9-1-1 Season Finale Review: What’s Next? (Season 3 Episode 18)

While it is nice when seasons end on a happy note with everyone safe and sound, that type of ending doesn’t fit every show. On 9-1-1 Season 3 Episode 18, “What’s Next?” this type of ending actually feels like a disservice to the show as a whole.

Season 3 itself has been a bit of a letdown in the grand scheme of things. With storylines such as a tsunami, a life-threatening brain tumor, a hostage situation, and now this train derailment, we want to feel the excitement and the danger but end up feeling like something is missing.

The moment this episode starts, the importance of the train derailment is evident — even if it’s been hinted at on the previous episode — based on how much attention is given to this particular location. This is a perfect moment for the show to make us care about all these new characters.

And yet, it doesn’t.

By rushing past each character on the train and in the RV park, 9-1-1 isn’t allowing us to gain an attachment to anyone. This lack of care is what ruins the rest of the emergency for the viewers.

Watching as Buck and Eddie risk their lives to save two passengers up in the unsteady train car, it occurs to me: why do I care who lives or dies? Who are these characters to me?

This is a set-up flaw that has been occurring, again and again, all season long. There isn’t any care put into the emotional depth of side characters or emergencies of the week, so we end up shrugging our shoulders and saying, “oh well.”

Even as Buck fights to save Sam over the young musician, I am looking for something to happen, something that isn’t a miraculous end to an otherwise incredible story. 

Buck suggesting a way to save them both should excite viewers, but instead it leaves us groaning at yet another heroic save. 

This doesn’t mean we want death or crave it even; we just want some kind of excitement to really make us thirst for these emergencies more. Every emergency of every episode has ended in some kind of other-worldly ending — it’s not realistic.

By taking away the sense of urgency and realism within these stories, 9-1-1 is losing focus. This is a drama and yet, the dramatic tension is lacking. 

Tension on a drama shouldn’t last only a few seconds — we should be able to feel it long after the event has occurred. “What’s Next?” really drives home that 9-1-1 doesn’t know what it wants to be.

The last five minutes of the episode shouldn’t always be a pretty little bow on the top of a present. Events can last for longer than one episode. 

Bringing too much into the episode is why the finale seems more like a montage of events rather than a story. There is too much happening that it fails to leave enough room for the meat of it all. 

That is one thing that helps the 9-1-1 Season 3 premiere — when the tsunami ravages the pier — it is spread out over multiple episodes. 

The train derailment could’ve easily done the same and still manage to cover Athena’s attack. If it has to be confined to one episode, then let the entire focus of that episode be that story and nothing else. 

The only good thing about Abby Clark’s return is her conversation with Buck in the park. It brings closure to both characters while also serving to propel Buck forward.

To be quite honest, Abby’s reasoning behind everything she’s done to Buck ends up making her seem even more selfish than when she ghosted him. If this means I never have to see her again then, by all means, Buck should close that door, lock it, and throw away the key.

Abby’s return adds nothing to the episode — not even where Buck is concerned. It seems like it’s supposed to be Buck’s feelings of jealousy or guilt with regards to Sam, but the motivation behind it just isn’t there.

The only thing I believe out of Buck’s mouth is when he tells Bobby that he’s good now. Because he is, he’s finally releasing himself from Abby’s ghost.

If the ending of Abby and Buck’s story is a success, then the shrinking of Michael’s tumor is simply frustrating. It leaves us feeling cheated and lied to.

Ever since the discovery of the tumor, the show’s focus on Michael has been readying his family for his untimely demise. It has done the whole gambit of emotions that have lingered all through the second half of the season. 

Now, all of a sudden, his tumor is shrinking and he’s going to be okay? We don’t buy it and it’s disappointing.

Again, it’s not about the death; it’s about the emotional investment. Think about it: how would you feel if your friend tells you they have a terminal tumor and then a few months later they smile and say, “just kidding, it’s a miracle, my tumor is fine?”

There are quite a few emotions that come to mind, and one of them is betrayal. Not at the friend, but at the doctor who gives the initial diagnosis or at the situation itself. 

You’ve already done your grieving and accepted your friend’s fate. Only now that isn’t their fate and you want to feel happy about it, but you can’t because you’re just utterly confused.

This is how 9-1-1 makes us feel with this reveal about Michael’s tumor. It’s an emotional letdown that makes you feel bad for not being overjoyed at a positive outcome.

Maybe the set-up is that this happy ending isn’t what it’s cracked up to be going into the next season, but honestly, at this point, I don’t even care. The lack of depth within the writing leaves me tired and to put it bluntly, bored.

That’s not to say the happy ending isn’t nice. It is nice to see all of these great things happening for these characters that we care about. But, I didn’t sign up for happy endings all the time. I signed up for tension, excitement, angst, and DRAMA.

It’s unfortunate that 9-1-1 has been slowly losing all of that. Instead of leaving us asking what’s next, it leaves us wondering, “why do we care?”

 

What did you think of this episode of 9-1-1? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Critic Rating:

User Rating:

 

9-1-1 will return for Season 4 in 2021 on FOX.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!

FOX Announces Programming for the 2020/2021 Season