9-1-1-Karma’s a Bitch

By starrymag | March 14, 2018

By: Danielle de la Torre

 

 

Our episode opens like every other episode, a 911-phone call that comes in. This time it’s a man that has been shot. He voices to Abby he’s been shot before he goes silent and Bobby’s (Peter Krause) team is deployed to the location of the man. When Bobby, Henrietta (Aisha Hinds)  and Evan (Oliver Stark) step out of their engine Bobby tells Evan that they have been to this location before at a time before Evan had joined the team. The episode focuses on a tree before it flashes back a year prior to a rainy day where a woman is hanging from that very tree. Bobby cuts her down from the help of Chimney (Kenneth Choi). They start compressions before her husband asks Bobby why she would do something like this. Henrietta discovers marks of abuse on the woman’s body and tells the man that she wasn’t so likely to run into his “loving arms.”  Another flashback takes us to the couple where the husband abuses his wife after asking where she has been. It flashes back to the rainy day where the husband tells Bobby that the tree is still standing and she is gone. He walks away when we move forward to the husband talking to a guy about the tree getting sick. He eventually tells the guy not to bother helping the tree and he will take care of it himself. We finally flash to modern day where the husband rigs the tree with explosives and takes a shot at the tree. During the explosion and fragment of a bullet shoots out from the tree and hits the husband in the chest causing him to start to bleed out. No we have the full picture.

 

As the team begins to help him Bobby tells Henrietta it was the bullet that wife had shot at him. Henrietta tells Bobby karma is a bitch.

 

The following day Chimney organizes a blood drive and recruits his fellow firemen to participate. Chimney tries to get Bobby to donate but he refuses. As the team presses him he tells them he doesn’t donate blood because he has had bad experiences. Chimney breaks out the story of his accident and tells Bobby that he wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for blood donation. He closes and tells Bobby this is what he wants in terms of help for his recovery. Bobby just simply tells everyone he hates them before he agrees.

 

Athena (Angela Bassett) and Michael (Rockmond Dunbar) send their kids off to school. As soon as they leave Athena and Michael return to bickering about Michael’s boyfriend. Michael wants to integrate him into the family and Athena wants no part of it. Michael tells Athena that he is trying to move forward and mold the family into something great and to move with her. Athena tells him to stop moving so fast before picking up her things and leaving.

 

Another 911 call comes about a fitness manager who is being burned alive from a tanning booth. When Bobby and his team arrive a recently fired employee leads them to the back of the gruesome scene. Bobby tries to turn the machine off before he yanks the plug shutting off the machine. They ask how long his has been in the machine to which the employee replies that he sometime comes in before they open so it could be 2-3 hours. Evan asks why he didn’t just get out. Chimney tells him that he man have has a stroke. Chimney works on him as Bobby asks the employee what he is on. The employee tells him he was on everything because he was stacking. The fitness manager codes. Chimney tries compressions but what is left of the fitness manager’s skin comes off on his hand and he dies. The employee yells she knew it what comes around goes around after what happened with him and Mindy. The scene cuts to the past where the employee getting out of her car as the manager pulls up in his car. He gets out and leaves his dog Mindy in the car. They argue about leaving the dog in the car on a hot day before he leaves to go inside and lift weights. As he is lifting weights and another employee tells him about the tanning booth being on the fritz again the employee walks in to grab and weight and smash the managers car window to free Mindy. The scene cuts back to present day as they wheel the manager’s body out in a body bag. Henrietta begins to say karma is a bitch before Chimney stops her. Bobby receives and phone call about his blood donation. The team asks him what it is. Bobby tells them he doesn’t know because they wouldn’t tell him over the phone they would rather do it in person.

 

Bobby returns to the church where he shows the father his “prayer book”. He tells him it is a list of names. 62 out of 148 being the number of people that has died because of him.  He tells the father that this job is the ledger 148 is what he owes before he can go. The father tells him he should know how the church feels about suicide. How it would cost him his eternal soul. Bobby asks him if he believes in karma. The father says he believes in God’s justice. Bobby explains what happened with his blood and that he may not make it 148.

 

Along the streets of LA a lady starts to steal packages off the front steps of random homes and just like the theme of the episode karma catches up with her and she falls off a step of a homes entrance. She calls 911 and Henrietta and Chimney show up to tend to her. As she lies in agony Athena pulls up to ask Henrietta and Chimney if they found an I.D. on her. Athena grabs her I.D. and tells the woman she is the porch pirate. The neighbors notified her. The woman confesses after some pushing from Athena. The porch pirate is loaded into an ambulance as Henrietta presses Athena about her aggression on the porch pirate. Athena tells Henrietta about Michael and how he wants to start bringing his boyfriend around. Henrietta tells her it just might not be a bad idea. Athena tells Henrietta that he shouldn’t be able to have his cake and eat it too while she has to keep pushing her feelings to the side. Henrietta tells her that her kids follow suit and she shouldn’t make her kids hate their dad. They part ways.

 

Chimney and Bobby wait for a doctor to tell them the results of Bobby’s blood. The doctor enters and tells Bobby that this is time sensitive matter. They sit and the doctor continues asking Bobby if he has heard of Rhesus disease. Bobby tells the doctor no before asking him how bad it is. The doctor tells him it is fatal but only for pregnant women and their fetuses. He goes on to explain that Bobby and his blood have the capability to save and cure all of babies. He has the “golden arm.” The doctor gives Bobby and paper to fill out to get him into a program to regularly donate blood in order to save the lives of countless babies. Chimney is ecstatic and tells Bobby he better get over his fear of needles.

 

At a zoo an Uncle and his spoiled nephews throw pinecones at tigers in order to make them move and get a better picture. When a woman calls them out the uncle denies taunting the animal and tells his nephews they need to go so he can use the bathroom.  While he is using the bathroom screams from outside alert him. He goes outside to find zoo goers running for their lives. As he tries to ask what is going on he is left in the dust. He yells for his nephews before he comes face to face with an escaped tiger. He dials 911. He starts to tell Abby that the tiger is just staring at him. Abby tells him to remain still and await for help. Of course the guy does not listen and takes off running. He makes it over and fence and tells Abby he is safe before realizing that tigers can jump at the same time the tiger jumps the same fence to get to him.

 

Bobby and the team arrive on scene and tend to the tigers trainer who has “degloved” him by peeling back the skin on his arm as he tried to wrangle him. A call comes over Athena’s radio about a gentlemen that is still trapped inside the zoo. The name sparks a realization in Henrietta who asks if it is the same man who is the dentist who poached animals. A flash back confirms it is the same dentist. The dentist now hides and tells Abby he may have out smarted the tiger. He speaks to soon as the tiger appears and attacks him. Athena rolls up with Zoo personnel and shoot the tiger with a dart to take it down. The tiger ends up eating the poacher ending once again with karma. After Henrietta tells Athena who the tiger ate she replies saying that public sentiment is going to be with the kitty.

 

Athena arrives home to find her kids together in their room. She tells them that their dad is waiting downstairs with a game. She asks her kids if they have a problem with their dad. They reply no and tell Athena the real problem is they don’t want to fake their emotions every day and they prefer honesty.

 

At the station Chimney tells Bobby that the man in Australia that has the same “golden arm” as Bobby received an award for saving kids. He tells Bobby that he could receives the presidential Medal of Honor. Bobby is not impressed and Chimney keeps going on a rant about how Bobby saves lives every day. Bobby snaps and tells Chimney that they are the wrong kids. He wants his kids back. He couldn’t save them. He says he owes 148 lives. He made a deal with god that he would save those lives and he could be with his kids again. He tells Chimney that he wants out and God is punishing him by forcing him to be alive. This news hits Chimney hard as Bobby leaves.

 

At another scene Henrietta tells Athena she screwed up by sleeping with her ex. Athena tells Henrietta that she has to tell her wife. Athena goes on to say that her relationship was already a mess but she has to tell her wife in order to fix it.

 

Athena arrives home after her shift to find Michael asleep on the couch. She wakes him in order to talk. She hands him a paper with the name and number of her divorce attorney. Athena explains that she still loves him but the family is changing but they can’t keep pretending because it is making her hate him. He asks about the kids but she tells him it is what they want and need. He apologizes for hurting her and she tells him she will never regret the life she had with him and gives him one last kiss before they hug.

 

Henrietta arrives home hesitantly.  She strolls in before her wife tells her that she is late. Karen (Tracie Thoms) throws a stack of paper at her and tells her that her ex is suing for custody on the grounds that their house is not stable enough to raise and child because Henrietta has slept with her. Karen renders Henrietta speechless before she tells her she is taking their son to her mothers. Karen tells her she doesn’t know what she went to her ex’s looking for but she hopes she got it. She slams the door and leaves Henrietta feeling the full effect of karma.

 

Athena receives a drink at the bar from a gentleman who comes over to talk to her. They flirt and toast. Bobby rushes into a hospital to meet Chimney. Chimney takes him to a room to meet a baby and a father who he saved with his blood. Chimney tells him that these are his children too. His blood runs through their veins. He closes telling him that he needs to throw away that book or get a bigger one because he is here to stay. Bobby thanks him and they look on watching the family with a joyful emotion.