After learning about Hen’s medical issues, it’s time for everyone to get involved in the treatment plan on 911 season 9 episode 9. How does Harry falling during training throw that off?
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from 911 season 9 episode 9
The episode starts with us seeing how everyone teams up to help Hen deal with her autoimmune disorder. She goes through everything that she needs from the family, getting the kids involved in helping her with exercise, while also getting the whole firehouse on side with training and diet.
Things look to be going well at first, but then we flash to two months later. The brightness of the start turns dark immediately, and we find out that Hen is in a wheelchair on her own. Well, her mom is there, but Hen is clearly struggling with the way the disorder is progressing.
Harry Grant takes a fall on 911 season 9 episode 9
While Hen is at home, the 118 is called into an emergency at Cluck n’ Plucks. Everyone inside is seizing, and there are no signs of leaks around the building. Maddie shares that there was a call earlier from the location with someone collapsing. The person making the call suddenly drops the call, and it sounds like she’s having a seizure as well.
Chimney suggests that some of this is psychogenic. One person had the seizure, and then the others who saw it also started to have a seizure, even though they’re not having any actual symptoms. Chimney uses an infrared device to figure out which patient is really having the seizures to help him, and then they need to figure out how to help the others.
Chimney suggests box breathing with them, and it must work. The end of the call jumps straight to everyone being back to normal.
Meanwhile, Harry Grant has made it through to Week 12 of his firefighter training. There’s a friendly rivalry with a woman in his class, and this is when the accident happens. As he swings his ax at the window, he slips and falls.
It doesn’t take long to get answers about what happened. He has a mild concussion, and he’ll get 48 hours off until he can go back to training. Athena and May are worried about it, which is only natural, and we’re sure to see them attempt him to leave the Fire Academy after this, but Harry is ready to go back.
Hen has stopped fighting back
May is quick to point out why Athena was scared about losing Harry. He was just lucky about where he landed, and he needs to accept the fear Athena has of losing him.
Meanwhile, the 118 discusses what they should do about Hen, noting that things have taken a turn. Isolation isn’t helping, but Chimney fears that if she sees what she’s missing, then she may suffer even more. However, they need to keep showing up.
That’s what Athena is doing, and it turns out that Hen has stopped returning Athena’s calls. This isn’t nobody turning up for her, but Hen not accepting them. Understandably, she’s pushing people away, and that includes Karen. Karen tries to keep Hen going, but Hen is disengaging with everything. Athena knows that they need to get Hen to push back.
Athena doesn’t want Karen to be the face of the thing she’s fighting, so Hen needs another face to hate — a face to connect to this disease. This is surely where the physical training comes in.
Meanwhile, we get another call, as a man drives away from surfing. He’s not the one who ends up in the emergency. A man runs in front of his car, covered in blood and injuries, and then he just collapses. The man swears he didn’t hit the guy when on the phone with 911, and we can concur.
Harry gets back to work, as Athena quickly gets to the bottom of a case
It’s difficult for the guy from the car to prove that he didn’t hit the guy. It’s Chimney and Athena who realize that something is off. The victim’s shoes are still on, and there is no crack in the windshield to explain the injuries. Athena takes a trip to the alley where the guy came from, where she sees a broken skateboard covered in blood and a camera. It’s time to get to the bottom of it.
Meanwhile, Karen decides to take Athena’s advice, and she hires a physical trainer to give Hen a face to eventually hate. Of course, Hen isn’t happy with this situation, especially as Karen runs out, and it leads Hen being forced to do PT.
In the hospital, Athena gets a statement from the guy, who clearly makes up a story about what happened to him. However, Athena knows exactly what it was. This guy mugged a woman, which led to the woman he attacked fighting back, and that’s how the skateboard was broken in half.
Athena makes it clear that she won’t arrest the woman because it was self-defence, but Athena wants to know what happened. After being fired, getting dumped by her boyfriend, and getting coffee spilled on her, the mugging was just the last straw, and she had to fight back.
Back at home, Harry is ready to head back to training. Athena would really like him to take another day to “be on the safe side,” but Harry isn’t ready to stop. He’s straight back into the ariel ladder, which he fell from before, and he suddenly freezes. He thinks about Bobby, and it’s clear that the ladder has freaked him out. When he says he feels a bit dizzy, he’s sent home, but deep down, we know Harry needs to face this fear, or it will become a problem forever. It’s like getting back in a car after having an accident.
Buck has some wise words for Athena on 911
Hen gets some quality time with her mom, but it highlights another issue with this disorder. She’s can’t even open a jar, but her mom points out that working with the physical trainer is helping.
Elsewhere, Harry goes to see Buck, looking for a way to hide from his shame. Buck points out that training is the place to be scared, and it’s where he can get over it. However, we now see the weight Athena and May are putting on Harry’s shoulders, as now all Harry can think about is Athena having to plan another funeral. Is it selfish to rush into danger?
The problem for Hen is that when Adam, the trainer, comes over, he suddenly collapses. Hen, on her own, has to go into life-saving mentality, but that’s no so easy when she’s weaker than she is used to. She tries to give CPR, but there’s only so much that she can do. She does manage to call 911, though, which leads to paramedics coming in. What will this do to Hen’s confidence.
Buck decides he needs to speak with Athena about Harry. This is the most honest Buck has been with people for a few episodes, and I love it. He may not be able to stand up for himself, but he is able to stand up for Harry. He needs Athena to support Harry in this career, or they may all regret it later.
Hen has to face her limitations
One thing the call made Hen realize is that she can’t do the job of a paramedic anymore. When she originally started the journey to recovery, she wanted to get her job back. However, now she’s worried that she may never get that chance. Her mom decides to read a passage from a book that has words that speaks just like she feels, and it turns out that it’s Hen’s old diary.
It’s the push Hen needs to see how she has pushed through adversity in the past, including the recovery from when she was shot as a kid. There’s even the reminder of how hard the recovery from being shot was, and that it wasn’t an easy road. Hen completely forgot that part, because we tend to focus on the big moments and victories, rather than the work that goes in to manage to achieve great things. Only Hen’s mom could have delivered this message with such a power Hen needed at the time.
Athena decides that she does need to follow Buck’s advice. Forcing Harry to get dressed, she has called in to get help with facing the fear of the ladder. However, she also offers a bit of honesty. Yes, she wants Harry to quit, and she wants him to go back to being a kid with a long life ahead of him. However, she remembers how Harry used to be when he was a kid, and he would want Athena to quit her job so that she would come home.
Athena always had to push her fear and self-doubt to one side to make sure she made it home from work. She needs Harry to do that too, if he really wants to be a firefighter. It’s finally good to see the two opening up with each other, listening to each other, but also respecting each other. This is what Athena and Harry have both needed, and now it’s time for Harry to face his fear.
Henry gets his firehouse assignment
Hen uses the chance to go through her diary to remember all the adversity she once faced. It also leads to her finding a hidden letter, which focuses on how writing in the diary was making her focus too much on the darkness. She needed to pull away from that and write to her future self in the hope that there is light.
As we get the voiceover of the letter, we see Harry carrying out the rest of his training, which includes running up the ladder and getting into the building as expected. With that, they graduate from training. It’s time for them to head to their firehouses.
Of course, that means a ceremony, which means the 118 is there to celebrate. That includes Hen, who is using a walker to walk! She made sure people could see that she is getting better.
What’s an even more touching moment is Athena placing the badge on Harry’s chest. It’s a proud moment for mom and son.
So, where is Harry heading for his assignment? Is it really that surprising that he gets to go to 118? Of course, Chim and others pushed for him to join the 118. They put so much effort into raising him, so they deserve the rewards.
911 airs on Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.