9-1-1’s The Devil You Know is set completely at Athena’s parent’s house, and a nasty discovery has been found that brings up plenty of past ghosts for Athena and the whole town.
The episode begins with a flashback of Athena, the night Tanya Kingston went missing. She remembers what happened that night, but particularly her dad’s actions. It’s been 45 years since, and Tanya’s body has finally been found, underneath her parent’s house, which raises concerns about her father’s involvement. He still hasn’t woken up from his coma and is now the top suspect in the case. There’s attention brought to Senior’s truck, which has a very distinct sound to it.
When Athena gets home from the hospital, Senior and Junior Franklin are waiting there to offer help. Senior Franklin makes a comment that he was the man who built the original structure, and Athena’s dad asked him to build the room the day after Tanya went missing. This only further causes Athena’s lines between her job and her relationship with her father to blur. She’s scared of what she’ll find if she digs too much, and the cops investigating the case don’t want her to investigate. As a police officer, Athena has seen many cases where the person who committed a crime is seen as a person who could have never done it by their family members. She knows better than anyone that everybody is capable of anything. Meanwhile, Bobby understands where Athena is coming from, but he also doesn’t understand why Athena isn’t doing everything in her power to clear her father’s name.
Next, Bobby and Athena go to visit Tanya’s house together, where they are met by Tanya’s sister, Joanne, who points a gun straight at Athena. Bobby does his best to de-escalate, and Tanya eventually takes them into her house, where she tells them that the cops don’t have the full story of what happened that night. That night, Joanne had snuck out to go to a party, and Tanya had followed her there, which totally changed the facts about the case. With these facts, there are only a few more pieces of information needed before the detectives, Athena and Bobby, come to the realization that Junior was the person responsible for Tanya Kingston’s disappearance. He had chased her around the same orange grove that Athena had said she used to run away from Junior in. Furthermore, it is uncovered that Tanya was not the only little girl whose disappearance Junior was responsible for. Senior Franklin wanted to protect his son at all costs, so he had encased Tanya’s body in the cement underneath the Grants’ house.
To end the episode, Athena’s father wakes up from his coma, and the Grant family is happily reunited in the hospital room, followed by a sweet montage of memories from Athena’s childhood playing while she sits with her parents.
I personally find that 9-1-1 is at its’ best when they decide to really focus on individual characters and relationships, and I think this episode was a shining example of this. A specific highlight of the episode for me was the directorial choices when the scene of Junior chasing Tanya through the orange grove paralleling Athena chasing Junior through that same orange grove.
Season 6 Episode 4
In this episode, Buck is in his age of absolutely, and he absolutely means it. He explains the theory, which he’s picked up through a book titled The Age of Absolutely, to his sister by telling her that everyone is too comfortable in their lives. They hang out with the same people and go to the same places every day, which is very different than how he lived before. So, he says he’s opening himself up to possibility, which he’s tested on very soon after.
His old roommate Connor and his wife meet him to have dinner. Over dinner, his friend and wife start to mention that they’re having issues getting pregnant, and eventually, they ask Buck to be their sperm donor.
Buck didn’t answer immediately and took some time to think it over. He and Hen, who was forced to take some time off and relax by Bobby, both got the answers that they wanted during a drunk two in the afternoon hangout. Hen chose to go back to her professor and ask for another chance, while Buck decided to fully embrace the age of absolutely by agreeing to be their sperm donor.
In other news, Bobby and Athena return to California during the episode, and Bobby even has a surprise rolled up his sleeve for Athena: a dog. It’s way more normal than anything else Athena has seen lately, so they keep him (for now).
Meanwhile, Eddie and Christopher have their fight with Christopher as a pre-teen. Eddie has to learn that Christopher is growing up, which is a hard thing for any parent to accept, and he even turns to his father for help. His father, Ramon, suggests that maybe Eddie is making up for the protection he didn’t get from his father by being too protective. Eddie and Christopher come to an agreement, and while there are probably many troubles ahead, it seems like they’re both doing well with coping with it.
I appreciate the balance 9-1-1 has between emotional and light-heartedness, and I feel this episode was an excellent showcase of that. Hen and Buck seem to both be on self-discovery journeys right now, and I can’t wait to see where both of their journeys take them. Although it wasn’t as packed with excitement as some of their other episodes, it still felt like classic 9-1-1, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
