9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 2 ‘When the Boeing Gets Tough…‘ is an intense hour of television, carried by tremendous acting by Angela Bassett, who is the kind of actress who can make an hour that should rightfully be absurd feel not just emotional, but borderline nerve-wracking. It’s also a kind of bridge episode, because nothing actually happens, even though a lot happens. The episode opens with a mid-air collision and ends with the passenger plane still in the air, and no real clarity on how they’re going to get everyone to the ground safe and sound.
But that doesn’t mean the hour doesn’t pack an emotional punch, or that the show doesn’t do a great job of moving past the bees. It just means that, like everything that comes in threes, the middle part will probably not be anyone’s favorite one, even if it might be the one with the most filling.
MORE: Want to read our thoughts on the 9-1-1 Season 8 premiere? Here they are!
ATHENA GRANT SAVES HERSELF
Though this storyline isn’t yet over, to the surprise of absolutely no one who has watched this show for seven seasons and understands these characters, Athena Grant needs no one to save her – even if every once in a while, her husband can come in and do that. Athena Grant saves herself. Not just that, Athena Grant saves others, as well. She has proven that, again and again. That’s the reason we get a flashback to Emmett’s funeral in this hour, too. Not just for the emotional connection to the reason Athena became a cop, but to the emotional connection to the reason Athena is who she is – the person who saves others.
Because Athena Grant is the hero of this show, the hero of this story, and the hero of her own story. She might doubt that herself, sometimes, but the people around her never do. That’s why Bobby when Buck goes to get him, doesn’t hesitate for a second to believe that Athena is flying the plane, even though Athena should have no reason to be flying that plane. But if that plane needs someone to fly it, well Athena is going to figure out the way to step up because that’s what Athena Grant does. She steps up.
Athena might think that’s because of Emmett, but it isn’t. You don’t become the person you are because of someone else. You might be inspired to follow a certain path because of someone, but you don’t become the person you are because of another person. This is who Athena Grant has always been.
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THE 118 IS FAMILY
Outside of the big emergency, 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 2 ‘When the Boeing Gets Tough…’ is proof that the 118 is family. All anyone has to do is mention Athena is on that plane and Maddie, Hen, Chimney, Buck, and Eddie are hyper-focused on helping. They’re not even actually helping Athena, but they are first responders and they know that everything they do to help the people around Athena will help Athena too, so that’s what they do. They help.
9-1-1 doesn’t really have to hammer the message of home too hard, because it isn’t necessary. It’s had seven seasons to establish how this core group of people has gone beyond people who work together. They’ve already been there for each other in near-death situations and come rescue each other in moments when it made no sense to do so, so to get on a plane and triage some people – or in Buck’s case, to get Bobby at his showbiz job, is nothing.
It’s the least they will do for each other. TV plays with the concept of found families a lot. Very few embody it as well as the 118 does. And the thing is, they still have to get Athena off the plane, so…
MORE: What questions do we want answered from Season 7 of 9-1-1? Here’s a list!
TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
We don’t get to dwell on it, but 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 2 ‘When the Boeing Gets Tough…’ showcases the Buck and Eddie dynamic in a pretty interesting way, as Buck gets in his head after Gerrard is taken to the hospital. Eddie, who we all know is having a hard time, we’ve seen him, there’s a mustache to prove it, is participating in dance parties and by all intents and purposes having fun in the firehouse celebrating Gerrard is gone, while Buck is spiraling about the possibility that he might have actually wanted to hurt Gerrard, a possibility he confesses to Eddie like nothing because he trusts Eddie with even his darkest thoughts.
Eddie doesn’t even seem to pay much attention to his words, because for him they don’t even register. There’s no world where he considers Buck would actually be capable of trying to hurt Gerrard on purpose, so he dismisses the possibility much easier than Buck’s anxiety-riddled brain can. He just misses the fact that Buck needs verbal affirmation at the moment because he has always seen Buck with rose-colored glasses. If the day had continued as normal, Eddie would have probably caught on to Buck’s mood and been able to offer the reassurance he needed. But what are normal days in the 118 again?
On the other side of the coin, Eddie’s whole vibe when things are going badly has always been retreating and now seems to have swung wildly to avoidance. He’s clearly not ignoring the reasons Chris left, but he also doesn’t seem to be dealing with them, at least not yet. Not that we expected him to deal off-screen, the drama always needs to happen where we can see it. So, presumably after the big emergency, it’ll be time to explore the mustache and the avoidance Eddie is trying very hard to hide behind and everyone else seems content to let him get away with.
MORE: How are we doing on the list of things we wanted for Season 8? Check it out here!
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
Of course, it was always going to be Buck who went to get Bobby, and in a beautiful callback to Season 1, of course, this time it was going to be Bobby who stole a fire truck – with Buck – to get to Athena. Talk about coming full circle. Just as the relationship between these two has come full circle after a lot of moments where it seemed like their issues were going to get in the way of them really being what they deserved to be.
But here they aren’t at cross purposes, and they aren’t even being emotional about each other (we are just being emotional about them and how far they’ve come!) They’re just working together for a common goal – getting to where Athena is. The fact that this scene is both just a nice beat between two characters who know each other and like each other and a deep cut seven years in the making, well …that’s between us and a show that knows how to do those moments within a moment scenes. Hopefully, we’ll get many more of those than what we did in 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 2 ‘When the Boeing Gets Tough…’, not just between Buck and Bobby, but between this core cast that we hope we get to follow for seasons to come.
More: Here are all the Season 8 trailers! Here are all the pictures!
Things I think I think:
- The opening scenes establishing the passengers are actually pretty good considering the passengers are crucial to the message of “sometimes it takes a village” the show is kinda sending with this episode, a message that’s kinda twofold because, in so many ways, we know the 118 is a village too, and they’ve gotten through a lot of stuff together.
- Hen and Chim look like proper paramedics, which they are. Buck looks worried – too worried if you ask me, Gerrard doesn’t deserve it. But Eddie, his entire demeanor seems to be barely contained mirth. Who are you and what have you done with Eddie Diaz?
- When Hen said the words dance party, I swear my soul left my body. And EVERYONE WAS READY, except Buck of course.
- And the way Eddie looks at Buck as he’s dancing, too!
- The flashback to Emmett’s funeral was kinda cruel, not gonna lie. Also a little too heavy on the celebrating cops, but it is what it is, I guess.
- Truly hate the whole putting forgiveness on Athena thing. She doesn’t owe Jenkins that.
- I guess Jenkins is right, that is a good enough reason to kill, though. I’d say this is very Epstein, but there’s a lot of Epsteins out there these days.
- That whole sequence when the planes collide? Give Angela an Emmy, please. It’s actually absurdly hard to pull off that in a way that comes off as believable and not cheesy in a show where three characters just had a dance party after a guy almost got killed by a flying buzzsaw.
- Me screaming at Bobby to not turn off his phone.
- Athena’s speech to the plane felt very movie speech to me. Kinda like the President during Independence Day, what can I say? I’d follow her anywhere.
- Everyone’s face’s at “Athena’s on that plane.”
- FAMILY.
- But let’s talk about Buck in particular. He doesn’t share as close a relationship with Athena as he does with Bobby, but there’s no doubt that she’s been a very important presence in his life – if not a mother figure, at least someone he looks up to and greatly respects.
- Bobby, answer your wife! Especially when she’s leaving you “I love you” messages.
- “You’re gonna land that plane.” Easy. At least Athena reacts to that the way we are all feeling when we hear it.
- All we’ve learned from Bobby and the wannabe Captain actor is that Bobby doesn’t belong in showbiz.
- The scene with Hen/Chim/Eddie doing triage while Buck keeps trying to reach Bobby is perfect 9-1-1.
- As is the people on the plane helping each other. It’s the message of the show, once again, showcased with the regulars and the guest stars.
- But man, this episode is borderline too much. Don’t eat during it!
- Athena’s “that doesn’t tell me anything” is the most relatable thing that has ever happened. I would be freaking out if I were her.
- When Jim’s dad explained why they were going to Hawai’i there were tears in my eyes, okay?
- “We’re gonna be okay.” Are we gonna be okay, though?
- “I am 100% positive she has it under control.” But does she?
- Me and Athena having no idea how to figure any of it this flying thing because we suck at video games.
- So there is a Station 119?
- Yes go find Bobby yes yes yes.
- Okay, but how do we think Buck got into the set? Did he say there was an emergency? Did he say he was Bobby’s kid?! Jk but also not.
- The Bobby and Buck of it all got me very emotional, even if they brought along actor dude.
- Right, of course, a heart attack, why not?
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 2 ‘When the Boeing Gets Tough…’? Share with us in the comments below!
9-1-1 airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on ABC.
