Spoilers ahead!<\/b><\/p>\n
After ending its seventh season on a cliffhanger and following months of anticipation, 9-1-1<\/i> is back for its eighth season, the second one on ABC. It\u2019s worth mentioning that while season 7 was shorter, its ten episodes were packed with all the chaos this show is loved for: we had a deadly cruise ship disaster, a fan-favorite character discovering new things about his sexuality, a big wedding event (that went wrong before finally happening\u2026 at a hospital), a strange (it\u2019s a compliment!) doppelganger storyline inspired by Hitchcock\u2019s Vertigo, one of the main couples facing drama with adopting another child (and losing that child few episodes later because of a vengeful Councilwoman), a big fire destroying one of the main couples house, the 118 Captain almost dying, a cartel storyline that ended in another big fire, and \u2014 phew! \u2014 the 118 Captain being replaced by its terrible predecessor. Do you think that\u2019s a lot? The amount of stuff I had to cut off this \u201cpreviously on 9-1-1\u2026<\/i>\u201d was even bigger!<\/p>\n
This all means that while season 8 starts only a few months after All Fall Down<\/i>, our characters are still dealing with storylines that didn\u2019t get closure in the past. Thus, Buzzkill<\/i> is all about reminding its audience about how each character ended last season \u2014 with an unbeelievable twist. While last season\u2019s disaster was inspired by The Poseidon Adventure (1972)<\/i>, this one mainly takes inspiration from another 70s movie, The Swarm (1978)<\/i> \u2014 millions of bees are attacking Los Angeles after an accident with the vehicle that was transporting them.<\/p>\n
However, the first three episodes of this season being part of a bigger event means that the bees are only the beeginning of this new chaotic adventure \u2014 one that\u2019s hinted at in the episode\u2019s very first scene, which shows two flying vehicles crashing up in the sky, a plane crash caused by the bees. Then it\u2019s time to rewind and discover how this happened, and how Athena and the 118 are related to these events.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgI5uFgJuGr_a_FvshLPqsDPOkXRw5fTKPKmyzRQvfZSBUWT71AcVhp9bGEoJin8BLV_0fz242LckUxGzP1EYaNSXzXHXPUgYb8Uf5NV4pF2RUeEZL_YCo6LknfgQ9dGmnOBmGDeBg82qIjCcTM1GOclR7epV5k0dEgHweU-T6U9Oi6VDWiSh0hMAGJok-H\/s3000\/8.01-athena.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n\u201cBuzzkill\u201d \u2013 9-1-1. Pictured: Angela Bassett as Athena. Photo: Christopher Willard\/ABC \u00a9 2024 Disney. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s start with Athena (Angela Bassett). After almost dying, almost losing her husband, and losing her house, she\u2019s back to work \u2014 and she\u2019s given this painful task: Dennis Jenkins (Glenn Plummer), the man who murdered her fiance, needs her help. After getting away with it for decades until she arrested him in Athena Begins (3.07)<\/i>, he\u2019s now getting released earlier because he agreed to help in a bigger operation destined to expose powerful people involved in a sex trafficking scheme. There’s more to it though: Dennis agreed to depose to a jury, but only if Athena is the one to escort him from Phoenix to LA.<\/p>\n We watch Athena very hurt about this, unable to cope with the unfairness of this whole situation \u2014 but once she gets to escort Dennis and they are almost killed on the road, she realizes that there are bigger forces involved in this \u2014 and they all want Dennis gone. I think it’s a great storyline; Athena is this complex character who is yet again having to deal with a past trauma, but in another way this time, so I’m looking forward to discovering how this will end.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Buck (Oliver Stark) is having a hard time dealing with his new boss. Captain Gerrard (Brian Thompson) is a difficult person, unpleasant and hard on his subordinates, but Chimney (Kenneth Choi) and Hen (Aisha Hinds) have already dealt with him in the past and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) faced worse in the army, so they are all used to it. But Buck is not \u2014 and while they deal with the accident that started it all and set the bees free, the free-spirited Buck comes toe to toe with the abusive Gerrard.<\/p>\n This happens during the incident involving a mother and her daughter, both allergic to bees, trapped in their car and surrounded by millions of those deadly animals. And I must say that scene is one my favorite things about this episode, as it\u2019s this classic emergency moment that gets everyone involved: we have Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Josh (Bryan Safi) dealing with the accident from the dispatcher station taking care of the victims while Buck and Eddie try to get them out of the car. Meanwhile, Hen and Chimney take care of a man who has something stuck inside his throat, and Buck finds a way to release mom and child despite Gerrard’s orders. Classic Buck, classic emergency, classic 9-1-1<\/i>.<\/p>\n