"Time may change me, but I can't trace time"

Han, Cil, and Rachel do our best Maury impression for Season 9, Episode 17 — "I Got You Babe" — in which one Evan Buckley is confronted with a Disney protagonist origin story, dead parents and all. You are NOT the father! Except, kind of, it's complicated.

We get into the full episode review this week — why the Buck and Theo storyline is earning its place, how Eddie and Hen converging in a hospital hallway to try and keep people from slipping through the cracks is the show at its best, and why Athena's cliffhanger had us rewinding multiple times as we had war flashbacks. We also talk about the Maddie subplot, what it was going for, where it landed on rewatch, and why the Eddie, Hen, and Athena storyline deserved more time and breathing room than it got. And because Han posted a take on Twitter and the discourse found her, we take some time to make the genuine case for why this storyline is worth your patience before you write it off.

Then we get to Eddie, who has been doing something very specific all season. This episode is where Cil's ongoing thread comes together about his frustration with how every institution, every system, every structure fails the people he's made promises to — from Theo and the migrants to Abigail. Last but certainly not least we talk through what Theo's arrival means for the Buckley-Diaz family dynamic this show has never been subtle about constructing since season 2.

Grab your toy robot and take our hand — we're walking you through a world of changes.

"Turn and face the strange — ch-ch-changes — don't tell them to grow up and out of it"

Episode title inspired by "Changes" as performed by David Bowie

📔 Articles & References From This Episode 📔

🫂Connor & Kameron Were Always Weird About Buck – Check out this week’s Patreon-exclusive Best Buddies Mini-Segment here!

📰 9-1-1 Cast Talks the End of Season 9 and Wishes for Next Season, Whitney Evans with TV Fanatic

🐤 Cil’s “Eddie Losing His Faith in Institutionalized Systems” Thread, stellar_cil on Twitter

📖 Courtship Behaviors of the Southern Coastal Husbro, by Mad_Lori on Archive of Our Own

🎬 Sign of the Times Buddie edit, by imgonnagetubuck on Twitter

🎞️ Split Screen 9x17 & 2x17 Parallel, by bluegreytan on Twitter

🎧 Oliver Stark of 9-1-1, I’ve Never Said This Before With Tommy DiDario

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Music by DIV!NITY

Chapters

(00:00:00) Previously on 9-1-1…

(00:00:58) Welcome to Dispatch 🚨

(00:01:40) 9x17 “I Got You Babe” Review

(00:26:27) Eddie Wasn’t Supposed to Be Here?!

(00:30:02) Was This the Right Time for Maddie’s Storyline?

(00:38:03) Um, Actually ☝🏼

(00:39:09) Um, Actually “It’s Bioessentialism”

(00:41:51) Um, Actually “It Was Cruel to Kill Connor & Kameron”

(00:48:34) Um, Actually “It Doesn’t Move Buck Forward”

(00:51:29) Um, Actually “It’s Not Realistic”

(00:54:56) Um, Actually “It’s On the Nose or Shoehorned In”

(01:02:59) Supernatural Parallels (Yes, Again 😅)

(01:06:38) Athena – Trusting Crooked Cops and Taking a Bullet for It

(01:08:38) Maddie – Drawing the Line: Boss, Not Peer

(01:10:24) Hen – Fully in Her Advocate Era

(01:11:36) Chimney – The Speech Buck Needed to Hear

(01:13:36) Buck – Confronted With Theo and What He Thought He Couldn’t Be

(01:17:44) Eddie – Showing Up, and Not Leaving Anyone Behind

(01:20:49) Queer Eddiemaxxing

(01:23:21) Eddie Protecting Buck at the Bridge Crash

(01:24:42) Hen Sees Right Through Eddie About Buck

(01:27:01) Buddiemaxxing

(01:29:38) “I Got You Babe” – Buck Hands Theo to Eddie

(01:32:15) Shannon, 2x17, and History Repeating

(01:35:47) Buck Protecting Theo (Tsunami Parallel)

(01:37:02) The White Striped Shirt of Doom Returns

(01:38:57) That 9x07 Call Was Foreshadowing?!

(01:41:36) All Roads Lead Back to “Stuck” (2x04)

(01:52:22) Connor, Kameron… And That Throuple Energy

(01:57:47) Season 9 Finale – Where This is Going 🔮

(02:05:59) Eddie NDE (What We’ve Been Waiting For)

(02:10:40) Buck & Theo – The Start of Something Bigger?

(02:22:25) Our Wi$h Li$t

(02:38:37) Take a Buddie with You & Outro!