9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 7 Review: Secrets

After a brief hiatus, 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 7, “Secrets,” brings us back to the world of the 118, but at what cost? The writing for this episode is all over the place and unfortunately feels like during the time off these writers forgot the characters they are supposed to know inside and out.

Most notably different in every sense of the word is Hen. Everything about her current storyline screams out of character.

On top of that we have a series of disjointed emergencies that don’t really serve much of a purpose to bring the narrative forward and seem to forget that ideas need follow through. So, lets break it all down.

Hen Hides Her Condition

If there is something we have learned about Hen over the years it is that she doesn’t keep things from Chim nor does she keep them from her wife. The only time she kept something from Karen was during the Ava of it all in the first season. 

Hen is the kind of character who will take herself out of commission if she’s not performing at her best. And she will talk about it with her wife, her work husband, and her best friend. Right now the only person she is talking to is Athena.

While talking to Athena is good, its not great that she only shared all this AFTER Karen found out about her excessive charges on the credit card. 

And while we are on the subject of things Hen doesn’t canonically do, lets talk about her refusal to seek out actual help from a professional. Sure, she has the feeble excuse that the guy at the clinic is an MD, but she knows full and well this man is a charlatan. So why is Hen putting all her eggs into his basket?

It feels as though the writers have completely thrown the Hen character bible into the trash for the sake of creating some drama. Hen could still be going through these medical issues without her keeping it a secret; the drama is already there.

The part about all this that I keep going back to is Hen keeping it from Karen. Not telling Chim can be chalked up to he’s a newly minted captain, which makes things awkward.

But Karen? Nothing in their relationship has changed, in fact, losing Bobby brought them closer together as a family. So, explain to me why Hen wouldn’t go to her wife and have a conversation about her concerns?

Even the excuse of her wanting to keep her life the way it is and still be able to work doesn’t work here. Karen would encourage her to disclose her condition, sure, but until it gets extremely bad she wouldn’t push the issue. 

Meaning, for the last 3 months they could’ve worked together to find answers and handle it all the correct way. But no, instead, Hen has decided to become a complete island; destroying so much of what makes her who she is.

Buck as Eddie’s Wing Man

One of the only parts of 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 7, “Secrets,” that actually somewhat works is the Buck storyline. And even that has its issues, which we will get into in a moment. But first, let’s address the elephant in the room, Eddie.

For years, fans of the show have been begging the writers to develop Eddie into a more dynamic character. And at the start of “Secrets” it felt like maybe we were going somewhere when Buck brings up Eddie’s lack of dating for a year.

It opens the door wide open for Eddie to maybe start a journey of self-discovery, whether to identify himself within the queer community or finally putting himself out there and committing to someone serious. Instead, we are left with a disjointed, underdeveloped club scene and Eddie drinking a beer while Buck connects with the woman he was tasked with warming up for Eddie.

After that, the subject of this venture being about Eddie goes out the window in favor of Buck having a dating moment fiasco. Including Ravi in all of this could’ve also further developed the bond between these three firefighters, but nope, it’s all about Buck.

Which, listen I’m as much a Buck fan as the next person, but not at the expense of other characters getting some time to shine. Turning the tables and making this fun dating outing all about Buck is shallow and uninspired.

So, let’s focus on that. Buck’s coming out as bisexual a few seasons ago was monumental and changed the trajectory of the character. However, since then the writers have chosen not to focus on that at all, preferring to wave there hands at an under-developed relationship with another man and hope fans don’t care. 

Once again, we are seeing Buck put himself out there and it turn into a disaster. While it is nice that the writers seem to remember that he prefers multiple dating partner options, it still seems a bit anti-bisexual.

It feels as if the writers have turned Buck’s sexuality into a joke. Like, look at this silly situation where Buck decides to date a man and a woman at the same time, not simultaneously, but still within a day of each other. 

Also, let’s show him having sexually encounters with both of them but we will only show him kissing the woman and all the “sexual” scenes with the man feel forced. It all seems very icky and not done in a celebratory way. 

On top of that, we have the storyline making fun of his choices. It’s very much feeling like the writers are saying, “look at Buck. He is dating a man and a woman, and oh look they are married to each other.”

The whole thing did nothing to progress Buck’s character, and in fact, I feel it set back the positive queer points this show has scraped up over the last 8 seasons. 

Emergencies Are Fun, But Unrelated

While all of the emergencies in this episode were fun, they did very little to actually advance any of the character plots. With the exception of the structure fire that revealed Hen’s medical issues, none of these emergencies were really necessary.

Actually, if I’m being honest, the emergencies felt like they were making fun of fandom culture.

First we have a team manager who is wearing a chastity belt because his Dom, one of the women who works for him, told him to. All of this is revealed in a team meeting.

It felt very fanfiction trope heavy and didn’t make sense as an actual emergency. For a showrunner that claimed the death of Bobby Nash was for realism, Season 9 is proving to be the furthest thing from that. 

Sure, a chastity belt situation is funny in itself, and would’ve been fine if it was left there, but no the writers took it a step further and added in a Dom/Sub relationship dynamic, in the workplace no less.

Then, the next emergency we have a woman on a date with a man she just met on a dating app. It looks sweet and innocent at first, but then she goes into labor with a cryptic pregnancy.

Not only that, her baby is breech so Eddie has to turn the baby in order to allow for delivery. Once again, this felt like an idea that could’ve been really cute and sweet, but instead was rushed and underdeveloped. 

On top of that, neither of these emergencies did anything to further develop any of the first responders, or highlight Chim’s ability to be a captain, or help Hen. So, what purpose did they serve? 

And before people get upset with me saying this, I just want to point out that when emergencies matter they give the characters names and give us insight into their lives before the emergency happens. AKA, what this episode of 9-1-1 did.

I ask again, what was the point if not to make people in fandom spaces feel weird about the show even further?

Stray Thoughts

• I might be unpopular for having this opinion, but I’m glad Chim fired Hen. She kept a major secret from her boss which put people’s lives in danger. Plus, she asked to be treated the same as everyone else, AKA getting fired.
• Don’t think I didn’t notice that Zane is very similar in build to Eddie. Again, Buck just keeps dating Eddie adjacent men.

 

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9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.

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