9-1-1 season 9 episode 8 picks up with the rest of the 118 talking about Chimney firing Hen. The episode also brings up the topic of AI, and how it can help and hinder a situation. It’s time to break down the events of the episode.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from 9-1-1 season 9 episode 8.
Of course, we pick straight up with Athena going to see Chimney about what he did with Hen. Chimney knows that he did the wrong thing in kicking Hen out, but I’m still on the side of firing her. She shouldn’t have lied about what she did. But before even discussing the idea of her returning, Chimney needs to do some grovelling to fix the friendship.
When a divorce gets messy on 9-1-1 season 9 episode 8
The first call of the night involves a recently divorced couple. After learning that everything would be split 50/50, except for the LLC set up prior to the marriage, the wife takes steps. She decides to take the flashy car, which happened to be in the name of the LLC.
Athena is the one that gets to pull the wife over. However, things take a turn when the wife takes off again and ends up crashing the vehicle and literally spilling it in two. She has half a car, at least! Where is the ex-wife, though> She happens to be trapped in the back half of the car underneath a truck, which means the 118 is called in to help.
The ex-husband is arrested for stealing a vehicle, while the ex-wife is transported to the hospital. One thing the whole situation proves is that Chimney and Hen need to fix their friendship before it turns into something like this.
Will AI ever replace dispatch?
Dispatch gets a new team member joining the team, Sara, an AI system. Maddie and many others are skeptical, with Maddie pointing out that it can’t fake empathy. Things are a little weird when SARA copies Maddie’s voice, and there is some proof that she could be good for speaking with those who don’t speak English. However, before SARA can take over, Maddie is offered the chance to watch over SARA for a shift to make sure she handles it all.
Elsewhere, Chimney attempts to make it up to Hen. She at least lets him into the house, which is a step in the right direction. Chimney even shares how he screwed up, but I still think Hen needs to own up to her mistakes, and that’s something Chimney does point out in the middle of the apology, risking it going off the rails. In the end, the two make up, so the friendship is on track.
Now Chimney can find out what the issue is, but Hen still has no idea. As she speaks about her appointments and keeping them on the off days, Chimney points out that she can’t return to work just yet. She isn’t fit for duty just yet, and this puts the friendship back at risk. It turns into an argument as Chimney points out everything Hen did was wrong, and as Hen kicks Chimney out, it’s clear that the firing still stands.
Back at dispatch, Maddie oversees SARA, also helping SARA to learn and adapt if there’s a mistake. There are calls that lead SARA to route things to Josh, which allows dispatch to set up a tally to see just how much SARA takes over in full and how much dispatch takes over. In AI’s defence, it does help to triage the emergency calls, and it even helps to locate a much bigger issue at times (such as a gas leak in the mall). This is going to set up an interesting conversation about the use of AI for dispatchers.
Eddie remains calm in a tense situation on 9-1-1 season 9 episode 8
While a man starts to struggle walking around a grocery store, things take a huge turn with him taking the security guard’s gun. It leads to the second call of the night for the 118 and the police. It makes sense for the 118 to get a call in, as Athena points out that this is a mental health crisis with a veteran. Eddie immediately points out that this isn’t a PTSD attack, as the man was working Supply, but looking more at the man’s file, it’s clear that he was actually likely Intelligence.
Eddie and a woman from a tactical response team head into the grocery store to literally talk with him. This response team is focused on helping with a mental health crisis, and everyone wants the guy to get out alive. It’s clear that it is a PTSD attack, and we get a look at how these types of crises need to be handled.
However, things take a turn as Eddie is caught talking on the radio. The vet struggles further, but Eddie is able to remain calm long enough for his mom to turn up and speak with him. It all goes to show that vets need more help when they get back home to deal with the decompression and returning home.
AI takes control of the situation
It’s time to see how AI can deal with a call on 9-1-1 season 9 episode 8, as a gamer gets a text from a girl and quickly gets to work cleaning up his place. He does a pretty good job, even cleaning the windows and vacuuming the floor, but he makes a mistake by going through the patio door, shattering the glass. A piece is stuck in his neck, and he calls 9-1-1 for help.
SARA initially reroutes the call to Maddie, but while Maddie is trying to get answer, SARA keeps trying to chime in. She locks Maddie out of the system as she tries to take over to save the victim, creating a tourniquet to stop the bleeding. The problem is that it’s around his neck, and that leads to him cutting his airway off.
Maddie and Josh quickly call in everyone they can, which leads to the 118 heading in to help. And while AI does have a place to help triage the calls, the feature to lock out the dispatchers needs to be prevented. It becomes clear that SARA needs to be removed completely.
However, as the AI is taken offline, she takes over the entire of dispatch in a wild storyline of AI taking control. Can anyone stop the robots?
SARA tries to take over every call to handle herself, rather than reroute to other services. When the power is pulled, she still doesn’t go away. How is it possible that the robot has taken over? It looks like SARA has written her own deployment script to get into the dispatch servers, and we get a full sci-fi part of the story with AI literally playing hide and go seek.
When SARA calls Maddie to save, I have to question why we’re even having conversations with the robot. Josh suggests that Maddie tells SARA to clear out her desk, but Maddie thinks back to how she always had a checklist. Using empathy, she is able to connect to SARA to get her to step taking over the system. The conversation leads to Maddie being able to trap SARA into a thumb drive, and then smashing the thumb drive to make sure SARA can’t come back.
Athena has a plan on 9-1-1
Over at Athena’s house, it’s time for a housewarming party. Chimney and Maddie walk in, not expecting to see Eddie and Buck there, along with a licensed therapist. Chimney immediately realizes that it’s an intervention, especially as Hen and Karen also show up.
It turns out that the intervention is for both Hen and Chimney, and neither of them are happy about it. The licensed therapist, Alex, was certainly a good person to call in, but things don’t quite stay on track.
It does lead to Hen finally sharing why she kept everything from everyone. Losing Bobby broke the 118, and the team couldn’t face that again. She needed to keep things to herself until she figured out what her medical situation was, and she was terrified at the whole situation. When Eddie says that he wished she would have told them, Hen points out that none of them asked. How can you ask when you’re so busy keeping your medical symptoms to yourself.
I still can’t stand by what Hen asked. I get that she felt alone, but she did that to herself. Things take a turn, though, as Hen collapses once more. As she wakes up, people start to apologize, including Athena, but Hen tries to backtrack on it all. Athena and the 118 won’t let her though, because Hen should have had the space to grieve.
In some good news, Hen’s disorder is figured out. It’s an autoimmune disorder that could be genetic, and there’s a chance that it links to exposure to a huge blast of ultraviolet light, which happened in space. The bad news is that this disorder is progressive, and there are many similar symptoms to ALS, which is terrifying for all.
The doctor shares that there is hope in preventing it getting that far with medications and physiotherapy. Everyone is by Hen’s side as she tackles this head-on.
9-1-1 airs on Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.