On 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 13, “Invisible,” Hen (Aisha Hinds) shows off her emotional maturity, and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) finally regains his confidence as a father.
Our episode begins inside a Cluck N’ Pluck, 911’s version of Chick-fil-A, I can only assume. Archie (Kevin L. Johnson) is being fired because he’s not Cluck N’ Pluck material. The manager was supposed to fire him before Christmas, but forgot he worked there. Yikes.
Archie arrives home early and decides to do some tidying up. As he’s attempting to untangle something from the Murphy bed, it closes on him. As he’s trapped, his fiancée and cousin arrive home and begin… consummating on the bed.
Luckily, his watch dials 911 for him, and soon, the 118 arrives and rescues Archie from his unfortunate situation. Hen, in particular, speaks to him about how he became trapped, and talks him through being rescued.
Once Archie is rescued, we cut to Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman), who are cooking dinner together. Eddie is cooking for his parents and Christopher (Gavin McHugh), who will be having dinner at his place for the first time tonight. Despite this, Eddie’s parents arrive with takeout. Sigh. Regardless, Eddie is excited to gift Chris Mavericks tickets for this upcoming weekend.
Birthday Blues
Over Dinner, Eddie finds out that Chris has a chess tournament this weekend in Lubbock. He offers to go, which Helena (Paula Marshall) and Ramón (George DelHoyo) respond to by saying only one parent is allowed. Which is crazy, because Chris only has one parent – and it’s not either one of them.
Back in LA, Hen wakes up excited for her birthday, listening to what had to have been the cheapest, most random, “Happy Birthday” song production could find. She exits her bedroom, and the morning goes on as usual: Karen (Tracie Thoms), Denny (Declan Pratt), and Mara (Askyler Bell) have forgotten it’s her birthday.
It’s fine, it must just be a fluke. Athena (Angela Bassett) calls to wish Hen a happy birthday, because Athena is the realest person on this show. Hen is relieved when her mother calls, except it turns out her mother also forgot, and butt-dialed her. She’s out rucking, which means “walking or hiking with a weighted backpack.” Sure.
Later, Eddie runs into his mother at the grocery store. She berates him on what he’s loading into his car, which is another person’s order, and then tells him he doesn’t need to go to Chris’s tournament. When Eddie protests, Helena says Ramón already has a spot on the bus and Eddie won’t fit. It’s a hard watch.
At the 118, Bobby (Peter Krause) gathers everyone around and announces that it’s HEN day. High Efficiency Nozzle day, that is. It’s another hard watch, as the team gets excited about the nozzles and we realize that Hen’s team has also forgotten about her birthday.
[DJ Khaled Voice] Anotha’ One
For our next emergency, we meet up with Archie again, attempting to change his flat tire. When one of his nuts gets stuck under a truck (not a euphemism), he reaches under the truck to track it down. Then, the truck starts moving, and Archie gets his arm stuck. When the 118 arrives, Hen has to explain to everyone else that he’s the same man they helped earlier, and it’s alarming that they don’t know that.
After extracting Archie from the truck, Hen tells him that he can’t keep letting himself fade into the background. She tells him that he’s letting himself be invisible, and he needs to start speaking with his chest, and being OK with taking up space in this world. Then, she accidentally reveals that it’s her birthday and she’s perfectly fine with everyone forgetting.
Chim (Kenneth Choi) attempts to apologize, and the 118 follow suit, but Hen has heard enough. She walks away, leaving the team behind to scramble to pick up the pieces.
Buck calls Eddie and asks if he knows Hen’s favorite pie, and Eddie finds out the entire 118 have forgotten Hen’s birthday. Once they’re done ribbing each other, Buck tells Eddie to “Dad up” and simply go to the tournament. Buck says since Chris doesn’t have a mom, who better to screw him up than Eddie himself? Odd logic, yet, somehow, it works.
When Hen arrives home, Karen greets her with a gift from the emergency gift cabinet—an objectively hilarious thing to have in your home. The doorbell rings a few times during their conversation, and she receives a balloon cluster and a gift basket of chocolates from Bobby. Then, her mother arrives with Denny and Mara.
Mara, queen of the world, gets a pass, because how was she supposed to know it was Hen’s birthday? Denny, Karen, and Toni (Marsha Warfield), though, are in the hot seat. Toni tries to brush it off, basically telling Hen she’s being dramatic. Hen explains that despite it being embarrassing, her family and closest friends forgetting her birthday genuinely hurts her.
The King’s Gambit
At the chess tournament, Ramón sits in the front row and watches Chris attempt to choose his next move. Eddie is next to the stands, and yet, when Chris vomits from nerves, Eddie is the first to get to him. In the bathroom, Chris and Eddie have a deeply sincere conversation.
Chris says, “Will you ask them [Helena and Ramón] if I can stop?” after he reveals that he hates chess, and Eddie has finally had it. Eddie says there’s no asking – if you don’t want to do something, you don’t have to do it. He tells Chris that he’s moving back in with Eddie, and Chris responds, “You’ll be my Dad again?”
Who else is crying in the club right now?
We once again meet up with Archie, who, this time, has had his card towed while he’s sleeping in it. He walks down the street and is abruptly shoved by some sports fans attempting to catch the bus. At this point, Archie has had it. He boards the city bus with a large knife.
After authorities are alerted to a man on the bus threatening the driver with a knife, police throw down a spike strip. The bus hits it, sending a man careening towards Archie, and Archie ends up stabbing him. Oof.
When the 118 arrives and confirms that it’s Archie and that they know him, Hen asks the cops to let her on the bus. She insists that he’s not a threat, despite stabbing someone, and they let her on. Hen convinces Archie to let everyone off the bus, and then the two chat. She apologizes for what she said to him earlier in the day and reveals she was speaking more to herself than to him.
The two chat, and Hen eventually tells Archie that he has to come off the bus with her because it’s her birthday, after all, and she’s asking nicely. Very diabolical that Hen had to go back to work on her birthday, by the way. Once they’re off the bus, Archie reaches into his pocket, and the cops shoot.
Luckily, Hen tackles him, asking why on earth he was reaching into his pocket. Archie gives Hen a Cluck N’ Pluck key chain, you know, because it’s a hen. Happy birthday, Hen. Here’s a key chain and some light gunshots.
Errand Boy Evan Buckley
Elsewhere, Eddie shows up at his parents’ house, and his mother is shocked to see him without his father. Helena follows him as he grabs Chris’s essentials from his room, telling her along the way that Chris will be moving back in with him.
Helena is upset. She doesn’t understand why he’s disrupting Chris’s life, and why he’s claiming that Chris hates chess. Eddie calls back to his own childhood, when his parents convinced him that he loved ballroom dancing, when in reality, they just liked his trophies. He tells his mom that he loves her, but that he’s Chris’s dad, and it’s time he acted like it.
In the car, Eddie makes sure Chris is ready to go. Chris’s response? “Punch it, Dad!”
To cap off the episode, Hen, Karen, Athena, and Bobby have dinner together for Hen’s birthday. Bobby cooks, and they chat, and Buck comes through the door looking like he’s just spent the last several hours lying in the dirt. Turns out, he kind of has. Hen has him doing all of her yard work until he stops feeling guilty for forgetting her birthday. As she should!
The episode ends with Hen, Karen, Athena, and Bobby laughing together, reminding us that there’s arguably no friendship on the show stronger than these four. Next week: poison!
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