9-1-1is one of the most entertaining procedurals onTVright now, with massive emergencies like a sinking cruise ship, a tornado made up of millions of bees (referred to more commonly as the Bee-nado), and now a contagion. The show also has a strong central cast of characters,both within the 118 fire stationand outside of it, and it balances its intense emergency situations with a lot of humor and heart.
That being said,9-1-1has its fair share of plot holes and storylines that don’t make sense in the grand scheme of the show. This ranges from plot devices that were used for one episode but don’t make sense in the context of the rest of the show, abandoned plotlines that the show forgets too quickly, and random scenes that work within the story but not for the actual series. These are 10 things about9-1-1that don’t make sense.
Explores the high-pressure experiences of the first responders who are thrust into the most frightening, shocking, and heart-stopping situations.
10Hen Juggling Being a Paramedic With Med School
How did she find the time?
A major storyline starting at the end of Season 3 and ending early in Season 7 was Hen’s time in medical school. A combination of the ambulance accident and a call where she wound up in the hospital with an injured person made her decide to pursue this. Hen’s med school stroyline was interesting, as it led to her saving Toni’s (Marsha Warfield) life, and she had an interesting rivalry turned to begrudging respect with Sydney (Vanessa Marano).
Hen is certainly a force to be reckoned with, butnot even she would be able to juggle working as a paramedic with being in med school.Additionally, during this time, Hen was no less present at the 118 for the most part. There are simply not enough hours in a day when she would have been able to attend med school, study in her free time, and still keep working at the 118 all at the same time.
9Nobody Punishing Claudette for Bullying May
What’s going on at dispatch?
One of9-1-1’s best episodes,“May Day,” started with an absolutely infuriating storyline. A full season after she had started working at dispatch, May (Corinne Massiah) had gotten the hang of things and was doing very well at work. This was when Claudette (Vanessa Estelle Williams), a former legend at the call center, started working there again. Instead of acting as a mentor to May, Claudette made her life miserable.
This was far from a simple workplace rivalry, or gentle hazing like Buck (Oliver Stark) did to Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody). Instead, Claudette targeted May, constantly stepped on her toes, and made it impossible for her to do her job. Respected characters like Josh (Bryan Safi) and Sue (Debra Christofferson) did nothing about it, as Josh continued to idolize Claudette, and Sue punished both of them for something that was Claudette’s fault. Even Eddie (Ryan Guzman), who was working there at the time, didn’t step in.
8The Kim Situation
What is the rule of dopplegängers in this world?
9-1-1tends to lean on soapier elements over the years, often to the show’s benefit, like when Buck briefly died and entered an alternate reality coma dream after getting struck by lightning. In Season 7,9-1-1pushed this too far with a bizarre storyline where Eddie met Shannon’s (Devin Kelley)dopplegänger, Kim (also played by Kelley)one day while walking past her store.
This is the first and hopefully only dopplegänger in the show, and it just doesn’t make any sense that Shannon would just happen to have a lookalike walking around. She’s also an actress, although not a successful one, and it seems like surely someone might have caught on over the years. This also begs the question that, if Shannon has a complete lookalike,do any of the other characters have complete dopplegängers walking around?
7How Jonah Was Able To Hide in Plain Sight
Bobby Nash would have been more careful in the hiring stage.
One of9-1-1’s best villain storylineswas that of Jonah Greenway(Bryce Durfee). After Chimney (Kenneth Choi) briefly left the 118 to go look for Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), Jonah stepped in to take his place as Hen’s (Aisha Hinds) partner. Although many of the people around her thought that Hen was just looking for reasons to dislike Jonah, she turned out to be more right about him than she ever could have imagined.
After Jonah killed Claudette, Hen connected the dots that he had killed another one of the people that they had treated on a call. It was explained that Jonah had been able to avoid getting caught because most of the people whom he’d harmed had just been severely injured, but had not died – and he kept moving around. That being said, it still seems unlikely that Bobby (Peter Krause) would have missed all of this in his background check and still would have hired him.
6Gerrard Getting Rehired at the 118
Even with Councilwoman Ortiz on his side, it’s unlikely.
The Season 7 finale of9-1-1was an infuriating episode for a number of reasons, including Christopher (Gavin McHugh) leaving to go live with his grandparents, and Bobby and Athena’s (Angela Bassett) house burning down. One of these was Captain Gerrard (Brian Thompson), of all people, getting hired to replace him. It was later revealed that Councilwoman Ortiz (Veronica Falcón) had orchestrated this to get revenge on Hen for her son’s death.
Councilwoman Ortiz is certainly a very powerful woman, but it seems like a stretch that she was able to get Gerrard rehired at the 118, after he had previously been fired for his bigotry.Surely, somebody involved would have insisted on another replacement for Bobby,even if Councilwoman Ortiz insisted on keeping Bobby from getting his job back. With Gerrard’s history, it is unrealistic that he could have gone back to the same exact firehouse as before.
5Nearly Everyone Forgetting Hen’s Birthday
Even Chimney and Karen?
This one is a much more recent storyline, but it is worth mentioning, because it truly doesn’t make any sense. In Season 8, Episode 13, “Invisible,“nearly everyone forgets Hen’s birthday.This is clearly meant to be aSixteen Candlesspoof used for the purpose of giving Hen her moment to be a hero. That being said, it makes no sense that her wife, Karen (Tracie Thoms), best friend, Chimney, or mother, Toni, would all forget her birthday.
The 118 are all so devoted to each other, so it is very unlikely that they would have forgotten the birthday of one of their own. It’s also strange that Bobby just happened to not look at Athena’s (Angela Bassett) calendar that morning, or that she hadn’t mentioned it to him at some point during that day. The details were all skated over for the purpose of the episode’s storyline, but it is still just very confusing.
4Maddie Never Being Mentioned in Season 1
Why didn’t Buck ever talk about his sister?
One of9-1-1’s best decisions was bringing in Jennifer Love Hewitt in the Season 2 premiereas Buck’s sister, Maddie.It was revealed that although they were still on good terms, Buck and Maddie had drifted apart over the years, as orchestrated by her abusive husband, Doug (Brian Hallisay). When Maddie fled to LA to get away from him, though, she and Buck were able to become close again.
It’s likely that the show just decided to write Maddie’s character after Season 1 concluded. That being said, in terms of the actual story,it’s not realistic that Buck wouldn’t have mentioned Maddie at all throughout Season 1.Even when they weren’t speaking regularly, he likely would have talked about her at some point to Abby (Connie Britton), particularly because their relationship was so serious.
3Hen Cheating on Karen
This will never make sense!
9-1-1has had a number of questionable storylines over the years, but one of the absolute worst was Hen cheating on Karen with Eva (Abby Brammell) in Season 1. This was very early in the show, when9-1-1was still getting its footing. The show likely didn’t know what to do with Hen’s character yet, or how to play her marriage to Karen. Additionally, the cheating storyline certainly added some drama, especially after Eva tried to get custody of Denny (Declan Pratt).
That being said, in the context of Hen and Karen’s marriage all these seasons later, Hen cheating on her still doesn’t make any sense. Hen may have loved Eva and had a lot of unresolved issues related to that relationship, but her love story with Karen is epic. After their initial breakup in the flashback duringthe Season 6 episode “Tomorrow,“Karen committed to being with Hen and co-parenting Denny. It seemed like Hen was all in as well after that, and it’s mind-boggling that she would then go on to cheat on Karen years later.
2Lack of Continuity With ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’
Why didn’t that astroid affect ‘9-1-1’?
After9-1-1’s success, the show has gotten two spin-offs:9-1-1: Lone Star,and now,the upcoming spin-off,9-1-1: Nashville.There was even a crossover episode during Season 4 of9-1-1and Season 2 of Lone Star, where Buck, Eddie, and Hen all went to Texas to help with an emergency. That being said, there is often a lack of continuity between these shows that doesn’t make sense, considering they’re supposed to take place in the same universe.
The most egregious example of this isa literal astroid strike that occurred in the final season of9-1-1: Lone Star.Even back in LA, there is no way that the characters of9-1-1would not have been affected by the astroid – especially Eddie, whose literal son was living on the other side of Texas at the time. An astroid is not the sort of emergency that can exist in this world without raising questions about how the rest of the characters in this world are affected.
1Everyone Bouncing Back From Severe Injuries Too Quickly
With no long-term effects!
Due to their jobs as first responders and the wild number of emergencies that regularly occur in9-1-1, all the main characters have had near-death experiences. Some of these injuries were particularly invasive, like Buck’s leg being crushed by a firetruck, and Chimney taking a rebar through his skull. Most recently, Maddie’s throat was literally slit, and the scarand her emotional traumaare the only lasting signs.
Although it is necessary for the characters to bounce back quickly from their injuries to do their jobs, it just doesn’t make any sense. It is common practice for them to receive life-altering injuries, almost die, or, in some cases, even die and come back to life. And yet, each time, they go back to work shortly after, and keep doing their jobs like nothing happened,without any lasting pain or signs of permanent change.
