Content Warning: This article contains spoilers for season seven, episode one of 9-1-1.
That’s right! The procedural drama has made a comeback with its season seven premiere on Thursday, March 14. Not only was it 9-1-1’s first episode back since the WAG and SAG-AFTRA strike, but this was also its first episode on ABC since moving from its original network, Fox, after six seasons. It’s clear that this decision was a good one, as 9-1-1 brought in 4.93 million viewers Thursday night, while Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19, ABC’s other Thursday night shows, only brought in 3.6 and 2.8 million viewers, respectively.
I’m curious as to how many of those four million viewers were a little disappointed like I was with the highly-anticipated season premiere. While I did enjoy watching the new episode, I felt a bit misled because none of the clips in the promos even happened in the episode. I later found out that it’s because the premiere is actually part one of a three-part premiere, so we won’t find out what happens on Bobby (Peter Krause) and Athena’s (Angela Bassett) cruise for two more weeks. However, what we did get to see was Athena beginning an investigation on another couple on the ship with them, which ended up leading to the discovery that their ship had been invaded.
What the episode did give us, though, were some classic 9-1-1 emergencies that we got to see the 118 embark on. There was a couple who had a plane crash into their house and another couple that got stuck together in a hot tub (do with that piece of information as you wish). I did miss these crazy calls that the 118 gets that would most likely never happen in real life.
Audiences also got a closer look into the lives of some of the characters and their relationships. Chimney (Kenneth Choi) had a change of heart after seeing the couple with the plane crash and how much they didn’t get along, so he decided to become more involved with Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) in order to prevent their relationship from “calcifying.” Eddie (Ryan Guzman) is made aware of his son, Christopher’s (Gavin McHugh) girl troubles and learns that it’s a result of Christopher’s mother leaving the two of them when he was young, causing him to be scared of committing to a girl in fear that she’s going to leave him too. Eddie finds a letter that Christopher’s mom left for him and gives it to Christopher in hopes that it will help. As Christopher reads the letter, his mom, Shannon (Devin Kelley) appears, making for a wholesome scene that made me tear up.
I’ll admit that I was a little disappointed because I thought that the episode was going to be more action-packed than it was, but I think it was still a good season premiere and captured what 9-1-1 is: crazy emergency stories and the characters we all know and love. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens with Bobby and Athena’s cruise in the coming weeks in addition to the rest of the season.