I’ve been thinking about the significance of dispatch being the thing to go up in flames.
Dispatch being the connection point between those who need help and those who come to provide the help and how this season has this underlying sense of dispatch being fractured (in much the same way that the fire house has been feeling fractured up to now). I’m actually really interested in the way that the firehouse break up has been loud and in our faces while the dispatch break up has been much quieter and more subtle. reflecting the way the two aspects of first response are viewed by the general public - we don’t think about first responders including those people who answer the phones and get us the help we need - and that actually if dispatch isn’t there the emergency services can’t do their job.
What we’ve seen this season is how vital Sue Blevins is to the dispatch family - all the things that have happened at dispatch have only happened in Sues absence. The only external force to impact dispatch this season (so far) was when it was initially hit by the black out - when peoples phones start dialling 911 and Josh was in charge! Josh is always in charge when we get anything related to Claudette and her bullying/ domineering behaviours and it is Josh who reprimands Eddie for jumping in on a 911 call (and doing it in a childish way).
Sue however is like the glue - all the happy family like scenes we have in dispatch this season have involved sue in some way and I don’t think its a coincidence that Sue is the one that Sends Athena round to Phylis’s house in 5x10 - which ends up being a conversation about the glue that holds a family together and the need to build bridges etc.
We know Sue is going to be the one who helps begin building bridges between May and Claudette and its going to be interesting to see how she fares in the dispatch fire - does she get out easily, does she save others, does she co-ordinate help etc?!
I’ve also been thinking how destroying that link between those in nedd and those helping is highly symbolic for other reasons - Maddie returning now she’s got the help she needed, May coming into her own and becoming the queen of common sense and wisdom. But the one I’ve been thinking about most is the fact that Eddie is working there - he went from being the one to provide the help to working as part of the link - the connection point at a time when he has cut his own links to his family - burnt his bridges and self sabotaged - but in a way that means he’s remained constantly aware of what he’s missing out on.
I’ve been contemplating the fact that we seem to be in a situation where dispatch adjacent was the only place Eddie could end up - because the dispatch season arc is reflecting his own arc more closely than the 118 season arc - my main reason for feeling like this is that the 118 doesn’t seem to be reaching a breaking point and there are some interesting parallel beats that are being hit by bot hEddie and dispatch.
Dispatch has been stretched and pushed by both internal and external forces its been fracturing but holding itself together - much like we’ve seen Eddie doing. Then there is this May and Claudette story - which if you boil it down to basics isn’t just about bullying - its about questioning ones abilities and allowing some one else to influence you - its about choosing to stand up for yourself, for your own wants and needs - something Eddie hasn’t been doing - he’s been deferring to what Christopher needs and wants without reference to his own needs and wants.
Both dispatch and Eddie are going to come to abrupt breaking points - Eddie’s has happened - him finally hitting meltdown and smashing up his room while we know dispatch is going to go up in flames. Its interesting that the dispatch fire is going to be the thing that bonds May and Claudette and Eddies breakdown may very well be the thing that gets Eddie and Christopher (and Buck) to really talk and bond and understand each other more deeply than before.
Neither will be the same after but both will rise from the ashes and grow into something new and better and both breaking points will ultimately be the thing thing that brings the families back together within their respective arcs - the culmination being Eddie returning home to the 118 - his chosen family - making them whole again, while dispatch sees its missing member - Maddie return (who is also paralleling hard with Eddie and her arch is tied into the dispatch one as well) making them whole again.
I honestly have know idea what this even is - do I even make sense or am I just rambling along and talking jibberish??!!
