RECAP: 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 7 — “Hotshots”

Next up on our regularly scheduled programming, ‘Hotshots’ returns in 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 7, “Hotshots.” There’s some trouble on the ‘Hotshots’ set, which brings back Brad (Callum Blue) and Vincent Gerrard (Brian Thompson). At the same time, Athena (Angela Bassett) takes on a problematic new probie named Officer Sparks (Zach Tinker), and Buck (Oliver Stark) considers calling Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr). While the character work for Athena and Buck holds 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 7 together, ‘Hotshots’ has overstayed its welcome. 

Athena’s story seemingly sets her up for a retirement gig, or at least something less action-heavy. She works an undercover op chasing after a young thief (Colin Ford), otherwise known as young Sam Winchester from Supernatural. However, an injury slows her down, and the thief gets away. As a result, Athena gets saddled with a probie named Officer Sparks. At first, this young upstart seems eager to prove himself. But Athena clocks Sparks immediately as a power-hungry cop with a trigger-happy finger. 

During a stop for expired license plates, a white woman with a child in the back seat refuses to roll her window down for Sparks and his new mentor. The situation escalates when Sparks grows frustrated at the woman’s clear distrust of cops and pulls out what he thinks is his taser and shoots her. However, it wasn’t his taser, but his gun. The woman survives after Athena rushes in to stop the bleeding. 

Afterward, Athena agrees to take on another probie to ensure that the new cops coming up don’t turn out like Sparks. While this is a noble step for Athena and fits with her character, it’s still a storyline emphasizing the “not all cops” propaganda. Sparks’ reasons for entering the police force—that he wanted to feel the power of enforcing the law—are common for many cops.

Sparks is not an outlier, but 9-1-1 acts like he is. It’s an especially egregious conclusion to make in an episode that showcases a common police brutality scenario. Then again, this is a show that also had Athena take the side of the law when her ex-husband and her kids experienced the same scenario in 9-1-1 Season 3. 

Retirement is at the forefront of Athena’s story.

An incident on the ‘Hotshots’ set brings the 118 back to Hollywood, and we reunite with Brad and Gerrard. ‘Hotshots’ was fun initially, but things are getting weird. Gerrard’s new cartoon villain role undermines his previous bigotry during 9-1-1 Season 2 and 9-1-1 Season 7. Gerrard may have helped out during 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 4 out of self-interest, but the framing of his involvement and the rest of the 118 seemingly being alright with him has turned him into a character that’s hard to grasp the point of. He’s upset that Brad doesn’t like him, too, and although Bobby (Peter Krause) calls him out on his behavior, Gerrard’s reduction to comedic relief is strange.

Brad wants Bobby back at ‘Hotshots,’ but Bobby can’t exactly leave the 118. A confrontation between the two in a restaurant goes viral and reveals Brad to be every entitled celebrity man archetype wrapped in one, and lands Brad at the 118 to shadow Bobby for some reason.

Buck’s kitchen takes a hit after his breakup with Tommy. The counter and the refrigerator are overflowing with baked goods because every time Buck thinks about calling Tommy, he bakes. As good as it is to see Buck as affected as he is by this breakup, it still would have been nice to see more of Buck and Tommy together before this fallout. 

Instead, we get Buck sad and lonely, depression baking, and worried about whether he should reach out to Tommy or wait him out. Tommy, too, seems like he wants to reach out, as evidenced by the text bubbles popping up on Buck’s phone. This scene happens at the firehouse, with the rest of the 118 around. They all know about the breakup, and like all good friends do when another friend gets dumped, they stop Buck from reaching out to avoid more heartbreak.

It’s a wonderful scene that emphasizes the camaraderie between the 118. It’s also the first time since 9-1-1 Season 7 Episode 9 that Tommy feels like a character outside of just Buck and sometimes Eddie (Ryan Guzman). And he’s not even on screen or seemingly coming back.

Buck gets little else to do in 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 7 except depression baking.

On the one hand, the fact that we’re even seeing this much reference to Tommy makes him feel like he wasn’t just there this whole time. On the other hand, the fallout doesn’t seem to match the onscreen development for Buck and Tommy in two ways: One, the whiplash from “Our people are what make life worth living” in 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 5 to the breakup in 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 6 is still wild, and two, there just simply wasn’t enough. The development was cut off right as it was getting started. 

Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Chimney (Kenneth Choi) also advise Buck that maybe he should move on and that the right person will eventually come along. Buck says he’s not ready but doesn’t know which pond to jump back into. For a show that can’t even say the word “bisexual,” it sure loves to use bisexual stereotypes.

It could be excused as Buck is still learning about his identity. He was in his first same-sex relationship for six months; perhaps he’s still wrestling with some internalized biphobia (probably not helped by Tommy’s “You’re still figuring out what you want” line). Still, that’s not uncommon for bisexual people to experience. However, the show doesn’t seem at all interested in even acknowledging his identity explicitly, so it still, unfortunately, stays rooted in biphobia. 

Buck figures out that Maddie is pregnant, Chimney threatens Buck not to say a word (hilarious coming from Chimney), and the three of them hug it out in the middle of Buck’s loft. Their dynamic is so lovely to see and has definitely been missed. Jee arrives later to lift Buck’s spirits, and the two descend into a chaotic cookie-making process. Narratively, Buck’s heartbreak about Tommy feels left unresolved, and so does Tommy’s. But, for right now, that’s probably where we’ll leave them. 

9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 7 had wonderful family and 118 moments. However, the show seems to be spinning its wheels a bit with the ‘Hotshots’ angle. It’s been a while since we revisited Bobby and Athena’s search for a house, and Eddie, despite finding a moment of joy in the last episode, still has not addressed the situation with Chris any further. As we head into the midseason finale, this season is beginning to stagnate.  

9-1-1 airs new episodes every Thursday on ABC and Hulu.

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