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callmebrycelee · 2 years

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9-1-1 REACTION

This reaction is for the season 6, second episode titled “Crash & Learn” which originally aired on September 26, 2022. The episode was written and directed by Juan Carlos Coto. Spoilers ahead!

Whew, chile! The writers of 9-1-1 are coming for our scalps and it’s only episode 2! This was a Hen and Athena-centric episode and it did not disappoint! There were quite a few crashes, both literal and metaphorical, and much was learned. There was so much that went down in this episode so I’m going to break it down, plot point by plot point.

We begin the episode with Athena and Bobby arriving in Florida. In the last episode, Athena's father, Samuel Carter, had a stroke while behind the wheel of his car and drove through the house. Athena and Bobby head to the hospital where he is being kept in a medically induced coma. Athena's mother, Beatrice Carter, appears to be in denial about her husband's health which puts her at odds with her daughter. Athena and her mother have always had friction. I suspect it may have to do with Beatrice not being entirely happy with the trajectory her daughter's life has taken. I also think they're a lot alike which might be why they butt heads.

When the three of them head home from the hospital, Athena is shocked to see her dad's car still parked inside the house. Beatrice assures her that Samuel will take care of it when he comes back home but Athena reminds her that it will be a while before he comes home - if he ever comes home. Beatrice is not trying to hear anything her daughter is saying, so Bobby does what he does best and steps up to be a buffer between mother and daughter. Bobby is such a good husband to Athena and while they've weathered their fair share of issues, it's so great to see them work as a team.

Back in LA, we get our first emergency of the episode. Now this particular emergency hits different due to recent news of one of my favorite internet personalities announcing via social media that he has not only cheated on his spouse with whom he has two kids but he cheated with one of his employees. I don't condone infidelity but the man in this episode does the absolute most when he discovers his wife, Holly, is knocking boots with their next door neighbor, Angelo. Rather than go to marriage counseling or separate, Benjamin decides to set off explosions in his yard. This causes the underground tunnel the neighbor has built between the two homes to collapse thus trapping Angelo in the underground passageway. Thankfully Angelo is rescued by the 118 and Benjamin is justifiably arrested for his reckless behavior. At the end of this emergency, I was left wondering if it was worth it. Was the affair worth it? Was the revenge worth it?

Meanwhile, Hen is trying to balance her new role as the interim captain with preparing for her year 2 medical exams and her home life. I feel like Hen, for the most part, is portrayed as this bad-ass black woman who handles her business and no matter how busy she is, she always manages to make it work. I love how this episode explores that she is very human and humans get overwhelmed. Humans get tired. Humans fail. I just hate that she had to learn that lesson the hard way.

At first it does seem like Hen will manage to pull everything off. Soon Bobby will be back so she can go back to being a paramedic. Things at home seem to be going pretty okay. And she's also doing well studying for the test. Perhaps one of the scariest moments of the episode involves Hen nearly falling asleep at the weekend which I thought would finally be a wakeup call. Things only get worse when Hen forgets to attend one of Denny's events much to the disappointment of Karen. I felt so bad for Hen because you can tell she's trying so hard to do it all but she keeps coming up short.

Our second emergency of the night involves a group of three friends who have known each other since the sixth grade. As part of their retirement trip, they purchase tickets to the Happiness Convention. Things take a disastrous turn when a portion of the building collapses and the three men are trapped. The main friend, Lev (played by veteran actor Arye Gross) attempts to save his friends and one of the young employees at the exhibit by insisting that Hen and Buck work on freeing them from the rubble.

While tending to Lev, Buck learns the reason as to why the three friends came to the Happiness Convention. Lev talks about how he has done everything he's supposed to - get married, have kids, have a career, etc. But none of those things really sparked joy in his life. Hearing this hits a little too close to home for Buck who is still nursing his breakup with Taylor. He is also on a journey of self-discovery and it almost seems fated that he would meet Lev at this point in his life.

By the time Lev's friends and the young employee are pulled from the rubble, all three alive, Lev succumbs to his injuries. Buck doesn't exactly handle this well and does everything he can to save Lev. It's too late but Lev does manage to impart an important life lesson before he passes away. If Buck is going to ever find true happiness in life, he needs to stop settling. He needs to keep learning and keep living.

It is refreshing to see this reflective side to Buck. Since his introduction in the season one pilot episode, Buck has always been impulsive and reactionary. He went from his relationship with Abby to Ally and then to Taylor. He's built his whole life around the 118. He's also experienced quite a bit of personal and family traumas over the years. Through it all, Buck has remained steadfast but perhaps that's the issue. Buck needs to get out there and shake things up. I'm hoping we get to see him try new things this season and hopefully he won't jump back into yet another relationship with someone who ends up disappointing him. I'm excited to see what happens next for our Buckaroo.

Now back to Hen. When we see her struggling with the exam, I immediately began bracing myself for the bad news I knew was coming. When Hen received the call that she failed her exam, my heart broke for her. What's worse is that everything Karen said was right. Hen needed to choose between her medical career and being a paramedic as well as her family. Unfortunately it seems like the decision was made for her but something tells me that neither you or me should ever count Henrietta Wilson out. I don't know how things work in medical school but maybe she can keep going or start over. No matter what she decides to do, I do think that Hen learned a valuable lesson about what's truly important in life - as cliche as that sounds.

Back in Florida, Athena enlists the help of a childhood friend to clean up the mess Samuel's accident created and Beatrice is not having it. She lashes out at Athena and accuses her of wanting her and Samuel gone so that she can get back to her fancy life in Los Angeles. Bobby, again, steps in and tells Beatrice to calm down and he later goes and talks with Athena. Athena talks about her relationship with her father and how they used to pick oranges and tangerines together. It is so clear that both women are struggling with Samuel being in the hospital. For Athena, she doesn't want to lose one of her parents. For Beatrice, she doesn't want to lose the man she has loved for decades. Athena does talk with Beatrice and she lets her know that she isn't there to take over. She is only trying to make things easier for her. It appears that for now both mother and daughter are on the same page.

After an episode filled with crushing defeats and difficult losses, we are dealt yet another blow when Athena returns to her parents' home. The place is swarmed with cops and Bobby delivers the news that while he and her childhood friend were digging up the foundation, they discovered a body. Now being a true fan of this show, I immediately flashed back to "Athena Begins" which is the episode where Athena tells Hen about a little girl who went missing when Athena was very young. Hen asked if they ever found her and Athena said no. She said that she could remember her father, Samuel, and several others searching high and low for Tanya Kingston.

When I saw the look on Athena's face in this scene, I knew she was thinking the same thing I was thinking, and at the end of the episode we get confirmation that the body is indeed Tanya Kingston. Dun-dun-dunnnnnn. So, like many viewers, I have questions. If Athena's family has lived in that house since Athena was a young girl, that means that someone she knows is responsible for the girl's death and subsequent burial. There's also the question of whodunit. Was it Samuel? If it's Samuel - wow ... that would be a tough pill to swallow. Is it her childhood friend's dad who was also mentioned in this episode. The real question is, how was a little girl buried under Samuel and Beatrice's house without anyone else noticing? Is there a conspiracy going on here? Something tells me we will find out soon.

What a great episode! This episode was a bit dark and sad at times but I think this was one of the better episodes of the show in quite some time. Season 6 appears to be off to a great start. We are getting what I felt was missing for most of last season - rich character development. Part of what makes this show so successful is that we viewers love the characters. We love Athena and Bobby. We love Hen and Buck and Eddie. We love Chimney and Maddie. We love their backstories and their ongoing stories and we want more. Hopefully we get more from our characters this season! Until next time ...

#tv reaction #911 reactions #blw reactions #fox 911 #athena grant #bobby nash #hen wilson #karen wilson #chimney han #maddie buckley #evan buck buckley #eddie diaz #arye gross #beatrice carter #samuel carter #bathena #buddie

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whileiamdying · 2 years

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"Atlas Shrugged: Part II — The Strike"

is consistent with its predecessor as a somewhat awkward translation of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel to our current era, handled with bAtlas Shrugged: Part II — The Strike

By Dennis Harvey, Variety Oct 13, 2012 1:20am PT

Though it flopped in wide release following surprisingly strong limited play, last year’s “Atlas Shrugged: Part I” evidently did well enough — or its producers are simply committed enough — for this second of a projected trilogy to be made. “Atlas Shrugged: Part II — The Strike” has a whole new director, cast and crew, with slightly higher production polish and more familiar faces onscreen. Nonetheless, it’s consistent with its predecessor as a somewhat awkward translation of Ayn Rand’s 1957 novel to our current era, handled with bland telepic-style competency. Theatrical biz will be middling, ancillary better.

With the economy collapsing, the government shutting down private industry and the “best minds” all mysteriously disappearing, Taggart Transcontinental chief operating officer Dagny (Samantha Mathis) and self-made Rearden Steel magnate Henry (Jason Beghe) are the last bold individualists who give a damn about this once-glorious nation in a sea of lily-livered takers, including her weak brother (Patrick Fabian) and his bitchy wife (Kim Rhodes). Naturally this only makes our heroes hotter for one another, though it’s hard to find time for mashing lips when so many crises must be contended with from sea to shining sea.

As the dread too-big government increasingly legislates their own businesses out of their control, Dagny tries to unlock two secrets: how to work an electromagnetic motor she’s found laying about (with help from Diedrich Bader’s wacky rogue scientist), and figuring how who the hell that John Galt guy is anyway. In a plane-pursuit sequence that begins and ends the film, she finally gets her wish — though auds will have to wait until “Part III” to see Mr. G. (D.B. Sweeney) in more than just silhouette.

As before, Randheads will be divided between those who find the pic insufficiently grandiose enough to be the “Atlas” of their dreams, and those so in thrall to the author’s ideas that any reasonably professional product will suffice. Others, particularly those who haven’t read the book, will simply find it silly, talky and dull. That said, John Putch (a more experienced TV helmer replacing the first film’s Paul Johansson, another actor-turned-director) maintains a decent pace and a straight face. Still, the whole project remains hobbled by the initially budget-minded decision to set the story more or less in the present rather than the 1950s, when it already seemed somewhat improbable.

This renders the story’s railroad emphasis wildly anachronistic, despite some attempted explanation. It also requires the pic to pretend ours is still a primarily self-contained national economy, rather than bound to the modern global one. (The filmmakers themselves couldn’t quite pull that off, as the end credits reveal substantial post-production work was done in China.)

Thus, a time-warp air hangs over the whole affair, though the film’s three scenarists have dropped a few up-to-the-moment buzz phrases into the mix to seize their just-in-time-for-elections moment; Rand’s cartoonish conflict between industrious quality people and lazy, effete quasi-socialists is now “job creators” vs. “looters.” There are repeated glimpses of Occupy-like protestors, who eventually turn against their alleged government benefactors, although notably, none of them gets so much as a single line to speak.

Though the actors this time come with higher-profile track records, they’re surprisingly not much of an improvement, and in some cases (notably Esai Morales as decadent playboy-cum-secret-free-market superhero Francisco d’Anconia), quite the opposite. Of course, with dialogue this clunky and expository, one can hardly blame them; with no attempt at finding a stylistic equivalent to Rand’s heightened worldview (a la King Vidor’s 1949 film of “The Fountainhead”), they’re stuck playing real in a context that feels unaware of its unreality.

The mostly blah corporate and hotel settings are in a sense apt, but add no flavor. While “Part II’s” attempt to encompass Rand’s sweeping narrative on a far-below-major-studio budget is admirable, the underwhelming f/x dampen its few opportunities for action sequences.

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