9-1-1 kicked off its milestone tenth season last night with an episode that spent most of its hour building toward one very loud question: what is actually under downtown Los Angeles?
“That Sinking Feeling” opened with a sinkhole, ended with a volcano and left Athena trapped somewhere in between. Spoilers ahead for the Season 10 premiere.
(9-1-1 via ABC)
‘How Did the Sinkhole Turn Into a Volcano?’
The premiere opened with a multi-vehicle emergency that got much worse when a sinkhole swallowed the street. Chimney took charge, the 118 got everyone out without any major casualties and a “Happy 10 years” balloon drifted through the chaos as a nod to the milestone.
It was a classic 9-1-1 setup: a rescue that feels like the whole story, right up until the ground says otherwise. Hen was the first to name it, declaring, “That’s not a sink hole. That’s a volcano!”
By the final minutes, lava was bursting out of the ruins and the firefighters were focused on getting people to safety. The episode never explains how a volcano ended up in the middle of Los Angeles, which makes it feel more like an opening act than a finale.
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‘Is Athena’s First Detective Case Connected?’
Athena’s new badge got off to a humble start, with her first assignment involving a missing dog. She also admitted she worried she only earned the promotion because she was shot.
Then a badly burned man was dropped off outside the hospital where May is training as a nurse, and Athena’s instincts kicked in. Working with her partner, Detective Newell, she followed a case that seemed settled but didn’t add up, including a foreman’s story that didn’t match the victim’s burns.
That led her to a jewelry store vault that had been robbed through a hidden tunnel, and she went in to investigate. Just as the ground began to shake, the ceiling came down and trapped her underground.
It was a satisfying reminder that her instincts still work in plain clothes, and a cliffhanger that ties her case straight into the eruption.
‘What Is Going On With Buck, Eddie and Theo?’
Not every emergency in the premiere was geological. Buck is still adjusting to life as a new dad after taking in Theo, and the episode showed him struggling with the realities of parenting on his own.
Ryan Guzman‘s Eddie doesn’t agree with Buck’s approach, which opened up a small but noticeable gap between two best friends. It’s a quieter kind of tension than a lava flow, and it’s the part of the premiere most likely to linger.
‘What Did Maddie and May Bring to the Premiere?’
Athena wasn’t the only one starting over. May was thrown into the deep end of her new nursing job, and Maddie settled into a new role on the management side of the dispatch center, widening the show’s world beyond the firehouse.
It paid off when Maddie dug through old 911 logs near the sinkhole and noticed a pattern of strange calls about odd behavior and unexplained ailments. Her conclusion was that the sinkhole was only the start of the city’s problems.
‘What Happens Next?’
The premiere functions as the first half of a larger story, with the real fallout coming in next week’s episode on Thursday, Oct. 22. The big questions are how the 118 reaches Athena, how Maddie’s pattern fits the volcano and whether Athena’s mystery was a coincidence or the key to everything.
If you missed it, the premiere is streaming today on Hulu and on Hulu on Disney+ for bundle subscribers. And if you stayed up for the rest of Thursday night, you can read about the three new cast members joining Grey’s Anatomy Season 23.
Staying in for Thursday night TV? Check out The Essential Guide to Binge-Watching Grey’s Anatomy.
