Bonus Episode: 9-1-1 Mini Series #7

"Fandom is a participatory event. In one way or the other."

Welcome back to Fandom on the Rocks, where there’s never a plan — only chaos, retcons, and a lot of feelings about 9-1-1.

In this 9-1-1 bonus episode, we dive headfirst into Season 9, the emotional hangover of losing Bobby Nash, and yeah, that was a whale swallowing a billionaire kayaker. From the four-part fever dream of a season opener to Athena’s latest flashback, Emily and Alison pick apart every questionable creative choice, all while mourning the death of stakes and the unfortunate rise of beige set design.

We also talk about what’s happening outside the show: from fans needing to be right, the algorithm turning us into engagement machines, and how fandom only survives if everyone brings something to the potluck — a fic, a gif, or just a little enthusiasm.

Come for the space rant, stay for the fandom therapy — and remember: if you reach the end of a fic, you leave kudos.

xoxo,
Fandom on the Rocks

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
You're listening to fandom. On the rocks.
There's no plan. There's never a plan.
Hello. Welcome back to Phantom on the
rocks. I'm Emily.
And I'm Allison. And this is another 911 bonus
episode. It's been a hot minute.
It's been a hot minute, and it'sbeen a hot minute because we've
been on hiatus and because Season 8, B decided to just

(00:30):
punch each and every one of us in various body parts and, like,
leave us on the ground crying. So it's been kind of a rough
summer. There were choices made by the
creative team. Choices.
Were made. Choices were made with
questionable reasoning behind it.

(00:50):
Spoiler alert if you haven't seen it.
Whatever key paw is dead. P pot is dead and P pot doesn't
need to be dead. The the longer I sit with it,
really truly the longer I sit with it.
Like either, they were like keeping their options open for

(01:13):
as long as possible. What?
Do you mean or this was like thefunniest?
They think this is the funniest prank ever pulled.
Well, say, say more 'cause you know how I feel about it.
Yes no, Emily's Emily's Dobby forever and I unfortunately am
also leaning into into Bobby is dead forever and ever 'cause
he's dead. Of course he's dead.

(01:34):
Even if he's not dead in my heart, he's just in France with
Erica Reyes and Vernon Boyd and Alice Sargent.
He's fine there's. Not one iota of evidence that
he's alive. Absolutely not.
There is no canonical evidence to prove that he's alive.
But with the there is. There is if you choose to see
it. There's a reason that we're than

(01:56):
Sparks, that we're the Buck and Eddie of like our own lives.
Because I'm over here going like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But listen. And Emily's like, absolutely
not. That's not how evidence works.
You don't make it up. No, you don't make it up, but if
you can use the scientific method and look at the evidence
in front of you and then draw a conclusion from that evidence.

(02:17):
You don't make up the evidence. You don't make up the evidence.
The evidence is clear. It's canonical.
It's on the TV screen. It's just that you and I come to
different conclusions. I'm saying you'll never agree on
this, by the way, to your listener.
I'm saying that it there is a universe in which if the
contract negotiations have gone differently in like if, if

(02:39):
whatever happened didn't happen or happened differently, there
was a space carved out for people to still be alive.
Like for them to to not kill himor them to, you know, put him in
a coma or them to do whatever. Yeah, 'cause he killed Ravi
instead. In theory, but apparently that
was also a lie. Again, you cannot trust anything

(03:03):
an actor says during an interview.
True actors are liars. That's their job.
They're they're pathological liars.
So whatever is said in an interview, it doesn't matter.
Doesn't matter, but I'm saying that I can see, based on the way
the story beats occurred, that there is a universe in which
they were trying to keep the door open as long as possible.

(03:26):
What I will allow because it hashappened in the past throughout
TV, movie history, TV. History.
TV history and film history is Even if the writing was we
killed him, he's dead. Oh shit, we fucked up.
Yeah, we brought him back without there having been a

(03:47):
shred of ground laying previously.
Right, that's what games taught us.
Exactly, you'll never convince me that there's anything in the
text to say like it might not have been dead, but I will allow
the show being like actually retcon.
He's fine. I'll allow that.

(04:07):
They could have retcon did because they're idiots.
Yeah, I will say in my own defense and defense of a lobby
everywhere that it would be fairly easy to retcon.
It's it's easy to wreck on anything, you just do it.
Yeah, you just do it. Just.
You just have him show up and he's like, yes, actually, I'm
fine. And you carry on as if it didn't

(04:29):
happen. As if it just didn't happen.
The same way you carry on as if buck should not have a leg.
Yeah, that is true. This whole OK, so we'll we'll
get there. So the end of the day is that
Bobby Nash is, unfortunately forall of us, dead and deceased for
reasons for reasons. I don't know that we'll ever
actually know them. No.

(04:50):
Feel a little nefarious? Though that has been the
weirdest part of this. We were like, you know, thinking
that maybe something would have come out that maybe Peter would
have, Peter Krasso would have done like an exit interview that
they would like talk about it. Nothing.
It has been radio freaking silence from from the powers

(05:11):
that be. And you know, there's always a
thought that like, oh they didn't they were trying to cut
costs right? With his salary.
Except the 1st 4 episodes of this show are insanely
expensive. They're so expensive and they
and they bumped up two more people to Maine.
Yeah. So this.
Is not. These are not the actions of a
show that's trying to cut costs.No, it's not.

(05:32):
And it's not like they've added in product placement to get some
extra cash. No.
Well, I mean, maybe the buddy episode is probably coming up,
so we'll wait and see. If Trojan is sponsoring.
I'm just saying the last three big product placements they had
were all buddy related. I'm just saying.
Buddy brought to you by Trojan and Astroglide.

(05:55):
By Chris Pratt but I just as long.
As it works. Long as it works, it's just it.
It's a. It's a very odd confluence of
events, made even stranger by the writing.
Yeah, for sure. Like the?
The more time we sit and think on it, the more time we kind of
get to process, the more time weget to go back and see it again.
The more time we get to really dig in, the more questions we're

(06:18):
just like, what? What choices were made?
Why were they made this way? Especially when fuck Nugget
McGee is out there. Like we did it for the realism.
If he had never fucking said that.
I mean to be fair, he didn't fucking say that.
Sure he said something. He never actually said the word
realism. He was talking in that interview
about, like, wanting to raise the stakes.

(06:40):
Yes, that is true. And he did raise the stakes.
That I, I guess is true. I'm still not worried about any
of them. I'm I'm absolutely not worried
about other people dying. No, absolutely not.
I'm still not worried about it like so this is this is we are 4
episodes into season 9 of 911. And so you know, spoiler alert

(07:02):
and and we are waiting for the the edisode.
In theory, I'm hoping it's an edisode.
Wouldn't that be embarrassing for everyone when it's not?
Oh my God, yes, it will like surprise.
It's about G young like oh God, sorry, sorry guys, my bad.
And that we can come back aroundto that if I remember it, but
maybe put a pin in that. OK.

(07:24):
But yes, so this is this is kindof the the lens we're coming at
it with. So like, Hen and Athena go to
space, right? It's the like.
It's a four part opener. You did not need a four part
opener. You and I have talked about this
offline, online, we're going to talk about it.
They did not need a four part opener.

(07:45):
No, I think what happened is what did I say?
It's too much idea and it shovedinto network constraints.
Yeah, because you made a really good point that if it was on
like an HBO, it could have been two or three long episodes.
Yeah, they're stuck. They're stuck trying to have a

(08:07):
41 or 42 minute episode. It's an hour of your, your day
if you're watching it live. But with commercials, you have
41 or 42 minutes, right? Yep.
And you have to fit that. You have to cut to fit that.
You don't have any wiggle room unless you've somehow negotiated
like our special event, an hour and 10 minutes.

(08:28):
But that takes effort. But if you are on cable, you can
tell them, hey, today we're doing a 55 minute episode.
Tomorrow we're doing a 62 minuteepisode and you write to fit the
episode, which meant he could have done 2/2 hour episodes.
Yeah, absolutely. And it would have made more
sense. It would have just made more
sense. Like I they they had it going

(08:50):
for a minute cuz sees this episode 1 you opened with like
the weird dynamics. You kind of set all the players
up. You set up Chimney interim
captain after six months, still feeling really unsure and
unstable about everything, Maddie trying her best to
support her beloved husband alongside raising, you know, a

(09:14):
precious little kid and the roundest baby on earth.
A full beach ball. I love him so much.
And because it's Hollywood, you know that there's two of them.
You know that that baby is a friend.
You know that there's two of those babies.
I'm so excited that those babiesand I exist in the same mortal
plane at the same time. There are potentially triplets.
I hope so. I hope that the the round baby,

(09:36):
the circle baby just exists in the world, delighting everyone
in their path. That's so funny.
So Eddie and Hen are partners and they're partners on the job
and it's very exciting. And Jimmy's like, I shouldn't
have worried about that, you know, because they're doing
great. Buck is of course fucking
unspooling about it. He's 4 reasons.

(09:58):
Yeah. Why is he?
Why is he spooling? Why is he unspooling about it?
He's got a great partner in Ravi.
He's been working with Hen for like 8 years.
He should have no reason to feelfunny about this.
None. I wonder why he's feeling funny
about this. Because his BFF for life is
chatting up with someone else. Because his.

(10:18):
BFF for Life is having a nice time with somebody else and it
makes him, it makes him a littlenervous.
And then all of a sudden they are doing like, I can't get mad
at the whale swallows A kayaker.I can't get mad at that because
it happened. It did happen, yeah.

(10:40):
So like from the headlines, like, OK, sure, I'll give you
that. That's fine.
That's it's Freeway Shark. It's Binato.
Like, OK, all right, I'll bite. And frankly, Mark Quinzuelos did
a great job in those episodes aslike a techie Dick.
I liked him. He was great and the Teen Wolf
twin. Yep, whichever one it was, I.
Think it was Max. Was it great?

(11:01):
Loved it I. Don't know.
I don't know which of the Teen Wolf twins he played.
No idea. But I think it was Max Carver.
But all of a sudden we. Did.
We get the we get the politics of it.
You know, like, like Chief Simpson is like, yeah, well,
he's going to give us a bunch ofmoney, which means we can spend
it on on new equipment that we want.
And hence, like shrugging emoji.OK, I guess.

(11:23):
And Athena, who has just been like sitting like a like
somebody in her grief, obviouslyis like, I'm feeling untethered.
I'm feeling unsettled. I feel like I'm too much of A
burden for everybody. And Hen Wilson, world's best
friend, is like, no, you're my burden.
I love you. So does Karen.

(11:44):
We're going to invite you every week until you say yes, don't
worry about it. We're still here for you on the
other side. So to thank her, Athena says
Sure, I'll go to space with you like a like an idiot.
I hope you know that I would never go to space for you.
You know, that doesn't surprise me.
I'm a little sad, I'm a little hurt.
No, you shouldn't be. I hope you know I would.

(12:06):
I would, Maddie. The situation from the ground.
I appreciate that I need a Maddie on the ground.
But I am not going to space. I need a Maddie on the ground
for sure. Yeah, the amount of vomit that
would happen in the helmet, I just.
Oh gosh, me too, man, Me too. So they spend like the like an
episode and a half basically before they're even going to

(12:31):
space. And so we're like, this can't
possibly end well. And sure enough, it doesn't.
Money and politics over safety yada yada.
Elon Musk, yada yada. Elon Musk, yada yada, you know,
and so the the on the ground portion is pretty much stalled

(12:52):
for the moment until we can figure out what's going on in
space. And it goes from silly best
friend adventure in space to medical expertise in zero
gravity to I can't lose anybody else.
There's more for me in heaven than there is for me on Earth.

(13:15):
Like don't make like don't make me choose between you.
Yeah. Which is like an amazing fun
journey to go on. Really wish you could have gone
through it on Earth. On Earth, yeah.
I feel like space was not necessary for Athena grieving.
No, I don't think it was. I really don't like, I think

(13:37):
there was something really beautiful about the like there
is more, you know, like there's,there's plenty for you waiting
on earth. And she's like, no, there's more
for me in heaven because Emmett's there and Bobby's there
and, you know, like. Fuck them kids.
Fuck them kids. Fuck them kids.
I absolutely love, like, you know, my kids are grown.

(13:57):
Like Harry dropped out of high school.
He's a child. Harry's 18 Athena like.
He's not. I mean, I guess.
He's going to invest like. But they need a parent.
All of their parents are gone. All 12 of their parents are
gone. Yes, they have.
They have like a gaggle of parents and they're all gone.

(14:18):
Like Buck is not gonna step in as another parent.
He can't. No, he he cannot.
He's trying the best that he can.
He can. He can unk, he can big bro.
He cannot parent. Cannot parent those particular
children. Here's hoping there is another
particular child that he can parent that we'll see here soon.

(14:38):
Crossing every finger. But so there's just so much
happening in the space arc that doesn't have any long term
consequence, and like 911 is known for their opening arcs
that have no long term consequences.
For sure. Well, OK, the tsunami had some

(14:59):
long term consequence. Yes.
Like, emotionally. Yes, and it did drive the
character relationship like it. It explained the ongoing
character relationship between Buck and Chris.
Yeah, but that was like the lasttime.
What was Season 4's opening arc?Was that the pandemic?

(15:20):
There was some pandemic. Yeah, so that was like Maddie
being pregnant and that whole thing and then Season 5.
I think wasn't is season 4 also had the dam bursting right?
Yeah, but that was done after like a minute.
An episode Yeah, season 5 was there was a the blackout.

(15:43):
Oh yes, the blackout. That was fun.
The. Ransomware blackout.
Yeah, it's the black and. The zoo animals.
And the zoo animals, I didn't hate that it didn't have a ton
of long term consequences other than like.
Eddie. Eddie passing out because Anna.
And and that everyone writes that Buck takes Chris to the

(16:06):
zoo. Yes, and clipboard Buck.
Clipboard Buck. But like, not a ton of long term
consequences season 6. Oh, season 6, Season 6 I'm
trying to like walk it back. I don't remember Season 6 there
was a a blimp. Yeah.
What was the? Blimp.

(16:27):
Let's see. OK, the cruise ship was season
7, right? Yes, so season Season 6 didn't
seem to really have a big arc 'cause it was the Athena goes
home thing so. Season 6 open with a blimp.
Yeah, season 6 opens with a blimp which really only takes an
episode and then Six 2 is when the everything crashes at the

(16:51):
happiness convention. Oh, that was sad.
That was sad, but that's CaptainHen.
Yeah. With and then 63 is Athena and
Bobby going down to down to Chimney or down to not to
Chimney down to Florida. Sorry chimneys in for a wild
ride. Sorry, I'm there's more on the

(17:11):
page, but yeah, that's when theygo down to Florida and catch a.
Murderer. A murderer.
Yeah, like I think honestly, thelast one that had consequences,
I say consequences. It was Season 7 with the cruise
ship because, for what it's worth, it introduced Tommy.
Sorry. But.

(17:31):
It was just a gut reaction. Yeah, it happens.
I'm he's not my guy, but I don'thave quite the vitriolic
reaction that some folks do. But it did like them actually
being consequences. Literally, it's just, it's, it's
Norman. It's it's.

(17:52):
It's the return of like the two best side characters for three
episodes for fun. And do you See me, Norman and
the whole thing, you know, with Hen is acting captain and trying
to figure that out. And then they introduce, they
end up introducing or guys reintroducing Tommy, which then

(18:14):
kicks off the BI Bach arc. So like that actually does set
up a few Nuggets for later down the season.
Surprisingly, the plane incidentdoes nothing.
People. Remember B NATO more than they
remember Athena landing a jetliner well.
Yeah, because the the marketing was the Binado, so it's like

(18:37):
it's stuck. And also it's silly.
And I mean, I remember the planebecause of, I'm going to call it
iconic scene, even though we've overused iconic of, of Bobby
standing on the truck on the highway waiting for, well,
apparently waiting to be smashedby a plane.
But. But like, you know, watching

(19:00):
Athena land the plane. In To Date To date, that is the
most romantic scene of Die 11. It honestly is.
For me. Yeah.
Tell me in person. Tell me in person.
Tell me in person like you. You.
You mean to tell me that he doesn't even survive the season?
You mean to tell me? I know, I know.

(19:20):
Like what did Peter? Krauser do to him like to Tim.
I near like what did what happened?
I hope that Peter Krausa is living the happiest,
sunshiniest, softest life with whoever he chooses to share it
with. I hope.
I hope he is well. Hope he is well.

(19:40):
And maybe he tells someone what happened and that trickles down
into the fandom. We just kind of know what
happened. I imagined he is under a very
strict, not very. Shiny NDA.
A very shiny NDA, yes. What I'm hoping, what I'm hoping
is that perhaps he had a phone call with somebody before he
signed that NDA. Yes, yes, yes.

(20:03):
So there might be a rumor aroundsomewhere.
Just a rumor trickling through LA that somehow manages to make
it to somebody who knows someone.
Who knows someone? Who knows someone?
You know how it works. I hope he's doing well, I hope
he's relaxing in the weather of his choice.
But yes, So season 8, that opening arc had little to no

(20:26):
consequence and truly this won'teither.
I don't think it will. I can't see it mattering down
the line. Like the most affect it's going
to have is that Athena, by graceof, you know, young Athena or
Hen or you know, her emergency training or whatever got her

(20:52):
back out of outer space and ontothe ground.
And she was never going to die. No, no, like.
What were the steaks? What are the steaks like?
To be fair, I don't want steaks anymore.
Don't either. You, you ruined the steaks, man.
I don't want it anymore. Like I no, either make it silly,

(21:16):
goofy or just be done because like there were there were a
couple of scenes that kind of got me.
But generally speaking, like no,and there should be some long
term consequences of this and there's just small B.
We're just going to we're going to move on.
We're going to forget it and thethe like.
The consequence is going to be athing that gets over her grief,
which is not how it works. The long term consequences

(21:37):
should be that we should be discussing like private space
travel as a country and we're not going to do.
That we're not going to do that.I'm like, hey, this is actually
like maybe a bad idea and space debris is actually like, like
that's the lasting consequence of space debris interfering with
our satellite system and that kind of shit.
But that, that's not what they're going for.

(21:58):
But I will say a long term consequence of this opening arc
for me is that I got to see so much of my bestie, Karen Wilson.
Oh yeah, Karen had a real arc that had the actual that had
literally nothing to do with herchildren.
Yes, yes. Like it had a little bit of her
having to be like having to do with her being a wife, but only

(22:20):
in a it's my wife in danger kindof way.
She was actually a scientist. She was actually a scientist.
I'd also like to state for the record that for me, Athena was
the main character in Outer space.
Ken was the main character on the ground, like May May was,

(22:44):
you know, doing clipboard. May, she was trying to distract
herself with the things. And then Harry was panicking
about Athena, but in a way that made it about him and not about
his mom. Yeah.
Like from a character writing perspective.
And so like when we were on the ground, I was like, Oh my God,
head is stuck in the space station.

(23:05):
And then we go into space. I'm like, Oh yeah, it's Athena.
Yeah, yeah. Like hen was actually mostly
safe in the space, in outer space it should be that it was
doing making choices. Yeah, Hen was doing OK up there.
I just. And Tricia.
And of course. And Queen, Queen Tricia.
Tricia, who I would like to see again.

(23:27):
Correct, I need to see her again.
I think this is my problem with procedurals is you get a really
great like guest character and like wait wait wait wait bring
her back. Yeah, I think back to me.
I think Trisha goes in the in the Norman.
What is his wife's name? Oh.
My God, it's Kurt's mom. It's Kurt's mom.
No, it's Carol. It's Carol, but I don't know

(23:49):
what her what what her 911 name is.
Lola. Lola Lola Yes, she's reached the
Lola Norman driver's Ed lesbianslike level love of of one off
character, Trisha. Well they were like 3 off
characters, Norman and Lola. Yeah, but they became three off

(24:11):
characters, so I just love them.Love this for them.
Love this for us, for Tricia, for Tricia and her new one.
Alarmingly young boy toy. You know what?
Let it ride. They went through a traumatic
experience together. She's got money.
It's. Cool.
She does have money. She has money and 1% of a

(24:32):
company. Yeah, that's cratering, but
she'll be fine. It's fine.
So that that is, that is where we are with 9119A.
Yeah, it's gonna, yeah, I don't know.
It's too much opening. Yeah, I agree, it's too much
opening. Because now we know there's

(24:54):
going to be a hiatus in January,so there's two more episodes and
then there's a break. Yeah.
And then we come back in Januaryand we don't know for sure, but
smart money is on there being actually a second hiatus.
Yeah, there's usually a spring break.
Yeah, because the the Olympics are back in like late February.

(25:18):
So a two or three-week break forthe Olympics.
Hiatuses don't bother me like this is just network TV.
Hiatuses bother me only in the fact that I generally don't
watch TV that's live, so I'm nottrained for it.
Yeah. But that's a me problem.

(25:39):
So OK, not OK, it's not media literacy, but there's like an
impatience in fandom that is that is wrapped up in a lot of
things that are going on with spoilers and knowing what
episode is getting filmed and knowing the titles of the

(26:02):
episodes and knowing what stillsare coming out and knowing
production codes and every single thing you can possibly
know about the episode before ithappens.
And trying to deduce from 1 still the entire plot line of an
episode. Like with the next Eddie

(26:26):
episode, like it's it's going tobe an episode.
Like what if it's not? What if it's not?
What if you build up an entire episode in your brain and that's
not what it's about, and you have now built and created
something and are now devastatedby a thing that was never going
to happen because you can't justlet the story lay out.

(26:49):
And I don't know when this happened, when it started.
I don't know if it's social media or I mean, probably
everything is social media, right?
But having to decipher and deduce and then post and and
know and unlock the secrets of something that hasn't happened

(27:09):
yet, only to be disappointed by a thing that never was.
I don't know how severe it was because I wasn't watching live
at the time, but I believe this sort of thing happened with Glee
when we would get the songs. Out did it absolutely did.
Like a song would come out and like this is for Kurt and it's
for plain. And this is what's going to
happen in the scene when they'resinging it.

(27:30):
And then it's not. And you're like, it was never
going to be that. Way it's never going to be that
way. I just, I think there's
something and maybe it's becauseI wasn't on that side of the
Internet. Maybe it's because Twitter was a
cesspool, but it wasn't that biga cesspool like it.
The reactions weren't as intenseas they are now.

(27:50):
Yeah. And I don't really know why I.
Don't know either. I think there's a lot of it to
do. You know, we all know, we've all
studied, we've all heard of the way that like the algorithms
really kind of are fucking with our brains.
Oh, for sure. And there's so much in the like,
kind of middle school. I was right.
You were wrong. Yeah, kind of nonsense.

(28:14):
And like, it's so public now andthere's something, you know,
about gloating and being right. Like, OK, so to, you know, to
call myself out here, I wrote after Bobby died, ripped my
heart. I wrote a Dia de Los Muertos.

(28:34):
You did. I did back in like April and I
was quite proud of it because, yeah, it was something that we
did at home. It was a thing we built to know
from that every year at school. It was like a big, it was a big
thing and it felt right for me. So when I heard back in back a
couple weeks ago, months ago, whatever that they were doing at

(28:56):
the Los Muertos episode, like doI think it's going to be my
fick? No, but I will be watching Mr.
My near. Yeah.
I'd like my lavender latte sent to my home please.
You know financial compensation is not necessary but like a hat
tip would be nice. Yeah.

(29:16):
But like, I'm not gonna sit hereand get mad if it hasn't.
If, if they don't, if it's not resonant at all.
If anything, it makes me want tobe like, hey, did you?
Did you? Are you excited about this
episode? Cool.
Read my fick. Right.
Yeah. Like that's the part of it I'm
excited about. I think that's a huge part of it

(29:36):
is this feeling of needing to beright and needing to be right
first, needing to be like the first post with the most
engagement and the most notes and like proving that you,
you're doing the show right, you're doing the show correctly.
You are. You are correct about your

(30:00):
opinions about a property and that that you understand it the
most. You understand the characters
the most and the most correct like.
And like, the thing about it is,I get it.
I get it. I get it.
I. Want I want to be right of?
Course, everyone wants to be right.
Everyone. Feels awesome.
We're all fucking a students. All of us, we're all fucking a

(30:21):
students. We know what's going on like we
need to be right. We need to be very first.
We need to be very loudest. We, of course we.
Everyone wants to be patted on the head and told that you're
good and. And like, so I, I think it's an
awful confluence of events because like over the last few
weeks, you know, we've been looking at resumes and one of
the things that resumes now really, really, really want are

(30:47):
hard data and numbers. I ran X number of programs at Y
dollars of budget per event witha CSAT score of 5.6 of five
like. And so in order to kind of have
those numbers, we look for thosenumbers everywhere.
What are your gains at the gym? Are you gaining fat?

(31:07):
Are you losing fat? Are you gaining muscle?
Are you losing muscle? Did what's your new PB?
Did you did you add another ton plate to your deadlift?
You know, can you cut calories? Can you count calories?
Can you get your steps in? And so you participate in fandom
the same way. How many notes did I get?
Are you optimizing your phantom experience?

(31:28):
Are you optimizing your phantom experience and like that is?
Not the fucking point. That's not the point.
And also it's how it works now and for me, baby, I'm trying so
hard to not let it be me. I'm trying, I am failing, but I
am trying, which is important. It's.

(31:50):
Very hard not to get wrapped up in it.
It's. So hard not to get wrapped up in
it. Yeah.
And so you because people want to belong because you do you
want to belong. And especially like, so I don't
remember 'cause I was so firmly in the claim section of Glee

(32:11):
that like multi shipping didn't even cross my, like cross my my
path at all, you know, and I wasn't deep enough in Febari to
get the Finchal stuff and nobody's fighting about
Quintana. So like, or nobody's talking
about Britanna, they were fighting about Quintana.
But you know, that was just likea fun other thing that happened.

(32:32):
But you know, in Teen Wolf, I again was so firmly and Steric.
I didn't really get the city of stuff.
And then by the time I got to the city of stuff, everyone had
moved on to Theo. And so the multi shipping really
worked in Teen Wolf and it was kind of, you know, yeah, Steric

(32:53):
is my is my core pairing. But everybody else shake them
up. You want to put Allison with
Isaac or Allison with Scott or Allison with Kira or Allison
with Malia or Allison with Jordan Parrish or like Allison
with like whatever. And it doesn't matter.
And it didn't matter. You had your nucleus and then
everyone else around kind of shuffled.
But with 911 it is such a siloedand difurcated system.

(33:19):
Yeah. And even for those of us who
kind of want to cross the streams, we can't.
There's no middle ground where you can where you can be without
kind of getting barked out by one side or the other, which is
wild. It is wild.
Like it's like it's personal. Like it's personal.

(33:40):
Like it's personal. The amount of Anon hate I have
seen like going around my dash. It's like what are you people
doing? Why, why, Why is it so critical
that this be a thing that you'd say out loud?
Yeah, I mean, my answer to that is always just turn off Anon.
Yes, absolutely. Just turn it off.
Like don't post it, don't respond to it, just turn it off.

(34:02):
I know that might mean that shy people can't ask you questions,
but like, that's the price. Honestly, the part of it that
makes that drives me the most, you know, crazy about it is that
I don't think you can actually anymore reply privately to an
inbox message you used to be able to like to reply, like
sending postcards back and forth.

(34:24):
I think I have recently. I haven't.
I can't figure out how. I mean, I did, but maybe they
never got it. Yeah.
'Cause like every time I send something in that I'm just like,
hey, this is like a just a private thing I want to send you
is it gets posted. Oh and it's like I would love to

(34:44):
not post these. I would love to but I I don't
know how to do that anymore. Maybe it's just me not knowing
where the buttons are. They may have changed the
button. I feel like I have sent an inbox
privately in like the last month.
I'll try it. But honestly I don't get a lot
of messages. I have.

(35:05):
I have one sitting in my inbox from you, so I'll try it.
OK, But like it is it is so harsh, It's so vitriolic.
And if you were that person who learned from a place like Teen
Wolf about, you know, multi shipping, there's there's simply
no place in the current phantom,at least on Tumblr.

(35:25):
I don't know about Twitter. I don't know about TikTok.
I don't know about Instagram. I don't.
I don't go to Twitter. I don't go.
I don't go there. I don't, I don't go there, but
it is like I've got a handful ofpeople on my dash who are in
fact multi shippers and they're just alone on little islands.
And I wouldn't consider myself amulti shipper, but I'm I
definitely learn more toward multi shipping than a lot of my

(35:46):
friends. And it's it feel, it can feel
scary to say it out loud. I mean, it's currently, I mean
it's always been a little rough saying the thing that is against
the flow of traffic. Yes, it's always a little rough.
It's always a little rough doingthat.
But I think the 911 fandom, I don't know if it's an age issue,

(36:09):
it's definitely a skill issue an.
Experience issue. There's a there's a skill gap in
there. Yeah, of like, wow, no one wants
to hear a conflicting opinion. No one.
And again, this is a this is a Tumblr problem for me because I
can't speak to the other ones. Yeah, I don't go the other
places. I mean, I'm I'm on TikTok, but
for like the podcast. Yeah.

(36:31):
So I don't I don't post right. So I certainly wouldn't be
interacting in that way. Yeah, it's there's a lot of
there's a lot of what seems to be behavior that is explained by
an over reliance on an algorithm.
Tumblr has always been in the one of the reasons that it is

(36:52):
kind of the way it is, is that it's very much a choose your own
choose your own adventure. You choose who to follow.
You figure out, you know, oh, hey, this person that I really
like keeps reblogging this otherperson's stuff.
Maybe I should go check them out.
And that's kind of how it how itgoes.
And then you open or close the floodgates kind of as you need

(37:14):
to. But so many people now just go
through and like 1000 things thinking like on Twitter, like
on Instagram, like on Tiktok, that's going to feed them more
of the same. And like it kind of does on the
4U tab. But like, generally speaking,
that's not really how it works on Tupperware, nor should it be.

(37:37):
That's not how the that's not, that's not one of the cool
things about the platform. Yeah, it's not why we're here.
That's not why we're here. And so it does require you to
make more active choices in who you talk to and why and what art
do you share and why and where and how.
But we've lost a bunch of the old fandom tenants and it's

(37:59):
about trying to explain to the folks who haven't done it
before. Like, no, I'm actually not going
to shit on people who ship Buck and Bobby or who ship Buck and
Maddie. Like I have Wincest on my
dashboard. I've got I've got a mutual who
fell head first into Wincest andI'm like, OK, great.

(38:20):
Have fun. That's what I've got.
Blocking tags is for. I have another one who is head
first into into John and and Sansa from Game of Thrones.
They're not even related, Yeah. They're a little related a.
Little related. And and you know, you want to
talk about the Targaryen, like, cool, fall head first.
It's not for me. But like, if you decide that you

(38:41):
want to ship Buck and Maddie, byall means, it's fiction, it's
fandom. I'll block the tag.
Don't worry about it. That that's it's always
curating. Your own experience?
It's not for me. Yes, pulling your own socks.
Yeah. You don't want to read about old
man Yawi? Fantastic.
Block the tag you. Block the fucking tag.

(39:02):
It's you. Don't want you don't want to
read Victoria about Bobby and and Brad.
Amazing. Block the tag.
Like block you block the tag. It's not.
It's it's like there's a bunch of folks who believe that only
their moral purity is worthy of content.
Yeah. And I can for sure promise you

(39:25):
if you go any further than the main page of any pornographic
website, that is not the case. Not the case I.
Promise. And you go.
Into the politics section of your local library, you will
find things that don't subscribeto the way you see the world, I
promise. Even if you find it morally

(39:45):
repugnant, that's a you. Problem.
That's a you problem. And like, as we talk about, you
know, bigger things that have a bugger effect on the world, of
course, you know, we're going to.
There's big, big, scary, bad politics that are pretty bad for
everybody. But this is fiction.
It's deeply fiction. And is not representative of
your moral purity. No.

(40:06):
Like it's just not. Even your interests.
No it's not. There's fick.
I read that if it approached me in real life, I would run away
screaming. Of course.
But it's fick, so I eat that shit with a spoon and I leave
kudos. Leave kudos I like.
I'm looking through Ficks. They have the ficks in my little

(40:26):
tab have between a six and a 14%hits to kudos ratio.
That is not enough. If you finish a fic, you leave a
kudo. It's not that hard.
It's not that hard. If you love it, leave a comment.
Do not. Kudos are not limited resources,

(40:47):
guys. They're not limited.
No, they're not. They're not.
I don't know why this turned into 44 minutes of me ranting
about Tumblr politics. Well, because that's the
experience of being in a fandom,and the fandom that we're in
right now is 911 and it's there's a lot of it that's kind
of fun, yeah. There's a lot of fun, actually.

(41:08):
I mean, you know, there's engaging in it the way I do,
which is primarily reblogging gift sets, talking to you, and
writing fic. Because at this stage, the
thought of making a text post islike, Oh no, I'm not doing that.
I'm not. No, that sounds like a bad idea.

(41:29):
I don't know. Because it just seems if you do
not subscribe to the the currentthought bubble of the day,
there's no point in saying it out loud.
If if you're not going to followthe flow of traffic, then don't
speak on something right? Like, if so, everyone's writing

(41:56):
paramedic may probe Harry. Yeah.
And it's become like a a given that that's what they should do
and should be. And it's like there's no wiggle
room to have a secondary thoughtabout it.
And helps, I don't like it. Great.
I don't either. I think it's silly.
On my bingo card I have Journalist May sounds great.

(42:17):
I in my little there's only 17 characters in the world.
She interns with Taylor Kelly. Great.
Because I love Taylor Kelly. You know, OK, so I was thinking
we had this, this WhatsApp conversation about it.
And one of the thoughts that I had forgotten to say is like one
of the reasons Taylor Kelly is interesting is because she's not

(42:39):
part of the 118. She has a life outside of them.
And is only. Ancillarily, her like she's the
journalist. She doesn't work for the 118.
She's not a paramedic, She's nota firefighter.
She has a job. And sometimes she interacts with
them because her job brings her to them.
Yeah. And frankly, she brings herself
to them like she doesn't need tointeract with them at all.

(43:01):
And that's the problem I have with Paramedic May and Probe
Harry, is that it's acting like that is the only pathway for two
people on this show is to somehow be involved as a first
responder. And I think that is insane.
Are you telling me that these two kids who have grown up
around first responders think that's all there is?

(43:23):
They're kids. They're going to be like, fuck
that noise. I'm not doing what my parents
do. Considering.
My their adult friends are all paramedics and firefighters.
They're going to be like, fuck you guys, I'm doing something
else. I'm going to go moved to
Saskatchewan like. Literally considering they just
lost a parent. They just lost a first responder

(43:44):
parent. Yes, Sir.
Like that is the last thing on their minds right now.
May has already worked kind of sort of as a first responder in
dispatch. She left that job for a reason.
Yeah, she did. Like, do I love seeing competent
May with a clipboard standing next to competent Eddie with
blue gloves? Of course I do, I I like seeing

(44:06):
her on my screen. But I'd like her more if she had
different people to talk to. Right.
And that was a lot of my point is that if the writers can't
make them interesting without keeping them in the BLOB of the
main cast, they're not good writers.
That's the problem. I'm I'm.
I'm going back and thinking of other characters because we have

(44:26):
very slowly kind of whittled away at the extra fluff.
Yeah. Over time, which has that Brad?
God damn it. I miss Brad.
I honestly, we were talking about I like.
Brad and honestly, we were talking about it of having
having Harry go be a PA that Hotshots.
That's fucking funny to me because that would be a neppo.

(44:47):
Baby that would be amazing because everyone would hate him,
including Gerard, who is the who's the technical advisor, but
he is the Bobby Nash Neppo baby and Brad would just carry him
around like piggyback style likejust like he was fun.
I think that'd be fucking funny because he would actually, like,
randomly have good information about being a technical advisor.

(45:09):
Yeah. So like, poor Gerard's trying to
do his bullshit job. And like, Harry pops up with
like, well, actually, and he's like, get the fuck out of here.
So like. Apparently, according to episode
4, he makes a damn fine latte. And he makes a damn fine latte,
so he's just showing people up left and right and they can just
use the same back lot. They don't have to have a new
set. You get to bring back Hotshots,

(45:31):
which is both stupid and funny, and I get branded.
And funny. I'm a stupid and funny.
And everybody in LA has been APAfor like 6 months at one point
in their life. Absolutely.
I just think. Stupid and funny makes more
sense and like I I think it would be funny, but does it make
sense as a career? And he does.
And he doesn't even have a GED. You.

(45:51):
Could at least be APA. That's the thing.
That's where we're going to start getting tricky is like I
talked to you, I think about an episode that I would love to see
if they're going to continue down this path, which is like
exam day. Oh yeah, exam day.
Everyone has to take a test. Well.
Because. Not one of these fuckers has
taken an exam in eight years. You know how many tests
firefighters have to take? They haven't done any.

(46:13):
There's not been one episode of training.
Firefighters spend most of theirfucking days training.
Yeah, it like I so they in in the in the opener, Chimney and
Eddie discussed like the only thing between you and a
permanent capancy is the exam. You just need to take the exam.
Just take the test. That's a real thing.
Eddie probably needs to take hislike paramedic, like re upping

(46:37):
or whatever as he's like moved around.
She says he quit. Yeah, 'cause he fucking quit.
He's got to take that exam. Harry's going to take his GED.
And then you can put like Hen and and Buck and Ravi into like
either they're like testing, they're do they're helping out
with test day at the at the Academy or they have to go in

(46:57):
for their like annual re UPS andphysicals or whatever.
People have to do physicals all the time.
I would kill for a test day episode because it it it, it
fills so many gaps and it would be so much fun.
But like, we talked about this, I think in person ish, we talked
over the phone, I think back in the spring about like when they

(47:20):
killed Bobby. It's how do you attach Athena to
the main story? And the Phantom at the time was
like spouting off a bunch of different random things.
But the only realistic thing we kind of nudged into was like,
well, they could make Harry a firefighter And none of us were
really stoked about that. We're like, this is kind of a

(47:45):
shoehorn, but like, I guess. But the problem is it's
unfortunately the only answer. I don't know if it is the only
answer. I don't I I don't know.
I think that. By killing Bobby, they wrote
themselves into an enormous corner.
They did. They did.
With How do you keep Athena attached?

(48:07):
And you could keep her attached with hen.
Yeah, well, she could be an arson investigator.
Dude she needs to take the detective exams.
What she needs to do? Testing.
Got to get off the streets. Oh my God, Athena takes a
detective exam. Did we know that she had been
shot in the leg before? No was that information Retcon
does help to explain her limp and like why she doesn't do

(48:29):
great like long term being on the street.
I was like, did we know that before?
But it does make a little more sense.
She should not be on the street.Should not, should not be on the
street. She and she and Buck have more
in common. Neither of you should be on
active duty right now. Well.
Eddie's been shot in the leg too, like.
That's true, that's true. So was hen they.
Are a mess. I don't think Jimmy's been shot

(48:51):
in the leg, but he didn't get stabbed in the brain, so he
wouldn't have. Packed in the brain, stabbed in
the side. Stabbed in the tummy I like.
Do not want the 118 responding to my fire frankly.
No, they're going to fall to pieces.
Neither. None of them can lift their elf.
None of them can lift their armsabove their head.
They cannot. They absolutely cannot.
Even though Eddie's like his, like video game cheer mode is

(49:17):
him, like pumping his hands overhis head like he's doing a clean
press. He does not have that range of
motion at all. He.
Does not have that range of motion, not at his shoulder.
Like they could have done it with Hen.
But I think because of like where Aunt Angela Bassett falls
like on the call sheet and like how she's actually supposed to
be the protagonist, it wouldn't have given her enough story.

(49:43):
She would, she would kind of fall even if they bumped up Hen
and like gave them more to do, it would be really hard because
Hen wouldn't be hanging out withAthena on the job or like at her
house necessarily. Like to do that, she would have
to really get more integrated into the Wilsons.
OK. Yeah, yeah.

(50:04):
And like, that doesn't quite work, I think, for contractual
obligations. So like, I really, I really
don't know how they're going to how they're going to swing this.
But yeah, I, I didn't love probeHarry at the time.
I don't super love probe Harry. Now, you know, we talk a lot,

(50:26):
The Phantom talks a lot about kind of how young and reckless
and stupid Buck was when in in Season 1 when he joined the fire
department. Yeah.
That boy was at least mid twenties, 26.
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, a solid group of years
older than Harry. Mm hmm.
And the Academy will not look athim if he doesn't have a GED.

(50:48):
They won't even try. No, not even.
Not even remotely. Not even Also, you wanna you
wanna talk about somebody just at the high school, Talk to Mr.
Judd Rider. I put a call to Mr. Judd Rider.
Got it To firefighters. Here I hope he moves to LA with
with grace. You also get a pay if you have a
higher education in the LAFD. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me.

(51:10):
Like, yes, the fire department is a place for all of these
wonderful misfit toys, but also.But also.
Harry, my guy. My dude.
I need him to get to like the the mid spring like episode like
13 the the second finale and be like I don't want to be a

(51:30):
firefighter anymore like good. Yeah, good.
Do something else. Go.
Be an architect. Go learn to play the piano.
Go do other things. You dropped out of high school,
you had a job at a coffee shop and you have lived in two
states. That's that's the decision
you're making with your Harry. Harry, my guy.

(51:54):
I've really enjoyed having me and Harry around.
I do too. I mean, that's nice.
I'm excited to like see them andhow they are as characters and
how they progress and all that stuff, but like, they need other
other things. Other friends get out of the
BLOB. Get out of the BLOB.
Yeah, get out of. That's always.
I mean, an issue with ensemble casts is like, they inevitably
make them incestuous. Yeah.

(52:17):
Which helps. I think that Hen is already
married, that that keeps her outof the BLOB.
Now, personally, I do want Buck and Eddie blobbed up, but that's
like, that's it. Which is also why I don't want
Mei and Ravi together like D BLOB.
I BLOB out, go out outside of the BLOB, get D BLOB.

(52:39):
I don't need May and Ravi fucking up.
I don't get it. Out, out, out, out.
I will take May and Ravi for like a couple of episodes.
I would love to see a conversation of especially
probably Buck and Ravi going, like, I should probably start
dating again. And Ravi's like, yeah, maybe me
too. And then they kind of like, dip

(53:01):
back into the dating pool. And Robbie, after an episode or
two is like, yeah, man, I went on a few dates.
It's not much, you know, she's delightful, but she's not for
me. I'm really.
I have you know other other ideas in mind.
So like that I could do but longterm BLOB like get out of the
BLOB, get out of the. BLOB out of the BLOB.
Now one of the things I am tentatively crossing my little

(53:24):
fingers for that they have set up nicely with Grant Family
begins 9/4. I would like to see Michael
back. Recast.
Recast that man because they they literally gave us young
Michael. The audience hasn't seen regular
Michael in God like five seasonsnow.

(53:48):
Recast that man, bring back David, bring his husband back
because that once again ties Athena back to the storyline.
It gives her more to do, and if anyone were going to go through
any kind of sexuality crisis as a grown adult with children and
families and responsibilities, it might be super cool to have a

(54:08):
character who's already done that to like.
Shepherd. To shepherd that particular
conversation. Yep.
Might be might be nice. Might, might be nice.
And you know what Athena really needs right now?
She needs a fucking partner. She does.
Athena needs a fucking partner. It's kind of nice to like,

(54:30):
briefly when she briefly had a acop partner, yeah.
And then I liked him. McCluskey.
Yeah, yeah. I liked him.
Yeah. But yes, I have to wonder, was
that her last partner? Is that why she doesn't do
partners maybe? It might be it kind of makes.
Sense like I couldn't save the last one.

(54:52):
I won't put myself. I won't.
I won't do that again. I don't know that she gets to
make that choice as an officer. She doesn't.
She does not. Yeah, that was so sad.
But you know, we got young Rick,we got young Rick Romero.
Detective Romero loved that for us.
Like it was great. That was great.

(55:13):
Young Athena is incredible. I love it.
She's phenomenal. She's phenomenal.
She's so good. And all of those like interview
segments with the two Athenas inthe liminal space.
I just honestly that I think as we bring it all the way back
around is what bugged. It's what it's what bumped me

(55:35):
because it was like they were trying to shoehorn in a stars
metaphor to bring space together.
Yeah. I have never heard of stars as a
metaphor for grief. I'm sure that somebody has.
I'm sure it works for them. It didn't hit for me, but like

(55:57):
so much of this felt like it waslike 3 ideas in a trench.
I know. I know.
I mean, I've heard like the vastness of space, Yeah, but not
a *. Yeah, honest to God I think it.
To me it felt like 3 ideas in a trench coat.
Yeah, I know. And I especially considering

(56:19):
that that they dedicated it to like, the memory of Tim Meyer's
father, like, yeah. Is this how you process your
grief? By throwing yourself into outer
space? I mean, maybe.
Like maybe? Maybe.
Like, maybe, but yeah, this feltlike they wanted young Athena,
Grant begins. They wanted space.

(56:43):
Yeah, he wanted to like, have fun in space.
There was no fun in space. There was only Trisha.
I think he enjoys these like bigset pieces, like with a fucking
helicopter. Like, did we need that?
We didn't need that. We.
Didn't need that. But I I think he likes these big
set pieces with the fucking plane and the cruise ship and
and space right like spending. Lamp and.

(57:06):
Yeah. And it's like, OK, cool, cool,
cool, cool. You're having a lot harder time
mushing in the the softer piecesinto that.
Yeah, to keep the characters going.
Yeah. So I'm going to need you to.
Put it, but it was pretty squishy because at this point

(57:27):
for me, and again, everyone's experiences is different.
I really enjoyed one and two. I enjoyed 3, but not as much and
I enjoyed 4, but it was a it wasdifferent.
I I really enjoyed young Athena.The rest of it wasn't didn't hit
for me. No, it's like needed to be

(57:49):
somewhere else. Almost, yeah.
Yeah, needed to be somewhere else.
Like for me, we are going to come into 95 and I am basically
still the 118 staring out over the water, looking at the whale
that I could cut out the rest ofit.
Yeah. I could cut out the entire space

(58:12):
arc and nothing would be different.
Yeah, well, I think part of it is that it's so obviously, hey,
this thing happened in real life, wouldn't it be funny that
we did it on the show? Yeah.
Which is and what can? Be fun.
Which can be fun, but it is I like it when it's a little more
subtle. Yeah.
Like, oh, celebrities did this in real life and let's make fun

(58:35):
of Elon Musk. Like I'm happy to make fun of
Elon Musk all day, but I need you to like loop it into the
ethos of the show 1st and build it from there rather than stick
it on top of the show. Like it.
I want it to grow organically from the like meat of the show.

(58:55):
Yeah, it just, I liked so much of it, but it just it I'm
missing the connective tissue. Yeah.
I'm missing the connective tissue.
Like, do I just want to watch Angela Bassett on my TV screen
all day? Sure, sure.
Amazing. Love it.
Absolutely. I really love Athena.
I love her relationships with her kids, which I'm hoping we

(59:17):
will get a chance to dissect a little bit.
Now that everyone's a lead, let's talk about.
You. Know, let's talk about yeah.
RIP. I hope he's having a lovely day
with his hot wife and his, you know, burgeoning film career and
his, you know, lavender oatmeal lattes.

(59:39):
I hope he's having a great with his phone on silent.
I do know the story. I hope he's having a lovely day.
Mr. Annie Rude Fisher Roadie, I like like, let's talk for a
minute about, you know, Athena'srelationship with May now that
May is like growing as an adult.And then let's talk about her

(59:59):
relationship with Harry. Does she have a relationship
with her son? Doesn't seem great.
And what does it look like? And is she going to do the work
to fix? It there was as soon as they
were rebuilding the house and they were like no rooms for the
kids, I was like what is happening?
What? Yeah, I there was a, a really

(01:00:20):
wonderful meta text post talkingabout that.
We're that there's a a mirror, right?
There's a lot of mirrors kind ofin different arcs happening
right now. But that one of them is that
we've seen the Buckleys from thekids side, and now we're seeing
the Buckleys from the parent side that Athena lost in her

(01:00:44):
grief with her oldest daughter, parentified with her young son
making reckless decisions to tryto get their attention in which
the sister has taken kind of soul care and responsibility for
the son because mom is completely tapped out in her

(01:01:08):
grief. And it's like we, we were so
able to vilify the Buckley parents as they deserve and to
empathize with Buck and Maddie about what they were going
through. But now we're seeing it with a
mom who we love. And it's can Can they get out of

(01:01:29):
this cycle? Or is it doomed to repeat?
Because Buck's already stepping in with Harry.
Maddie has stepped in with May back in Season 5 at dispatch.
Like that was the kind of they've already, they've already
done some of that work. They've laid some of those bread
crumbs. But I'm interested to see if

(01:01:51):
Athena's gonna end up making different choices.
I hope she does. Sure.
I think 1 issue for me is alwaysdo you think the writers are
that good 'cause I don't think the writers are that good.
I don't think it's a lovely. I think it's a lovely idea, and
I love the fandom searching desperately for any semblance of
meaning. I have to have faith that these

(01:02:16):
TV writers who are making more money than I will ever see in my
entire life, which isn't saying much.
Well, the writers themselves don't make that much.
No, but still, more than me, I hope that they will, that they
at least pretend to love these characters like we do.
I don't know. It's a lack of love.
I think the I don't know. I never know what it is.

(01:02:39):
It just I don't know, it may be.It may be you know, time
constraints, network notes. No network notes.
Oh boy. You know, having to write to a
showrunner's visions whims. And you know, I think sometimes

(01:03:00):
you're deep into it and you don't always see what everyone
else is saying. And they're you have to write
fast. It's true, although I would like
to give an enormous shout out tothe 911 writers room, who very
obviously did a summer rewatch this year.
Someone did rewatch the show? Someone rewatch the show?
I will have to say my that it's not even a criticism.

(01:03:22):
Just like, can we keep that energy up?
Because I don't want every reference to the prior seasons
to have been in the these three episodes.
Yes. Like, like it's not just they
just throw everything into this and be like, that's it.
That's all we got. Especially if we're not gonna
really bring anybody new into the into the BLOB.

(01:03:42):
You've got a lot of lore to workthrough.
Yeah. They, they, they, they've all
known each other for some time. Yeah.
Like there's there's other stuff.
Yeah, like. I'm I'm really hoping my hopes
for this season other than always just lock bucket Eddie in

(01:04:03):
in the Sue Sylvester closet in the elevator with the locker
room. It's time for them to enter the
Hurt Locker. It's time for them to enter the
Hurt Locker. I'm, I'm, I'm ready, I'm, I'm in
support. Is that they mix up the
pairings. I really appreciate that we got,
you know, Eddie and Chimney, youknow, they had like a tiff in

(01:04:25):
the Firehouse and then Chimney came to Eddie's house and they
actually got to talk about it. The fact that Eddie and Hen are
partners, the fact that Buck andRobbie are actually talking to
each other, like the fact that Hen and Athena are besties
again, that we're getting Buck and Harry, that we're getting
Eddie and Matt, Eddie and Mae, like Maddie and Karen.
I'm really excited to like, shake the bag a little.

(01:04:48):
Yeah. Like it's as much as I love, you
know, Buck and Eddie and Hen andChimney and Chimney and Maddie
and Hen and Karen and, you know,like I love them I do.
And also shake the bag. Yeah I just, I I don't want to
see any more posts that are likeit's the 5th episode and Buck

(01:05:09):
and Eddie aren't talking like it's been like 2 canonical days.
It's been like 2 canonical days guys.
Like and that's that is the problem with the four parter.
It's like it's been 2 days. It's been 2 days.
It's been maybe not even that, maybe a little longer, because I
don't know how the gap was between the Mark Consuelos

(01:05:32):
getting eaten by a whale and Henanotheena going to space.
I have no actually I have no idea.
I have no concept of a time gap.You're right.
A week, Say a week. Episode 1 happened and then
episodes 2-3 and four. So they were in space for

(01:05:53):
probably couple hours. Yeah, 5 or 6 at best.
Because like the the debris field was coming around every 40
minutes and it came around twice.
Yeah, once they got to the to ISS, so like maybe five hours
they were in space that that that five hours took place over
3 episodes. It was almost real time.

(01:06:15):
Yeah, so like Buck and Eddie aren't talking.
Like when would they have? When would they?
When when there was there was notime for a pee break.
In in my heart. In my heart not there's no,
there's no canonical evidence, but in my heart they had an
entire conversation of I know you're struggling right now
because you tried to drown once in a situation very much like

(01:06:38):
this. And you're also panicking
because at one point you had your leg crushed just like this
and you were terrified that someone was going to take your
leg like we're having to do right now.
In my heart they had that conversation, but not in Canon.
Episode Kodafic can't even fit into the episode.
There was no time. No time like we're having to do

(01:07:02):
post leg amputation talk in likea post 9/4.
There's no they can't even have that conversation.
You have to set it in the next episode.
Yeah, it's just, yeah, it happened.
It it happened in like 5 hours over 3 episodes.
Like, yes, guys, I know. I'm sorry.
I'm very sorry. We do have the trailer for 9/5.

(01:07:24):
I am deeply curious as to what Buck finds in his attic or his
crawl space that makes his eyes get that big.
OK, again, I love I I I want super silly fun time.
I wanted roommate buddy. I'm so annoyed.
I'm annoyed at lost opportunities for actors to have

(01:07:45):
fun on this show. And I get it.
Like I want, I ship it to hell and back, I get it.
That's fine. But I it is the missed
opportunity of the actors havinga good time together.
Yeah, and like, roommate buddy could have been fun and now
we're like in another fucking house.
Yeah, another house, another gigantic set piece.
Why set piece the only and againI am I don't think I'm going to

(01:08:10):
Apollo dodgeball but I'm becausethe opportunity has passed now
that the space debris is gone, but.
I don't. Think I'm crossing everything I
possibly can now that Buck has ahouse we got to burn down South
Bedford. Listen, accidents happen.
That electrical could be bad. Yeah, maybe there's a gas main
somewhere. Houses have blown up for less on

(01:08:32):
this show. Houses have burned up for this.
That lab gym is not that far away.
That lab gym is not that far guys.
I feel like what he's going to find is like another raccoon or
a rat or something in the attic or a doll.
I mean, if he's moving into a house, it's either absolutely
empty or the previous owners have left something behind.

(01:08:54):
Yeah, they've left something behind 100%.
There's there's an attic or a crawl space and something fell
over or like it's a raccoon. It's gonna be a raccoon.
All of restaurants favorite Co star the raccoon.
I was gonna say I'd be really fact.
I actually think it'd be funny if it was another raccoon just
for a call back. Yes.
Summer rewatch. Summer rewatch baby I what I

(01:09:15):
don't like so far and again thisis the like I need the phantom
to stop looking at like 3 seconds of a trailer and being
like this is what's going to happen in the season.
Like who fucking knows man. My only like addendum to that is
in the three seconds of footage.Like what?
Another boring house, like Maddie's first apartment with

(01:09:37):
that staircase. Like how cute was that
apartment? God I love that like.
And and hidden Karens house actually has some character.
It looks lived in and I know it's a blank space right like
this is a blank house. He's moving in, but you can tell
by the architecture that it's. Boring.
It's boring. It's a boring house.
I hope. I hope parts of it are fun.

(01:09:58):
I hope they make it fun. I hope I.
Hope they make it. I hope they make.
I hope there's something in there that we've just seen, like
one wall, but it's beige and I didn't see any like interesting
anything in it. I was like they just found like
a boring house. They just made a.
I'm hoping a little hallway. I'm hoping that like it pans out

(01:10:19):
and there's some actual architecture, because Los
Angeles has some really adorable1920s, thirties, 40s houses.
Yes it does. And like please make please make
it interesting. I'm so tired of beige fucking
set. The houses of like 1980s sitcoms
were so lived in and so beautiful and like homey and

(01:10:40):
let's. Talk about the fucking friend's
apartment. Friend's apartment was like
full. Of stuff that you would never
even look at, but it was just inthe background.
And that inspired so many, so many people, just the way it was
lived and the way it was designed.
Like you. Never even saw like you there
was a closet that you never saw but you knew it was full of

(01:11:02):
stuff. And like the bathroom, you never
even went into their bathroom, but you knew it was you went in
stuff. Twice they had, they had, they
had checkerboard floor tiles anda.
Bathtub like but like. The door was in New York City,
kind of a new bedroom. Oh.
There's something in there like the cabinets were full and
colorful and it all popped on screen and like even Eddie's

(01:11:24):
house is beige. Yeah, Eddie's and like.
Beautiful blue appliances. You're like, oh, oh, is that
color? Is it color?
Is it? Oh, it's gone.
Eddie's Eddie's famously as the GIF makers in my in my little
brain, the GIF maker's on my phone.
Eddie's evil yellow because it'sso yellow and the lighting in

(01:11:44):
there is so yellow. It is, it is perhaps the most
yellow. Anything that happens in Eddie's
house is just, it is a bitch to color because it's very, very,
very yellow. But no, his beautiful blue oven
and that light that always comesin, in the kitchen and the, the
archway in his like open space and the iron.

(01:12:06):
We love the iron, the peephole, I guess I love, I love the iron
people. I would like some.
I would like to see some more set design.
Yes I would I agree. Set design that's that's the
right answer. Like Bucks lived in that boring
ass loft for so long. Gross.
Yeah. I know.
Yeah. But I will say burned down the
South Bedford house. I need the I you.

(01:12:27):
You didn't want to give me buddyroommates over the summer.
OK, fine. I will take them.
We're burning it down. I'm burning it down.
We're bringing it. We're bringing it.
We're bringing it back. I.
Don't think he's your renter so yeah, he can just leave anytime.
Oh my God that would be Give me a landlord episode.
Oh yes, Oh my gosh, landlord. Because we've never met his
landlord. So like because Thomas and I

(01:12:49):
have met apartment hunting and there was an apartment that we
both really, really liked. But one of the things that
happens is that a lot of folks will sort of rent out their
apartments while it's for sale, or they'll like rent out the
apartment while the house it's in is for sale, OK?
So that could be a thing that happens to Eddie is that it's

(01:13:12):
like he's renting it, but the landlord sells the house.
Yes, yes. Yes.
So then the new buyer is like, Iactually want to move into this
house. I bought it, I want to move into
it. You have to leave.
Yeah. And then it can be an entire
thing about Ravi because he is alandlord.
That is his major crime. And hey, hey, hey, hey, that's

(01:13:36):
right. So like talking about like the
rental market and what it's likein Los Angeles and you know, Oh
my God, housing and how do you do it has.
To bring his own fridge. Like Buck doesn't have a fridge.
Los Angeles? Los Angeles doesn't have
fridges. I wrote a fic about it.
It sucks. Just OK.
No, but Buck doesn't have a fridge because he left.
Hold on, hold on. Because he left the loft, he

(01:13:57):
didn't bring a fridge to Eddie'shouse.
Now he's leaving Eddie's house. He doesn't have a fridge.
I mean, it depends. It depends.
Did he, did he purchase that house or is he still, is he
still renting? Because no.
Here's the other thing about thelandlord episode.
Evan Buckley, The man with a notoriously terrible credit
score. Canonically terrible credit.

(01:14:19):
Score I know which I don't believe either.
Firefighters make a decent amount of money, especially with
overtime. Yeah, in theory he should be
fine, but he's apparently got I don't.
OK, here's my here's my thing about it.
It's not that he has bad credit,it's that he has no credit.
Fair. It's not that he's been making a

(01:14:41):
ton of money and like spending all this whatever and being late
on his payments, it's that he probably didn't get a credit
card until like a couple of years ago.
Fair. Yeah, bad credit and no credit
are different. Yes, bad credit and no credit
are different. He doesn't.
Have a student loan. He didn't go to college.
No, he didn't go to college. He.
Just has a gas credit card. Pretty.

(01:15:02):
Much. Yeah.
Got to put $100 in the car, like, let it ride.
It was probably Taylor Kelly that was like, fuck, you need a
credit card. And he's like, why?
I don't want to spend money. It's like, it's not about that.
Abby probably thought it was. Abby thought it was cute.
Ali didn't stick around long enough to note.
So in my heart it was Taylor Kelly that like convinced, like

(01:15:24):
taught him what, you know, like an intro credit card is and how
you can what's the a secured credit card where you kind of
like put the money down on it sothat it helps you build that
credit. So his credit is maybe four
years old at this point, which can help explain how that man
got a mortgage with his terriblecredit.

(01:15:45):
Insane. Because Eddie, probably.
He's got Ava loan. He should have Ava loan.
He's renting, but he would have access to a VA loan.
Yeah, so like there, there, there.
That's a great like B plot to one of these episodes is like

(01:16:06):
they fucking sold the house I live in.
What are we going to do? Yeah, yeah, I'll take that.
I'll take that over fucking space.
I'll take that over space. Let's see.
I'm also crossing every finger that the season we get a bottle
episode. Oh I love a bottle episode.
I would love to see a bottle episode.
Yeah. I would love to see a bottle
episode options options include.I would love in my imagination

(01:16:31):
the fick that I will never write.
The Firehouse is probably aroundsome like warehousey district
and in my heart there is a sample sale because there are
sample sales and because of the sample sale.
The line for the sample sale is going up and down the sidewalk

(01:16:52):
in front of the Bay because there's like 3 or 400 people in
front of the of the thing and they refuse to move because it's
like it's the sample sale. It's like a wedding dress sample
sale or like whatever but they get they locked in because they
like it's the because the samplesale line is like blocking them.

(01:17:14):
OK. So it's just a day trap in the
Firehouse. OK.
I would also take a day of like the physical exam at the Academy
when they're doing that, like the Lone Star thing where they
take that 14 minute test. Yep.
Like over and over again. I would love to see an episode
in that room. Yeah, that'd be cool.
Also because they'd be all hot and sweaty.

(01:17:36):
They'd be all hot and sweaty, all of them.
Every single one of them. I'd be in line.
I also cross my fingers a lot for for what I'm affectionately
calling wine night. Oh yes, everyone, everyone wants
wine night. Which is any combination of, but
must include the nucleus of Karen, Maddie and Eddie.

(01:17:59):
OK. Anybody if like, if Chim's in on
it, if hens in on it, like whatever.
But it has to be the core of Karen, Maddie and Eddie.
Yes, got it. I I because we got Karen and we
got Karen and Maddie in early season 9.
Late season 8 we got Karen, Hennand Eddie.
Yep, we're. Just going to put our hands

(01:18:21):
together. Yes.
Going to put our hands together.Yeah.
I need it. I want it.
I feel like that's a likelihood down the line that feels
probable. It feels like a new and
interesting dynamic in a season where they desperately need new
and interesting dynamics. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, because we are. Run out of money to do

(01:18:42):
disasters. Yes, my God, that's the cool
thing about bottle episodes. They're cheap as hell.
That's the point. It's that's how they were
invented. Literally the point.
Yep, you ran out of time, you run out of money.
You put them in a room and you make them talk.
Yeah, surprise. Are you actors?
You get to prove it today. Mm.
Hmm. Yep.
Yep. So I'm just, I'm very interested

(01:19:04):
and also as someone who has observed, I'm so excited.
To see. I hope it's good.
Like what they do? Yeah.
Even if it's just to see the parade.
I think it's going to look great.
I think it's going to look amazing and like, you know,
because they put out the castingcall and these are their own
costumes. Yeah, I think it's, I think it's

(01:19:25):
going to look great. This is their own regalia.
I'm so excited to see the the folks from Los Angeles show out.
Yeah, except, yeah, I'm, I'm very much looking forward to at
least the the visuals of this episode.
Yes, I'm very much looking forward to the visuals.
I'm, I'm not going to speculate,meta, whatever, who is going to

(01:19:46):
be involved, how it's going to go down.
I just want to see it. I need to see Athena versus the
giant pumpkin. I'm actually really looking
forward to the pumpkin, so I don't care what happens with it.
I think it's going to look so silly.
I'm. Very excited.
It's so good, silly. Silly, silly woo woo is really
what I'm looking for. So good.
I don't care if Shannon is involved.

(01:20:07):
Like I'm not going to waste my time trying to dissect the
episode before it happens. No, like let me just watch it.
I just want to watch it you. I don't need to spoil it for
myself before it happens. Yeah, it's true.
I why do why? Why would I do that?
I want to enjoy the watch. It's don't tell me how the book
ends. I want to read it.

(01:20:29):
Why would I? Why would I unravel the entire
episode before it's in my eyeballs?
I will say I know that you don'twant to unravel the eyeballs,
but if it does turn out to be anEddy centric episode, then not
calling it Diaz de Los Muertos was a missed opportunity.

(01:20:52):
Yes, it would be a missed opportunity.
That is a very funny typo that someone did.
Yes, it's great. I do think it's funny that there
was a typo in the entire fandom Was like like OK that's why you
guys need to fucking chill. Yeah, we do need to.
Can't. You cannot build an episode out
of a typo y'all? My God, just simmered down.

(01:21:13):
We long for community. We do long for community, but we
also long for content, which is why this episode is an important
app that is so. Funny you long for content.
There has never been more content on Earth.
I know. Never in the history of humanity
has there been more content. You would explode the brain of a

(01:21:36):
14th century anybody with the amount of content.
Correct. They would Louis the 14th would
die with the amount of content. This is true.
This is true. We just long for the very
specific content and just hope that we don't have to be the
ones to make it. Isn't that also interesting?
Which we can also wrap this episode up too.

(01:21:57):
It's like there's so much content and yet every single
person wants such a hyper specific bit of content that is
only for them. Can't handle the episode not
being exactly what each person wants it to be just for them.
And I will say on that note, in the fandom is a community, you

(01:22:21):
have to bring something to the potluck.
It is in fact true and correct. If you are looking for a
specific piece of content, writeit and you do it and and you
cannot pay for it. Like I can't fan art, right?
I can't draw worth beats. Not one bit of fan art's coming
from me. But I can, I have, I have paid

(01:22:43):
artists for Commission. I have traded artists for FIC
like I have traded for it. I have, I have paid money for
it. So if you cannot, if you cannot
procure it via, you know, goods and services, you do in fact
have to make it yourself. And it is not unfair of me to

(01:23:05):
say that. No, it's not.
If you want it, you do it. IA couple like this time last
year was we were on a phone sex kick in fandom and I was like
man, I want more phone sex and the answer was I had to write it
myself. Yeah.
I had to write my own sex thing because I wanted it and it
wasn't readily available for me so I had to do it myself.

(01:23:28):
A couple months ago for The Big Bang I was like I there's been 1
mafia like crime AU that's come across my like come across my
life and it's wonderful and I want more.
So I guess I have to be the one to do it.
It is not unfair to say that youhave to pick it up.
And even if you can't create, ifit comes down to it, if it comes

(01:23:53):
down to I don't know how to write, I don't know how to, you
know, to draw. I can't make gifts, I can't do
whatever. Then it is your job as a
consumer to make creating worth it.
Yeah. Reblog stuff, leave comments on
fic, talk to your favorite creators, pay the money where

(01:24:13):
you can and don't. This is this is, this is for
free. This is for free.
I could actually get in. I could actually get in big, big
trouble for getting money for it.
Yeah. Like we do this because the
creativity forces its way out ofour body.
And I love that you love it, butit is not unfair to ask you to
join the fight. Yeah, Yup.

(01:24:35):
So just like next time you want to get mad about it, open, open
a program instead. I promise there are so many
people out there waiting to support you.
I promise, whether you want to start with a drabble that's 100
words or whether you want to start with your very first gift
that you get the video footage for from someplace.
And it is also enough just to like reblog.

(01:24:58):
Yes, 100% a 1000% that's. Participating.
That is 100% participating, particularly on Tumblr.
Yeah, that's that counts. That's participating.
You don't have to feel like you need to do more.
But complaining that something is not specifically for you?

(01:25:19):
Yeah, not everything is for you.Not everything is for you.
Yeah, not everything is for me or anybody else.
Kink, tomato and all that. Yeah, but you know, Phantom is a
participatory event in one way or the other.
It is, and if we stop participating then it dies.
And that's a bummer. It does.
Supernatural is still around because people participate.

(01:25:42):
Teen Wolf is still around because people participate.
So if you want 911 to be around,you kind of have to participate,
Yep, in some way or the other. And sometimes that's putting
kudos on a thick you like and then reading the next one.
If you reach the end of a fic, you press the little hard
button. It'll that that sentiment is
going on my gravestone OK? Yeah.

(01:26:04):
If you didn't DNF it, it deserves a kudos.
It's very hard to write fic. It's so hard.
It's so hard. Like remember that there are
people behind all the art that you love.
Yeah, real human people. Real human people.
So Speaking of that, we love you.
Or at least I love you. Emily's, you know, adequate at

(01:26:27):
best. She's like.
Capable of emotions. I know.
Sometimes. Clean your water bottles.
Oh. My God, clean your water
bottles. It's time, it's time.
Take some vitamin D and the big dark is coming.
Yes, the big dark is coming, or at least if you're on the the
north half. If you're where we are.
If you're on the north half, thedark time is coming.

(01:26:49):
If you're on the South half, congratulations.
Sunscreen on. Yeah, put some sunscreen on,
chapstick, water, hydrate. Yeah, yeah, get that sunscreen
on. It's never too late to start.
It's never too late to start. Well, yeah, I guess that's our
latest iteration of 911. What the fuck?
Aw golly. Oh golly.
And yeah, so I guess thanks for listening to.

(01:27:11):
It's your choice to listen to usrant.
We love you, that's what we do. Hope we've kept you company.
Yes, on this, on this day of ranting, I'm excited for the
next episode and I'm excited forthe season.
It is what it is, you know. Fandom is fandom.
It is she lives and breathes. I have a handful of gift sets

(01:27:32):
that are just in my brain just waiting for the right time so.
Ready to go, You know, always out there writing, doing what I
can to. Yep, support the fandom.
Great. King Tomato never gets old.
So yes, you can follow us on Phantom on the rocks and, you
know, do the whole do the whole thing.
But yeah, thanks for listening and I guess we'll catch you on

(01:27:54):
the next couple of episodes. And that's that's what you
missed on fandom.