After a great four-part opening emergency, 9-1-1 returns to its monster-of-the-week format with 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5, titled “Día de los Muertos.” The Halloween vibes are a bit jarring one week after Oct. 31, but the show takes the opportunity to showcase Día de los Muertos, also known as Day of the Dead, through Eddie (Ryan Guzman) and the lingering grief surrounding Bobby’s death.
9-1-1 Season 9, Episode 5 weaves its themes through all the stories, with a major through-line that doesn’t work as well. The episode begins with Eddie standing in the middle of a Día de los Muertos festival, his voice-over presenting the questions that the episode will eventually answer: Do the dead still surround us, or do they live on in memory? It’s not clear what’s at the root of Eddie’s contemplations, but there are plenty of things it could be about, such as Bobby or Shannon. But before we can get any more details, we flash back to earlier.
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A man gets hit by a car while carrying a scarecrow, and somehow walks away from the accident without anyone noticing. We keep returning to him throughout the episode as he wanders through various neighborhoods telling people he’s dead. He eventually lies down in a cemetery plot until a funeral service arrives. Whatever was left over from the car accident caused the man to believe he was supposed to be dead, so Eddie and the 118 fake-revived him, which convinces him he’s still alive.
9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5 features one of the weaker recurring cases 9-1-1 has done, mostly hurt by the fact that it’s airing shortly after Halloween, so it doesn’t hit as hard as it should. But it’s also a little anticlimactic, and not nearly as fun as a woman driving around with someone sticking out of her windshield. It doesn’t feel super connected to the larger themes of 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5, either.
Poor holiday timing and a weak case make 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5 less impactful this go round.
9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5 focuses a lot on Eddie and his relationship with religion. Eddie’s abuela Isabel (Ana Mercedes) and Tía Pepa (Terri Hoyos) discover that Eddie has been attending church again, something they’re very excited about. But Eddie emphasizes that he’s just testing out the waters, having never really felt god’s presence before and is not sure if he’s just attending because of Bobby.
Isabel tells Eddie that perhaps he was looking for god in the wrong place, and covers his heart with her hand. A sentiment that comes back around when Isabel passes away in her sleep and Chris and Eddie honor her, Shannon, Bobby, and other members of their family at an altar they made in their home.
Eddie’s closing narration picks up where his opening one left off, about how it’s impossible to grieve on the first day because of all the things that need to be done. But when things slow down, grieving becomes a communal activity, one that can be shared with your community and your family.
Chris suggests they do this every year, and tells Eddie that it makes it feel like they’re still in their hearts, echoing Isabel’s words to Eddie, as Eddie’s narration suggests that the living are what keep the memories of the dead alive. While featuring the passing of Isabel feels a little shoehorned in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5, the themes work well to showcase Eddie’s losses on a larger scale. He’s lost a lot of people, but he’s learning to channel that grief into rediscovering another part of him that he maybe never gave much of a chance.
Grieving is communal, and Eddie’s storyline shows this in spades.
While this works well on an individual level for Eddie’s story in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5, when it aligns with Buck’s (Oliver Stark) slightly more lighthearted grieving Bobby arc, things once again get a little melodramatic. It’s a little strange that this is the second episode to feature both Buck’s grief over Bobby and Eddie’s grief over Bobby, which takes Eddie’s grief more seriously.
9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 17 turned into a fight between the two, where Eddie got to express his own grief while throwing around accusations that Buck is selfish. That was the last time they’ve had a one-on-one scene until 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5, during which they have another fight. For two characters that are supposed to be friends, it doesn’t really seem like Eddie likes Buck all that much, and the lopsided interactions between them are starting to grate.
But this moment featured in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5 is part of a larger issue with Buck and how the rest of the characters treat him. We’ve seen Buck mature over the seasons, yet he’s still treated like a kid by the rest of the 118. Sure, Buck tends to go on tangents and flights of fancy about ghost Bobby, but it’s clearly rooted in his grief over Bobby, but no one seems to treat him seriously. It’s an eye roll here, and a sigh there, until one of the others has an issue, which they take out on Buck.
Was inviting Eddie and Chris over to contact Bobby through an Ouija board the best idea? Probably not. But what should have been a moment where the two connect over their shared grieving gets turned into another moment where Eddie’s grief overshadows Buck’s. It shouldn’t be a competition, but there’s no reconciliation here, either, which is why it feels so lopsided.
9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5 continues to show the mistreatment of Buck.
None of this would be such an issue if there were any acknowledgement from the show that this is happening. Buck just kinda takes it from everyone, even while he showcases kindness and maturity as a character when he’s on his own. Everyone dismisses Bobby’s ghost theory, but no one questions why he wants to believe it so strongly. Ghost Bobby might be a little ridiculous, but it wouldn’t be so bad if the other characters took Buck seriously in any of his grieving endeavors.
Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) is the only real one who shows up for Buck in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5. Dressed as Raggedy Andy, Ravi indulges Buck’s Ouija board whims. When they discover that it’s not in fact ghost Bobby but the previous tenant, Dwayne, living in Buck’s attic, Ravi just says he went along with it because it seemed like Buck needed to see this through. It’s a very sweet moment, and the kind of friendship that’s lacking in other areas throughout this show. I would love to see this dynamic become a two-way street.
Despite the more whimsical nature of Buck’s story in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5, and the frustrating reluctance to let Buck experience an actual grieving arc, Buck does end up honoring Bobby in a very profound moment by the end of the episode. Finding a sobriety chip in the attic, Buck meets Dwayne outside the precinct and asks him if he’d like to attend an AA meeting, offering support and understanding to someone who needs it, exactly like Bobby would have done.
It’s moments like these that are at odds with Buck’s place within the 118’s dynamics. If 9-1-1 were a show that was nuanced enough to dive into the changing dynamics on the team on a more interpersonal level, it would be interesting to see Buck and the others confront that. But 9-1-1 relies too heavily on the “found family” aspect of it, which can lead to stagnation in those dynamics. And that’s where it feels like we are in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5with Buck and the 118.
Bobby still hangs over Athena’s and Harry’s relationship, and it shows in their confrontation.
There’s no challenging aspect here in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5, just the same old, same old. Or, not even that, actually. There used to be real camaraderie between Buck and Hen (Aisha Hinds), Buck and Chimney (Kenneth Choi), and Buck and Eddie. However, it seems to have gotten lost somewhere, and I’m not entirely sure what to attribute it to.
And it’s not like Hen, Eddie, and Chimney don’t have their own issues going on, but it’s just weird that in group settings, Buck becomes the butt of the joke over and over again. Hen’s little “tell him we say hi” departing comment was a nice touch, though.
Elsewhere, Athena (Angela Bassett) makes a deal with Harry (Elijah M. Cooper) that if he moves in with her, she’ll support his desire to go to the fire academy. And in an eerie turn of events, Harry puts on Bobby’s old turnouts as part of a Halloween costume. Athena accuses him of not taking the firefighter life seriously, and I’d have to agree to an extent. Using Bobby’s turnouts as a costume is definitely a step too far, but Harry explains that his desire to join the fire academy isn’t about Bobby. It’s about his mom and how she inspired him.
9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5 showcases three different grieving processes that don’t necessarily flow together as well as they should, but whose conclusions are all rooted in universal sentiments that work. However, there are lingering overarching issues concerning Buck that are starting to get frustrating.
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9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5
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Rating - 7.5/107.5/10
TL;DR
9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 5 showcases three different grieving processes that don’t necessarily flow together as well as they should, but whose conclusions are all rooted in universal sentiments that work.
