RECAP: 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15 — “Pick Your Poison”

9-1-1 is procedural, and therefore it demands that storylines remain relatively contained within single episodes, with everything resetting in the next episode. However, there are some stories that deserve a little more attention than just two episodes and a wrap-up montage with a “all you need is family” sentiment. 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15, “Pick Your Poison,” sends Buck (Oliver Stark) into withdrawals from an opioid addiction we only became privy to in the last episode, and then seemingly washes its hands of it by episode’s end.

The 9-1-1 universe has handled addiction before. Bobby’s addiction shaped much of his character’s motivation. T.K. from 9-1-1: Lone Star began the show with an overdose, but a lot of the show showcased his healing throughout without making it his one characteristic. It’s not always been perfect, but the consistency with which those two characters talked about their addiction emphasized that it’s not something to be cured overnight, or at all.

The way Buck’s addiction is treated in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15 makes it seem like it’s just a little bump in the road. This is primarily due to pacing issues, but regardless, for something as serious as addiction, it deserves a longer focus. While Stark’s performance is notable, especially in his confession scene to Chimney, there are a lot of missing steps here.

How 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15 is a bit of a letdown, deserving more screentime than allotted.

Despite witnessing Buck’s entire abduction during 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 13, his recovery mostly happens off-screen, which means by the time the doctor threatens to report Buck’s addiction, he’s already deep in it. It feels like someone tore out the middle pages and catapulted us to the beginning of Act 3.

What’s more, 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15 also marks the one-year anniversary of Bobby’s death. Suddenly, the episode becomes an in memoriam for Bobby, and tries to tie some of Buck’s recovery into learning more about Bobby and what he went through with his own addiction.

There’s a wonderful bonfire scene in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15 where the 118, plus Athena (Angela Bassett), May, and Maddie, tell old stories about Bobby, which does put a nice cap on the montage of the 118 taking care of Buck. But the two ideas don’t come together all that smoothly, and the swift way in which the worst of Buck’s addiction is helped along by simply having his extended family around comes across as a shallow example of how addiction works.

Thankfully, with the help of his found family, Buck’s recovery is swift yet doesn’t reflect reality.

Buck’s grief journey about Bobby was already there, a viable storyline that’s been waiting in the wings of Season 9 for so long. There have been a few ways the show has addressed it, but nothing major until his exchange with his real father. 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15 feels like the show’s attempt to address it for real, but did so by half-heartedly giving Buck an addiction so he could relate to Bobby in a way he hadn’t before, and as a way to bring the 118 together as the family Bobby originally created, despite how much they’ve ignored Buck throughout the rest of the season.

It’s also repetitive. This exact sentiment plays out earlier in Season 9 when Hen develops a chronic illness. Unlike Buck’s addiction, Hen’s illness had a decent buildup, but just like what happens to Buck here, Hen’s chronic illness was suddenly cured in just a few episodes. Buck isn’t out of the woods yet. He has to go up against a disciplinary committee, so it’s possible we’ll at least see the fallout of his addiction in a professional sense. It just deserved a little more time and care in these episodes.

A murder victim walks into Athena’s precinct to report his own murder and then promptly keels over, sending Athena down a rabbit hole of conspiracies that link back to the Russians. For a minute there, it almost felt like we were in the middle of an episode of The X-Files. The detective working with Athena on the case even takes all of Athena’s evidence to cover up what she found. All he needed was a cigarette to complete the transformation.

Athena goes on a wild conspiracy chase, which contrasts significantly with Buck’s storyline.

While this storyline had its moments, including a great performance by David Pressman as the murder victim, it ultimately fell victim to a tame plot twist in which the Russian conspiracies are moot, and it’s simply a very bad case of daddy issues.

9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15’s one redeeming quality comes in the form of Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) and May. The two haven’t seen each other in a while, but when May stops by the firehouse to return something of Harry’s (Elijah M. Cooper), she arrives with nurse Ian, the guy she got arrested with last episode, and who is helping her pivot to nursing. But Ravi doesn’t know that. All he sees is an attractive man arriving with and leaving with May, throwing around talk of meal reservations.

Jealous Ravi is really all this show has been missing. It’s also great to see Ravi and Harry as the focus in the firehouse scenes, rather than as side characters to the OG team members. Harry and Ravi have a running bit about how Ravi never called May back because Harry told him not to date his sister, to which Harry responds with “It was a quip!” The two have great comedic chemistry.

9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15 features more screen time for Ravi and May. It’s much-needed.

An overflow issue at Ian’s hospital causes the 118 to be on scene when Ian grabs a medical bag and sprints to a nearby car crash involving a pediatric patient, leading to the 118’s collaboration with Ian in a professional capacity and Ravi’s growing jealousy. May and Ravi reunite in 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15 at Buck’s house, where May clears the air that Ian is just helping her pivot to nursing, and the two decide to date for real.

9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15 goes for unearned sentimentality in the face of a serious topic. The rest of the episode has some great moments on the Athena, May, and Ravi side of things, and then ends with a moment of reflection, one year after Bobby’s death. The characters might conclude that they’ve made it one year, but there’s clearly some tears in the fabric of 9-1-1 Season 9.

9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 15 is streaming now on Disney+ and Hulu, with new episodes every Thursday on ABC, and is available on Disney+ and Hulu the next day.

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