Critic’s Rating: 4.4 / 5.0
4.4
Is there anything more fun than a Halloween-themed episode of your favorite show?
Surely, there are things out there that may bring more joy, but I don’t want to hear about them right now—not when 9-1-1 just gave us this classic that did nothing but deliver the goods.
Funny, emotional, head-scratching at moments, and filled with heart. 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 5 was the series continuing to be at the top of its game.
Halloween is spooky season, and while some may prefer less frights and maybe the comforts of a pumpkin spice latte, hayride, and apple picking, others are looking to get SPOOKED.
And at the 118, they were going all out for their haunted house extravaganza! Well, to a degree, that is.
There’s something refreshing about a fun Halloween episode. While this one did get serious rather quickly, certain parts played very comically and perfectly encapsulated what 9-1-1 does best.
They can make you laugh, shriek, cringe (a popular word here!), and cry, all within the confines of an hour. And that’s not easy to do.
Being a first responder means that many of those holidays people get to spend surrounded by loved ones isn’t possible for them. Doctors, nurses, police officers, firefighters, dispatchers, and so many other jobs require workers to be on the clock 24/7, 365.
The conversation between Hen and Karen about Hen missing so many family moments likely isn’t the first one they’ve had. And while it’s something they’ve undoubtedly had to contend with in the past, there are added emotions now with Mara returning home and this being their first Halloween as a family.
It was so sweet for them to all dress up together and get the pictures, little Jee-Yun included! But you could see how desperately Karen wanted Hen to be with them on Halloween night, simply because she didn’t want Hen or Mara to miss out on those moments.
It’s such a tricky thing, and it’s not nearly as easy as can probably be explained in a few simple pieces of dialogue.
It’s not as if Hen didn’t want to be there; of course, she did! But when you take an oath to a job like hers, part of that includes the sacrifice of working on days and nights when so many others don’t have to.
Coming off the events of 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 4, I was very naïve to think the 9-1-1 Gods would give the Wilson family a BREAK, but I should have known better.
9-1-1 is a messy show that lives for drama, after all.
I never want Henren to fight, and I never want to choose sides, especially when you can see both sides so clearly if you put yourself in each of their shoes. But even without seeing that promo heading into this episode, anyone who’s watched any television at any point in their life knew where things were headed.
Something was going to happen while Karen and the kids were out trick-or-treating, but it could have been a much worse-case scenario had the 118 not been the ones dispatched to the scene.
The lead-up to the crash was so 9-1-1 in the way that it weaved together multiple moving parts and culminated in the worst thing imaginable.
The Sigma girls tuned out Athena’s presentation to do teenage things, but then it went drastically wrong, put innocent lives in danger, and then led to death and almost near death of a young child.
I wouldn’t believe it had I not seen it myself.
Poor Denny was in the wrong place at the wrong time, which happens often in accidents. His instinct to push Mara out of the way and save her was bravery from his mamas kicking in.
That moment of Hen walking up and realizing the accident her team was tasked to handle was her own family was about as heartbreaking as it gets on this show. Aisha Hinds beautifully displayed the sheer panic and devastation mixed in with determination. She’s never met a scene she didn’t completely body.
There was such raw emotion dripping off her as she tried to juggle two hats simultaneously: mom and paramedic.
In all sincerity, it was a pretty chaotic scene. With the house on the verge of collapsing, it wasn’t as if they could just pull that car out and get Denny loaded up to go to the hospital in minutes.
Things were more complicated than that, but every minute Denny was crushed by that car, the risk of a complication or something disastrous happening increased until the worst did occur.
I’ll never tire of seeing the 118 being heroic, intelligent, and brave in their rescues and how they work together in the most dire of situations to try and achieve the best outcome.
This show can be ridiculous, and we saw elements of that throughout this one, but those emotional beats—when those emotional beats are beating—are among some of the best things you’ll see any given week.
Have we ever seen anyone give blood in the field like that before? I love this show with all my heart, but I am not a 9-1-1 historian like that, so please forgive my fragile memory if I’ve missed that.
Karen giving blood to her son who was on the brink of death while Hen stood by with her found family helping is why we watch television.
The angst with the sweet payoff keeps you tuning in to see how they’ll top the heights they’ve just reached.
That found family aspect is at the core of the series, and the 118 sitting in the hospital room just waiting to hear that Denny was okay was a sweet moment and a reminder about the true depths of that 118 bond.
And as sad as the situation proved to be, Denny’s accident helped strengthen that unbreakable Henren bond. But it’s not something either woman will soon forget.
Who knows what would have happened had Hen been there and not working that evening. You can think about so many moments in your life, and if you tweak one little thing, the trajectory of your life could be changed forever.
So, who’s to say what could have happened?
What did happen? Hen and Karen saved their son together. And they spent another day together as a family, making memories and loving one another.
Having said all that, it’s ENOUGH. Let the Wilson family be stress-free! There is absolutely no reason we need to see continuous trauma for this beautiful family. I know they’re tired, and so are we!
Denny’s plight and intensity were the climax of this tale, but there was a lot of silliness sprinkled throughout, especially as it related to Buck’s storyline, which saw him crash out over an innocent accident that had him scrambling to un-curse himself.
Buck deserved a story like this. One that was marginally funny along the edges but also deathly serious and made as good a case as any to believe in the power of curses! It is Halloween season, after all.
I loved that the story went into deep detail about how Buck came into possession of an actual corpse when it would have been relatively easy just to ignore that part. But Buck had a dead body, alright, and it’s Buck, so it had to come to light in the worst way possible.
I’m starting the official campaign to let Buck have these fun storylines more often because Oliver Stark is SO good! And to be fair, the whole cast has terrific comedic timing, considering many people don’t look at the series as the dramedy it could most certainly be considered.
If there were anyone to place a curse on, it would be Chimney or Buck because they would lean into it and truly get to the heart of the matter, which was precisely what Buck did.
You think Buck would discover a corpse, traumatize little kids looking for candy, and then just let it go? Oh, you don’t know Buck Buckley like I do, then.
Buck’s deep dive into Billy Boils had him believing full-stop that Billy was getting back at him for defiling his dead body, and he made a pretty compelling case for it unless you’re Tommy (and Eddie), who weren’t nearly as impressed with Buck’s detective and deduction skills.
Now, we know by history that Eddie is not a curse guy. He’s a more practical person who believes there’s an explanation for everything that doesn’t include a dead gunslinger from the wild Wild West who has decided to make an example out of someone for disturbing their decaying corpse.
That’s just never been Eddie’s bag.
The same could be said for Tommy, who was not up for humoring Buck much regarding his Billy Boils obsession, you could call it. But I know Eddie doesn’t mess with curses, but I don’t know why Tommy doesn’t because I don’t really know Tommy.
It was an interesting peek into their relationship, which has seen minimal progress since the two kissed during 9-1-1 Season 7 Episode 4.
One thing the series has yet to get right is how to incorporate love interests for Buck and Eddie, which have notoriously been underdeveloped, and thus, those relationships have been hard to invest in.
As an audience, we don’t need to see every single moment between characters. It’s not necessary, nor is it realistic. But the narrative should craft a story that you can believe in—a love story that you want to believe in.
We’ve gotten very little of that with Tommy, especially lately. Most of his recent appearances have felt more like an excuse to show us Buck is still dating him, more than to do anything to develop the pairing.
The relationship has yet to move forward much on-screen to this point.
Buck and Tommy are boyfriends now, but what do they like about each other? What is their relationship dynamic like? It’s hard to know because we’ve seen so little of it.
Little clips of them conversing for a minute over dinner or smiling at one another behind a couch do not truly make a relationship, at least from an audience perspective.
While this curse storyline felt like something lighter to tie into Halloween, it could prove to be a decisive moment in the Buck/Tommy relationship, as more than once Buck sent a sad look Tommy’s way when he didn’t seem on board with Buck’s frankly compelling argument about his circumstances.
It’s something to ponder as the season wanes on, and we presumably see more of their dynamic and what it looks like. They’re continuing to learn about each other, and the jury is still out on what they’ll see.
But back to Billy Boils, when Buck dislocated his shoulder, you could chalk that up to being a coincidence. Pumpkin guts are slippery!
But the boils? THE BOILS? As someone who does believe in the power of karma and whatnot, that’s absolutely curse-like behavior!
Billy Boils was trying to make an example out of that man.
All the little moments when Buck was reminded of the boils on his face played for laughs, but I just felt a little sorry for him because all he wanted was to figure out what the hell to do about it.
Was he just going to have boils forever? Was a stampede going to take out the 118 and a fire burn down the loft?
As with many things on 9-1-1, the power of family proved to be the key to everything, and as previously discussed, I am a sucker for a feel-good moment where we made be reminded of the fragility of life as well as the power of humanity.
Leave it to Buck to dress in his finest suit, visit Billy’s grave, and give him the perfect voiceover speech.
Have we heard some variation of this speech a hundred times over? Yes. Will I tire of hearing speeches about the importance of people, family, love, and everything that makes us human? NO.
This will wind up being a goofy little tale that’s just a piece of Buck’s journey, but it was a fun one.
I couldn’t wrap this up without touching on Eddie, who was missing Christopher in a big way here.
Every kid hits that point where they turn the page on something from their childhood, whether it’s hugs and kisses before they leave for school, letting the adults in their life pick out their clothes for school and pack their lunch, or simply deciding they’re over the act of trick-or-treating.
That day can hit you like a ton of bricks because it’s usually so abrupt. They’re babies one day, toddlers the next, and then suddenly, they’re too cool to say bye when you drop them off at school.
The conversation in the firehouse between Eddie, Chimney, and Hen was so relatable. Kids won’t stay kids forever, but even knowing that doesn’t make it hurt any less when it happens.
Eddie’s been away from Christopher for quite some time at this point, and while they haven’t gotten too deeply into the events of 9-1-1 Season 7, it does seem like they’re ramping up to Eddie finally having that sit-down moment with himself (or someone else) where he starts to say the things out loud.
When he starts to look inwardly and question who he is, what he wants, and the kind of person he wants to be.
I’ve been VERY patient waiting for Eddie’s storyline to take off, and we may finally be on our way to seeing Eddie’s journey!
Loose Ends
- Bobby telling Hen and Chimney that only one of them could take off for the holiday, and the two best friends deciding they’d both work because they couldn’t do that to the other. My favorite best friends for a reason!
- Athena was harsh on those Sigmas, but at the same time, they were not getting the seriousness of anything. Actions have consequences.
- It was such a minor thing, but it’s playing on my mind: did Tommy really not know who Athena was? What was that?
- The Wizard of Oz costumes may be the best thing you’ll see on television this week!
- Bobby’s Cap Dracula had me dying! That whole haunted house scene had no business being as hilarious as it was, especially when Eddie’s wolf howl elicited no response from those easily frightened kids. His heart just wasn’t in it.
- “And that’s no cap.” ATHENA GRANT-NASH, please!
- Madney has been WAY too happy and complication-free so far this season. I’m starting to get suspicious.
- Eddie, with a lap full of candy, sucking on a ring pop in the hospital waiting room. A sentence I never thought I’d write.
- The Buck, Eddie, and Tommy dynamic and how they’re playing it is SO fascinating. Eddie finishes Buck’s thoughts and chimes in at all times. It’s certainly a choice!
- “Stop picking.” “I wasn’t picking.” “You were picking.” HELLO!
- There were A LOT of mustaches during this episode. It could mean nothing.
Halloween episodes are SO back!
The absurdity of 9-1-1 and the heart were on full display here, and I’m sure you guys have lots of thoughts after this one.
So please let me know how you’re feeling in the comments!
You can watch 9-1-1 on Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.
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