My personal opinions about the episode that absolutely no one has to agree with but that I'm sharing anyway:
1. They were in character.
It's been two weeks. That's about the time when the "weird stage" of grief starts settling in. This is the time where it makes perfect sense for people to be out of character anyway, which I don't think they were. This is the "I seem perfectly fine, I can still have moments of happiness but I might be triggered by the most random things and start crying all over again" time.
Buck: he was told by Bobby that the team was gonna need him. What could be more in character than him forcing himself to be strong in front of the others so that they could rely on him? Being selfless to his own detriment? Yeah, that's Buck. (He even stress baked crumpets, come on!)
Athena: throwing herself into work trying to shutter the grief and ignoring the others until she needs an intervention and then snaps? Yep, that's Athena.
Eddie: quiet and broody but almost normal acting around a character (Ravi) that he isn't as close to as Buck and therefore isn't as emotionally open with? Yeah, welcome to Eddie.
Chimney: anger outburst saying things he doesn't necessarily mean but his goal is to push people away, and then later feeling all depressive and needing someone to break him out of it and allow the vent that he desperately needed? Normal Chimney
Hen: "I need to be there for the boys"? That's such a Hen thing to say, and her sobbing right before leaving for the funeral was also very much in character.
Maddie was also very normal to me.
I don't have a good enough feel for Karen or Ravi's characters to judge whether they were in character or not.
2. The acting was incredible.
Angela and Kenny alone make this episode deserve so much more than the 1/10 review bombing that it's getting. Plus everyone was quiet and subdued and sad. I swear I could feel Eddie's sadness and exhaustion just from looking at him. Ryan's so good at subtle body language that says more than Eddie's words.
3. The baby sub plot is not mocking the fandom.
I'm sorry but that's just fucking ridiculous. It was written and shot before Lab Rats aired. They didn't air Lab Rats, wait to see the reaction, and then write and shoot an entire subplot in less than two weeks for the sole purpose of being a dick to the audience. Please be serious.
4. Yes, the baby subplot was arguably unnecessary.
Denial is the first stage. The entire point was that Athena was bottling her grief. She was ignoring funeral planning, ignoring her friends and family's concerns because she didn't want to face it because she is grieving.
The point of "the baby is actually dead" was to make her accept that she needed to be involved and start talking about the funeral. Remember how the mom was too grief stricken to plan her baby's funeral and because of that couldn't accept the loss? It wasn't trying to foreshadow Bobby not being dead. It was a plot device for acceptance. Could they have used something different, and better? Yes, sure. Absolutely they could have. But it's not an attack on the fandom, it was just a bad writing decision.
5. This isn't the Buddie show
I ship Buddie. I want Buddie to happen. But the show doesn't actually revolve around it. Yes, I wish there was a reunion scene, yes I'm sad that there wasn't one, but in the grand scheme of things, it just wasn't important enough of a scene to film. This isn't their first conversation since Bobby's death, and Eddie's back for the worst possible reason. It was never gonna be the happy reunion scene that people want.
6. What I Wish Happened:
I wish this was closer to Bobby's death than a two week time skip. I wish we had seen Eddie's reaction to learning about his death. I wish the funeral had been in the middle, not the end. I wish there hadn't been that subplot.
7. The Minnesota part was beautiful and heart wrenching and so fucking good.
A+ writing and acting.
8. I don't know how to feel about the "script leak."
Guys... It was April Fool's Day. You know, the day when you should basically believe absolutely nothing that you read/see. Also wasn't mocking the fandom either, since it was long before Bobby's death. That being said, was it necessary? Not at all. Was it kinda shitty? Yeah.
Also, like, maybe the scene is a nightmare? Maybe they're still doing it? Maybe it's Maddie's nightmare and Chim has to comfort her thus opening up his own feelings so they could talk about it together?
Regarding the promo, we have no idea what the emotional parts of the episode are gonna be about. Which is pretty normal? The promos usually focus on the disasters, on the flashy stuff, and usually not interpersonal relationships. I think this will be the Eddie moves back episode, I really do.
This fandom usually analyzes every single little moment, so maybe we all need to take a breath and just... think about the episode a little more deeply than face value?
I get why people are upset, I get why people are frustrated at the writing and are yelling at Tim. I also wish the episode had been different. But this was not a 2.2/10 episode. (IMDB rating) It just wasn't. That's so unfair to all the work the cast did, all the work the crew did. The processional scene was really cool with all the fire trucks lined up and down the street and the huge hanging flag. That wasn't easy work. They went all out for that.
This was not as bad as people are making it out to be. It really wasn't. I would personally rate it at a solid 5/10. Angela and Kenneth gave freaking Emmy worthy performances and they deserve better than review bombing.
