Spoilers ahead!
One could say that the eighth season of 9-1-1 has been a blast of a crazy ride since the beginning, and this wouldn’t be a lie. Still, the episodes that aired this year are even crazier than usual — 8B has delivered banger after banger, and Sick Day, the first part of 9-1-1: Contagion, is no exception. This time, the show is doing something a little bit different putting a big two-parter emergency in the middle of the season (not in the finale where we’d expect it), and even if this is the first part that sets the stage for madness to happen next week, beware: Sick Day is very likely to cause you distress.
The episode opens with Chimney (Kenneth Choi), Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), and Jee-Yun (Bailey Leung/Hailey Leung) having lunch with Hen (Aisha Hinds), Karen (Tracie Thoms), Denny (Declan Pratt), and Mara (Askyler Bell). The two families are having a great time, and Jee-Yun is super excited to find out the gender of her sibling, so Maddie and Chimney order a cake just for Jee to have her moment. That’s a funny, light scene that shows how close these two families are, and how excited everyone is for the new child joining the family. If anything, remembering this cute little scene that opened the episode makes me sad considering how the hour ends.
“Sick Day” – 9-1-1. Pictured: Jennifer Love Hewitt as Maddie, Kenneth Choi as Chimney, Aisha Hinds as Hen, Tracie Thoms as Karen. Photo: Christopher Willard/ABC © 2025 Disney. All rights reserved.
The episode continues with the 118 dealing with a “usual” multiple-vehicle collision — and for usual I mean a stressful and thrilling emergency that allows Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) and Bobby (Peter Krause) to be in the spotlights. When saving a victim, Ravi doesn’t see her baby in the back of the car — there’s a reason for this, as the situation was very distressing and everything could explode any time, so Ravi had to hurry up. When the victim wakes up and calls for her baby, however, it’s clear that the child is still trapped in the car, so Bobby risks his own life to save the baby. Oh, man, I was sure Bobby wouldn’t die like that, but the scene was so unsettling (and glorious) anyway. The baby and her mom are saved in the end, and Bobby’s just fine, but Ravi feels awful about the situation.
This is great because, for the first time in years, we have the opportunity to watch a glimpse of a Ravi-centered storyline, as later he talks to Buck (Oliver Stark) about feeling guilty and thinking of maybe leaving the 118. I loved this quick moment between these two because Buck also suffered a lot with the insecurities of this job in earlier seasons. As shown by 8x11, he was never particularly close to Ravi before Eddie's (Ryan Guzman) departure, so this conversation between them is rewarding because of these implications: they are closer now, so Buck can mentor Ravi.
“Sick Day” – 9-1-1. Pictured: Oliver Stark as Buck, Anirudh Pisharody as Ravi. Photo: Christopher Willard/ABC © 2025 Disney. All rights reserved.
After all of this, the “Contagion” part starts with a mad scientist “creating” (if I got it right, she makes an existent virus worse) a deadly disease. She also develops a cure, but by making a deadly thing even deadlier, she is rightfully fired. Furious about this, the scientist attacks one of her colleagues and sets the lab on fire. The 118 is then called to the research lab because of this incident until the situation gets much worse and the lab becomes a biohazard.
Buck was saving one of the scientists when the lab entered quarantine after a huge explosion, which means that for a huge part of the episode, Buck is separated from the 118. Because of this, he and Athena (Angela Bassett) join forces with the Army to find a way to save their friends and loved ones. Oh, have I mentioned that Maddie is the dispatcher guiding the team through the whole thing? This means that maybe for the first time in a while, we have an emergency that involves almost everyone equally, which is very exciting, but also very scary.
This time, the members of the 118 in danger are Hen, who had her lung collapsed after the explosion, and Chimney, who was exposed to the deadly virus and has his organs failing. This puts everyone out of their comfort zone — Chim can’t operate Hen because he’s sick so he has to guide Bobby through it (and Hen obviously can’t help because this time she’s the one who needs help). Buck and Athena can’t do much at first — but once the Army discovers about the deadly virus and decides that the 118 has to die to not spread the disease (even after they hear about the cure), they are quick to take matters into their own hands.
“Sick Day” – 9-1-1. Pictured: Kenneth Choi as Chimney. Photo: Christopher Willard/ABC © 2025 Disney. All rights reserved.
Honestly, I have been writing this almost every week since 9-1-1 returned with Sob Stories in March, but WHAT!! AN!! EPISODE!! I was on the edge of my seat, I was biting my nails the whole time, I was feeling sick and nervous and GOSH this was intense!!! Again, it’s been a while since we had an emergency this big involving almost every main character (maybe the last one was the bridge collapse in the season 6 finale?), and with Maddie hearing everything and Buck and Athena joining forces and guiding Ravi to the cure, everyone had their time to shine. This whole cast is amazing, and what they achieve here both individually and collectively is insane and fantastic! Props to director Karla Braun and the whole team for delivering this massive hour of television; I'll be forever thankful for the Peter Gabriel's My Body Is A Cage needle drop towards the end, a powerful song for a striking scene!
The episode ends with Ravi discovering that there’s no cure in the lab anymore because the mad scientist took it with her, so we have to wait for the next week to discover how the 118 will escape alive this time… Maybe this is what will bring Eddie and Christopher (Gavin McHugh) back to L.A.? Only time will tell, and next Thursday better come faster so we can all see how this emergency ends.
Now tell me how you feel about this episode! Feel free to leave a comment with your impressions and theories, and thanks for reading!
