9-1-1 Recap: “Alone Together”

9-1-1: L-R: Guest star Lilli Birdsell and Angela Bassett in the “Alone Together” episode of 9-1-1 airing Monday, Jan. 25 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. CR: FOX. © 2021 FOX Media LLC.

911 Recap: “Alone Together”

By Michelle Gonzaba

In last week’s episode, the act of biking led to a woman stuck in a drain pipe. This week, a hike taken by three young roommates ends up with one of them stuck in the mud. I don’t know about you, but it sounds like 911 is providing strong evidence to never exercise again. Nevertheless, Station 118 has plenty of mess to clean up after last week’s earthquake.

Part two of this season’s premiere starts right where we left off, with Athena and agoraphobic Sylvia trapped in a house that has slid down the Hollywood Hills due to a mudslide. With no choice but to climb, they begin a slow crawl inside the diagonal home to escape. Luckily, May spots her mom’s patrol car on the news and asks Maddie to contact her. Maddie hits a dead end-Athena’s radio is out of reach and she’s a little too busy to answer her phone.

Meanwhile, Station 118 has arrived on the scene and gets straight to work. Buck and Chim search for survivors while Bobby, Hen, and Eddie look for the unlucky hikers. The trio quickly finds Katie and Caleb, two of the hikers, without any injury, but their friend Dylan is waist-deep in thick mud. The firefighters can’t pull him out because it could tear him in half. Fun! The group continues to brainstorm other ideas while Dylan sinks lower and lower. Dylan, scared he won’t make it out alive, makes a confession: he is in love with Katie, who happens to be dating Caleb! After some hesitation, she says she loves him too and wants him to keep fighting. Cap and Eddie help him escape with some type of metal rod contraption before he suffocates. Before they can move on, Katie walks back her confession while Caleb and Dylan fight. The roommates continue to argue on their way to their rescue chopper while Hen shakes her head in the background.

While half of the firefighting team deals with that awkward romantic situation, Buck and Chim search for mudslide survivors. They come up empty-handed before hearing the cries of a baby. Unfortunately, their search doesn’t lead to a baby but to a baby monitor. Using their radios, they eventually find the source of the cries. However, they will need to go through the chimney to reach the missing baby. Yes, Chimney has to go down a chimney to help. Just call him…wait, we already call him Chimney.

Athena and Sylvia are also dealing with their own struggles. The house has shifted again and sent Sylvia further down the tilted home. Athena climbs back down towards her, but Sylvia is pinned beneath a giant chunk of plaster. A defeated Sylvia tells Athena to save herself but Athena refuses. Sylvia tells her that no one will miss her if she dies, a statement that was most definitely encouraged after hearing May tell her mom to save herself. Athena refuses and gets to work on lifting the plaster off of the injured Sylvia.

Once Chim makes it down into the house, he finds the baby alive and well, but the mother (or who he thinks is the mother) didn’t survive. He tells Buck he’s ready to evacuate, but before he leaves, he hears screams coming from a locked room. He discovers several young women, almost all of them pregnant, who have been imprisoned by the dead not-actually-the-mom woman. On top of everything, one woman is in labor. “Of course,” sighs Chim.

While Athena continues to have trouble freeing Sylvia, Sylvia explains why she hasn’t left her home in years. She and her sister were in a car accident.Sylvia survived — but the sister didn’t. Since then, her grief has made her unable to live in a world without her sister. Athena can relate: she tells Sylvia about her feelings of powerlessness after her attack. Athena understands her fear, but tells Sylvia she can’t let her grief and fear stop her from living. Her pep talk works and Sylvia begins to fight for her life.

Chim stays behind with Amber, the woman who is in labor. She talks about how alone she has felt throughout her pregnancy and how desperately she wishes someone would have been at her side. Her anxieties strike a chord with Chim, who is filled with fear over Maddie and their unborn child. He realizes he can’t let his fear keep him away from Maddie anymore. With Chim’s help, Amber gives birth to a healthy baby and Chim decides to not let his fear control him anymore.

Athena manages to lift the plaster off of Sylvia and they climb their way out of the house. How Sylvia is able to walk, let alone breathe, is a mystery. I guess Athena is just that good with pep talks. Anyways, the women are eventually saved by a very casual Bobby. He is very laid back about the whole my-wife-almost-died-in-a-mudslide situation.

After a tough day at work, the crew heads home to rest. Chim moves back in with Maddie and they agree to be scared together. Hen starts her journey to become a doctor via Zoom while Athena’s family celebrates her first day back on the job. Again, everyone is very casual about her being stuck in a mudslide. Athena tries to use the trauma of the day to talk May into quitting her new job. May refuses to do so, explaining that her job ensures Athena is never alone again. On the other side of LA, Buck and his new roommate Albert (Chim’s brother) are video chatting with Maddie and Chim. Before long, Buck leaves to go talk with his “quarantine girlfriend.” However, she’s not his girlfriend, but his therapist. And it looks like Buck is in a good enough place mentally to open up to his family and friends.