Critic’s Rating: 4.3 / 5.0
4.3
Well, that was something else.
9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 10 was a thriller, almost akin to a movie, with a thrilling and frantic pace and one hell of a climax.
When 9-1-1 commits to something, they really commit. And they wanted to raise the stakes impossibly high, and you can’t say they failed.
With 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 9 ending on a cliffhanger, there was little pretense about discovering that Maddie was missing. However, it became clear early on that there would be a lot of miscommunication and a lack of information flowing between everyone.
Fresh off Eddie’s goodbye dinner, Buck and Chimney quickly realized Maddie was missing. But considering they weren’t aware of what Maddie had been through that day or anything else, they seemed more confused than anything.
They weren’t at all jumping to the conclusion that she’d been taken against her will because no signs inside the house pointed to that.
You really had to feel for Chimney as the reality of the situation set in.
He grappled with whether or not to alert the authorities because everything inside of him was screaming at him to trust Maddie because of their conversation during 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 6.
Chimney promised not to treat her like she was broken, and you could see it was physically paining him to feel like he was going back on that word by immediately reporting her as missing when maybe she just needed to get some fresh air or some other plausible explanation was going to pop up in the next few minutes.
But there was a genuine concern considering Jee was left alone, something Maddie wouldn’t do and didn’t do when she previously left the city.
Framing the hour in a way in which we saw everyone scrambling to catch up to what was actually happening was frustrating, but it’s also a classic trope.
The audience knows who the killer is and has to watch everyone else piece things together over time while the killer tries to cover their tracks.
This was just a little harder to swallow because Maddie had made such strides over the years, and she and Chimney have been so committed to their family and communication since their breakup and reconciliation that it hurt me to see them think Maddie may have left.
However, under the circumstances, it wasn’t an option they could ignore.
Per usual, the best thing that could happen during a dire situation is to bring Athena into the fold because she won’t rest until she figures out what’s happening.
She was the first one to recognize how odd it was that the day Maddie worked this emotionally triggering and taxing case, she went missing and how there was no way that was any coincidence.
While Athena was ready to start her own private investigation, as only Athena could do, we were dropped into Amber’s basement as the story of Amber’s past and how it collided with her future slowly came into focus the more she and Maddie talked.
Overall, this was a very dark and intense hour. Great pains were taken to make it feel like you were watching a movie, especially during the scenes in the basement as Maddie continuously pleaded with an unforgiving Amber.
While Amber’s motive was initially unclear, we first saw what was happening when Maddie drifted in and out of consciousness and saw Amber conversing with herself but with two distinct identities.
The two identities were fighting with one another, and right then, it became apparent this was going to be a case of Dissociative Identity Disorder or something in that realm. Though it should be noted the show never explicitly states Amber has the disorder.
The disorder is characterized by having multiple personality states that frequently switch between each other, which was exactly what Maddie witnessed during her brief moment of lucidness.
The disorder has been depicted in numerous films and often exaggerated offensively for the purposes of stories like this, in which a person with the disorder is a bad person or a killer. It’s not the first time dissociative disorders have been portrayed in this light.
Maddie tried every time she could to get Amber to trust her again, but that trust was broken when that first 9-1-1 call was made. Everything Amber did moving forward was to protect herself, as she knew Maddie had gotten way too close to the truth.
One thing about constantly putting the 9-1-1 characters through some of the most surreal and horrifying situations is that they’re prepared for it all, and every second Maddie was alone in that basement, she was formulating a plan.
Maddie’s a fighter, and after the life she’s led, you know she would never accept her fate without pushing back and doing everything in her power to get home to her family.
While Maddie was planning her escape, Athena and Romero launched a whole investigation into Richard Bullock’s death, and it played out slowly.
I understand what they were going for with this whole thing, but since we already knew that interrogating Isabelle wouldn’t likely lead them to any meaningful conclusions, much of the Athena and Romero stuff felt superfluous.
Though, I will always love a good Athena and Romero team-up for selfish reasons—they work so well together!
The key to figuring out Amber was behind everything started to feel like it was a conclusion no one would get to until they finally learned about Amber’s history. Then, everything began to slot into place.
Dissociative disorders can be triggered by trauma, which is what I assume was the assumption we were meant to make. Not everything surrounding Amber and her history was spelled out for us, which sometimes made things confusing.
I’m all about not spoonfeeding the audience every detail, but sometimes, a little more explanation goes a long way.
Peter was one of Amber’s identities and the one who was seemingly being forced to kill as per Amber’s wishes.
Things were a bit convoluted at times, making the episode’s climax feel rushed in certain aspects.
Amber was toying with Maddie when she brought Jayna to her, but she severely underestimated Maddie and her survival skills.
Before she and Amber fought, though, Maddie kept telling Amber to fight ‘him,’ and I assumed the ‘him’ was the man who originally kidnapped her and thus triggered her disorder. I think?
Maddie may never have been in the exact same situation as Amber, Jayna, or the other runaways taken, who unfortunately did not live to tell their stories. But she knows about being a prisoner to someone, and she fought valiantly to help Amber in that moment.
I wasn’t entirely sure about everything happening in the end, but I was sure things were poised to go disastrously bad when Chimney showed up at Amber’s house!
Over the years, 9-1-1 has done some gruesome things and had some genuinely intense and shocking moments.
When I think of some of the most surprising, I think of Christopher being swept away from Buck during the tsunami arc, Athena’s assault, and the entirety of 9-1-1 Season 2 Episode 13.
Maddie’s throat-slashing has officially joined that list.
Even if the logical part of my brain said that Maddie would find a way to survive, that did not stop the impact of that scene, which was about as jaw-dropping as it gets. I may not have been worried about whether or not Maddie would live, but what about her unborn baby? What about the lasting damage?
It was hard to watch that scene and not have your mind begin to conjure up numerous scenarios and questions, and while you’re doing all that, Chimney was now upstairs, unaware his wife was bleeding out in the basement.
Everyone involved in the story did excellent work, from Abigail Spencer’s gripping work (you could never take your eyes away when she was on-screen) to Jennifer Love Hewitt’s quiet-yet-loud portrayal of a woman fighting and never giving up.
If you’ve seen Love Hewitt in various projects over the years, then you know she’s an incredibly versatile actor, and she knocks this hour out of the park. Maddie’s every emotion is etched on her face, and she and Spencer are transformative in this hour.
Kenneth Choi also put in some great work, as he always does, even though he was relegated to mostly being the grieving spouse trying to make heads from tails and keep it together for his daughter.
It seemed like he may have gotten away with acting nonchalant while on the phone with Athena, but Amber’s adrenaline and paranoia weren’t allowing for patience, and when she pulled the gun on Chimney, I thought she was going to pull the trigger.
How Maddie, with a punctured neck, managed to get up the stairs and wield a hammer with enough force to know Amber out is something only seen on television.
But everything from that moment on is a flurry, from Athena killing Amber to the ambulance and then cutting to the hospital and seeing Maddie was okay.
9-1-1 typically wraps things up quickly, but this was super abrupt.
My eyes were still moist, my breathing erratic, and I was smiling at the idea of Maddie, Chimney, and Jee cuddling a new baby boy someday, only to be dropped into the Buck and Eddie goodbye scene.
Any time we saw Buck and Eddie before the episode’s end, they looked like they hadn’t slept in days, which they hadn’t. So, seeing them fine and smiling threw me off for a moment. But with Maddie okay, it was back to business as usual, I guess!
Buck had a little breakdown when the two were out canvassing the neighborhood, which felt like heavy foreshadowing if I ever saw it.
Buck is very much a person who reacts to situations. He has a reaction-type personality, not a proactive one.
He’s out searching for his missing sister, detailing everything that has happened to him recently. He’s struggling to make sense of them, and if I had to bet, I’d say he thinks he needs to correct or fix the things that have gone wrong instead of learning from them and trying to move forward.
His life has been out of balance, and Eddie leaving him feels like the icing on the cake of a heartbreaking little run for him.
These two guys know each other incredibly well, perhaps better than anyone, and they know when to push and when to pull, but Buck’s too caught up in his own valid feelings to see how much the move affects Eddie.
Eddie does not wear his heart on his sleeve. He’s much more deliberate in expressing his emotions, in contrast to Buck, whose heart is on constant display.
Of course, leaving everything behind in Los Angeles has affected Eddie. He’s cultivated a beautiful life there, and leaving it to return to a stifling environment, at the best of times, must have him crawling out of his skin.
Everything he’s doing is for the greater good, and he’s putting on a brave face, but he must be incredibly conflicted about his present and future. I wish we had more of Eddie’s perspective over the past two episodes and dove into his emotions surrounding things.
The story has been more Buck-focused, as evidenced by Buck listing out how his life has been affected recently and also in the goodbye scene, which felt more about Buck than Eddie.
Both men seemed a little nervous as they prepared to say goodbye to one another as if they were unsure how to maneuver.
It’s an interesting thing to say goodbye to someone you typically see on a daily basis, knowing you’ll still see and talk to them but that the very core of your foundation is about to change forever.
There will be no more catching up at the station before a shift, bumping fists while preparing to make a difficult save, or conversing about life in one of their kitchens under the pale moonlight.
Instead, their relationship would be reserved for texts, calls, and FaceTime, which Buck was having a hard time accepting.
It’s unfair to say Eddie handled things better just because his behavior was less demonstrative.
“I know this whole thing between us has been messy and hard. Both of us could have handled it a little bit better. But I hope you know you do matter to me.” – Eddie [to Buck]
These two are family, and families don’t always get everything right with each other, but the love is always there.
Buck and Eddie’s love is always there, and Eddie told him in that moment, lest he ever forget it: Buck, you ARE important to me.
Buck can often get in his feelings, which we saw frequently in the previous hour. He sometimes needs things explained to him, and while I do believe Buck already knew how Eddie felt, it didn’t hurt to hear it, and it’s something Eddie knew Buck needed in that moment.
Their relationship truly has such a solid foundation.
Framing the final shot as Buck looks absolutely devastated after sending Eddie off with a hug and tight smile felt purposeful, in the way we should probably assume that this story isn’t over yet.
Yes, this was Eddie’s goodbye, but the focus was on Buck watching Eddie go, not Eddie watching his former life bleed into the background.
Eddie has now officially left for Texas, and we should see what that looks like in the upcoming hours, but Buck’s still in Los Angeles, in a new home, without his partner by his side, and that look on his face screams that he’s not just going to be okay with everything moving forward.
In an interview after 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 9, Oliver Stark told me, when asked about what’s coming up for Buck, “I think he’s going to find himself in some situations or conversations that he considers somewhat uncomfortable, actually, as he’s forced to face himself in a way that he didn’t expect to.
“So he’s going to be put in some situations where he’s going to really have to look within and analyze himself and see what his own truths really are. So that’s coming up.”
We’ll have to see what exactly he meant by that, but after this hour, it’s safe to assume that Buck’s still got some things to work through. He’s still working through his feelings, and it should be fascinating to see what life looks like for him now in Eddie’s house without Eddie there next to him.
Loose Ends
- Buck making sure to give Eddie some cookies for the road and sending him off like he was heading to college was very cute.
- Everyone showed up for Chimney, but there will always be something so special about the bond between Hen and Chimney.
- We must have missed Chimney telling everyone that Maddie was pregnant because no one was surprised outside of Bobby and Athena.
- Of course, it’s under horrible circumstances, but I love seeing the kids together.
- I worry about the lasting psychological damage for Maddie. The physical wounds may heal, but what she went through will leave damage.
That was a chilling hour of the series, and I imagine people will have many thoughts about it.
Please leave your comments below so we can discuss them!
You can watch 9-1-1 on ABC at 8/7c on Thursdays.
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