9-1-1 Season 8 Is Fixing 3 Characters’ Biggest Problem
Since 9-1-1 began in 2018, one of the things it has been great at is taking its characters on important journeys. From learning to forgive themselves to finding room in their lives for love and friendship, the characters created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Tim Minear have grown exponentially in the 8 seasons the show has been on the air, and it’s clear they’re not done. In Season 8, Episode 6, “Confessions,” 9-1-1 pushes several characters to open themselves up for joy.
After a big three-episode opening disaster that focused on Athena Grant-Nash (Angela Bassett) and Bobby Nash (Peter Krause), 9-1-1 spent the next several episodes resolving some cliffhangers from Season 7 by bringing Captain Nash back to the 118 and reuniting Henrietta “Hen” Wilson (Aisha Hinds) and Karen Wilson (Tracie Thoms) with Mara (Askyler Bell), the foster daughter they are planning to adopt. With the airing of “Confessions,” 9-1-1 is starting to get into the groove of their season and used the episode to introduce some important long-term storylines for three of the main characters.
Buck is Still Figuring Out Who He Is
Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark) met Tommy Kinard (Lou Ferrigno, Jr.) in Season 7, Episode 3, “Capsized,” while saving Bobby and Athena from their sinking cruise ship, and by the end of Season 7, Episode 4, “Buck, Bothered and Bewildered,” Tommy and Buck had shared a kiss. Buck spent the next several episodes beginning to understand his bisexuality, a process that came much easier to him than it would have if he had still been the same person he’d been in Seasons 1, 2, and 3 of 9-1-1. After all that Buck has experienced, from building strong relationships with Bobby, Athena, and his best friend, Eddie Diaz (Ryan Guzman), to dealing with his personal trauma in episodes like Season 4, Episode 5, “Buck Begins,” and Season 6, Episode 11, “In Another Life,” Buck has become a stronger, more self-assured version of himself over the years, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still work to do.
In Season 8, Episode 6, “Confessions,” Buck goes to his sister, Maddie, at the dispatch center to talk about Abby. While he’s there, Josh Russo (Bryan Safi), Maddie’s friend and colleague, overhears part of their conversation and tells Buck that he can’t judge Tommy for having been engaged to a woman because Buck grew up in a post-Glee world. When he doesn’t know what that means, Josh talks about the cultural impact of Glee . Glee was created by Brad Falchuck and Ryan Murphy.
What Buck doesn’t realize yet is that the end of his relationship with Tommy is really just the beginning. Just like Buck’s relationship with Abby, his relationship with Tommy was the first step in an important journey toward joy. Tommy helped Buck realize that he is bisexual, and now Buck has the opportunity to figure out what he really wants from a relationship — regardless of if it’s with a man or a woman. What many people learn when they come out, no matter how old they are, is that knowing who you want to be with helps you determine what you need from a partner. Buck has never really had this opportunity, as he’s been primarily concerned with finding a woman who will stick around. Tommy ending their relationship is good for Buck — it shows him that while he could end up with either a man or a woman, suddenly beginning a relationship with a man doesn’t solve his “who will stay” problem. That’s one he has to dive into himself, and once he does, Buck will find exactly who he’s looking for.
Chimney Will Need to Set Aside His Fears for Maddie
When Howard “Chimney” Han (Kenneth Choi) and Maddie Buckley-Han (Jennifer Love Hewitt) took Mara in at the end of Season 7, it was primarily to keep Mara out of a group home and allow her to still see the Wilson family. What they learned was that their young daughter, Jee-Yun (played by twins Bailey and Hailey Leung), enjoyed having a sibling around. When Maddie suggested having another kid to Chimney at the beginning of Season 8, Episode 6, “Confessions,” though, he immediately began to panic. After Jee-Yun’s birth in Season 4, Episode 9, “Blindsided,” Maddie began to develop postpartum depression, which at one point became so bad that she left Chimney and Jee-Yun, afraid that she was no longer safe for her daughter. Chimney chased Maddie across the country, finally locating her in Season 5, Episode 12, “Boston.” Maddie had gotten treatment by then — she had been diagnosed with postpartum thyroiditis, which was treated with hormone therapy, and had also undergone therapy for her long-term depression — and she came back to California with Chimney and Jee-Yun, but it took a while for their relationship to rebuild.
When Maddie suggested having a second child, Chimney began to worry about what might happen if Maddie were to get postpartum depression or postpartum thyroiditis again. It’s not unreasonable for him to be concerned about it, given what they all went through, but it was clear in the episode that Maddie was trying to quell his fears. On a call with the 118, Chimney watched as an older brother put himself at risk to save his younger brother and realized he wanted that for his daughter. Chimney spent most of his life as an only child, though he gained a brother, Kevin Lee, when Chimney’s mother died, and her friends took him in, and then became acquainted with his half-brother, Albert Han, later in life. Though having a sibling as a teen and as an adult is very different from growing up with one, Chimney knows how valuable his brothers were to him, and the two boys on the 118’s call helped him see that again.
When Maddie was pregnant with Jee-Yun in Season 4, Jennifer Love Hewitt was also pregnant in real life. 9-1-1 wrote about Maddie’s postpartum depression and her departure as a way to give the actress maternity leave.
When Chimney tells Maddie near the end of “Confessions” that he thinks they should have another child, she is already pregnant and has been trying to tell him the whole episode. The moment is both joyous and important for the two of them, as they are excited about bringing another child into their family and needed to have a real conversation about what happened after Jee-Yun was born. Chimney asked Maddie to promise she would talk to him if anything was wrong, no matter how bad, and Maddie asked Chimney to make a point of not walking into the pregnancy assuming the worst. Maddie’s request is likely going to be the harder one, as Chimney is prone to overthink and panic, but if he makes an effort to approach the pregnancy and birth of their second child with as much joy as possible, it will be an incredible experience for their whole family. Now, audiences just have to wait and see if Chimney can do it.
Eddie Finally Removes Part of His Mask in “Confessions”
Eddie Diaz has been a riddle wrapped in an enigma since he joined the 118 in Season 2, Episode 1, “Under Pressure.” Though he has opened up more as he has gotten to know the team, and especially Buck and Bobby, there is still a lot about Eddie that feels unknown. What viewers have been learning so far in Season 8 is that Eddie doesn’t really know who he is either. Eddie’s life began to spiral out of control after the unexpected death of his wife, Shannon, who told him she wanted a divorce right before dying, in Season 2, Episode 17, “Careful What You Wish For,” and things got even worse after he was shot at the end of Season 4, Episode 13, “Suspicion.” Eddie spent much of Season 5 processing his grief and PTSD, but in Season 7, Episode 7, “Ghost of a Second Chance,” it became clear that his work was not done.
After meeting Kim, a woman who was the spitting image of his dead wife — the characters are played by the same actress, Devin Kelley — in “Ghost of a Second Chance,” Eddie began to hide a relationship with her from his son, Christopher, his girlfriend, Marisol, and even Buck, his best friend. It was Buck who met Kim when she came to the firehouse while Eddie was out, and he encouraged Eddie to tell her the truth about why he was spending time with her. Once he did, Kim made an unexpected decision and returned to the Diaz home dressed as Shannon in an attempt to help Eddie move on. Instead, Eddie and Kim were caught together by Marisol and Christopher, who initially thought that his mother was back from the dead. Christopher’s response was to call his grandparents, who came to Los Angeles to take Christopher back to Texas with them in Season 7, Episode 10, “All Fall Down.” Eddie’s parents have tried to take Christopher to live with them several times, but Eddie has always maintained that it’s best for his son to be with him. After “All Fall Down,” he wasn’t so sure.
