Sometimes, you just need to talk about your feelings in order to start the healing process.

Hen, Eddie, and Maddie are all suffering in their own ways, and 9-1-1 Season 3 Episode 9 saw them visiting a therapist and getting real about their trauma.

We see the heroic rescues, but we don't always get to see the aftermath and the feelings associated with their line of work. It's nice to get a glimpse into the other side of the job.

Picking up not long after the fatal events of 9-1-1 Season 3 Episode 8, Hen was still reeling from the accident that claimed the life of a young woman.

For Hen, no matter how many people tell her it was an accident, she's unable to absolve herself of the guilt she feels. And it's easy to see why she's hurting.

The simple fact of the matter is that a life is gone, and Hen will always feel that pain no matter what.

But when she struggled with returning to work, it was important for her to remember why she became a paramedic in the first place. And having Stacey appear was the reminder she needed.

You know, someone once told me that the world is full of patients, but what it really needs is more caregivers. And you are the best caregiver that I know. So go do whatever you need to do to heal you because the world needs you back. And so do I.
Chimney [to Hen]

Permalink: You know, someone once told me that the world is full of patients, but what it really needs...

Instead of trying to take away Hen's guilt, everyone did their best to remind Hen who she is, and it generated warm feelings. Hen's grief will not disappear overnight, and everyone knows they can't just snap their fingers and make it go away.

But they can show Hen how valuable she is and remind her what has always been in her heart. At her core, she helps others. It's what she lives and breathes.

That bear hug at the end could come have come from the viewing audience as a whole because I think we were all delighted to see her back where she belongs at the 118.

Hen and Maddie have more in common than they may realize in the immense sadness they feel in regards to the death of someone else for which they feel responsible.

For Maddie, she's never fully dealt with the weight of killing Doug.

From the outside, he was an abuser, and if Maddie hadn't killed him, she would have died herself.

But Maddie once loved Doug, too. She had chosen to spend her life with the man, and even though he turned out to be vile and dangerous, that doesn't negate the feelings she once had.

Doug was a bad guy, but that doesn't mean you don't feel sadness and regret about the way he died.

I killed someone I used to love. I will never be completely free of that.
Maddie [to Tara]

Permalink: I killed someone I used to love. I will never be completely free of that.

Tara's reemergence was unexpected, but it pushed Maddie to explore her own completed feelings about her marriage and Doug's death, which, in the end, will be positive for her.

There truly is nothing Maddie can do for Tara at this point because Tara doesn't want the help. Even after shooting her husband in self-defense, she wants to make her marriage work. It's a decision no one was going to be able to talk her out of.

Perhaps, in time, she will walk away, but she has to want that for herself. No one can will that on her.

17 Endgame 'Ships We Love With Endings We Hate

Start Gallery

Getting Maddie to open up will not be easy, but it is necessary. It seems like she has just barely scratched the surface of the pain she feels.

Eddie's fight club days appear to be over now, and while he's attending therapy sessions, he isn't utilizing them as much as he could have been.

But lucky for him, he has his best friend back.

We've been deprived of a quality Eddie and Buck scene that doesn't involve them being sad or angry for a very long time, but we got our scene and then some during this installment.

Eddie may never come out and say it, but in the wake of Shannon's death and Christopher's near-death experience, it had to be incredibly difficult to be without his best friend.

Buck loves to make everything about him, but he was on the right track when he talked about Eddie's anger towards him.

Eddie's sole purpose of fighting may not have been anger at Buck, but that played a part.

Everything works better on 9-1-1 when all the best friends are on the same page. And with Eddie and Buck's talk, and Chimney, and Hen back on the beat, all is right in the world.

Loose Ends

Bobby was heroic and brave in that tunnel, but the consequences could be severe. It was eerie watching him in the tent getting sprayed down. And seeing Athena's Google search leads me to believe it isn't the last we hear of the radioactive exposure.

Both emergencies were intense, but a meteorite literally crashing through someone's body was unlike anything I've seen before on television.

Buck being an encyclopedia of random natural disaster trivia is the most Buck thing ever. As is sleeping with his therapist.

There could have been a whole episode dedicated to May's essay, but it got dialed down to just a few scenes, which was unfortunate. Athena's speech to her at the end was beautiful, though.