Spoilers ahead!
After a short hiatus, the time for Chimney (Kenneth Choi) and Maddie’s (Jennifer Love Hewitt) wedding has come. But instead of a bride walking down the aisle, emotional speeches by groomsmen/bridesmaids, and a traditional wedding party, There Goes the Groom has something different for the audience. The episode opens with Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) — both a hot mess, with damaged clothes, bruises, and some limping — telling Maddie that Chimney never made it to the bachelor party planned by Buck, which instigated the duo to take the party to Chim’s hotel room. But when they woke up that morning in the said room, the groom was also not there. Worried, Maddie leads a search group for her missing groom.
Elsewhere, Chimney wakes up confused inside his car. He knows he’s supposed to be somewhere else — there’s an important thing happening that day, but he can’t remember what it is or where he should be. After having his car stolen and being almost hit by a bus when trying to recover his cell phone, Chimney hallucinates Maddie's abusive (and dead) ex, Doug Kendall (Brian Hallisay) — a surprising return that comes back to haunt the groom when he needs help the most.
While a disoriented Chimney faces some difficult situations (including a car accident in which he gets to help and save a lot of people — despite his sudden amnesia, his paramedic abilities remain), the 118 is doing its best to follow his steps and find him before the worst happens, after Hen (Aisha Hinds) connects the dots and discovers that Chim unknowingly contracted viral encephalitis from a patient saved on a recent call.
I think the most interesting thing about this episode is how it refuses to follow our expectations. Very centered on Chimney and Maddie, this adventure is conducted in a way that made me think about how Maddie and Chimney faced a lot of things, individually and together: abusive husbands, hostage situations, the postpartum thyroiditis that challenged their relationship… Chimney died multiple times in 5x17 “Hero Complex”, right? At least, his heart stopped (not to mention the time he was impaled, stabbed, and every other incident he faced with the rest of the 118). So, what was expected to be a nice hour, full of funny rom-com moments, turned out to be dramatic, nerve-wracking, powerful… Beautiful, as well.
"There Goes the Groom" — 9-1-1, Pictured: KENNETH CHOI as Chimney, JAMES CHEN as Kevin Lee. Photo: ABC ©. All Rights Reserved
After all, this is 9-1-1, right? Gruesome, stressful, anxiety-inducing moments followed by peaceful, beautiful, lovely things.
Chimney fights against his darkest fears in the form of Doug (stressful, anxiety-inducing), but is saved by the vision of his late best friend, Kevin Lee (James Chen). Kevin is the one to help Chimney at last — maybe the representation of all the good, hopeful things inside Chimney, maybe a ghostly apparition, he appears, Chimney ends up at Kevin’s house and is helped by his parents.
The best part of this being an ensemble show is how eventually everyone gets their time to shine. This week’s MVP is Kenneth Choi, who brings to the screen a raw performance filled with touching moments. He’s lost, but deep down he knows he has a family and he’s fighting back with everything he has (and sometimes, with everything he doesn’t have) to return home. Jennifer Love Hewitt is also strong as Maddie, leading the team and doing everything in her power to find Chim.
Reunited at last, the couple decides to marry right there, in Chimney’s hospital room. Bobby (Peter Krause) officiates the ceremony, which happens to be a wedding in pure 9-1-1 fashion: Jennifer Love Hewitt’s cover of Islands in the Stream, Madney’s karaoke bar song, playing in the background while they enjoy some much-needed happiness. It was great to see all those characters reunited — this was a rare occasion in which we got to see all the main cast reunited and interacting with multiple supporting characters. By the way, this reminds me of Albert, Chim’s younger half-brother: his absence was felt, and the fact that no one mentions him was weird to me.
"There Goes the Groom" — 9-1-1, Pictured: JENNIFER LOVE HEWITT as Maddie, KENNETH CHOI as Chimney. Photo: ABC ©. All Rights Reserved
All those people reunited at the same place also allowed Buck to casually come out to everyone else (aside from Eddie and Maddie), in a scene that fits Buck so well and is also super fun to watch. Loved the reaction shared by Hen and Karen (Tracie Thoms). Speaking of Buck, the Hangover moments he shared with Eddie in the beginning were so nice to watch. It’s so great to see Eddie being that enthusiastic/supporting about Buck’s ideas (the party organization, the matching outfits, all the drinking/singing/having fun), and watching these two tortured characters just having some moments of fun together was wholesome!
Anyway, it was a great episode — we had tension, drama, life-threatening situations, but some beautiful, lovely stuff as well. Hopefully, we’ll have at least one more Maddie/Chim storyline this season; I know only four episodes are remaining, but they had a storyline in the premiere, so one can hope…
Now let me know your thoughts. What do you think about There Goes the Groom? Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite moments, and thanks for reading!
