911 made its return after a three month hiatus, bringing a guest star in actress Abigail Spencer. It was a wild ride from start to finish and we have some thoughts about at least one character’s journey which was on display in the episode.
The main focus of the episode was on Maddie Han (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and her brother, Evan Buckley (Oliver Stark). While they didn’t share scenes together, we did see them dealing with two different situations that really dove into the psyche of who they were as individuals.
Buck struggles with change coming in 911
Starting with Buck, he had a difficult time with the idea of Eddie (Ryan Guzman) moving to Texas. Even though it’s obvious why Eddie is making the move, to be close to his son and be able to be a parent to him, Buck’s abandonment issues reared its ugly head and he didn’t cope very well.
The feelings began after he tried to help Eddie show his house to potential renters, but ended up sabotaging the entire day. Eddie, fed up with Buck’s behavior, asked him to leave, which he was starting to before realizing he left his phone on the table. When he went back for it, he heard Eddie tell the next people who came that he had no ties to LA.
Even though the audience knows Eddie didn’t mean that completely, he is just trying to get his house sold so he can get to Christopher, this causes Buck to spiral once again. Earlier in the episode he had helped rescue a dog from a fire at a shelter and decided to adopt the pooch, despite him not being allowed one at the loft.
Because of how annoyed he is with Eddie, Buck lets it slip that he is moving in front of their colleagues. While Hen, Chimney, and Bobby understand where Eddie is coming from completely in leaving, Buck is still not handling things well, or the right way.
However, when the dog’s family comes to claim him, Buck realizes that his attitude was unwarranted. Seeing the dog go back to where he belongs shows him that that’s what Eddie needs to do. He makes the decision to take over Eddie’s lease so that Eddie can make the move without having to worry about renting out the house.
This episode did not exactly help Buck’s character and even though he came around at the end, it is an odd choice to have him act out that badly, especially considering he knows how much Eddie loves Christopher and would always choose his son. He never expected it to be a choice, as Eddie points out that it never will be, but Buck has issues he has to deal with in order to grow as a human and a character.
Buck has been dealing with losing a lot, from his relationship with Tommy Kinard (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) and now one of his best friend’s moving away. However, he could have handled things a lot better and maybe it’s time that Buck looked inward once again to figure out how to deal with the issues of abandonment that continue to creep up on him.
We will miss the loft, though, but does this mean Eddie is gone for good? We don’t think that’s the case, but we sure are curious how things will play out when he and Christopher come back.
Maddie tackles a tough series of calls in 911 season 8, episode 9
Now, what was Buck’s sister Maddie up to this episode? She had a strange 911 call, in which a crying man called to report that he had unwillingly kidnapped a girl, Jana, unable to help himself. Maddie tried to connect with the caller, but when she lied about not revealing his location to the police, he hung up.
Athena got to the location, but there was no evidence he was around. She helped Maddie bring the case to Amber Braeburn, an officer known for taking care of missing person’s cases. Amber claimed to have a suspect in mind, but she had never been able to catch him. She also cannot confront him herself since she had been charged with harassing him.
While Athena did get information on where the man could be, it was difficult to track him. Once they got a tip about his hideout, they discovered evidence that he had Jana. When he later called Maddie again in dispatch, the killer claimed he didn’t want to hurt Jana, but was going to.
Maddie did her best to help him while also not lying, but when the killer brought up her daughter’s name, she made a fateful decision. She told the killer not to harm, Jana, but to hurt himself. Before Athena could make it to the location, which was being traced, they heard a gunshot.
Athena found the man dead and Jana unharmed, tied up in another room. As far as Maddie knew, the killer was caught and it was over. However, it turned out that things weren’t as they appeared. As Maddie was doing dishes while Jee slept in her bed, someone broke into the house and hit Maddie over the head.
Maddie tried to focus on who harmed her, looking up in shock at Amber Braeburn herself. It wasn’t a complete surprise to most of us, considering the first promo showed someone with a lock of hair standing over Maddie. However, we are looking forward to finding out how Maddie and her loved ones get her out of this situation.
This episode of 911 definitely took us for a ride, but we do hope the second half of the season does right by the characters. Hopefully we will see growth from everyone and see them come back from these stressful situations.
Tune in to 911 on ABC Mondays at 8/7c. New episodes will be available the next day on Hulu.
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