This character’s unnecessary death fails to do Eddie justice

After last week’s phenomenal episode and with the promise of an episode focusing on my favorite character this week, my expectations were sky high for 9-1-1the last episode of. Unfortunately, Season 9 Episode 5, “Día de los Muertos,” feels like a repeat of the same themes the show has covered since Bobby Nash’s (Peter Krause) death. And look, I understand – I would never want 9-1-1 forget Bobby. That being said, though, there were so many interesting developments in the characters’ personal lives last season before Contagion, and now all of their non-urgent storylines are about grieving the loss of Bobby.

“Día de los Muertos” combines a Halloween episode and a Día de Muertos episode into one, for an episode that feels offbeat throughout. Eddie (Ryan Guzman) has long been waiting for a sequel to his “Confessions” storyline from last season, so he can continue on the path of prioritizing his own happiness. Instead, however, he begins to have an interesting reckoning with his faith in this episode, only for his Abuela, Isabel (Ana Mercedes), only to die at the end. It’s an ultimately forgettable episode overall, and it feels like a missed opportunity for a rare Eddie-focused episode.

In Season 9, Episode 5 of “9-1-1,” everyone’s storylines once again revolve around Bobby’s death.

Eddie’s storyline in this episode initially concerns the revelation that he has secretly reconnected with his Catholic faith, thanks in part to Bobby. At the same time, the series focuses on two subplots centered on Bobby. Buck (Oliver Stark) has just moved into his new house after seven months, although it is not revealed where he was living during that time, and he and Eddie still have not had a real on-screen conversation about their respective living situations. Buck tries to perfect Bobby’s snickerdoodle recipe, and when the secret ingredient appears on his counter, he becomes convinced that Bobby is communicating with him from the dead.

Meanwhile, Harry (Elijah M. Cooper) got Athena (Angela Bassett) to the idea of ​​him becoming a firefighter, but he came back to live with her to convince her. He stays in a room with Bobby’s old things in the closet, which is fine, until he has the disconcerting idea of ​​dressing up like Bobby’s firefighters for Halloween without first clearing it with Athena. She is very angry at first, but the two talk and he tells her that it was really her who pushed him to become a paramedic. It’s a nice conversation, but it seems off-topic to the topic at hand, taking a storyline about grief caused by Bobby and resolving it in an unrelated way.

Buck soon learns that Bobby didn’t actually help him cook from the dead, but instead the previous tenant of his house broke in and stayed there. Buck initially reacts harshly and out of character, but when he sees that the man has an AA chip, he drops all charges against him and shows him kindness. I liked to see 9-1-1 honor Bobby by supporting Buck by supporting someone else suffering from alcoholism, but this whole story seems repetitive in the way Buck approaches his grief. While this is certainly realistic, it is also frustrating, because almost everything 9-1-1The storylines since Bobby’s death have focused on either emergencies or the characters’ grief.

“9-1-1” Season 9, Episode 5 Doesn’t Give Eddie Enough Attention

Aside from its repetitive storytelling, my main problem with “Día de los Muertos” is that the episode introduces several plotlines, only to abandon them in favor of going in very different directions. Eddie’s storyline in this episode is initially very compelling, as he reconnects with his faith while trying to separate his current relationship with religion from the way he was raised. After attending a more progressive church service with Isabel, Eddie tells her that he has never felt God’s presence the way he was supposed to, and she assures him that love is enough to be linked to his religion, saying, “You were looking in the wrong place.” This line is so perfect for Eddie’s character arc and could have easily been the starting point for a storyline that finally explores his sexuality. But instead, 9-1-1 follows this up by killing his Abuela.

118 tends to get several scary calls in this episode, including one from a man who thinks he’s dead but isn’t, and a really disturbing call where a small religious community locked up a teenage girl and performed an exorcism on her while believing her to be possessed. Eddie loses his faith again after this, but Isabel suddenly dies and visits Christopher (Gavin McHugh) beforehand. Eddie and Pepa (Terri Hoyos) pray together, but instead of a moving moment, it just seems like a lazy plot to give Eddie more heartbreak instead of letting him reconnect with his faith through joy. Eddie then presents photos of Bobby, Shannon (Devin Kelley), and Isabel on the offer to remember them with Christopher (although it is usually a tradition to wait a year after a person’s death before adding them). This episode ultimately disappointed me 9-1-1 seems to have seen its characters’ personal lives on hold since Bobby’s death, and I can’t wait to see more of these personal storylines (if not in next week’s episode, then when the show returns from its mid-season hiatus). However, I wish the series hadn’t killed off Eddie’s Abuela.

New episodes of 9-1-1 airs Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. EST on ABC.

Release date

January 3, 2018

Showrunner

Tim Minear

Directors

Bradley Buecker, David Grossman, Brenna Malloy, Gwyneth Horder-Payton, Jann Turner, Jennifer Lynch, Marita Grabiak, Sarah Boyd, John J. Gray, Barbara Brown, Robert M. Williams Jr., Kristen Reidel, Marcus Stokes, Tasha Smith, Millicent Shelton, Juan Carlos Coto, John Gray, Greg Sirota, Alonso Alvarez, James Wong, Kevin Hooks, Varda Bar-Kar, Shauna Duggins, Sharat Raju

Writers

Tim Minear, Andrew Meyers, Brad Falchuk, David Fury, Ryan Murphy, Christopher Monfette, Nadia Abass-Madden, Nicole Barraza Keim, Erica L. Anderson, Matthew Hodgson, Stacey R. Rose, Taylor Wong, Tonya Kong, Adam Penn

Advantages and disadvantages

• Eddie’s story of reconnecting with his faith had a very promising start.
• Buck’s act of forgiveness toward the former tenant of his house was the perfect way to honor Bobby.

• Every personal storyline in this episode felt like a repeat of the focus on everyone’s grief over Bobby’s death.
• Abuela’s death was unnecessary, and it felt like the show was trying and failing to elicit an emotional response from viewers with the death of another character.
• “9-1-1” didn’t do enough with Eddie’s storyline in this episode before it went off the rails.