every so often i'll see people being like "how can people still alobby?" and i'm just like. um??? take your pick: (a) because it's still fun (b) because bobby's death is still an open, ongoing story line (c) it was heavily foreshadowed and sometimes story lines are allowed to take multiple seasons to develop and execute (d) the idea of being wrong about a tv show theory gives me absolutely zero heartburn whatsoever so i'm happy to ride this train until it no longer entertains me (e) i don't give much credence to interviews or gossip bc them bitches are LIARS (f) god can you imagine how delicious the angst will be if the whole team goes through a year of mourning and rebuilding their lives just to realize it was all based on a lie? i love drama that shit is JUICY and i WANT IT (g) i enjoy being contrary for fun
In more Alobby Truthing: what if it’s not supposed to be Athena and Buck digging into things, but Athena and Chim? What if, what Bobby meant about Chim being a leader wasn’t necessarily about the captaincy but about taking the helm to bring people together. Chim’s the centre cog of the 118; he was there before everyone and he’ll be there after everyone’s gone. (“Like a cockroach.” That’s what Hen retorts. Like a living thing that can survive the most fatalistic things even humans can’t survive). Bobby sent him to the fire academy to bring back Ravi. Chim brings Hen into the fold. His speech at the end of 817 was about keeping everyone together, even if Bobby wasn’t there. We got the scene of Athena and Chim ending s8 and then buying the booze in the opening of s9 that he risked his job over in hopes of saving a group of kids suffering from organ failure. What if the partnerships are switched to leave both Chim and Buck feeling like they’re in the outside, so that in a parallel to The Taking of Dispatch, it’s Chim who convinces Athena that something is wrong, with Buck following just in case. We’ve seen Buck and Chim both quick to agree that the impossible could be true multiple times. What if the truth about Bobby is just one more thing they need to believe in, in order to convince Athena that they need to look into this, after Athena spends a season doing what Gina couldn’t: not letting her own grief trap her into never moving.
HELLO??? THE SHIP IS NAMED INARA II??? FIREFLY REFERENCE?????? another sci-fi where a character being in cryo-stasis coma is like. a whole fucking plot point. sure sure sure.
also. explicitly. i am obsessed with the choice to parallel buck’s continued attempts to talk to bobby through spiritual means and failing with chris getting a final visit from his abuela to say goodbye before she passed
the way this makes me clown for both (a) bobby being alive and also (b) the potential disparate reactions chris and buck would have if eddie does have a missing presumed NDE… im shaking in my socks. imagine. buck trying to face down the reality of eddie being gone because he’s already been down this path. chris believing he would feel it if his dad truly was gone. i would be ill. i want to believe.
medical examiner… autopsy……. 🥹 when i rewatched season 1 a few months i was literally thinking like “they should call back to this narcolepsy guy if they do alobby” so get in the car babes we’re going to the government lab
General thoughts first! I loved this episode, it’s got a lot of what I was anticipating for a premiere - I feel well established in where most of the characters are at, or if it’s still up in the air, I have a feel for what’s going on with them and what their main character beats might be this season. Loved what we’re seeing with the 118 - Chim, Hen, Buck and Eddie all delighted me in turns, and I loved the partner realignment squabbling and Ravi just. Enduring from the jump seat. Hen and Karen were fantastic. Athena gutted me on several occasions, and I’m fascinated to see where they go with the dynamics between her and May and Harry. I feel like the only character I couldn’t identify any storyline trajectory for is Maddie; I’m curious to see if that holds true.
Other than that, I feel like upon first watch I was already living my best life from a pet fan theory standpoint, and rewatching it again only reinforced that feeling. Like. Literally nothing I saw on my screen deterred me from the hopes that (1) we might be on track for an Eddie NDE/will plot followed later by (2) Bobby is alive but currently in a coma somewhere.
Anyway full unhinged episode reactions under the cut.
“i'm not fixing a chevy chavelle” the way that this is one of the very first lines of dialogue that we heard this season??? and eddie. has been said. to have a chavelle. was referenced working on it amidst the bi!buck reveal arc. and then this astronaut dude immediately is in life-or-death danger.
when I watched the whole initial space sequence live I told my friend “this is so bizarre in slow motion” and after rewatching it im like. UHHHH. remember when eddie was in the well and communications were also down. the astronaut started trying to pull himself in by his own line. the debris hitting the station and the other female astronaut getting thrown away, possibly like what happened to eddie when the lightning stuck buck? the significance of lines and cords - buck creating one in the tsunami, eddie begins, the lightning strike, telephone lines and a zip line — now we see this guy gets tangled in his line and the space debris is rushing in and he’s struck as things ricochet toward him (almost like gerrard and the saw?) and we don’t know what happens next yet but ?????
i know i know, i'm reaching so hard i might dislocate something but also... hello???
“a building at the academy to inspire new recruits” - this feels like the narrative already reminding us of performance anxiety and bobby’s belief in chim’s leadership. the fact they considered a ladder truck is. a little diabolical and made me cackle, like why are they reminding us of the ladder truck bomb
“Manning that stove, gathering us all around the table. Taking a team and making it into a family.” FAMILY MEAL REFERENCE THE FIRST “This is Bobby’s house” the gut punch reminder that the house he was building with Athena is gone tho
yay madney being cute. chim being salty about hen & eddie partnership just as much as buck is.
Hen and Eddie doing a JINX(ed) reference? Like I find it interesting that this is the only dialogue that we overhear as Buck is spiraling out about their partnership to Ravi, given that Jinx (aside from being the very delightful Q-word shift) is very notably the episode in which Eddie re-meets Ana, gets teased about it, talks to Bobby about moving on from Shannon by "trying again" even though he's not really ready, and then goes on his first date with her. I'm reading a million things into it thanks.
Harry couch surfing on May’s couch like Buck couch surfing on whose couch pray tell
Hen and Karen talking about Athena skipping the memorial dedication with Eddie specifically PLEEEEASE Eddie + Athena conversations this season I have so many things I want them to talk about - both from a losing Bobby perspective, but also if he does truly get a sexuality arc, Athena's experiences from when Michael came out could be relevant too
Me and my irl friend (we will call her Mo) were freaking out about Athena's date. "SHE BETTER BE UNDERCOVER" got yelled at the screen for sure. But also we had an interesting side conversation about how quickly Athena got back in the game after she and Michael decided to divorce that made it a very effective bait-and-switch.
She ran into this date at a farmers market????? Could be a Bobby s7 ref right? The girl with the flowers? Alternatively, Chim helping at that accident despite the encephalitis.
Athena in these bland ass neutrals. going into a freezer? their investigation is in a freezer why the freezer
The FBI showing up again? when they were all up in Athena's business and unearthing her feelings about the fiance she lost last season? And a RICO warrant? last organized crime we saw was Bobby and Amir's misadventures leading to the fire but then--
but then we cut directly to Tripp Hauser.
It's always so hard to tell between what is a run-of-the-mill scene transition, versus when the creators are intentionally drawing attention by raising a question in one scene and then alluding to the answer by visually jumping to the next scene. Anyway all that to say I'm left wondering if Tripp has any connection to this RICO case
WHALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i love the whale, it's so corny, thank god for camp and also still delighting in the Jonah and the whale references.
So. They reached out to the Coast Guard. Remember when Hen wanted the Coast Guard to help save Bobby and Athena? Because I do. But I'm also reminded about when we got another arm of the US Armed Services involved. Like. The Army??? Basically this is weird on two fronts: reminding me of the 118's last water rescue, but also what happens when they beat the US Government to the scene.
The 80s Star Trek answer to the whale documentary is just. delightful character work. oh chim my beloved sci-fi/fantasy and action guy. But also [squints] that movie is a sequel to the fall out of all of the events of The Wrath of Khan. Which Tim Minear has referenced before.
Listen I am not a serious Trekkie and I have not seen these movies in a very long time, but I discussed this more in depth the other day with @livesbetweenpages and we talked about how odd it is that these references keep coming up. Because in the original Star Trek 2: WOK movie, Spock does end the movie still dead, ST3 is about bringing him back, and ST4 is where you get the whale reference. But what struck me is this reference is sandwiched between Athena having to sneak into a freezer and then an emergency involving antifreeze, which is a stretch but where was Khan first found? Oh yeah, in cryogenic suspension. Which is kind of a medical coma, if you think about it. Again, am I reaching so hard my arm is popping out of it's socket? Perhaps. Anyway I might flesh this idea out more and put it in its own separate post later after I brush up a little more on my Trek lore.
EDDIE DIVING HEADFIRST INTO WATER the clip that transformed all my will plot truthing dreams into a sincere suspicion that he might actually get a water related NDE emergency. Let's start counting the references to breathing and water from here on out! Because again, if we look at it in this context beyond what's happening in the episode's limited arc, this scene is also reminding us that Eddie is a strong swimmer.
ALSO i know these people in the boardroom would have been thrilled if the 118 hadn’t actually saved this guy. He could have died and PR crisis over.
Okay Eddie doing the breath part of CPR on Tripp, who almost drowned???? (1) while Hen does the compressions. Also just for fun, remember this is the same equipment he used during the power outage when Buck was up his ass about the cardiologist. Because he was having panic attacks. about Ana. also after the shooting triggered his PTSD. okay.
Yay for Hen’s animal trivia pedantry
Eddie's line about the whale swimming off “You can see the one that got away” is so?????? I'm wondering if this could be another Moby Dick type reference. Because the whale does technically escape, but drags Captain Ahab away by... a harpoon line.
Athena being asked if she's aiming for Detective when once again last season we created an opening for a Missing Persons Detective PLEASE 911 DO SOMETHING WITH THIS. also. time to go back to being athena grant. But we know from promo she might be using a "Nash" plate now??? what if I threw up.
Athena's apartment kills me. lost her home of decades. lost her husband. in an empty nest. not even fully moved in. double wall oven is nice but not installed. no good mail. Athena's roots are all gone. She's not on stable ground/terra firma anymore. Please can someone besides me get obsessed with these recurring motifs oh my god.
SPEAKING OF. Hauser’s Techtonyx. Tectonics. like what causes an earthquake. which historically causes issues with water. (tsunamis. reservoirs breaking. methane in the water table.)
Gourmet Coffee in lieu of Starbucks. Harry dropping out was UNexpected. I love the post I saw go around comparing this to Eddie getting caught Uber driving by Chris.
Okay more weird water references. An emergency in the bus from the POV of a driver (who has been recently a driver guys). The kids mocking that they have more game than the driver (whose kid has more game than him). Driver takes a drink of water. The kids go unresponsive. The driver has a near miss, they think he was drinking alcohol but it’s actually a misdirect? He was just drinking water. The driver brakes in time that he doesn’t hit anyone. The camera focuses on a breaking glass. of. water.
Athena: “Sir, have you been drinking?” Driver: “No, it’s water.” [Camera switches to focus on Eddie as he says this]
Then we go to:
antifreeze causing the issue after we were just in a freezer earlier. antifreeze is all about temp control? last season the cure had to be kept cold to keep it stable. see above re: star trek references.
Also. 15 kids in multiple organ failure after inhaling something…….the army got involved bc fear of the virus being used for bioterrorism? Hello????
comedy break to lol at PSYCHIC FRIENDS NETWORK
simultaneously torn between “oh a firefam kid (kids?) getting underage drunk could be a fun episode” and “remember when backstory bobby drank his dad’s liquor last season”
Okay but let's run through all of this really quick from a NDE!Eddie and Alobby perspective. If I'm clowning at my hardest, which I always am, I'm just sticking to my original theory: we are going to get a plot in which Eddie "drinks the water" and suddenly all of the resurrection imagery we've been seeing will seem to have been a misdirect about Eddie coming back to life. But THEN we will also get a Bobby!alive arc to end out the season.
“clearly im dead and then you come along and im not dead” anyway. HEN GONNA USE HER MED SKILLZ TO WAKE BOBBY UP FROM A COMA CALLING IT NOW
also eddie is right there. again. in this video with the "dead/not dead conversation happening". im fucking skdkdkfj i already lost count but EDDIE NDE WITH WILL PLOT HELLO
“Eddie is the one that jumped off the bridge” // “I didn’t see that part. I was dead.” see above: BOBBY IS GOING TO BE “DEAD” FOR THE ARC WHERE EDDIE IS IN THE WATER
the callout re: LAFD staffing is interesting after the layoff and station closure threats that kicked off last season with the whole Gerrard/Ortiz crap! Yay arc continuity for Hen. but also. “A shot in the arm” I'M SO FUCKING SURE
hen wrangling a plus one out of that situation is soooooo i love her. several pending lawsuits lmao. hen’s tensions with being pulled between all the guys.
harryyyy being mad. athena getting yelled at for not showing up. home-cooked meal at hen and karen’s!!! sunday morning facetime pancakes with michael!!! MEAL MOTIF AGAIN
"i wanted to be there"/"but you weren’t" feels like an exchange we’ve seen other characters have before
“you haven’t been our mother since bobby died” and the echoes of “you’re a better cop than a mom” like. this is a personal gutting actually.
i still hate athena in these neutrals lol. like i understand what it's doing. but my eyes are angry about it.
buck telling hen “i’ve always got your back” i am. over his dumb ass. (affectionate)
Okay so. Eddie in the alien costume. Two points - alien abduction is often associated with medical experimentation, like "probing" did not come out of nowhere. But also, abduction in general - we just came off of a whole season where Chris got taken to Texas, and if anything ever happened to Eddie again, we already know that they would probably fight to do that again. I need everyone to lock in so hard about the way Eddie is being framed around these things. Put your clown noses ON.
Athena going back on her beat and first time seeing a “dead body” since Bobby passed/the building collapse maybe? The focus down on Gina's wounded hand, when they’d pressed hands together against the glass to say goodbye.
Gina wakes up with classic zombie behavior. I'm not even going to spell this out.
Gina is not stable enough to move. Chim tells them to get her heart rate up. Eddie is the one to say, “Temp is way down, fluid on her lungs, i don’t even know how she’s breathing” [staring into the fucking camera like i'm in the office]
the mad world song choice is. crazy. for athena’s sake primarily. but the lyric switches to focus on eddie on “children waiting” is. probably just an accident. ahahahahahahahaha. and the fixation on losing a child in the flashbacks. and it goes back to eddie. whatever.
foodborne bacteria from a soup can. you eat soup on days you feel sick. but also eating alone and no one checking on her MEAL MOTIF
every time i watch buck bringing hen coffee im losing it at eddie’s face akdkdkkd HE IS SO SALTY where’s HIS. then Eddie being so snappy at Chim like boyyyyy what is your drama. Even Buck is looking at Eddie like bro what are you DOING. and then everyone else storms off. since writing this I've already made posts about it but Eddie is also jealous AF yay.
Gina not awake due to her wounds!!! it’s for the best. haven’t found anyone for her yet. Again. Bobby in a coma set-up.
Lots of thoughts about Chim feeling insecure about stepping into Bobby’s shoes. Eddie saying someone coming in from the outside won’t stand a chance, even though that’s what Bobby did!!! Like that was almost exactly a thing that was said about Bobby in Bobby Begins Again! and that’s what brought their family together. but i love that bc chim in the Begins episodes was the first there and set the first stones in the foundation for what bobby was able to build. Anyway I go back and forth a lot on the Hen vs. Chim captaincy debate but based on what I'm seeing I do think Chim might be here to stay as Captain even if Bobby resurrects.
Going back to what I was saying earlier about significant scene cuts, Chim: "I miss him" meaning Bobby but Eddie saying "Me too" -> direct cut to a close up of Buck. [snorts this editing choice like it's drugs]
I do love Buck being at his most emotionally vulnerable around children when as a child, he never got that from adults in his life. Also can we talk about that shot of him through the baby monitor paralleling the last time we saw him through an in-verse screen? You know. Breaking down crying about Bobby outside the lab. Yeah...yeah.
Also this whole scene is absolutely a callback to 7.01 and Buck's bedroom conversation with Chris. let's talk about it more.
The "domestic flight" line feels like a callback to the s8 opening emergency but also to "i said went to the airport" and i know i've already rambled extensively about this but. guys. airplanes are not helicopters. stop talking about helicopters i'm tired of helicopters, WHAT MATTERS IS AIRPLANES AND WHERE WE'RE GOING WITH THEM LATER THIS SEASON? airport reunion scenes 9 years in the making WHEN
Athena’s grief so avoidant. Doesn't want to talk about him she wants to talk to him. But. SHE BURIED HIM IN MINNESOTA. fuck.
keep inviting her to dinner, won’t stop calling. the next invitation i get the answer is yes - welcome to the age of absolutely: athena stylez. Which I love.
In summary:
All my theories are on track and the willclowning can progress as scheduled (thanks to @vibecheckd for finding this picture of me it's delightful and accurate). Anyway this got so long and meandering what the fuck. I'll probably do this every week.
