Eddie’s Decision About Christopher, Hen’s Birthday

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for 9-1-1 Season 8 Episode 13 “Invisible.”]

Eddie (Ryan Guzman) finally says what he should have the moment his son Christopher (Gavin McHugh) decided to move in with his grandparents in Texas in the latest 9-1-1 episode.

Just as Eddie’s excited to surprise Chris with basketball tickets, his parents tell him about his chess tournament for the same weekend. (Chris doesn’t seem so enthused.) What’s worse: Only one parent is allowed per contestant … and Eddie’s father, Ramon (George DelHoyo), is attending. Poor Eddie! Then when he tries to offer to take his father’s place, his mother, Helena (Paula Marshall), remarks that the weekend is a busy time for his work as an Uber driver. Then she guilts him into rescinding his offer.

But during one of their FaceTime calls, Buck (Oliver Stark) suggests he just go anyway. Eddie argues he doesn’t want to “damage” his son, but Buck points out, “You’re his dad. He doesn’t have a mom. If you don’t damage him, who will? It’s your job.” He also reminds Eddie that he can not only take an Uber but “take [him]self. Don’t you want to go?” He does. “No one can stop you. Dad up,” Buck says, and Chimney (Kenneth Choi), listening in, agrees.

At the chess tournament, Eddie learns that Ramon is thought to be Chris’ father. But when Chris throws up, Eddie rushes over and brushes off his father’s help. He cleans him up, and Chris admits that he hates chess. He’s only playing because his grandfather loves it. He asks if Eddie can ask them if he can stop, and Eddie tells him he doesn’t have to play. His grandparents just want him to be happy, like Eddie does. Eddie has also FINALLY decided that he’s not going to ask Chris to move in with him but instead tell him: “You’re moving back in with me, whether you like it or not, because you’re my kid.” Chris then asks, “You’ll be my dad again?” And Eddie, hugging him, assures him, “I’ve always been your dad. I’m going to start acting like it.” (This is what Eddie should have said when Chris first decided to move from LA to Texas. Yes, Eddie shouldn’t have been with the doppelgänger of his late wife, but he’s the adult. Chris is the kid.)

With that, Eddie goes and packs a bag for Chris (leaving his father to take the bus home from the tournament). Helena tries to argue that he’s disrupting his life, but Eddie stands up to her and reminds her, “I’m not disrupting his life, mom, I am his life. Because I’m his father, not dad, and you, you’re not his mother, you’re his grandmother.” He informs her that Chris hates chess, and when she protests that he’s good at it, he reminds her she said the same thing about him and ballroom dancing when he was 14; he stopped loving it when it became about the trophies. With that, he drives off with Chris.

Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, everyone except for Athena (Angela Bassett) and Eddie (thanks to Facebook) forgets Hen’s (Aisha Hinds) birthday. Bobby (Peter Krause) even says it’s Hen day — meaning HEN, for their new high efficiency nozzles — at one point, and the disappointment on her face … painful!

And so when the 118 repeatedly rescues a man, Archie, who feels invisible (he gets trapped under his bed while his fiancée and his cousin have sex on it, then is caught in a wheel when a truck driver begins to pull out of a parking lot), her advice for him gets a bit specific. He’s not invisible, she assures him, but rather, he’s making himself disappear and that’s his fault. It’s okay to take up space in the world. Instead of making himself smaller, he should make a noise, tell the world he exists … and it’s his birthday. That’s when the others realize what they’ve done and Hen becomes the recipient of balloons (Chimney gets whimsical when he knows he’s done wrong), chocolates (Bobby), and a cake (her kids). Karen (Tracie Thoms) explains that with the kids’ schedules changing, she kept moving things around in the calendar. Hen’s mother (Marsha Warfield) has the best excuse: “I’m old. I don’t need an excuse. Plus, I birthed you. You should be celebrating me.” Hen reminds her of her birthday and Mother’s Day. Hen also knows that it’s embarrassing to have something so silly hurt so much, and she walks off.

But then Archie ends up holding a bus of passengers hostage with a knife and accidentally stabbing one who tries to talk him down in the stomach. Upon realizing who’s on the bus, Hen says she needs to go inside to rescue him again. The only words of wisdom that Chimney can offer are, “Don’t get on the bus.” Hen does talk Archie into letting the injured man, then the rest of the hostages go before surrendering himself. But then he reaches into his pocket to give her a birthday gift, and Hen tackles him to the ground when the police begin shooting. Both are safe, and all that for a keychain from the chicken restaurant that fired him at the beginning of the episode (a chicken like a hen, he says).

Later, Bobby has cooked a nice meal for himself, Athena, Hen, and Karen for her birthday. He also blames his wife for not reminding him, while Athena can’t believe her husband forgot to look at a calendar. Buck, meanwhile, is making it up to Hen by doing free yard work for as long as he feels guilty. All in all, Hen decides, it’s her best birthday ever.

What did you think of Eddie’s decision? Let us know in the comments section below.

9-1-1, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC