Here we are with another season of 911, and of course, there are plenty of crazy moments to come. Let’s get into the 911 season 9 premiere.
Caution: This post contains SPOILERS from the 911 season 9 premiere.
The new season promises plenty of crazy moments. Before we get into space, we need to see how Hen and Athena end up in space. We also need to see who becomes the new captain of the 118.
Why isn’t Athena at Bobby’s memorial in the 911 season 9 premiere?
We open with an astronaut making a fix to the International Space Station, chatting with his colleague on the inside. When there’s interference on the radios, his colleague looks outside to see debris flying his way. It looks like he’s saved when there’s more debris that flies to the International Space Station.
Of course, that’s where we stop, taking us back to two weeks earlier, because we just know that this is going to be the big thing that happens while Athena and Hen are in space. On the ground, the 118’s firehouse is given a plaque to remember Bobby Nash, marking a beautiful tribute for him.
This is when we learn that Chimney does become captain, although he’s the interim captain for now. Hopefully, that will change to a permanent one as 911 season 9 progresses.
While Hen and Eddie are acting like best buddies (with Buck jealous), we learn that Athena hasn’t made it to the memorial. Everybody is shocked by this, as all they heard was that “something has come up.”
Well, it looks like Athena is on a date, but we know Athena, right? Sure enough, after accidentally spilling her water, she goes into the fridge in the kitchen of the restaurant to pass her team her “date’s” phone. The sting doesn’t quite go to plan, as the FBI walks in to arrest her mark. While the FBI agent praises her, Athena is understandably not happy that five weeks of work has turned into this.
Elsewhere, there’s a protest happening outside of a tech firm. This firm is owned by Tripp, played by Mark Consuelos. The people are protesting the spending, the bugs, and the work being done, which is leading to the board considering a change in leadership. While Tripp argues against his board, a whale eats him.
Well, that was wild!
Athena is forced to face her grief
It turns out that while Tripp was eaten, he wasn’t swallowed. A whale’s throat is small so he’s trapped in the whale’s mouth, and now all everyone needs to do is wait for the whale to spit Tripp out. Let’s hope he doesn’t suffocate during that! Off the 118 goes for the save, and they need to do it without the coast guard, which is 20 minutes out.
Chimney realizes that they need to force the whale out of the water to spit Tripp out, as they can stay underwater for 45 minutes, and we get to see Chim at work as captain. He connects all the hoses with a cone to get water flowing through with the siren from the engine, in an attempt to mimic the mating call of a whale.
It surprisingly works, and Eddie dives into the water (without waiting for the order) to get to Tripp so they can help him, as he lost oxygen while in the whale’s mouth.
Back with the police, Athena finds out that all her calls with her “date” are being handed over to the FBI. With that over early, Athena needs the next case, but her boss isn’t exactly going to give her one. She’s been avoiding her life by constantly being undercover, but maybe now it’s time for her to face her life as Athena Grant.
That life is empty. We get a look inside the new apartment, which looks more like a show house than anything else. It’s not the life she ever envisioned, and it hints that we’ll see what grief really looks like in 911 season 9.
The 118 turn to crazy treatments at times!
Things don’t look great for Tripp in the news, but that’s not who we’re all that concerned about right away. As Athena is at Starbucks waiting for her coffee, she sees her son working there. It turns out that he’s dropped out of high school and now works there. No wonder he didn’t want to live at Athena’s.
Of course, it wouldn’t be 911 without another crazy save, and that comes on a school bus. When a rowdy bus of children suddenly go quiet and the bus driver starters to struggle to stay awake, you know there there’s going to be something disastrous for the 118 to get called into.
Naturally, everyone initially thinks that the driver is drunk, but the look of the passed out children tells Hen that this isn’t a DUI. Athena also confirms that the driver’s water bottle also only has water in it, so what’s going on in the bus? It’s no carbon monoxide, but Buck notices in the engine has an anti-freeze leak, and now everyone on the bus has breathed it in.
The scary thing is that this is much worse than carbon monoxide. All the children are in multiple organ failure, and they need ethanol to counter the anti-freeze. That means alcohol! If it wasn’t for the fact that these are all children, Hen, Eddie, and others walking in commenting on the treatments of rum and Irish whiskey would be funny, but it’s really not a laughing situation.
After all this, Hen gets a call from Chief Sampson, with something urgent to discuss. Naturally, she fears the worst about this.
Hen gets the offer of a lifetime
Hen isn’t in trouble at all. Tripp wants to see Hen to thank her for saving his life, thanks to him getting to see the video that was all over social media. It doesn’t matter that Eddie dove off the bridge. He woke up to Hen over him, and now he’s donating a decent amount of money to the fire department.
Now he just needs Hen to do a tiny favor. He needs her to go into space, and Hen couldn’t be more excited about this. She wants Karen to go with her and be excited about this, but Karen can’t be. Tripp just wants to do this for good publicity, and as much as Karen would love to go to space, she realizes that she can’t support this. She’s a serious scientist, and Tripp has lawsuits against people she works for.
However, she does want Hen to go to space, but she won’t help her choose one of the guys to go with her.
Back with Athena, she calls May over to discuss the situation. May had no idea Henry had dropped out of school either, but this isn’t May’s fault. Both May and Henry turn on Athena, as she has completely bailed on her children for months. They really hit her where it hurts when May says that she lost her mom at the same time as losing Bobby. Henry confirms that, and the two leave the apartment.
At the firehouse, the men have all heard about Hen’s offer, and it’s an immediate competition between them to be her plus one. Of course, it is!
Athena gets a rude awakening in 911 season 9
Athena is back to her regular work, which leads to her investigating a call in an apartment building about a smell. I think the fact that the super said this tenant had been there since the ‘90s should have been a giveaway of something serious happening, and sure enough, when Athena walks in, she’s shocked to find out that the tenant had died.
This is sure to hit home even more, as this person was clearly alone. When she suddenly wakes up, the 118 is called in. Chimney guesses that the tenant had a flesh-eating bacteria that had been working on her for weeks without anyone noticing. Athena looks around at the pictures around the apartment and we get flashes of what could have happened in the past as Hen and Eddie try to help the woman.
The flashes show us a happy couple that is broken by the loss of the child they were expecting. As the man leaves the apartment, the woman remains but closes off to the world, and it’s clear that she’s been left alone for this whole time. The 118 are able to get the tenant stable, but it’s a sign to Athena that she needs to stop closing everyone else off.
At the 118, the men try to impress Athena to get her to pick them. Eddie restocks the ambulance while Eddie brings Hen coffee. Chimney decides to give Hen a “Firefighter of the Month” award. As the men argue, Hen decides to just walk away. She’s done hearing all the fighting.
The 118 confess their pain
The news of the tenant certainly knocks Athena, especially as she explains that they’ve not found a next of kin for the woman just yet. This could be the make or break of the tenant fighting off her infection and surviving.
Chimney heads over to Eddie’s, where they’re able to have a heart-to-heart. Chimney hasn’t taken the Captain’s test yet, and he’s expecting to be told there is someone permanent to take those shoes. It’s hard to fill Bobby’s shoes.
Meanwhile, Buck admits to Baby Bobby that he doesn’t even want to go to space, but he just wanted to be part of the argument between Eddie and Chimney. He is still thinking of Bobby as well, expecting to see Bobby look at him with a shake of the head.
Athena takes a minute to admit to Hen about her own grief. She finds it hard to be around people who knew and loved Bobby, including her children. This isn’t something she wants to talk about, and she’s feeling the loss of never being able to talk to Bobby again. While Athena’s children are angry at Athena’s grieving process, Hen wants Athena to take the time, and she will keep calling.
When Athena says that the next invitation she gets, she’ll say yes, you can see the lightbulb moment for Hen. Of course, she’s going to ask Athena to go to space, and that’s the clip we get at the end of the episode.
911 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.