9-1-1, What’s Your Emergency?: “The New Abnormal” and “Back in the Saddle”

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

Now that Ryan Murphy’s hit 9-1-1 franchise airs back-t0-back on Monday nights this season, join us each week as we dive into the wild situations that the first responders of Firehouse 118 and Firehouse 126 find themselves in. What happened in the season premieres, 9-1-1: “The New Abnormal” and 9-1-1: Lone Star‘s “Back in the Saddle”? Read on and find out!

The Cyclist

The season premiere of 9-1-1 opens up with a female cyclist (played by Nikki DeLoach) going for a ride. She’s cycling through hills when she notices a whole lot of water coming towards her at an alarming rate. We’re getting déjà vu to last season’s tsunami, but nope it’s not a tsunami – just the Hollywood Reservoir breaking! The episode then flashes back to a few hours before, but when we later return to the cyclist, she’s injured and has landed in a drain pipe. Luckily. she hasn’t landed too deep underground and still has phone reception and is able to call 911. Maddie takes the call and they figure out there is a storm box in the pipe, which will help figure out the cyclist’s location so first responders can find her. The woman is in pain and lost her husband to COVID-19 a few months earlier, so she’s tempted to give up. Thankfully she finds the strength to smash open the box and she is rescued shortly after!

9-1-1: Oliver Stark in the “New Abnormal” season premiere episode of 9-1-1 airing Monday, Jan. 18 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. CR: FOX. © 2021 FOX Media LLC.

The City Bus That Crashes Into An Office Building

As a result of the Hollywood Dam breaking, a city bus ends up crashing through the window of an office building several stories high. Gotta love Chimney remarking, “That does not go there,” when he first spots the bus! (Also Eddie quipping to Buck “At least it’s not a tsunami” as they pair off to rescue from the outside.)  Not only is the bus dangling halfway up in the air with passengers inside, but there was also a pair of office workers in that particular room when the bus crashed. On the bus, a man has a giant shard of glass stuck in his leg. If watching first responder shows has taught me anything, it’s DO NOT PULL IT OUT. Of course the guy does and causes a femoral bleed. A teen that he was arguing with on the bus moments before the dam break hit, leaps into action to stop the bleed before the 118 get there. The bus driver is also injured and there’s also a female passenger knocked out. Both end up being okay and the passengers are safely evacuated off the bus. That is except for the teen, who has specific routines and refuses to leave. Bobby stays on the bus to try and coax the teen off it. In the office, a woman has minor injuries but a male is trapped under the bus and it takes a strategy of see-saw with the bus (which at that point still has Bobby and the teen onboard) to be able to clear enough space to get the man out. It works but then Buck and Eddie smell fuel and realize an explosion is about to happen with the bus! As Buck goes to warn Bobby, a small explosion happens. Thankfully Bobby and the teen are unharmed, but boy were we on edge!

© 2021 FOX Media LLC.

The Agoraphobic Woman

Elsewhere, it’s Athena’s first day back at work after six months due to her brutal attack on the job at the end of last season. She’s intending to ease back into things with a bit of deskwork, but soon finds herself back in the field to do welfare checks after the dam breaks. She encounters a woman who won’t leave her home. It turns out the woman hasn’t left her house in seven years! She has tried but she’s been too scared and we’re guessing the pandemic didn’t help either. Athena is almost successful in getting the woman out, but just as the woman goes to step outside, she panics and goes back into her house. Athena turns around to grab her and then effects of the dam breaking hits the woman’s home and the house collapses with her and Athena in it as the episode ends. To be continued! (Side note, we have to say, the shot of the Hollywood sign crumbling moments before is pretty eerie.)

9-1-1: LONE STAR: Front row L-R: Natacha Karam, Brian Michael Smith, Jim Parrack, Rob Lowe and Ronen Rubinstein, Rafael Silva and Julian Works in the “Back in the Saddle” season premiere episode of 9-1-1: LONE STAR airing Monday, Jan. 18 (9:01-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2021 Fox Media LLC. CR: Kevin Estrada/FOX.

The Military Tank On The Loose

9-1-1: Lone Star didn’t waste any time ramping up the drama, opening its sophomore season with a military tank on the loose and roaming the streets of Austin! Behind the wheel is a distraught father grieving for his daughter who was killed in action. He hijacked the vehicle from the local military museum and is heading towards the veteran’s hospital. The Austin P.D. and their handguns are no match for the man in the tank. It’s Captain Owen Strand who talks the man down and is able to prevent a further tragedy from happening. It’s a close call though, with Strand and the first responders standing together to form a barricade in front of the hospital and the tank stopping just an inch away from the fire captain!

9-1-1: LONE STAR: L-R: Guest star Tipper Newton, guest star Mark Elias, Gina Torres and guest star Brianna Baker in the “Back in the Saddle” season premiere episode of 9-1-1: LONE STAR airing Monday, Jan. 18 (9:01-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2021 Fox Media LLC. CR: Kevin Estrada/FOX.

The Roller Derby Pile Up

It’s the first day on the job for new 126 Paramedic Captain, Tommy Vega (played by Gina Torres). Former captain Michelle Blake has left to help mentally ill people on the street. (In real life, actress Liv Tyler, who is based in the UK, was unable to return to the show due to the pandemic.) Back in the day, Vega was the best paramedic captain in town but she took time out to raise her family. Unfortunately, her husband’s business went under as a result of Covid, so Vega is returning to the workforce. Her first call is to the local roller derby rink, where a nasty pile up happened during a match courtesy of a piece of the floorboard coming loose. As the pile up happened, one player unfortunately found herself impaled by the offending piece of floorboard. It was not pretty, nor was her arm that landed out of place. After taking a breath, Vega lived up to her bad ass status and reset the player’s arm and saved her life.

9-1-1: LONE STAR: L-R: Jim Parrack and Ronen Rubinstein in the “Back in the Saddle” season premiere episode of 9-1-1: LONE STAR airing Monday, Jan. 18 (9:01-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2021 Fox Media LLC. CR: Kevin Estrada/FOX.

The Cell Tower Crossfire

Next call for Vega is to a cell tower where a maintenance worker is hanging after seemingly having a heart attack. When Vega notices blood on the ground, she realizes it may not be a heart attack after all and together with Owen, makes her way up the tower. When they reach the man, he has a severe leg injury. But how? Before they can get answers, a weapon is fired at them! What the heck? They soon discover someone is shooting at them with a crossbow! I repeat, what the heck? On the ground, with his dad’s life literally hanging in danger, son and fellow firefighter TK, is ready to find who is responsible and take them down. His colleagues are ready to race in there with him when fellow firefighter, Judd, tells them to take a beat for a sec and be smart. Cue TK and Judd ambushing the assailant with the firetruck hose and then Marjan, Paul and Mateo storming said assailant’s apartment to tackle them. It turns out the culprit is a COVID conspiracy nut who was shooting at the tower because they believed that 5G causes/spreads the virus. Oh dear!

The Zoom Call

Another wacky case that the 126 respond to is one that is a bit of a familiar setting in today’s pandemic world. A work team are having a Zoom call and one of their colleague is eating a sandwich during the call. They tell him to put himself on mute while he’s eating so that they don’t have to listen to him chew. So he does. Elsewhere in the call, another worker goes to the bathroom and takes her laptop with her. *facepalm* As she goes to sit on the toilet, still in view of her colleagues, they yell through their screens and she soon realises her mistake and switches her camera off. As this is happening, sandwich guy is choking on his food but because he’s on mute, it takes a while to notice. Once his colleagues realize, they also realize that no one knows his home address and so they’re just watching their colleague choke on the Zoom call. Somehow the 126 find him (miracles of technology we suppose?) and they watch Paul and co save the man’s life. Paul unmutes the guy’s screen and reassures the colleagues that the man will be okay. Most eventful conference call ever, right?

The Lava

This week’s episode ends with a woman in her food truck trying to destress using a motivational app. She is following the app while massaging kale and so engaged with trying to destress that  she doesn’t notice a stream of lava making its way towards her food truck. And then the episode ends, leaving us hanging for next week to arrive and find out what happens next!

Well that was a wild bunch of season premieres! What did you guys think? Let us know in the comments and also vote to let us know which call was your favorite!

The 9-1-1 franchise airs Monday nights on FOX with 9-1-1 at 8/7c followed by 9-1-1: Lone Star at 9/8c.

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