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While Eddie has been around for nearly 2 whole seasons, and heavily featured, “Eddie Begins” dives into his backstory father than ever before.
| Directed By | Robert M. Williams Jr. |
| Written By | Christopher Monfette, Robert M. Williams Jr. |
| Aired (FOX) | 4/20/2020 |
This content contains pertinent spoilers.
When Your Life Flashes Before Your Eyes – Eddie, Chim, Buck
In this episode’s 911 call, a young boy goes down an abandoned well – 45 feet. With that, the 118 pulls out all the stops – there is a crane, a drill, and a plan to lower someone adjacent to where the kid is, punch through to the kid, and rescues him. Eddie decides to take this task and, of course, everything that could go wrong goes wrong. An unexpected storm sweeps in, the radios don’t work, and just as Eddie nearly has the kid, they are pulling him out.
With doing that, Eddie decides to cut his line to get back to the kid who was down there for hours and starting to experience hypothermia. Leading to the debate of who is going down there? Will it be Buck? Someone who loves Eddie dearly?
HELL NAH! Everyone knows Buck is not only reckless but emotional as hell. Sending him down there, considering the rain, lightning, and more? That’s a bad idea. So, Chim, someone dependable, he is sent down and is able to get the kid up.
But, when it comes to Eddie, a lightning strike destroys the tunnel and pair that with the rain, so comes the idea Eddie could be a goner.
I Need A Partner, Not Provider – Eddie, Shannon, Christopher
Death puts a lot of things in perspective, and for Eddie, it makes him recount all of his decisions that have not just put him in the position he is in but have kept him from Christopher. Yeah, in many ways, “Eddie Begins” almost makes you wonder if Eddie may rethink risking his life as a means of making a living?
For around the time Shannon got pregnant, Eddie was deployed, and when things got bad for Shannon and difficult, once again, Eddie was more focused on being a provider than a partner. Which didn’t just rub Shannon the wrong way, but also Eddie’s mother. Someone who recognized her son had to work, but after a tour through Afghanistan, which nearly left Eddie dead, so came the question of whether this sacrifice was worth it?
After all, at this point, Eddie has been gone more than around, and Christopher may know who his father is, certainly has seen him in web chats, but they haven’t had real quality time. Add on Shannon tired of feeling alone in parenting, and you can see a pattern forming. One that led to Shannon wanting to break out and Eddie challenged by his mother over whether he should be taking care of Christopher.
Which, as we saw, led him to scale down what he did and eventually join the 118. Leading you to wonder, will he do the same considering he once again found himself in the position to potentially die?
It’s Not My Time Yet – Eddie, Christopher, Buck
Despite what seemed like a death sentence, it wasn’t Eddie’s time. With Christopher on his mind, alongside him losing his mother recently, the idea of letting him go without parents is far too much. So, by sheer will, he fights off death and is able to emerge in a nearby lake. Leading to Buck throwing a fit and Christopher getting to have his dad alive.
Highlights
Multiple Tear Jerker Moments
Being that Eddie burst on the scene and sent Hen and Chim to the backseat, honestly, we weren’t feeling him. In fact, we thought, considering how we were covering his past this episode, maybe he was actually going to die. Which honestly, I wasn’t against since we’ve got a few fakeouts on this show, and it seemed about time someone did actually die.
But, with it not being the season finale, would that have been realistic?
It Really Humanized Shannon
While Shannon has honestly become an afterthought, I must admit that this episode really gave us the perspective we didn’t get when she was alive. Yes, it was brought up how she struggled and the situation with her mother, but I don’t think we took it as far as needed to fully understand what it was like to be a soldier’s wife. Especially considering Christopher and everything that was required of her to raise him. All the while, Eddie found means to escape his responsibility and argue that by providing financially, he has seemingly done enough.
Yet, when you think about it, Eddie is a Latinx dude, and while we don’t see it much around the 118, he got a bit machismo to him. Which, based on how Shannon bounced, you can see got old – quick.
On The Fence
Wondering Why Eddie Doesn’t Have More PTSD?
Granted, if this show is in modern times, it has been 3 to 5 years since Eddie was in Afghanistan, so him showing signs of PTSD, depending on if he got therapy, among other things, wouldn’t be central to his character. However, considering how we’ve explored nearly everyone else’s, you’d think, beyond what we got for Shannon’s death, we would have gone deeper.
Though, one could say, considering Eddie is an adrenaline junkie, maybe he just didn’t get hit with the full weight of what happened? Yes, he lost someone, and that weighs on him, but maybe as Chim reminded Bobby of how many he saved, and that got him out of his rut, perhaps Eddie reminds himself of the same thing?
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