Spoilers ahead!
Eddie (Ryan Guzman) and Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) take center stage in this week’s episode Disconnected. Maddie is dealing with the aftermath of the latest violent abduction she endured. Meanwhile, Eddie returns to Texas and finally reunites with his son Christopher (Gavin McHugh), and the journey to fix their relationship starts.
“Disconnected” – 9-1-1. Pictured: Bryan Safi as Josh, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Maddie. Photo: Ray Mickshaw/ABC © 2025 Disney. All rights reserved.
Maddie is facing night terrors. Every night, she dreams of returning to her work as a dispatcher and receiving a call from a woman called Maddie Han who also has her voice. Every time that happens, the horrors of what Amber did to her return to haunt her. Maybe if she returns to work, these nightmares will stop, she thinks — after all, there are people out there who need her help.
But on her first day back, during an intense call involving a little boy, Maddie’s voice is gone — she can’t talk anymore. Everything’s fine in the end, the child and his father are saved by the 118 with Josh (Bryan Safi) and Sue (Debra Christofferson) helping Maddie, but now she has to go through another journey: why is her voice gone and how to get it back?
“Disconnected” – 9-1-1. Pictured: Jennifer Love Hewitt as Maddie. Photo: Ray Mickshaw/ABC © 2025 Disney. All rights reserved.
I think Jennifer Love Hewitt has consistently delivered astounding acting throughout all these years on 9-1-1, and what she does in Disconnected joins her greatest hits in previous episodes Fight or Flight and Boston. The process of losing her voice, trying to get it back with Chimney’s (Kenneth Choi) and Athena’s (Angela Bassett) help, and finally getting it back after losing sight of Jee-Yun (Bailey Leung/Hailey Leung) for one (terrifying!) moment — Jennifer does a mesmerizing work through it all in this episode. Her storyline also showcases the singular, sweet dynamic between Maddie and Chimney with how they can communicate even without speaking to each other. It also deepens the friendship between Maddie and Athena, with the latter being vulnerable and opening up about her fears.
Meanwhile, Eddie… Oh, Eddie is struggling a lot too! He’s been living in his new house (which is falling apart) for a few weeks when Disconnected starts, but his relationship with Christopher hasn't changed a lot, as we can see Eddie going to his parent’s house to visit his son — their family dinners are so awkward, with Eddie’s mom Helena (Paula Marshall) subtly acting all controlling over Christopher. Eddie gives a PS5 to Christopher as a way of bonding, but that doesn’t work as he intended. He can’t be a firefighter either, so between his new house falling apart and things with Chris not going as intended, Eddie decides to make money as an app driver.
“Disconnected” – 9-1-1. Pictured: Ryan Guzman as Eddie. Photo: Ray Mickshaw/ABC © 2025 Disney. All rights reserved.
This leads to a fun sequence of scenes, with Ryan Guzman putting amazing comedic skills to work; I loved the “driver Eddie” montage so much, it was so much fun but also so telling of his character in that moment. Eddie doesn’t tell the truth about his new job to his family, though — so when Eddie takes Christopher and a friend as passengers, Eddie fears that he ended up ruining things with his son because of a lie again. In the end, Christopher is the one to go to Eddie’s house — and after a brief talk, they hug and make amends in a beautiful, emotional scene.
Also, it’s notable that Buck (Oliver Stark) is in constant contact with Eddie, as they facetime a few times here, with Buck acting as the voice of reason, the one to encourage his friend to stay and fix things with his son. It was nice and heartwarming to see those two so close even with all the distance between them — and their shared love for Christopher is a lovely thing! I hope there are more facetime Buddie scenes in the future, not only because they are cute, but also because Eddie and Christopher making amends for now doesn’t mean that their relationship is completely fixed.
“Disconnected” – 9-1-1. Pictured: Gavin McHugh as Christopher, George DelHoyo as Ramón. Photo: Ray Mickshaw/ABC © 2025 Disney. All rights reserved.
This is only the beginning of the Texas arc, and I feel there’s so much to unpack yet here related to Eddie, Christopher, and the Díaz parents, so we should see more of them all next week. I think it makes sense to first introduce a smaller challenge regarding Eddie lying to Chris to stimulate a first step to rebonding and only then get to the conversation about the events that made Christopher move from L.A. with his grandparents.
Overall, Disconnected is a delightful episode. It has impressive emergencies, it has splendid acting, and it deals with the storylines of two characters that do not always get the chance to shine individually like this. It also features the return of Christopher, and I missed him so much that it feels special in a way to have him back. With the promise of continuing the Texas drama, next week will also have a thrilling Hen (Aisha Hinds) storyline, so I’m excited for the future — and very satisfied with what we got so far!
Now tell me how you feel about this episode! Feel free to leave a comment with your impressions and theories, and thanks for reading!
