Welcome to That Weewoo Show: a podcast where Alice, Bex and Ellen watch and discuss every episode of ABC’s TV show, 9-1-1.
In this episode we discuss episode 11 of the second season of 9-1-1, titled “New Beginnings”.
Bobby meets Athena’s parents; Doug insinuates himself deeper into Chimney’s life; Athena looks into a distressing 911 call.
Content warnings for episode 2.11:
Children at threat, domestic violence, facial surgery, gore, kidnapping, a stabbing, stalking, shark attack.
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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 A BC show, 9-1-1. I’m Bex,
Alice: I’m Alice.
Ellen: And I’m Ellen.
Bex: Big thanks to everyone who has listened to our episode so far, snaps to everyone who shared our episode links and social media posts, and a big shining gold star if you have rated and or reviewed us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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So a few minutes of [00:01:00] your time will help us to get in more people’s ears and spread the 9-1-1 love.
Alice: That sounds so dirty.
Ellen: That’s what we’re all about. Well, it might be a good time to remind people up front that you can actually leave us a comment directly on Spotify now. We’d Um, we worked out how to do it. You can’t do it on the desktop app, but you can do it on your phone. Just go into the episode’s actual post, and there’s a little comment box there, so please leave us a comment.
We’d love it if someone did try it out.
Alice: We like reading things. It’s almost like we’re fanfic devourers.
Ellen: Yeah. Almost.
Bex: Alice, would you like to remind us what happened in the last episode of 9-1-1?
Alice: Yeah, so we’ve had a bit of a break, and so did 9-1-1, um, so last year, on 9-1-1, the, uh, 118 celebrated [00:02:00] Christmas, uh, Bobby proposed to Athena, Eddie gave Christopher the gift of his mother, while Chimney made a new sinister friend.
Ellen: I mean, he’s not sinister towards Chim, particularly. Yet.
Alice: Yet.
Bex: He did steal his wallet. He did.
Ellen: Yeah, but Chim doesn’t know that. He’s just his buddy, right? Anyway, apparently this week Bobby meets Athena’s parents for the first time. Maddie attempts to end her marriage for good causing Doug Who we now know is the guest star Brian Hallisey aka Jason?
Was that what he called himself? Yes. To insinuate himself even deeper into Chimney’s life. Meanwhile, a tanker carrying a tiger shark crashes on the freeway and a gas leak in a plastic surgeon’s office happens mid surgery.
Alice: It’s always nice when the things in the summary actually happen.
Ellen: Yes, these things all happen.
Bex: I [00:03:00] was about to comment.
Alice: Like, hey, I did watch all of these happen. How nice.
Ellen: Um, a few triggers for this episode. We have children at threat. Domestic violence. We have some facial surgery, and that involves gore. We have a kidnapping, a stabbing, some stalking,
Bex: which also involves gore.
Ellen: Yeah. We have a shark attack, which sounds, I mean, technically, yes, but yes.
All right. So where do we even start with this episode? We start off in the plastic surgeon’s office this time.
Bex: Yes. With, um, classical music playing, which drove me nuts until I could figure out what the tune was, which involved me having to scroll through a whole heap of, um, TikTok trends until I could find a video that told me what the sound was.
Which is Chopin’s Nocturne No. 2, [00:04:00] if anyone else is, needs to know that.
Alice: Um, that’s the only part of being a fan of classical music. You can’t just Google the lyrics when you’ve got something in your head.
Ellen: Yes. And even though they say on that ad that if you don’t know what a song is you just hum, you know, for your phone to work out what it is, that never works.
Bex: It doesn’t.
Alice: No, I’m too tone deaf for that, like, anyway, so yeah, we’ve got a woman who the captions are calling Sadie. Um, she’s in, like, surgery, I guess? It’s a plastic surgeon’s office. It’s definitely one of those, like, boutique y ones in L. A., like, it’s not in a hospital.
Bex: Yes. She’s in for a facelift because she wants the 35 year old version of herself back.
Alice: Yeah, sounds like she just got a divorce. She’s talking about, like, I don’t want him back, I want me back. Yeah. Um, and good on her, [00:05:00]
Ellen: but she wants, she wants 30, she wants like 15 years back, basically.
Alice: Yeah. But she also doesn’t want to look like a duck.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: But yeah, while she’s like chatting to the plastic surgeon about like what she wants, there’s like power tools in the background.
And she’s like, um, what are you doing?
Yeah.
Bex: Like, what are you planning to use on me? Like, the power tool is revving up and they’re about to come in and put that on her face. Apparently no, they’re just fine. They’re doing some construction next door. It’s all fine. Um, so they put Sadie under anaesthetic.
And we as the viewers, we see her, the screen go fuzzy, all the sound starts to distort, goes black. Um, And then Sadie wakes up, and we think, okay, cool. Surgery’s done. She [00:06:00] thinks the surgery’s done. She’s like, oh, are we done?
Ellen: She still looks pretty much the same.
Bex: She does. There’s a bit of a red line around the, um, hairline and around the side of her face.
But As the camera kind of pulls back, we can see that, um, her face looks fine, but her neck doesn’t. Yeah. Because all the skin on her neck has been cut and then retracted, and we can just see, like, the muscles and the tendons underneath, um, because all of the medical team are just passed out.
Alice: Yeah, totally just knocked out cold.
Bex: Including on top of her.
Ellen: There’s a lot in this scene that I have questions about.
Bex: I have to, I’m going to, um, just, I apologize up front to everyone. This episode, there is so much of me screaming in this episode that nothing makes sense.
Alice: Yeah. Like this whole episode is.
Bex: [00:07:00] Nothing in this episode makes sense to me, starting right from the very beginning. So yes, if you have questions, they’re probably the same questions I have, so go ahead.
Ellen: Well, firstly, I was wondering where the blood is. Like, I would imagine that if you just peeled someone’s skin off their neck, there would be a lot more blood.
Bex: It should be bleeding, yes.
Ellen: Especially since the people who were doing it were, you know, passing out.
Yeah. I don’t know. That’s just the first of many, many questions. If there is a
Bex: It’s, it’s a very, it’s a very valid question.
Ellen: Uh, if there’s a, a leak of like, okay, so let’s, let’s just step through it and see what happens. So she, this lady calls 9-1-1.
Bex: And here’s where my first question kicks in, because where the hell does she get a phone from?
Ellen: Yeah, she’s still lying on the operating table.
Bex: She’s on the hospital bed, she has the anesthesiologist and I think another member of the [00:08:00] team pinning her to the bed so she can’t get out of bed.
Alice: Yeah, the anesthesiologist, um, is like lying across her, yeah.
Bex: Yes. It’s a surgical room, so there’s not going to be, like, a landline on a little bedside table next to her that she can reach for.
She wouldn’t have her cell phone on her. So how the hell is she calling?
Alice: I don’t know, if Grey’s Anatomy has taught me anything, I’m pretty sure that operating rooms have landlines for some reason.
Bex: But again, she’s pinned to the bed! How can she reach the phone?
Ellen: Maybe she picked one of the anasthesiologist’s pocket or something.
Bex: But it’s this, it’s surgical. Nobody should have a phone in there because it’s going to, it’s going to, there’s risk of contamination.
Alice: Again, if Grey’s Anatomy has taught me. I’m pretty sure those people just sext while they’re performing surgery.
Bex: Yeah. This, this entire episode, there is. [00:09:00] The focus is obviously on the drama and what looks good on screen and what’s gonna make the best story, and very, very, very, if any, attention to the actual logical details of what is going on.
Alice: Just don’t think too hard about it.
Bex: Nobody cares about the detai I’m just gonna have to switch my brain off for this entire episode, otherwise it’s just gonna be me going but, no, but, wait, what, no.
Alice: Anyway, so we get a, yeah, we get a group of people, um, in yellow hazmat suits coming in and like, obviously they’re the 118, even though we can’t see anyone’s faces yet, uh, and sure enough
Bex: It has to be, because like, as we said last week, who else are they going to call?
Alice: Yeah, literally. Um, so
Bex: Don’t say Ghostbusters.
Alice: Winchesters?
Ellen: Well, the thing is they have these hazmat suits on, which is covering all of them, including their feet, but they’ve got between their [00:10:00] mask and like where their, uh, suit is, there’s a big gap where their neck, like their chin and their neck is all just open to the air.
I’m like,
Bex: they don’t have hoods on?
Ellen: They have hoods on, but they’re, It doesn’t
Bex: But the hood… aren’t the hoods meant to be connected to the collar of the suit?
Ellen: I thought the whole point of a hazmat suit was that nothing can touch you at all.
Bex: Oh no, I didn’t even notice that.
Ellen: One of them was sort of looking up a little bit or something and I was like, why is his neck all exposed?
Alice: Oh my god, yeah, literally, Chimney’s
Ellen: They haven’t got those things on properly.
Alice: Chimney’s neck is just wide open. Okay.
Ellen: Anyway, this is, this is when I started just thinking this whole episode is just not got off to a great start here. Anyway, anyway.
Alice: Their necks are just wide open, so I don’t know what these hazmat suits are doing, but not much.
Um, but they do have gas masks on, so they don’t know what the issue is [00:11:00] yet. They don’t know if it’s a gas leak or a pathogen. Um, but it’s negative for combustibles, but they’ve got to keep their masks on.
Ellen: Yeah. Uh, they find the people who, some people who have passed out, and they’re okay, they’re just asleep. They’ve got like pulses and everything, they’re breathing.
Bex: Sadie can hear them, as they’ve entered the office. Oh yeah. Starts calling out to them, and they sort of follow her voice to the, the surgical room where they find her. And, uh, Look, Bobby’s a little bit concerned about the state of her walking in to see, um, her neck completely exposed like that.
Alice: Everyone’s necks are exposed in this scene.
Bex: He’s like, Chimney, directing everybody, Chimney check on her, um, Buck, help me get the people off her. And Sadie can see Bobby’s reaction and he’s, she’s asking what’s wrong and he’s just like, no, no, no, no, stop, stop, stop, stop, don’t touch your face, don’t touch your face, which [00:12:00] immediately she then goes and touches her face.
Alice: Yeah, immediately.
Bex: Um,
Ellen: she goes, is there a stitch loose? And I’m like, um, we need to preserve the tissue as much as we can. She’s like, tissue?
Bex: Which freaks her out. So she sits up and it turns out that it’s not just the skin on her neck that the surgeons had cut for retraction. It was her entire face because as she sits up, her forehead just like flops down over her eyes.
Ellen: So gross.
Bex: It’s like a whole face off situation.
Ellen: She goes, my face is off, my face is off. Yes. And then, okay. So. Chim’s kind of checking the other people and they’re, they’re okay, they’re just all asleep. And so, Bobby kind of notices that they run the anaesthetic through the walls in these places. I don’t know how accurate that is, but I guess it must be [00:13:00] one of the few things that might be accurate in this episode.
Bex: Alice, what has Grey’s Anatomy taught you about anesthesia and its delivery?
Alice: No, well, they’re not, they’re not boutique y, so they just have it in bottles.
Bex: Okay.
Ellen: Um, so that’s what they suspect is happening. And then, uh, Sadie does tell, like, that they’ve got a leak. And then Sadie tells them that she could hear construction work nearby, like next door. So that might have created a leak. But yeah,
Alice: so they find the construction zone and the crew’s all passed out and one of them’s like across a table. So Chimney goes to grab the guy on the table, but he won’t budge. So he looks under and it’s not just a table. It’s a table saw. Yeah, and the guy is completely Yeah, the saw blade is completely in the guy and Chimney just looks [00:14:00] up and goes, right, so there’s that.
And I’m just like, oh my god, Chim.
Ellen: and then the, the, uh, when they’re taking this guy and putting him on the sort of gurney thing to take him out of there, Uh, they have to leave the saw blade in him so that they can extract it at the hospital.
Bex: Yes, because you don’t take
Ellen: You don’t take an impaled thing out
Bex: If you’ve got a penetrating wound, you don’t take the thing out.
Ellen: Yeah. And he wakes up and kind of looks down and then like, passes out again.
Bex: Which KT But I love that he’s under the effects of the anesthesia and he’s kind of just muttering like, measure twice, cut once, measure twice, oh shit, cut, blech.
Ellen: I think one of the other things that, uh, one of the other questions that I have is if they’re all under the effect of a leak, leaked, leaked anesthetic stuff. Why did Sadie wake [00:15:00] up and when everyone else has passed out?
Alice: No, no, they, they mentioned that it’s because she’s got the oxygen going in her nose.
And when they, like, cut the pipe for the anesthetic, it would have filled the room but it wouldn’t have continued going into her, I assume? Like they said that she’s getting the oxygen from the cannula.
Ellen: Okay. No. But she’s still under the effect because she can’t feel it.
Bex: They, they used the, they used one of the, the, the masks to deliver the anesthesia.
Alice: Yeah, and that’s fallen off. So she’s just got the oxygen now.
Bex: She’s just got the oxygen. But that is a fair question, would the oxygen that she’s getting through her cannula be enough to counteract the anesthesia in the air around her? Because when you’ve got the cannula up your nose, you’re still getting the air from
Ellen: Yeah, I You’re not breathing only oxygen.
Extra, right?
Alice: I’m guessing not, because they did, they do mention that she’s still under the effects [00:16:00] of it. So like, she’s probably awake enough to be conscious, but Still a bit drowsy because like she didn’t even know that her neck was wide open either.
Bex: Again, this is just the
Alice: Just don’t think about it.
Bex: Don’t think about it too hard. I don’t think about it. Um, so because Sadie is not in any pain, she’s not bleeding out. It’s just, you know, her skin has been Displaced. Um, she is not the priority in this situation. The dude with the saw blade in the abdomen is the priority. So while Hen and Buck are wheeling her out at a very leisurely pace, Eddie and Chim just race past them, ,because they need to get to the ambulance first, Buck and Hen are gonna say they’re gonna have to wait for the next one.
And um, Buck tells a little, a worried Sadie not to worry that they’re still going to get her to the hospital, and Hen says, you’ll still get your new beginning with your new face, and at this point I went, oh my god, we’re back to episode [00:17:00] titles being in the dialogue again. I thought we were over this. And then I went back and went, shit, who wrote this episode, and of course it’s a Kristen Reidel episode.
Oh, is it
Alice: really? That, that actually explains a lot of the complaints I have for later in the episode. It was written
Bex: by Tim and Kristen, Tim Minear and Kristen Reidel. Yeah, cool. Okay. Yeah. Which, yeah, it makes a lot of sense now, doesn’t it?
Alice: Yeah. I have, um, I have some thoughts about later.
Bex: Yes. I do have thoughts later too.
Yeah. Um, but let’s get through the rest of the episode and then we can, you know, bitch about them afterwards.
Alice: That’s it.
Bex: So yeah, so the episode is, title is “New Beginnings”, um, we are going to have the title dropped in dialogue, and all of the storylines are going to be about new beginnings. Whether we [00:18:00] like it or not. Speaking of new beginnings, we’re going to go to the Grant household, where the in laws are coming.
Alice: Yeah, so Bobby having proposed to Athena, um, her parents are now coming to meet him. Lucky Bobby.
Ellen: Mmm.
Bex: Yeah. I, I enjoy that, um, Michael, the kids have obviously been with Michael, the setup is that the kids have been with Michael, so he’s dropping them off, and he very sort of tentatively enters the house, he’s like, “We’re here!” And Bobby’s like, “They’re not here,” and Michael’s like, “Oh, thank God.”
Alice: Literally. Michael is so excited to, like, try and escape here.
Bex: Um, apparently he and, I don’t think it’s so much Athena’s father, but definitely Athena’s mother. does not like him.
Ellen: Yeah, I don’t know if it’s just him that she doesn’t like, or she doesn’t like the fact that he [00:19:00] turned out to be gay.
Bex: I’m gonna say that, judging from the way Michael’s acting, that Beatrice has never been a fan of his.
Maybe she Maybe she sensed something, like she was in on everybody knew Michael was gay beforehand, so but Who knows? So yeah, Beatrice is the evil mother in law that everyone has their mother in law stories about as far as Michael is concerned, and he is quite happy that he is no longer under fire.
Unfortunately for him, Athena and her parents arrive home before he can make his escape. And I do think at one point he was literally looking at like the patio doors going, can I go out the backyard and like jump the fence or something?
Alice: He absolutely was. It was great.
Bex: Athena is quite aware of Michael’s feelings about her parents because when she comes in, she sees that Michael is still here. She asks, you know, [00:20:00] “I thought you would have dropped the, the, the kids and run,” and Michael goes, “Well, they wouldn’t jump out of the car while it was still rolling.”
Alice: Yeah, that was definitely a conversation he had with them.
Bex: Uh, Bubby’s looking a little bit worried after the way Michael has been speaking about Athena’s mother, and Athena says to him, “Remember, no matter what happens, they leave on Saturday,” which does not reassure him at all.
Ellen: He starts looking kind of worried at this point. Yes. But they do come in, uh, the parents arrive, and the kids are really excited to see them.
Yes. Which is nice, but Beatrice, who’s Athena’s mum, uh, sort of sees Michael there, oh, Michael says hello to her, and she says, “Oh, what a pleasant surprise, I didn’t know you’d be here,” in a insincere kind of a way.
Bex: Yes. Um, Athena tries to kind of divert attention away from [00:21:00] Michael back to her and introduces Bobby.
Her father seems Pretty chill. He immediately offers Bobby his hand. Bobby, um, says that it’s a pleasure to meet him, calls him Mr. Carter. Uh, he says, I don’t know if Samuel is fine, and then wanders off into the kitchen to find the food. Beatrice is a little bit of a, a harder, harder nut to crack. Because she assumes that Bobby being there when they arrive, that he’s already living in the house.
Yeah, and she does not seem, um, too happy about that. No. So then Beatrice turns her attention back to Michael.
Ellen: She just says, she says to Bobby, Before she turns away, she says, “You’re very… tall.”
Bex: Yes, and I don’t know whether that’s… yeah, Bobby’s like, is that a good thing, is that a bad thing? What does that mean? Please interpret [00:22:00] that for me.
Um, I’m guessing it’s not a good thing.
Alice: I’m guessing she meant you’re very white. Maybe, yeah.
Bex: Yes, probably.
Alice: But yeah, Beatrice turns then to Michael, who goes, and goes, “Will your husband be joining us?” And Michael’s like, “Oh no, um, Glenn and I aren’t actually married.” And Beatrice just goes, “Of course you’re not married yet. You’re barely divorced.”
Bex: I think at that point, Bobby realizes exactly what he’s in for this weekend.
Alice: Yep. He is fucked.
Ellen: Snide comments.
Alice: Yes. Bobby, like the closing line here is Bobby asking Athena, Yeah. Like, that she, if she said Saturday, and Athena’s like, uh huh.
Bex: But what I think is interesting is that Athena is well aware of her mother, and the things that her mother says, and the way that she acts, and the way that she treats other [00:23:00] people.
So it’s not this sort of situation where, you know, Bobby and Michael are like, your mother is a bitch. And Athena’s like, no, my mother is amazing. She’s like, no, no, no, I’m fully aware that, you know, my mother is the Wicked Witch of the West.
Alice: Yeah, she’s clearly just trying to do the family thing before the wedding.
Yeah.
Bex: Let’s go to a slightly less dysfunctional family.
Alice: Slightly.
Bex: Slightly. Where we have the Buckley family bonding activity in a boxing ring.
Alice: I do love this scene.
Bex: Buck is training Maddie in, I don’t know if it’s really self defence, but he’s training her with, she’s got boxing gloves on, he’s got the focus pads, and she’s learning how to throw a punch, working out some shit.
Ellen: Yeah, they’re having a bit of a, um, you know, trauma counselling at the same time.
Bex: Yeah! Yeah! Working out her feelings with her fists.
Ellen: Yeah. [00:24:00] And he suggests that, uh, this is so that she can kick her abusive ex’s arse someday. Because, because he would.
Alice: Yeah, Maddie says that’s not why she’s doing it. She’s doing it for her.
Bex: This is Maddie 2. 0. Although she doesn’t call herself Maddie 2. 0, she just says it’s the next chapter in Maddie’s fresh start, or perhaps Maddie’s new beginning.
Ellen: She doesn’t actually say new beginning, but she feels new beginning.
Bex: She feels, yes.
Alice: Clearly this scene was written by Tim.
Bex: But she’s so cute, she’s like, come on, you got a new haircut, new apartment, I’m Dispatcher of the Month, I don’t know if you heard, and she’s kind of bouncing around on her toes with this big grin on her face, she’s so pleased with herself. Apparently she, uh, Buck has heard about a thousand times that she got Dispatcher of the Month.
Alice: So cute. But yeah, it’s cute, it’s very, like, sibling y, um, like they’re playfully teasing. Maddie says that she’s [00:25:00] thriving and Buck can’t handle it. And Buck’s like, “No, no, I’m great.” And she’s like, “Yeah, you’re doing great. You’re still sleeping in my dining room. What happened to Earthquake Girl?”
Bex: Oh, apparently Earthquake Girl is in New York on business, to which Maddie responds, “Why is it that every girl you date either wants to flee the state or the country?”
Ellen: Why is that?
Alice: Ouch. Um, but at least when Buck dates someone, he dates them. And what’s Maddie’s excuse?
Ellen: Yeah, she’s just like, oh, wait,
Bex: now it’s time to talk about Chimney.
Alice: Yeah, because apparently Maddie and Chimney are still just friends. Except Buck says, “Except you want to date him.” Yeah, even though Maddie’s never told Buck that, she didn’t have to.
Because her intensity and speed notched up like 20% the second Buck mentioned his name. And he’s like, “Why can’t you just date the guy?”
Bex: And we [00:26:00] cut to Chim answering his question, saying, I don’t know, it’s like, we like the same things, we laugh at the same jokes, even better, Maddy laughed at all of my jokes and I’m not even that funny.
Um, so he’s having his, he’s having his own kind of, um, venting, dating counselling session, uh, not in a boxing ring, he is at a bar somewhere, he is shooting pool, um, but his confidant Is Doug.
Ellen: No.
Bex: Or I guess it’s Jason because Chim thinks it’s Jason. We know it’s Doug. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and he’s, he’s pulling, Doug is pulling little bits of information and just needling at Chim
Ellen: Yeah, he is like, “maybe you should just move on, like, you know, if she doesn’t want this.”
Alice: Yeah. Chimney. Like, Chimney straight up says, like, “Her ex really did a number on her. Not saying he ruined her for anyone else, [00:27:00] but…” so awkward.
Bex: They’re not even at first base. They’re, um, awkward hugs and funny glances.
Alice: Yep. And I’m sure Doug’s quite happy about that.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: But yeah, so Doug’s trying to encourage Chim to move on.
Bex: But is he? I don’t know, like, I’m not entirely sure what Doug’s endgame is in this. Does he, is he trying to encourage Chim to break up with Maddie so that Doug can get Maddie back? Or is he trying to push Chim into moving forward with Maddie faster because then it’ll allow Doug to get access to Maddie?
Because that’s his endgame. Maddie is his endgame. Yeah.
Ellen: Well, it kind of felt like Towards the end, when Chim finally was going on a date, it just escalated the whole thing, and then he was like, oh shit, I need to
Alice: Yeah, I think that’s why he’s Like trying to push Chim away from her so that Doug can weasel his way back [00:28:00] in
Bex: Interesting.
Ellen: Yeah, I don’t know if that would push, if he thinks that would make her more receptive to him again Like, who knows what, how his weird little mind works, but, um
Bex: They, yeah, it hasn’t really been, it’s not, it’s not entirely clear as to his motivations and why he has struck up this friendship with Chim. My vote is for he’s using Chim to get to Maddie, and so he’s pushing for Chim to extract Maddie out of her little castle, of her incredibly high security apartment all of a sudden, or the high security of the 9-1-1 dispatch. Get her out on a date so that he can get access to her more easily. That’s my interpretation.
Alice: She has to travel from home, from home to work, so like
Bex: But she’s going to be, like, getting in her car from her [00:29:00] apartment and then driving to whatever parking situation they have for the dispatch center, which I’m guessing is also going to be rather secure.
So it’s not like, unless he’s going to sideswipe her on a street. Anyway, um, if you’re listening to this episode, let us know what you think Doug’s intentions were. I’m incredibly interested. Are you on Doug is trying to get Chim away from Maddie, or Doug is trying to get Chim closer so that he can he can use Doug.
Alice: Maybe Doug just has a thing for Chimney.
Bex: And a slash fic was born.
Ellen: I don’t think I’d want to read that one. That would be creepy.
Bex: Yeah, it would be incredibly creepy.
Alice: It would be very dead dove.
Bex: He, to go back to the episode, though, he does, he gets a little petulant towards the end. Sort of bitching to Chim that he’s been singing the same sad song about this woman ever since, um, they started.
It’s coming to the [00:30:00] bar, so I guess they’ve been, like, hanging out for nearly two, three months now?
Alice: Yeah, because this is, like, it’s definitely March. Like when they’re at the, um, at the Plastic Surgeon Clinic, it says, like, the, um, timestamp on the, like, cameras and the masks that we see through, like, clearly say that it’s the 11th of March.
Bex: Right. And we definitely know the previous episode was Christmas Day, so.
Alice: So we haven’t seen anything for three months.
Ellen: That’s right, yeah.
Alice: So, jason and Chim have been hanging out. For three months. And Maddie and Chim have been awkwardly tiptoeing around each other for about four.
Bex: For three months. Yeah. Um, so Jason slash Doug says to Chim, “I’m starting to think that I should have mailed that wallet back to you. I don’t know why I struck up this misguided friendship with you.” And I love that Chim just let it roll off his back and says, “well, the only reason I’m hanging out with you is because I’m pretty sure there was money in that wallet when you gave it back to me. And I’m just trying to win it back to you from you through pool.”
Okay. So if he was trying to needle it at Chim, it did not work at all.
Ellen: So he gave, he [00:31:00] did give Chim his own money back to get out of the parking remember how we were wondering about that?
Bex: And to pay for the Die Hard DVD. Yep.
Ellen: Cheeky.
Bex: All right, nonsensical medical emergency number two. Yeah. For the episode.
Alice: Yeah, but this one’s heartwarming, so.
Ellen: A mum and her daughter are driving on the freeway. Um, they’re talking about something about university and how it’s, the school is, it’s a small one and the girl doesn’t want to go there because it’s boring, blah, blah, blah.
Bex: I think they went on like a college tour.
Ellen: All of a sudden there’s, a truck, a large truck jackknifing across the highway and
Alice: I just want to say this, almost this exact situation also happens in Lone Star.
Ellen: Does it have a shark?
Alice: Except they, like, there’s no shark, but like, they’re, it’s a father and daughter bickering about, like, college, and then they get into a car wreck. [00:32:00]
Bex: So Tim’s just plagiarizing himself.
Alice: Literally! Because when I was, when I was watching this, I was like, wait, which, which episode? Is this the one where this happens?
And I’m like, no, because that was the dad. And yeah, literally happens in Lone Star.
Bex: But the idiotic thing is, we’ve got this scene with the mother and the daughter, and it’s set up as like the, oh no, something bad is gonna happen to these people, literally nothing bad happens to these people.
Ellen: Yeah, we don’t even see them again. I don’t think, like
Alice: I mean, they’re standing there, yeah.
Bex: I mean, they’re in the background, but their, their car, I don’t know if their car is damaged, but they are definitely not hurt. They, they are not the medical emergency. The medical emergency in this is that the big truck that was jackknifing and then started rolling, um, had a giant tank of water in the back, which was being used to transport a tiger shark from I guess an aquarium or some kind of conservation centre to freedom.[00:33:00]
And, um, and no, the medical emergency is not that suddenly the shark has been stranded, but that somehow one of the conservationists got eaten by the shark.
Alice: Yep. Completely just got bitten by it.
Bex: And I’m still not entirely sure how that happened.
Ellen: Yeah, because it just cut from, like, it cut to black when they got hit by the truck, and then it just cuts to the shark on the ground with this guy’s arm in his mouth, and it’s like, how, how did this happen?
Alice: Yes, so my assumption is that the team that were transporting, like, ran over, tried to lift the shark, and the shark, like, flailed and bit the guy, because obviously the shark would have been scared and
Bex: But the shark’s already on that, like, little harness y thing that they use to transport large marine animals, and they mention something about the guy was trying to get what water they had left, and again, it makes absolutely no fucking sense.
Ellen: Yeah, how, how does, uh
Alice: It’s fine. The shark panicked and bit him. Let’s just [00:34:00] keep going. Okay. Um, so yeah, so they were transporting it for release into the wild. And the truck jackknifed, and Bobby just goes, “Jaws!” And Chim’s like, “Ha! Right? Oh, right. Oh, you mean those jaws.” Yeah, jaws.
Bex: Yeah, because apparently they’re going to use the jaws to open the shark’s mouth.
Ellen: Yeah. The jaws.
Bex: Which, again, I just went, is that, is that, like, is that something you would actually do? Apparently the PSI of a tiger shark’s jaws are, like, very, very strong, um, but I was just thinking, you know, the way that the teeth of the shark, would you wanna be, like, trying to yank the I’m just gonna switch my brain off.
Ellen: You’d be at risk of injuring the shark, surely, if you’re, like, levering its mouth open.
Bex: Yeah, and then like, Eddie literally shoves the jaws in right [00:35:00] at the socket. So I feel like, rather than putting it at the tip of the jaw and opening the jaw up, he’s just gonna rip the socket, the jaw socket open. I don’t, I don’t understand, I’m just switching my brain off, um, but they are trying very hard to get this guy out and not hurt the shark.
Alice: Yeah, even the guy that’s being eaten by the shark is begging them not to kill her, um, because she’s so kind.
Bex: Yeah, I’m just calling, yeah, I’m just calling him fish food in the, um, in the notes. Yeah, he, he, he wants, he wants them to save the shark, um, and that’s important because there was a discussion where, um, they were asking how long can a shark survive on the freeway out of water, and Buck questions whether it wouldn’t be kinder to just put the shark out of its misery.
Yeah. But no, apparently they have to try to save the shark.
Ellen: Yeah, they’ve only got minutes. So they have to get on with it.
Bex: [00:36:00] So they get fish food and the shark separated. Um, and me, I’m always checking all of the turnouts to see who is, uh, attending the scene. And I’m now convinced that they just have, like, a rolling rack of turnouts with random names on the back that they just hand out to extras at random.
Um, because there is a guy wearing “Taylor” on the back of his turnout, but it’s not the same Taylor we saw at the earthquake, unless Taylor has grown a full head of hair in the time since we saw him last.
Alice: I mean, it’s been like six months.
Ellen: That’s funny. Well, they didn’t, they didn’t count on you checking up on all the extra members of the 118.
Bex: Apparently not.
Alice: Maybe they hired a new Taylor. Maybe, maybe it’s Taylor Kelly and she’s
Bex: No, I, I mean, I really think it is just they’re not paying attention, just like, we’ve got these coats, we’ve got these extras, [00:37:00] let’s just chuck a coat on them, we’re not keeping track of who’s We’re not hiring the same background extras for every scene, depending on the turnout, it’s just, once, it’s one of those things that once you start noticing, you can’t unnotice.
Alice: Yeah. Anyway, but they, they hoist the shark up onto the end of the ladder?
Ellen: Yeah. And this really upbeat music starts playing.
Alice: It is, it’s actually really heartwarming. They’re like Doing their best to save the shark. So they strap the shark in and drive the shark to a boat ramp.
Ellen: Yeah. It looks like it’s like, like one of the marinas along the coastline there.
There’s quite a few little.
Alice: I’m pretty sure it’s absolutely where I rode a jet ski in, Grand Theft Auto 5. Yeah.
Um, didn’t see any sharks while I was doing that, but, but there is, I’m pretty sure if you go swimming in GTA 5, you can get eaten by a shark. So this, this completely checks out with my knowledge of, um, [00:38:00] LA via GTA 5.
Um. But yeah, so they drive the truck down the boat ramp and, um, lower the shark. So it’s in like deeper water and the conservationists are helping and they’re even like recording it and it’s just like really heartwarming and like when the shark starts swimming off, they’re all cheering and Buck’s like, “Oh, I wish that, um, Wish that fish food was here to watch” and they’re like, it’s fine.
We got him. And yeah, they’re like FaceTiming so he can see it.
Ellen: Even though his arm’s half off, he still wants to see
Alice: Yeah, like, I have no idea why this scene’s in it, besides just the ridiculousness, but it’s, it’s cute and heartwarming.
Bex: It’s the new beginning. It’s the shark getting its new beginning, being released out into the ocean, to be immediately chopped up by a motor of one of those fancy yachts as it, as it heads out to open water.
Ellen: I would’ve thought that The, like, the [00:39:00] canals wouldn’t be the safest place for either the shark or the people who live around there. But
Bex: I am seriously questioning, like, the water quality of that area, whether, you know, the shark is going to be able to survive there.
Ellen: But the shark needed to be in the water, so
Alice: Are they like pet fish?
Like, when we acclimatise pet fish, like, where you’re supposed to, like, add a bit of the new tank water into the old tank water before you, like, like, throwing the poor shark in.
Ellen: Well, it was either that, or it, you know drowned in the air, whatever, whatever the terminology for that is. So it’s going to have to go in the canal.
Bex: Yeah, again, we, we really can’t think about this at all.
Alice: I’m just picturing the shark in like a giant bag and them like adding 10 percent of the water. And like floating it for like, you know, half an hour so that the water temperature is the same.
Bex: That would make more sense.
Alice: Gotta get that nitrate cycle right. Yeah, um, I work at a fish store, can [00:40:00] you tell?
Bex: But what’s, what I, I found, uh, interesting was that the song, as the shark swims off to freedom, the lyrics of the song repeat, and it’s like, “we will get by, we will survive, we will get by, we will survive”. That continues playing as we cut back to Athena and Bobby.
Alice: Yeah, they, uh, will need to survive, um, because apparently while they were both at work, Athena’s mother reorganized their entire kitchen.
Bex: Yeah, because that’s what you do.
Ellen: I, I felt this. I, I haven’t had it happen to me. Thank goodness my mum knows better than to try to move stuff around in my kitchen.
But, um, someone, one of my friends, I’m sure, said that when their mum came to stay with them for a bit, that, that she kept rearranging the kitchen. And they were like, why are you doing this? And she was like, well, I couldn’t find anything. So And this is exactly what’s happened with Athena’s mum, she’s just decided that [00:41:00] she can never find anything so she’s rearranged everything. And
Alice: I mean, during COVID, my parents rearranged their kitchen, because I think Mum was bored. And then like, when I
Bex: But that’s fine. But that’s…
Alice: yeah, because it was their own.
Bex: Their kitchen.
Alice: But then when I went to visit afterwards, I was like, where is all the stuff? Like, it’s been in the same spot for 30 years. Why would you do this to me?
Bex: Yeah. That would be tough. Um, Bobby and Athena are in the kitchen struggling to make dinner because they can’t find anything. Like, Bobby’s trying to strain the pasta, but he can’t find the colander to strain it through. Uh, meanwhile, Beatrice and Samuel are in the living room with May and Harry, and May is showing Beatrice the photos from the homecoming dance that they had last year, of flicking through photos on their iPad showing her her dress Beatrice is cooing over the dress and cooing over May. May keeps swiping and brings up the photo of Bobby with Athena and the kids [00:42:00] and Beatrice goes cold.
Ellen: Mm hmm.
Bex: Her face just immediately changes We cut back to Athena and Bobby.
They’ve Dinner is ready, they’re ready to set the table, but Harry’s science project is still all over the kitchen table. Apparently Michael was supposed to help him with it, but, um, Michael had to go out of town, or had a conference or something, so Bobby said that he would help. But it’s now in the way for dinner, so Bobby’s like, I will pack it away.
Harry was supposed to do it, but I will do it. And Athena kind of calls him out and says, “You know, someday you’re going to have to go from being best buddy, Bobby, to stepdad, Bobby.” And Bobby says, “You know, you’re, you’re right. I will make Harry do it.” I always, this scene sticks in my head when I’m, when I’m thinking about this episode, there’s two parts, two parts of this episode that I always remember.
It’s this scene and the scene at the end of the two that I always remember. So, Bobby [00:43:00] goes into the living room, he apologises for interrupting grandparent grandchild time, gets down on Harry’s level and very quietly says, “Harry, I need you to clear the table.” And Harry does that typical kid thing, like, “Yeah, okay, in a minute,” like, doesn’t even look up at Bobby, doesn’t acknowledge him, just like, yeah, I’ll do it in a minute.
And Bobby says, uh, “No, not in a minute, now, please.” Now, we gotta reiterate, he has said please, he has apologised for interrupting, he’s done this very quietly, he’s done this very respectfully, Beatrice is having none of this. And she says, “Who are you to be giving orders? These are not your children, and you are not their father.”
Which at that point, okay, that’s, You know, that’s, that’s an awful thing to say. But then she goes further. She says, “I was very sorry to hear about your [00:44:00] family situation, but my grandchildren are not your consolation prize.” And Bobby looks like he’s been slapped. And Athena comes racing into the living room.
Ellen: She’s on the warpath.
Bex: Yeah. The kids immediately get banished to their room. And they immediately just bolt out of the room because they know that shit’s about to go down. Yeah, they’re not stupid. And Athena demands that her mother apologize to Bobby. And Bobby is hurt, but he’s trying to keep the peace. He says that she doesn’t have to apologize, and Athena is like, “Yes she does if she wants to stay in this house tonight, she does.”
So Beatrice apologizes. She’s sorry that she said it in front of the kids.
Ellen: And then she has a bit of a, an argument. Uh, well, Athena kind of says to her, you should not, you shouldn’t have said it all. It’s none of your business. And then she goes on a bit of a rant at [00:45:00] Athena for not telling her about when May was, you know, had taken those pills.
She didn’t tell her. And, um, Athena just jumps into everything without thinking through the consequences. And she says all this, like, while Bobby is still standing right there.
Bex: Yeah. As she lists off, you’re like, “you don’t think about, you don’t consider the consequences. I’m gonna move to Los Angeles. I’m gonna become a cop. I’m gonna marry a white man.”
Bobby’s like, oh shit, you actually went there. Like, the elephant is no longer in the room, the elephant is just, like, standing in front of us.
Alice: Yeah, naked, doing a dance, like.
Bex: Yes. But even though he is, um, upset at what Beatrice has said about him, when Beatrice goes on and says that it’s a miracle that Harry and May are still alive, Bobby’s like, “okay, no, that’s enough. You can say what you want about me, but don’t you dare say anything to my fiancee about her parenting because [00:46:00] she is a great mother and she does not deserve to be spoken about like that in her own home.”
And I think his father. Athena’s father kind of steps up at this point and he goes, you know, “Athena, I’m sorry your mother was out of line. Bea, I think you should say something to your daughter.”
Beatrice kind of gathers herself and says, “We’ll leave in the morning.”
Alice: Yeah. My notes about this whole scene is just Athena’s mother as a piece of work. She,
Ellen: I mean, you, she’s worried about athe like Athena’s decisions, but I think she’s taking it all. The control freak is a little too strong.
Bex: They’ve, they’ve definitely written her that you can see where Athena’s stubborn streak comes from. But where Athena has kind of used I was gonna say you could see how Athena is using her, her stubborn streak for good, and [00:47:00] then I remembered the, um, the poor guy that she ran out of business during the, um But
Ellen: She doesn’t always use it for good.
Bex: But she’s a little bit less of a menace than Beatrice is. But she looks absolutely devastated that, um, her mother has caught her bluff, and that rather than apologize to Athena and respect her, that she’s, is going to leave.
Ellen: Next up we’re going to 9-1-1 Dispatch, where Maddie takes a call, and it’s a young kid who is a bit nervous being on the phone.
He says his name’s Stevie. and he tells her where he is and all that and his name. But he says his dad, his dad, Maddie says, “Is he hurt?” And Stevie’s like, “No, he did a bad thing.” Maddie’s a bit concerned about this. Um, but then the dad obviously hears that Stevie has the phone and he, [00:48:00] you know, grabs it off him and tells Maddy, you know, “Oh, this is embarrassing, but we, he got himself in trouble. uh, apparently that constitutes a life and death situation when you’re 13 and I’m sorry you wasted your time,” and just sort of hangs up.
And Maddie gets a bit worried about this. She’s like, she asked, she, before he hung up, she asked him if everyone was okay and he’s like, no, everything’s fine. And, but she goes to, well, she’s in the break room when Sue comes in.
She asks Sue, you know, talks to Sue about it and just says like, “I got a disturbing call. I’m not sure what. Is happening here.” And Sue tells her to listen to her gut and You know, if she thinks there’s something wrong she can call a welfare check and get it checked out
Alice: Yeah, she is the dispatcher of the month after all.
Ellen: Yeah, she should trust her instincts So off Athena goes to knock on this guy’s door
Bex: because apparently she is the only LAPD officer working [00:49:00] Yeah.
Alice: Well, she’s trying to stay away from her house, so.
Bex: That’s true.
Ellen: But she does say that later, she doesn’t want to go home.
Alice: Yeah, so Athena goes to do a welfare check and the dad, whose name is Eric, answers the door and Athena introduces herself and says she’s just here to follow up on a 9-1-1 call and Eric’s like, “Oh, gotta be kidding me. I can’t believe they sent someone out for this. You know, I already explained this to the 9-1-1 operator,” and Athena’s like, “I just, I’d just like to speak with your son if I could.”
Bex: Eric’s very agreeable. He’s like, “Sure, come in.” He leaves Athena alone in the house while he goes off to get Stevie.
Um, and Athena kind of the house looks fine. There doesn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary. But Eric brings Stevie back and he’s kind of got that, um, [00:50:00] conspiratorial look with Athena is like, okay, now, you know, here’s the big, bad police officer who’s going to take you away for calling 9-1-1. And it’s all, it’s a big joke to him.
Um, but Athena takes Stevie out the front so she can talk to him alone without the influence of his father in case he wants to say something without being overheard.
Alice: And the first thing she says is, “I want you to know you’re not in any trouble. I’m here to make sure you’re okay. Because if you need help, all you have to do is say so.”
Bex: She doesn’t really get anything out of Stevie, um, but there is definitely this
Alice: Because he was mad, he wanted to change stuff, but Stevie liked things the way they were.
Bex: But it’s not like that kid being mad at their parent and sort of lashing out, there is this definite sense that there is something very deeply wrong, even if we don’t know exactly what this kid, there is something happening that this kid is scared.
[00:51:00] Um, so Athena slips him her business card.
Ellen: Yeah, she says her, “Our parent’s approval is something we all crave,” which is like coming straight from the heart for Athena. Because, yes, her mother is not approving of anything, but, um
Alice: Yeah, I’m sure Athena’s not projecting here at all.
Ellen: No, not at all. Uh, she says she, “We can’t let us stop, let it stop us from doing the right thing. If there’s something you need, if you need me to help you work out what the right thing is, you can call me.”
Bex: And that’s when she gives Stevie her card.
Ellen: Yep.
Bex: And leaves and goes back to the dispatch centre, um, not necessarily to report back to Maddie, but she wants Terry to pull up the call again and start futzing with the audio to see if they can hear anything in the call.
Ellen: Enhance! Enhance!
Alice: Literally.
Ellen: And in the [00:52:00] background they do enhance enough to hear him saying….
Bex: It’s so clear too. I cannot believe that it only took a tiny little bit of manipulation and we didn’t hear any of that when we were just hearing the call normally. There was like no sound and then all of a sudden there’s like very clear words.
Alice: Eric’s got that 2024 iPhone in 2019. Sure. Yes. Actually, no, it’s probably an older, like, an older cell phone, because my cell phone blocks out all the background noise.
Ellen: Yeah, they’re pretty good at doing that these days, actually.
But yeah, they hear someone else. Like, well, he They don’t hear someone else, they hear him talking to someone else. They’re like, “You just stay right here and don’t touch anything, or something like that.”
Bex: Yeah. It’s It’s a sentence that doesn’t make sense if he was talking to Stevie.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Because he was telling Stevie to give him the phone, and then says, stay here and don’t [00:53:00] touch anything.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: So the conclusion that they come to is that Eric was talking to someone else.
Alice: Yeah, even though Stevie said it was just him and his dad.
Bex: And it turns out that their suspicions are correct, because then we come back to Eric’s house, where he has opened… a section of the wall, it looks like, to reveal this hidden room with this poor little boy with duct tape all across his mouth.
He is filthy, um, his face looks like he’s been crying, um, and he’s been hidden inside this little room.
Alice: And Eric lets him out, and Stevie’s setting the table for dinner, and the TV So the TV news is reporting on Right? Like the gas leak thing at the plastic surgery office, which like, okay. Like I, I appreciate that they’re like, Oh, like this happened, but there was a shark on the freeway.[00:54:00]
Bex: Why are they not reporting about the shark?
Ellen: Maybe that was the number one story at the top of the bulletin.
Bex: Must’ve been a very slow news day.
Alice: Literally like no one cares about a plastic surgeon office having a gas leak. It would absolutely be the shark on the freeway, but yeah, no, let’s talk about that anyway.
As they’re like setting up, like setting the table and like, Eric puts the kid like at a chair and goes, you sit here, Noah, and the kid goes, “My name’s not Noah.” And Eric goes, “It is now.” Um, the TV, like the news transitions into a new story, which is about a lost child called Brian Gallagher, who was last seen outside the church his family attends, and police are asking for your help in finding the missing boy.
Bex: And Eric immediately tells Stevie to turn, turn TV off, turn the news [00:55:00] story off, which and then leaves?
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Like, I’m, I’m surprised that he wasn’t the one diving for the remote control. But that, I mean, that doesn’t help us, because we need Stevie to be the one to very slowly walk into the living room and find the remote control and pick it up and then look at the TV and go, oh, hey, six year old Brian Gallagher looks a lot like Noah, except he’s blonde.
And then he sort of puts the, you can see him kind of connecting the dots a little bit in his own head before he turns the TV off.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: So the implication is that Noah is, that Eric has stolen Noah, and has dyed his hair to disguise him from notice.
Alice: And now Stevie knows.
Bex: Yes. And now Stevie knows.
Ellen: But Athena still doesn’t know, and she’s called in the cavalry, this guy who’s called Romero?
I guess that is That’s what he’s [00:56:00] called in the notes. I don’t remember them actually introducing him in any way, but
Bex: We’ve seen I’m getting all mixed up, but we’ve seen him before. I’m pretty sure we have seen him before.
Alice: Okay. If we haven’t seen him before, we definitely see him again.
Ellen: He’s a pretty cool character. He is, um, you know, on the ball. He knows
Bex: They do, yeah, they, it’s really interesting that they make this big deal about Athena riding the, the solo car, and yet they keep bringing Romero in, um, to be her partner. But not really her partner because he’s a detective, um, and she’s an, she’s a sergeant. But yeah, they’re, they’re, um, they’re sitting out the car doing surveillance.
Ellen: Yeah, and they’ve looked this guy up and he’s all clean. There’s nothing weird about him. He’s just a freelance IT guy.
Alice: Yeah, they, they have literally nothing to go on except for a thing in the back of this 9-1-1 [00:57:00] call, but they decide to stake out his house and steal his garbage.
Bex: I do like how they steal the garbage though, that’s kind of cool.
Yeah, that’s kind of funny. So, um, Eric and Stevie put the bins out and then this homeless guy is just so happens to be walking down this very suburban street with a big shopping trolley full of bags and he goes up to only the Parnell’s wheelie bins. Pulls out their rubbish, um, chucks them into his garbage, into his shopping trolley, and then, and sort of rubs at his face as a pretense to get his hidden radio up to his mouth and signals to Romero that he’s got the bag.
Because apparently he is an undercover police officer.
Ellen: It reminded me of, have you seen that, um, um, That video. There was, it was a while ago now, but it was like this raccoon that was like creeping [00:58:00] along like it looked like it It was like a robber. It was like creeping and then they put the light on it and it just froze.
It just froze like that?
Bex: Yeah, like yeah, and it’s like up on its hind legs. It’s just completely frozen.
Ellen: Yeah, like “Act natural!” But not the freezing part, but the just like going along looking kind of natural that stuff Like, pretending to look natural, but actually just looking like someone creeping in.
Bex: Don’t be suspicious, don’t be suspicious.
Ellen: It doesn’t actually look anything like that in the scene, but it just reminds me of that.
Bex: No, but I get what you’re saying, it’s just, it’s supposed to be, oh yes, look, it’s a homeless man rummaging through people’s garbage, except it’s in the middle of suburbia, where most of the homeless people, yeah, they’re It’s very suspicious.
Ellen: Anyway, they find something in the trash.
Alice: No, no, we get back to that later.
Ellen: Oh, okay.
Bex: We’ve got to do the, um, go back to the firehouse first, [00:59:00] because it’s going to take them a day or so to sort through the rubbish. So while some poor tech back in forensics is sorting through the rubbish and setting it all up like something on a big table, like something out of Hannibal, um, We’re gonna have Bobby and Hen do a bit of a decompress about, uh, Mama Carter.
Ellen: Bobby’s worried. He doesn’t know what to say. And Hen’s just like, no man, you gotta stay way out of this. Like, don’t get involved. Yeah. And she says she named her daughter after a Greek god, the goddess of wisdom and war.
Bex: And crafting, apparently.
Ellen: Also the goddess of crafting, but that’s a whole other story.
So I’d like to hear that story.
Bex: The point that Hen is trying to make is that Beatrice had big dreams for Athena, and even bigger expectations. Uh, which kind of explains why Beatrice kind of went off the rails at Athena, um, that Athena’s [01:00:00] making all of these decisions and not thinking to the consequences, the implication being that the decisions that Athena is making are not in line with the expectations and dreams that Beatrice had for her daughter.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: I can’t believe she didn’t want her daughter to marry a gay man.
Ellen: Then, downstairs, well, before we get to that part Bobby asks, did your mother ever say those terrible things to you? And Hen’s like, oh no, my mother said a whole bunch of other terrible things. But she still forgave her because she’s her mum.
Bex: Which we’re starting to push the, um, I can’t remember who I talked to about this. I’m pretty sure I’ve had this conversation with somebody that, um, Kristen Reidel really that really preferences blood family over found family.
Alice: She just preferences Athena and Bobby. Like, I’m so fucking sick. Anyway.
Bex: But you can see this here, [01:01:00] that like, it doesn’t matter that the parents are being absolutely horrible to their children because they are their parents, you have to love them no matter what.
Yeah. But yes, it, uh, as soon as. Um, as soon as I realized that this was a Kristen Reidel episode, the fact that it’s all a Bobby and Athena and Maddie and Chimney, like, big sweeping character arc episodes made sense. Which is my way of segueing into what happens. So we’ve got Bobby and Hen upstairs, and downstairs, Maddie walks into the firehouse.
Because she’s, um, she’s serving divorce papers on Chim.
Alice: So soon!
Ellen: She hands them over, and Chim’s a bit confused, but okay.
Bex: Because they’re not his divorce papers, she is showing him that she has filed for divorce from Doug, which therefore frees her up to actually date Chim. [01:02:00]
Ellen: I was reading a fic earlier today, and one of the tags said, was horny behavior.
And this is horny behavior.
Showing your potential boyfriend your divorce papers so that you can get some.
Bex: You can get it on? Yep.
Alice: Good for her.
Bex: But, yeah, so the divorce papers are her sign that she is ready, and she reminds Chim that he told her once that your, that his calendar was wide open when she was ready. She’s like, I’m ready.
He goes, “Great! Name a time and, name a date and a time.” She goes, okay, “Friday, 7.” Chim goes, “Oh, actually I’m busy.”
Alice: I love Chim so much.
Bex: The irony is that he actually is busy, but I love that he’s, He just, like, plays it off as a joke. He’s like, no, I actually am busy, but [01:03:00] I will drop everything and I will make time for you.
Yeah. So she kisses him on the cheek, and she leaves, and then the peanut gallery erupts into applause and whistles,
Alice: and the camera, the camera pans up. You’ve got Bobby, Buck, Eddie, and Hen, and they’re full on applauding, Eddie’s doing like grand dramatic gestures.
Bex: Yeah, Bobby’s got like the polite, the polite golf clap, he’s like, well played, well played.
Um, Eddie’s got like the hand on his chest, and like the reaching, and looks like he’s straight out of some kind of dramatic, um, opera. Hen’s snapping her fingers, um, this huge grin on her face, Buck is just like, oh my god, do you have to do this in front of me? He is not participating in this, but he is there, witnessing it.
Ellen: But, but Chin is like, basically floating off the floor, he’s so happy.
Bex: He’s so happy, until he realises that he does have to [01:04:00] cancel his, um, Friday plans, so that he can go out on a date with Maddie. He’s gonna
Ellen: cancel his other date with Jason.
Bex: Yes, and, um, unfortunately, yes, his Friday date is with Jason, um, and unfortunately for Chim, he tells Jason, slash Doug, that the reason that he is cancelling is because he’s going out on a date with Maddie.
Which either is Great news for Doug, because if you’re following my theory, it means that Doug can now get access to Maddie. Um, if you’re going with your guy’s theory, it means it sort of tips Doug over the edge, because that’s his wife, and he doesn’t want anybody to have her except him.
Alice: He even says to Chimney, “I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other real soon.”
And Chim’s like, “Okay, see ya!” And it’s like, uh, uh.
Bex: Speaking of trash.
Um, we’re down [01:05:00] to this one.
Ellen: Athena is now standing in front of a table of trash.
Bex: Which looks like something straight out of CSI or Hannibal or something where they’re like really deep into forensics. I don’t know that one guy’s random trash would warrant this level of analysis and like every piece of trash has been taken out and methodically placed on this table and everything is lined up.
It’s meticulously organized. So you’ve got, like, the little box of fish fingers is sort of lined up and it’s I really wonder if somebody from set design had to sit there with a ruler and was making sure that each item was, like, a set number of centimeters away from the other one so it was, like, a perfect grid.
Um, and the only… the only thing that they found that was interesting, apart from, you know, the Fishfingers box, was a box of black hair dye. And they find that that [01:06:00] interesting because Stevie does not have black hair, and
Alice: And Eric doesn’t have hair.
Bex: So unless the dye has caused all his hair to fall out, he’s not using it either.
Alice: But that’s not what got them so excited to call Athena down.
Bex: No, because Romero is in the room too, so he’s obviously the one that’s called her. Um, no, that’s not what the, the dye was not what got them excited. What got them excited was the poor tech who went through all of the garbage then had to dust them all for prints so they could run said prints, and they got a hit.
Not on Eric though, but on Stevie, who is not really Stevie. Stevie is Jacob Walters, who went missing when he was six years old.
Ellen: Yeah, I’m interested, like, when they get missing persons cases like this, especially with kids, do they try and get a [01:07:00] fingerprint?
Alice: Yeah, where did they get a fingerprint from?
Ellen: Yeah, I, I don’t know.
Um, I’m not sure if this like I’d be interested to know if anyone knows is this like a
Alice: like they were like Oh, it’s fine. He had a glass in his room. We’ll just pull a print from that. Like
Ellen: I’m sure they wouldn’t be able to get a print every time but like
Bex: when you’re a baby They take babies Footprints Like, I’m pretty sure that they come in and they, like, ink up the baby’s footprint and they, they put the footprint on file.
And wouldn’t the footprint No, no. Because, like, your toe…
Ellen: No, they don’t, unless you want to use it for, like, uh, um, like artwork or whatever.
Alice: Yeah, they don’t just have everyone’s
Ellen: I don’t think they do that to everybody. Yeah, no. And I think there was a big thing about, um, because they were starting to do blood tests for babies, um, and they, there was a big hoo ha about it, because they weren’t, they
Alice: Oh, the googling is starting!
Ellen: They didn’t want, like, they didn’t want them to have, like, everyone, a sample of [01:08:00] everyone’s blood on file, like, as soon as they were born, you know? Do they get baby fingerprints?
Bex: Uh, no, apparently. I don’t know. Some places are saying yes, some places are saying no. So, in theory, if this is a uni- I don’t know. No, but he wasn’t born in here. But, okay, in theory, if this is a universe in which they still take footprints, record footprints of babies, toes are just, like, weirdly shaped, but pretty much still considered fingers.
So they would be able to match Pardon? Would the print be the same? Well, like, yeah, because, like, all the prints are the
Ellen: No, each of your fingers has got a different print. So your toe prints are going to be different. [01:09:00] And if they’ve pulled something off trash, then it’s going to be fingerprints. But, I mean, they might have, like, when he went missing, they might have found something in his house that had his prints on it, which is fine.
That’s, if that is what they do.
Bex: I don’t know why I’m trying so hard to make Kristen’s lack of detail work, because it doesn’t. I should just stop because it doesn’t make sense.
Ellen: Maybe they don’t, and it was just something she made up, and it
Bex: No. Because I want to scream about what else doesn’t make sense, because they go to the Parnell’s house, and they bring the frickin SWAT team.
Alice: Yeah, the full SWAT team.
Bex: And I looked up and I went, I went, hang on, hang on, hang on, what, okay, what is SWAT? Why would they have SWAT? So SWAT Are used in high risk situations where there is a risk of, there is a risk to normal police personnel. So it’s meant to be, like, um, hostage situations, it’s meant [01:10:00] to be, um, shootouts.
Alice: I mean, I guess this is a hostage situation ish, maybe?
Bex: But, no, but the thing is, they don’t know that Eric has any weapons.
Alice: Literally, yeah, it’s so dumb.
Bex: There’s been no discussion that he has any weapons. weapons, there is no evidence that he is dangerous. Um, so it is theoretically possible that Romero and Athena could go to the house by themselves.
Unless they have done some sort of search and discovered that he has a huge weapons cache, but they’ve already done a search on him and he was squeaky clean. So there is no reason to have SWAT go except for it’s fucking dramatic to have them like, like, alpha, clear, bravo, clear, bang down the door, and the team.
Searching.
Ellen: Yeah. And in any case, they’re not home.
Alice: They’re not even there!
Ellen: When they get there, they’re not even there.
Alice: Like, they didn’t even do any recon, and they just Yes! It’s so And then they’re just like, oh, I guess we’ll put out an Amber Alert. Like, you [01:11:00] didn’t do that first? Like
Bex: Yes, that should have been the first thing.
Ellen: But was there not already one? Like From the kid who was kidnapped?
Alice: Like, if they If they already have all Eric’s details, like, surely they have his number plates. Yeah,
Ellen: so like, uh, put out an APB.
Bex: Yes, yes, you put out an APB, you put out a BOLO for him. Yeah. You don’t deploy a fucking SWAT team in his neighbourhood to do a, to, to, to check to see if he’s home.
Especially when there is no evidence, there’s no evidence that Stevie is in any danger. He has not been hurt. Um, There’s no signs of abuse. It’s just that this guy appears to have snatched a kid. That does not warrant a full operation.
Alice: I’m leaving my thoughts till the end of this, but like, yeah.
Ellen: Athena, somehow Athena managed to hype them all up into like a, we need to take this guy down now.
Get the SWAT team ready. Let’s go.
Alice: Yeah, the kid who did not look [01:12:00] abused, like yeah, anyway.
Bex: It’s Romero’s call because he’s the detective. She’s just a sergeant.
Alice: Yeah. So, then, a SWAT member, then a SWAT member gets Athena, even though I’m pretty sure Romero’s the lead on this case, um, gets Athena and leads him to the hidey hole that Noah, not Noah, um, was being kept in, and they’re just like, oh yeah, it doesn’t look like a 13 year old’s been sleeping here.
Bex: So Athena makes this leap of logic and gone, okay well this guy’s gone missing, he’s taken Stevie, and he’s obviously snatched another kid.
Alice: Yeah, like clearly there’s another kid, like it couldn’t have just been from when Stevie was six. Yes. Then we have a commercial and we return back to the frickin Parnell house.
Bex: Yeah, where they’ve now deployed a full crime scene [01:13:00] team. To dust the entire house for prints and process it. Um,
Alice: Athena’s just like looking at medication that’s in the kitchen and like hanging out,
Bex: which I’m going like, okay, why?
Alice: Why is she even there?
Bex: Do that? But then like, I, well, she’s there because we, she has to be there so that we, the audience are there.
Um, but, um, the, the medication is an important for Athena because if. It was medication that was important for either Eric or Stevie, and they have fled, he wouldn’t have left the medication behind. That’s an indicator to her that they haven’t left, well, they’ve left the house, but like, they’ve gone to the store or something.
Alice: Yeah, even though the SWAT team’s been there for like, an hour at this stage, because they’ve marked everything and like, they’re just like, oh shit, what if he’s just gone to the supermarket?
Bex: Their absence is temporary, they’re going to be coming back. Yeah.
Alice: Yeah. Um, so Athena tells the guy who outranks her [01:14:00] to get, get the SWAT team out, um, and get all the marked cars off the street, uh, because she thinks that he’s just
Bex: And clean the house and get all of like the fingerprint powder off everything and pick up all the little
Alice: Um, because yeah, she’s just like, yeah, he’s probably just gone to the store, like he’ll be back.
Ellen: They’ve worked out that there’s another kid missing and they think it might be, you know, Like, with no evidence whatsoever, uh, they think this other kid who was abducted is also here, living here.
Bex: Yeah, so not only can Athena diagnose a stroke just by looking at you, but she can look at a bottle of pills and immediately understand all of the crimes that you have committed.
Alice: Because I’m sure in a city like Los Angeles, there’s only one six year old that’s missing.
Bex: No, no, no. One white six year old. I wonder how many black kids have gone missing, but they’re not interested in them. Yeah.
Alice: Um, so then we go across to 9-1-1 dispatch and Sue comes [01:15:00] over to Maddie’s station and says that there’s a caller by the name of Stevie on the line and is asking for Maddie.
And then lets Maddie know that the boy is currently the subject of an Amber alert. So. Maddie asks Stevie where he is right now, and he’s like, “I don’t know.”
Bex: Oh my god. This entire scene drives me nuts.
Alice: Like, this is a 13 year old who goes to school, mind you. Like, he’s not, he’s not a 6 year old.
Bex: He says, “I’m in a train station, I’m lost.”
Kid, if you looked up, you would see not only what station you are at, you would see what platform number you are at. You say, I’m at Union Station, which is what I can see on the screen, the signs clearly say Union Station. I’m at Union Station, I’m on platform 4. Maddie goes, great, stay there, LAPD are gonna be on their [01:16:00] way, I’m going to alert the um, the station security, they’re gonna come get you, you’ll be fine.
Yeah. Like, I’m, I get of course that does not happen. ’cause that’s, I get that he’s actually what would make sense.
Alice: I get that he’s panicking, but this whole like whole thing is just so stupid.
Bex: Um, oh. And it’s just gonna get stupider,
Alice: and he doesn’t even wanna talk to Maddie. He wants to talk to the police lady that Maddie sent to her, to his house whose name he can’t remember
Bex: Because he doesn’t have the business card anymore.
Alice: Um, yeah, literally. Um, so Maddie’s like, “yeah. Okay. I’ll get her on the line. But like, tell me where you are.”
Bex: Please hold. Um. At which point he looks up and goes, “I’m on Union Station, I’m on Platform 4.”
Alice: No, that doesn’t happen. Um.
Bex: But that’s what should happen!
Ellen: He says, “I think we got off on the wrong train.”
Alice: Yeah, like, what do you mean you got off on the wrong train?
Ellen: What do you mean you got off the wrong train? That makes no sense.
Alice: Like, do you mean you got off on the wrong platform? Like, Stevie, you are really stupid for a 13 year old.
Ellen: Off in the wrong station? Like, maybe this, [01:17:00] maybe this guy never takes him on the train so he doesn’t know how trains work.
Alice: Yes, like, I mean it is the American education system so we’re probably giving them too much credit, honestly. Um.
Maddie: Sorry, Americans. I’m not sorry.
Alice: Sorry, not sorry. Um. But yeah, so Maddie asks if his father’s with them, um, and he says no, please, you can’t let him find us. So Maddie puts through Athena and And Maddie’s like “yeah, he, um, I’ve got Stevie on the line, he was trying to call you.”
And Stevie’s like, “I’m sorry, I should have said something when he came to see me. I was just so scared.” And Athena’s just like, “Yep, cool. Where the fuck are you, you stupid little kid?” Um,
Bex: he says, “I’m at Union Station. I’m on platform four. Come and get me.”
Alice: But no, instead he gives this big, like, speech about how, and vague about how he lied, who, who lied, my dad.
Um, so apparently he said that Noah’s parents didn’t want him and he was going to be [01:18:00] Um, Stevie’s new brother, but Stevie knew it was a lie, and he tried to say something, and he doesn’t know where his dad is, because they left while he was asleep. And I’m like, what time is it now?
Bex: Because he’s trying to take Noah back to his real parents.
Alice: Yeah, but he got turned around. Um, and then the phone that Stevie’s on beeps, and Eric has pinged the phone to, like, he’s used, like, Find My Friends or something like that. But he’s also standing right in front of them. So, like, why is it only just pinged now? Like, clearly he’s been tracking him the whole time.
Bex: And does it, is that how Find My Friends works?
Alice: Uh, no.
Bex: Like, if you’re trying to find someone’s location.
Alice: No, so, like, I have mum on Find My Friends. Yeah.
Bex: Yeah. So if you’re tracking her, does her phone let her know that you’re tracking her?
Alice: No, she has no, um, like she gets no notification if I’m tracking her.
Ellen: Oh really?
Alice: No, I can’t find her phone right now. [01:19:00] That’s awkward. Where’s my mother?
Bex: See, yeah, that’s what I was thinking. One, there would be no There’s so much talk about, you know, people tracking other people’s phone, like stealthily, that wouldn’t happen if every time someone tried to track you you got a notification going, Hey, this person’s trying to find your phone.
Alice: No, like, you have to accept, like, you have to invite someone to see your So like mum went to Europe a few months ago. So she shared her location with me and then just didn’t turn it off. Um, unless she’s turned it off now, which is why I can’t find her. Either that or her phone’s gone flat because it is my mum.
Um, but yeah, so occasionally I’ll just be like, Oh, is mum home yet? So I can call her. Uh, cause like if she’s at work, I’m not going to call her. Um, but yeah, like she doesn’t get a notification if I’m watching. I can just all, I just always have access to her location.
Bex: So they’ve done this for the drama, which they didn’t necessarily need because all they needed to have was, say, Eric is at the top of the stairs on the level above the platform, all he had to do was like yell, [01:20:00] “Stevie!”
Yeah, literally. And they turn and cut. They didn’t need to do the thing with the phones. No, the phone thing was so stupid.
Ellen: How else would he have found them?
Bex: No, no, he could have tracked the phone. I’m not, I’m not upset that they tracked the phone. I’m saying,
Alice: We didn’t need a notification right at the last minute, like we didn’t need a notification while he was in front of them.
Bex: Yes. And we didn’t even need to know that that’s how he found him, that he tracked his phone, because they’ve not explained anything else in this show. Why did they need to explain that one little thing? Um,
Alice: um, anyway, so I think they, I think they lose Stevie’s phone at, like, I think he hangs up at this stage or like it stops working or something.
I don’t fucking know. Um,
Ellen: but if they tell, he does tell Maddie that his dad’s found them.
Alice: Yeah. But then they just like lose.
Ellen: And then they hang up. Yeah. Run off.
Alice: Um, so, then Madi uh, Athena asks what station he was calling from, and they pinged him at North Hollywood. I don’t know if that’s the same as Union, but that’s definitely not what was on the signs.
Bex: It [01:21:00] was not on the signs at all. But anyway, they’ve apparently found his location and have dispatched, um, LAPD. Then Athena asks “What is the next train at the station? Where is it coming from?” Apparently, the next train arriving at Platform 4 at Union Station is from Universal City Station.
Alice: But we don’t even know what, we don’t even know what platform he’s on.
Bex: We don’t know what platform. And apparently this station is so small that only one train is coming in.
Alice: Like, I don’t even, like, I live in the suburbs and the closest train, like, train station to me has four platforms, I think, now? It used to have two, and now it has four. Um, yep. Yeah. And that’s suburbs.
Bex: Yeah. Like it’s, again, none of this makes sense. So basically what happens next is that, um, Eric has come [01:22:00] down and grabbed the kids and he’s doing, he’s doing that, um, I’m very disappointed in you. He’s scolding Stevie, and he drags him and NotNoah away. Yeah, what if your little brother got hurt? He’s not my little brother.
Police converge, and Eric pulls a knife and puts it to NotNoah’s throat. So now we’ve got a hostage situation. Yeah, it’s a baby knife from Deadpool, mind you. Like, it’s the smallest knife ever. It’s great. And because they can’t actually put the kid in peril, he doesn’t actually put it to his throat, so he’s got like his arm around the kid’s throat.
The kid’s got his hands clutching his arm to sort of to stop him from choking him, and then the knife is kind of in front of the kid’s hands.
Alice: Yeah, so one thing that I’ve noticed about 9-1-1…
Bex: he’s going to scratch him on the…
Alice: Yeah, he’s just going to scratch him on the arm. Um, 9-1-1 has never harmed, like never harmed, seriously harmed or killed a [01:23:00] kid.
So whenever kids are in danger, I’m like, eh.
Ellen: That’s good to know though, because I can’t handle if the kids are gonna get hurt. That’s bad.
Bex: No, I’m the, I’m the same. Kids in peril are a big hard no for me.
Alice: Yeah, um, anyway, so they’re just like, “oh, dispatch, the suspect has a weapon. We’ve got a hostage.”
Bex: “Has a weapon! Stand down! Stand down! Do not engage!”
Alice: It’s the smallest weapon ever, but, you know, stand down.
Bex: But, they have a plan, because the train is coming into the platform behind Eric, and Eric’s going, okay, here is my chance to make my big escape, so he keeps all the officers at bay, and this train pulls in, and the doors stop directly behind him on the platform, which is, you know, absolutely perfect timing.
He goes, great, I’m gonna jump on this train, except the doors open, and Athena is standing in the carriage right behind him, and how the fuck did they do that?
Alice: Literally. Even when I’m on the platform watching it, I can never [01:24:00] line myself up with the doors.
Bex: So they’ve had, they have worked out which platform that they’re standing on.
They have worked out, and keep in mind, Eric’s just kind of running backwards and forward at this point.
Alice: Platform now, they would know where it was because the police have now seen them. But, when they first went, they did not. Like there’s no way.
Bex: So how did Athena know which train to get on?
Alice: Exactly! Like it’s so stupid!
Bex: And then, Eric’s running backwards and forwards, so they can’t even say, okay, we know exactly like carriage 1 hits this mark, carriage 2 hits this mark, carriage 3 hits here, he is going to be standing with his back to the train at this point here, so therefore get on carriage 5 so that you are perfectly in line with him to make this big dramatic, this is your stop, and just.
Ellen: Look, I think what’s happened here is that Athena has channeled the goddess of war and had a blinder of a good luck. Like, she’s just in the right place at the right time.
Bex: Um, anyway, so Eric It makes for great television. It is [01:25:00] so dramatic. It looks so good on the screen. Unfortunately, I like details and logic and rationality and things that make sense and none of that applies in this.
Alice: It’s so stupid. Um, so Eric’s like, oh shit, there’s a cop behind me. And while he’s staring at Athena, um, an LAPD officer just runs up and just like tackles Eric to the ground.
Bex: It’s so cool. He’s just standing up there and all of a sudden, whoop, he’s on the ground.
Alice: And that’s possibly the, like, the only good part of this whole fucking, like, story arc.
Yeah. Um, then we, after another commercial, we have more fucking of this kidnapping bullshit. I’m so sick of this thing. Like it’s just, it just goes over so much of the episode and clearly they just needed to fill in gaps.
Bex: Yeah. Um, but they, but did they, because there’s, Like, there’s no storylines missing from this episode as far as the summary is concerned.
No, they just So they intentionally filmed
Ellen: They just really wanted to tell it like this, yeah.
Bex: It’s because they’ve it’s Athena’s [01:26:00] it’s Athena’s storyline. So you’ve got the family, you’ve got her with, like, a missing child reuniting families
Alice: It’s just another one of those episodes where they are just like, oh, what’s an ensemble cast?
Ellen: Yeah. Yes. Yeah, they forgot about them.
Alice: Anyway, so the parents are on their way. Um, the six year old is apparently doing fine. He’s just playing with another officer. Um, Athena says kids that age are pretty resilient and he’s not the one that she’s worried about. And, um, apparently the local PD drove over to Stevie’s real parents place and the mother had a panic attack because she thought they were there to make a death notification.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: Yeah. Um, so that was really sad. So Romero’s like, okay, what are you going to tell him? So Athena goes in and has, like, a real good chat with Stevie about how no, Eric, was it [01:27:00] Eric? Um.
Bex: Yeah.
Alice: Eric’s not your dad. Um, the real father on the way, for some reason Stevie can remember that his mum had curly hair.
Bex: Oh my god, it’s that whole biological family will trump found family again.
Alice: Um, I mean, in this case, it’s a kidnapping, but you know, um,
Bex: but, but again, it’s like, he’s, he thinks that his family is Eric, but deep down he knew, he knew that he wasn’t really his father because he still had the memories of his mother.
Yeah. Oh, I just put the, I just connected the dots there.
Ellen: Yeah. He was six when he got told, so there’s a good chance he would have remembered.
Alice: Also, it’s so dumb because Eric said that the dream wasn’t real. Like Eric should have just been like, Oh yeah, that was your mother. She died. Like. Eric’s really not dumb.
Uh, not smart, I mean. Um, anyway, so yeah, he was, uh, his real name’s Jacob Daniel Walters. Uh, he was six when Eric took him. Um, so apparently he was playing outside, [01:28:00] his mum went inside because she heard the phone ring, she was gone less than a minute, but Eric stole the kid in broad daylight.
Bex: Which, I just went, we’re really pushing the whole stranger danger, kids being snatched off the streets narrative.
Okay, fine. That, I mean, statistically most abductions in the US, if not in the world, are familial. Yep. Not strangers, but that’s not the fun story, so let’s just, you know, peddle the fear that you literally cannot leave your children alone for 30 seconds because someone will snatch them off the streets.
Yep. Yep. Um. I thought I was done, but apparently I’m still angry.
Alice: Oh, I’ve got, I’ve got notes, I’ve got notes still to come. Um, so Eric drove hundreds of miles away from, so mind you, I’m pretty sure they said that, like, didn’t he get his, didn’t Eric get, like, his parents house when they died or something like that?
Isn’t that what they said?
Bex: Yes.
Alice: So he drove hundreds of miles away, [01:29:00] waited, like, wandered around and waited for a kid to be left unattended. In a front yard, like, not even in a park. Like, none of it makes any
Bex: Nope. Um. None.
Alice: Anyway, so, um, yeah, a man and a woman come in and scoop up NotNoah and give him a hug and, um Then, Stevie’s parents arrive and they’re really nervous looking.
His mum does have this long curly hair. Um, Athena says that they, that his parents have, like, never gave up looking for them, uh, never gave up looking for him. Um, Stevie says, they may remember me, but I don’t remember them. And Athena’s like, they’re your family. They love you either way. And you have the rest of your life ahead of you.
You can make new happy memories with them.
Bex: This is your new beginning.
Ellen: Yep, she said the words.
Alice: She really does. Yeah, so Stevie sees his parents, for some reason Stevie shakes his mum’s [01:30:00] hand, um, and then
Bex: I thought that was, that was kind of adorable.
Ellen: Yeah, that was cute.
Alice: Look, as much as I hate this As much as I hate this, like, Stevie’s mum then, like, squats down to look at him, and he reaches out and grabs one of her curls and, like, pulls it, like, in his dream, and I did have goosebumps.
Like, it’s, it’s definitely, like,
Bex: Like, that bit, yeah.
Ellen: It’s a bit sappy, but cute.
Alice: But yeah, so, this whole fucking scene makes me so mad, because the entire thing is just copaganda. Oh yeah. Like, look how good the police are! Like, oh look, they tracked them down! They’re so good! They put, like, they found them so quickly after an Amber Alert, and like, they looked at them, and like, just from a box of hair dye, and
Bex: There is a scene when, um, Noah’s parents have been, or not Noah’s parents, have reunited with him while not Noah’s mother is hugging her child.
The father is going around and shaking [01:31:00] hands with all the cops.
Alice: Yeah, the whole thing.
Bex: Like, thank you so much. Like,
Alice: I wonder if, um, what’s her face, the writer, is it Kristin? Yeah. Um, I wonder if her husband’s a cop or something, because that would make a lot of sense. Or maybe her dad’s a cop. But yeah, the whole thing is just like, oh my god, look how amazing the police are, like, oh, so good, so amazing, so good cops, like, oh my god, cops, and I’m just like, shut the fuck up, I don’t care.
Like, I have literally had someone, like, at my door threatening me, and the cops are just like, oh, like, we’re kind of busy right now, can you just, like, tell them to go away? And I’m just like, yeah, cool, thanks.
Bex: Well, you didn’t have Athena in your district, did you?
Alice: Obviously.
Bex: Because when she’s not, you know, intimidating shopkeepers, she’s apparently very good at tracking down little white boys.
Alice: So yeah, the whole scene, it made me mad the first time I watched it. It made me mad the second time I watched it. It’s just [01:32:00] stupid.
Bex: It’s one of those, it’s one of those, um, scenes where, I know I’ve talked about before, every time I watch these episodes I notice new things. Normally it’s I notice new things about Buck and Eddie and the others and I find cute things to squeal about.
Sometimes you just notice how bad things are and every time you watch you notice more of the badness. Yep.
Alice: Um, yeah, it’s just, it’s very, like, look how good the cops are. Um, they actually, funnily enough, um, After 2020, they dropped the copaganda a bit. Obviously there’s a lot with police in America and I think they realized that trying to shove look how good the police are, especially while their main, like their main character police sergeant is a black woman, I think they realized eventually that it was in bad taste and they stopped doing it quite as much.[01:33:00]
But there’s still definitely parts that’s just, like it’s clearly just there to be like look how good the police are.
Bex: I don’t think you could necessarily make a network television with police that highlights how bad they are. That’s not going to get you ratings.
Alice: Oh absolutely not, but I, it’s, it’s even more obvious having been watching Lone Star where they just don’t have, like there’s a police person just like this, but it’s he’s a background character.
He’s also dating like he’s also with one of the members of the fire like fire team
Bex: Is that Carlos?
Alice: Yes But he goes through so much shit. Like it’s like how Athena got passed over from the promotions except you’re seeing it in real time Yeah, so they do it. They seem to do it a lot better in Lone Star Like, it’s not just shoving it down your throat, like, Carlos is a good guy, but he just gets stopped at everything and, like, they don’t [01:34:00] just follow him around like they do with Athena.
Like, obviously Athena being played by
Bex: Angela Bassett.
Alice: Thank you. All I could think was Athena and I’m just like, no, she doesn’t play herself. Um, obviously Athena being played by Angela Bassett is a big draw card for them, um, so they have to make her look good. But, yeah, there’s a lot of scenes in 9-1-1 that are just there to show how great the cops are.
Ellen: They’re just laying it on a bit. They’re laying it on a bit thick. Yeah, like when they’re I mean, if you found, if someone found a child of mine that was missing, I would be going around shaking everyone’s hand too. Yeah. So, you know
Alice: But yeah, it’s just very unrealistic.
Ellen: It’s just a bit much.
Bex: Yeah. A bit much.
But we’re not done with Athena yet. We’ve got one more scene to get through with her. Yeah.
Alice: Yeah, because we don’t have any other characters in the show but Athena.
Bex: No, we gotta finish off her arc. So, she has reunited the boys, she’s come home to see her own [01:35:00] happy family. Semi happy. Kids are setting the table with their grandparents, Bobby has excluded himself out on the patio, probably because that way he is separated from Beatrice while he’s holding sharp tools.
Um, She goes up to her bedroom. And again, I, I have to scream one more time. She goes up to her bedroom to put her service weapon away, and why the fuck did she bring her service weapon home?
Alice: Yeah, is that a thing in America, because
Bex: You don’t bring your service weapon home! I don’t care that she very carefully puts it away in a safe, it should have stayed in the station.
Alice: Are we sure that
Bex: You don’t take your service weapon home.
Alice: Because it was in her handbag, so we’re sure that’s not just her, like, her personal
Bex: Why would she have a gun if she’s like,
Alice: ’cause it’s America. They all have guns.
Bex: But why would, but no, but it’s in like her little, the little snappy holster thing that would go onto her belt.
Alice: I thought it was…
Bex: so she’s taken it off her tool belt, put it in her handbag, smuggled it out of the [01:36:00] station to then put it in the gun safe in her bedroom.
Alice: I don’t know, because I know, I know in Australia they’re not allowed to take their work gun home.
Bex: No, and there was a big thing with a domestic violence case where a police officer did take his service weapon home and then used it to unalive his partner,
Alice: well, ex partner.
Bex: But, there is absolutely no reason, this is not Chekhov’s gun, it’s, it does not come back up again, I guess they just needed a reason for Athena to go up into her bedroom.
Alice: Yeah, she couldn’t just be like, taking her, like, watch off or something, no, like.
Bex: Which is what she does after she puts her gun away, so they don’t need to have the gun, it’s just some little element that they’ve thrown in there for, oh, this’ll look good on screen, and I’m screaming and I go, but it doesn’t make sense!
Alice: Again, murica.
Bex: But, while she’s up in her bedroom, she is sitting target for Beatrice. Who comes in, and you think that she’s being nice, because she brings up Tanya Kingston, which, uh, for those of you just joining us, [01:37:00] is part of Athena’s origin story. She was a little girl that went missing when Athena was a child.
They never found her, and she was the reason that Athena became a police officer, because she never wanted anybody to go through what Tanya Kingston’s parents went through. Missing their child and never getting answers. And Beatrice is saying that she remembered the Tanya Kingston case when she was watching the news story about the little boys that Athena had reunited with their parents.
And she thinks that she kind of understands Athena a little bit more now.
Ellen: Or at least the job part. Yes. Why she took the job.
Bex: Yes, but conversely, she then scolds Athena.
Alice: There’s a lot about Tanya Kingston that makes me want to scream as well, but that’s for
Bex: later.
Yeah, but you gotta wait. You gotta wait. For future episodes. But while Beatrice says that she thinks she understands Athena a little bit more, she then proceeds to scold Athena, saying, “But you never understood me.”
Saying that, you know, I met [01:38:00] This whole dialogue, um, this whole monologue is just ridiculous.
Alice: Yeah, I honestly tuned out at this stage.
Bex: She met a man, fell in love, made a home, raised a daughter, who then proceeded to run away from us and has never stopped running since.
Alice: Like that’s, that’s what kids, that’s what kids do.
They leave eventually. And then hey, if you’re nice, maybe eventually they can’t afford rent and move back in. I mean, what, who would do that?
Bex: Athena disagrees. She said, maybe I was running, but she wasn’t running away from her parents. She was running towards, um, her, a job, a family, uh, something important.
She says that she needed space where she could build a life. And obviously Beatrice was not giving her that space. Um, and she has, Now, she’s created this space for herself, she’s created this life, [01:39:00] she’s created this family, and she wants Beatrice to be a part of it. But she will only accept her in her life if Beatrice accepts her and her family, and that now includes Bobby.
And Beatrice says, “I love you baby, but you are making a terrible mistake. And I worry that the next time your life falls apart, you won’t be able to put it back together.” And then she drops the mic and leaves the room before Athena can say anything. And while we’re contemplating what’s going on with Athena and her mother, um, this is obviously Friday night because Maddie’s all dressed up for her date.
Ellen: Yeah, she looks beautiful.
Bex: She’s done her hair, got her hair did, she’s got some bright lipstick on, she’s got some fancy clothes, um, and she’s running down the stairs in her apartment because her phone, which is on [01:40:00] vibrate, but like jackhammer intensity vibration, that she could hear it vibrating on the table from upstairs.
Yeah. And it is her lawyer. checking in with Maddie to tell her that they have been unable to serve Doug with the divorce papers because they can’t find him. And while Maddie is having this conversation, there is a buzzing noise and she goes over and suddenly, within the last couple of episodes, Maddie’s apartment has gone high security because she now has a video intercom.
Next to her front door, which is apparently connected to an external security door somewhere in the apartment complex, which, why the hell did Maddy have like three cameras set up in her living room and a camera set up at her front door if she has this video intercom that she can
Alice: Maybe, maybe they only installed it since Buck moved [01:41:00] in, because he can’t be bothered looking at his phone on the app.
Bex: Yes, this isn’t linked to Maddie’s front door. This is linked to the door of the apartment. So you have to go through this door to get to Maddie’s front door. So I mean, I, it makes sense because if you are running from your abusive husband, it makes sense that you would want to go for a high security apartment.
But why didn’t they set this up when Maddie first moved into the apartment? Why didn’t they establish it then? And yes, I know the answer is because then we didn’t get that cute bonding moment between Chim and Maddie where he came over and set up all of the security cameras and showed her how to use the app, etc, etc.
Ellen: But, um, Maybe the complex already had all that stuff installed. She just wanted extra, extra peace of mind in her own little space.
Bex: Okay, but then you go back to that episode where, like, we had that scene where the noises were making Maddie really, um, jumpy, [01:42:00] and she heard something outside her front door, and she checked the app, and the app goes, there’s movement outside your front door.
Yeah. But it shouldn’t
Ellen: Yeah, no one should have been able to get in.
Bex: The intercom should have no one should have been able to get in because they’ve got that external door that can only get in if someone’s buzzed you in. It just I don’t know, all
the again, I just, I need to stop thinking about the details because the details are going to do my head in because they just don’t add up.
Alice: All the houses and apartment complexes and stuff confuse me. Like, I feel like Eddie’s house goes from a house to an apartment sometimes. I Like, I know it’s supposed to be a house, but sometimes it feels like an apartment. I’m just like, is it a house or is it an apartment? And it was the same with Abby’s house.
Like, I think that was an apartment, but sometimes it felt like a house. Like, I don’t know. I don’t think the set designers really pay much attention to it.
Bex: No, I don’t think they do.
Alice: Um, anyway, so Doug,
Bex: no, so the whole point of my rant about the video intercom [01:43:00] is that it starts buzzing and. Maddie goes to check it, and it’s Chim, and he’s there ready to pick her up for their date, and he’s holding a bouquet of flowers, and he’s waving at the camera, and Maddie buzzes him in, and then opens her front door, so that when he gets up he can just let himself into the apartment, which is, you know, like, strike one for Maddie.
Ellen: Because she’s already on the phone.
Bex: Yeah, because she’s, I guess she doesn’t want to interrupt her conversation with having to Open the door. Answer the door again. Which she just did, yeah. Yes.
Alice: Um, but anyway, Chim’s got flowers and he’s very cute. Um. Yes. But, while they’re, like,
While Chim’s walking through, like, this lovely garden that’s in the front of Maddie’s apartment.
Bex: Hang on, he goes through the security door because Maddie’s just buzzed him in, and then [01:44:00] somebody grabs the door before it latches again and sneaks in through after him. Like, oh my god, who could that be?
Alice: It’s Doug.
Bex: Oh yeah, of course it’s Doug. Like who else would be trying to fucking sneak into Maddie’s apartment complex?
Alice: But like, while this is happening, like Maddie’s actively on the phone to her lawyer, who’s saying, yeah, we don’t know where Doug is. And Maddie’s like, wow, that’s wild. Let me unlock all my doors.
Bex: Exactly.
Ellen: Yeah. She says it’s like, it’s a nightmare that
Bex: it’s a night. Yeah. She’s not, you know, reinforcing the security and, you know, battening down the hatches. No, I think She’s opening the hatches.
Ellen: Yeah, she’s Chim being there has lulled her into a false sense of security, maybe.
Bex: Which is why my theory was that Doug was actively pushing for Chim to ask Maddie out in order to get access to her.
Ellen: Right.
Bex: Because then she does stupid shit like opening doors and allowing him to just [01:45:00] walk into her apartment.
Ellen: Well, it’s worked out for him. Because Doug just does actually walk straight in. And As, as Chim is walking through this beautiful garden, like, we’ve, this is the first time we’ve ever seen, like, any of this part of Maddie’s apartment complex, I guess, um, Doug just comes up behind him and, like, grabs, stabs him in the gut.
Alice: But he stabs him, like, multiple times, too.
Bex: Yeah. Yeah, at least three, I think I counted. Yeah. And I hate that I had to watch the scene that many times to count how many times he stabbed Chimney.
Alice: Yeah, because it’s like, fast, too.
Bex: Yes.
Ellen: So, Chim drops everything and falls to the ground, and Maddie’s still on the phone, she doesn’t even, like, she turns around and as Chim comes in, as she, she thinks Chim is coming in the door, she says something like, you’re never gonna guess, or you’re not gonna believe this, and then she turns around and it’s Doug.
Bex: [01:46:00] Yep. And he’s just like, “Hey babe,” whomp, fist to the face. Like, nice to see you too, honey.
Alice: Yeah, right. So romantic.
Ellen: And that’s the end.
Bex: And yeah, and that’s the end. As Maddie goes unconscious, the screen goes black.
Alice: Yeah. And so we’ve got Chim’s bleeding out.
Bex: Maddie’s unconscious, Chim’s actively bleeding out in the atrium.
Alice: Um, and Doug’s doing Doug things.
Bex: Yeah. Yep.
Ellen: Yeah. So like. Uh, this is, I didn’t realize this was going to be like a to be continued thing when I was watching this the first time. And I was like, ah!
Bex: I remember that. Because you’ve, you’ve, you watch this episode and then you’re like, I’m going to have to watch the next one.
And at first I was like, yes, you’re going to have to watch “Chimney Begins”. And like, oh no, no, you can’t, because it’s a three episode arc, you are not going to be able to stop. keep going.
Ellen: It just has to keep going. Uh, but yeah, what a, what a cliffhanger there. I can’t believe that they left it like that for, for so long.
Oh no, this is the [01:47:00] first one back after a break, right? So, so it wasn’t, it wasn’t a long hiatus, it was just a week.
Bex: You didn’t get the, the three month break with Chim, like, still bleeding out.
Alice: Um, yeah, besides the Athena stuff, I really liked this episode.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: Um, I liked the shark. That was cool.
Ellen: They were just, like, on a surface level, like, watching this, it was a really enjoyable episode. But as soon as you start thinking a bit more deeply about any of the things in it,
Alice: I mean that Oh, that’s, that’s always 9-1-1 though. Like just don’t think too deeply about any of it.
Ellen: Yeah. Yeah, I guess so.
Bex: I, I always forget about this episode. Like I said earlier, the only things I remember about this episode is, um, Beatrice ripping into Bobby.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: And Chim dying at the end. That’s the only two things that I ever remember about this one.
Ellen: Yeah, I guess the rest of it’s fairly forgettable. Um, [01:48:00] I don’t know. The plastic surgery is just silly. It’s all silly. It’s all silly. The shark is silly. It’s just Anyway.
Alice: The shark’s silly.
Bex: The train is silly!
Alice: The shark’s silly, but the way it makes Buck’s whole face light up.
Ellen: He was. He was very happy about it.
Alice: I love him so much. Just like Buck and animals. It’s the cutest thing. Yes.
Ellen: All right. Well, um, what have we got to look forward to next week then?
Bex: Uh, next week we hit, “Chimney Begins”.
Ellen: Okay, so another flashback episode?
Bex: Well, it’s, it’s interesting because they, they seem to be feeling out their different, um, the different ways that they wanna handle the, um, the begins episodes.
So like with. I know it’s technically not “Bobby Begins” because it’s not called Bobby Begins, but it, it kind of does fit the pattern of Bobby Begins where we sort of find out [01:49:00] his origin story. Um, that structure was him telling the story to Hot Priest and we were sort of watching it unfold as he talked.
Yes. Um, and then Hen’s was, I guess, her telling us the story of how she became a paramedic firefighter, uh, but it was all set sort of in the past, whereas Chim’s, they’re doing something different. And, it’s, I think in the fandom, it’s one of the, I don’t know that the episode itself is one of the favorites because it’s pretty dark, but there are sequences in “Chimney Begins” that are just so beautifully shot, so beautifully composed, that they are kind of just hailed as…
As stupid as this show is, sometimes it pulls out absolute artistic brilliance, [01:50:00] which is kind of why we’re still here. We’re waiting for those little specks of brilliance amongst the ridiculousness of lining Athena up with the frickin train carriage, exactly on the platform.
Ellen: Diamonds in the rough.
Bex: Yes.
Alice: But we’ll get to that when we, um, get to it next week.
Bex: Yeah. And the summary for next week is literally, look back at how Chimney joined Station 118 and became the firefighter and paramedic he is today. Yep, that’s it. Which I think kind of undersells the story. It does. Uh, and as for our triggers, um, there is multiple building fires. We have Bullying and hazing because it’s, uh, version one of the Station 118.
Um,
Ellen: not those guys again.
Bex: Unfortunately. Yes. And I, I has it to say they’re even worse at this time round. [01:51:00] Um, we have daddy issues.
Ellen: Naturally.
Bex: Again, uh, we have death of a family member, there is a funeral, we have a explosion due to a gas leak, there is a pregnant woman at threat, there is vomit, if you are somebody who can’t stand to see vomit on screen, and of course Chimney is at threat from stab wounds.
Ellen: Uh, anything else that we want to say about this episode before we finish up?
Bex: No, just thank you to everyone for their patience. I know that this episode was a little bit longer. The break that we said that we were going to take, it’s a little bit longer than we anticipated.
Ellen: Yes, we had some small technical issues, but we, I think we’ve got through it okay.
Yeah. And we’re back. Yeah, we’re back. We’ll be back each week now for, until we’re at least the end of season [01:52:00] 2. We’re almost. More than halfway through the season two now. Cool, um, well then, please do let us know what you thought of this episode. If you found the emergencies just as ridiculous as we did.
Or, you know, if you loved this episode, we’d love to hear from you. Just let us know.
Bex: If you are a staunch Kristen Reidel defender, please drop us a line and explain to us what it is about her writing that you appreciate so much.
Ellen: You can do that by leaving us a comment on this episode’s post on thatweewooshow.com or directly in Spotify. Uh, you can send us an email, contact at thatweewooshow.com, or you can let us know on our social media accounts. Um, Twitter. Sorry. X. I’m just going to call it Twitter. Um,
Bex: it’s Twitter. We, the, the only thing we will ever deadname is that app.
Ellen: Uh, Instagram, um, TikTok, theoretically, et cetera.
So, [01:53:00] and all of those other ways that you can follow and subscribe to the podcast are all on our website as well. So you go check that out and thank you everyone for listening today. And we’ll see you next week for episode 12, which is called “Chimney Begins”. See you then.
Bex: Bye.
Alice: Bye.
Ellen over outro music: 9-1-1 is a fictional show, but many of the situations portrayed happen in the real world too.
If any of the topics we’ve discussed in this episode have affected you, please know you’re not alone. You can call or text numbers in your country for help. Just Google crisis support in your location to find out the number. If you enjoy our podcast, you can help us out by leaving us a review on Spotify or your preferred listening app.
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