ABC’s acclaimed procedural drama, 9-1-1, returns for its eighth season tonight with part one of its three-part bee-centric arc.
Yes, you read that right.
A bee tornado.
“Beenado” (as fans refer to it online) has generated quite the buzz on social media after a TV spot for the episodes aired during the Emmys. It got the attention of folks not privy to the series’ campy nature.
Season eight picks up three months after the events of season seven. The 118 have been terrorized by their new (to some) captain, Gerrard (Brian Thompson), after Bobby (Peter Krause) submitted his resignation at the end of last season and then tried to rescind it, only to be forced to follow through anyway.
Gerrard is a fascist. There’s no other way to put it. He’s using city funds to create a security fence around the station in a very Trumpian move. Anyone who dares act against his orders or acts as an individual is punished. He treats the fire station like a boot camp, where they’re put on latrine doodie and forced to exercise. He spits on the floor to prove it’s not clean and points out that their boots must be polished perfectly. He singles out Hen (Aisha Hinds) for being the only woman on the team whenever he gets the chance. He’s not only sexist but racist, too, based on the fact that he lines them up in order of skin tone.
Everyone on the team tries not to rock the boat more than it already has with Gerrard as captain—everyone except Buck.
Buck (Oliver Stark) is the problem child because his surrogate dad, Bobby, isn’t around to keep him in check. So, what does Buck suggest? That they all quit. Which no one takes seriously, of course. Because they all have their own problems outside of work that require them to keep their job. Hen and Karen (Tracie Thoms) are trying to get their foster license back. Chimney (Kenneth Choi) has two kids to take care of now that he and Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) are fostering Mara (Askyler Bell) until HenRen can have her back, and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) has nothing going on outside of his new lip caterpillar, and Christopher (Gavin McHugh) leaving him to go live with his grandparents in Texas.
But they do miss Bobby and want him back, even though apparently (and unrealistically) they have not spoken to him because he’s been busy with his new “crew.”
Speaking of Bobbee (get it? Because of bees?) and his new job.
After dying last season, because he did die. his heart gave out for an entire 14 minutes after saving his beloved wife, Athena (Angela Bassett), from their burning house. Unable to rescind his resignation from Captain of the 118, he’s been reassigned to be a technical advisor on a TV show called Hot Shots, a show about firefighters.
So, is the firefighter on a show about firefighters now working on a show about firefighters?
Yes.
He is.
And he is not having a good time. Between the creative team behind Hot Shots’ lack of respect for his work and the lead actor on the show who plays the fictional station’s Captain’s morbid fascination with Bobby’s real job, he’s struggling.
Meanwhile, Athena is assigned the task of flying Dennis Jenkins (Glenn Plummer), the man who killed her first fiance, Emmett Washington (Jeff Pierre) , back to LA to testify in charge of a grand jury in exchange for getting released early.
As a refresher, back in season three’s “Athena Beegins,” we uncover Athena’s backstory. Initially, she would follow in her father’s footsteps and become a lawyer. Until a young, hot police officer named Emmett caught her eye during a career fair at her college, and she decided to become a cop, wanting to be the change she wanted to see in our flawed justice system. While you’d think that’s commendable, we all know that is not how it works with police departments. The actual system is based on racism and oppression, which 9-1-1 subtly omitted because it doesn’t suit their propaganda lite agenda. When Emmett is killed while off duty, the man who killed him is never found…until 30 years later, when the gun used to kill him is found, and this leads to Athena finally getting closure to the heartbreak that’s plagued her for most of her life.
Fast forward to five years later. Dennis has cut a deal with the DA to testify in front of a grand jury in part of a case about a child sex trafficker that he’s been sharing a cell with in Phoenix in exchange for getting out early. Why is he in jail in Arizona for a crime committed in California? That’s why they needed an excuse to have Athena on a plane that the bee swarm impacts. An officer must transport him. That officer is Athena.
Athena’s immediate response is hell no.
Until she’s told that he won’t testify unless she is the one to transport him. She begrudgingly agrees because she is a “good” cop who does want the child sex trafficking case to move forward. It’s not an easy decision for her. It weighs on her to the point of suspecting ulterior motives from Dennis. Knowing Athena is under stress, Bobby offers to go with her because not only is he the definition of a wife-guy, but he also hates his job and would love to be free of it for a day. But Athena insists he stays home.
My one wish for their new house is that they christen every room in it—and that it’s not ugly. If I had to choose, it would be the first one.
When Athena gets to Phoenix and begins her journey back to LA with Dennis, it turns out he does have ulterior motives. They aren’t as sinister as she thought they were. His first reason is that he wanted her to hear about him taking this deal from him directly because he understands he still has to do something to atone for his sins. The second reason is that he thinks someone is trying to stop him from testifying, and she’s the only cop he trusts now.
And he’s right. Someone is trying to stop him from testifying because they’re being pulled over not even two minutes after he tells her this. Athena gets out and asks what’s going on, and the guy who pulls them over says he was sent from the DA’s office to get Dennis, take him in for some additional questioning, and get him off of her hands.
Now, Athena is a lot of things, but she’s not stupid. She takes one look at the ID and clocks that it’s fake, but she plays along with him for a bit until he tries to threaten her. Within seconds, she’s pointing her gun right into the middle of his chest.
Dennis is right that someone is trying to stop him from testifying, so Athena gets them to the airport in one piece. After locking that other guy in the trunk of his car and informing her sheriff of what’s happened, she gets them on a different flight to LA.
Which is when the bees get to her.
So, we’ve finally come to talk about the buzz of the episode. Beenado.
Beenado is caused by a truck carrying 22 million killer bees overturning on the highway after being stuck in standstill traffic for two hours. Now, heat makes bees angry, which is understandable because it makes me angry, too. So, had they not been stuck in crates in the Los Angeles heat for so long, they wouldn’t have created a mob and would’ve probably just gone on their merry way.
But where’s the fun in that?
In this first part of the three-part premiere, Beenado has a list of innocent victims that spans over two days.
DAY ONE:
- A mother and her daughter are both deathly allergic to bees. They’re trapped in their car because they were in the direct path of the truck when it overturned, and when we think they’re okay, a handful of bees get into their car through the vents. And they only have one EpiPen for both of them. But fear not, when the mom is stung after using the pen on her daughter, they’re still on the line with everyone’s favorite dispatcher, Maddie, who walks them through how to get a second dose out of the EpiPen. The mother and daughter are saved from the car when Buck remembers the bees are calmed down by smoke. Buck uses a fan to blow smoke from a fire caused by the truck toward the trapped vehicle. It works, and Buck is immediately punished by the demon Gerrard for going against orders. Even though, you know, the whole point of their jobs is saving people’s lives, and Buck didn’t put anyone on the team in any direct danger.
- The two truck drivers: One gets out of the truck and immediately gets treated by the team. The other gets stung by so many bees that he nearly aspirates on them because there are 100 bees stuck in his throat, which Chimney then suctions out.
DAY TWO:
- I guess people did not watch the news to hear about the 22 million killer bees on the loose because a newly divorced woman decided to have a launch party for her new perfume. Of course, the bees are attracted to the smell of the perfume, and she manages to get everyone inside her house, except for her poor, underpaid assistant, who she sprayed down with the perfume before the bees appeared. When she calls 9-1-1, Maddie tells her to get the garden hose and cut a piece off so that her assistant can stop getting stung and, you know, breathe. How do they get her out of the pool if a thousand bees hover above it? By dousing Eddie in the perfumes and using him as a distraction, thanks to Buck’s realization that the types of perfume scents are both things bees love and hate, so it’ll get them enraged enough to chase Eddie through the yard. They do this while Korskov’s Flight of The Bumblebees plays in the background. It’s a perfect musical choice if you ask me.
- The final victims for this installment of Beenado are Athena and the 200 other passengers on the plane. A smaller plane infiltrated by bees crashes head-on into the commercial airliner she’s on just as it’s about to descend into LA, causing the cockpit to lose its ceiling. So, stay tuned for next week’s recap to find out how that escalates.
By the way, Buck spends both days spewing random bee facts, to no one’s surprise.
As for the three storylines that are meant to outlast Beenado, here are some updates.
- Christopher has been living with his grandparents Helena (Paula Marshall) and Ramon (George DelHoyo) in Texas for the last three months, with no intention of coming home soon. When Eddie face-times him to wish him a happy 14th birthday, he could not care less. This is understandable because anyone would be mad if they walked in on their dad making out with their dead mom’s literal doppelgänger. But what’s worse is that he’s not even excited when Eddie surprises him with his favorite person in the entire world, Buck. Eddie’s heart broken by his son still being mad at him, but I was surprised that he doesn’t seem to be doing that bad. Especially since he now has a mustache, because he doesn’t know who he is outside of being a father. But this is the first episode of the season, so I assume his inevitable breakdown is to come, which may or may not lead to him discovering something about himself that’s been alluded to throughout the series (hint: it’s that he’s gay.)
- Buck and Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) are still together. Tommy is part of Eddie’s surprise for Christopher’s birthday.
- Chimney and Maddie have been fostering Mara while Hen and Karen work to get their foster license back after having it revoked in an act of revenge by a corrupt councilwoman. They’re one step closer to getting their license reinstated and getting their daughter back, because Mara is their daughter and in the meantime, they have weekly dinners with the Hans so that they can see their girl. It’s fun to get to see the two couples further their friendships, because Hen and Chimney are probably the strongest friendship on the show.
Oh, and remember how I mentioned earlier how Gerrard may or may not be dead? As he’s berating Buck for the 500th time of the episode, the blade of a circular saw being used for the construction of that security fence that they definitely don’t need, comes loose and nearly slices him open. But fear not, Buck tackles him out of the way and the last we see of Gerrard, he’s laying in a pool of his own blood on the fire house floor. Karma got its kiss for him. But whether or not he’s dead, is next week’s problem.
That’s it for this week’s recap. I can’t beelieve you stuck around this long.
I’ll leave you with some stats:
Total Bee counts pre-editing: 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 (7)
Final Bee Count:
Bobby and Athena being the ideal middle-couple count: 1
Times the shot was on Eddie while Buck was being Buck, which could mean nothing: 1
Mustache mentions: 3
See you next week!
Edit: this recap has been updated post publishing, as readers found offense to some comments made by the author that were missed during the editing process. We apologize for the insensitivity and promise to do better.
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