After last week had some truly delightful moments we are back to another filler episode that can't really decide what it's trying to do so it ends up just mostly being a waste of time.
The Athena storyline was filler but it was at least a little interesting with the body swapping guy, and it's always nice to see karma coming back around for bad people. For me, Athena's storylines are the best when she's responding to help people in crisis and those always fit better with the heart of the show so her punitive justice storylines are meh for me. This season has also been severely lacking in good emergency calls (on the weeks we get any at all. Remind me what this show is called again?) so at least Athena's storyline gave us some scenes of emergency response though it was weird that for some reason they had the 133 instead of sending the main characters to the emergency in the show about our main characters responding to emergencies.
The Maddie/Chim storyline this week is just so dumb. It's hard to imagine they didn't sit down and do the taxes together. Unless you have something majority complex, the computer filing is free and takes less than an hour and itemization isn't really needed until you're dealing with more money than a couple that both work and still needed help to buy a house are working with. I get they wanted a little fun in the episode but not everything needs to be a joke and that's something Kristen has REALLY struggled with finding balance with since she took over (lookin at you sperm donor arc with such potential that got turned into masturbation jokes instead of character development). It's so disrespectful to a relationship that back in seasons 2-4 was some of the best build up I've ever seen. These two have been through so much they deserve to both get married because they WANT to, and honestly, Maddie proposing because she's ready to take that step would make the most sense. Maybe that's where this is going for the finale but as of right now with what we have seen? Madney's love story deserves better than to be constantly played for laughs after brushing aside everything they went through, better than resolving everything off screen, and better than the family they built on love being turned into a tax shelter marriage. The only saving grace (and one the show has been clearly using as a crutch), is that Kenny and Jen are magical on screen together and genuinely hilarious, and baby Jee is adorable meaning that while the storyline is flimsy at best, at least the scenes about it are at least watchable.
The same thing can be said for the Eddie/Chris scenes this episode-poorly planned and executed storyline saved by Ryan and Gavin being such a powerhouse duo on screen. Their scenes were still somehow able to hit some heavy emotional beats because of those two despite whatever material they are given to work with. Because, continuing on the unearned parental redemption train, we're bringing Shannon back to garner sympathy before Eddie "moves on" from her (despite having a serious gf last season and already going through a big talk with Bobby about moving forward). Great. Never mind that she abandoned her husband who had nearly died, and her disabled child, and cut off all contact, now we're going with sitting by her graveside reminiscing about a woman Eddie only ever fought with, and Chris would barely have remembered being around at this point? He was what, 5 when she left the first time? A far better, more interesting, and true to the heart of the show story would be Chris struggling as he gets older and understands more about what happened. A scene with Chris and Eddie having an honest conversation re: complex feelings about good memories vs Chris' growing understanding of her abandoning them would be far better than whatever this nonsense is I mean, Eddie wistfully stroking a picture of Shannon?! When seasons 2-3 showed us how deeply incompatible they were, constantly fighting and never in agreement even about Chris, and how they only got married because she was pregnant and how Eddie struggled to recover from how angry he was?? When Kristen said Eddie was going to be looking to recapture the spark he felt, we were all joking that it had to be about Buck because he's never been show to have had a spark (outside the physical with Shannon who was just using sex to get Eddie to agree to let her see Chris) with anyone else. But apparently Kristen is just rewriting history to serve the plot SHE wants to write, regardless if it makes sense for the characters. On top of that, we get the erasure of Eddie's struggles with his mom ("Don't drag him down with you" haunts me) while again showing Eddie having to put in all the effort to see them instead of his retired parents coming to see him. I think the scene was supposed to be "sweet" and push the idea that Eddie is lonely and is going to realize he DOESN'T "have time" so that it makes sense when he jumps into things with whatever lady Kristen throw at him this time. Funny though that we've never seen him being lonely until now, only after Buck is busy chasing someone new. They're never going to beat the Buddie allegations if they keep having them only start looking at women and being lonely when the other one is being set up on dates by family or too busy to hang out.
Unfortunately "flimsy storyline, but at least watchable" CANNOT be said about whatever was going on with Buck this episode and apparently the rest of the season. (My eyes hurt from rolling at this latest push by Kristen to avoid the pull of the narrative in it's logical direction and at the copy/past of the "meet-cute" Eddie had with Ana right down to the hand injury.) We are once again back exactly where we have been since Kristen took over, with Buck feeling like maybe THIS woman will fix everything for him and it is just so beyond tired at this point. Buck used to be a fan and general audience fave, but Kristen seems bent on ruining him by not allowing him to ever learn or grow, just recycling the same things and struggles for him over and over until the fans and even casual audience viewers are sick of seeing him. And it breaks my heart because he is SUCH a good character and there is so much potential for good storylines with him that dig into his traumas and then let him GROW from the experience, but every time it looks like we might get that, Kristen swerves, makes the whole thing about someone else, and then reverts Buck back to square one to try it again. Enough is ENOUGH.
It's clear that this is just yet another attempt to find a viable love interest for Buck that they can keep in their pocket for next season, however I have never seen anything more cringy than their interactions, and I watched the Eddie/Ana math date and suffered a season of Buck/Taylor. Not only is this woman a ridiculous choice for a character who is supposed to be guiding elderly people through end of life stuff (who better than a 20-something with barely any life experience and acts like she's never spoken to someone who has been that close to death before?), but she's also incredibly unsympathetic and quick to make light of something that is clearly a struggle for Buck to talk about. Her squealing like a schoolgirl about how "freaking cool" it was that he died was so deeply uncomfortable and gross to watch. Buck's family sure didn't think it was so freaking cool when they were yelling for him, and performing CPR, and begging him to stay with them. It feels like Taylor all over again. She's just another using him, while the dialogue forces words into Buck's mouth about how great and wonderful and interesting this women is and how she truly understand him, in hopes of getting the audience on board. Meanwhile, Eddie is standing next to Buck ACTUALLY seeing him, and has BEEN seeing him for five seasons now! It's so right there and in your face it would be comical if it wasn't for the showrunner saying fans are just seeing things and none of this is intentional. But if it's not intentional, then what are they doing? Because that scene of Buck and Eddie at the cemetery may have felt very forced and on the nose about pushing their new dating arcs dialogue wise but even with all that, they still looked a second away from a love confession and in all that open space they're still bumping shoulders and standing practically on top of each other.
This flavor of the week love interest is such a waste of time when there are SO many characters the viewers already knows and love that Buck could talk to. Chim and Karen both have clinically died on screen within the past season! Everyone in the firefam has almost died at some point! Hell, we could have found out Ravi nearly died while battling cancer as a child and let them talk! Kristen brushing aside years of friendship and family and LOVE from people who genuinely care about Buck just to force this new woman is a slap in the face to the firefam, to Eddie and the Buckley-Diaz family unit, and it makes Buck as a character so casually hurtful to the people around him and look so clueless. It's beyond clear that Kristen doesn't understand found family so it is past time to get her AWAY from the found family show.
Final notes, Ravi remains adorable and a delight to have back on the team. More of him getting to talk to everyone please!
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