9-1-1: Season 4/ Episode 13 – Recap/ Review (with Spoilers)

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While storylines about doctor negligence, and Maddie’s mental health, and Athena’s relationship, dominate the episode, the ending is what truly leaves a grand impression.

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Episode Name	Suspicion
Aired	5/17/2021
Network	FOX
Directed By	Brenna Malloy
Written By	Lyndsey Beaulieu, Andrew Meyers

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Recap

Post-Partum Depression or Plain Old Exhaustion? – Maddie, Chim

Jee having colic means her crying all throughout the day and night, which is pushing Maddie towards exhaustion. However, with Chim somehow able to calm her down or catching her at the right moment, that does something to Maddie. Now, whether it triggers feelings of inadequacy as a parent, postpartum depression, or something else? That hasn’t been confirmed. All that is clear is Maddie is out of it to the point of raising a red flag.

Is This Love That You’re Feeling? – Carla, Christopher, Eddie, Ana

As COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, it is considered safe for Carla to come around, and to make up for lost time, Christopher presents two birthday cakes for the ones he missed. This is done with Eddie and Ana, and with seeing Eddie and Ana’s chemistry, some questions are asked. All of which don’t lead to Eddie saying he is about to propose or anything, but he is clearly smitten, as is Ana.

Must All Good Things Come To An End? – Bobby, Athena, Sydney, Hen, Toni, Eddie, Buck

A few things are going wrong. Starting with Bobby and Athena, their relationship is in trouble since Bobby doesn’t feel like Athena’s partner due to her not discussing a lot of her individual life choices with him. Be it the retirement she put off, no longer seeing a therapist, and just generally feeling that he is waiting for someone fiercely independent to let him in, he is tired of waiting.

Yet, let it be known, when Bobby decides to do the same, it is an issue, and Athena tracks him. Mind you, her tracking him came from him smelling like Bourbon and coming off real secretive, nothing to do with work. For what Bobby was doing was helping the woman who caused that pile up as her sponsor. Because, as a fellow alcoholic, one who caused great damage, he gets it. But with not talking about it, and Bobby blowing up at Athena, it seems their marriage hangs in the balance.

Switching to Hen, as she, Sydney, and their partner study for their medical exams, Toni shows signs something isn’t right. However, even after passing out, she doesn’t want to dive too deep into anything, especially after dealing with a dismissive doctor in the ER. So, this pushes Hen to ask of her peers to help rule out anything and everything, and they barely catch what is going on in time. Thus leading to Hen being reminded how important it is for her to make it, for white male doctors seem to not take the issues of Black women seriously. Especially if they are overweight.

Leading to the shocker that ended the episode: Eddie gets shot. Now, take note, he got shot in his upper right chest, so, like many members of the 118, it could look fatal, but he could very well survive. However, this seems a tad more serious due to the amount of blood he lost, and taking note the bullet went through Eddie, and the shooting is still happening, it isn’t clear if someone may get to him on time.

Commentary/ Review

First Time In A Long Time It Felt Like Someone Could Die

With 9-1-1, we can’t assume no one is truly dead until there is a casket. As mentioned throughout the series, injuries are done for shock value, and within one or two seasons, they might be referenced, but you don’t see any long-lasting effect. Chim and the rebar, Buck’s crushed leg, other situations? They did happen, but if you jumped into the series in later seasons, you wouldn’t know.

However, one thing the show has never done was get one of the firefighters shot. Add in a full-on active shooter situation, and it pushes you to wonder, is this going to be the first time a main character gets killed? For with four seasons of a lot of scares, it seems overdue.

Maddie, You Okay?

It’s almost customary now that if a woman gives birth on a show, she is going to get postpartum depression. But with 1 in 7 women experience postpartum depression, per the American Psychological Association,[1] you get why. After all, knowing the signs, giving representation remains a big deal. After all, like shown on this show and The Good Doctor, when it comes to women and the medical field, often what they feel is downplayed and ignored. So someone seeing a character go through something and knowing its name goes beyond an entertaining story and is really about awareness.

But with that said, I do wonder, if Maddie has more than “Baby Blues,” how will 9-1-1 handle that? As the years have gone on, it has shown itself capable of taking on depression, with Bobby’s storyline in season 1 being an example. However, with the need to take things to the next level, as the show preps for its 5^th season, there is the need to ask how will it handle Maddie, who has consistently had storylines beefed up to match the wild situations that the rest of the cast deal with?

[1] https://www.apa.org/pi/women/resources/reports/postpartum-depression

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