9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 17 ‘Don’t Drink the Water’ is a superior episode about grief to last week’s ‘The Last Alarm,’ as a whole, but it works pretty well as a companion to it. The story about grief always had to focus on Bobby’s immediate family—his wife, and the man feeling responsible for his death first—and then fan out to the rest of his found family, and this episode does that effectively. The absurdity of Bobby’s loss is still keenly felt, but in this hour, it feels like 9-1-1 is doing a much better job of honoring the weight of his loss, of his absence, and that makes everything work so much better.
The grief part focuses on Buck, who could not, despite his promises to Bobby, hold it all together for that much longer, and Eddie, who carries immense guilt over not being there for Bobby’s final moments. For the two of them, the big, ugly feelings usually come out with each other, because they are each other’s person. Eddie sees what Buck is hiding, and in turn, Buck is the only person Eddie can show the real Eddie to.
And though there are no answers to be found on the other side of grief, not really, there is family. And the reminder that, as much as that changes, it never really goes away—not even if one part of it is missing.
MORE: 9-1-1 EP Tim Minear says killing Bobby Nash was realistic, but 9-1-1 has never been a realistic show.
OH, CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN?
The thing about Hen is that she’s the obvious choice to be Captain. Everyone thinks so. And yet the reasons she gives for not wanting to be so in 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 17 ‘Don’t Drink the Water’ also make sense. At least they make sense within the context of the real world, because somehow Bobby always had time! But if not Hen, then who? Unless Chief Simpson is suddenly going to ask Chimney or the show really is going to do the thing about having Buck be a replacement Bobby, there really is no outside candidate that’s going to fit in the 118.
So, this leaves the show stuck between a rock and a hard place. Short of resurrecting Bobby, there is no good answer here. Gerrard can’t stay, not even this weird version of Gerrard who seems to care what people think of him. The show already had the perfect dynamics, and everything else they do going forward is just building something new. And though there is some truth to what Pepa said, that there is no way to face change other than accept it and then take one step, and another… it feels like whatever 9-1-1 builds going forward will never live up to what it had before.
And yet, someone’s gotta be Captain of the 118. We can avoid the question for one more episode, but we can’t avoid it forever. And whatever decisions 9-1-1 makes here is sure to set the dynamics for the season to come.
MORE: Remember the cinematography of that Buddie goodbye scene? We’re still thinking about that.
YOU SAID I’D BE OKAY. AND I’M NOT
9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 17 ‘Don’t Drink the Water’ unravels Buck’s attempts to be okay, just like Bobby asked him to. The only way for Buck’s behavior last episode to make sense was for the show to do this, because the mask only makes sense when it falls. The mask only makes sense when there’s someone who can see through it, like Eddie did. Because, of course, Buck is not okay. How can he be? He lost the closest thing he had to a father, and he’s been trying so hard to be there for everyone, to be the strong one, that he’s cracking. And he thinks that he can’t. He thinks that he’s gotta fix it.
In the end, for Buck, the journey isn’t about being okay. It’s about realizing that, even though Bobby said he was going to be, he didn’t mean he was going to be okay now. He meant Buck was going to be okay eventually. He meant Buck had all the tools he needed. That Buck was already the man Bobby thought he could be. That Bobby was proud of Buck, even. And that, in the meantime, Buck doesn’t have to do it alone.
He’s got his 118 family. He’s got Maddie and Chim, he’s got Ravi, he’s got Hen and Karen—and he especially has Eddie. Eddie, who sees through the cracks. Eddie, who lets him see through his. Eddie, who sends for Chris not because he needs to see his son, but because Buck does. Because Buck is sad. And Eddie, who brings his tia Pepa home to cook for Buck because, sometimes, Buck needs someone to take care of him. And Eddie can be that person for him.
MORE: We almost miss the days when Abigail Spencer slashing Maddie’s throat was the worst thing that had happened on this show
I WASN’T THERE
9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 17 ‘Don’t Drink the Water’ gives Eddie’s grief some dimension, and it does so in the only way that makes sense. With Hen, Eddie opens up about Buck. He’s light and jokey, even though he’s sharing a piece of himself. With Buck, however, we see another Eddie. He’s raw, angry, and sometimes perhaps even unfair. But that’s what happens with someone you love and trust unconditionally. You let them see you, really see you. Even the ugly parts. And grief brings out the ugly parts.
Buck has been dealing with his grief by being helpful, and Eddie has been dealing with his grief by pushing it down, because that’s how Eddie always deals. Like a soldier. And with Buck, he finally lets it out. It’s unpleasant and it leaves both of them feeling off-kilter, but in the end, there are no apologies needed. Because it’s just about putting what they’re both feeling out there.
For Eddie, healing, as hard as it is, cannot come from going back to El Paso. His little “slip” at Hen’s contains the truth. Los Angeles is home. Buck is home. And yes, Chris was missing from that, but with Chris back in Los Angeles… what we see of Eddie at the end of the episode makes it clear that all the pieces are there. He just needs to let himself ask for it.
MORE: Is Eddie Diaz gay? ‘Holy Mother of God’ at least makes it a fair question to ask.
SOMETIMES YOU DON’T HAVE TO FIX IT ALONE
Buck and Eddie are so fundamentally tied to each other that this episode even intertwines their grief journeys. And like I said before, in a way, that makes sense. Who else is going to understand you but your best friend? Who else is going to understand you but the one person you have always let see you? For Buck and Eddie, that has always been the thing: who else is ever going to be as important to them as each other? Who else can compete? No one.
In this hour, as Buck is struggling with how to “fix” things, it’s Eddie who steps in, without words, and shows him that he doesn’t have to fix things alone. He has a partner. And that partner will step into literal and metaphorical fires with him and fix things with him and for him, even if that means bringing Chris from Texas to make him smile. And in this same hour, Buck is a safe place for Eddie to say the things he wouldn’t say to anyone else—even when he isn’t at his best.
That connection, that synergy, is what people see. It’s why they want Buddie. Take away the rest, and not only do these two people make sense together, but at this point, they don’t make sense with absolutely anyone else. So, where else does the show go from here?
MORE: We said it was time for Buddie canon now. Is someone listening?
GRIEF ISN’T FAIR
It feels like Athena is being unfair to Chimney in 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 17 ‘Don’t Drink the Water’, and yet, whoever said grief was fair, or that it had to be? Considering Athena is already back to work—distraction is sometimes the only thing that helps—and that she’s not all that upset about living in the house that was going to be hers and Bobby’s, she should be allowed to be somewhat irrational about something. She just lost her husband. And even the rest of the things, the part where she’s seemingly ‘back to normal’ are just her way of dealing with grief. People deal differently.
What she needs is time and space. What she deserves is time and space. Not people expecting her to be okay tomorrow, or people policing what okay means for her right now. And sure, people sometimes expect grief to take one form, and when it doesn’t, they have no idea how to deal with the different shapes it takes. But this is still her grief journey, and we should absolutely respect it. Even if we cannot understand it.
MORE: The fan reaction to Bobby Nash’s death was somewhere between angry and heartbroken. We’re still feeling like that.
Things I think I think:
- I will say, having the episode be called “Don’t Drink the Water” and have that be not related to Eddie, or the juice conversation, while having Hot Priest in the episode is… a CHOICE.
- The memory at the beginning kinda killed me. You can’t keep doing this to us, 9-1-1. But also, don’t stop.
- “There are clocks that are less predictable.”
- Eddie being worried about Buck made me a little emotional.
- “You’re worried about Buck’s level of worry?” Look, it makes sense for them!
- Karen and Eddie chatting like they’re besties, this is a dream I had.
- “You called this city your home, and not the other one.”
- Karen, the woman that you are.
- This should be a more common occurrence. Or maybe it is and we never get to see it. They’re so comfortable!
- Aunt Pepa lore!
- Ugh, no one wants to be a firefighter in El Paso, Eddie.
- “Get out of my house” is right, Eddie.
- Buck’s “confession” made me sob.
- “You said I’d be okay. And I’m not.”
- SOMEBODY HUG HIM.
- “And they don’t need me.” Of course they do, Buck. They do. I promise you.
- “Everything is falling apart, and I don’t know how to fix it.” Let me at the Buckley’s for making this child think his worth was tied to him fixing things for others.
- YES BOBBY COME BACK AND TELL US WHAT TO DO.
- The domesticity of putting groceries away while mad.
- I kinda love that Buck is 100% acting like he’s fine and everyone’s like DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER.
- And Buck is mad that no one actually believes he’s fine. Because… he’s not fine.
- “You’ve been spiraling since the funeral and no one knows how to talk to you about it.” Basically, so I have to, because I’m the designated Buck person.
- “You’re not the only one that lost him.”
- The flashback to Eddie getting the call was rude. I loved it, I think it was necessary. But rude AF.
- “He saved my life. I wasn’t there to save his. And a part of me will always wonder, if I was there, could I have made a difference?”
- “I don’t know, Buck. I wasn’t there.”
- Good talk! I mean, that sucked, but good talk?
- The water calls to 9-1-1 are kinda hilarious because if I were a dispatcher, I would have been like, “I’m sorry, whut?”
- We have gotten more Athena and Hen this season than in the past few seasons combined.
- Eddie is so husband-coded, waiting at home. Give this man a family.
- Also, I love it when he’s a little sassy.
- “I heard some dick was being mean to you, I thought you could use some cheering up.”
- CHRIS IS HOME. I REPEAT, CHRIS IS HOME.
- This is Eddie’s version of an apology.
- Eddie looking at Chris and Buck is a poem.
- Maddie is killing me because I can see her love for Chimney in everything she does and says these days.
- No one can tell the difference between those 3 shades of white, truly.
- “Whenever I see him, I see the man who isn’t here.”
- “You’re grieving, so fair can go mind its own damn business.”
- “Our family.”
- This is like a family dynamic, truly. Buck is in the kitchen with Aunt Pepa and everything.
- I really like Pepa’s pep talk, and that she was back to give it, not gonna lie.
- Maddie is a real-life superhero; never tell me she isn’t.
- I get you, Hen. I do. But I also… what is this show gonna do?
- At least Athena isn’t trapped?
- This episode had so many rare pairings in the world of 9-1-1 that it truly felt like family.
Agree? Disagree? What did you think of 9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 17 ‘Don’t Drink the Water’? Share with us in the comments below! Check out our Tales From the 118 podcast if you also want to listen to our reviews. 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 Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.
buddie canon plss!
the scene where eddie found out, i died