oh my God. And I can’t believe they included it in episode…

Uh, [01:27:00] okay. I- Anyway, I guess they don’t-

Bex: I want to know how-

Ellen: They don’t explain any of it, so.

Bex: How they… Which makes it worse I think, because then- Mm … like all of the people in the audience who, um, use vibrators and have like female anatomy are going, “How the fuck did you get-

Ellen: Yeah. Yes

Bex: … one of those vibrating rubber ducks into your bladder?”

Um, and of course the show can’t explain it because it’s network television at like prime time, and it’s, I don’t know what rating this one is. Um, TV 14, so they can’t really go into details. Um, so you’re left sort of very confused. But yes, that is the-

Ellen: Wow

Bex: … real life story behind how you can get a vibrator into your bladder without it actually having perforated anything.

Ellen: Well thank you for that horrifying visual.

Alice: All right, so people at home, make sure you wear, you use nice thick… Yep. Uh- Wands are probably quite safe. Uh-

Ellen: Yeah, and don’t let your partner get up to any funny business while you’re doing it. Oh. But anyway, um-

Bex: At least warn [01:28:00] me first.

Ellen: Bleagh.

Alice: Like… Mm. Nope.

Ellen: Um-

Bex: Nope.

Ellen: Buck helpfully-

Alice: There are three different places that both two and six can go on this, and it’s very annoying.

Ellen: Um, Buck helpfully says that, um- I wouldn’t worry because, you know, half as many people know they probably sell 50 million of these every single year, and half of, half as many people buy blenders, and there’s 7,000 blender accidents a year. So the probability of an accident like yours is .03%.

Alice: Yeah.

Ellen: It’s like, thanks, thanks for that, Buck.

Bex: Thanks, Buck.

Ellen: Very helpful. Anyway, they, they get her out of there on, on a gurney, and she’s still screaming.

Alice: Yeah, they’re like, “D- maybe avoid the bumps.”

Ellen: And that’s it. Nothing comes of this. Nope,

Bex: nope.

Alice: Nope.

Ellen: Never hear about it again. We just are left- Nope … with the horrifying visuals.

Alice: Yep.

Bex: To [01:29:00] be fair, like you aren’t left with the horrifying visuals until-

Ellen: But you d-

Bex: you go investigating and find out what-

Ellen: Yeah, you don’t know anything about what’s happened until you look it up later. Yes. Yeah. Unless you already know about that sort of thing.

Alice: Oh, God.

Ellen: I guess.

Bex: The only thing that comes of this is that in the next scene, af- because apparently she’s not coming from it, um, is that they get to the locker room. It’s the end of shift.

Ellen: Look, I can guarantee you there is someone out there who will, who is into that. Um, yeah.

Bex: They, it’s the end of the shift, and, um, Buck is apparently going through his Rolodex and calling everybody that he slept with to making sure that he satisfied them.

Alice: Yep, because that’s a totally normal thing to do.

Bex: I mean, considering his dating handle was Fire Hose, I don’t… No, I’m not gonna finish that because it’s like, it’s not about the size, it’s how you use it. It’s [01:30:00] incredibly-

Alice: It’s the motion of the ocean, Bex. It’s the motion of the ocean.

Bex: I mean, you can have-

Ellen: But what, what is he asking these people? Like, you know, we, we, we went, we got it together for like one night, like two years ago. Like, were you satisfied? Like…

Bex: Yes.

Alice: Yes. Yep.

Bex: Literally, he’s asking them- Highly- … did he make them come …

Alice: yep.

Ellen: Oh, Buck. Honestly.

Alice: Yep. Just Buck things.

Ellen: Anyway, what other hell else is going on in this scene?

Bex: Nathaniel’s ready for visitors. That’s literally it.

Alice: Yep. Cool.

Ellen: Yeah.

Alice: I don’t give a fuck about Nathaniel.

Bex: And then we have to deal, but then we have to deal with Carol.

Alice: Fuck Nathaniel.

Bex: Um, and then we have to go back to-

Ellen: Toni

Bex: Old people flirting, and then we have to go back to, um, Nathaniel and, and then there’s a random Buck scene

Ellen: All right, let’s just get through it

Bex: Okay, let’s just speed run. Um Here we go. Yeah.

Ellen: Yeah, okay. So, so Carol.

Alice: That’s it. Good night. [01:31:00]

Bex: So, um-

Alice: Pameron Tucker

Bex: Carol, Carol has come over for the play date, uh, but it’s not a play date, it’s a set up, because Maddie has installed cameras in the house, and the LAPD are waiting in the wings for Carol to do something suspicious, which she does as soon as Maddie leaves the room to go and get Jee up, who is still asleep. Um, as soon as-

Alice: I don’t even think Jee’s there. I’m pretty sure they’re just doing a sting, so Maddie just leaves the room

Bex: Well, that’s what she tells-

Alice: Yeah

Bex: … Carol. Jee’s still asleep, I’m gonna go get her. She leaves the room. Um, Carol immediately starts rummaging through all their shit. She finds the box of mail that Chim was supposed to take to the post office, shoves it all into her pockets, um, then is like, “Oh no, Maddie, my kid is feeling really sick.”

The kid, meanwhile, he’s having a ball because he’s found all of Jee’s toys, and kids love other kids’ toys, and he’s like-

Alice: They really do

Bex: … “What the fuck? I don’t wanna leave. I’ve got all this-“

Alice: Even if you’ve got the same k- toys at home.

Bex: They’re different …

Alice: like, “Oh, I want these toys,” [01:32:00] yeah.

Bex: Um, so he’s like, “I’m absolutely fine. I do not wanna leave.” She’s like, “Kid, we’re getting out of here.” Um, goes to the door, LAPD there. She’s like, “Oh, shit.” She turns around and Athena is there. Busted. And we discover that Carol is in fact Rhonda, and she’s a, and I have to say it the way Angela says it, a coupon forger.

Ellen: Coupon, yes.

Bex: She forges coupons and sells them-

Alice: Coupons

Bex: online, and she’s been using the murder house as her, uh, drop for all of the coupons, um, because she thought it was abandoned and she was, didn’t want to risk anybody picking up all of the mail orders for the forged coupons that were being sent to the murder house.

Ellen: Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

Bex: That’s, that’s it. Yep.

Ellen: And the audacity to, like, go into their house and rummage through their stuff while Maddie is at home in another room is-

Alice: Right. [01:33:00] She needed, needed her money, okay?

Bex: Kind of crazy. But anyway. Ca- I think, um-

Ellen: Just for a bunch of coupons, coupons that were in the mail.

Alice: Coupons.

Bex: I think Maddie’s more offended or, um, surprised at her audacity in that the kid that she was introducing as her own kid is actually her nephew. Um, so she’s taken her sister’s kid and is using him as an accomplice.

Alice: Yeah.

Bex: An unwitting accomplice, and Maddie’s like, “Oh, I would kill Buck five ways to Sunday if he ever tried to do something like that with G.”

Ellen: Uh, all right. Speed run the Nathaniel … Okay, so Toni basically tells Karen and Hen that they should give Nathaniel a chance. That’s it. That’s the entire-

Bex: Pretty much

Ellen: … scene.

Alice: Fuck Toni, fuck Nathaniel. Um,

Bex: yep.

Alice: Uh, so then Han- Hen and Karen visit Nathaniel

Ellen: So then they actually go to the hospital, yeah. Uh, Nathaniel basically comes clean. He’s like, “You know, I kinda liked it. I was an idiot. Sorry.” And [01:34:00] they’re like, “Well, that’s kinda not good enough.”

Bex: But we’re still gonna let you see Denny.

Ellen: Yeah, but on our rules. And if anything goes wrong, you’re out.

Bex: Yes.

Alice: Yep.

Ellen: That’s basically the whole scene as well.

Bex: Yep. Pretty much. Um, then we get, like, a… I don’t know what this scene is. It’s adorable, so I’ll accept it, um, but I have no idea why it’s here. Yeah. ‘Cause it doesn’t advance any storyline.

Ellen: No, it doesn’t-

Bex: Um.

Ellen: …make any sense that it’s here, but it’s so cute.

Bex: Nope. It’s incredibly cute.

Alice: Um- No, no, this, the, the Buck and-

Ellen: Yeah, Buck and Chris …

Alice: um, Buck and Chris?

Ellen: They’re baking.

Alice: Wasn’t it pointing out that he doesn’t still have his math skills?

Bex: No, he still has his math skills, he just doesn’t know how to use a scale. ‘Cause they’re trying to make cookies, and Chris points out that to the recipe-

Alice: No, ’cause he says…

Ellen: He still works out how many cups it is because the recipe’s in metric.

Bex: The recipe, the recipe’s in metric. They need to triple the recipe so that they can make [01:35:00] enough for Chris’ class. So Buck in his head works out that if the recipe is for 185 grams of flour, you have to triple it, which makes 55 grams of flour, which he then converts into cups in his head, which is 4.4 cups.

But then he realizes he doesn’t know how to measure 4.4 cups, ’cause he’s only got a-

Alice: I literally thought that-

Bex: He’s got one cup

Alice: … ’cause when, at the end when he’s just like, “Maybe we’ll just find a new recipe online,” I seriously thought that that was… I, I’m not good at math, so I have no idea. No, his- I thought his calculations were wrong his math is not good and I was like, “This is too confusing.”

Ellen: He needs to get a scale. This is why I have both cups and a kitchen scale.

Bex: This is where he goes, “Okay, it should be fif- 555 grams. Let’s grab my kitchen scale, let’s convert it to metric, and let’s just weigh out the damn flour rather than trying to work out how much .4 of a cup is,” ’cause that’s what trips him up. Not it’s 4.4 cups, it’s how do I measure .4 of a cup accurately.

Alice: Okay. Like there you go. Yeah, it’s just cute then. I’ve [01:36:00] no- I would- No idea why that scene was there. I seriously thought it was like oh no, Buck’s lost his math skills.

Bex: Me, I would’ve gone four and, like four and eh, a half, but-

Alice: You’ve gotta be pretty like pretty specific when you bake.

Bex: You do. You do

Alice: But probably not that specific. Which is- Um, I mean-

Bex: Which is why Buck’s being so pedantic about it. Um, but the other cute part is that, um, Chris asks if they can have cookies for dinner. Um, and he says, “No, I, I thought we’d have steak. You like steak, right? Um, you know what a porterhouse is?” And Chris is like, “Buck, I’m from Texas.”

Ellen: Girl.

Bex: Of course. Literally.

Ellen: But, but how long did he live in Texas for? Like, not that-

Bex: Doesn’t matter,.. he’s from Texas.

Alice: He’s from Texas.

Bex: He was bo- he was born in Texas.

Alice: It’s probably all Eddie can c-

Bex: He’s Texas in his blood

Alice: … is can cook, is yeah.

Bex: It’s just cute, okay?

Ellen: Yeah. It is cute.

Bex: Let’s just enjoy the cuteness. Random cuteness, useless cuteness, but cuteness nonetheless.

Alice: Cuteness nonetheless.

Bex: [01:37:00] Um, and then we go from Buck and Eddie cuteness to old people cuteness. Um-

Ellen: Yay.

Bex: Because Athena has joined Bobby on his run. Um, and they come back into the house and Bobby’s like, “Well, the road in front of me was on fire. You are fast.”

Alice: Nyoom. It’s very cute, this scene.

Bex: It’s very cute. Um, he apparently has a bit of a kink for getting it on when he’s h- like hot and sweaty.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: ‘Cause he tries to make another move on Athena. Um, she is not into that at all, and once again blocks him. Is like, “No, you’re filthy, I’m filthy, I’m gonna have a shower.”

Um, Bobby’s like, “Damn, foiled again.” But then Athena comes back out of the bedroom and is like, “You know the best thing about getting dirty together is that we can get clean together.” Um, [01:38:00] Bobby’s like, “Yeah, yeah, that, that makes sense.” Athena’s like, “Oh, for fuck sake, dude, I mean come and shower with me.”

Alice: yeah, come and shower with me you dumbass.

Bex: And like her sh- her shirt comes flying out of the bedroom, hits him in the face. He’s like, “Oh.” “Oh. Right.”

Ellen: And then he just get a “sha-wing!” kind of-

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: … um, sound effect and then runs in there after her.

Alice: Oh, God.

Ellen: So yeah, old people horniness. Yep. T-

Bex: Yep.

Ellen: I say old, but like they’re not that much older. Anyway.

Bex: They’re really not. Oh, I think, I think Peter’s got like, what, 10, 15 years on me. That’s, that’s not that much.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: In the grand scheme of things.

Ellen: It makes me feel old. Um- Anyway, um, One tiny little bit at the end with Denny at the hospital talking to Nathaniel, and that’s it. [01:39:00]

Bex: But isn’t it ironic that it’s, like, Toni is the one that takes Denny in to see Nathaniel, while Hen and Karen sort of linger in the hallway and, and watch on, um, in with trepidation as-

Ellen: Mm-hmm

Bex: Toni does this.

Ellen: She’s the enabler-

Bex: It’s just the sy- …

Ellen: in this case.

Bex: Yeah. The symbolism of, like, Toni being the one, like, “Yes, he should have a relationship. I will literally take your child to see his father.”

Alice: Even though I kicked your father out.

Bex: I think he was abusive though.

Alice: Yeah, but the, she doesn’t know that Nan- Nathaniel’s not, like it, hmm. Anyway.

Bex: Yeah, no, I, I know. I know.

Alice: Yep.

Bex: Why didn’t, why couldn’t we have finished the episode on Bobby and Athena? That would’ve been cuter.

Alice: Yeah, they needed more- Yeah … like, time to do things.

Bex: Yeah. Anyway, I’m scrolling back up to, um, to the Buddie date night, ’cause that’s, that’s more fun. Yeah. I’m just gonna stare at Oliver’s [01:40:00] forearms for a while.

Alice: Yeah.

Ellen: I, I just scrolled back up and found the puffy jacket thing, uh, the, the vest. And I’m like, “Hmm, it’s a really strange choice.”

Bex: It, I think the, the only … I think we’ve seen Hen wear it once.

Ellen: Oh.

Alice: Yeah.

Bex: And then we’ve never seen it again until, um, they put it on Oliver. I’m like, “Why?”

Ellen: Well, I mean, I didn’t hate this episode. There, there are some parts of it that are just really silly, but overall it’s quite sweet.

Bex: The Buck and Eddie parts are sweet.

Ellen: Yeah. If you take into account the Buddie parts and, like-

Bex: The Bathena parts?

Ellen: Yeah, Bathena being happy for a change, because they haven’t been very happy in the last few episodes, so-

Bex: Yes

Ellen: it’s nice to see them smiling.

Bex: Everything else was-

Alice: Whatever …

Bex: no. Yeah. Either, um, completely [01:41:00] ridiculous, completely irrelevant to the grand scheme of things, or just no.

Ellen: Mm-hmm. All right. So the n- the less said about this episode the better then, so.

Bex: I mean, we can talk more about the poker scene. I’m happy to talk about that.

Ellen: Sure. What else is there to talk about-

Bex: But-

Ellen: … with the poker scene?

Bex: I don’t know. We can just talk about how pretty they are.

Ellen: Just watch it again

Bex: How much-

Alice: Yeah

Bex: … how much fun Eddie had watching his boy.

Alice: How much Eddie just stared at Buck. Yeah

Ellen: Oh, they had a great time.

Bex: Oh no, I just read the summary for next week.

Ellen: Yeah. Okay, tell me what’s happening next.

Bex: Uh, Paw Patrol race to the rescue at emergencies at a commercial bakery and a bodybuilding competition. Bobby’s a- oh, no. So it’s kind of cute and then kind of sad.

Okay. Bobby’s annual performance review sends Chimney to the firefighter academy where he runs into a familiar face. Eddie’s aunt [01:42:00] gets involved in his personal life, and Maddie helps a nervous teen suffering a panic attack. Triggers include adoption/birth parent issues, so I’m guessing Nathaniel is still sticking around.

Um, discussions about familicide, panic attack, unsafe workplace, workplace accident/injury.

Ellen: Okay. Yeah. This sounds like-

Bex: Yeah …

Ellen: it could be an angsty one.

Bex: Uh, yes. But then also-

Ellen: Cool

Bex: … it’s g- it’s gonna be a rollercoaster. We’re gonna be going up and down.

Ellen: Okay. Well, um, a reminder that potentially this next episode you won’t hear from us for a few weeks because I’m going away. I, I’m pretty sure this episode that we’re recording right now, I will be able to get out.

Alice: Look at you go.

Ellen: There could be a break before this, or there could be a break after this. Um, but yeah, we’ll be back. We [01:43:00] just have to take a couple of weeks break.

Alice: Yeah. We’ve either just come back or we’re leaving.

Ellen: Yeah.

Bex: We like to keep you on your toes.

Alice: It’s either hi or bye.

Bex: You don’t know if we’re coming or going.

Ellen: Well, either way, when you’re hearing this, I’ll probably be a lot more brown than I was before. Hopefully not extremely red. Um

Bex: Yes, please use sunscreen.

Ellen: Yeah, it’ll probably more be, like, just covering up every opportunity that I’m not.

Uh, nothing else to say about this episode.

Alice: Buddie date.

Bex: Yeah.

Ellen: Yeah. We already … Th- the Buddie date scene didn’t go for long enough, so there’s nothing else-

Alice: No, but it-

Ellen: … to talk about really.

Alice: It’s in so many edits, so it’s, it’s a good part of 9-1-1.

Ellen: I’ve never seen it before.

Alice: What?

Ellen: I don’t, I don’t remember-

Bex: what?

Alice: Hang on

Ellen: … ever seeing it before.

Alice: Hang on. This is something we need to ta- y- you’ve never … You didn’t know this was coming?

Ellen: No.

Bex: You didn’t … You haven’t seen the Buddie date? You haven’t seen the suits?

Ellen: No, I was surp- I [01:44:00] was totally surpri- Like, I might have seen them in the suits.

Bex: Oh my God.

Ellen: I may have seen them in these particular suits before maybe, but I didn’t identify it as being for this episode. And when I, when I saw them, you know, being in the suits, I was like pleasantly surprised. I’m like, “Oh, are they going on a date? What’s happening?” So yeah, this was a total surprise for me.

Bex: Yay. Yeah. I love that.

Alice: Wow. Yeah, that’s so cool.

Ellen: I hope there are still some more surprises coming.

Alice: Yeah.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: Apparently I’ve only been spoiled for, like, major, like, near-death experience events. But no, um, I try not to watch actual Buddie edits in, in particular.

Alice: Yeah.

Ellen: Because there are, there are a lot of things in it that are from the future. But, um, so maybe that’s why I hadn’t seen it. But anyway, yeah. More surprises would be good.

Bex: We can’t guarantee they’ll be good ones, but there will be surprises.

Ellen: Cool. Uh, yeah, [01:45:00] let us know what you thought about this one. Give … Send me all of your Buddie date night fics-

Alice: Buddie date fics

Ellen: … that are compliant with up to now.

Bex: I’ll … Send them in. I’ll screen them. I’ll … We’ll … When we get to the end of Season 6, we’ll do a big fanfic episode. I’ll make sure that the … that Ellen doesn’t get to see them until they are spoiler-free. I will gatekeep for you.

Ellen: Thank you. Thank you, fic gatekeeper.

Bex: And then we can discuss all of the great ones. I’ve got … My list keeps growing. I keep finding new fics to share with you, so.

Alice: Excellent.

Ellen: Oh my God. Okay. Well, we’ll probably get to the end t- end of this season, like, around Christmas. No, hang on. It’ll be before that. How many episodes have we got left of this season? Four?

Bex: Five.

Ellen: Five.

Bex: 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Five.

Ellen: Okay, so it’s gonna be, like, the end of November. So yeah. Potentially before Christmas we can [01:46:00] do a up to Season 6 fan fiction episode How exciting.

Bex: Merry Christmas

Ellen: I’m, I’m looking forward to reading some fics.

Bex: Here’s some smut.

Alice: Yeah. Right.

Ellen: It’s a good time of year to do that sort of thing when you’ve got, some people have got time off during that time.

Bex: Yes.

Ellen: Not everyone, sorry.

Bex: Laughs in retail.

Alice: I’m working three jobs in December, but sure.

Ellen: But okay, if you can let us know what you thought about it, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

Uh, send us a link, I mean, uh, send us a comment, um, on thatweewooshow.com or-

Bex: Send us your links for your fan fic too

Ellen: Yeah, yeah, links. We already went over that. In Spotify or on YouTube or on social media. Uh, thank you for listening this week, and we will talk to you next time about episode 14, which is called “Performance Anxiety”.

See you then.

Bex: Bye.

Alice: Bye.

Ellen: 9-1-1 is a fictional show, but many of the [01:47:00] 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]

Bex: Okay, I’ve stopped recording. Don’t say anything funny

Alice: I also have stopped recording.

Ellen: Yeah, me too. I’ll try and hold myself back

Alice: Damn it, that was funny. What are you doing to us?

[outtake 2]

Bex: Okay, and we have recording. Yay.

Alice: You’re playing with something, but I don’t know what you’re playing with.

Bex: Fire?

Alice: Have you got a ball? Did you say fire?

Bex: [01:48:00] Playing with fire.

Alice: Hudson, where did you get that match? Hudson, no. Hudson, no. He’s head tilting at me. He’s like, “I don’t understand. What did I do?”

Ellen: Why are you shouting, Mom?