9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 9 ‘Sob Stories’ is a great mid-season premiere, thrilling, emotional, and heavy—with outstanding performances by Jennifer Love Hewitt, our final girl once again and forever, Ryan Guzman and Oliver Stark, centering a show that always knows how to tug at our heartstrings. And yet, in a way, this feels like it should have been the midseason finale. Because as this episode ends, we’re left with nothing but questions and feelings. Imagine if we’d had to wait three months after this?
The hour works because Maddie works as a character in her own right because we care about what she’s going through because even though she was introduced as Buck’s sister, it’s been a while she’s we’ve cared about her just because of Buck. And it works because Buck and Eddie’s dynamic—whether you want to interpret it as platonic or not, has been a compelling part of this show since Eddie was first introduced in Season 2. In fact, it was one of the reasons Ryan Guzman’s Eddie even stuck around, per Guzman himself.
But 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 9 ‘Sob Stories’ is clearly not the full story. No, this is the beginning of the tale the show wants to tell for Season 8B. Perhaps that, more than any other reason, is why we’re getting it now and not in November. And it feels like that story is finally ready to take us places we should have gone a long time ago.
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FINAL GIRL (AGAIN)
Maddie Buckley is an often-overlooked character. A lot of the narrative about her has to do with her importance to Buck, or her relationship to Chim, both really important things. But Maddie is not her relationship to these two important men in her life, and Maddie is also not her trauma. Her past trauma, or this new one. Maddie isn’t even the things she has done and will do to get out of this trauma or past trauma, which I assume will be a very big storyline going forward.
Instead, Maddie Buckley is a combination of things. The funny moments. The soft ones. The happy ones. She’s a sister, a wife, and a mom. She’s even a daughter. And let’s not forget she’s also a friend. She’s the kind of woman who will not sit idle when she thinks she can help someone. Because she’s been that person who needed help before.
That’s what she does during 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 9 ‘Sob Stories,’ try to help. She tries so hard and feels bad that she can’t do more. She even feels guilty that she lied during that 9-1-1 call, despite the fact that she was trying to save someone. And though the episode ends as catastrophically as it can for Maddie, the one thing we know for sure is that Maddie has nothing to feel guilty for. In fact, she should feel proud of how much she has gone out of her way for others. How much she’s fought. How strong she’s always, always been.
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GRAND GESTURES
Buck makes a grand gesture in 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 9 ‘Sob Stories.’ It’s the kind of grand gesture we’ve come to expect from Buck, and it comes after a lot of spiraling and a lot of mostly accidental sabotage. He starts with good intentions, he truly does, but this is all on par for the course for Buck, who was always going to spiral about even the possibility of losing Eddie, who has been his constant for seven years. The spiral, and even taking over Eddie’s lease at the end isn’t out of the realm of ordinary for Buck, not really. Buck is an overthinker and grand gestures are his thing.
It’s the storytelling decisions that come with all that, the way the show focuses on Eddie’s remark that “everything important is in Texas,” which we know is a lie, and which he himself makes sure Buck knows is a lie later. And it’s Eddie’s entirely normal (in the fact that it’s not normal) response to everything that Buck does in this hour that feel like a harbinger of things to come. Because, perhaps, until this moment, we could have still made this all about Buck. Most of Eddie’s spiral has, after all, been about Christopher. And most of Buck’s spiral has been telegraphed to the point that it’s not surprising. But this hour, however, shows us that what Buck and Eddie feel isn’t one-sided. It never has been.
That’s partly why Buck can make a grand gesture without it feeling like a grand gesture in a bad way, like a grand gesture in a way that takes something from him. Like a grand gesture in a way that hurts. Buck is the man who panics because he’s desperately trying to hold onto people in situations where he should, perhaps, let go. But this isn’t that. Instead, this is perhaps growth. Because yes, letting go of Eddie hurts. It was always going to. But this grand gesture is about giving Eddie not just peace, but perhaps, a way back to him. Even if Buck can’t see that yet.
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BETWEEN CHRIS AND BUCK
Maybe the wildest thing about 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 9 ‘Sob Stories’ is that Eddie, in his anger, refers to his decision to go to Texas as choosing between Chris and Buck. What do you mean between Chris and Buck, Eddie? Don’t you mean between Texas and Los Angeles? Or maybe even between Chris and your life in Los Angeles? Don’t you mean between Texas, the place that was stifling you, and the job that you love, the family that you’ve built? Is Buck really the most important thing in LA?
Don’t answer the question, we already know the answer.
Storytelling-wise, the words are an important choice. We’ve discussed before how everything has meaning on a TV show, and yes, 9-1-1 has made it patently obvious before that the two most important people in Eddie’s life are indeed Chris and Buck, but it’s very different to infer it from the show than to hear it from Eddie’s mouth. And of course, Chris has to come first. Chris is a kid, Eddie’s kid. I’ll argue that Eddie should truly talk to Chris before making an impulsive decision, but the basis of the choice to put Chris first isn’t wrong, and will never be wrong.
But not so long ago I argued that this show had written itself into a corner when it came to Buck and Eddie, and this episode reinforces that idea. How can we have Buck making the kind of grand gesture he does in this episode and not think this is leading to Buddie canon? How can we have Eddie making it clear that he feels as strongly for Buck as Buck does for him and not think this is leading to Eddie examining why that is? This is a beautiful friendship right now. But don’t the best love stories start that way?
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Things I think I think:
- “I know, that’s the problem.”
- Wasn’t Athena getting a partner?
- That voice is 100% using a voice manipulator, please.
- I mean, truly, what was she gonna do?
- A friend request from Gerrard?
- “Renovation is a gamble.”
- Also, Eddie, don’t buy a house! Rent one!
- YOU WERE JUST COMPLAINING ABOUT PROPERTY BROTHERS, BUCK!
- Trust me, Eddie, he doesn’t know what he’s gonna do without you either.
- Also the music in this scene is very rude.
- Not a Beagle! I had a Beagle.
- That dog is Buck and Buck is the dog.
- Abigail Spencer is giving creepy from the get-go, but I love Abigail Spencer so much.
- What if you were a man, and you were losing your best friend, and then your dog was taken from you, and then your sister was kidnapped? You’d lose it, right?
- Look, I hate to agree with Eddie, but maybe he’s right… you should leave, Buck. I know you’re not trying to sabotage anything, but you are sabotaging
- “Everything that matters is in Texas” HURT ME in my SOUL.
- This is the worst kind of fight, passive aggressive fighting!
- I hate it. I love it.
- Look, I’m not an angst person. I’m really not. But sign me up for Buddie angst if it leads to expressing feelings.
- Also, Hen and Chimmney + Bobby having a moment with Eddie is so important to me. Like, Buck and Eddie are Buck and Eddie, but the 118 is a family. And they all matter to Eddie.
- That was a dark call, Maddie. And it feels too easy.
- We don’t talk enough about how good Jennifer Love Hewitt is. Like, she is outstanding. Give her some awards, please.
- “He knows how to stay. Unlike some people.”
- “You only like to speak up behind my back.”
- Eddie looks like a kicked puppy because Buck is sad. Like, he was just saying a casual thing you say to people you don’t know, and Buck took it seriously and now he’s SAD.
- “I didn’t mean to out you in front of Cap and everyone else.”
- “It’s not my loft anymore.”
- EDDIE’S FACE.
- “You really did that for me?”
- “You really did bond with that dog in about 10 seconds.”
- BUT IS HE GOING BACK TO WHERE HE BELONGS?
- Yes, Hen is right, they did need to hug that out.
- The way Eddie looks at the house, I’m FINE.
- Hello, Abigail Spencer.
- Maddie, please be okay.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 9 ‘Sob Stories’? Share with us in the comments below! Check out our Tales From the 118 podcast if you want to listen to our 8B preview. On Apple Podcasts and Spotify! Plus, if you want to leave your own rating/comment about the show, you can do so in our 9-1-1 hub!
9-1-1 airs on Thursdays on ABC.
Enough with the gay sh!t already
No.