Part one of 9-1-1‘s late-season two-parter begins with almost every member of the 118 ending up in perilous danger, one way or another. “Sick Day” is a fast-paced, exhilarating hour that centers around a lab fire that quickly turns into more dire circumstances.
Our episode begins on a light note: At Maddie’s (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Chim’s (Kenneth Choi) house, they plan to reveal the baby’s gender to Jee (Bailey and Hailey Leung). Though the audience already knows it’s a boy, they never told Jee, as they promised her a cake reveal.
They’re joined by Hen (Aisha Hinds), Karen (Tracie Thoms), and their children, which presents a heartwarming calm before the storm. As they slice into the cake, though, they’re faced with another problem: the bakery gave them the wrong cake, and Jee now thinks she’s having a little sister. Oops.
Later, the 118 is called to the scene of a bus crash. Several cars are involved and on fire, and people are trapped both in the bus and in the cars. While the team clears the scene, another fire ignites in a car engine, threatening to cause an explosion if they don’t evacuate the area. While tending to the last person they rescued from the scene, she reveals that her three-month-old daughter is in the backseat of their car.
Bobby (Peter Krause) quickly rushes in to get the baby from the car, and as he gets there, the explosion occurs. The 118 look on in horror as flames engulf the cars and the bus, with Bobby out of sight. Then, Bobby steps out from behind the fire carrying the car seat. Whew. A collective sigh of relief.
Finally getting a new update on Bobby and Athena’s (Angela Bassett) house, May (Corinne Massiah) and Harry (Elijah M. Cooper) are visiting. The two explain to the children that despite not having rooms for them in the new house, they’ll always have a home under their roof. May and Harry are upset, obviously, but Bobby assures them that nobody has to stay in a hotel when they come to visit—except for Athena’s mom. Very valid.
At a bar that night, Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) tells Buck (Oliver Stark) that he’s going to quit. He says he sincerely thought he cleared the car, and that he can’t handle possibly having gotten Bobby killed. Buck explains that sometimes there are hard calls you have to make, and that mistakes are inevitable. He’s not happy about it, but it seems to alleviate the tension Ravi is feeling.
Another Rat Bites the Dust
We’re introduced to the lab that will be at the forefront of the next episode and a half. We meet Allen (Brian Knoebel) and Roz (Sadie Kuwano), two scientists who work with Moira (Bridget Regan) and despise her. On arrival, the two discover that Moira has modified a strain of the disease they’ve been working on, CCHF. She’s shortened the virus’s incubation period from normally three to seven days to mere hours, and she’s developed an antivirus to combat it.
When their boss, Director Francis Banting (Sean T. Krishnan), finds out, he fires Moira immediately. He takes her badge and demands that she leave the building. Moira has other plans, though. She goes back to the subfloor where the lab is, assaults Allen for his badge, and then enters the lab.
This is when the 118 is called to the lab due to a sublevel fire. The team goes on a rescue mission, despite Banting telling them it’s potentially too dangerous. While they rescue Allen, Roz and Moira are nowhere to be found.
Maddie talks them through the building schematics over the phone, and eventually, they find Roz trapped in a room in which the badge reader has melted. They try unsuccessfully to smash through the windows: “It must be Lexan,” Bobby says, which is basically a step over bulletproof glass.
As there’s no other way to possibly reach Roz, Buck and Chim climb into the vents. When they finally get to Roz, she tells them she’s actually not leaving because she’ll have to unhook her oxygen supply to do so. The solution? Roz holds her breath through the vents until they reach the decontamination zone.
Still searching for Moira, Bobby, Chim, Hen, and Ravi find a room that’s on fire with an isobutane tank. This almost guarantees an explosion, and Bobby demands they all fall back. Before they can make it through the doors, explosion number two enters the episode.
Five Big Booms For the 118
This explosion forces the lab into an automatic lockdown. The doors cannot be opened until all of the air in the lab recycles itself out, which can take a day or more. Buck and Athena are stunned, determined, and certainly not giving up.
Inside the lab, Chim’s face mask has been compromised. Banting tells them about symptoms and the three to seven-day incubation period. Whew. We’re introduced to Colonel John Hartman (Rick Worthy), an Infectious Disease expert from the US Army. Colonel Hartman devises a plan to create an airlocked tunnel that will guide the 118 out of the lab.
Chim grabs the only PPE they can find inside a lab: a surgical mask. Not even an N95. A disposable cloth surgical mask. Deep sigh. Hen is somehow doing worse, as she has a collapsed lung and has still not woken up from the explosion. While Chim preps for doing a Thoracostomy, he and Maddie realize that if he’s infected and he cuts into Hen, he will undoubtedly infect her as well.
New plan: Bobby does the surgery. Chim, isolating himself in the next room, instructs Bobby on what to do and watches. After Bobby cuts a hole in Hen’s back and sticks a finger inside, she’s breathing! She’s awake! Yay! Cim begins coughing up blood. Not yay.
Little Secrets
On the outside, Roz and Banting are quietly arguing, and Athena demands to know what’s going on. Though the boss is straight up talking around the issue, Roz tells them what they need to know: Moira sped up the incubation period to just a few hours. Colonel Hartman demands that every civilian in an eight-mile radius be evacuated, and, in not so many words, calls the 118 a lost cause.
Roz reveals that there’s a cure, and the Colonel says that they need to save it for a vaccine if the virus gets loose and demands that it not be used on Chim. Athena tries to fight him, stating, “It doesn’t get loose if we kill it now.” The Colonel says, “Or let it die.” And Athena says, “Let them die, you mean?”
In about three minutes, we went from Chim’s life being in danger to almost everyone’s lives being in danger. Back in the lab, Ravi is already headed for the antivirus, with Roz’s help. The Colonel threatens to charge Ravi, Roz, and anyone else involved in domestic and international terrorism, which is crazy.
Ravi gets to the container holding the antivirus, punches in the code, and watches as the machine whirs and slides up, revealing… Nothing. The final shot of the episode showcases Moira, the antivirus in her tote bag, casually walking down the street. Let’s all hope Athena’s APB actually works.
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