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 episode 4 of the second season of 9-1-1, titled “Stuck”.
The first responders race to rescue victims trapped in various tight spots; Athena contemplates accepting a promotion.
Content warnings for episode 2.04:
minor character hospitalized with a broken bone, a man stuck between two buildings, a man stuck in an escalator and gore involving a femoral artery bleed, and the on screen death of a minor character.
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Episode Transcript
Ellen: [00:00:00] Welcome back to That WeeWoo Show, a podcast where we watch and discuss episodes of the ABC Show, 9-1-1. I’m Ellen.
Alice: I’m Alice.
Bex: And I’m Bex.
Ellen: Thank you to everyone who has listened to our episodes for season two so far, and those people who have shared our social media posts and replied to us on social media and also those people who have rated us on Spotify and Apple podcasts.
We’d love it if everyone could go and do that for us. It helps us to get the podcast out there for more people to listen to. In this episode, we’re going to be talking about episode four in season two, which is called stuck. But before we get into that, let’s find out what happened [00:01:00] last week.
Alice: Yeah, so last week on 9-1-1 we wrapped up a three part season premiere with Maddie smashing goals at her first shift in dispatch, Buck and Eddie getting not squashed by an elevator, Bobby and Chim going against official orders, and Hen saving a child and stealing a dog.
Ellen: (laughs) That’s right.
Bex: This week on 9-1-1, first responders race to rescue victims trapped in various tight spots.
Meanwhile, Athena contemplates accepting a promotion that will take her out of the field. Maddie decides to make a move of her own. Buck wonders if he should move on, and Chimney finally deals with the aftermath of his near fatal crash. Also, Eddie turns to the crew for help with his young son.
Ellen: Everyone’s just a little bit stuck in this one.
Bex: Just a little bit stuck. Yes, this, Content warnings for the squeamish amongst you. [00:02:00] This episode is going to feature a minor character hospitalized with a broken bone. A man in peril stuck between two buildings, another man stuck in an escalator and related to our poor gentleman stuck in the escalator, we’re going to have some gore, which is a on screen femoral artery bleed, and also, spoiler alert, the on screen death of a minor character.
So this is another one of 9-1-1’s themed episodes, where every single storyline is on a particular theme.
Alice: Yeah, but it’s a good one.
Ellen: I was just gonna check actually, is this written by the same, like, did the person who wrote this
Bex: This was written by John J. Gray. I do not believe they were the same [00:03:00] writers that wrote “Trapped” or “Karma’s a Bitch”.
Ellen: Just checking.
Bex: Which were our other themed episodes.
Ellen: Yeah, maybe it’s just like a favorite thing of Mr. Gray.
Bex: No. “Trapped” was written by Adam Glass with a teleplay by Aristotle Kousakis. And “Karma’s a Bitch” is… Kristen Riedel.
Alice: Okay. Yeah, “Karma’s a Bitch” was definitely Kristen.
Bex: So I’m gonna say that this is a theme that they probably throw out to the writers room and then it’s just whichever writer has picked up that particular episode. I do, I know that we haven’t actually discussed the episode, but I think John did a really good job on this episode.
Of all of the kind of themed episodes that we get in 9-1-1, this one, pardon the pun, kind of sticks in my brain as a really good one. [00:04:00] It’s one of my, like, one of those episodes that I keep coming back to and really enjoying every time I watch.
Ellen: Yeah, they didn’t hammer home the theme, like obviously they did, but in a way that wasn’t sort of like…
Bex: Yeah, on a scale of “Karma’s a Bitch” to “Trapped”, it’s definitely more on the, the “Trapped” side of things because while you do have your minor characters who are physically stuck, most of the other people being stuck, it’s metaphorical, it’s psychological, it’s emotional.
So we get that kind of character, character growth and character storyline as well as being on point.
Alice: Yeah, it’s a good one. There’s like subtle stuck plus the in your face ones.
Ellen: Well we start out this episode with Eddie waking up in the morning.
Bex: Yeah we do. (laughs) It’s such a cute montage of Eddie and Chris getting ready for the day.
Alice: It really is.
Ellen: [00:05:00] Yeah. They get up and do all their things together. “Let’s do this.” Eddie paints on his t shirt. Over his bulging muscles. Not in slow mo this time because Buck’s not there. But yeah, they have cereal, and you know, comb their hair, and it’s very cute.
Bex: One of my favorite parts about this scene is after Eddie has finished getting dressed, he goes to check on Chris, and Chris is struggling to get his socks on.
And there’s this moment where Eddie kind of moves to jump in and take over from Chris, but then he pulls himself back. He forces himself to stop and just stand and wait and be patient and let Chris do it on his own. Which I think is just a really nice touch.
Alice: [00:06:00] It is. Yeah. My notes for this scene was just, they’re both the cutest ever. And I stand by that.
Bex: They are so cute. And I think that this scene and other scenes with Eddie, it’s, they’re doing that typical thing with TV shows where they, they build up the cuteness, they really make you fall in love with characters before they hit them with a whammy. But, one, I don’t think the whammy that we get hit with is particularly harsh.
And B, I don’t care, because these two are so cute. And I would happily watch all of the cute, fluffy, tension building scenes.
Alice: Yeah, like what firefighters? We just want to see Eddie and Chris being cute.
Bex: Yes, show me good dad, Eddie, and adorable son, Christopher. I will watch 45 minutes of that.
Alice: Yep.
Ellen: And there’s plenty of it in this episode, sprinkled all the way through.
Bex: Maybe that’s why it’s one of my favorite episodes, because I just think these two are so adorable.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: [00:07:00] But unfortunately, we do have to deal with other storylines. So we start with Maddie.
Ellen: So when she started talking, doing the voiceover, I thought it was some, it was one of the other characters watching a TV show, like watching someone speak on TV. Cause I’m not used to hearing Maddie’s voice yet. Usually it’s Abby, who’s the one doing the voiceover.
Alice: Ellen’s out here like, why are they watching Ghost Whisperer?
Ellen: Yeah, I’m like, this is weird. Why, what’s going on? And then I’m like, oh, it’s Maddie. Okay. Okay.
Bex: It’s a very classical season one kind of episode, but except that it’s Maddie instead of Abby. Yeah. But it’s got the, the 9-1-1 dispatcher doing the voiceover to bookend the episode, set it up. set up what we’re going to be dealing with and then tying it all up in a nice knot at the, nice bow at the end.
So yeah, I could, I could understand why there would be some confusion when the voice is doing what you would expect Abby to be doing, but that’s not Abby.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: [00:08:00] But in the voiceover, Maddie gives us the dictionary definition of rut, which is a habit or pattern of behavior that has become dull and unproductive, but hard to change.
And it says that it’s also defined as a long deep track made by the repeated passage of the wheels of vehicles and tells us that there is some comfort to be taken in that second definition for when you find yourself stuck in a rut, you can be sure that others have been there before you.
Alice: Was it just me thinking of Omegaverse this entire time?
Bex: No!
Ellen: No, I just did just now. When you were talking about it.
Bex: No, no, I’m looking like, the Oxford Dictionary defines rut. So why didn’t they just call the episode rut? and then went, oh no. Yeah, that’s why they can’t do that.
Ellen: Well, maybe. Maybe why.
Bex: That would be a very, very different episode.
Alice: I’m just imagining the writer’s room being like, Oh, let’s see who, what else they’re saying about ruts.
Oh, oh no. Yeah, no, we can’t do that. Can’t do that.
Bex: [00:09:00] Yeah, Fox definitely would not have done that. I don’t think even ABC would be willing to do that.
Ellen: There will definitely be a fic about it.
Alice: Oh, I’m sure there are.
Ellen: A hundred percent.
Bex: So who’s the alpha and who’s the omega? Oh.
Ellen: Oh God. I haven’t read enough, I’ll say the wrong thing, because I haven’t read enough Buddie fanfic to find out.
Alice: I want to say Buck’s definitely the Omega, but Eddie doesn’t exactly strike me as an Alpha though.
Eddie is like caretaking Alpha.
Ellen: Hmm. It could be like something, something like, you know, Omega Omega type thing.
Bex: Yeah. Maybe, maybe they go outside the norms of the conventional norms and it’s two Omegas hooking up.
Alice: I do like two Omegas.
Ellen: If you have an opinion on which Omegaverse, let us know. (laughing)
Alice: If you’ve just Googled Omegaverse and are now starting your life.
Ellen: Oh God, I’m sorry.
Alice: [00:10:00] We are so sorry. We’re sorry, but hit us up for some fic recs.
Ellen: If you want to know more about Omegaverse. Oh, there is an episode on Mixtape Book Club did an episode
Alice: I was about to say the same thing. Check out the Mixtape Book Club episode. (laughing)
Ellen: Oh, Jesus. Okay. Where were we?
Bex: Back to, back to the normal world and back to 9-1-1 where there is no alphas or omegas.
Alice: Well, that we know of
Ellen: Not in humans.
Bex: We have George. George is a security guard. He is on his break on this beautiful, I guess, rooftop garden. Someplace that the people who live in the building can come up and get a little bit of vitamin D. He hears a noise and he looks up and there are people moving across the roof and he grabs his radio and tells Dwayne, whoever Dwayne is, that the street, the ninja street artists are back.
Alice: [00:11:00] Cause you know, that’s a normal thing in LA apparently.
Bex: Ninja street artists. I just love the fact that he calls them ninjas. Like spoiler alert, they just, they know parkour. They just jump over shit. But apparently that’s ninja esque to George.
Ellen: Yeah, he tries to chase them.
Alice: Dwayne reckons he can’t hear him.
But like, if he… He’s like, “Hold the button down!” But if he can’t hear him, how did he Yeah, I don’t know.
Bex: How did he know he was talking? Yeah, that seemed a little bit of a ridiculous line. But anyway, George, as Ellen said, goes after our Ninja Street artists who are up on the very, very top of the building painting like with not spray painting, there’s one of them had like an actual roller.
Alice: I’m assuming it’s stencils, right? I don’t know.
Bex: Who knows? I don’t know, but they’re painting something on the side of like the big concrete bunker that the emergency stairs go into and [00:12:00] George tells them not to move and so they just stand very still because he’s told them not to move. Of course they haven’t.
They’re gonna move.
Alice: They absolutely move.
Bex: They absolutely move. So George gives chase to the Ninja Street artists. They split up. He goes after the main group who climb over the railing on the edge of the building and jump across to the neighboring building which sounds really impressive until you realize that the neighboring building is, like, less than a meter away.
But it is still a decent physical feat because George attempts to do the same and does not make it.
Ellen: [00:13:00] Yeah, I don’t know why he’s chasing them to the next building in the first place, but
Alice: Literally, just let them go, like,
Ellen: Yeah, I mean, it’s not worth it.
Bex: I mean, honestly, the art was pretty good. It’s not like they were tagging.
They were actually painting decent, recognisable art, so I would have just let them have it. Chalk it up as beautification of the otherwise very industrial looking roof.
Ellen: Mm hmm. Well, in any case, George does not make it. He tries but he grabs hold of some kind of a fence or a, I don’t know, railing that’s on the window on the other side, but he, he, he can’t hold on.
He slips off and falls between the buildings, which aren’t very far apart at all. But yeah, he falls down.
Bex: And we cut to black, so we don’t actually know what’s happened to George at this point.
Alice: Just interesting. Like, are buildings always this close together in LA?
Ellen: [00:14:00] I don’t know.
Bex: I’ve got no idea.
Ellen: That does seem extremely close together, though, for two buildings.
Alice: Like, surely you can’t even walk down there.
Ellen: No. It would just be full of rubbish and, like, rats, probably.
Alice: And pigeons.
Ellen: Yeah, maybe.
Alice: Actually, no, it’s near the beach, so seagulls, which are just pigeons, but
Bex: But they’re just water pigeons. (laughing)
Alice: So we get a 9-1-1 call and it’s a caller saying that she’s downtown near Rosslyn and they were parking and heard this moaning.
And she finishes with, “anyway, there’s this guy,” like, how do you like describe that? Like we can see legs kicking?
Ellen: Yeah. he’s between the buildings? I don’t know. So now we have the 118 rolling up.
Alice: Which, which truck is it Bex? Which truck?
Bex: Ladder truck.
Alice: You’d want to hope so in this situation. [00:15:00] It’s also now morning as well. So this all happened in the dark and now it’s like, definitely daylight.
Bex: Yep. So poor George has been stuck. Okay. All night.
Ellen: Mm hmm. He has been stuck. And so it’s time for the 118 to destroy some property again. Just do what they do best.
Bex: Yes.
Ellen: Like barge into someone’s property and knock a hole in the wall, or first they drill a hole and, which goes through the wall, very close to George’s kneecaps. Just like…
Bex: I actually think it cut him.
Ellen: I don’t. I’m just, what the hell are you cowboys doing? (laughs)
Bex: Because he started screaming when that drill came through the wall.
Alice: Yeah, and he wouldn’t have been able to see it. So like, he clearly felt something. Yeah. Yeah.
Ellen: Oh, I don’t know.
Alice: [00:16:00] The, the apartment as well, that they’ve like commandeered to drill the hole in, it happens to be one that’s open for inspection, but like it’s a private showing, but the real estate agent is Wendy, the waitress from How I Met Your Mother.
Oh, so another How I Met Your Mother tie.
Ellen: There you go.
Alice: And, and she’s very displeased with them drilling a hole through the window, through the wall.
Ellen: Absolutely.
Bex: She’s even more displeased when the hole was the guideline. So when Bobby started drilling that hole and he, he hits George, Hen tells him, because she’s sort of hanging over the side of the other building watching, she tells him that he’s gone a little too high, [00:17:00] so he recalculates, and using the hole as a guideline draws a big X on the wall about 30 centimeters below that, then turns to look at Buck, who’s got the freaking sledgehammer in his hands.
Ellen: Oh yeah, he’s ready.
Alice: But yeah, Wendy the waitress does ask why she couldn’t go through why they couldn’t go through the wall of the other building. And Bobby explains that the wall in the other building’s twice as thick, so it’ll take twice as much time, which is why they have to do this building.
Bex: Does that mean they went over to that building? Drilled some holes in that wall, determined that it was too thick, and then came back to this building.
Alice: I hope that they’ve just got the building, like, the plans from the city, and not, like, and didn’t waste the time drilling into the other building. But, although, like, Hen and Ed, are Hen and Eddie in the other building?
Are they in…
Bex: Yeah. So, when they first got on the scene, you had Bobby, Chim, and Buck on top of the roof that George had jumped off, and then you had Han and Eddie hanging out the window on the other side.
Alice: Yeah, so there was clearly some recon that we just didn’t see for timing. Yeah.
Ellen: Okay.
Bex: [00:18:00] Okay. So, Buck just lets the sledgehammer fly, smashing the shit out of this wall.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: I do enjoy that there was a couple that was viewing the apartment and they’ve decided to stick around and watch.
Alice: Yeah, wouldn’t you? (laughs)
Bex: So they’re all hanging out in the kitchen just watching Buck wail on this wall with a sledgehammer.
Alice: I would too. It’s Buck wailing on a wall with a sledgehammer.
Ellen: Yep. So they end up with a big hole in the wall and George’s feet dangling in the in the hole, basically. And like, and Bobby calls up and says like, “We’re going to pull you down and through in, you’re going to feel like you’re falling, but you’re not.” I’m like, well, he kind of will be if you yank him through the hole.
Alice: Yeah, like he will be, but it’s a controlled fall. It’s fine. Yes. I do love that.
Like Bobby asks how he’s holding up and George just goes, “please hurry. Cause I got to take a leak.” [00:19:00] And Bobby immediately withdraws his head from the hole. And like, he’s like,
Ellen: Oh, just hold on a minute. Well, that’s a good that he said something. Cause that could have been really messy.
Bex: Poor Bobby. But the plan works.
They yank George, managed to slow his descent and guide him in through the hole.
Ellen: Without bashing his head on the top of the hole.
Alice: And he’s got like scratches all on his stomach where like,
Bex: Oh, his stomach is like bright red where you can see that it’s just been abraded by the, the concrete of the side of the building.
Alice: I actually like that when you like looked, when you saw that George like hanging, you could see blood on the wall too. Like it was a bit more realistic than just like, sometimes it’s just like, wouldn’t this be messier? And like I said, it’d probably still be messier, but there was still blood like near his head and scraping down the wall.
[00:20:00] So that was nice.
Bex: We like, we like blood. (laughs)
Alice: It’s like a little bit of realism, like how Chim still has his scar. Makes me like, yes, makes me happy.
Bex: And then the absolute piece de resistance of this scene is they get George on the gurney and they walk out leaving the massive hole in the wall. With absolutely no mention to anybody of who is going to come and fix that up.
Alice: No, Bobby does say it’s going to get taken care of, but yeah, like who knows when it’s going to happen. I’m just very proud of Wendy, the waitress from moving up in the world, even if she became a realist like a realtor, which, you know, bit scummy, but after dealing with being a waitress for so many years, like she deserves to be a bit scummy, honestly.
Ellen: All right. We’re off to the LAPD now. Captain’s office.
Bex: Athena has been called into the captain’s office.
Ellen: [00:21:00] And she’s got to close the door behind her. And
Bex: is she getting sued after she intimidated that poor guy in the grocery store?
Ellen: Yeah, I wondered if there was some repercussions coming, but no, no. The captain says that, oh, she says “you applied for a promotion, but you four times, but then you stopped applying. Why did you stop applying?” She’s like, well, I got looked over, like passed over four times. So.
Bex: Yeah, I think I’d pretty much give up if I tried four times too.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Though the, the captain seems to indicate that Athena being passed over had more to do with the previous captain who sounds like he was a charming gentleman. Because he apparently would spend most of the meetings with female police officers just staring at their breasts.
Alice: Yeah, which is lovely.
Bex: [00:22:00] Yeah. But now that obviously he has passed and Maynard is now captain, the promotion is back on the books, and in fact, they kind of need Athena to take the promotion because they’re having a bit of a staffing issue.
Alice: Yeah, they’re super short staffed.
Bex: Recruitment is down, gee, I wonder why and retirement is up, and they’ve got, so they’ve got, they don’t have a lot of junior officers, all of their senior officers are leaving, and there’s nobody in the middle. So they need to get some of the junior officers to go up the ranks a little bit to sort of fill, fill the gaps.
Alice: Yeah. So they have to do a full shuffle. So Athena, who’s not a junior at all, but, you know, sort of middle ish, needs to be, be shuffled a bit higher so that someone who is more of a junior can get shuffled to her middle sort of distance.
Bex: Typical bureaucracy, really.
Alice: I also liked how we found out that the previous captain had died because [00:23:00] Athena goes, “He was a real son of a bitch. May he rest in peace.” (laughs)
Ellen: But she hasn’t thought about applying again for a, like the captain wants her to, you know, apply for the promotion. But Athena was like, “Oh, I don’t think I really want to right now.” Like, But the captain’s like, “no, we, we need, we need you to do it.” She’s like, “Oh, let me think about it.” So the captain gives her some time to have a think about it and says, at least this time it’s your decision.
Alice: But yeah, either way, at least it’s her decision this time.
Bex: But enough about Athena. Let’s get back to Eddie and Chris.
Alice: Yeah. Just all episode. Let’s stick with Eddie and Chris.
Bex: Yes, please. So, Eddie is dropping Chris off for the day. And it’s, he’s going at super speed because he’s running late.
Apparently their morning exercise and getting dressed and waiting for Chris to put his socks on ran a little bit late this morning. [00:24:00] So, he gets Chris out.
Ellen: Oh, I must be feeling the Buck After Effects.
Alice: Yeah, I was going to say, it’s because normally, like, they put stuff on in slow motion that, They’re just like, oh shit,
Ellen: we’re late anyway.
Bex: So he is dropping he’s dropping Christopher off at his abuela’s house, his grandmother’s house. She’s going to be watching Chris for the day.
Ellen: I thought he was new, new to town. What, how come his grandmother lives here?
Alice: I think he, he moved there because he had family there.
Bex: Yeah, I was thinking about this last week when I was trying to work out or trying to remember why, because spoiler alert, Chris is from spoiler alert, Eddie is from Texas.
Ellen: Okay.
Bex: So it’s a little bit strange that he came all the way to LA when he started working or started to become a firefighter, [00:25:00] but I think he chose LA because his abuela and his aunt… He’s got family here in LA.
Alice: Yeah, so he’s not completely alone, but he’s definitely a bit out of his depth.
Bex: Yes. But, his abuela is fine with looking after Eddie. No. Chris.
Ellen: I’m sure she looks after Eddie as well, yeah.
Alice: Both.
Bex: She’s, yeah, no, but his abuela is fine with looking after Chris, she said that looking after him is not the problem, it’s giving him back at the end of the day is the hard part. Yeah.
Ellen: Aw, sweetie.
Bex: So he’s like, okay, you got him. That’s good. He bolts back for the truck and we get “Edmundo, where’s the fire?” which Chris thinks is absolutely hilarious.
And I don’t know whether he thinks it’s hilarious because one, Abuela just full named Eddie. Or whether it’s the really lame joke of where’s the fire cause he’s a firefighter.
Alice: [00:26:00] Is this the first time we get Eddie’s real name too? Because obviously Buck asks if it was short for Eduardo and Eddie’s just like, no.
Bex: So yes, this is confirmation that his full name is Edmundo.
Alice: It’s not just Eddie like Buck thought.
Bex: It’s not just Eddie, he has a full name. So Eddie is officially a nickname. Yes.
Ellen: Yep.
Bex: So Eddie kind of mutters to himself in Spanish and I, I want to whoever did the closed captions for this episode, I kind of want to strangle them because if what the character is saying is not directly relevant to the scene, they do not translate it.
Alice: Oh yeah. So you can kind of
Bex: hear, you can kind of hear what Eddie is saying, but the just say. Speaks in Spanish.
Ellen: Oh, that’s
Bex: annoying. Like, yes, I get that he’s speaking in Spanish, tell me what he is saying in Spanish.
Alice: [00:27:00] Yeah, like, that’s it, I don’t even want the English translation, I want the Spanish words.
Bex: Yes, because I think when they, like when Abuela was greeting Christopher, she says, Hola. So we got hola on the screen, and I’m perfectly capable of typing that into Google Translate and figuring out that she’s saying hello. That’s fine. But you’ve got to give me something.
So, but she, she calls him back, and Eddie’s like, oh, okay, fine, comes back, and she’s so cute. He gives her a kiss on the cheek to say goodbye, and she crosses him.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Just to keep him safe before he goes to work.
Alice: So cute! So, like, you can tell, like, he’s obviously really, really close with his abuela.
Bex: Yeah.
Alice: Then he, then Eddie gives Christopher a kiss on the forehead and sprints back to his truck.
Bex: Because he’s about to get sent on a call. [00:28:00] And he doesn’t want to miss this call, because it’s absolutely frickin hilarious.
Ellen: Oh god, this one. All right, so
Bex: Let’s get into it!
Ellen: Maddie takes the call and it sounds like a bunch of girls who are all giggling with each other and they, so Maddie just assumes that it’s like a, a fake call, like a prank call.
Bex: Yeah. Cause I mean, who calls 9-1-1 and goes, “Hi 9-1-1, I’m Tanya.”
Alice: and who likes mimosas?
Bex: So apparently, yeah, they’re all drunk on mimosas and one of Tanya’s friends has managed to get her head stuck in a pipe.
Bex: Not just any pipe.
Alice: Yeah, what kind of pipe?
Bex: Like, a massive fucking tailpipe on a guy’s truck.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: Yep.
Ellen: Because, of course, that’s what you do when you’re drunk. I mean,
Bex: I don’t know. So we, so we get the 118 rolling up to their location, which [00:29:00] is the Saddle Ranch, which is
Alice: Which, which, which truck are they in?
Bex: Engine truck this time.
Alice: Beautiful, beautiful. Engine truck’s turn to, to get out.
Bex: The Saddle Ranch is like a cowboy themed bar. It’s all like Western and cowboys. There is a mechanical bull. Dean Winchester would have loved it if he had been there.
Alice: Definitely reminds me of a certain fan fiction that someone wrote once.
Ellen: Yes, indeed.
Bex: We need to get Buck and Eddie back to that bar so I can write a 9-1-1 equivalent.
But before, just to further fuel the fan fiction fires, can we talk about the particular version of the uniform that the boys are wearing when they arrive at this scene. Because all through this scene, they all get told how hot they are. And if you haven’t seen the episode, Eddie, Buck and Bobby rock up in their turnout pants, [00:30:00] suspenders holding up the turnout pants and then their tight LAFD blue undershirts..
Ellen: Yeah, the painted on shirt.
Alice: Yep. Like, were they halfway through getting dressed when they got the call and they’re just like, eh, this’ll do?
Ellen: I’m not saying that they, that they’re wrong, like the, but the girls are very drunk and if it had been the other way around and there’d be a woman turning up to a bar full of men who were fawning over her, that would be, that would be, that would be, that would Also just as uncomfortable as the whole thing.
I don’t know. I was just, they’re walking through and they just look like they’re not enjoying all the attention.
Bex: Funnily enough, Chim is in the normal duty uniform. They don’t let Chim be sexy in this one.
Alice: He already had his time. He’s on a calendar.
Bex: That’s, that is true. He’s had his chance. Hen is also in her duty uniform.
She doesn’t get to rock the sexy suspenders at this call. Yeah, [00:31:00] they do, they do objectify them quite a bit. I think at one point
Alice: they literally say, “Hey guys, the strippers are here.”
Ellen: Oh I didn’t hear that! Oh, that makes it worse. Yeah. It’s, it’s a little bit, it’s a little bit much, but anyway, they do, you know, direct them to where this girl is on her hands and knees with her head in the tailpipe of the car.
It’s like. Okay. They, they sort of check her out, make sure she’s, her vitals are okay. And all the while, I think it’s Chim who’s like, “why is this tailpipe so big?” And then Buck is like actually talking to the guy and saying how like it increased the power or something.
Alice: Chim asks, “What’s her name?” And the guy who owns the truck says, “Betty”.
And the girl’s like, “It’s Jennifer.” And the guy who owns the truck’s like, “oh, sorry, I thought you meant my truck.” So his truck’s name is Betty.
Ellen: [00:32:00] It’s a huge truck too.
Bex: So apparently Jennifer got into that predicament because Brent, the douchebag who owns the truck, dared her to stick her head in the tailpipe. And Brett’s defense to that was that they were flirting. To which Eddie looks very confused because apparently if that is what constitutes flirting, he’s been doing it wrong for years.
Buck thinks it’s hilarious because he’s never had to dare any woman to stick her head anywhere to get her attention.
Alice: Oh dear. Eddie’s face is absolutely facing in this scene as well.
Ellen: It is, it is facing. (laughing) Chim’s got quite a face there as well.
Bex: [00:33:00] None of them look very impressed with the fact that the reason why Jennifer ended up in this predicament.
So long story short, the only way to get Jennifer out is pretty much to cut the tailpipe and get her out that way. So they, they’re, they’re measuring it up. Although I do like this bit, because Bobby and Buck and Eddie are sort of examining the tailpipe and they’re sort of conferring and going, “I think the, the, the saw will go through it just like butter,” and Bobby turns around to order Chim.
Chim has already come to this conclusion like two minutes earlier. He’s pissed off back to the truck. And as Bobby turns around to tell Chim to go and get the saw, Chim is already there with the saw in his hand, and Bobby’s turnout coat and his helmet going like, “Already on it Cap, here you go.”
Alice: Like he’s so excited to cut through this thing.
Ellen: [00:34:00] And the guy’s like, “I paid thousands of dollars for that.” And then like, and Bobby goes, “Oh, you might want to, you might want to look away for this bit then.”
Alice: So yeah, the, the guys are trying to work. And Tanya, who is Jennifer’s friend, who called 9-1-1. Is super drunk and is just, like, blatantly hitting on Buck. Like, just straight out says, “type in your, type your number into your phone, into my phone and I’ll text you so you have mine.” And Buck, like, shrugs her off with, “thanks, but I actually have a girlfriend and I need to focus right now so my captain doesn’t cut your friend’s head off.”
Bex: Meanwhile, Tanya’s other friend is hitting up Eddie. Asking him if he has Snapchat. I don’t even know if Eddie knows what that is, but he just says, no, and
Ellen: He looks confused.
Bex: “I don’t think I’m what you’re looking for. I have a son.” And Tanya’s friend just goes, “Great. So do I.” And Eddie’s like, wait, what? That was supposed to stop this conversation.
[00:35:00] And everybody around him is just so like, Chim thinks this is hilarious. It is. Buck is I’m not entirely sure what that face was that Buck pulled. Was he confused? Was he worried about Eddie? Like, dude, how can you be so bad at talking to girls?
Alice: Yeah, I wonder. Meanwhile, Jennifer thinks that she’s gonna puke.
Tanya says she better not because the fire guys are totally hot. So Chim finally takes pity and moves the peanut gallery back away from the hot fire guys so that Bobby can start sawing through this tailpipe.
Bex: Bobby’s doing a lot of work in this episode, like he was with the, he had the drill out earlier.
For some reason he’s not the standoff in the background and direct. Captain. He is the all hands on deck captain in this episode.
Alice: [00:36:00] I feel like Athena was like, yeah, I just got offered a desk job, and Bobby’s like, fuck that shit! I’m gonna drill some stuff!
Ellen: That’s totally what happened.
Bex: But I love that for him, I love that he gets, like, it’s not just Buck having all the fun, Bobby gets to have some fun in this episode too.
So he does, he cuts through the tailpipe, they get Jennifer up so she’s only got like, I don’t know, 40, 50 centimeters worth of tailpipe on, much more manageable to get that off her head. They do call for lube.
Alice: Yeah. Buck looks at Chim and goes, “We need lube.” And Tanya immediately goes, “I have some!”
And starts rifling through her purse. And Bucks just like well, “Uhhhh.” Chim just tosses him the lube from the med kit.
Bex: Which is like the giant kind of, but like, it’s the giant squeezy bottle of lube, not the tiny little sachet single use that Tanya probably has in her box.
Alice: [00:37:00] So they dump a whole bunch of lube inside the pipe.
Eddie pulls the pipe off Jennifer’s head and they get applause.
Ellen: She must’ve really rammed her head in there if it got stuck that badly. Like, the inside of the pipe is quite smooth metal, you know, like, I don’t understand how she got so stuck.
Alice: Well, when you shove things into places, they swell up, generally, which is why kids, like, stick their fingers down drain pipes and then get stuck.
Ellen: Yeah, but her head’s got hair on it, like, I don’t know.
Bex: It’s like the kid that sticks their head through the railing of the stairwell. Yeah,
Alice: that’s it. Like, that’s it.
Bex: You can, you can push it through, the head compresses and slides through, but then it won’t kind of compress to pull back out, because you’ve got ears and things in the way.
Alice: Or like how you can stick a light bulb in your mouth, but you can’t get it out.
Bex: I’m sorry, what?
Alice: Oh, yeah, so there’s like, it’s actually a, like, physics thing, where if you put a light bulb in your mouth, [00:38:00] you can’t take it out again. It’ll go in. But it can’t go out again.
Ellen: Oh my god, that’s horrible. What a horrible thought!
Alice: And then every time I read this fact, I want to stick a lightbulb in my mouth and I’m like, no.
Ellen: No, you can’t get it out. Because you have to crunch it to get it out. Yeah.
Bex: But how do you, ugh. Ugh.
Ellen: Ugh. I’m sure I saw a Saw movie about this. Anyway,
Bex: anyway, Jennifer, we got her out of the pipe. It’s fine. She’s fine. She’s very drunk. She should probably go home. Have some water.
Ellen: And she’s just like staring at the guys going, Whoa.
Bex: You’re so hot.
Ellen: like, how drunk are you?
Alice: Oh, she also was covered in bruising, which they immediately like looked at the owner of the truck for, and he’s just like, “no, no, that wasn’t me.”
And they’re like, “oh no, she rode the mechanical bull like five times.” So yeah, they’re, they’re all very drunk. And it’s also like the middle of the day.
Bex: [00:39:00] I mean, I’m assuming it has to be a weekend. It’s it must be like Saturday lunchtime or something. Because otherwise Chris would be in school, not at his abuela’s house.
Ellen: Yeah, that’s true.
Alice: But still.
Bex: Yeah. It’s still, it’s very early to be that deep in the mimosas. Anyway, so, crisis averted, Jennifer’s fine, everyone starts to pack up, Buck and Eddie walk away from the scene, and we get possibly one of my favorite… not There’s two that are quite funny, but this is one of my favorite ones.
Buck asks Eddie, “Hey, so is Chris really the reason that you don’t date?” And Eddie very seriously says “That, and also they weren’t my type.”
Alice: It’s so…
Bex: Buck does this looks over his shoulder to check the women out again. Like, wait, did I miss something? Cause they, they were all, they were all smoking hot. And they were all different.
So it’s not like it was three Aryan blondes. We had a nice range of women there. [00:40:00] There is no way that Eddie could not have found any single one of them hot. Unless…
Alice: I mean, I think the point was like, oh, they were young and drunk and stupid and that’s not my type. But the fact that Buck’s literally rubbing shoulders with him at this point.
Bex: Yeah,
Alice: like it’s just like, “Hey, so like, so Chris is the reason you don’t date. Cause like, I love kids. Have I mentioned how I love kids? I drove you to pick up Chris literally last episode, like love kids, kids are the best.”
Bex: So like when I started watching 9-1-1 for the very first time, I had heard about Buddie.
An episode started watching because I wanted to see if Buddie was gonna happen, but I wasn’t shipping them straight out of the gate. [00:41:00] I wanted to see what evidence there was on screen to point towards this ship before I set sail on it. But even like that line there, immediately I’m looking at Edmundo going, you’re so gay.
That’s why they’re not your type. You are so gay. No wonder people are immediately shipping you with this golden retriever next to you.
Ellen: Mm hmm. The very first and second episode, well, very first four episodes.
Bex: yeah,
Ellen: Yeah. Yes.
Bex: This is the fourth episode. This is the fourth episode and the queer coding is so strong already. It’s insane.
Alice: Yep. But yeah, so Buck says that they’re not they’re not his type either, not anymore, but he’s talking in general and Eddie says it’s complicated when you have a kid and Buck says that’s a weak excuse and Eddie’s comeback is just, “You live in your invisible girlfriend’s house and you’re telling me about weak excuses?”
Ellen: Yeah, fair point.
Alice: [00:42:00] So then Eddie’s phone goes off and he, Looks at the screen and, like, answers the call, and all we get is, “What, which one?” And then he hurries off, and we see Buck looking really concerned after him. So then we cut to the hospital, where
Bex: Eddie sprints out of the elevator.
Alice: And Buck follows him! Like Why did he take Buck to the hospital?
Ellen: Maybe Buck took him to the hospital.
Bex: We could say that Buck drove him, maybe. But then why did Buck go up with him?
Alice: Yeah. Like, it’s not like he just dropped him off. Like, no, he completely follows him in. He’s just like, yes, let’s check on our kid.
Bex: And it’s, and as they walk through the, through the floor Eddie sees his aunt in the waiting room and he makes a point of telling Buck we’re going in this direction over to my aunt.
So he’s fully aware that Buck is with him on this ride.
Ellen: [00:43:00] Yeah. Yeah. Besties. Big Bestie energy.
Alice: Yeah, sure. So Christopher’s fine. He’s on the other side of the waiting room chatting with a couple of nurses, which is super cute.
Ellen: I find this is funny. Cause she, his aunt obviously didn’t give him any details on the phone. Right?
Alice: Yeah. He asked “Which one,” and then…
Ellen: She just said, come to the hospital and then he’s like, “Is Christopher okay?” Like, and she’s like, “yeah, he’s fine. He’s just over there flirting with the nurses and it’s, it’s your abuela.” And he’s just like, “Oh no, what happened?” I’m like, she didn’t tell him anything on the phone.
Alice: Yeah, just quick. You gotta come to the hospital. Which one?
Ellen: He just, he just drove all the way to the hospital thinking the worst has happened with no details.
Alice: Which, okay, is maybe why Buck, but, but yeah, it’s just weird. So yeah, Eddie’s abuela lost her balance in the back step, steps and broke a hip and Christopher called 9-1-1.
[00:44:00] So Buck’s still just like hanging around and his aunt notices him and asks Eddie who he is. And Eddie just introduces Buck as we work together. And like, everyone’s just like, why is he here?
Bex: See, and this part is especially weird. Cause either. Either Tia Pepa, who we’re we’re talking to now either she is the kind of woman that you give her an inch and she will give you her family’s life history going back three generations in which case the next part is just obviously completely normal for her that she suddenly starts laying into Eddie with Buck standing right there.
Or, this is the kind of family that they don’t air their dirty laundry in front of strangers. So she’s taken one look at Buck, one look at Eddie, put two and two together and gone, no, no, no, this man is family. I can tell him everything.
Alice: [00:45:00] This is episode four!
Bex: Because she does. She starts letting, she starts getting stuck into Eddie about not leaving Christopher with his abuela.
Alice: Episode four! Like episode four. Eddie has been in this show for three and a half episodes and his Tia looks at him and goes, Oh, okay. So you brought your boyfriend to the hospital. Yep. Cool. Let’s go.
Bex: Exactly! And so I can bitch out your ex girlfriend in front of him because he’s your boyfriend. So that’s fine.
Ellen: Yep. And when she, when she did mention that, he like chucked a glance over to Buck like, “Oh, don’t, don’t say that in front of him.”
Bex: Not in front of Buck, Aunt!
Ellen: He doesn’t know this yet.
Alice: We’re only four episodes in, Tia, stop it.
Ellen: We’ve only been going out for a couple of weeks. Come on, it’s too soon.
Bex: [00:46:00] But the point of the conversation with Tia is that She doesn’t approve of Eddie constantly dropping Chris off on his abuela. She’s too old. She can’t handle it. And Eddie is saying that he’s just, he’s having trouble finding help. He, there are so many forms to fill out. He, he just can’t deal with it.
Alice: yeah, it’s worse than the VA, which is Veteran Affairs. And as someone who’s best friend’s a vet, yeah, the VA is terrible. Like, she has advocates and it’s still awful. The amount of times that she gets phone calls from her advocates going, “Oh, so we forgot to put this on.” And then they’re just like, “cool. So we actually forgot to pay you like thousands of dollars over the last 20 years.” And she’s like, what the fuck? Like anyway, yeah. So the VA sucks. I’m assuming the VA in Australia and America both suck.
Bex: [00:47:00] I would say so. Yeah. I think. It’s pretty standard that it’s gonna suck.
Alice: But yeah, and then they do the whole, the episode title throwback, where Tia goes, “I can’t believe your gringa ex stuck you with all this.”
And Eddie goes, “I’m not stuck, Tia.”
Bex: Yeah. Do you have to go back to work? And you’re not stuck.
Alice: Yeah.
Ellen: Then she just lays it on like, “You need to get this figured out.” And he’s like, okay.
Alice: So Eddie goes over to Chris.
Bex: He’s saved by Christopher at this point. Christopher’s like, “Dad!” So he runs over to say hi to Chris.
And Buck sort of saddles up to to get more of the family gossip.
Alice: Literally, like, just, just as like, Oh, hey, you’re my auntie too now. Like, let’s, let’s get all the gossip.
Ellen: Let’s compare notes.
Bex: [00:48:00] Let’s talk about Eddie behind his back.
Alice: Like, hey, I keep telling him he’s got to take it easier on himself. And he’s like, yeah, me too. Oh my God, it’s so like, this is episode four!
Bex: It’s one of those scenes where there, any other explanation for that scene makes no sense.
Ellen: Besties.
Bex: The only way to make sense of it is, they were, you know, I don’t even know, it blows my mind.
Alice: So Eddie, Eddie’s Tia is now absolutely going back to the rest of the family and being like, “So…You guys met Buck?”
Bex: Oh yeah, she’s going into… She’s going into Abuela’s room and going, “You will never guess who I just met.”
Alice: “You know how Eddie says he’s too busy to date, but he keeps talking about this firefighter that he met at work. Guess who I just met.”
Ellen: “And he brought him along to the hospital with him.”
Alice: [00:49:00] “Like, have you heard of any of the other firefighters? Cause all I’ve heard is the captain and Buck, Buck, Buck, Buck, Buck, Buck, Buck. And I just met Buck. And for some reason he was at the hospital and like, Mum, they’re totally banging.” Like… (laughs)
Episode four friends, episode four.
Ellen: She does say that raising any child alone is rough. “My nephew is a saint” and Buck’s just looking at him going, looking at over at Eddie going, yeah, he is. Or maybe, maybe he’s like, “he’s really not.” (laughs)
Anyway we’re going to we’re going to Athena’s house to, you know, the grant household. And the kids get back from where they’ve been at Michael’s place for the weekend or for some time anyway. And Harry has brought some flowers. to give to Athena to say congratulations for her promotion. [00:50:00] And Athena is delighted by this. She’s fairly, she’s like, “Oh, thank you.” But she says, “Oh, you didn’t need to do this. I’m still kind of thinking about the promotion. I haven’t decided to take it yet.” And Michael gives her this chat about like, “Why are you still thinking about it? You’ve been, you know, working towards this for a really long time.” And so, You know, she tells him,
Bex: Athena does that, the, the parent thing when you’re like kids go to your room so that your father and I can have a talk in private because we’re about to get into a fight.
Ellen: Yeah. But she doesn’t… when she was 20 years old, she was ambitious and everything. And now she’s, you know, settled into her life now. And that kind of thing, job progression isn’t really what she’s looking for anymore.
Bex: She’s comfortable.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: [00:51:00] She’s not only in her career, but in her life and in her own skin.
And she doesn’t know if she wants to sort of upset the apple cart for just a little bit more money. Michael says that there’s nothing wrong with being comfortable, but it doesn’t mean that you should get stuck. Tells Athena that she should take a risk.
Alice: While the rest of us take a shot.
Ellen: And the next thing might be better.
Bex: It’s bring your, it’s bring your kid to work day.
Ellen: Hey, next up.
Alice: Haven’t even left Athena’s place and Bex is like, who cares about Athena?
Bex: I don’t care about Athena!
Ellen: Her story in this one is boring anyway. (laughs)
Alice: I was going to mention, it’s cute that like, Michael’s like, you know, the next place might be better because obviously like, Athena took a long time to move on from her marriage, and now she’s sort of doing the same thing and Michael’s like, [00:52:00] don’t just stay there because you’re comfortable because like, you know, obviously she’s now happy with Bobby. So,
Bex: yes, but just because Michael upended his entire life and changed everything about himself.
Alice: Oh, it doesn’t mean that Athena…
Bex: It does not mean Athena has to do the same thing.
Alice: Absolutely not. Anyway, so we go to bring your kid to work day.
Bex: But enough about Athena. It’s take your kid to work day because your grandmother is in the hospital and your aunt can’t get out of work and you literally have nobody else to look after your kid.
Ellen: Yes, so now you have three Four extra uncles. Hang on. How many? No, three extra uncles and one aunt, auntie. Did I count right? Yeah.
Alice: Hang on. Hang on. No, two uncles, one auntie, a dad and a stepdad.
Ellen: Right. Yes. Yeah. And they have a lovely time.
Alice: Plus all the rest of the shift that we never say who aren’t even allowed to speak to Christopher.
Ellen: [00:53:00] They’re not family.
Bex: Yeah, they all look like they’re having a great time hanging out with Chris up in the sort of the little lounge area up in the kitchen until Bobby rocks up and Eddie’s face just falls and he looks so uncomfortable.
Alice: But Bobby without missing a beat’s just “I don’t remember asking the chief for reinforcements.”
Ellen: “Can you handle a hose kid?” He’s like, “I can try!”
Bex: God bless Chris. But then when Eddie tries to apologize and says, you know, my art is getting off work early, but I didn’t know what to do with him until then, Bobby goes, “Oh, don’t worry. Buck called, gave me the heads up. I’ve already cleared it with the chief.”
I’m sorry. Buck did what now?
Alice: Yeah. Buck did, like, Eddie didn’t want to call out. So Buck was just like, Hey, like, my new stepson’s coming over. Hope that’s okay. [00:54:00] Oh my God. It’s so like, Oh my God. I can’t with them
Ellen: We’re just having a shipper’s freakout right now.
Alice: Ridiculous.
Bex: So yeah, so Chris gets to go on a call with them.
So the next scene is
Alice: Which I feel like it would not be okay.
Ellen: No, I don’t think
Bex: Well I think that’s why they threw in, I’ve cleared it with the chief. Because otherwise, yeah, it would be a massive OH& S issue to have a child attend a scene.
Ellen: But I feel like the more usual thing to do would be that they would say to Eddie, Okay, go home and look after your child. You can have the day off.
Alice: Literally!
I know he’s just started, but like, shh. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway.
Ellen: Rather than coming in the truck with them.
Bex: Shhh! But we don’t We don’t get the cuteness. I want the cuteness of, of I want the cuteness that’s going to happen.
Ellen: Oh yeah, no. I’m happy for them to do it in the show.
I’m just saying in real life, this would not happen.
Bex: [00:55:00] Oh, in real life. Hell no. This would not happen.
Alice: Like they go to a car crash too. Like this isn’t just, anyway, like this isn’t just a cat stuck in a, up in a tree. Like this is a car crash.
Bex: I mean, it’s a minor fender bender, but still he’s, yeah, it’s a, it’s a very, they are working.
But we get them, we get in the back of the truck and Chris has got the headset on so he can hear everybody. He’s got somebody’s turnout coat wrapped around him so he looks like he’s in uniform. It’s just, it’s so cute.
Ellen: It’s so sweet.
Alice: It’s so cute. And we’ve got “Stuck in the Middle With You” playing as well.
Bex: Which I just love. It’s so appropriate. “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right.” I just wish that Buck were actually sitting in the backseat to make that work, but he’s not. He’s sitting in the front.
Alice: He is sitting in the front. Because, yeah, Chim is in the firetruck rather than the ambulance this time.
[00:56:00] Chim, like, is explaining about the headsets to Chris and he says that sometimes he has wishes he has a mute button for Buck who immediately sounds the horn from the front seat and he’s like, “Oh, I’m sorry, were you saying something?”
Bex: And then Christopher does that thing that kids do where he looks at Chim and goes, you have a scar on your forehead. Eddie wants to, is like trying to die inside. Like, “Oh my God, Chris, we don’t say things like that out loud.”
Alice: But Chim like brushes it off and tells him about how he got a big metal rod stuck in his head and asks if Christopher’s ever had surgery. And Chris says two times, but Eddie says three times and Chim says, “well, you got me beat now I feel kind of lame” and Hen says, “cause you are.”
Ellen: And
Chris thinks that is hilarious. And then Hen goes “your dad ever tell you why we call him Chimney?” And Chim’s like. [00:57:00] “No, don’t tell.” And I’m like, yes, yes, tell. I would like to know that.
Bex: I would also like to know that, but by the look on Chim’s face, I don’t think it’s a child appropriate story.
Ellen: No, it doesn’t seem like it.
Bex: Buck also wants to know the story because when Hen makes that offer, Buck’s sort of, Buck’s head whips around. He’s like, Oh, I want to hear this story. So I don’t think even Buck knows at this point.
Alice: Either that or Buck’s trying to work out how to how to make it child friendly.
Ellen: And Hen says she’ll tell him later.
Bex: Like, no, tell us now. Yeah. We want to know.
Ellen: So wait a minute. You, you never find out why they call him that?
Bex: Spoiler alert. We are mid season, mid season seven or end of season seven. What are we calling the next one?
Alice: We’ve finished season seven.
Bex: We finished season seven, they have not revealed why he is called Chimney.
I honestly don’t think they know at this point. [00:58:00] I think it was really just they gave him that name and nobody figured it out why.
Alice: Honestly, I feel like the writers room probably have like a million different scenarios of some why he’s called Chimney and they just haven’t decided which one.
Bex: I think there was actually, they did one of those promotional interviews where they had all the cast sitting in a, sitting in a room and they were asking them random questions.
And one of the questions they asked was, why is he called Chimney? And each of the cast members just came up with the most ridiculous reasons why they think he’s called Chimney.
Alice: That’s it. So like, I’m sure the writer’s room have their own like, thoughts on the matter, but I don’t think there’s actually like, a consensus. a solid reason now.
Ellen: It’s not an official reason.
Alice: And honestly, now that we’re at the end of season seven, I feel like any story we get is going to be terrible. Like it’s never going to live up to the hype now.
Bex: Yes, they’ve built it up and built it up and built it up. They may as well just not tell us. And that can just be one of the things that lives on in fandom.
[00:59:00] Like everybody’s gonna have their own version of why he’s called chimney. Someone will write the seminal fanfic and everyone will go, yes. It’s that reason. It’s “fanon” now.
Alice: Yeah. So the call that they’re going out to is to a traffic accident. It’s nothing too serious, but there is someone like trapped in a car.
Bex: Would she say that she’s “stuck” in the car?
Ellen: She is stuck in the car because they need to use the jaws of life to get her out of there.
Alice: They’re not even using the Jaws of Life though, they’re using like a crowbar?
Bex: Yeah, but no, but later
Ellen: He gets the Jaws of Life. After.
Alice: Oh, does he?
Bex: Eddie, Buck, Buck asks Eddie to go get the jaws and while Bobby is explaining to Chris. So after all of the fun he had earlier, he’s now on babysitting duty. So he’s hanging back at the truck with Chris explaining what’s going on and we see Eddie Run past and Buck says your dad’s gonna get the Jaws of Life and get her out.
Side note, do you like my next screenshot?
Alice: [01:00:00] Yeah, that’s why I’m looking at it like is that a crowbar? Like what is that that he’s using? Because that’s not the Jaws of Life.
Bex: It’s called, no, it’s called a halogen. It is a specific firefighter’s tool called the halogen.
Alice: There you go. Anyway, yeah, so Bobby says she’s gonna be fine.
“You know what happens sometimes?” And Christopher says,
Bex: “People get stuck.”
Alice: “People get stuck. But we have a tool called–” Oh, there we go, yeah. They have a tool called the Jaws of Life, “and that’s what your dad’s going to use right now.”
Bex: Cue Eddie running to grab it from the truck, and then run back to the scene.
Alice: And thanks to him, she’s going to make it home in time for dinner.
Bex: Yeah, dinner. We love dinner.
Alice: Especially if Bobby’s cooking.
Bex: Yeah.
Alice: And then so we have the cutest scene in…
Bex: We get more cuteness.
Alice: Bex, you can take this one.
Bex: So we get this montage of the, the 118 playing with Chris. So, Chim brings him some coiled up hoses to use as a booster, so he can reach the pinball machine.
So, Chris is playing with the, the fire rescue themed pinball machine.
Ellen: [01:01:00] First responder pinball machine. (laughs)
Bex: Bobby, Bobby makes him grilled cheese, which is It’s kind of bittersweet because I think the last person he probably made grilled cheese for, if not Buck, was probably Bobby Jr. And just sitting at a table watching a kid eat grilled cheese, I’m sure it’s very bittersweet for Bobby. And then, and then, oh my God, then we have this scene where,
Alice: hang on, this scene which is just in every Buddie fan video.
Bex: Because! So we have Chim and Hen up the top of the firepole, helping Chris slide down the firepole. Buck and Eddie are standing at the bottom of the firepole, ready to catch him. So, I could not get my screenshots to work of this, but there is literally a shot where Chris comes down the pole, and he is sandwiched between Buck and Eddie, [01:02:00] and it is such a kid with his two dads shot. It’s episode four!
Alice: Lke episode four, guys, episode four. Like this scene, if this scene was in like an ad where they were trying to portray that these were the two dads, they’d be like, this is too gay. We have to like, make it less gay or the conservatives are going to get real mad.
But
Bex: it’s so, it’s very cute, like Buck is the first one to reach for Eddie, probably because he was, he looks taller than Eddie at that point, I don’t know, but he, he manages to get hold of Chris first, lowers him down, they’re kind of holding him up at sort of chest height between them, like it’s a big group hug everyone’s laughing, everyone’s having a great time I, I just, I just, I can’t.
Alice: [01:03:00] It’s so cute. Like, there’s a reason it’s in every Buddie fan video ever. Because it’s just, it’s such an iconic shot. And it’s episode four.
Ellen: Yep. Episode four!
Alice: Like, I did not expect it to be this early in, like, Eddie’s introduction to the show. Because, like, I’d seen it, like, a million times before I’d started watching. And I was like, wait. Episode 4.
Ellen: You’re like, oh wow, this is happening, it’s happening. But just then, Tia Pepa shows up. So fun’s over. And they all kind of look at each other and go, aww.
Bex: Aww.
Ellen: And they all say, bye Chris, bye Chris. It’s really sweet.
Bex: And then Eddie… I don’t know where, whether he’s leaving with Chris and his aunt, but he sort of takes a couple of steps in Christopher’s direction, does an about face, then just sort of throws himself into a hug with Bobby.
Alice: [01:04:00] Yeah.
Bex: And then just says, “Thanks Cap,” and then leaves again.
Alice: I think he was going at like, say goodbye to Chris properly.
Bex: Maybe.
Alice: That’s what I’m going to say rather than Eddie’s also leaving, because that’d be kind of stupid.
Bex: It would be because he’s still, that was the whole point. But just the, the hug was, was nice.
Alice: It was so sweet. Like that whole scene is just the cutest thing.
Ellen: Buck’s in the background, like hanging off the pole going, “Hug for me too?”
Bex: “Where’s my hug? I did good too. I called Cap and told him what was going on, where’s my hug?” (laughs)
Alice: So we go to Abby’s apartment.
Bex: And Eddie is all Buck can talk about.
Alice: So Maddie’s opening a bottle of wine and Buck just won’t shut up.
Bex: It’s talking about Eddie, talking about Chris, talking more about Eddie.
Alice: [01:05:00] So yeah, like even calls Chris smart, adorable, funny in a kid way. Just needs a little extra help. So Maddie’s sort of like asking questions, like, you know, so he’s got cerebral palsy and Buck goes, “Yeah, Aunt Pepa says he got stuck in the birth canal. There was some complications.” So when, like, how much did you talk to, like, what else did Aunt Pepa tell you? (laughing)
Ellen: Was this at the hospital?
Alice: This is absolutely, this is absolutely at the hospital. Like Eddie went to like, go chat to Chris and Buck’s like, yep, cool. Give me all the gossip. Like, what’s this, what was this ex like? Eddie won’t talk about her, like…
Bex: But can we just, that he is calling her Aunt Pepa.
Alice: Yeah. Aunt Pepa. Yep. Like he’s in the family. He’s like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like I, I am the stepfather and she’s my auntie too.
Bex: This woman took one look at him and gone, call me Tia.
Alice: Yeah.
[01:06:00] Yeah. Buck’s like, “So Pepa.” And she goes, “Tia Pepa.” And he’s like, “Sorry, sorry, Tia Pepa.”
Bex: That’s because I think Pepa, I think is her surname, maybe. It’s her first name is Josefina.
Alice: I feel like it’s one of those things where like, everyone’s name is Josefina. And so she,
Bex: she gets Pepa?
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: Yeah. I’m sure we’ll figure it out later on.
Ellen: We need a Spanish speaker to tell us how it works.
Alice: So, yeah. So Maddie is like, Maddie’s just interested in like, the childcare situation. She’s like, there are programs. And Buck says, “Eddie’s working on it. He’s got insurance. There’s other stuff through the city, state and county, but the requirements are all different. You can apply for one and it can disqualify you from another. It’s a whole giant bureaucratic mess and I can’t get my head around it.”
Bex: And I can just imagine Buck like coming home from work one [01:07:00] day and sitting down and just Googling all of these things and reading all these forms and just getting so frustrated and so confused. Because he can’t figure out what is going on.
Alice: Yeah, Buck’s like, I’m gonna fix this for Eddie, don’t even worry! No, I can’t fucking fix this, what the fuck.
Bex: Or, like, going to work one day and going, “Hey, have you looked up this program? I think it’ll really work. All you have to do is do this,” and Eddie’s just going, “Yeah, I’ve seen that one. If I do that one, this one I can’t do.”
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: And then you just, Eddie’s, Buck is like, Fuck, back to the drawing board.
Alice: Let’s be real. Buck got home from the hospital, went straight to Google and goes, (mimes typing) what is cerebral palsy? And then Google was like, you spelt that way wrong, mate. What are you doing? (laughs)
Bex: Yeah, it’s, yeah, I, I always kind of never have, I’m not saying he’s stupid, but I don’t think that Buck was academically inclined.
Alice: Yeah. I was going to say he just wasn’t academic.
Bex: [01:08:00] So I can imagine that doing all of this research on Google and trying to navigate all of these forms with these really complicated words, it’s hard for him. He’s really trying here, guys.
Alice: Not only that, but he has to sit still for 30 seconds. And that’s like, unacceptable.
Bex: But he’s willing to do it for Eddie to help Eddie out.
Yeah.
Ellen: Cause he sees that he’s hurting. He needs to fix it.
Alice: So Maddie says that the only people who can truly navigate a bureaucracy are the people who work inside it. And
Bex: Nice little foreshadowing there.
Alice: Yeah. And then Buck just goes, it shouldn’t be that way. With Eddie always wondering how to take care of Christopher and Christopher feeling like a burden on his dad.
And Maddie’s like, “Eddie doesn’t feel that way, does he?” And Buck goes, “Not even a little, he loves the kid like crazy, he’s a really great dad.” And then,
Bex: Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie…
Ellen: I feel like you’ve known him, you’ve known him for like, how long?
Alice: [01:09:00] Four weeks. Yep.
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: Probably less, because we had three ep… like, two and a half episodes of the earthquake. So it’s probably been like two weeks.
Bex: And that was one day. Yep. That was one day for them.
Alice: So this is like, two weeks.
Ellen: And Maddie drops in this absolute banger of a line. I’m just like, what? She says, “So does this boy crush on Eddie mean that you’re finally ready to move on from Abby?” And Buck just looks at her and goes, “That’s cute.”
And we all scream!
Alice: Like, there’s not even a…
Bex: That is not an answer, Evan Buckley.
Alice: Yeah. Just like, Oh my God. Episode four.
Bex: Episode four and every single person. that has anything to do with Eddie and or Buck can see that the two of them are clearly crushing on each other.
Alice: Like Bobby’s already started a pool in the firehouse.
Ellen: He’s the chief shipper, so you know.
Alice: [01:10:00] Hen and Karen are discussing it every night after work, like it’s, it’s a whole thing. So then Maddie drops the bombshell that she’s found an apartment.
Bex: And she’s moving out. So she’s one of the few people in this episode that isn’t stuck. I think she probably, she was stuck before she got to LA, but now she’s got herself unstuck and she’s just a rolling stone.
She’s just gonna keep moving and she’s just gonna be fine.
Alice: It’s funny cause she says that the apartment that she’s found is two bedrooms and Buck just goes, Oh, so you’re really moving out? He lives in a one bedroom apartment that belongs to his ex and can’t imagine why she’d want to move into an apartment with two bedrooms.
Like, where’s she been sleeping? On the couch? Has he been sleeping on the couch and she’s taken his, like, invisible girlfriend’s bed?
Ellen: [01:11:00] Yeah, it’s a little awkward.
Alice: Like, it’s so strange. Has he turned the dining room back into a bedroom? Like, I don’t understand.
Bex: Oh no! Okay. I hope not.
Alice: It’s just like, Buck, what?
Bex: But it’s, I feel like Maddie’s storyline here is to, is the polar opposite of Buck’s. And it’s helping Buck to realize that everyone in this episode is stuck. Buck doesn’t realize that he’s stuck until he sees that Maddie is the most unstuck of them all. And it’s, and it’s making him reconsider his situation.
Speaking of stuck, we’re going to discuss how Chimney is stuck in this episode.
Ellen: Oh yeah. Yes, we do find out what his actual surname is because he is at the hospital. [01:12:00] Getting ready for an MRI scan and the nurse there asks him if he’s ready. You see, he says, are you ready, Mr. Han?
Bex: So, which yes, last episode, I don’t think I mentioned it, but I did specifically note that it is, it does say Han on the back of his turnout coach.
Ellen: Okay. So we did know that
Bex: So if you had eagle eyes last week, you might, we would have seen that he did have a surname. His name is Han. But here we get the, for everybody else who didn’t pick up on that little fact, we get the explicit name reveal.
Ellen: Right.
Bex: We don’t have a first name, but at least we’ve got a last name.
Ellen: That’s good. No, because everyone just calls him Chimney, even his girlfriend.
Alice: Even his girlfriends. Yep.
Bex: Hee hee hee. Yeah, so he’s gone in for an MRI and he says that he hates being stuck in this thing.
Alice: And by this point, we’re all very drunk.
Bex: [01:13:00] so we kind of think, oh, that’s what Chimney’s thing about being stuck is. It’s being stuck in the MRI, but no, it’s not being stuck in the MRI.
Alice: Yeah. That goes off without an issue.
Bex: Yeah. What the issue is, is that Chimney’s fine. He, his scans reveal that he has. Healed well from the accident and the surgery
Alice: we also get, and he hasn’t, the ex exposition that it was 10 months ago that his accident was Oh
Ellen: yeah,
Bex: And but not only has he healed well, but he hasn’t like taken any steps backwards. He hasn’t relapsed. He is ex, his brain scan is exactly the same as it was though when they last scanned him two months ago. It’s, I think the line explicitly is, you are exactly where you were medically two months ago.
Ellen: So he is stuck.
Bex: [01:14:00] So he, yeah, he’s not stuck in an MRI, but he is stuck is exactly where he was. Like the doctor was saying you’re exactly where you were medically, but Chim takes that as he is exactly where he was the last time he was in that hospital.
Alice: Yeah. Like his life has not changed at all.
Bex: He is metaphorically stuck in his life.
And we get that reinforced because as Chim is going to leave the hospital he has to wait for an elevator and a woman comes up next to him. And it’s Tatiana and it takes us a minute to recognize that it’s Tatiana because she is so fricking pregnant.
Alice: She’s very pregnant.
Ellen: Yeah!
Alice: So pregnant that Chim’s looking at her stomach and very quickly doing some maths.
[01:15:00] Tatiana like calls out that he’s doing the math and he’s like, “No, yeah,” but tells him that the baby’s her husband’s. And how quick did she get married? Because her, his accident. So she left him just like as the accident happened. So she left him 10 months ago. So did she like jump on bed?
Bex: She was the reason he had the accident. Yeah, because he got in the accident because he proposed to her and she said no.
Alice: And he threw a tantrum. Yeah. So,
Bex: And he, so I, yeah. I have a feeling that Chim was not her only first responder that she was hooking up with.
Ellen: maybe. Or she jumped into bed with someone as a rebound and. Then they got married because they, yeah,
Bex: yeah. I don’t know. The optics are not good.
Ellen: No. Really not.
Bex: But the point is that she has, she is also, she is not stuck at all. She has very quickly, very rapidly, very much moved on from her her relationship with Chimney.
Ellen: [01:16:00] Yeah, not only that, but she, oh this might be later, when she says that, The accident changed her life. And
Bex: she, that’s, this is right now because she, she says that she’s kind of glad that she ran into Chimney because she wanted to call and wanted to tell him that the whole experience taught her how fragile life was. But also really exposed to her, the kind of person that she was. So, she apparently went to a clinic where you just spend ten days gazing at your navel tearing apart your personality.
Ellen: It’s the de-bitch-ify clinic. It’s where you go to learn how to not be a bitch.
Bex: Pretty much, yeah. And she has him to thank for it. For giving it, for being a reason that she made that decision to go there and made the changes which led to [01:17:00] her now being happily married considering she’d said she never wanted to get married and fully pregnant.
Alice: Very pregnant.
Bex: And then she checks in with Chim. She’s like, “so how your life going? You know, is there anyone special in it?” And the best that Chim can say is “I’m in a calendar.”
Alice: Yeah, he’s Mr. April in a firefighter calendar.
Ellen: And as soon as he sort of says it, he’s like wincing like it sounds pretty pathetic to his own ears. He’s like, oh.
Bex: It is. It is kind of. Yeah. You always hope that when you run into your ex, you can tell them about, you know, all the ways that your life is so much better now that you’re not with them, all of the great things you’ve done, the wonderful people that you’re now dating and, and Chim can’t do that.
Ellen: Yeah. But she gives him, like, a business card or something.
Bex: Who does that?
Ellen: And tells him to send her one.
Alice: [01:18:00] Oh, then the elevator arrives. Tatiana gets in and Chim decides he’s going to wait for the next one.
Bex: Yeah. He doesn’t want to be stuck in the elevator with her. Knowing his luck, the elevator would break.
Ellen: Oh, literally, right? The next call that the guys have got to go to starts out with this ATM. Which is in the middle of a car park. Like it’s a really, I don’t, this must be an American thing that, like, usually our ATMs are inside buildings.
Alice: According to Friends, it’s an ATM vestibule, but I will not be fact checking this.
Ellen: Okay.
Alice: I’m just taking Chandler Bing at his word and continuing on.
Bex: Oh, oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, you said “according to friends” and I’m going, Oh, you’ve got friends in America who told you about this. No, no. For everyone who’s listening at home, it’s according to quote unquote, Friends, the TV show from the 90s. (laughs)
Ellen: That’s exactly what I thought too. I’m like, Oh, Chandler what?
Alice: [01:19:00] as I said, I’m taking, I’m taking Chandler Bing on his word and I won’t be fact checking this. Okay. Because he, there’s an episode where the power blocks out and he gets stuck in an ATM vestibule.
Ellen: Right, right. Okay.
Bex: Yes, there is. I remember that one.
Alice: Yes. So it’s an ATM vestibule. I will not be taking any questions. So we get a montage of people coming into the ATM vestibule to get money out of the ATM and they’re like just binning their receipt without note, without like, looking at it. Or like one guy thinks it’s, it’s a setup for a prank video, but basically like all the receipts keep coming out with like. “I’m stuck inside. Please help. Call 9-1-1.” Until finally, a woman tries to get money out and the machine doesn’t dispense any cash. Instead, it just sticks out a receipt going, “Stuck in ATM. No cash until call 9-1-1.” So, we get a 9-1-1 call.
Ellen: [01:20:00] Yeah, and this, this woman is like, I don’t know, she’s just like, seriously unconcerned about someone being stuck inside the ATM.
She’s like, “The machine won’t give me my money. It just like, it told me to call nine one one” and, and Abby… Abby? Maddie says, you know, “I’m sorry, what?” And she’s like, “I think there might be someone stuck inside there.” It’s like, why did you not lead with this? Like you just, she’s more worried about the fact that she hasn’t got her money.
Alice: Yeah. Like inside the machine. “Are you sure?” “I’m sure I don’t have my money.”
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Maddie is having a great day with women calling and with just seemingly bullshit it. Calls that actually turn out to be real emergencies that she could have gotten to a lot quicker if they had just led with, “Hey, my friend got a head stuck in a tailpipe” or, “Hey, I think there’s someone stuck inside the ATM.”
[01:21:00] But this is a cool a nice little scene where we see the 118 responding to this call, doing all of the things that they have to do to get this guy out of the ATM, but it’s quite crossing backwards and forwards and they’re all having private conversations with each other that are all sort of interlinked and interconnected as they’re working.
Alice: Yeah it’s, it’s a really cool thing and I just realized that Eddie’s not there?
Bex: Not there.
Alice: So maybe he did go home with his, I’m very confused.
Bex: I, I don’t know, maybe.
Alice: Or maybe they gave him the next day off because he couldn’t find child… anyway.
Bex: Anyway, so we’ve got Buck and Bobby who are working on trying to get the door to the vestibule open and then we’ve got Chim and Hen who are preparing the gurney and the first aid kit well the med kit for providing medical attention to the guy when they get him out.
Ellen: [01:22:00] Which truck did they roll up in?
Bex: We don’t see it. Oh, it was the engine truck. Okay.
Ellen: They
Bex: don’t
Ellen: have an ambulance?
Bex: No, they have the ambulance. So we see Chim and Hen getting in the stuff in and out of the ambulance. So they came in separate vehicles today.
Ellen: Okay. Thank you for the update.
Alice: Important 9-1-1 facts with Bex.
Ellen: Yes.
Alice: Yeah. So Buck and Bobby are discussing Abby’s house, and Hen and Chim are discussing Tatiana. So, Buck’s complaining that Maddie thinks that the only way that she knows that her real her new life is real is for her to go live in a two bedroom apartment in Eagle Rock. And, he’s like, “What does that even mean?”
And Bobby just goes, “I think it means she’s not comfortable squatting in some stranger’s condo.” [01:23:00] And Buck’s like “Abby, is not a stranger.” Like, isn’t she?
Bex: She’s not a stranger to you, buddy, but she’s a stranger to your sister. Maddie has never met Abby.
Ellen: Yeah, the whole situation is pretty awkward. I mean, but Maddie has never been shy about drinking Abby’s wine?
Bex: Abby’s shower. Using Abby’s shower.
Ellen: Yeah, yeah. Or sharing a one bedroom apartment with her brother. I don’t know. Yeah. Anyway,
Alice: And then Hen and Chim yeah, discussing Tatiana. So hen’s like, great. She has a new life.
Cool. So do you. And she was like, no, that’s the point. I don’t have a new life. I have the same life. And while Hen says that he should be grateful that he almost died. Chim was like, “I didn’t, I had a life altering trauma and her life got altered. All I got was the trauma.”
Ellen: [01:24:00] Oh, poor Chim, he’s going through it.
Alice: He is going through it.
Bex: We get a little bit of exposition where it explains that the we Bobby and Buck meet up with LAPD officer who tells them that the bank confirms that they sent a tech out to the vestibule to replace a lock. His van is in the parking lot, so they know he’s there, but his phone is in the front seat, which is why he has not been calling for help himself.
And they, I’m sure that there is an actual word for this kind of camera, but the only thing that my brain could think when I saw it was there was an endoscopic camera.
Ellen: Yeah, I thought that too.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: It’s a, it’s a little, it’s a little camera on a, on a wire and they feed it through the, the slot in the ATM where you put your checks in, to visually confirm that yeah, there is somebody inside there.
So now it’s about, okay, how do we get the door open and get him out?
Ellen: [01:25:00] I don’t know why they needed to put a camera in there. Couldn’t they hear him like banging on the door or whatever?
Bex: That’s what I thought. I don’t know.
Ellen: You can hear him from inside. People could hear him shouting from inside, the actual thing.
Bex: Yes. But it’s more dramatic when you get to see him on the little screen, I guess.
Alice: And to make sure that he’s still alive, or, yeah, I don’t know. Who knows?
Bex: What? So if he was dead, they just weren’t gonna bother getting him out?
Alice: Well, it wouldn’t have been a rush then. (laughs) So, Hen asks Chim if He expected her to wait, like Tatiana to wait, and Chim goes, “at least till I got out of my coma, because from the looks of her belly, I’m pretty sure she was getting busy while that rebar was still in my head.”
And yeah, like, Chim saying what we’re all thinking.
Bex: Yeah. We cut back to Buck and Bobby where Buck is basically complaining that he feels like Maddie is moving too fast, that she only just got to LA, she’s only just moved in with him and now she’s leaving again. [01:26:00] Basically, he’s getting separation anxiety because everybody always leaves him.
First Abby’s left him, now his sister is leaving him. He’s just, he’s in his feels in this situation.
Alice: He is in his feels. Bobby is like “She’s moving to Eagle Rock, not Alaska. It’s 10 minutes from your… Abby’s place. Your sister’s building a new life for herself and you should be proud of her.”
Bex: Meanwhile, I’ve got “Eagle Rock” playing in my head.
Ellen: Oh, yeah. How did I not think of that? Now I have “Eagle Rock” in my head. Thanks.
Bex: You are very welcome. For any Americans out there who have no idea what we’re talking about Google “Eagle Rock.”
Ellen: I don’t think it’s Australian. Is it?
Bex: It’s Australian.
Alice: Surely Eagle Rock is… Really?
Bex: Either that, or we have a very specific way of listening to “Eagle Rock. “
Ellen: Yeah, we do. But I don’t, I don’t think this song is Australian.
Alice: No, it is actually Australian.
Ellen: [01:27:00] Oh, okay. All right. Well, there you go.
Alice: And there’s a whole thing. So I literally just typed in Eagle Rock and there’s a whole thing about how people who say Australia has no culture have never listened to “Eagle Rock”, (laughs)
Bex: especially not at a party or a wedding.
Ellen: No. And but the, the, like, I, I never knew this was a thing until my husband told me about how they used to do it at, when he was at university and whatever, and I was just like, really?
Bex: well, that’s because we’re women, we, we don’t do that sort of thing. But, but guys, yeah, guys definitely do.
Ellen: Yeah. Okay, so we’re gonna have to explain it now. So when you hear this song,
Bex: we’re gonna have to explain it.
Ellen: When you hear this, when, when this song is played at a pub or a club or whatever, everyone drops their pants and starts dancing around in their undies, right?
Bex: We hope that they’ve got undies on.
Ellen: Yeah. And I’ve never seen this in real life, I have not. I’ve only heard about it. And I didn’t know until I was an adult. [01:28:00] And because when we were kids, I’m sure this was on like one of those, you know, Play School kids. Like album type things that we used to listen to all the time. And my kids love listening to it when they was small.
And I always thought that the, the like the guitar solo that’s in the middle of it is the lamest guitar solo you will ever hear, like go and listen to “Eagle Rock” and listen to the guitars. And it’s just, it’s terrible. But anyway, it’s a catchy tune.
Alice: I just looked up this, like the Wikipedia page, you know, the song “Crocodile Rock” by Elton John?
Ellen: Yeah.
Alice: That was inspired by “Eagle Rock.”
Ellen: No. Really?
Alice: Yeah. And I was like, yeah, no, that’s bullshit. But the cover of the album has a daddy, like, has a Daddy Cool badge on it. Oh.
Ellen: Well, that’s…
Alice: I’m like, what the hell?
Ellen: A random bit of trivia. Yeah. Wow. Okay. [01:29:00] Both, both bangers. Thankfully there are no, there are no wardrobe kind of connotations with “Crocodile Rock” as far as I know,
Alice: maybe glitter.
Ellen: Yeah, maybe.
Ellen: Anyway, that’s your Australian cultural lesson for the day.
Alice: Yes. We don’t have ATM vestibules, but we do have “Eagle Rock”.
Ellen: Yes. God help us. Anyway.
Bex: Back to the episode. We cut back to Hen and Chim, who are still talking about Tatiana. Chim is saying that he should be happy for Tatiana.
He’s like asking permission from Hen. Like she apologized. She said that she felt like maybe she’d been a bitch. So. You know, she’s obviously shown some growth, and Hen just frankly comes back with, “She was a bitch.” (laughs) And Chim looks at her like, What? And he, and Hen’s response is great. [01:30:00] She says, “You’re my friend, she’s your ex, you get to forgive and move on, I get to hold the grudge until I die.”
Alice: And it’s so true! Because yeah, like, there are so many of my friends exes that I hate and they don’t even think about them anymore. And I’m just like, no, fuck that guy.
Bex: I just love this encapsulation of their friendship. That Hen is very much Chim’s ride or die.
Alice: Yeah. Even my ex girlfriend who I still talk to, I’ve got friends that are just like that bitch and I’m just like, hey!
So then we cut to Bobby using the saw on the door because he’s gone back to the heavy lifting for the episode.
Bex: Yeah, doesn’t have to babysit anymore.
Alice: And Buck’s casually, “you think it’s weird that I still live in Abby’s place? And everyone.
Bex: Bobby’s just flat out, “Yes”
Alice: “Yes.”
Bex: [01:31:00] And then Buck says, “yeah, me too. Don’t tell anyone.”
Alice: Yeah, he says “It was fine at first because she was just going to be gone for a few months and I wanted to be supportive, but she still hasn’t come back. And, I don’t know what to do. I’m just…”
Bex: “Stuck,” says Chim. Which, it’s, it’s a beautiful, I loved, I love this part of the, where they just jump between backwards and, back and forth between the two groups, and they’re on, and we’re now at the point where they’re finishing each other’s sentences.
Yeah, it’s great.
Ellen: Well, it’s a great way for both of them to work through their issues without bogging the whole thing down, like. Yeah, because they’re still working at the same time.
So we get through the door, oh, actually, first Buck says, like,
Bex: With Chim’s saying how he feels stuck. He feels that he almost died, but his life is exactly the same as it was before. He said, it’s not like I woke up from a coma and I suddenly know how to play the piano or speak a foreign language.
[01:32:00] And then Hen is trying to get him to lower his expectations. And Chim says, “No, I think they’re low enough. I think they’re too low. I think I could lift my expectations.” So he’s, he’s very dissatisfied with his life at the moment.
Buck is also dissatisfied with his life at this moment.
Alice: Meanwhile Buck says that he hardly even talks to Abby anymore. It’s always time zone issues or cell phone problems. He goes, “Did you know that she’s been in Morocco over a week?” And Bobby just goes, “No, I did not know that.” And Buck goes, “Yeah, me neither. Found out yesterday on Instagram. Instagram. I still love Abby, I want her to be happy, but how long do I have to wait before I get to be happy too?”
Bex: Oh, Buck.
Alice: So we finally get, like, you know, cause, was it last episode? Yeah, last episode when he was dumping on Ali? About like, oh yeah, my girlfriend, she’s traveling, rah rah rah. [01:33:00] He’s finally admitted, okay, yeah, I’m not happy.
Bex: Yeah. And I do love that Buck has… Because for all of the, the himbo energy that Buck gives off, occasionally they give him these real, really beautiful one liners that let you know that he’s a lot deeper than he looks on the surface.
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: So I think he did it, they gave him another one at the end of last season where Abby was telling him that he was going, that she was going away and he’s like, “I’m happy for you, but I’m also sad for me.”
Alice: Yeah.
Bex: Like, yeah. There is some emotional intelligence buried under those good looks somewhere, and this is another line that lets you know that, yeah, he’s, he’s not just a dumb blonde, he’s, he’s got some, some deep feelings, some big feelings, and he actually knows how to articulate them on occasion.
[01:34:00] Not all the time. But on occasion.
Alice: Yeah. So, Buck uses his anger and frustration for one last big, like, big pull of the door and they get it free and they reveal a very hot and sweaty looking ATM tech who goes, “I don’t know this Abby person, but I’ve never been happier to see anyone in my life.”
Ellen: See, he heard them talking, like, they didn’t need to put the camera in the door!
Bex: That’s the great thing. They’re having these really in depth, deep and meaningful personal conversations just out in public while they’re people that they’re trying to save. are trying to, are listening.
Alice: Like he’s like fighting for his life. He’s all hot and sweaty. It’s LA, it’s the summertime. And they’re just like, fucking Abby, fucking Tatiana, fucking rebar.
Bex: It’s, it’s shades of the, the palm reader, the tarot reader. Yeah. Hen and Chim were discussing Hen [01:35:00] cheating and the tarot reader’s like, I could give you a reading, you know, if you wanted some answers on what to do with your ex.
Alice: And it’s like, well, stop talking about it in front of her.
Bex: Keep your personal life to your personal life. Don’t discuss it on the job.
Ellen: But then when. Like we’d, you know, we wouldn’t get through this episode as quickly because we needed to have all these discussions back in the firehouse. We have to do it on the way.
Bex: That’s true. That’s true.
Ellen: Anyway, we’re going to go to a jewelry shop now and a man is looking at some jewelry, but it turns out that when a sales lady comes to talk to him and asks if he wants to see one of the rings, the man just says, “Oh no, I already have a ring, I just. I just need a box to put it in.”
Bex: I love that he pulls out the ring that he is, he’s looking at engagement rings. [01:36:00] But the ring that he already has is a giant blue ring pop.
Alice: Yeah. Yeah. Like the candy.
Bex: Yeah. Yeah. It’s that big plastic thing that you slip on your finger and that’s got a giant candy diamond on top of it.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: Which, can I just say, he just pulled out of his pocket, and I’m pretty sure those things come wrapped in a plastic wrapper to stop, you know, lint and dust and dirt from getting on them when you shove them in your pocket. I don’t know if they come differently in the U. S., but I’m pretty sure they’ve come wrapped.
Alice: Does he actually say it’s a ring pop? Or is it just, yeah, maybe it’s plastic.
Ellen: It might just be like one of those ones that you get in like a cereal box or something.
Alice: Costume jewelry, yeah.
Bex: No, no, no, it looked massive. It looked like a ring pop.
Ellen: It did look like a ring pop, but you know, if he had it in his pocket without it being wrapped up, then maybe it wasn’t.
Bex: Maybe, I don’t know, maybe they had to unwrap it for dramatic effect because it didn’t look as cool if he’s [01:37:00] holding up a, like a foil packet that’s got a picture of a ring on it. But regardless, he’s in a jewelry store with a plastic possible candy ring saying I do not want to buy any of the beautiful jewelry I want you to give me a ring box for free so that I can put this candy ring in the ring box because the woman that I want to propose to the last time I bought her expensive jewelry from this very jewelry shop in fact, she went and pawned it and donated the money to charity.
So I’m not wasting money. Like, I know it’s meant to be, I’m going to respect her wishes and I’m not going to spend money on her, but it’s also, I’m not wasting my money on something that she’s just going to go around and hock later.
Ellen: Yeah. It’s a weird kind of a thing to do when someone gives you a present, it’s like, Anyway, each to their own.
And if he wants to ask her to marry him, then that’s fine. [01:38:00] But he, he goes to the mall and the woman whose name is Ariel? He calls out to her, right, doesn’t he?
Alice: Yeah, it’s Ariel.
Ellen: They’re on the phone, but he, he says, just turn around.
Bex: Yes, she’s standing at the top of the escalators. He’s at the bottom of the escalator, riding up the stairs.
Yeah. And she’s bitching and moaning, like, “Daniel, where are you? You’re late. I have to get back to work.” And he’s like, “just, just turn around.” She turns around and he gets down on one knee and I’m going, this episode is called stuck for fuck’s sake. Do not get down on your knee on the escalator. Do you know how dangerous those escalators are?
Ellen: He doesn’t even get his clothing stuck or anything. He just falls through the top of the escalator, it just
Bex: Yeah, so the proposal goes off without a hitch. He gets down on one knee, he pulls out the ring pop, she says yes, he stands up, he’s perfectly fine at this stage, nothing is caught, he takes a step off the escalator onto the panel at the end, [01:39:00] which then completely just disappears from under his feet, and he falls.
Ellen: Yeah, how has anyone else got up that escalator in one piece today?
Bex: It’s very interesting that she was standing there, not moments before, and everything was fine. But him, no, him stepping on it is what causes the cover to slip. He falls, and for a few seconds he’s kind of holding himself up by his like armpits on the edge of the cavity.
But something has obviously got stuck. in the machinery underneath, and we hear a grinding noise, and we hear a spattering noise, and then he disappears from view.
Ellen: And Ariel just like screams.
Bex: Yeah. Oh, yeah. So we get a 9-1-1 call, which I know it’s a transition technique where they’re using the call to set up that a guy has fallen in the machine.
the escalator. It’s the most useless 9-1-1 call in the history of the world though. It’s like, [01:40:00] “This guy just fell into the escalator.” Like, wait, where? Which mall? Where in the mall? Which escalator? I need some identifying details. Yeah,
Ellen: I’m going to assume that information next after, you know.
Bex: But wouldn’t you lead with that information? Like, hi, I’m at the yadda yadda mall. A guy has just fallen into the escalator. So at least you could start picking which firehouse you’re going to send a crew from.
Alice: No, no, no
Ellen: People don’t think about that when they’re panicking.
Alice: No location only scream.
Bex: No location only scream. Okay, cool. Eventually, yeah, the, the 118 get dispatched.
They’re in their not quite as sexy, but still somewhat sexy outfits because they’ve got their turnout pants and their suspenders on over their duty uniforms. So semi sexy.
Alice: So Hen tells us that they were working on the escalator overnight and the panel mustn’t have been put back properly, which is a pretty big fuck up.
Bex: [01:41:00] Oh, yeah.
Ellen: What time of day is this though? Like is it just opened?
Bex: I’m assuming it must be lunchtime ish because Ariel’s saying she needs to get back to work so she’s out on her lunch break, I guess. Again, once again, 9-1-1 not giving us any timestamps or any cues as to what time of day things are occurring.
Alice: Yeah, so Ariel’s crouched by the, like, big hole in the escalator. She’s holding the ring box and talking to Daniel, telling him the fire department’s there. And all we can see of Daniel is his upper body and arms, and the rest is inside the machinery. It’s scary.
Bex: If you’re at all squeamish, now is a really good time to, like, fast forward through the episode because it’s just gonna get gross from here on out.
It’s just awful. [01:42:00] Chim, being the smallest of the 118, gets the fun job of climbing into the escalator to see what’s going on. And what’s going on is the giant gear is like dug into the back of Daniel’s thigh and the chain is wrapped around his leg. And he’s like, he’s so very stuck in that machine.
Ellen: Extremely stuck.
Bex: And there is a giant puddle of blood underneath him. And so Chim pops back up to report that he thinks that the gear has possibly nicked his femoral artery.
Alice: Yeah, which is a big fucking artery.
Bex: Yeah, it’s quite deep down in your thigh too. It’s not particularly easy to cut it, but once you do cut it, you’re going to bleed out very quickly.
The only saving grace for Daniel is that while the gear might have nicked the femoral artery, the tension of the chain is acting like a tourniquet and stopping him from bleeding out. [01:43:00] So, it’s both killing him and saving his life at the same time.
Alice: Yeah. So then we get “Miracle” by Churches playing over the top?
Bex: Oh, that’s mean.
I didn’t know the name of the, the song, but that’s, that’s, that’s mean. It’s basically like
Ellen: They were singing about a miracle.
Alice: I think getting a miracle or something. Yeah, I’m asking for a miracle. Yeah, that’s it, yeah.
Bex: That doesn’t fucking happen, does it?
Ellen: Spoilers. Well, for a while you’re, it’s all pretty hopeful.
Like the music is kind of you know, tense while they’re getting him out of there. But then once they do
Alice: Yeah, so they, They cut the chain. They put a real tourniquet on him.
Bex: Yeah. Chim drags him out. Unfortunately Daniel wakes up at this point. It probably would have been a blessing if he’d stayed unconscious for all of this.
Alice: But yeah, so they, they cut him out they drag him out [01:44:00] and lift him onto the backboard to keep him still.
Ellen: He’s just screaming the whole time.
Alice: Yeah. But once he’s on the backboard, it seems like he’s stable. Like he looks up and he goes, what did she say? And Ariel’s standing close by wearing the ring pop on her ring finger.
And so Chim says, “I think she said yes,” and Daniel smiles and we’re like, yeah! And then he immediately starts seizing and goes into cardiac arrest.
Ellen: And they try to, like, Chim goes to town on like CPR and he’s like, he’s doing it for a while trying to get things going and then, but Hen just stops him and says “He’s gone.”
Bex: They did this nice little thing where, even though they didn’t have a heart rate monitor or any kind of CPR machine, the music was overlaid with the sound of a heart rate monitor, beeping, beeping, beeping very slowly. [01:45:00] And then we get the beep that we all know from TV shows and movies is flatline means they’re dead.
So it was a very effective way of informing us as the audience that he was dead.
Alice: He’s gone.
Bex: And. There was no point for Chim to keep going.
Ellen: Yeah. Chim’s really devastated about this.
Bex: And then just to really like, twist the knife a little bit harder, Ariel throws herself down onto Daniel’s body and just sort of curls herself up on his chest and starts wailing as the 118 just kind of stand there and watch her.
Alice: I really hope Ariel gets a big fucking payday.
Bex: Oh my god. But would she though?
Alice: Well, if she sued them, I guess.
Bex: But his [01:46:00] family would get a payout because he was, you know, he died at the scene, but
Alice: Oh, his would absolutely, but that’s what I mean.
I hope she gets one as well because like surely she’s got a super emotional damage as if not anything else.
Bex: I don’t know.
Yeah, somebody somewhere is paying a fuck ton of money to somebody for what just happened. And it looks like it affects, it affects the 118 as much as it affected us as the audience because the music is very somber and very sad as the truck slowly backs into the firehouse and everybody gets out.
Alice: Which truck?
Bex: Ah, I think it was the ladder truck? I honestly did not make note at that point. Yes. Yes, I failed in my duties. I apologize. I will do better in the future.
Alice: Official truck check. Truck tracker is
Ellen: Say that five times fast!
Bex: It doesn’t really matter because we don’t know what [01:47:00] truck they left in. So it doesn’t matter which truck came back in. Cause I don’t know what truck they left in. All I know is that there was,
Alice: which truck would they need? Both?
Bex: I’m going to say they probably would have gone with the ladder truck. Cause that would have had more of the tools on it. and in case they had to go up at some point. But that’s not the point. The point is everybody’s sad because they lost somebody.
Ellen: They are sad.
Bex: And, and Chim seems to have been hit the hardest by this.
Alice: He’s also covered in blood.
Bex: Yeah, you can’t tell because his duty shirt is dark, but once he starts pulling that off, you can see his white undershirt is just red. So his, his shirt must be absolutely soaked.
Ellen: So he, he’s in the locker room and the glass that broke last week during the, you know, earthquake is now all repaired.
And geez, they didn’t…
Bex: Still full glass though.
Ellen: They didn’t, [01:48:00] they didn’t mess around with fixing everything up because the whole place is back in order.
Bex: Yeah.
Ellen: It can’t be that long ago.
Bex: If you’re going to prioritize. where you’re going to do your repairs, then your first responding units is going to be the first place you’re going to repair.
Because you’re going to need them to be able to keep working.
Alice: Yeah, the glass on that locker room definitely needed fixing. Yep.
Bex: I just think it’s ironic that it was, it’s glass again, that they didn’t decide that they were going to put walls up.
Alice: Like how do you get changed in a locker room that’s completely glass?
Besides in slow motion. (laughs)
Ellen: We’ve been through this already and we still don’t know.
Alice: No.
Ellen: Anyway, Chim is very upset and Bobby comes in.
Alice: It’s a sad moment guys, come on.
Ellen: Yeah, sorry, no laughing. Bobby comes in and asks him if he’s alright and, and Chim just says no, I, I’m not. [01:49:00] No. He says, I, I lived, I’m alive.
And, Bobby says, “yeah, you are.” And Chim’s like, “But why? Like, why did I survive and that guy didn’t?” And yeah, Bobby gives me a bit of a therapy chat here.
Bex: Yeah, I think Chim, it’s going back to Chim feeling stuck and looking at Daniel, and Daniel’s whole life was about to change. He wasn’t. Well, he was literally stuck, but in his life, he wasn’t stuck.
His life was continuing to move on, whereas, so he, in Chim’s mind, had more right to live. He had more to live for than Chim did, so why did he have to die? And Chim got to live. And then we find out that Chim remembers the accident. Yeah.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: He keeps replaying everything in his head, the, the look on Bobby’s face being wheeled into the ER.
He’s been telling people for months that he has no memory of the accident when in [01:50:00] reality he remembers everything.
Ellen: Yep. Absolutely Dean Winchester level levels of lying to everyone to avoid having to discuss any of it.
Alice: Yeah. Like he, he even literally says it’s easier just to not talk about it.
Bex: Yeah. Bobby gives him the pearl of wisdom that a life changing event can’t change your life if you keep pretending that it didn’t happen.
Alice: Yeah. He’s got to talk about it. He’s got to let it out to be able to process it. Otherwise, yeah, he feels like he’s still trapped in that car, sitting helplessly on the freeway.
Ellen: He’s stuck, you may say.
Bex: He’s, he’s still stuck on that freeway, but so he needs to talk about it so that he is not stuck anymore.
Alice: And Bobby, It finishes with, you’re not on that freeway, you’re not helpless, you’re right here. [01:50:00] And so are all the people who love you. And then they have,
Bex: it’s nice.
Ellen: oh, And then I cry.
Bex: It’s a beautiful scene. Chim is crying throughout this entire scene. Kenneth Cho did such a good job with this one. He really, really tugged on the heartstrings. And he and Peter did a beautiful job with this. beautiful scene.
Alice: It’s always nice when you see two male characters being vulnerable and they do it a lot in 9-1-1, which is great.
Bex: I think what’s great about this is we see like Buck being vulnerable with Bobby a lot but then you’ve got that father son dynamic.
Alice: Yeah, exactly.
Bex: But Chim and Bobby are more on the same level. Like obviously Bobby is his boss but age wise they’re closer together. So it, it’s, Yeah, it’s wonderful to see them opening up to each other and being vulnerable when there is no sort of father son relationship there.
It’s just two friends, two co workers. Yeah. Yep. But enough! Back to Eddie! [01:52:00] More Eddie cuteness!
Ellen: Yay! More Eddie and Buck! So somehow Buck has invited Eddie over to Abby’s place.
Bex: He’s lured him under false pretenses.
Ellen: Yeah, under the pretense of helping Maddie move house.
Alice: Damn predatory gays! (laughs)
Bex: Yeah. And Eddie’s so confused because he’s looking around the apartment and nothing is packed.
“I thought I was supposed to be helping your sister pack. It doesn’t look like she’s packed anything.” And Buck’s all, yeah. “Oh no, no, this is all Abby’s. Yeah. I lied. I’ve actually got someone that I want you to meet.” And Eddie, thinking back to the sort of last conversation that he had with Buck about dating, has just gone, Oh, fuck, Buckley. What have you done?
Alice: Yeah. Like specifically says, “You didn’t set me up. Did you?” And Buck’s like, “just trust me, this woman’s exactly what you need.”
Bex: And he looks so proud of himself and so excited about what’s about to happen.
Alice: [01:53:00] And Eddie’s just so full of doubt. He’s like, what the fuck is this guy doing?
Like, did he not get my signs? I had a thing for him, not, oh for fuck’s sake. Like, I took him to meet my aunt, thought we had something.
Bex: So there’s a knock on the door and Eddie, and Buck’s like, oh, she’s here, disappears to go answer the door. The door opens And it’s Carla!
Alice: It’s Carla! Yay! She calls him Buckaroo.
Ellen: So cute. She’s so happy to see him.
Alice: Gives him a hug. It’s so cute.
Bex: And Eddie can obviously hear what’s going on, and he sort of wandered into the kitchen to like, Who is this woman calling Buckroo? Buckaroo and baby and baby and says, Oh, I missed your face. [01:54:00] So it takes one look at Carla’s like, what the fuck Buckley?
Why did you think this is the woman that I need?
He’s got, he’s, he’s got to give it time. Just, just trust the process, Eddie, because Buck then introduces Carla and says that Carla is the finest home healthcare aid with years of experience navigating giant bureaucracies and as soon as Buck says bureaucracy the penny drops for Eddie. He’s like, ah, Buck didn’t set me up with a date, Buck set me up with someone to help with Christopher.
And then Buck explains for the rest of the audience that he thought that Carla could help Eddie figure out how to get Chris what he needs.
Alice: It’s so cute. The face that Eddie gives Buck.
Bex: The face! So for those of you who are listening we don’t all watch the episode at the same time. We all watch the episode when we’ve got a chance and we write notes.
[01:55:00] This week, we’re all kind of looking at the notes that I wrote for this episode and I have included screenshots. And specifically I’ve got a screenshot of this scene where Eddie is giving back the biggest heart eyes in the world. Because I just could not, I couldn’t not include it because it’s just so damn cute.
Alice: It’s yeah, it’s, it’s so cute. So Carla says that she’s red tape’s worst nightmare and she is exactly the Carla we remember from last season. Yes, because She immediately says to Eddie, “All right, we’ll go sit down and see what you’re working with. Besides that perfect bone structure.” And Buck just grins. Cause yeah, he agrees.
Bex: He’s also used to it. He’s like, he knows. He’s dealt with Carla. He knows what she’s like. [01:56:00] He would expect nothing less from her. But yes, he also agrees. And Eddie’s just like, “I do have perfect bone structure, don’t I? Thank you.” As he lets her lead him into the living room to to get to work.
So yes, Ellen was wondering whether we were going to see Carla again. Yes, we are going to see Carla again. I think this is a really cool way of getting her back into the show.
Alice: Yeah, absolutely. Like clearly she was a fan favorite from season one. And it’s nice that they brought her back.
Bex: Back to Chim. Not quite as fun and cute, but important.
Ellen: Yes. He’s having lunch with Tatiana. I assume lunch it’s daytime. So. Who knows in this show that the timelines are all weird, but
Bex: We’ll go with lunch.
Alice: It’s California, it might be dinner, who knows. The sun doesn’t set there anyway, so.
Ellen: Apparently. So, Chim’s in a bit of a better headspace now, so he can actually have a civil conversation with Tatiana.
[01:57:00] He didn’t know. He apologises for the last time they met in the hospital and he didn’t know what to say when he saw her. And so she tells him that she’s ready to hear it, whatever he’s got to say. And he just says, thank you. That all, all he did was pretend to be someone he wasn’t the whole time that they were together.
And telling her about things that he did, he had never done. And Tatiana asked him why. But I, I expected him to say something like, because that’s exactly what you wanted to hear. Basically.
Bex: No, no, no. Look, I honestly think it was never about Tatiana.
Alice: No.
Bex: That it was always because Chim felt like he had to live up to her expectations.
Yeah. But those were the expectations that he was putting on her. So he expected that she wanted him to be all of the things he was pretending to be.
Ellen: [01:58:00] That’s what he thought she wanted.
Bex: It was always about Chim. And he’s finally realized that himself, that he always thought that him just being Chim wasn’t enough for her. Or wasn’t enough at all.
Alice: Hmm. It wasn’t enough for anyone.
Ellen: But she says it’s enough. It was enough. Although not enough to keep her hanging around after she’d worked out, well, that she was a bitch. Anyway, he pulls out a giant gift bag and hands it over and she pulls out this rubber duck with like a firefighter hat on.
Alice: Giant rubber duck.
Ellen: It’s the biggest rubber duck I’ve ever, actually, no, that’s not true. It’s not the biggest rubber duck I’ve ever seen. I have seen bigger. (laughs) They do have a rubber duck race on the river and they’re, they do have some very large ones. But anyway, that’s beside the point. It is dressed as a firefighter
Bex: Is it like an art installation? I was thinking of the inflatable [01:56:00] rubber duck. Yeah. But if, but considering it’s for a baby, it’s pretty big. I don’t see that it’s the kind of rubber duck that would go into a bathtub.
Alice: No. It’s also dressed as a firefighter. So it’s just like, Hey, now you’ve got a duck dressed as your ex, but your new baby that was conceived like two minutes after you broke up with, anyway.
Ellen: It’s dressed up like your mom’s favorite kink. That’s not inappropriate at all.
Bex: Oh! No, what would be more inappropriate is if it was one of those special rubber ducks.
Ellen: Special rubber ducks?
Bex: Oh, honey. Oh honey, they vibrate.
Ellen: Maybe I don’t want to know.
Bex: You take them in the bath and they vibrate.
Ellen: Oh okay.
Bex: Yeah. Yeah.
Ellen: That would have probably been very inappropriate. (laughs)
Alice: He also hands Tatiana a copy of his calendar, so let’s be glad it’s [02:00:00] not the other type of rubber duck. (laughs) Yeah. So, Chim says that he really wants Tatiana to have a blessed life, and Tatiana says that she wants the same for him, and he says, well, I guess I’ll have to do that then, huh?
Bex: Yeah.
Alice: And then we go back to Athena, who we all forgot about, like, for pretty much all this episode.
Bex: Well, all she’s been doing is thinking.
Alice: Literally.
Bex: That was her entire, that was her entire arc for this episode was, here’s a promotion, think about it. So she’s been thinking.
Alice: Should I have extorted that convenience store owner?
Ellen: She must be on contract to be in every episode, so they just had to think up something for her to do.
Alice: Probably. I think they’re all probably contracted to be in every episode, but definitely, especially her.
Bex: [02:01:00] especially if you’ve got Miss Angela Bassett, you want to use her every way that you can.
Alice: That does explain the handcuffs last anyway
Bex: It’s, she’s still thinking, it’s like two o’clock in the morning and she’s still thinking.
Ellen: Yeah, but she’s in bed with Bobby.
Bex: Yes, and her thinking is so loud that it wakes Bobby up and when did he start staying over?
Alice: Yeah. Well, I mean, he’s had dinner at her place now, so I guess he…
Ellen: Maybe she’s staying over at his place.
Alice: No, it’s definitely her place.
Bex: Yeah, that’s, that’s her house.
Alice: It’s architecturally designed, it’s definitely her place.
Ellen: Well look, Michael said that he can come in, so like, he’s coming in.
Bex: I don’t think Michael meant all the way in like that though. (laughs)
Ellen: He’s in, he’s in now. He’s part of the family now.
Alice: Michael’s like, come in for dinner. And Bobby’s like, okay. And just walks in, takes off his pants and goes to bed.
Bex: [02:02:00] So Bobby’s woken up and they have a conversation. And he’s like, I think it’s really, this is really interesting because Athena says she’s talking, she’s thinking about the promotion and Michael always assumed that she was going to take the promotion. Bobby’s response is, “Oh, you’re thinking about how you’re going to turn down the promotion.”
And Athena’s just like, how did you know that I was thinking about turning it down? Everybody assumes that I would be taking the promotion.
Alice: And yeah, Bobby says that. Oh, cause Athena says, she’d be crazy not to take the promotion. Bobby says, I don’t think it’s crazy to be happy with what you have, to feel satisfied it’s enough.
And Athena goes, is it enough? I like being out there, seeing with my own eyes what’s going on in the world, doing my job, personally extorting convenience store owners.
Ellen: That’s what I live for.
Alice: Then coming home at the end of the day and letting it all go. Know what I mean?
Bex: [02:03:00] And Bobby does know, because he is a firefighter, so he is out there every day.
Ellen: Yeah, he didn’t want to be behind a desk, and I feel you Bobby. Unfortunately I am behind a desk every day, but you know, it’s fine.
Bex: It’s just, it’s an interesting dynamic how these two men in Athena’s lives have different approaches to her. So, I think Athena has come to a conclusion. And Bobby asks her if she thinks that she can sleep now.
She gets this look in her eyes and says, “Oh, maybe not just yet.” And we get a little bit of canoodling. As we get another voiceover from Maddie to wrap up the episode.
Ellen: [02:04:00] Yeah, she says like, Bobby’s getting stuck in. No, she doesn’t say that.
Bex: Ironically, the first line of the voiceover is, “We all get stuck from time to time.”
Alice: Yeah, we do. Well, I mean, I assume.
Bex: And the first sort of montage y part is Buck helping, finally helping Maddie move, taking all of her stuff down to his Jeep so he can drive her the ten minutes to her new house. And noting that those two bags and whatever Maddie is carrying really is the sum of her entire belongings. Unless, as Maddie says, he wants to give her some of Abby’s stuff.
Alice: I love that she’s just trying to steal Abby’s shit.
Bex: She’s got some nice shit. Her wine glasses are nice.
Alice: Yeah, that’s what I mean. Like, Abby’s not using them. So like, I’ll take them.
Ellen: She wants to take the dishes.
Alice: And then immediately goes, I’ll, I’ll accumulate stuff. That’s the point of starting over. So like every time Buck invites her over for dinner, she just like takes a dish.
Like, no, I’ll, I’ll wash this at my place. Like don’t even worry. [02:05:00] But the voiceover continues with, and when we’re feeling stuck or even just a little too comfortable, if we’re very lucky, someone will be there.
Ellen: And who’s there for Eddie? It’s Buck!
Bex: It’s Carla and Christopher at this point.
Ellen: Okay, Buck’s not there. Why isn’t Buck there? He should be there.
Bex: Because he’s helping his sister move. He’s got other priorities.
Ellen: I guess so.
Bex: But we go in, we’re checking in with Eddie, his abuela is still in the hospital, but she’s looking good. She’s looking good spirits. She and Christopher have this big long conversation in Spanish, which we have no idea what it is because the subtitles simply say speaking in Spanish.
And my ear is not good enough to transcribe what Abuela was saying so that I could try and run it through Google Translate.
Alice: [02:06:00] Oh God, not Abuela’s fast Spanish.
Bex: If anybody is a native Spanish speaker and wants to let us know what Abuela was saying to Christopher at this point, I would love to know.
Ellen: It doesn’t say it in the transcript, does it?
Bex: No, the transcript comes from the closed captions, so if the closed captions just say speaking Spanish, then the transcript is going to say speaking Spanish. Speaking Spanish, yep. So then the voiceover continues. “If we’re very lucky, someone will be there to give us a little push, or a kick in the pants. or just offer a hand to help us get unstuck.”
And we finished the episode with Buck looking around the dark and empty and lonely apartment that he is still stuck in and finally coming to the realization that he is stuck. And he should probably do something to change that.
Alice: So yeah, good episode. A lot of sad bits, but well balanced, I think.
Bex: I keep forgetting about the sad bits because I focus so much on the cuteness.
[02:07:00] Like, oh, it’s Buck and Eddie and Chris, it’s so great. Oh shit, the Escalator one’s in this.
Ellen: Yeah. Well, I feel like a lot of different characters had some, had a lot of development in this. Like, you know, they, they had growth. Like almost, almost everyone grew in some way.
Bex: I think that’s why this is one of the, the better of the themed episodes because yes, everyone was on theme, but we got the character development and the character growth within the episode.
Yeah. The theme helped to develop our characters. The characters weren’t just there in aid of the theme. The theme was there in aid of the characters. So well done John S. Gray.
Alice: Yeah, right. And some really good ensemble moments, like, which was the problem that we, the big problem that we had with “Karma” is that it was just, Oh, like Hen and Chim are doing something now Hen and Athena are doing something.
Whereas this, like, even though it had like Chim and Hen having a conversation while Buck and Bobby had a conversation, it was interwoven.
Bex: [02:08:00] Yes. So they were all still there at the same site working together, it was just working together, working separately.
Alice: Like even though Buck was the main one that was helping Eddie out with Christopher, when Christopher came to the firehouse, like, Chim was just like, yep, cool, I’ll, I also adopt this kid, like, Hen’s happy to talk to him, Bobby’s happy to talk to him, like, it’s not just like two characters going off and doing stuff.
Bex: We didn’t get a lot about Hen and Bobby in this episode, sort of their stories didn’t advance, but they were still there and they still felt present. They weren’t just afterthoughts. They weren’t just being the, the exposition for the audience, which is unfortunately what they would sometimes make Buck do when they couldn’t figure out how to get him in.
Hen still felt like she was a part of this episode.
Alice: Hen had some really good lines. Yeah. Like when she’s like, you know
Bex: I’m going to hold the grudge. You get to forgive. I hold the grudge for life.
Alice: Yeah. I’ll hold the grudge for life.
Ellen: [02:09:00] Yeah, they were all so lovely with Christopher as well when he was in the in the firehouse. That was, that was a, my favorite scene, I think, of this whole thing.
Alice: Yeah, definitely.
Bex: And I, I think you really see that it, it wasn’t just Chim and Hen and Buck being nice to Christopher. It was Kenneth and Aisha and Oliver and Ryan being nice to Gavin and just really enjoying having a scene with Gavin.
Ellen: Yeah.
Bex: There’s no acting there. They, they really do just love this kid. And he looks like he’s having a ball.
Ellen: He does. Yeah.
Alice: All right. So what’s on next week?
Bex: We get to hang out with the awful people next week.
Ellen: Oh, it’s like the opposite of this week.
Bex: Yeah. Oh, very, very much so.
Alice: we’re “stuck” with some awful people.
Bex: We are stuck with some awful people. The official summary tells us.
[02:10:00] Wanting to see the faces behind the 9-1-1 calls, Maddie goes on a ride along with Athena while dealing with a seemingly quote unquote, perfect dispatcher back at the call center. Meanwhile, Hen must figure out how to save her family from permanently falling apart and the new first responders deal with emergencies, both at a military funeral and a movie theater.
Alice: Okay. I hardly remember this episode.
Bex: I completely forgot about it. I skipped straight over and tried to think, tried to go to the next one.
Alice: You literally did. You were messaging me on the next one and I’m like, “ummmm”
Bex: I thought that I would review the next week’s episode so that I got the trigger warnings correct.
Cause sometimes I don’t agree with the trigger warnings or I don’t remember what the trigger warning relates to. Yeah. And I completely started. Watching episode six, and messaging Alice going, “Why doesn’t the trigger warning talk about this?” [02:11:00] That’s because it’s the wrong episode. So the triggers for this episode include car accidents, minor, but there are a lot of them.
Some homophobic and racist language from a Westboro Baptist church type group. We have a gunshot victim and we have a drug overdose.
Alice: Yeah, a bit heavier next week, I think. I mean, I say a bit heavier as if we didn’t just have a guy trapped in an escalator.
Bex: But we don’t have the lightness of Christopher.
Yeah. In next week’s episode, so that immediately just drags it down.
Ellen: Yeah. All right.
Alice: Yeah, apparently kids that act need to go to school occasionally.
Bex: What?! Yeah. What do you mean they can’t work 16 hour days on a set?
Ellen: That’s probably a good thing.
Alice: Oh, absolutely, yeah.
Bex: Oh, yeah, 100 percent,
Alice: but we miss Chris.
Bex: We do.
Ellen: Yeah. Well, we’ve done a lot of squealing about Buck and Eddie in particular in this episode, [02:12:00] but please let us know what you think. We’re, we’re happy to take your screaming comments or in a, in a positive way, please don’t scream at us in a negative way. That’s bad.
Alice: We get sad. We’re only small.
Ellen: Yeah. So yeah, you can either message us on social media or you can send us an email, which is contact (at) thatweewooshow.com. And you can find, or you could put a comment on the post on our website. Which is also thatweewooshow.com. Thanks for listening this week. And we will talk to you next time about episode five, “Awful People.”
See you then.
Alice: Bye.
Bex: Bye.
Ellen: 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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