Photo: Christopher Willard/Disney
We are so back. After months off the air — during which time the country kind of collapsed and 9-1-1: Lone Star reached its disappointing conclusion, both equally important — 9-1-1 has finally returned to us, and it feels like it was worth the wait. “Sob Stories” is the best the show has been since, well, early November. Though not as over the top as some of the series’ finest hours, the more contained story offers a pretty exceptional showcase for the Buckley siblings. Maybe 9-1-1 is righting the ship and bringing us back to emotionally resonant character-driven plots that balance out the bee-nados. Maybe I just really missed the 118. Either way, I’m happy to be here.
We open with a 911 call (try not to act shocked) as a sobbing voice tells Maddie he needs help. “I just want this to end,” the voice pleads, and Maddie flags possible self-harm before the man reveals that he has someone else with him, a girl named Jayna, who is screaming through a gag in the background. It’s not a suicide; it’s a kidnapping — and Athena is en route to the address they’ve traced. “I thought I could save her, but they don’t want to be saved,” the voice wails, and the whole thing is deeply creepy. (Made all the more so by the fact that the voice itself is obviously being distorted, even though no one acknowledges this.) Maddie does her best to connect with the caller, telling him he’s not a monster and that she understands him, but she makes the mistake of insisting that she won’t let the police find him if he lets Jayna go. When Athena arrives at the scene, it’s an empty lot, and the caller knows he’s been lied to. “You were wrong, Maddie; I am a monster,” he says before hanging up.
It’s one of the more intense cold opens that 9-1-1 has delivered, and Jennifer Love Hewitt does a great job playing Maddie’s tearful desperation. (More on her later — this is really JLH’s episode!) After the harrowing kidnapper call, we thankfully move on to something chiller: an animal shelter on fire. Okay, yes, also very stressful, but I’m going to put your mind at ease right now and tell you that all of the dogs make it out safely. It’s touch-and-go for a minute, though, when one of the cutest pups makes a run for it into the flames. Thankfully, Buck risks his life to rescue the little guy, once again defying Bobby’s order to get out of there as the ceiling collapses and finally emerges with the dog in his arms. Bobby doesn’t even seem that pressed — the dog is, after all, a very good boy. Sadly, the relief of the moment is undercut by Buck’s realization that his new best friend is being carted off to a kill shelter, where he’ll be euthanized unless he’s adopted. If only there were someone, anyone to take him in.
Speaking of dogs, Athena is taking Maddie to meet with Missing Persons detective Amber Braeburn, whom she describes as a “real bloodhound.” (Please just work with me on that transition.) Braeburn doesn’t think the crying 911 call was a hoax, and she praises Maddie for connecting with the kidnapper, even though Maddie’s still beating herself up for breaking his trust. They listen to a very similar call from ten years prior that was connected to the discovery of a murdered girl, and Maddie has done some sleuthing of her own, finding another call fitting the pattern in Portland and identifying Jayna as a runaway from Bakersfield. (Go off, Reddit sleuth!) Based on the limited clues available, it’s a little surprising that Braeburn is immediately fixated on a suspect, a sex offender named Richard Bullock who lives at a transient hotel popular with runaways. Unfortunately for Braeburn, she’s been so aggro about catching this guy that he filed a complaint, and she can no longer approach him without hard evidence or it’s considered harassment. “Well, I’ve never been above a little harassment,” says Athena, who is supposed to be one of the good cops.
Meanwhile, Eddie appears to be making good on his threat of leaving Los Angeles and moving to El Paso to be closer to Christopher. Since he signed a year-long lease at his current place, he needs to find a subletter before relocating — and he’ll have to do it fast, because he’s already put a down payment on his Texas home. (Like Buck, I’m a little caught off guard by how quickly things are moving!) Buck agrees to help Eddie by joining him as he meets potential renters, which goes about as poorly as you’d expect. It’s not clear to me if Buck is intentionally sabotaging Eddie by pointing out all the things that might make someone not want to rent his place — it’s in the flight path, there was a meth lab down the street — or if this is a more subconscious desire to keep his bestie from leaving. Eddie clearly sees it as a problem, though, and he tells a wounded Buck to go. Unfortunately for Buck, he sticks around just long enough to eavesdrop on Eddie meeting with two more possible subletters, who ask if Eddie is moving to Texas for work. “Los Angeles was actually the job opportunity, but no ties here,” he tells them. “Everything that matters is in Texas.” Buck is devastated, and frankly, so am I.
To cheer himself up, Buck adopts the dog he rescued (duh) and names him Blaze. Bobby isn’t thrilled about having a dog in the firehouse — he’s not even a Dalmatian! — but Buck promises he won’t bring him in every day. It’s just while they’re getting to know each other. “I don’t want him to think I’m an abandoner,” Buck says while glaring at Eddie. Eddie notes that Buck’s apartment doesn’t allow for dogs, and Buck says he’ll move if he has to, making a loud and pointed reference to Eddie’s own relocation plans. Yes, despite the fact that Eddie asked him to not let anyone know about his departure just yet, Buck has gone ahead and ripped that Band-Aid off for him. This sort of backfires, as the rest of the 118 is very supportive, with Bobby telling Eddie he’s making the right choice and that he’s a good father. Guess it’s just Buck and Blaze against the world, then!
Elsewhere, Athena is trying to find Richard Bullock, the primary (well, only) suspect in the sobbing 911 call kidnapping. He’s no longer at the motel, but his ex, Isabelle, shares some useful information — namely, that she caught him hitting on underage girls before she kicked him out and that he “full-on sobs like a little bitch” on the phone. Sounds like our guy! As much as Isabelle doesn’t want to cooperate with pigs (hey, she said it), she seems convinced that this is an urgent situation once Athena shows her a photo of Jayna. Shortly thereafter, Athena, Braeburn, and a SWAT team arrive at Bullock’s alleged hideout. Once again, he’s cleared out, but he’s left behind some evidence: blood and Jayna’s ID. Looks like Braeburn’s instincts were right … or perhaps there’s something else going on here.
Whatever the case may be, Jayna is still out there, and so is her kidnapper. Maddie gets another call from that same crying, distorted voice — he knows they talked to Isabelle (which is bad), but he also says he’s kept Jayna alive longer than he usually does because he’s trying not to kill her (that’s good). The call is traced, and units are 12 minutes out of the location, but given how the first call went, no one is confident that it’s even a real address. The situation is dire, especially when the caller starts talking about how long it takes someone to die after their throat is slit. He asks Maddie if she could imagine that happening to Jee-Yun. (At this point, you might wonder how Bullock knows Maddie’s daughter’s name. I certainly did!) Believing he’s moments away from killing Jayna, Maddie tries a different tactic: She urges the caller to end his pain and save the girl by using the gun in his hand to “slay the monster.” “No more tears,” says Maddie. “Just peace.” It’s a disturbing scene, and JLH’s reaction of horror and disgust when Maddie hears the gunshot is visceral.
Athena arrives on the scene and finds Bullock dead with a gunshot wound to the head. She also finds Jayna cowering in a closet but safe. Billie Eilish’s “when the party’s over” plays, and it’s suitably haunting. I am haunted! I was worried that they were going to brush past Maddie talking someone into suicide because doing so saved Jayna’s life, but she is appropriately wrecked when she meets with Athena and Braeburn to debrief. “I know he wasn’t a good guy, but the despair in his voice — it was raw, it was so real,” she says. I have to give 9-1-1 credit for really going there with this story line and to JLH, whose work here is so strong that it made me even more excited for the I Know What You Did Last Summer legacy sequel coming out this summer.
Back at the 118, Maddie’s brother is still sulking about Eddie. He finally reveals that he heard what Eddie said about not having any ties in L.A., but concludes, “I don’t need you either, ’cause I’ve got Blaze.” Of course, right at that moment, Blaze’s family shows up — his real name is Bingo, and he’s been missing since he got spooked by some fireworks. Buck says good-bye (I teared up) and realizes something important about family. When he shows up at Eddie’s place that evening, it’s to apologize. He’s also there — along with Bobby, Hen, and Chimney — to take Eddie out for a going-away meal. But most importantly, Buck will show his full support for Eddie’s move by becoming his subletter, which honestly felt a little inevitable. Buck shares that he was happy when Blaze/Bingo was reunited with his family, because he realized that was where he belonged, just as Eddie belongs with Christopher.
Whatever peace Buck feels is going to be pretty short-lived, however, as Maddie finds herself knocked to the ground by an unknown assailant while doing the dishes. The kidnapper removes their mask, and — surprise, it’s Detective Braeburn. This seemed pretty obvious to me; why would you hire Abigail Spencer and not give her something juicy to do? I’d also guess Braeburn was the one making the creepy crying phone calls because there has to be a reason that voice sounded so distorted and that she shot and killed Bullock. I look forward to finding out why she set this whole thing up and what she means when she says, “You’re gonna be so mad at me” before chloroforming Maddie. (Aside from the obvious.) Mostly, though, I’m excited to watch JLH continue to shine.
• I said I wasn’t going to get worked up about Ryan Guzman leaving the show unless we got confirmation, and … it does seem like he’s leaving, doesn’t it? At this point, I don’t really see how he stays, especially since he makes a point of saying how much Christopher is thriving in El Paso.
• I’ve heard your complaints about Buddie mentions in the recaps. Here is what I’ll say: The show knows exactly what it’s doing with many of these scenes, and ignoring the subtext — whether it’s there as a wink to fans, or as an actual hint of what’s to come — seems silly to me. Do you think the writers don’t know how it sounds when Buck tells Eddie, “I didn’t mean to out you in front of Cap and everyone else”?
• That fake voice was so clearly fake! It was faker than Buck’s alias of Freddy Fakeman. I know Maddie was under a lot of stress, but how did no one else point out that it sounded exactly like someone (perhaps even a woman!) speaking through a voice changer?
• Today I learned that Dalmatians were historically kept in firehouses to keep the horses calm. Thank you, 9-1-1, for remaining the most educational show on television.
