RECAP: ‘9-1-1’ Season 9 Episode 14 — “DIY”

It’s been a while since May (Corinne Massiah) had center stage in a 9-1-1 episode. But 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14, “DIY,” rectifies this by throwing May into the high-stakes world of job searching. Her pursuit of a law internship is the highlight of the episode, even if it has some missteps, while the rest of the episode spends way too much time on a recurring couple that’s hard to care about.

It’s not surprising that May wants to go into law. She’s always had a strong sense of justice and questioned the system. Her tension with her mom in the earlier seasons of 9-1-1 centered around her conflicting feelings about Athena being a cop. Being a lawyer is a way to, as May describes it in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14, go into the family business of helping people, just in her own way.

Athena helps her prepare for an interview with a woman named Gabi, a big-shot lawyer and friend of Athena. But May doesn’t want any special connections, wanting to earn this internship on her own terms. Gabi makes the connection to Athena pretty quickly, though, and takes May along on an emergency meeting with her client as part of May’s interview.

May is in the process of figuring out her next steps in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14. 

The situation in the hospital when Gabi and May arrive is tense, with a group of cops surrounding a patient who needs care from the nurses and doctors treating him. The cops say they need a blood sample to match the blood at the site of a car crash, and since the nurse has already taken a vial of blood, they just need to hand it over to the cops. Gabi steps in to remind the cops of due process, but when it’s clear the cops aren’t going to listen, May takes the vial of blood and smashes it on the floor so the cops can’t get it.

It’s a drastic move that speaks to May’s sense of justice. The fact that it was in retaliation for the cops on the scene hearkens back to her tension with her mother from seasons back. However, Gabi says it was too hasty and that May’s intentions were more about herself than Gabi’s client. In light of that, she tells May she’s not fit to be a lawyer.

The end of 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14 features Athena, Gabi, Hen, and May all gathered together for a wine night, in which Athena, Hen, and Gabi all reassure May that she’s in the middle of her origin story and she’ll figure out what she wants to do soon. It’s a sweet moment, but it would hit harder if the law storyline lasted a bit longer. The moment in the hospital could have been a teaching moment; instead, Gabi uses it as a reason that May shouldn’t be a lawyer, despite only knowing her for a day.

How 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14 handles May’s law storyline underserves the character immensely.

And perhaps May didn’t really want to be a lawyer. Every time she’s asked why she wants to go into law, she hesitates. Just seems like we’re moving on too fast from that particular job pursuit that honestly made a lot of sense for May.

However, May does get a new idea, one that connects to her setting up that makeshift triage center in the firehouse during the space episodes earlier this season. She meets up with nurse Ian from the hospital scene, the one who had been fighting for his patient’s rights and ended up in the back of a police car with May because of it. Looks like Nurse May is on the way.

One thing 9-1-1 is good at is marrying the rescues thematically with what’s going on in the main character’s lives. However, there’s a balance to that, and when the rescues overtake the main characters, it can fall flat. This is what happens in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14, when we follow the ups and downs of Tia and Flynn’s home ownership as a newly engaged couple.

Focusing on a newly engaged couple in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14 proves more distracting than not.

Tia is actually a returning character; she first appeared in 9-1-1 Season 8 as one of the passengers on the plane Athena had to land on the freeway. This connection doesn’t actually add anything to the story, however. The 118 makes frequent stops at their house because the couple decides to DIY everything, hence the episode title, and they’re constantly almost dying from the shoddy work they do.

It eventually ends in their house burning down as they drink champagne and toast to the end of their engagement. Their constant 9-1-1 calls are the only ones we see the 118 go on in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14, making their screen time overtake the main characters far too easily. And because their story of falling out of love and comedic 911 emergencies doesn’t have a lot of connection to the 118 — there’s no recollection on any of their parts of the plane emergency from last season, even if all they did was talk on the phone with her — it’s one of the more boring rescue stories 9-1-1 has done.

Dispatch gets some focus in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14 when Sue suffers a stroke and ends up in the hospital. She survives, but names Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) as her successor in lieu of Josh (Bryan Safi). This decision makes Josh quit out of jealousy, causing a rift between Maddie and Josh.

A power struggle at Dispatch is handled too quickly, a frustrating trademark of 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14.

While it’s fun to see Maddie in a position of authority, this plot point leaves much to be desired. Sue’s reasoning for not picking Josh is that he cares too much and wouldn’t know how to delegate, which doesn’t seem fair, and doesn’t land well considering we hardly spend time with Sue and Josh to care that much about their relationship.

It’s also a moot point anyway because Josh returns with almost no fanfare by the end of 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14. He just suddenly changes his mind off-screen and is all smiles again as he retakes his usual position on the dispatch floor. There’s not even a reconciliation between Josh and Maddie, or a conversation where we can hear more of Josh’s point of view about being skipped over for a promotion.

The last story in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14 features a traumatized Buck (Oliver Stark) trying very hard not to let on how traumatized he is. He plays off his missed therapy appointments to Eddie (Ryan Guzman) like he’s already moved on from his abduction, but when Eddie and Chris go over to his house for dinner, Buck hides away from them. Eddie clocks movement behind a window curtain, but leaves Buck alone for the time being.

We do get some time with Buck, but it’s a little sprinkle sprinkle.

The second time they come over for dinner, Buck greets them like normal, and the three sit down for a normal dinner like it’s any other time. But Buck drops the act as soon as they leave, and fishes out some pills stowed away in his bag. The discreet way he does this obviously suggests he’s misusing them, which is very reminiscent of the storyline with Spencer Reid on Criminal Minds Season 2.

Buck’s trauma following his abduction still has a story to tell, but this does seem to be slightly out of nowhere at the moment. It may tie in to Buck’s grief about Bobby, considering Bobby’s own history with addiction. It’s also a story that requires a lot of sensitivity, so here’s hoping 9-1-1 delivers on that front.

9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14 spends way too much time on one-off characters, but tells a pretty decent and long-awaited story focusing on May. The rest of it is a mixed bag, and it also includes a story setup that requires more screen time before we can really form an opinion.

9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 14 is streaming now on Disney+ and Hulu, with new episodes every Thursday on ABC, and is available on Disney+ and Hulu the next day.

Previous Episode | Next Episode