9-1-1, What’s Your Emergency?: “9-1-1, What’s Your Grievance” and “Friends with Benefits” Recap

“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”

Now that Ryan Murphy’s hit 9-1-1 franchise airs back-to-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 latest episodes, 9-1-1: “9-1-1, What’s Your Grievance” and 9-1-1: Lone Star‘s “Friends With Benefits”? Read on and find out!

Block Party Murder Mystery

9-1-1: L-R: Angela Bassett and guest star Danny Nucci in the “9-1-1, What’s Your Grievance” episode of 9-1-1 airing Monday, Feb. 8 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. CR: Jack Zeman / FOX. © 2021 FOX Media LLC.

On 9-1-1, May takes a call from a woman who is complaining about the neighborhood block party. She claims that she has been shot by armed hooligans… which are actually kids with water guns. May remains calm and tells the woman that her situation is not an emergency and tells her if anything, her complaint could be considered a misdemeanour. The indignant woman asks to speak to May’s supervisor, but before she can take further action, May hears a gunshot and splash on the other end of the line! Athena, Detective Romero and the 118 arrive on the scene to find the woman face down in her pool after taking a bullet to the chest. There’s no sign of forced entry so who did it? We get an amusing scene of Eddie and Buck theorizing what could have happened. Or at least amusing to this viewer – Athena wasn’t exactly impressed with their true crime podcast aspirations, ha! Athena and Romero spend the episode investigating and interviewing neighbors to try and figure out who shot the woman. She made 13 calls to 9-1-1 in the last six months, so she wasn’t exactly a beloved neighbor. In the end, it turns out that the woman accidentally shot herself – one of the neighbor’s dogs made its way onto her property again, so she pulled out a gun but tripped over one of her gnomes, which caused the gun to go off and as a result she fell into the pool. Imagine Buck and Eddie making a true crime podcast out of this tale!

Ticking Time Bomb

9-1-1: L-R: Oliver Stark, guest star Darin Michael Heames and Kenneth Choi in the “9-1-1, What’s Your Grievance” episode of 9-1-1 airing Monday, Feb. 8 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. CR: Jack Zeman / FOX. © 2021 FOX Media LLC.

Another call that May takes this episode is a man calling in to say that he has planted a bomb because “they all deserved it”. He reveals his name, Stanley Whitworth, before hanging up. May does some digging on social media, which helps figure out where the bomb has been planted. (Btw not entirely sure how legal this is but since people’s lives are at risk, we’ll let it slide…) Stanley is retaliating against former employees. The 118 arrive on the scene and evacuates everyone out. They get word of a janitor having trouble breathing in the basement, so Chimney goes down there to rescue him. The janitor turns out to be Stanley in disguise. He does have problems breathing, but is also down there to ensure the bomb goes off. Chimney shares some personal things with Stanley in an attempt to diffuse the situation and prevent the bomb from going off. When Stanley eventually trusts Chimney, the medic knocks the bomber out. We’re impressed Chim – you had us fooled too!

Personal Effects

9-1-1: Oliver Stark in the “9-1-1, What’s Your Grievance” episode of 9-1-1 airing Monday, Feb. 8 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. CR: Jack Zeman / FOX. © 2021 FOX Media LLC.

Typically these episode recaps tend to focus on the calls the first responders attend to, but there were particular events in this episode that were certainly dramatic. Unbeknownst to Buck, Maddie called their parents and invited them to town in an attempt to clear the air before her and Chimney’s baby arrives. Buck is on edge and Chimney and Albert (the latter who has reluctantly been coerced into this family affair) are nervous to meet the Buckleys. Mr and Mrs Buckley are quite critical and we can see why Buck has so much resentment towards them. It all boils over towards the end of the episode and Buck ends up lashing out at them during a family meal. Believe it or not, that’s not the most Buckley dramatic moment of the episode. At the end of the episode, he goes through Maddie’s keepsake box that their parents brought over and finds a photo of a young boy. At first he assumes it’s him, until he turns the photo over and sees that it is dated before he was born. Maddie tearfully reveals the secret that she (and Chimney) have been hiding – they had a brother named Daniel, but he died as a child!

Worse Than The Red Wedding

9-1-1: LONE STAR: Rob Lowe in the “Friends with Benefits” episode of 9-1-1: LONE STAR airing Monday, Feb. 8 (9:01-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2021 Fox Media LLC. CR: Kevin Estrada/FOX.

The first call that the 126 respond to in the latest 9-1-1: Lone Star episode is to an outdoor wedding. It’s a lovely day; the best man was making his speech when suddenly he projectile vomits on the bride! You know that moment when you see someone vomit and then it makes you want to vomit? Well imagine that happening at a wedding. Pure chaos! There’s people puking right at the table, others trying to rush out of the area to either escape it or try and hurl with some dignity. Of course chaos causes people to fall over and before you know it, the tent that the reception was set up in comes crashing down, with the bride and groom inside. As the frantic guest tells 9-1-1 dispatch, “it’s worst than the red wedding!” When the 126 arrive, the bride is fine but the groom is trapped and because the tent came down, so did 900 pounds of lighting and decorations. Yowch. The team work to ease the weight so that they can get the man out, while Tommy and crew try to figure out what caused all the vomiting. Turns out it was the fish served at the wedding! As the groom is being prepared to be loaded into the ambulance, the bride vomits. She didn’t have the fish though. Maybe she’s pregnant, jokes Mateo. Not possible, according to the groom. Well not possible that he’s the father… turns out the bride slept with the best man. Plot twist! Tommy’s crew may need a second stretcher, just sayin’.

50 Shades of Grace

9-1-1: LONE STAR: Sierra McClain in the “Friends with Benefits” episode of 9-1-1: LONE STAR airing Monday, Feb. 8 (9:01-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2021 Fox Media LLC. CR: Kevin Estrada/FOX.

Dispatch operator Grace must hear a lot of weird situations, but we are in awe of how she handles them. In this episode, she takes a call from a sub who is panicking that his mistress is in trouble. She’s been stung by bees and is allergic and wasn’t able to reach her EpiPen in time, so she’s now passed out and continues to react. The sub is all tied up so he can’t do anything but look on helplessly. They don’t have time to wait for first responders to arrive and administer the EpiPen. Grace talks to the sub to try and figure out if there’s a way for him to do it. She figures out that with the position that he’s in, he could dislocate his shoulder, which would then loosen his restraints and allow him to administer the EpiPen. He freaks out at the suggestion of dislocating his shoulder. Grace being the queen that she is, wastes no time getting into dom mode to make him do it. Everyone in the dispatch center pause to listen to Grace take the call. We love the “50 Shade of Grace” remark by one of her colleagues. They can laugh all they want but Grace is a queen and badass and saves the day!

Matters of the Heart

9-1-1: LONE STAR: L-R: Rafael Silva and Ronen Rubinstein in the “Friends with Benefits” episode of 9-1-1: LONE STAR airing Monday, Feb. 8 (9:01-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. © 2021 Fox Media LLC. CR: Kevin Estrada/FOX

As with its flagship show, it was the personal stories rather than the calls that had us glued in this week’s 9-1-1 Lone Star. First off, we are introduced to Marjan’s fiancé! Yes, we know! We didn’t even know that she was seeing anyone! It turns out they’ve been engaged since she was 12 and it’s like an arranged marriage. He claims to be in love with her for years while she thinks she could grow to love him. That is until he reveals he’s in love with someone else, which causes her to reevaluate her feelings for him and realise that maybe she does feel something for him. When she admits as much to him and then sees that he’s willing to drop the other woman without as much as another thought, it has Marjan questioning whether he’s the man she thinks he is and this time they split for good. Also having relationship dramas in this episode are TK and Carlos. The two are calling each other boyfriend and referring to their relationship as serious, yet when they bump into Carlos’ parents at the Farmers Market and Carlos introduces TK as a friend, TK is understandably hurt and they get into a fight. Carlos tells him that while he is out to his parents, he doesn’t like to rub it in their faces since they are quite traditional. After taking some time apart, TK later shows up to Carlos’ place to work things out. In a beautiful scene that will no doubt become a fan favorite for ‘Tarlos’ shippers, TK tells Carlos that while the encounter with his parents left him feeling unsafe about their relationship, he now realizes it’s only a taste of what Carlos must have felt all these years. TK tells Carlos that he wants to be with him and is okay with Carlos not introducing TK as his boyfriend for the moment. TK supports Carlos on whatever decision he makes on how to play it with his parents. Defining relationships seem to be a family affair with TK’s estranged parents not exactly seeing eye to eye on the status of their relationship – are they back together? Friends with benefits? After playing it vague for most of the episode, Owen proposes (or is that reproposes?) to Gwyneth at the end of the episode. She rejects him, telling him that wanting to define their relationship didn’t mean that she wanted to get married again. She wanted to know where they stood because she’s pregnant! Wowzer.

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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