911 TV Series Episode – Awful People
Overview: Wanting to see the faces behind the 9-1-1 calls, Maddie goes on a ride-along with Athena, while dealing with a seemingly “perfect” dispatcher back at the call center. Meanwhile, Hen must figure out how to save her family from permanently falling apart, and the first responders deal with emergencies both at a military funeral and a movie theater.
Air date: 10/15/2018
Directed by: Kevin Hooks
Guest Stars: Tracie Thoms as Karen Wilson, Abby Brammell as Eva Mathis, Bryan Safi as Josh Russo, Debra Christooferson as Sue Blevins, Declan Pratt as Denny Wilson, Jennifer Aspen as Lorraine, Troy Winbush as Nathaniel Green, Jonathan Grebe as Paramedic.
This episode has a main story that follows Maggie, Buck’s sister. She is settling in to her job, but after getting frustrated takes the advice of a legend of the office and seeks out to do a ride along. This has her encounter several really awful people. From some fanatics that disrespect the dead, to a person that was shot. Things only get worse when she discovers something that will change the dispatch office for good. As always, this series just has some really great characters that have been cast to perfection. The other small story involves another awful person that that is Lorraine. She shows up with the sperm donor of Hen’s son that was adopted from her. For no other reason than to make Hen’s life miserable. If I may get on my soap box for a second, I will say that as a parent that has adopted, this is something that is real and something you live with. You wonder at what point your child will seek out his biological parent, and at what point that parent will try to interject in the child’s life. The way it was portrayed in this episode was about as good as it can get. There are laws that protect the adoptive parents, but the one way it would get murky is when the father didn’t know it was his and never signed off on the adoption. Hopefully this is not a recurring story, with the father making threats of action.
One thing I have never mentioned about this series is how well they theme the episodes. This one is based around awful people, and they found some great examples of that.
Overall, this was a great episode, and it showcases everything that is great about this series, the cast, and how well written it is.