Welcome to That Weewoo Show: a podcast where Ellen, Bex and Alice watch and discuss every episode of ABC’s TV show, 9-1-1.
In this episode we discuss the eighth episode of 9-1-1, titled “Karma’s a Bitch”.
An unremorseful widower, an unsuspecting thief, and an arrogant fitness club owner receive a taste of karma.
Content warnings for episode 1.08:
Dog locked in a car (the dog is fine), domestic violence, extreme gore (burns), needles involving blood donation, suicide via hanging.
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Our intro music is “Tensions” by Northern Points.
Episode Transcript
Bex: [00:00:00] Welcome back to That Wee Woo Show, a podcast where we watch and discuss episodes of the ABC show, 9-1-1. I’m Bex.
Alice: I’m Alice.
Ellen: And I’m Ellen.
Bex: Thank you to everyone who has listened to our episodes so far and shared our social media posts and given us ratings on Spotify and Apple podcasts. A special thanks to Theresas_melody, Lucia, Kelly and Nell on Twitter for telling us about those ubiquitous orange pill bottles that we were so curious about.
And thank you to Nik for explaining about why the American flag flies backwards on [00:01:00] uniforms. We’re learning so much. It’s wonderful.
Ellen: Why is that? It’s the, what you said the other episode, right? It’s because it’s got to be looking like it’s flying on a pole. Is that right?
Bex: Yeah. It matches the way that it flies on a flagpole. And it’s facing forwards so that it always looks like they’re advancing and they’re not in retreat.
Ellen: Okay. That’s fine. There was some, there was some designer out there just shaking their fist at the way that worked out because the flag is the wrong way around. (laughs)
Bex: But this week we’re going to talk about episode eight entitled “Karma’s a Bitch”, which first aired March 7th, 2018.
Alice: Last week on 9-1-1, we experienced our first full moon on shift with the 118. Abby and Athena saved the life of a woman whose ex is out for revenge. Buck seemed more confident delivering a newborn tapeworm than a human, and Hen made a [00:02:00] huge mistake in visiting her newly released ex girlfriend.
Ellen: So this week, this episode eight, “Karma’s a Bitch,” the official summary goes, “What goes around comes around for an unremorseful widower, an arrogant fitness club owner and an unsuspecting thief. Meanwhile Bobby gets a surprising phone call from his doctor after donating at Chimney’s Blood Drive and Athena confronts Michael after having a heart to heart with their kids.”
And the content warnings for this Episode just in case you’d rather not hear about any of these things.
We have a dog at threat who’s been locked in a car, but the dog is fine. The dog comes out okay. We have domestic violence. We have extreme gore like a man getting burnt quite badly, extremely badly in a really disgusting way. We have needles and involving, you know, a blood donation.
[00:03:00] And we have suicide via hanging. So okay. So in general, like last week’s episode, we had such an exciting, in like a really bonkers way because of the full moon stuff. And there were lots of funny, funny things going on. This episode was a little more like, I don’t know, it wasn’t as exciting or it wasn’t as interesting.
I don’t know. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as the previous one.
Bex: This is the first episode… Alice and I talked about in the early episodes about how 9-1-1 does this thing where it takes a theme and runs with it and it kind of did that in the first couple of episodes where it would have one theme and one storyline would be very much about it and the rest would sort of subtly pick it up.
No, this episode we get the every single storyline is going to be on theme or they’re going to die trying. I, I think that they do that sometimes to the detriment of progressing the series. [00:04:00] I mean, we do get a little bit of character growth coming out of this episode, but mostly it’s about how many storylines about karmic retribution can we get in, in 40 minutes.
Alice: Yeah, this one, like, we just have to take a shot every time they mention karma and we will die. Okay.
Bex: Okay. Maybe this one’s going to be a contender for the drinking game.
Alice: I reckon so.
Ellen: Maybe. I mean, he, he does have all of the things that they do all the time, like you know, strange CPR and like, weird, like, diagnosis of medical things and things like that.
So. Anyway, shall we get straight into it?
Bex: Let’s jump into it.
Ellen: Alright. Let’s do it. So yes, we do start with Abby taking a 9-1-1 call and a man says, “I’ve been shot” and then sort of silence and Abby’s like, “Sir, are you there? Can you hear me?” [00:05:00] And we just cut to a man whose name is Danford, but I think that the woman calls him Dan.
Like Danford seems like a really nice name. Strange long name for…
Bex: I think I think Danford is what comes up in the closed captions. Yeah, yeah. A lot of the stuff that I come up with is what closed captions tells me. Yes. I don’t
Ellen: think I know anyone called Danford. Anyway, let’s not be mean to people for their names.
Alice: Danfords, we love you.
Ellen: He’s lying on the grass and he’s got blood all over it, like it’s spreading from the center of his chest like he’s been shot. And he’s got… He does have, like, a gun lying on the ground next to him, so my first thought is he’s shot himself in the chest somehow, I don’t know.
Bex: I had the same thought, but then you look at it and it’s a full on hunting rifle, which I don’t know that you can, like, get to your chest?
Ellen: [00:06:00] Yeah, it’s got, like, a really long, kind of I don’t know anything about guns. I don’t even know what the bit is called where the bullet comes out. (laughs)
Bex: If you’re a gun owner, if you have hunting rifles, let us know. Is it possible to shoot yourself in the chest with a hunting rifle?
Alice: Please do not try that at home.
Ellen: No, if you were really determined, I’m sure you could. But anyway so the 118 turn up with sirens to help him out.
Alice: Yeah. Hen says that they’ve been there before and Buck’s just like, “but, but when?” And Bobby says before Buck joined them.
Ellen: So this, this beginning scene is, does this really strange thing where they jump around in time, like a lot, several times, like, and further back in time and then forward and then back again.
It’s like,
Bex: And there are some captions letting you know when you’re jumping. And then other times they do a jump without any captions and you just have to try and guess where in time you are. It’s very Inception-esque.
Ellen: Yes. [00:07:00] But they do, they do do that thing where they like drop the saturation when they’re back, when they’re in a memory or whatever.
So you do get some kind of a clue. But still, it’s a little confusing.
Alice: So the first flashback, Bobby’s staring up at the branches of a large tree, and it goes from a bright blue sky, which is the present, and then it goes to the same tree, but it’s gray and rainy. And there’s a woman hanging from one of the branches with a noose around her neck.
And we do get the caption that it’s one year ago. So Chim’s up on the tree branch, sawing at the rope trying to get the woman down. It’s all very clinical, like Bobby carries her over to Hen gets her on the board, and the guy who was shot in the, like, present is just watching, like, he’s standing a few feet away, his arms are crossed, and he’s very, like, Oh, “why would she do something like this?”
Bex: [00:08:00] Yeah, he’s, he’s very, he’s a spectator. He’s not at all emotionally invested in what’s going on. And when they get the woman down on the ground, Bobby starts doing CPR, which I’m assuming is as a, “We’ve done everything we can, we are so sorry,” tactic that they can say to the loved ones. But it’s like three half hearted compressions, then he realizes that this guy absolutely does not care that this woman has hung herself and is dead and gives up.
Ellen: Yeah. And like, Hen and Bobby look at each other and go, like, they just roll their eyes kind of thing, like, what is this guy’s problem, you know?
Alice: Yeah, and like, Danford just goes, “Oh, whatever it was, I could have helped her. We could have talked about it. I loved her.” But there’s no emotion behind it.
Bex: That was almost an exact quote of how he said it.
Alice: Yeah. Like it’s so flat.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: [00:09:00] So Hen notices that she’s got like marks around her arms, like the woman, and says, maybe the woman wasn’t so eager to run into those loving arms. And Danford just says, you know, they had their differences.
Bex: And then he looks up at the tree, and sort of, and says that, My wife, so we finally learn that this woman who is dispassionately watching have been, hung herself from a tree, and, the 118 tried to revive, that’s his wife, that’s a, I mean his reaction to her, to start with, was strange. To find out that she’s his wife and he’s acting like this is even worse.
So he says that my wife liked to use this tree for target practice and we get another flashback.
Alice: Yeah. We get a flashback within a flashback,
Ellen: [00:10:00] a flashback, back, back? (laughs)
Bex: where we see Danford and his wife who is alive and well. And. We discover that the differences that he and his wife had was that he was an abusive arsehole.
Alice: Oh, massively, yeah.
Bex: Yeah to the point where his wife had got herself a gun. They have an argument. They’re standing underneath that tree. He is asking her where she was last night. He’s calling her names. He’s telling her that all of the abuse that he is heaping on her is she’s brought it on herself. So she retaliates and points a gun at him.
Ellen: And then he basically taunts her into shooting. Like he says, “go on, shoot, go on, shoot!” And then, and then she eventually shoots, but misses him and hits the tree.
[00:11:00] And then he you know, lunges forward and grabs the gun and like hits her with it. And she falls to the ground and it’s really awful. You know, difficult to watch really. And he says, “You want out so bad. You’re going to have to shoot yourself, not me.” And I’m just like, “urgh, asshole!” And she just looks up at the tree and you’re like, Oh my God. She’s, she’s making plans.
Bex: Yeah. And then we cut back to the first flashback. So we’re not, we’re back in the present. We’re back to one year ago and Danford is staring at the tree and makes the very strange remark, “It’s still standing and she’s not.” And then he turns and walks back into the house, leaving the 118 there with his wife.
And yeah, I,
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: And see, the thing that I didn’t quite understand about that flashback within a flashback [00:12:00] is obviously we need, as the audience, we need to know the setup of the wife shooting at her husband and the bullet getting lodged into the tree behind him. But when he’s staring up at the tree and we are getting that flashback, is he telling the 118 this story?
Like, is he telling Bobby? This is how the bullet got lodged in a tree?
Alice: Like “one time I was, you know, pushing my wife around. And so she threatened to shoot me and shot the tree instead. Ha ha bye.” Like what? Yeah.
Ellen: Yeah. Well, the way that it comes across is that he’s, the only thing he’s told them is that she, she wanted to use the tree for target practice.
Bex: But there’s a comment that Bobby makes later on that makes me think that that flashback was us seeing in real time as he’s talking to, to Bobby and Hen.
Ellen: Well, let’s, let’s just say what’s happening, happening next and then we can get up to that bit. Yeah.
Bex: [00:13:00] Yeah. Okay. So then we get another flashback, but it’s not quite as far back as it was.
So we’re still…
Ellen: It’s after the bullet.
Alice: After the wife’s died.
Bex: After his wife died, so it’s not quite present time, but it’s after his wife has died, and the tree is dead. It got infected.
Alice: Yeah, from a fungus, apparently, after being struck by a bullet, because apparently bullets have fungus?
Bex: Yeah, I don’t think the bullet, I don’t think the bullet did it, I think that this guy is just, hates his wife so much that he’s going to blame her for the death of the tree, because he loved that tree way more than he loved her.
Alice: Yeah, he even says a lot of good memories with this tree, which is awful.
Bex: Which is such a fucked up thing to say.
Ellen: It is an awful thing to say.
Alice: Yeah, that’s where his wife, anyway.
Ellen: Yeah,
Alice: The arborist says it should have been leveled months ago. Offers to get a quote and Danford just says [00:14:00] don’t bother and now we go back to today, but not the same…
Bex: Not the present today. It’s like maybe an hour earlier today?
Alice: Yeah, just a little bit earlier
Bex: Which okay, so then Danford has decided that he’s going to bring the tree down himself and we see that he’s duct taped bags of explosives around the base of the tree. And I looked these up and they are the kind of targets that you would use for shooting practice.
So they’ve got two chemicals inside them. When a bullet pierces the bag, the two chemicals combine and they explode. And they let you know, yeah, you’ve hit the target.
Ellen: Oh, Okay. I thought it was just like, You know, plastic explosive or something like that.
Bex: There’s obviously, there’s no labels on the bag, but I did a bit of a Google search and they kind of look like the sort of product.
Ellen: I mean, that would make sense.
Bex: [00:15:00] Yeah. And the, the binary explosive is also used in commercial blasting projects. Obviously they’re not bullet. ignited. They would be, you know, they would have a detonator, but it’s the same idea. Two chemicals that are benign on their own, but when you combine them with the heat of a bullet they will explode.
So he’s just duct taping them to the base of the tree and he’s got his hunting rifle, so obviously his plan is he’s going to shoot the bags, trigger the explosions, that’ll bring the tree down.
Ellen: As you do, I mean, how else would you remove a tree?
Alice: Yeah, right?
Bex: I mean, I would assume you’d use a chainsaw, but
Alice: Also, where is this? Because, like, the 118 are usually in the city, and he’s just, this guy’s just on, like, property, but the 118… anyway.
Bex: [00:16:00] Yeah, don’t, don’t, don’t think about that. Logically, there would be no reason for them to have been given this call, but
Alice: Twice. (laughs) So Danford shoots the, like, explosives and shards of wood go flying and then we get a nice close up of the bullet which is, like, squished because it’s already hit a tree and it comes flying out and hits Danford right in the chest.
Bex: At which point we catch up to present day but, like, slightly earlier than present day. Because we’re now at the scene from the beginning of the episode where he is flat on his back on the grass, hunting rifle next to him, blood spreading on his chest, and he reaches into his pocket to pull out his phone, which is then to call 9-1-1 and, and we’re back.
I feel like I need a flow chart to have understood the timeline for that. And that’s just the opening like five minutes.
Ellen: [00:17:00] Yeah, like us explaining it probably wasn’t as clear as, like, even watching it, which wasn’t particularly clear in the first place anyway if they just put it all in order, it probably wouldn’t have been quite so… No, I don’t think, I was going to say it wouldn’t have been so, so have, have the tension that it has, but it doesn’t have tension anyway, because I just…
Alice: 9-1-1 do like to do the whole jumping around thing. Like I started watching Lone Star this week and they, the first time they did it, I was like, Hey, we’re at 9-1-1 and I’m like, Oh God, that’s their legacy is that we jump around in time randomly.
Bex: Yep. Good. So back in present time they’re administering first aid, the hen’s cutting away the shirt, we’re getting gauze to apply as pressure.
They’re not very frantic. There’s no sort of urgency, which is interesting.
Ellen: Like they probably remember him from last time?
Bex: They’re like, fuck you, dude, we’re not going to give you first aid. [00:18:00] So as Chim and Hen are working on this guy, Bobby is looking at the tree and says, wonderingly, like, “The bullet that she fired at him.”
Ellen: “At him.” Yeah.
Bex: Which then makes me go, so this guy really did explain to these complete strangers that he abused his wife to the point where she tried to shoot at him. He told her the only way she was going to get out was to die, so she hung herself.
Alice: But not only that, like, it also happened a year ago that he told them the story.
So Bobby’s like, Oh, I remember this tree. A guy abused his wife and she tried to shoot him. And now that like, what? (laughs)
Ellen: Yeah, it just does not add up at all. Like, and also if they’ve just turned up and he’s lying on the ground, like unconscious and they… [00:19:00] And he’s got a gun and he’s got, and the tree is in splinters.
They’ve got the gun. They have worked it out. How? Like, did, did someone know, report that the tree had been blown up or like, it’s just, the whole thing is just a little baffling. Like, how does anyone know any of this stuff?
Bex: I don’t know. Well, anyway, it’s not going to last much longer because while, because while Hen is very half heartedly giving him first aid, the guy kind of exhales and twitches. And dies. Which… What? (laughs)
And then hen looks up at Bobby and everybody get your glasses ready because you’re about to take a shot because Hen utters the episode title and says, “Karma’s a bitch.” And we cut to the title card and. Of all of the storylines that they could have used to cold open this show and set up the whole “karma is a bitch” storyline, I do not understand why they chose this one.
Ellen: [00:20:00] Yeah. Alright, we finally, after we do the title card, when we come back, we are at the firehouse. The fire engines are not in the garage because… well, I think some of them are, they’re just on the edges of the garage because there is a blood drive set up by Chim.
Bex: Chim’s taken over the 118.
Ellen: He’s taken over the firehouse. No fires are getting dealt with today. Because everyone’s giving blood to like, you know, help out the community, because Chim gives this lovely big speech about you know, 90 percent of blood given to patients it comes from volunteers and…
Bex: Which then, where does the other 10 percent come from?
Alice: Family members? Maybe?
Bex: Like, 90 percent of volunteers and the 10 percent are like people that the Red Cross have got chained up in a basement somewhere that are just permanently donating blood. (laughs)
Alice: Like yeah, all I could think of was maybe family members. Like if, like, you know, if your husband… or not your husband, but like if your dad is in hospital and needs blood, it’s like, yeah, you can have mine.
Bex: [00:21:00] I did wonder whether the, the 10% was from people who sell their blood, but I did a quick search and I believe that selling your blood for profit is not as big a thing as the TVs and movies make it out to be. They don’t buy blood no as much. People in the U. S., can you still sell your blood? Do people still pay you to donate or is it purely on a volunteer basis?
Ellen: You get free, free food for donating blood.
Bex: Yeah. That’s just to replenish your blood sugar so that the donation centers are not liable when they send you back out on the street.
Ellen: I used to be happy, happy to take a piece of chocolate cake in payment for, for my blood. You know, in, in back in like 50 years ago, they used to get paid in cigarettes.
Alice: [00:22:00] Oh, wow.
Ellen: You can, what you went and donated blood and you got cigarettes in payment. My, I mean, my, my father told me that story. Obviously times have changed and health is a bit more of a concern these days.
Alice: I’ve never been able to donate blood because I’m always too anemic. And apparently, like, if I donated blood, I’d pass out, so they won’t let me in.
I’m just like, no, it’s fine, I don’t need this blood, just take it.
Bex: Red Cross are constantly on me to donate because I’m a universal donor, so they want my blood.
Alice: I don’t even know my blood type.
Ellen: Oh, well, mine’s like the most common one, but they still need it, so I do get handed as well. But usually if they they come to my local area usually on the school holidays when I’m not around, which is really you know, not usually very convenient, but, you know, I do try and do it now and then.
Bex: [00:23:00] Yeah, we were talking about this earlier. One of the questions I had was, where I’m from in Australia, we don’t have traveling blood donation centers. They’re, they’re buildings. You have to go to a blood donation center in order to donate. And I thought that maybe these traveling blood donations were a purely American thing, but Ellen, they come to you where you are.
Ellen: Yeah! We have these caravan things that go around different areas around Brisbane. I don’t know if all… like, obviously around your area, they don’t, but you know, the major cities, maybe they do as well. But it’s, it’s a schedule. Like, you know, they come once a quarter to, to my local area.
Alice: Yeah, I feel like they do it near, because my parents live out rural, and I feel like they do it out there.
Like, I have vague memories of mum being like, oh yeah, like it’s, it’s coming to, you know, the nearest town, which is like 30 minutes away. Right, yeah. But I.
Bex: [00:24:00] Maybe that’s my problem, maybe I’ve only ever lived in sort of capital cities.
Alice: Yeah, like even where I live, which is like almost an hour out of the capital city, we just have one in, like 10 minutes away, that’s a building.
So.
Bex: Yeah, interesting. Well, Chim’s taken over the 118. He’s, they’re donating blood out in the middle of the firehouse. B Shift have had to move all the trucks out to the front.
Alice: Poor B Shift.
Ellen: Buck and Hen are there. They’re in the middle of donating.
Bex: They’re donating. Yep.
Alice: Yep. We get an excellent image of Buck, which is one of my favorite Buck gifs, where he’s just squeezing his little stress ball and he gives a little salute because he’s so impressed with himself.
Bex: Yeah, that’s because Chim says that giving blood is so easy, even someone like Mr. Buckley can do it. And Buck’s like “Yeah, you’re not wrong. I can do this.”
Alice: Yeah, you can, Buck. So proud of you.
Bex: [00:25:00] But while everyone else from the 118 is there, Bobby has only just arrived for the start of his shift. He has not participated in the drive, and this has not gone unnoticed by Chim, who says that he is two pints shy of his donation goal with the obvious implication of, well, you’re here now, Cap, why don’t you roll up your sleeve and help me hit my goal? Bobby’s response is just, “Oh, that’ll give you something to work towards for next time.”
Ellen: Like he says it after giving him a look that sort of means I know exactly what you’re trying to get me to do and I’m not doing it.
But they try and talk him into it. And he just says, “I don’t like needles and I don’t, I don’t give blood.” And he says, when I was a kid, they tried to take my blood and I bit the doctor. And then another time as an adult, he tried and they just cut to this image of him, like falling off a chair and crashing on the ground.
And he says it didn’t go well.
Bex: Chim’s not going to give up. Chim, Chim is very persistent. [00:26:00] When Chim gets his teeth into something he’s not gonna let go. So he plays the guilt card. Basically says that when he got in his accident and got the rebar through his head he got ten pints of blood donated by the very generous people of the city, and he feels like in order to balance himself out in the universe he has to give back ten pints.
And this is a very targeted attack at Bobby because Bobby knows all about doing things to balance yourself out with the universe.
Ellen: Mm hmm.
Bex: And if that’s not a low enough blow, Chim then says, “Everyone keeps asking me how they can help with my recovery. This is how you can help.”
Alice: I just love Bobby. Like, he doesn’t even say yes. He just says, “I hate all of you”. Because at this point, Buck and Hen have also, like, ganged up on him and are just standing there staring at him.
Ellen: [00:27:00] They’re very pushy. The poor guy.
Bex: I bet he’s rethinking this whole, the 118 is family thing right now.
Ellen: Anyway the next scene is at Athena’s house and Athena and Michael are saying goodbye to the kids as they go to school maybe? I don’t know, they’re heading off in separate cars anyway.
Bex: I’m assuming it’s school because Michael’s got this… Michael’s carrying something for Harry which looks suspiciously like a science project.
Ellen: Right. And they’re, they smile and wave and whatever, but as soon as they’re gone Athena’s just like, her smile drops and she shrugs, you know, Michael’s hand off her shoulder. She’s like, walks back inside. And Michael’s proud of them for being a family, despite what’s going on with them. And, you know, he’s, they’re, they’re putting the kids first and for doing what they’re doing.
[00:28:00] And Athena’s just like, what are we doing again? Like, I, I don’t know what we’re doing here. And then he says he wants, he’s been dating his boyfriend for a little while and he wants the kids to meet him. And Athena is not impressed with this.
Bex: Not at all. She brings up the, they say that you should wait a year before you introduce your kids to someone new.
I don’t know who “they” are.
Alice: Cosmo? (laughs)
Bex: But she, she’s basically, she’s really resistant to moving forward with Michael being an out and proud gay man. And Michael’s arguing that it’s time that the kids need to start to see him for who he really is. It’s basically, it’s this, I thought we’d gotten past this. [00:29:00] I, this is the same argument that these two have been having before May’s suicide attempt.
And I thought that they had resolved it, but apparently they had not. It had just been put on hiatus until they could get to an episode where they could bring it all back up again.
Ellen: Athena just seems really reluctant for anything to… like, even though she, she knows that everything’s changing, she’s like really resentful of the fact that it is changing.
And when he says like, he’s, I’m trying to move us forward into something, you know, into a, something that works for all of us, and you need to move with me. And she’s just like, “Stop moving so fast.” Like she’s so upset about it. Cause she can’t deal with changes.
Bex: But the thing is, he’s not moving that fast.
Not really. It’s he’s, I would, I am, I am team Athena. I think Michael has gone about all of this in so many wrong ways. [00:30:00] But I think that he is really doing his best to slowly involve the kids. He’s being very respectful of Athena and asking her not permission, but wanting her involvement in and her support and like, I want Glenn to make the kids and she’s just putting up every roadblock, including possibly wanting a background check run on him.
At which point we kind of get a little bit of a bio of Glen. Michael met him at work. He’s a contractor. Michael’s an architect. I don’t think we’ve learned that, but spoiler alert, he’s an architect. So that’s where they’ve that’s where they met. We’re onto our next Karmic Retribution 9-1-1 call.
Abby’s taking all the 9-1-1 calls today. The, the algorithm is very busy sending her all of these calls.
Ellen: Yeah. She’s got no time to be in this episode because she’s so busy on the phone.
Bex: [00:31:00] Exactly. So we get a female caller. Reporting that she is at Metro Fitness in Hollywood and that her boss is burning up.
And when Abby asks what your boss’s fever, she’s like, “no, that is not what I mean.” And no, that is not what she means.
Alice: That is absolutely not what she means.
Bex: So, 118 get dispatched to Metro Hollywood and Carrie leads them through the gym explaining as they go that she was fired yesterday. That’s a story.
And she came in early to drop off her keys, pick up her last check, and she smelt something burning. And the something burning is her boss. She leads them out the back where the tanning beds are and her boss is on the tanning bed it is still on full bore, the lid is open though, [00:32:00] and he is a crispy critter.
He’s probably been in there for a couple of hours. And I, I said a couple of episodes ago that, like, Final Destination is my favorite horror movie franchise. There was a death in Final Destination by tanning bed. So this was, was very uncomfortable to watch.
Ellen: Yeah, he’s basically just, his skin is burned so much he’s blistered all over and he’s very… Like, he’s just lying there though, he’s not moaning or anything. He’s not conscious. He’s just lying there. And they check him out and Bobby asks if, if Chim, if he thinks he’s dead and Chim’s like, worse, I think he’s alive.
Bex: Yeah. Yeah.
Ellen: Cause that’s not going to be much fun to heal up.
Bex: No.
Ellen: But yeah, Buck just says, “why the hell didn’t he just get out?” Like exactly what I was thinking.
Alice: I love when Buck does the thing where he just, like, voices what the audience are thinking.
Ellen: [00:33:00] Yeah, that’s what he’s there for, right?
Alice: Literally.
Bex: That, I think that is literally all he is here for this episode. Yeah. Like the only lines that Oliver had as Buck in this episode is him asking the questions that the audience has.
Alice: Yeah. When were you here before? Oh, before Buck started. Why didn’t he get out? Because he may have had a stroke.
Bex: There’s one more in one of the later incidents, but yeah. So why didn’t the guy get out of the tanning bed? Chim says that he might’ve had a stroke to which Carrie says, “He can’t have had a stroke. He’s only 32,” but he’s also a bodybuilder. He’s pretty heavily ripped. And she soon confesses that. He was on the steroids. He was doing something they call stacking, which is you take multiple anabolic steroids at the same time to try and increase their effect. So, the, [00:34:00] the ‘roids, plus the stress of the heat of the tanning bed, probably caused the stroke.
Alice: Plus, just him being an arsehole, clearly.
Bex: Well, then there’s also Karma, because no, but he’s still alive at this point. Yeah. They, they get out the, the defibrillator and Alice, they’ve got a defibrillator. They do. They actually do have a defibrillator.
Alice: The guy goes into VTAC and starts seizing. So Hen starts manual compressions, but as she pulls her glove away, the guy’s skin comes up.
Bex: Has melted off onto her glove.
Ellen: It rips off… so disgusting!
Alice: So gross. Ugh, I was seriously, like, had just eaten dinner and I’m like, Ugh, no.
Ellen: Yeah, not pretty. Not pretty at all.
Alice: [00:35:00] And then they’re just like, oh yeah, the guy’s dead. Like, it’s very quick. Like, yeah. It’s just dumb. It’s probably a mercy,
Bex: actually.
Alice: Yeah.
Ellen: Ugh. Carrie starts sort of freaking out and Buck’s like, it’s okay, it’s okay.
She’s like, “no, it’s too freaky. After what happened to Mindy?”
Bex: And she said, I told him what goes around comes around.
Ellen: Oh, karma’s a bitch. Actually, no one says that this time, but
Bex: not yet
Ellen: But Hen says, “who’s Mindy?” And so then we get another flashback
Bex: Another flashback, and Mindy is Barry’s little rat dog.
Alice: Literally a rat dog.
Ellen: It is a very fluffy, cute little rat dog.
Bex: I have no idea what kind of breed it is, but it’s little and it’s yappy and it has separation anxiety. And when he leaves it at home, it won’t shut up. So he brought it to the gym with him.
Alice: But yeah, he’s probably not giving it enough enrichment while he’s there, you know, getting his gains.
Like just leave it with a Kong mate.
Bex: [00:36:00] So he’s got chest day. So he’s going to leave Mindy in the car while he pumps some iron. And Carrie notices him walking away, leaving Mindy in the car, and calls him on it. It says that he can’t leave her, leave the dog in the car because she will bake. And Barry, who is our unfortunate gym owner, says that it’s only 70 degrees.
Which is 21 degrees for us Australians.
Alice: For non freedom unit users.
Bex: Yeah, the non freedom… and Carrie counters that when it’s 21 outside, it can get up to 37 degrees or a hundred degrees in freedom units and dogs can die in that kind of temperature.
Alice: You know what’s funny is the first time I watched this, like it didn’t even click that Barry then like heated to death.
[00:37:00] Cause I was too busy worrying about the dog.
Ellen: It’s karma, man. He baked!
Bex: This is the karma! That’s why she’s saying what goes around comes around, you know, he was threatening to bake his dog so he died baking.
Alice: Yeah, I was like, oh, this guy’s just an arsehole so he deserves to die, and then the second time I was like, oh, duh, cause
Bex: Well, he does, but the method of his death is directly related to this particular episode… this particular instance of him being an arsehole.
Alice: I was just way too worried about the dog and being like, someone save dog
Bex: is, the dog is fine because while Barry is doing some chest presses Carrie walks in, very calmly grabs a kettlebell, walks back out of the gym and smashes the window to get Mindy out.
Which is why she got fired.
Ellen: Yeah. Cause then Barry storms out and goes, “what are you doing?” And she goes, “I’m saving your dog. Here you go.” And hands the dog over.
Alice: [00:38:00] In the little like, in the little like cut before Barry goes out another employee comes over and mentions the tanning bed as well. Oh yeah, the timer stopped. And Barry’s like, oh, you just have to jiggle it.
Bex: Yeah, the reason that Barry baked to death was that the timer fritz. He obviously didn’t jiggle it hard enough. So the tanning bed just did not turn off.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: And then after he died of the stroke, or when it became unconscious after the stroke, he just lay there for two or three hours in a tanning bed.
Ellen: Slowly roasting. Oh, that’s disgusting.
Alice: It’s so bad.
Bex: I did, I did love that when the 118 get there, Bobby’s trying to, to, to jiggle the timer to get it to turn off and it’s not working. So Hen just reaches down, grabs the power cord, and yanks it out of the wall. And Carrie is like, Oh my God, why didn’t I think to do that?
Why didn’t you think to do that?
Alice: I didn’t get a chance to work out what song it was, but the song in the background during like the Mindy scene is just singing what comes around, goes around.
Bex: [00:39:00] I didn’t make note of that one, but yeah, all, once again, all of the songs are going to be about karma or what goes around comes around. The music supervisor had fun this time.
Alice: Definitely did.
Bex: Because, mentioning the music, the song that was, the music that was playing during the blood drive scene was “Karma Chameleon” by Culture Club.
Alice: Cause of course it was.
Bex: We do get a an attempted “karma’s a bitch” from Hen. after they’re loading Barry into the ambulance, but Chim thankfully stops her.
So we don’t have to take a drink on that one.
Alice: I think it’s a half, a half sip.
Bex: We get “Karma’s a…” so yeah, maybe.
Ellen: [00:40:00] Two sips instead of three.
Bex: Yeah, that’s it.
Ellen: But then Bobby’s phone rings and he answers it. And, and doesn’t say much for a little while. He just says, Oh, why can’t you just, and that’s it. And the others are like, what’s going on?
And he says it was Cedars, which is the hospital telling Bobby, they found something in his blood because they run screening on the blood before it goes into the, you know, supply and they need Bobby to come in to give him the results. They won’t tell him over the phone. So they’re all a little bit worried about that.
Bex: Cause it’s always bad news.
Ellen: Yeah. I mean, I, at the time when this happened, I was like, okay, so we are in season one of a, so far seven-season show. I know Bobby is still in it. So therefore it’s not going to be that bad, but if you were watching this from the beginning, like you’d be like, a bit worried about it.
But anyway, Bobby goes to church and has a chat with… [00:41:00] I like how you’ve got “hot priest” in the notes here (laughs)
Bex: We never, we never learned his name. So yeah, I’m just calling him hot priest. Yeah,
Ellen: he has a, he shows hot priest, his little book with all the names in it and he’s, he’s saved 62 out of 148 people. And that’s his way to balance the ledger. Those are the people that he was responsible for the deaths of, so he needs to save that many.
And then when he gets 148, he can go. And my heart just went to the floor. I was like, no, Bobby, what?
Alice: It’s so sad. Yeah.
Ellen: He just wants to like, like the priest says, like, you know, that the -church’s position of suicide. It means that you will. It will cost you your eternal soul, but Bobby asks that if he believes in God’s sense of humor [00:42:00] because there’s something in his blood that, that he needs to go and speak to the doctor about, and he’s worried that he might not make it to 148 and he gets emotional about it because he, he worried that he won’t be able to rest in peace if he doesn’t get to 148 people saved.
Bex: Which is kind of damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t situation.
Ellen: It’s just very tragic. So in usual 9-1-1 style, we counter a traumatic moment with a funny moment.
Bex: [00:43:00] It’s a, it’s a montage scene of a woman who we never learn her name. We only learn. of her moniker in the neighborhoods, which is “Porch Pirate.”
So that’s what I’m going to refer to her to refer to her as. And it’s just a woman driving around the neighborhoods, stealing packages off people’s front doorsteps. Just over and over and over again. In the background, we’ve got “Instant Karma” by John Lennon playing.
Ellen: Which makes it more funny. It makes it a little more lighthearted, I guess.
She looks like she’s comedic, the way she’s like running up to the, like, she’s doing, she’s looking extremely conspicuous while she’s doing it. Like, it’s not like she’s actually sneaking around, but she’s sneaking in like that cartoony way where you…
Bex: It’s the incredibly obvious way of sneaking in.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: And I’m not even, I’m not even sure why she’s stealing the packages, because she just takes them back to her minivan, rips them open, inspects the contents, and then looks around for another package to steal. Whatever she’s getting out of this, it’s not what’s in the boxes. But after a few…
Alice: [00:44:00] I’ve got a mop coming on Tuesday, so whoever steals that’s going to be very sad.
Bex: So she goes for a final package, grabs it off the front porch, walks down towards the footpath, and then slips and falls.
Ellen: I, I really, I love this shot actually, because it was a really effective the way that it just stayed at the door, at like the front door. And you just see this long shot of her like toddling off down the footpath, you know, the actual, the garden path kind of thing.
And then she gets to the end and just goes, falls over and then goes, “ow!”
Alice: I was going to say the exact same thing – it’s like through the peephole.
Bex: Yes.
Ellen: It’s so clever!
Alice: And it’s just like perfect, like karma.
Bex: so Abby gets another 9-1-1 call.
Alice: Because she’s apparently the only one on duty today.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: And it’s very interesting that it’s another one of the victims calling 9-1-1 for themselves. And she’s, it’s literally like the, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.
Alice: [00:45:00] “I think I broke my hip!”
Bex: She broke her hip. So the 118 get dispatched, surprise, surprise. Chim and Hen arrive on the scene, and Chim’s making small talk about the package, saying, “I hope that nothing broke when you dropped it. You could probably just return it if it is broken. But, you know, returning things is such a hassle.”
And the Porch Pirate does not care. She just wants them to load her into that ambulance and get her to hospital as fast as they can. And she’s very upset that they haven’t moved her yet.
Ellen: Can’t imagine why. And Hen’s like, “We’re trying to help you just stay still.” They need to make sure she doesn’t have a spinal injury.
Bex: Yeah. But before they can move her, LAPD arrives and it is Athena.
Alice: Because of course it’s Athena.
Ellen: [00:46:00] Of course. No, no one else ever comes to these calls.
Bex: There’s no other cops in LA. It’s just Athena at the moment. She wants to know if Hen or Chim found the woman’s ID.
They did find ID, but we don’t get to know her name, but we do get to find out that she is the Porch Pirate. That’s what Athena calls her. Apparently she’s well known in this neighborhood. So this scene happened after the scene with Michael and Athena. So, Athena’s not in the best of moods. And she kinda takes it out on the Porch Pirate.
Alice: Kinda? She definitely takes it out on the Porch Pirate.
Bex: Yeah, she, she almost threatens to withhold medical care from the woman.
Ellen: I love it. What she actually says is she goes, “There are days when I’d actually enjoy whatever tall tale you’re on the cusp of spitting my way, but today is nowhere close to being one of them.”
She’s just like really pissed.
Bex: [00:47:00] Yeah. She’s like, I will, the threat was, I will tell these people to stop treating you unless you tell me what I want to know. And Hen looks absolutely horrified at this point, because I don’t think that Athena can do what she’s threatening to do but the Porch Pirate doesn’t know that.
And so she just, she gives up and she’s like, “Oh, I don’t do anything. I just take them.” She just gets the high from taking the packages. She says that she was supposed to go to rehab in Arizona, but it, they won’t take her insurance. And once again, I am just baffled at how broken the American healthcare system is.
Yes. Like, imagine having health insurance, paying for health insurance, but it’s the wrong kind of health insurance. [00:48:00] Or it’s, it’s with a company that the health provider does not accept. Like, what? What is the point? What is the point of having health insurance then? If it’s sporadic as to which health providers will accept it or not?
Ellen: Yeah, I mean, she’s not like, some people refuse to go in an ambulance because they won’t be able to pay for it, right? I mean, she’s not in that position, but still her addiction issue is not covered under insurance. Yeah. Anyway, they get her into the ambulance and Hen and Athena comes up and she has a chat with Hen and Hen says, “if there’s a bee in your bonnet its name would be Michael.”
And Athena tells her about what Michael’s up to and, and says it might be worth giving this guy a chance. And she’s like, hell no, she’s not having that.
Alice: [00:49:00] I like Hen’s argument that Glenn might not be so bad because Michael’s got a pretty good track record.
Ellen: Yeah. Cause he picked her.
Bex: A good track record for picking, yeah.
Alice: His track record being Athena but Athena wouldn’t care if he was dating the Dalai Lama.
Bex: I do like that Hen does the, the supportive friend thing. Like she’s, she’s willing to give advice, but she’s also just there to listen to Athena and support her, validate her feelings, you know, she knows what they’re going through is hard.
Ellen: Yeah, and Athena gives a really heartfelt speech about how. you know, he decided that they should play happy family, but that means that he gets to have the cake of living in the house and eating it too. He comes and goes when he pleases. And she’s the only one doing the heavy emotional lifting, which is so sad.
Bex: [00:50:00] And I think that was the, the little monologue that firmly put me onto team Athena, because I feel that. That resonates with me.
Ellen: Yeah. Yes and Hen gives a good point here that the kids, they love their dad, but they will follow her lead. And if she hates Michael, then the kids are going to end up hating him too.
Which isn’t particularly helpful because, you know, she doesn’t know how not to do that at the moment. But you know, it’s a good point, so. But at this point, while they’re having a chinwag, Jim’s inside trying to get this, the Porch Pirate lady sorted out, and he pops out, pops his head out to say that she, she is second guessing everything he’s doing in there, and it’s kind of hurting his feelings.
So can we go, like, can you stop chit chatting and let’s go, so.
Bex: So we do go. And we end up at Cedars Sinai Hospital for Bobby’s appointment with the doctors. [00:51:00] And Chim’s come along for moral support. He says he feels obligated because Bobby wouldn’t be there if Chim hadn’t made him donate the blood. So the doctor comes in and thanks Bobby for coming in. And asks him if he’s heard of “Rhesus disease.”
And explains that it’s fatal, and everybody’s face just falls. But, it’s only fatal, but it only affects pregnant people and their babies.
Ellen: He says, “you don’t have it”
Bex: Yeah, no, no, you don’t have it. And the doctor is very excited. He says that there are 4, 000 cases of Rhesus disease in newborns each year. And, Bobby is an almost identical match to an Australian man whose donated blood has saved lives of more than two million children.
[00:52:00] And so they want Bobby to get into their rare donors program and start donating blood regularly so that he can also save people. There’s so much to talk about in this tiny little scene. But to start off with the Australian man, that’s real. His name is James Harrison. He has been donating for nearly 60 years, and the only reason he stopped donating was he aged out of the eligibility for donation with the Australian Red Cross.
Ellen: Right. Do you, do you remember getting the, getting tested for this when you were pregnant?
Bex: Yes. So I was really excited when this, this came up because I have, Rhesus negative blood. So I had to have the anti-D shots.
Ellen: Oh, you had to have it, yeah.
Bex: While I was pregnant. Yeah. Yeah. So when he’s talking about rhesus disease, [00:53:00] what he’s actually talking about is Hemolytic Disease of the Fetus and Newborn.
And what happens is everybody’s blood is either positive or negative. And the positive or negative refers to whether you have a particular protein in your blood called a rhesus protein. I am O negative, which means that I don’t have the protein. If you were O positive, A positive means you do have the protein.
Ellen: Okay.
Bex: There is something that happens when you are pregnant. If you don’t have the rhesus protein, but your child does, the pregnant person’s immune system thinks that the blood of the fetus, which has the rhesus protein is a foreign body and mounts an immune response. to try and attack and kill the foreign body.
Ellen: Oh, God. Okay
Bex: Unfortunately, that is the baby.
Ellen: I didn’t realize that was what happened.
Alice: I think I remember hearing this when friends of mine have been pregnant.
Bex: [00:54:00] Yeah. So what’s really interesting is that in Australia, HDFN is almost never happens because part of Australian pregnancy care is we… is that pregnant people are blood typed very, very early on in our pregnancy.
And if we’re found to be rhesus negative, we are immediately given, or we are given two shots of what’s called anti D, which are antibodies that stops our bodies from producing that immune response. And they get that anti D from people like James Harrison or Bobby who naturally have those antibodies in their plasma.
Ellen: Yeah. I’m guessing he’s not the only one who’s like this. Like surely there are other people in the world.
Bex: No. They think that James Harrison is just, he’s like 60 years. He was donating. He averaged on a plasma donation every three [00:55:00] weeks, right up until he was 81. And he was a, he was a staunch advocate for research into rhesus and all of those sorts of things.
So yeah, in Australia, it’s not such a big deal because we automatically treat pregnant people to prevent it from happening. I’m guessing in the US, the treatment is not as widely given.
So there we go. Question for the audience. If you’re living in the US and you’re pregnant or you have been pregnant or you know, people have been pregnant, do you get anti D shots? Are you regularly prevent, do you get pro preventative treatment against this protein mismatch that goes on?
Ellen: How interesting. I just remember going to one of the first like midwife appointments at the hospital and just get getting given this huge like pile of paperwork basically with [00:56:00] all this information in it and I was just so overwhelmed.
Bex: It is so overwhelming. Yeah.
Ellen: But I do remember that I was glad that I didn’t have my thing, my blood type’s O positive or something. It’s like, I’m glad I didn’t have the, have to have the shots for the thing. It was just an extra thing. to be, to, you know, not have to do when there’s, there’s so much that you have to do when you’re pregnant anyway. But yeah. Okay.
Alice: That’s crazy. As someone who, you know, has only had a pregnant dog
Ellen: Dogs don’t have to worry about proteins in there.
Alice: No, not that I know of. Like, yeah. Like I did a lot of stuff for my dog while she was pregnant, but she definitely didn’t get any shots. So that like,
Ellen: so her body wouldn’t reject her puppy?
Alice: Wouldn’t reject the puppies. Yeah.
Bex: Gosh. So anyway, so Bobby has the, so if Bobby is the same as James Harrison, it’s very possible that there’s a little bit of confusion here. [00:57:00] They keep talking about blood, which is why I’m going to be really interested to hear from our American listeners, how they deal with HDFN, whether they get regular anti D because for James Harrison and in Australia.
They only use his plasma to extract the antibodies to administer to pregnant people. But the way they’re talking in this show, they’re constantly going on about Bobby giving blood. So they obviously need whole blood for whole blood transfusions in order to save babies from HDFN.
So it’s either that, or once again, the medical people on this show gave countless notes to the writers and the writers just went, “we’re not reading all that,” or they just like, or they just scan like the top. “Oh, wow. That sounds really interesting. Let’s use that.” And then they just don’t read anything that comes afterwards.
[00:58:00] So Bobby is completely overwhelmed by the knowledge that number one, it’s not cancer. And number two, his blood has the possibility of being able to save like millions of people. Chim is absolutely chuffed. Thinks it’s the best thing ever. And at this point, What do you think was going through Bobby’s mind?
Because I kind of know what I thought was going through Bobby’s mind. But I want to know what you guys thought.
Alice: This isn’t the way that it should be?
Ellen: Well, I mean, I was just so, like, Chim was so happy for him that you don’t, like, he just, he doesn’t look as thrilled as, as Chim does at this point. And, I mean, he could have still been anxious about the needles or, you know, just not wanting to do it. But I don’t know. I don’t think I had any particular thoughts about how he felt about it, other than happiness.
Bex: [00:59:00] My kind of initial thought to this was we… because we’d had the scene where Bobby had confessed that he was going to balance the ledger.
He was going to get to 148 and then he was going to go, he was done.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: And my initial sort of reaction to this was Bobby thinking, oh shit, if I can save a million people, two million people, just by donating my blood, I’m going to get the balance, the balance done way faster than I thought.
Alice: Yeah. That was my thought. Definitely. Like catapulting him to the end.
Bex: I’m not actually, I’m not ready to go yet. Turns out I was wrong. But that was my initial thought. My initial thought was Bobby was freaking out that he was going to get to the end. If he was going to count, was all of these people he’d saved with his blood going to count for balancing his books, therefore he was going to be done far quicker than he thought it was going to be.
Alice: [01:00:00] That was definitely my first thought too.
Bex: But first again, we have to…
Alice: Break the tension
Bex: switch up the emotions and we’re gonna go to the zoo. Cause everyone loves going to the zoo.
Ellen: Yes. There’s some kids at the zoo with their uncle, Sean, and they’re, they’re at the tiger enclosure and the, they’re trying to take a picture of the tiger, but it’s hiding behind a tree.
So they can’t see it. So they start throwing things at the tiger. And then Sean says, Oh, hang on a minute. And he picks up a pine cone and it hits the tiger right on the back. And it starts growling and gets up. And the kids get their photo, and he throws another pinecone, but someone sees him do it and calls him out and says, you’re not supposed to, you know, provoke the animals.
And he says, oh, the kid’s just trying to get a photo, and they hurry away, you know. And the tiger’s looking very upset.
Bex: [01:01:00] The tiger is beautiful. Yes. Such a beautiful tiger.
Ellen: I don’t know, I get the feeling that tigers are just gigantic cats, so I don’t know if it would actually get, like, so pissed at a pinecone hitting it.
Like, my cat would probably just look at me like, what the hell are you doing? You know?
Bex: Yeah. But that’s not going to work for this story.
Ellen: Anyway that, that wouldn’t be nearly as interesting… No, that wouldn’t be nearly as fun.
Bex: For the story, we need to have a pissed off tiger, so that’s what we’re going to get.
Ellen: That’s right.
Bex: So, Sean is in the restroom when he hears people outside screaming.
He hurries back out to see everybody in the zoos fleeing out towards the main entrance.
Alice: He doesn’t even wash his hands.
Ellen: No, he doesn’t! (laughs)
Alice: Disgusting.
Bex: Man, there’s people screaming outside and he’s left his nephews out there. I, I think that good hygiene is probably the, the last thing on his mind.
Alice: Nah, wash your hands.
Ellen: Washing hands comes above everything, is that what you’re saying?
Alice: [01:02:00] Yep.
Ellen:
Bex: Including the fact that the tiger has now got out of the enclosure and is stalking towards him?
Alice: Yep.
Ellen: Well, you don’t want to die with pee hands. I mean
Alice: Exactly! (laughs)
Bex: so once again, we get the, why the hell are you calling 9-1-1? Because that’s exactly what Sean does…
Ellen: Ugh, he’s touching his phone with his dirty hands! (laughs) Sorry, Abby. Abby’s on the phone again.
Bex: She’s, they really need to be putting those dispatchers on commission. Cause she’d be making bank in this episode. All right. But again, why is he calling 9-1-1?
Ellen: Should be calling animal control again, like the other lady…
Bex: He should, he should just be standing there screaming for somebody to help him [01:03:00] because somebody will be coming when everybody sees everyone running out of the zoo and they realize what has happened, the zoo keepers are going to be coming in to help.
So just stand there and wait for someone to help you. Again, that’s not a good episode though. So he’s going to call 9-1-1.
Alice: Also, this guy’s an idiot. (laughs)
Bex: I do appreciate that everybody in this episode who gets what’s coming to them actually deserves it. And I have no sympathy for them whatsoever .
Alice: Especially this guy.
Bex: Yeah. So Abby has taken the call, she lets Sean know that the zoo security has been notified and they’re on their way to him. She says they’re on their way to you now. And Sean says, well now is not soon enough. And sir, I do not know what you expect Abby to do. She does not control the flashbacks in this episode, okay?
[01:04:00] She can’t fix time to get the zoo’s security to come to you any quicker. And he tells Abby that he’s been on safari. He knows how fast these things, i. e. the tigers, can move. Abby’s trying to talk him down, tell him that the, she’s been told that his best course of action is to remain still. So of course, Sean turns and runs.
Alice: Yep.Cause he’s an idiot.
Bex: Cause he’s an idiot. And of course the tiger then chases him. And obviously, Sean, despite being a big game safari hunter, has never seen Jurassic Park because you don’t run. You stand still.
Ellen: But he does climb over a fence into the flamingo enclosure. And I mean, tigers are really good at climbing stuff. So, you know, that’s pretty stupid.
Bex: Surprise, surprise. That’s exactly what the tiger does. Climbs over the fence to get to him.
Ellen: Yes. But naturally, the 118 have arrived, but they’re not actually there to rescue Sean, because [01:05:00] the trainer has, who tried to wrangle the tiger after he escaped has got a, like all his skin has been ripped off his arm, because the tiger got his claws in and ripped it up.
And there’s blood everywhere.
Bex: Which is charmingly called “de-gloving.” And it’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s imagining that your skin is a, is an opera glove and you’re peeling the glove off.
Ellen: Yes. And then he’s like actually dealing with it quite well, considering they’re like squirting saline all over it. Like.
That has got to hurt, like, really.
Alice: The trainer’s just like, it’s okay. Like, he was just confused.
Ellen: Yeah, he was, it’s not his fault. He didn’t mean it.
Bex: Yeah. And that was in response to Buck’s question. Like, why didn’t the tiger just try to kill you?
Alice: Yeah. Thanks. Thanks again, Buck, who was the stand in for the audience of this episode.
Bex: [01:06:00] No, Kobe was just confused. Didn’t actually mean to hurt the trainer. We also found out how Kobe got out of his enclosure. Because he basically climbed a fence, actually jumped over a fence, which was very conveniently placed next to a very tall rock outcropping. And so the question is not how did the tiger get out of the enclosure?
It’s why hadn’t the tiger got out of the enclosure before now? Because that seemed super easy for it to get out.
Alice: I mean, he gets free food in the enclosure. He hasn’t needed to get out of the enclosure. So.
Ellen: But they, they say that a, a shoot team is on the way to the tiger’s location. And Hen
Bex: Hen’s horrified.
Ellen: Yeah. She’s like, are they going to shoot it?
Alice: It’s like, “the kitty?”
Bex: Yeah. Hen, Hen is so caring about animals. Anytime there is an animal in peril, Hen is just super worried about it.
Alice: Wasn’t Hen the one that tried to save the snake as well?
Bex: [01:07:00] She’s tried to save everything, but yes, she was very against them punching or hurting the snake in any way.
Ellen: Punching. That’s right. Oh, Buck.
Bex: Abby comes over the radio. She’s on the radio now. She’s not using personal cell phones.
Alice: Oh, maybe she got reprimanded. (laughs)
Bex: Putting out a cold for all the units at the zoo that Sean’s checked back in and he’s now hiding in the giraffe enclosure. And she very strangely gives his full name.
He’s Sean Coopertino. And then Hen appears to recognize the name and kind of looks up and goes, “It can’t be the same guy, can it? That’d be too weird.” Maybe that would be too weird in real life, but this is an episode where everybody is getting what’s coming to them, so it makes perfect sense that this probably is the same guy.
[01:08:00] And, so we get a flashback and we find out that Sean Coopertino from Riverside, who is hiding in the giraffe enclosure, is a dentist from Riverside, who went on a big game hunting trip to Africa and shot and killed a lion. And this is another ripped from the headlines, this happened in real life of a, a dentist from Minnesota, I believe, going to Zimbabwe in 2015 on a big game hunting trip.
And…
Alice: Bobby?
Bex: He’s not a dentist, never a dentist and the, the hunting guides lured a lion that was being studied by Oxford University as part of their wildlife conservation research out of the protected wildlife zone onto private property so that they could shoot it and kill it. [01:09:00] And decapitated it. That guy, the dentist brought the head home as a trophy and it sparked worldwide outrage about hunting practices and just hunting in general, especially like big game hunting for sport.
And that’s exactly who Sean Coopertino is. Complete with his very own lion trophy head.
Ellen: Complete with, “You Oughtta Know” by Alanis Morissette playing as he gets out of his car. And tries to go into his offices in a flashback. And the press is all clamoring outside the door, preventing him from getting in, asking him, did you know that it was protected and blah, blah.
And he’s like, I didn’t know, leave me alone. It’s like, yeah, you knew.
Bex: We’ll say that it was really tricky because. As far as the legalities go, it was, he was on private property.
Ellen: Right.
Bex: [01:10:00] The lion was on the protected area. He was on private property. It’s just that they happened to get the, they lured the lion out of the protective area onto the private property.
It’s just unfortunate that this lion, unfortunate for him, that this lion had like a GPS tracker and its absence was noticed.
Ellen: Right. Well, back in the zoo Abby tells him that security has his GPS location, so they’re on their way to him, but he thinks he’s okay. He thinks that he’s outsmarted the tiger, but sure enough, he turns around and the tiger is right there.
And then the like we don’t see it, but Abby hears screaming and…
Bex: Crunching,
Ellen: crunching, screaming and crunching. [01:11:00] Thank you to the closed captions. I also saw these closed captions and went, mmm, tasty
Alice: The closed captions are the best on this show.
Bex: And this, like, I know that they have, they’ve actually got a real tiger on the set and he’s the prettiest kitty. He’s doing such a good job. So I know that they can’t actually have him leap up and attack anybody. And it’s going to cost far too much money for a network television, a weekly network television show for them to CGI a tiger in actually leaping and attacking this guy. But there’s just, there’s such disconnect between Sean’s fear of attack and the, the crunching and the, the noises and this beautiful kitty just sort of moseying its way towards him.
Ellen: It doesn’t look like it’s attacking. That’s not how tigers attack.
Bex: No, and the…
Ellen: They do their like little bum wiggle thing like cats do when they’re getting ready to pounce/
Bex: [01:12:00] And even like the growling, it’s obviously like it’s growling on command and it’s, it’s not, that’s not scary.
Ellen: It’s not actually angry.
Bex: No. It’s such a clever kitty. It is such a good kitty. But that’s, we have to, you know, suspend our disbelief and yes, scary kitty attacking the, the mean man.
Ellen: yeah.
Bex: So then we cut to Athena who’s in the little I could not find the word I’ve called they’re like oversized golf carts.
Ellen: Yeah, they’re like jeeps, a jeeps type thing with no… you know, open top jeep things.
Bex: The kind of things you would take out if you were going hunting in the middle of the savannah.
Ellen: Yeah. But through the middle of the zoo for an escaped tiger.
Bex: And they’re heading to the giraffe enclosure and I have to say that the giraffes do not look at all worried about the fact that they have a predator in their enclosure.
Alice: I mean, to be fair, giraffes are in Africa and tigers are not in [01:13:00] Africa. So they’re probably like, Oh, that’s a weird looking cat.
Ellen: Yeah, that’s true. They don’t, but surely a predator is a predator.
Bex: And it’s got tail. I would have thought a predator is a predator.
Alice: Yeah. They’re like, no, it’s not a lion. I’m sure it’s harmless.
Ellen: Yeah, it’s, it looks kind of like a lion, but I don’t know. It’s got like stripes. And it looks like a cute little kitty.
Bex: It is also rather busy having its own lunch. Probably doesn’t care about the giraffes right now.
Alice: Yeah, that’s it.
Bex: The sharpshooter shoots the tiger with the tranquilizer dart and the tiger does the bestest play dead. Such a good kitty.
Ellen: Yeah, it does. It just lies down.
Bex: It just lies down so well. And we find Sean. He was not hiding in the giraffe enclosure. He was lunch in the giraffe enclosure.
Ellen: There’s bits of him around the place.
Bex: And then, yeah, the next shot is the coroner coming to [01:14:00] collect all the bits of Sean.
Oof.
Ellen: And then when they have the shot of the tiger, it’s just got like blood all over its face. Yeah. And Hen says, it’s a beautiful animal. And Athena, who is there as well, says that chances are he’s gonna have to be put down.
Bex: She’s such a charming ray of sunshine, Athena.
Ellen: Every time Hen
Bex: says something, she has to like douse Hen’s spirits with it.
But yes, Hen fills Athena in on who Sean was. A big game hunter illegally or possibly legally, but definitely unethically killing lions in Africa. And Athena says, well, public sentiment is probably going to be with the kitty then. If it comes down to it.
Ellen: Yeah, I don’t think they ask the people what they think though.
Alice: No.
Ellen: Sadly.
Alice: [01:15:00] And then we get Hen going, you know what karma is?
Ellen: And Athena goes, “a bitch?” And we all get ready
Bex: to take a shot. Karma’s a bitch? “No. Karma is a wild animal and she won’t be caged.”
Ellen: Oh god, extra shots.
Bex: Which I think, I think that’s worse. I think I just want Karma to be a bitch.
Alice: I think that’s like a groan and then like several shots.
Ellen: Karma is my boyfriend. No
Alice: Karma is a cat. Karma is the guy on the chiefs
Bex: coming, coming straight home to me!
Ellen: No, this is from 2018. This karma wasn’t even thought about. Well, maybe this is where Taylor got her idea from.
Alice: She got really into 9-1-1 after COVID.
Bex: Yeah. Yeah.
Bex: Okay, so after the trip to the zoo no, it’s another day. We cut forward to another day. It’s a new day. Athena was about to start work. She goes up [01:16:00] to check on Harry and May, who are both in May’s room. And I call bullshit on that. That That they would both be quite happily sitting on May’s bed.
Alice: Yeah, my brother was a not allowed in my room.
Ellen: I thought they were watching TV or something, but they don’t seem to be doing that. They’re just sitting in there.
Bex: I think Harry’s got a handheld game. Yeah. Like a little Nintendo or something in his hands. I don’t know what May’s doing, but yeah, she Why is she… No.
Whoever wrote this does not have siblings.
Alice: Like, I went to my brother’s place today, and we have both been moved out of, like, we haven’t lived together in, like, years and years, like over a decade at this point. I went to my brother’s house today and I still would not go in his bedroom. Like, no.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Yeah, no.
Ellen: Actually this whole scene is a bit like that. They, they give… their responses they give are really, I don’t know, unlikely.
Bex: It’s not very realistic for kids. Yeah. Yeah.
Ellen: Sorry, sorry to the writer of this episode but I don’t buy it.
Alice: [01:17:00] No apologies. No apologies to the writer of this episode.
Bex: No, there’s, there’s a lot in this episode that it’s a lot of lines that sound really good on paper, but are just super awkward for something that someone would say out loud in real life.
Ellen: This is why you always read your dialogue out loud,
Bex: out loud,
Ellen: after you write it.
Bex: So Athena wonders if the kids are hiding out from their dad, who’s downstairs apparently with Pictionary, and I don’t know, that might be a good reason for them to be hiding upstairs. But she wonders if rather than avoiding awkward family game nights, she’s avoiding their father for other reasons.
Are they having a hard time being with him because he’s gay is the implication. And May says that no, that’s her problem, not theirs.
Ellen: I mean, you gotta love her for being honest. That’s, this is your problem. It’s not my [01:18:00] problem.
Bex: Which again, I call bullshit on the fact that she’s letting May talk to her like that.
Yeah. Oh, especially,
Alice: yeah. So Thena says that they’re trying to keep the family together and May’s just like, but why? And Harry chimes in and says, they’re okay with Michael being gay. That’s not the problem. The problem’s making them fake being a happy family every day. And the kids just want to be honest.
Bex: Just to really, like, twist the knife May says, “Isn’t that what you always taught us? To be honest.”
Ellen: Yeah. And then she also says that they’re, they’re not pretending for the kids, but so that Athena and Michael can pretend they didn’t mess up by marrying each other. It’s like, okay kid,
Bex: Ouch!
Ellen: [01:19:00] That’s it. You can shut up now.
But I think that really affects Athena. She’s really, you know, realizes what is actually happening here. So
Bex: yeah. Cause she’s been so adamant about staying together. Like we know that she, that, that her response to Michael coming out and wanting to move on is about her. It’s her response, but she’s been projecting it on the kids.
Alice: Yeah, she’s been blaming the kids this whole time, and the kids are like, we don’t care.
Bex: I don’t know if it’s blaming, but she’s using them as an excuse to force Michael to play ball, and now she’s realizing that she can’t use them as an excuse anymore.
Alice: Yeah, like they’re not three. They know what’s going on.
Bex: Yes. So from one emotionally, emotionally tense scene to another. We’re back at the firehouse. And Chim has still got his teeth in this idea of Bobby saving people by donating his blood. And he tells Bobby that the Australian guy [01:20:00] was the awarded the Medal of Order of Australia for all of his efforts in donating and that the American equivalent would probably be the Presidential Medal of Freedom and that they should probably nominate Bobby to get this medal.
And Bobby, who is trying very hard to ignore Chim and just get on with his workout, He’s not, he’s not having it.
Alice: Yeah, he says all he did was give some blood. It doesn’t merit a medal. And he just wants Chim to go away.
Bex: Like he literally gets up and walks out of the gym. And Chim just continues like dog with a bone, just follows him. And he tells Bobby that, you know, he’s a, he’s a hero. He’s a lifesaver. And now he’s got the opportunity to save thousands of kids and Bobby is just getting angrier and angrier.
[01:21:00] And like, he’s in his locker, he’s slamming things, his face is just full of thunder. And then he finally snaps and just spins around and yells at him, “They’re the wrong kids. I want my kids.”
Oof. And then we get a full speech and Bobby is on the verge of tears. And he con, he admits to Chim that he had to, he had a debt that he was going to pay. 148 lives and he was halfway there.
And when he was there, he was going to be able to see his kids again. And Chim realizes what Bobby meant by that. He doesn’t quite believe it. It’s like, Bobby, are you talking about killing yourself? Like, surely I’m hearing this wrong. Surely I’m misunderstanding you. And Bobby’s like, yeah, no, I’m done. I want out.
I want this to end.
Ellen: Yeah, that’s harsh. He thought that the blood test thing meant that God was punishing him by giving him cancer, but [01:22:00] in fact, God is punishing him by forcing him to stay alive even when he wants to see his kids again. And he just walks out, and Chim’s like, Bobby, Bobby, wait,
Bex: Mic drop
Ellen: But he’s gone. So.
Bex: And Chim is just left there with like the, what do I do with this? Yeah. Just absolutely overwhelmed by this information that’s just been dumped on his feet.
Ellen: Yeah, yeah, it’s a hard one. Coming to the, the, the next heartfelt scene, we have Hen, well, we don’t actually know it’s Hen to start with, but it’s dark now and someone is pouring something onto, something looks red onto the ground, onto like the road.
And it kind of looks like blood at first. And you’re like, what is going on here until, until it pans out. And you see that it’s Hen pouring a can of like soft drink onto the, onto the road. Sorry, that’s soda, pop, whatever you call it in your part of the [01:23:00] world. A can of cola,
Bex: they called it cola,
Ellen: maybe because they couldn’t say any brand names, I don’t know.
Bex: Yeah, this is a myth that a cola. can clean up bloodstains and two, that police and emergency responders regularly carry crates of cola in their vehicles to clean up scenes.
Ellen: Oh, they don’t really do that?
Bex: They don’t really do that. Mythbusters tested the, the cola myth and yes, cola will emulsify like a set bloodstain to like reinvigorate it to be able for you to clean it off.
It’s not really going to do that much to, you know, fresh blood that’s just sitting there. It’s just going to spread it around like liquid. But yet police and fire and ambulance don’t usually clean up their own scenes.
Alice: [01:24:00] No, they have people to do that.
Bex: Yeah. So Hen would not be washing away bloodstains.
She would be helping the victims and then packing up and going on. And then the next group of people would come in to clean it up. So there’s, I mean, there’s just so much in this episode where people have taken like a tiny glimmer of something that they heard somewhere one time, maybe, and just run with it.
Like, who cares if it’s accurate? Who cares if it’s real? Who cares if I don’t know what I’m talking about? We’re just going with it.
Ellen: I mean, you can use cola to clean, like, jewellery and like, you know. coins and stuff. The acid,
Bex: the carbolic acid, the wash away stuff is very good at cleaning. There, there’s no doubting that, but,
Ellen: but you may as well just douse some blood on the road with water.
Bex: Especially if it’s fresh. I mean, it hasn’t set into the concrete. She’s just spreading it out. [01:25:00] She’s thinning it out. This, this is such an awkward, this is such an awkward scene anyway. So we’ve got this weird thing with Hen and Cola, and then we get this really awkward segue where Athena says, “so what did you want to talk to me about?”
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: And I’m like, wait, she wanted to talk to you. When did she want to talk to you? When did we cover that? We didn’t.
Ellen: We did. Earlier, She started saying something about relationships going around… relationship problems going around, and that’s when Jim burst out of the back of the ambulance and said, “Can we go now?”
Bex: Yeah, but this is, this sounds specifically like Hen has said I need to talk to you.
Ellen: And this is, this is days later as well. Like this is a couple of shifts later.
Alice: Yeah, like they’ve been at the zoo together since then.
Ellen: Yeah, and she did say I’ll call you, I’ll call you later. Like why didn’t she tell her then?
Bex: [01:26:00] Yeah, it’s, it’s just, it’s such awkward writing. They’ve just shoehorned this scene in because they need this scene in order to make the next scene make sense. It’s just It’s bad writing in this scene.
Alice: I feel like that this episode may have been written before the last episode. And then obviously at the end of the last episode, Hen sleeps with Eva.
And so they’re like, Oh, well we have to resolve that. So they just sort of shoehorned this scene in and glued it in.
Bex: Yeah, maybe.
Alice: And they couldn’t do it in the firehouse because they didn’t want to get the actors, like the rest of the 118 in there. And yeah, it’s just
Ellen: Well, they also shoehorned in one more karmic consequence because apparently the victim in this this case was dead on arrival and the robber also robbed the place and then got hit by a dump truck immediately afterwards.
So more karma and indeed a bitch. But Hen tells Athena that she messed up and Athena wants to know if it’s work or personal. And she says personal. And she says, “Hmm, sex or money?”
Bex: [01:27:00] Yeah, me, me bitching about how bad the writing is, but I did quite enjoy that little 20 questions, the little quick back and forth where she’s trying to work out exactly what kind of mess up Hen made.
But it turns out it was sex, and I think, and Hen confesses that she slept with Eva.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: And Athena is not impressed.
Ellen: Nope. No she says, oh, you’ll have to tell her about it. “She’s like, why? I’m not going to do it again.” She doesn’t want to, she doesn’t want to screw the relationship up. But Athena says you’re going to have to tell her.
Bex: Athena says that the relationship’s already screwed.
Alice: Yeah. Yeah, you don’t cheat in a healthy relationship. But at least if she tells Karen, that’s her chance to fix it.
Bex: [01:28:00] And then we’re back to the oh my god this scene is such, so badly written because this next sentence I don’t know. This is why they give awards to Angela Bassett because she can pull this shit off (laughs) But she looks at Hen and she says “It’s only when secrets are revealed, but we know how good or bad a marriage is.” Like… what?
Ellen: What?
Yeah, then she says “Sometimes you you got to wreck it in order to save it.” I’m like, are you planning on saving your own marriage?
Alice: Yeah, like what?
Ellen: Because I don’t think Michael’s okay with that. I mean, hang on, Michael’s the one who wanted to stay married, but I don’t know, it just, it doesn’t make sense in context.
Bex: I mean, it did, yeah, it doesn’t, but it also does because she says the line, you gotta wreck it in order to save it, and then we cut to her going home and she’s going to take her own advice. But again, the writing is bad because she… Michael is asleep on the couch. It’s like 1130. It’s after her shift.
[01:29:00] And Athena pulls a little slip of paper out of her pocket and hands it to Michael. And how long has she had that slip of paper in her pocket?
Alice: But also like how rude waking poor Michael up? Like I’m sure he’s got work in the morning. Like leave him alone.
Bex: But he doesn’t live there.
Alice: Doesn’t he?
Ellen: Yeah. He’s waiting for her to come home.
Bex: Yeah. Cause he’s been there with the kids. So he fell asleep. It’s like these, she’s waking up the babysitter. Pretty sure he doesn’t live there anymore.
Alice: I thought he was just sleeping on the couch, but who, who knows?
Bex: Yeah. Again, bad writing. So the slip of paper has the name and phone number of Athena’s divorce attorney.
And she tells Michael that whoever he gets needs to call her lawyer. And. Not only do I question how long she had that piece of paper in her pocket, but how long has she had an attorney? Like, did she walk away from that scene with Hen and immediately call an attorney? [01:30:00] Or has she had an attorney in the, in her back pocket, even though she was adamant that they were going to stay married? I just, I don’t understand.
Ellen: It might’ve been after she spoke with the kids previously. As well.
Bex: Maybe.
Ellen: But still. She probably called them while she was at work. (laughs)
Bex: She’s going to, she has this heartfelt speech with the essence of she is going to break their marriage in order to save it. She’s going to do this now while she still loves Michael.
Ellen: Yeah, they do have a very sad kind of you know, Michael’s sorry for hurting her and. She won’t regret marrying him. And it’s all very sad. They, you know, they, they kiss and they hug and cry. And it’s it seems like it’s going to be sort of an amicable split, although it’s all very sad at the time. But next we have hen facing the music.
Bex: [01:31:00] And here’s where the consequences from the full moon episode come to roost. So she is back after work and Karen is still awake. She’s sitting at the table quite clearly waiting for Hen. And when Hen tries to explain that she was, she’s sorry that she’s late, she was just driving around trying to clear her head.
Karen knows why she was driving around trying to clear her head. She said, “Were you trying to clear your head of Eva?” and then throws these papers at Hen. Because Eva is suing them for custody of Denny.
And the basis of the custody of seeking custody is that Hen and Karen are unfit parents. Their household is unstable and the evidence to support that claim is that Hen slept with Eva.
Ellen: [01:32:00] Yeah, what a way to find out Yeah, it’s rough..
Bex: Illegal. Yeah. She’s just, Karen is looking at Hen, waiting for Hen to say something, to deny it, to make an argument, and Hen is just realizing how badly Eva played her. And she’s realizing that Eva didn’t really want to see Hen, she didn’t really want to get back together with her, she was just using her for her own means.
But, because she’s not saying anything, Karen takes that as evidence that, It’s true. She did sleep with Eva. And so she gets up, says she’s going to pack some bags. She’s taking Denny to her parents.
Ellen: Yep. And she hopes that Hen found whatever she was looking for with Eva and she hopes it was worth it. And this actress gives a beautiful performance there. She’s crying. She’s obviously extremely distressed.
Alice: [01:33:00] I love Karen so much. Like, obviously we haven’t seen her much yet in season one, but. I love Karen.
Bex: Tracy Tom does an amazing job with Karen.
Alice: Yeah, she’s just incredible.
Ellen: It kind of felt like this was going to be the end of the episode, but it’s not.
There’s another scene after another two scenes, in fact.
Bex: Yeah, I got to the end of this scene with Karen and Hen thinking, okay, we’re done now, right?
Ellen: But yeah, it’s not.
Bex: No, no, it’s, it’s. It’s still going. I think because there are so many short little scenes that aren’t all, that are all sort of slightly disconnected from one another, that you don’t get that natural flow.
So you can’t… There’s no logical beginning, middle, or end. It’s just, stuff keeps coming and coming and coming and coming and because half of the scenes we’re not that interested in, it does feel like it’s dragging.
Alice: There are a couple of episodes that 9-1-1 does that, like, you’re just like, oh my god, how is this not over yet? (laughs)
[01:34:00] I mean, I love the show, but a couple of episodes, it’s like, okay, this episode’s resolved. And then it goes, like, it keeps going and it’s like, oh my God, like what is happening? And this is definitely one of, probably the first of those.
Ellen: Like it, it wasn’t, I didn’t find it, it wasn’t boring or anything.
It was just that, I don’t know, maybe the scenes were too disconnected or something. It was just, it didn’t. Yeah, you’re right. It didn’t flow well. I sort of wasn’t as invested.
Bex: Yeah. There’s no depth to it.
Alice: Yeah. Like we go straight from, you know, Athena…
Bex: Bobby confessing… yeah, there’s so many like deep emotional things happening that they’re never allowed to resonate.
We’re never allowed to the time to sit with them and really feel what we’re meant to feel where,
Alice: [01:35:00] yeah, like Athena goes straight from crying and kissing her ex husband and then we get like, you know, Hen and Karen’s marriage in jeopardy to then Athena. at a bar with a guy hitting on her. Like, it’s just like, you know, there’s no Abby in this episode. There’s no…
Bex: I know we talk about emotional whiplash and we joke that it goes, that we go from, you know, the highs to the lows, but I think in previous episodes, even when we went from the low to like an emotional low to a comedic scene, we still kind of came back to the previous storyline. and continued that emotional resonance a little bit longer, but here, no.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: Yeah. Like I’m sad about Karen and Hen right now. And I’m sad about Athena and Michael. I don’t want to see Athena getting a drink sent over to her.
Ellen: Yeah. I, yeah. Maybe that’s why this scene felt really uncomfortable. Like I know that it’s supposed to feel uncomfortable because Athena is uncomfortable. She’s sitting in the bar.
Bex: Really? See, I, I had a different read on this. Okay.
Ellen: Because we haven’t spoken about the scene yet to say what it is.
Bex: [01:36:00] Yeah. Okay. So Athena is at a bar. And the bartender sets down a drink in front of her and she looks a little confused because she hasn’t ordered a drink.
The bartender tells her that it’s been sent over by the gentlemen. Athena scans the room and there is a gentleman off to her right, who kind of waves at her, like, yes, it was me. She toasts him with the drink in thanks. And he takes that as permission to come over and engage her in conversation.
Ellen: She sort of gives this little, Oh God. It’s cute.
Bex: So they kind of talk backwards and forwards. Athena wasn’t aware that people sent drinks to other people. Our gentleman caller who introduces himself as Aaron says that he’s pretty sure that people have always used drinks to break the ice. [01:37:00] They sort of talk backwards and forwards. Like, what are you…
It’s pretty much the, what’s a woman like you doing in a place like this kind of conversation. And Athena’s like, I, you know, I’m recently separated. Husband, the ex husband’s at home with the kids. I went to a movie and then I got thirsty. So I’m in this bar now.
Alice: Yeah, she does say she’s been separated for two days and it’s like Athena, it’s been, So much longer than two days.
Bex: Well, she does say it’s like recently separated, but yeah, we’ve been working towards it. Yeah.
Bex: She does say that she didn’t feel like drinking alone. And when the bartender first brings over the drink for her, she does have a phone out and you can see that she’s texting. So she’s probably going through her contacts, seeing who she can get to come out to have a drink or two with her.
But now she’s got a drinking partner.
Alice: She’s looking at her contacts and they’re all just Hen. (laughs) It’s like Hen, and Michael
Ellen: She probably asked Hen to drink with her, and she’s like, “nah, man, I can’t do that tonight.”
Bex: [01:38:00] I can’t go out tonight. But Aaron doubts that Athena ever had a problem with drinking alone. And Athena’s like, “Oh, well, aren’t you Mr. Smooth.” And there’s this nice little sort of flotation backwards and forwards which ends with Athena doing a police check on him. Like, she literally asks for his full name and his date of birth.
Ellen: Yeah. And he just hands it over like identity theft, much like, come on, You can’t just hand your details over to somebody like that,
Bex: even if she says that she’s going to send it, she’s a cop.
She is going to send it to one of her friends at the station to run a check. Because if she’s going to spend the night talking and drinking, she wants to know she’s not wasting her time with a bad egg. Something that I found interesting was earlier in this episode, when she and Michael were talking, she kind of threw the, I want to run a background check implication on Glenn at Michael and he got incredibly insulted on Glenn’s behalf.
Alice: But it turns out Athena literally just runs background checks on everyone.
Bex: And Aaron thinks it’s kind of charming. He does not seem at all insulted about the fact that she wants to run a background check on him. So that’s, I found that interesting.
Ellen: I mean, chances are he’s only in it for one thing and you know, Who cares if she’s running a background check?
Bex: No, but, so I know you guys said that you thought that Athena was really awkward in this scene. But I, I found it really interesting because we’ve seen Athena be hit on by other people earlier in the season. And she’s always shut them down because she’s been married.
Alice: [01:40:00] She’s definitely more receptive here.
Bex: Yeah. Even like the, the, the, the guy that was the, the burglar with the dogs who she thought was cute. She shut him down because even though her husband is gay and not interested in her anymore, she still had her vows, but it’s now, now that she has taken that step to. ending the marriage officially, there is that, that relationship has been severed.
She’s now open to the advances of other people.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: I think she quite enjoyed being able to flirt with this guy. Something that she just has never allowed herself or hasn’t allowed herself to do for a while.
Alice: Like definitely good on Athena. I just, I wanted a little bit of breathing room between them crying and kissing each other.
To her in a bar.
Bex: [01:41:00] I’m not saying she’s going to run away and get married with him. She might not even, you know, sleep with him. But I, as someone who has been in a similar situation to Athena, it is nice to be able to have that kind of attention. And to allow yourself to accept that kind of attention because she and Michael have been, we know this, they’ve been in a sexless, sexless marriage for years.
Yeah, years and years. So for someone who is not her husband to be interested in her sexually…
Alice: Well, just for someone to be interested because like we know that Michael wasn’t interested.
Bex: Yeah. It’s incredibly flattering. It’s incredibly exciting.
Ellen: Mm hmm.
Bex: So yeah, good for Athena.
Alice: Good for Athena for sure.
Bex: It’s about time.
Alice: But yeah, I think it was just, it was definitely just the disconnect, but
Bex: it’s, it’s yeah. It’s the fact that we weren’t allowed to have the time to mourn officially that relationship with Michael and Athena.
Alice: Cause it’s been like a full season of, you know, this heartbreak and Athena finally is just like, yes, okay.
[01:42:00] I accept this. Let’s move on. Let’s It’s like, hang on, can we just, Breathe for a second.
Bex: And I actually had to, when this scene first started, go back and see what Athena was wearing when she finished her shift and she had that conversation with Michael, because for a split second, I thought that she’d gone from that conversation with Michael…
Ellen: Yeah, she just immediately went out.
Bex: to a bar. Yeah. Right. Like, wait, is this the same night? What kind of time has gone on here?
Alice: That’s it. Like, I just want Just wanted a little bit of breathing room in this episode.
Ellen: No, but she went to see a movie, so it had to have been a separate, like, the next day or a few days later. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, so there’s like two days.
Alice: Yeah, two days later, yeah.
Bex: When the scene first started, and she’s sitting in the bar, before she’d even started talking, looking at her outfit, going, Wait, how late is it? Did you go to a bar? Yeah. [01:43:00] Yeah, so that’s when Time is not on the side of the writers in this episode. They have no concept of time. No respect for time.
Because there’s still another scene to go in this episode. We are still not done yet.
Ellen: Yeah. We’re going to the hospital.
Bex: Yeah.
Ellen: Bobby sort of rushes into the hospital and looks like he’s in a waiting room and Chim’s sitting there and he says you know, Chim, what’s going on? Are you all right?
And. Chimney’s like, “Oh yeah, come on. I want to show you something.” And they go, they walk off.
Bex: You, you can imagine Bobby sprinting to the doors. He, Chim has called him and said like, “I’m at the hospital. You need to come to the hospital.”
Ellen: Have said like, it’s not urgent. Like, don’t worry, I’m fine. Maybe he thought he wouldn’t come if he didn’t sort of force him to come.
Bex: Oh yeah, definitely.
Ellen: They go up to a. postnatal ward kind of thing the maternity ward where,
Bex: [01:44:00] I’m assuming it’s the NICU. Yeah. Because they’re, they’re in the, when we go into the doors or when Bobby comes in through the doors, that’s intensive care. And then this is the baby section. So I’m assuming we’re in the NICU.
Which is the neonatal intensive care unit.
Ellen: And the little, there’s a little bubba who’s in a little fish tank, whatever you call that. Like it’s a, it’s a clear cot.
Alice: Humidicrib?
Ellen: You know, the medical professional nurse/doctor who’s standing there and the parents are all wearing like gloves and, you know, protective gear.
And Chim and Bobby are like watching through the window and
Alice: which isn’t weird at all.
Ellen: No, not, not creepy. But a man comes out and says that her name’s Asha. She’s our first. And Tim explains that this is, this is Steven. He’s the dad, you know. And then Steven says how grateful they are that she’s alive and healthy because of the blood that Bobby donated.
[01:45:00] And then he actually hugs Bobby and Bobby’s like, okay, man, get off. Yeah, he says, he says,
Bex: he says disease free, which is not how it’s not how that works. The if the whole Rhesus protein issue isn’t resolved, the child ends up with it’s basically anemia because the, the proteins are the antibodies from the pregnant person start to eat away at the proteins in the baby’s blood.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: So it’s like severe anemia to the max and then there are consequences. It’s not a disease, as in a sickness. [01:46:00] So again, writer’s room, read all of the notes from the medical consultants.
Ellen: Yes. Please. Otherwise you don’t sound like you know what you’re talking about.
Bex: They really don’t know what they’re talking about.
I mean, I could, I could go on and on about like, I’ve did 30 seconds of Googling and know more about the writers on this particular issue. I’m not going to, cause this episode is already going to be super long, but yeah, please do not watch this show and think that they are in any way, at all accurate in their depiction or knowledge of medical conditions.
Ellen: No, I feel like we’ve just gone through the whole of the first season and just panned every episode because we’ve been like, none of this is real.
Alice: It’s so, cause like the first time I watched season one, everyone was like, Oh, you know, it’s, it’s bad. Like, you’ve just gotta get through it. And the first time I watched it, I was like, no, this is fine.
Like, and now that we’re like breaking it down and watching it like episode by episode, I’m, and I know what’s coming. I’m like, yeah, okay. Like, I just want to get to season two.
Ellen: [01:47:00] Oh no. No,
Bex: but here’s the thing. We can, we love the characters, right? We love the characters. We love their stories. We love their interactions.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: It’s just the, the, the details is where we’re getting caught up on. And we can
Alice: still, we don’t like this writer.
Bex: Yeah, we can love Buck, we can love Chim, we can love Hen, we can hate the way they depict medical issues.
Ellen: Yes. Well, Chim does say…
Bex: Let’s finish this scene.
Ellen: Yeah, let’s do that.
Chim explains to Bobby that you know, you look at, tell me that this is the wrong kid. Like, you’re going to see your own kids again, but you can save thousands, like your blood is in their veins. They’re your kids too, which is a really kind of sweet sentiment, but
Bex: no,
Ellen: absolutely incorrect. (laughs) So you, you look at her and these young parents and tell me if it feels like a punishment and Chim’s like, [01:48:00] Oh, sorry, Bobby’s wiping a tear away from his eye.
Like, yeah, he’s affected by this. Yeah. And Chim says, you better throw that book away or get a bigger one because it seems like you’re here to stay. And Bobby’s like, “yeah, it looks that way.” I’m like, if only all suicidal cases could be solved so easily.
Alice: They wouldn’t even need the manouever!
Ellen: Well, hopefully they, you know, this does come back some other time to well, I don’t, I don’t want the suicidal stuff to come back another time, but you know, it doesn’t, it doesn’t always resolve in real life so easily.
Bex: So easily. Yeah.
Alice: And yeah, so Chim goes, and just think you’ll only have to give blood once every eight weeks for the rest of your life.
Ellen: Yeah. And then Bobby’s like, tell me again why this isn’t a punishment.
And Chim says, Oh, he’s just teasing you.
Bex: We’re finally at the end of the episode.
Ellen: [01:49:00] Yes. It feels like we’ve been talking about this one forever. Yeah.
Bex: I will. Spoiler alert, the whole Bobby donating blood, we never hear about it again. Never comes back. Nope.
Ellen: Okay.
Alice: Yep. It’s such a, like, a nice heartwarming moment and then it just never happens.
Bex: Yep. And it would be so easy just to drop every now and then, oh sorry, I was off donating. Yep. Sorry, I’ve got an appointment with the blood donation. Yep.
Alice: Yeah.
Ellen: Yeah, they missed out there.
Alice: Yep. They use it as character development and then.
Ellen: And then forgot about it. Oh, reminds me of a certain other show that we have watched. (laughs)
Alice: Yeah, so I’m definitely not a fan of the writer of this episode. I, yeah, like I’ve been really enjoying rewatching season one. And then I got to this episode to like earlier and I’m like, [01:50:00] Ugh, like it was such a struggle to watch it. And then when I was reading who it was written by, I’m like, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Cause it does just remind me of season six, which I also struggled to get through.
Ellen: So it’s the same writer who wrote in season six?
Alice: So it’s the writer who becomes the showrunner of season six.
Ellen: Okay.
Bex: So, Yeah, the, the, the storylines and the characters that this particular writer seems to favor got much more attention.
Alice: Like, she actually has been quite public in that she doesn’t like, you know, the main ship of the show.
Ellen: Okay.
Alice: And so completely just brushes it to the side, even though that ship is the reason that a lot of people watch, like she seems to just shit on the fans a lot. And also she just doesn’t seem to be great at the, like, ensemble work.
Like, which again, I think is why this episode felt so disjointed [01:51:00] is because it’s like, okay, so like Hen and Athena are doing something, then Bobby and Chim are doing something and it’s like, okay, but like, where’s the entire cast? Like the reason that the show works so well is because it’s an ensemble and like Chim and Buck and Hen play off really well together.
Bobby and Hen play off really well, like, you know, they all work together,
Bex: but yeah, there are some really good scenes in later episodes where it’s or even in earlier episodes where it’s yeah, all of them talking together. Whereas with this one, like we said Buck has three lines.
Alice: Yeah, like there’s no family dinner.
There’s no like… there’s that one like part where Hen, Chim and Buck gang up on Bobby, but there’s no lines. It’s literally like Chim talking and the other two just looking menacing, menacingly. And it’s like, she can only write for two people at a time and she can’t get past that.
Bex: It is a skill. Yeah. I think that’s when you have your writer’s room and you go, Hey, I need help with this particular scene. [01:52:00] I need to make a punk cheer. I need to get more of the characters involved.
Alice: Yeah. Like, how can I put You know, another character into this and instead Buck just becomes, “Oh, why didn’t he get out of the training bed?”
Bex: So now that we’re eight episodes into season one, I think we can start to notice which episodes are by which writers and which episodes are by which directors and establish sort of a pattern. As to how we feel about particular episodes, depending on who was in charge of them. So that’ll be interesting to report back on.
Alice: And I’m just so excited that we’re almost at season two.
Ellen: Yeah. Well, speaking of the end of the season we will renew our request for you guys to send your thoughts about season one. We will do a wrap up episode at the end of the season. And we would love to hear from you guys, what you thought of this episode of this, well, this episode as well.
[01:53:00] Like you can definitely tell us we’re all horrible for shitting on this episode or agree with us either way. Yeah, you can email that to us. Our email is contact (at) thatweewooshow.com, or you can send it to us via social media. You can record a little message on your phone or whatever, our end.
Send that to us as well. And we will play some, read some, share some in our wrap up episode for season one. In two more episodes time.
Alice: Yep. We’re hurtling towards that final.
Ellen: Yeah. Oh, I’m so excited to meet you know, that guy who we haven’t had yet, who. You keep sending me pictures of, and I’m like, who’s that? (laughs)
Like, ah, I’m going to be insufferable. I can’t wait.
Bex: Welcome to the club!
Alice: [01:54:00] As soon as, as soon as season two hits, it’s like, there’s going to be no crit, like critiquing. It’s just going to be like, Oh my God. And then Eddie did this and then Eddie did that. And then Eddie and Buck did this.
Ellen: Well, we’re nearly there. All right. So.
The next episode, who wants to read out the Bex, give us your best Fox news voice for episode nine.
Bex: All right. Here we go. The first responders race to save multiple trapped victims on an all new 9-1-1. The first responders race to help a homeless man crushed in a garbage truck, a mother and son in a crashed elevator, and extreme hoarders entombed in their house.
Meanwhile, Athena jumps into the dating pool, as Buck and Abby’s relationship is tested by her ailing mother in an all new episode, “Trapped”, airing Wednesday, March 14th.
[01:55:00] So this is another one of, another one of those episodes where every single storyline is going to be on theme.
Ellen: Excellent.
Alice: Get your shot glasses ready.
Bex: I don’t think it’s quite as blatant as Karma. No, it’s not as bad, but it’s still, yeah. Triggers. Let’s see. We have a threat of drowning. We have an elevator crash. There is a compound fracture, so we’ve got blood and exposed bone being shown. There is a homeless man at threat of being crushed.
Sorry, I haven’t watched this episode in a while and I’m trying to remember what that last trigger refers to. Which is we’ve got minor character death. And I just remembered what it is.
Ellen: Okay. That doesn’t fill me with dread at all.
Bex: No, you’ll be fine. Do you feel trapped?
Ellen: I feel trapped. Until I can watch this episode, I feel trapped. (laughs)
[01:56:00] So, one last thing we can say before we wrap up is that condolences for those people who have watched the season finale of season seven today. And sorry, not condolences. You… Congratulations? Like, I don’t even know what to say. Cause I haven’t, I haven’t seen any spoilers. I don’t know what’s happened.
Alice: I can’t believe that I have no 9-1-1 left to watch. Like when we started this podcast, I’d only just started watching. Like, I think I just finished season one and now I just watched the finale. Almost live. And I have to wait along with everyone else for the next couple of seconds. And I’m like, but what do I do with my life?
Ellen: That’s right. I remember when I caught up with Supernatural like that. And I was like, what do you mean? I have to wait. I’m binging this show and it’s just finished. I think…
Alice: [01:57:00] sadly watching Lone Star.
Ellen: The the next season doesn’t come until like September or something, October maybe. So we’ve got some time to catch up, but we have a lot of seasons to catch up on. And I don’t think we’re going to make it before the beginning of season eight.
Bex: I don’t think we can, not unless we’re multiple episodes per week. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I can do that.
Ellen: No, I don’t think you can do that.
Alice: We all have jobs. It’s hard.
Bex: Yes, I have a job now. I can’t just sit around watching 9 1 1.
I have to actually go out and earn my money.
Ellen: Damn capitalism. (laughs) Well, we’ll do our best. To get as caught up before the new season as we can, but you know, we’ll still be going when this whole thing’s finished. So
Alice: Absolutely. Yeah,
Ellen: Right. That’s it. Yeah, please send send us some feedback. Let us know how we’re going what you thought of this episode and the season in total as I already said. [01:58:00] Go and find all this information on thatweewooshow.com, and leave us a comment or a review or a star rating on any of your you know, the, the way that you listen to us. Thank you very much for listening today. And we’ll see you next time for episode nine, which is called “Trapped.” See you then.
Bex: Bye.
Alice: Bye.
[outro music with Ellen speaking over: 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, and by sharing our social media posts. Find out more at thatweewooshow.com.]
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