9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 10, “Voices,” completes the return of the latter half of the season and turns out to be the best of the season so far. Between the acting, the directing, and the general tone of the episode, “Voices” is certainly one to remember.
The episode begins with Chim (Kenneth Choi) and Buck (Oliver Stark) arriving at Chim and Maddie’s (Jennifer Love Hewitt) after Eddie’s (Ryan Guzman’s) going-away dinner. Ready to give some of their leftovers to Maddie, their excitement quickly turns to dread as they realize Maddie is not home, despite Jee-Yun (Bailey Leung) being in bed.
As Chim tries to call Maddie and Buck finds her wedding ring, we get our first actual glimpse of Maddie. She’s got her hands bound, lying on a dirty mattress in Detective Amber Braeburn’s (Abigail Spencer) basement. We see Amber arguing with herself about what to do with Maddie. She chloroforms Maddie again, leaving the viewers just as in the dark as Maddie.
Hen (Aisha Hinds) has shown up at Chim’s place. She and Buck start calling local hospitals and police stations to see if anyone’s heard anything about Maddie. They haven’t. Once Eddie shows up, Hen devises a plan: send Eddie and Buck on the lookout around the surrounding neighborhoods, while Chim and Hen call Athena.
The four of them working together is bittersweet, given that Eddie is supposed to be leaving for Texas soon. More on that later, though.
Where’s Maddie?
Back in the basement, Amber is utterly convinced that Maddie has her suspicions about her and has already told someone about them. Obviously, Maddie didn’t, but Amber isn’t exactly seeing reason at the moment. Athena (Angela Bassett) interrupts by calling Amber. She rushes into the station, where Chim, Bobby (Peter Krause), and Athena are filling out a missing persons report.
While the entire episode is shaped as a psychological thriller, this scene is the one that solidifies it. The camera pivots on Amber, the music intensifies, and the audience helplessly watches as Amber gets information from Athena and Chim that she can use against Maddie.
While Chim tells Amber about Maddie’s post-partum depressive episode, Amber instantly turns it on Chim, explaining Maddie’s previous 911 call in which she (thinks she) convinced a man to kill himself. Then, Chim drops the P-word, telling Amber that though he let this off of the missing persons report. Maddie is just past her first trimester of her pregnancy.
Spencer and Choi lean on each other during this unknowing face-off. The acting between them leaves little space to remind you that this is, in fact, a network television show.
After Athena tells Bobby that she’s now starting to suspect that Richard had a partner, we head back to the basement, where Amber is getting a syringe ready for Maddie. She tells Maddie she’s going to stage her suicide by dosing her with Fentanyl. Maddie, ever the quick thinker, convinces Amber to let her write a suicide letter to Jee, buying her enough time for a small break to come through.
Unraveling The Web
Buck and Eddie are out looking for Maddie when Buck finally hits a breaking point. He expresses his frustrations to Eddie that everything was going right with his life—Maddie was pregnant, and he and Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) were together—and then it fell apart. Tommy dumped him, Maddie has been taken, and Eddie is leaving and acting like nothing here matters to him. Buck tries to apologize, and Eddie placates him by saying they’ve been up all night and not to worry about it.
Chim arrives home to Hen, Karen (Tracie Thoms), and the kids playing games, unaware of what’s going on around them. Karen offers her support to Chim, telling him he’s family. It reminds us that Hen, Karen, and Chim are a little family of their own within the 118 family.
Elsewhere, Athena and Detective Romero (Danny Nucci) visit the morgue to speak with the coroner about Richard’s cause of death and whether it really was suicide. There, they learn he was heavily drugged, and it’s more than likely that his suicide was staged.
The two head to the hospital to visit Jayna (Chloe Csengery) to ask her about being kidnapped and whether or not she remembers someone else with Richard. She does tell them there was a woman there sometimes, but she’d assumed it was another victim, even though she sounded older than Jayna.
Maddie finishes her note, and as Amber reads it, she muses, “If my mother loved me half as much as you love her, maybe we wouldn’t be here right now,” which is such a deep-sigh moment, as 911 still hasn’t gotten out of their habit of beating context clues to death. One could assume that if you’re a serial killer, there are some mommy or daddy issues, but 9-1-1 must spell it out for you.
Mommy Dearest
As Maddie tries to convince Amber not to kill her, we re-meet John from the original 911 calls, who we learn is actually named Peter. He’s one of Amber’s personalities, and he’s the more timid, do-gooder. Peter tells Maddie that he can’t keep fighting Amber off. Maddie convinces him to give her one more chance to prove that she’s on his side and that she’ll help him.
Athena and Detective Romero realize that Amber is unreachable at the moment. They move ahead in questioning Isabelle (Frankie Ingrassia), Richard’s girlfriend from the prior episode. They accuse her of being his accomplice, and though she isn’t terribly reliable for being with him in the first place, they’re able to rule her out as the killer as she spent the entire night before at a casino playing blackjack.
While Amber/Peter tells Maddie she’ll have another chance, she finds Jayna at the hospital and tells her she’s being discharged. Visibly confused, Jayna hesitates. Ultimately, she goes with her because you’re supposed to be able to trust cops, especially as a young white woman, especially after being kidnapped.
Chim sends Hen and Karen home and brings Jee to bed, taking a moment to watch her and sob, which is heart-wrenching. Before he can fully process anything, though, there’s a knock on the door. It’s Hen with Mara (Askyler Bell), who tells Chim that Jee mentioned she heard someone crying and speaking with Maddie last night.
At the dispatch center, Detective Romero asks Josh to pull up a 911 call from 25 years ago. In his and Athena’s research of similar cases, he’s found that a 911 call was placed wherein a 14-year-old girl had escaped after being kidnapped, held, and tortured for several weeks. The kicker? She had a lethal amount of chloroform in her body.
Listening to the 911 call finally reveals that the 14-year-old is Amber Braeburn, which puts together the pieces for Athena and Detective Romero. They ask Josh for her address to finally rescue Maddie. Mara’s reveal kickstarts something in Chim because when Athena asks Josh for Amber’s address, he reveals he’s already given it to Chim five minutes before the two walked in.
Time’s Almost Up
In Amber’s basement, she introduces Maddie to Jayna and demands that Maddie talk her out of killing Jayna. In the middle of this, Chim shows up at the door, and Maddie kicks it into high gear. With Amber’s back turned, Maddie screams the most pleasing horror movie scream and lunges at Amber, attempting to stop her from reaching her husband. The two tussle, and then we get the most shocking moment on 9-1-1 to date: Amber slits Maddie’s throat.
The gore in this moment—and in the future—indicates that 911 is not afraid to keep toeing the line, to keep trying new things. It’s as displeasing and upsetting as it is exciting and breathtaking. The casualness with which Amber does it, and we’re expected to move on, gives the episode yet another kick.
Upstairs, Amber greets Chim and offers him a cup of water. In the middle of this, Athena calls Chim and explains what’s going on, reminding him to remain calm on the phone. He turns his back to Amber, which is the first thing you shouldn’t do if you’re learning that you’re alone in a room with a serial killer, and is face-to-face with a gun when he turns to face her again.
Surprise #2 of the night: Maddie is alive! And she attacks Amber with the hammer she found earlier! Collapsing immediately, Chim calls 911 and demands they send someone for his wife while begging Maddie to stay with him. As Amber stands back up and re-aims her gun at Chim, there’s a gunshot, blood splatter, and silence. Athena’s arrived to save them, just in the nick of time.
The addition of gore to this already extremely dark plotline is sure to upset some people, but it will undoubtedly get people talking, which is the entire point of a TV show, right? Obviously, there could’ve been a trigger warning, but it will be interesting to see what course the show takes based on the reactions from fans.
Siri, Play You Matter To Me From Waitress The Musical
We finally get some light in the episode when Chim goes to see Maddie, who is beaten up and covered in bandages, but survived. Chim tells her she’s okay, and there’s the implication that this will be a long road ahead. When Maddie asks about the baby, Chim tells her he’s doing okay. It’s a boy!
The final part of this episode centers around Buck and Eddie as Buck helps Eddie finish packing up for Texas. They stand outside after putting boxes in the moving truck, and it’s a little awkward. Eddie thanks Buck for “helping me get back to him [Christopher],” and Buck is clearly torn.
Then, Eddie tells Buck that despite him not thinking so, that Buck matters to him. Buck gives him protein-filled cookies for the ride and demands that Chris get some, too, before they hug and exchange goodbyes. Whether or not it’s intentional, it’s an incredibly charged moment from both actors and both characters. Their faces as they hug tell a story, one that will undoubtedly continue through the rest of this season.
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