Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
4.5
Throughout eight seasons of 9-1-1, one thing we know for sure about Bobby Nash is that he has a complicated history.
Moving to Los Angeles was a chance for him to start anew for a plethora of reasons, and we’ve seen him over the years still struggle in the aftermath of the pain and grief he’s felt over what happened to his family.
During 9-1-1 Season 7 Episode 8, we took an even deeper look into Bobby’s past, his childhood to be exact. In 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 11, Bobby reunited with his mother and brother in the most unexpected but perhaps godly way possible.
When Bobby’s childhood was explored during 9-1-1 Season 7, many wondered if we’d eventually see Bobby’s mom and brother again.
Present-day Bobby hasn’t mentioned his mother often (maybe ever?), so the jury was out on whether or not she was even alive or what the story there was, though it was pretty safe to assume that she surely hadn’t been a part of Bobby’s life.
Bobby’s life has been filled with sorrow, and even as he aged and built this life in Los Angeles surrounded by family, friends, second chances, and love, there were still a lot of demons from his past that he continued to deal with; one of those being his mother, Ann.
From the fleeting moments we saw her in flashbacks, Ann was a woman whose marriage was flailing and who decided it was better for her to leave instead of staying in a marriage and household that was falling apart.
But when she chose to leave with Charlie, Bobby was left behind. Even if it was what a young Bobby wanted, that feeling of being left by one of the two people on Earth tasked with protecting you will leave an imprint that doesn’t ever truly go away.
Considering Bobby hadn’t seen Ann, or Charlie for that matter, in years, you would think he would have had a bigger reaction to running into them the way he did. But Bobby was as stoic as ever, always the fire captain.
And the chaotic megachurch emergency was quintessential 9-1-1.
Think of something you’d never imagine happening in a million years and then plop it into an hour of 9-1-1, complete with estranged relatives making themselves known amid the madness.
Sister Ann reminded me of those late-night religious shows that used to be much more prevalent ten or so years ago.
She was up on the stage “healing” people, and she had a devoted following hanging on her every word, even when disoriented from the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Bobby’s detachment from the whole thing and Ann’s as well was odd, but then again, like mother, like son, right?
The writing was on the wall for where this story was headed, but it didn’t make it any less absorbing.
Bobby mostly ignored the fact that he had a mother and brother, and that worked for him, but having them back so close was a shock to the system.
While I appreciated Athena’s stance and could even understand it as someone who believes in fate, I also understood Bobby’s reluctance to engage with Ann because of so many residual feelings of hurt.
The last thing he wanted to do was open himself up to that pain, and it felt like he was hiding behind that pain when he talked about her being a con artist and a fraud.
Those things weren’t actively why he didn’t want to see his mother but because he was still hurt. Years and years can pass, and the hurt from someone you love will never leave you.
Athena was definitely pushing Bobby to make amends or, at the very least, hear Ann out because that’s the kind of person she is. But it was also so adorable to see her genuinely excited to meet his mother and brother and see a part of his life she had never seen before.
You can sometimes forget that Bathena haven’t been together that long because they’re so in tune with each other.
Bobby has been a big part of Athena’s family from nearly the beginning, but Athena never had that. Once she knew about Ann, she was ready to dive in, and it was rather cute—even if everyone and their mother knew that lunch would end disastrously.
More than anything, Bobby and Ann needed to hash out their differences privately, but that would never happen because neither of them even wanted to speak to each other and wouldn’t have it weren’t for Charlie.
Side note: Charlie seemed like a very nice man, but it was so interesting to see the two men, who grew up together to a point, lead lives that mirrored so much of the parent they chose to stay with.
Charlie became his mother’s sidekick, seemingly devoting much of his life to ensuring she remained his number one woman.
Tim’s death obviously severed the physical relationship between Bobby and his father, but there was always an emotional tether. It came out during the confrontation with his mother, and clearly, his death and memory will always be a great source of despair for Bobby.
Ann was very blunt and forthright in her assessment of Bobby. She latched onto Athena because Bobby’s attitude from the jump was dripping with cynicism and disdain, whereas Athena was much more open and at least willing to engage.
Believer or not, Ann wasn’t wrong about the power of hope.
It may not cure your ailments, but it can help you continue to fight and feel like there’s something to fight for.
But simultaneously presenting yourself as something you’re not, some healing guru while amassing ardent followers and millions of dollars, will inevitably have people calling you a fraud.
Especially your estranged son, who felt abandoned by you at a young age.
The thing with Bobby and Ann is that they don’t know each other. Bobby was so young when she left, and since they have had intermittent contact since then, they are essentially strangers.
When Bobby looked at Ann, it was easy for all those old feelings to resurface; the same went for Ann. She looked at Bobby and saw Tim, or at the very least, a different version of him, but Tim at his core.
That type of longstanding grief won’t disappear with one conversation, and it was difficult to watch the two go back and forth because they were so overcome with that anger and resentment that some thirty years later was still as fresh as could be.
Did Bobby crawl into Tim’s casket with him? Does Ann refuse to take responsibility for leaving?
Valid points may have been levied on both sides, but it was all lost in the sea of hurt.
We’ve seen a lot of Bobby’s history over the years, and often, it involved Bobby struggling to feel worthy of forgiveness or love or a number of things, but this was one of the first times it felt like we got to see Bobby confront his past and address his agony first and foremost.
Bobby is an adult, of course, but he’s still a son.
He’s a son looking for his mother to take accountability for her actions and the lack of care she gave one of her sons throughout his life.
Bobby has such a big heart, and he puts on a brave face so much of the time, but I loved this story because you got to see Bobby be so vulnerable and say the things he probably thought he’d never say out loud.
When he returns to one of Ann’s shows, it comes from a place of guilt. It would have haunted him to know that the last words he potentially spoke to his mother, no matter how much he may have meant them, were so harsh.
Hearing her and seeing her on stage like that may have been the first time Bobby saw who his mother had truly become. And it allowed him to put some things into perspective right then and there.
Especially coming off the heels of the garden emergency.
It wouldn’t be an hour of 9-1-1 without an emergency helping a character to understand something, and the man burying his wife alive was enough for Bobby to see his mother through a slightly different lens, namely hers.
Two more things you can count on from 9-1-1 are parental redemption arcs and near-death experiences that make you reconcile with the person you never thought you’d be able to forgive.
Ann being terminally ill wasn’t what I expected, but I should have seen it coming. Sister Ann, the healer dying of cancer, was sadly ironic.
Bobby immediately wanting to step up and take care of Ann was so Bobby. As previously stated, he’s so kindhearted and loving, and it didn’t take him more than a second to step up and offer his mother that support.
I do not think every single absentee or just plain terrible parent needs to be forgiven. Sometimes, breaking off that connection with a parent is okay to protect yourself.
But I can also recognize that every situation is different and that, ultimately, this show will always be about, well, hope.
Maybe fate brought Bobby and Ann together in this moment so they could see each other in a new way, apologize to one another, and, for Bobby, continue to find peace regarding his past.
This story was emotional in the way the series loves, and it was perfectly juxtaposed with the secondary story, which also saw Buck dealing with his past, but where Bobby confronted things head-on, I have no idea what the hell Buck did.
Moving into Eddie’s house after his departure during 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 10 would always be difficult for Buck, even if he could not see it then.
Buck and Eddie’s lives were so intrinsically connected that suddenly, being in this place where he already had so many memories but now devoid of the people with who he created them with was going to be challenging.
Imagine one of the closest people in your life moving away and then trying to exist in their space without them. It’s not easy, and Buck seemingly figured that out rather quickly, so he escaped to Maddie’s.
Eddie wasn’t physically present in this episode, but his presence was felt everywhere, from the emergencies to almost every single time we saw Buck, because he could not keep Eddie’s name out of his mouth.
Maddie wasn’t wrong to push him to make more friends, which frankly is something everyone at the 118 could benefit from, but perhaps especially Buck because he was now stepping into unfamiliar territory.
The relationship dynamics amongst their friend group have always been clearly defined, with all the current romantic couples paired up, and then Buck and Eddie.
The two of them, and Christopher, are their own trio and with both of them gone, that left a pretty big void for Buck, and naturally, he wasn’t handling it well.
While Eddie was in Texas, essentially on a mission to repair the relationship with his son, Buck was still in Los Angeles but more alone than he’d felt in a while.
Buck does have other people outside of Eddie, but the list is relatively small and he was already seeing two of them daily in Maddie and Chimney.
Buck hitting up Ravi to hang out made a lot of sense, but I was annoyed on Ravi’s behalf the whole hour because Ravi isn’t an Eddie substitute! At this point, Ravi is a fully formed person who has been working at that station for years, and it was almost as if everyone forgot that.
I’m right there mourning Eddie’s departure, but my goodness, did I feel bad for him. Poor guy was trying to do the job he’d been doing, and it was like he was invisible or something.
It was rather sad seeing how much Buck was crashing out over Eddie, and make no mistake about it, that’s what was happening.
The way he couldn’t help but inject Eddie into EVERYTHING would have been impressive if it wasn’t equally heartbreaking and lowkey embarrassing.
Eddie this and Eddie that. It was on a loop throughout the hour because Buck’s life was so tangled up in Eddie’s that his absence created a chasm he didn’t know how to repair.
Drinking himself silly while regaling Ravi with stories about his best friend was indeed a choice, and it did not help him expand his social circle, as Maddie suggested.
Then again, neither did sleeping with his ex-boyfriend.
When Buck and Tommy broke up at the end of 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 6, it seemed like it would be the end of the road for the pair. If only because the series never indicated that it was in the market to develop the relationship in any tangible way.
Much of their relationship was off-screen, and what was on-screen didn’t give us much insight into them, which is a problem this series has long had regarding love interests who aren’t established characters within the universe.
So, seeing Tommy at the bar was a surprise, if only because of the timing.
Buck and Tommy have been broken up seemingly for a few weeks to months at this point, and to run into him spontaneously NOW, with Eddie gone, felt like a deliberate choice.
And boy, was it ever.
Tommy’s whole demeanor when he first joined Buck was one of complete defense mode. His body language was closed off to start, and he sat back and away from Buck, clearly protecting himself.
Although he was the one who broke up with Buck, there was a level of almost fear there. Perhaps he was unsure how Buck would react to him after their split and was also protecting himself.
He broke up with Buck because he was afraid of getting his heart broken, and any reunion, even amid a crowded bar, seemed to have him on edge still.
That is until he learned that Eddie Diaz was no longer in Los Angeles.
You could see a shift in Tommy from the minute Buck told him that Eddie had moved. It was subtle, but it was there.
His posture changed, and suddenly, he was leaning forward to meet Buck in the middle. He was telling him how much he wanted to call him and opening up a different line of communication that did not exist when he first sat down.
The air shifted around Tommy’s head, something Buck picked up on, too, and which was at least partly why he decided to invite Tommy back to Eddie’s his place.
It was also a little bit of the alcohol and a lot of bit of the loneliness, but we’ll get to that.
The thing about hooking up with your ex randomly? You must ask yourself if you’re going into it for the right reasons.
Do you genuinely love them and want to get back together? Do you miss them but have no interest in jumping back into something that didn’t work out for a reason?
Or, in the case of these two, a whole host of other reasons that were not rooted in anything positive.
Because that’s the thing, they both entered into this hookup in bad faith.
Buck was lonely. Unable to sleep in the house Eddie and Christopher built (metaphorically, of course) and on his quest to make a new friend, he saw something familiar and something he enjoyed, and he took the opportunity to forget about everything for a night and have something fun for himself.
But there was a reason why, the following day, he was so quick to acknowledge that he knew things wouldn’t change between them because that’s what he believed at that moment.
He was aware that he went into the bedroom with Tommy to forget about everything for the night, not necessarily to pick up right where things left off.
Because what had truly changed between them since they’d broken up?
Well, one thing had changed for Tommy, that’s for sure.
There was much debate about whose attention Buck was actually seeking during 9-1-1 Season 7 Episode 4 when Buck was jealous of Tommy and Eddie’s burgeoning friendship.
In the end, Tommy kisses Buck, and it is presented in a way that, ultimately, it is Tommy’s attention he is after. Tommy didn’t seem convinced of that in the moment, and you now have to wonder if he ever fully believed it.
Tommy came out of the hookup with vigor, unlike Buck, who was content to let their night together stand for itself, and Tommy wanted more than just the night.
The man who unceremoniously dumped Buck not so long ago because he was his first, not his last, had a change of heart, but why?
Eddie, that’s why.
Now, you can’t possibly hear Tommy say that the competition, aka Eddie, is out of the way now and not re-think the entirety of his and Buck’s six-month relationship.
Now that a new set of facts has been uncovered, their entire relationship must be scrutinized.
In some way, shape, or form, Tommy was threatened by Eddie, Eddie’s relationship with Buck, or a combination of both. And him suddenly feeling like it was less likely that Buck would break his heart?
Tommy just told us that at least part of the reason he broke up with Buck was his relationship with Eddie. That’s no longer up for debate.
The whole back and forth with Buck and Tommy in that kitchen was like serious whiplash.
From Tommy balking at the idea that Eddie was straight and Buck asserting that he could sleep with people he didn’t have feelings for and not sleep with people he did have feelings for, it was like watching a car crash in slow motion.
I could not believe what I was witnessing because the show has never so explicitly and unapologetically had someone question Buck and Eddie’s relationship. And for that someone to be Tommy, who also admitted to feeling like he was in competition for Buck?
The toothpaste is out of the bottle now and can’t be put back in.
In all his Buck-ness, Buck immediately went to Maddie to decompress, which was right on brand. And their conversation was important for Buck to talk through things.
Are you? – Maddie
In love with Eddie? – Buck
It wouldn’t be so crazy. – Maddie
I nearly gasped when Maddie flat-out asked Buck if he was in love with Eddie because the topic had never been broached like this before on the show.
The subtext has always been there, but to give it voice now? That’s new, and it forces the audience to take a much deeper look at their dynamic because it’s not something just select fans of the show want to believe is lying under the surface.
It’s a real thing that people in Buck’s life can actively believe, even if Buck’s not ready yet to see it for himself.
It’s no longer subtext but just plain text.
When confronted with the idea that he had feelings for Eddie, Buck’s immediate response both times was to call into question his straightness as the main reason why the assertion was untrue.
Not that he didn’t feel anything for Eddie. Not that he strictly saw Eddie as a friend and nothing more.
I’m not saying Buck may be in denial, but it was curious that his immediate reaction was the same both times. It does make you wonder if he’s just never thought of Eddie being an option.
We ALL saw Maddie’s face when Buck said he wasn’t in love with Eddie, and let’s just say she looked about as convinced as Tommy when Buck insisted Eddie was straight, which is to say, NOT at all.
Ultimately, this was not wholly about whether Buck does or does not have feelings for Eddie, but about the fact that he’d been pushing off fully embracing the move into Eddie’s and confronting his loneliness head-on because he was terrified.
He was terrified of dealing with his current reality and did not know if Eddie and Christopher would ever return to him.
In that moment, he used Tommy to assuage his loneliness, and he did owe him that conversation.
The two need closure now more than they did after the initial breakup because the crux of their past relationship has been questioned in a new way.
This is not the first time Buck has had to deal with being alone, but it was the right culmination of this arc for him as he dealt with Eddie’s departure. Seeing him finally move his life into that space and do it with a smile was a positive step forward for him.
Eddie and Christopher may not be coming back right now, but when they do, he’ll be right there to greet them and welcome them home.
Maybe I lied. This storyline was pretty damn emotional as well.
Loose Ends
Athena was less than enthused to jump on The Odyssey for the Doctor Odyssey crossover. This show has never seen a crossover it didn’t like!
Maddie was preoccupied with dealing with Buck’s woes, but I didn’t miss her talking about feeling safer with Buck in the house. Her recovery throughout the rest of this season will be a process.
We got some new Buck and Eddie lore in the form of that story Buck told Ravi about Eddie detaching a tire with a boot on it! I’ve seen enough episodes of Parking Wars to know that it is definitely illegal, but it’s also something I wish we could have seen. I know they were both giggling messes.
Imagine burying your wife alive, having a heart attack, and then she lives, and you die. Yeah.
Seeing ‘Directed By Aisha Hinds’ at the start of the episode filled me with so much joy.
Bathena are building a house! My wish for a Bathena housewarming party may come true one day!
A LOT was happening during this hour, and it deserved this level of deconstruction.
Please let me know in the comments how you’re feeling after this one and what you think so we can discuss it!
You can watch 9-1-1 on ABC at 8/7c on Thursdays.
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