Have been thinking thoughts about the Jonah and the gourd religious analogy we’re getting in 905 and its connection to the concept of grief and misplacing grief.
Because the Jonah and the gourd bible story is very much about the idea of misplacing emotions and directing them toward the wrong thing. Jonah leaves Nineveh - angry they god spared the city - while he waits to see if god will actually destroy the city god causes a plant - the gourd vine - to grow and provide him with shelter. God then sends a worm to attack the roots of the plant which causes it to wither and die. Jonah is angry about the plant dying and wishes he were dead - god then talks to Jonah and asks him if he has the right to be so angry about the plant frowning when he did nothing to cultivate it in the first place.
The entire thing is a lesson in where pity, anger, and compassion should be placed as Jonah is self pitying about the loss of the plant, but is angry about god showing compassion and pity towards the people of Nineveh.
This is very much a story about grief and how it manifests and when it can become misplaced. So for me, the 911 writers are using it - in an Eddie centric episode, to explore that idea of grief.
It’s one of the reasons I’m convinced that it’s in part about Shannon. Eddie has continued to misplace his grief and he needs to confront that fact. There is also the element of grief for one’s self - over loss - and whether it’s justified - Jonah feels grief when the gourd plant dies and bemoans its loss - in the same way Eddie feels grief for the death of Shannon and in turn his marriage to her. Jonah had no part in the gourds growth - didn’t enable or support it to flourish - just benefited from its shelter from the sun - which parallels so heavily to the Shannon of it all - the idea that Eddie didn’t do enough/anything to help his marriage flourish, but he benefited from the shelter of his relationship with Shannon but then places too much weight and grief on its loss when it did die - missing the bigger picture.
Then there’s also the fact that Shannon as a character is very much relevant o the wider arc of grief for the season. The fact we have Tia Pepa and Abuela, both present in this episode is likely because of the fact that we’ve got this real play on the loss of a spouse and the loss of a parent/parent figure. Abuela presence would tie into the exploration of loss and grieving “properly” or in productive ways versus grieving in destructive ways - the loss of Abuelo and the fact it led Abuela towards the supernatural and tarot cards etc and her grief bring taken advantage of, which also connects Tia Pepa because she lost her father.
So we have Athena, Eddie, Abuela (and Maddie to a certain extent as well) all having lost their spouse and having to face that grief, while we also have Christopher, Tia pepa, Harry, May, Buck, Hen and Chim and Eddie (again) all having to grieve the loss of a parent/parent figure!
