Spoilers ahead for the Season 3 premiere of 9-1-1 on Fox, called "Kids Today."
9-1-1 has returned for its third season after a long hiatus, and the premiere both featured some of the classic 9-1-1 intensity and held back from delivering the huge event that has been teased ever since the trailer released for most of the hour: a tsunami. Until the final couple minutes of "Kids Today," I honestly had my doubts that the tsunami would even happen in the premiere, but I was proved wrong by the end, and the gigantic wave has left two major lives in danger. Buck and Christopher were at the Santa Monica pier when the tsunami swept toward the shore.
So, what led Buck and Christopher to the Santa Monica Pier together? Well, Buck spent the months of hiatus training to return to work as a firefighter after the very bad news he got in the Season 2 finale. All signs pointed toward him returning to the LAFD sooner rather than later, but he collapsed with clots in his lungs and legs that could have killed him if he hadn't happened to suffer his health crisis as a party packed with first responders.
Unfortunately for Buck, this convinced Bobby that Buck wasn't ready to return to the LAFD as a firefighter, and he told Buck that he could only come back to light duty. A.K.A., Buck was going to have to take desk duty if he wanted to return to the fire department. Buck just went ahead and quit rather than ride a desk for the rest of his career, and he proceeded to wallow in misery and binge-watch cooking shows after he left his job.
To pull him out of his funk, Eddie unceremoniously dropped special needs son Christopher off at Buck's for Buck to take care of for the day. This was enough to get Buck out of the house, and he took Christopher for a day of rides, games, and junk food... at the Santa Monica Pier. An awesome day of fun for both Buck and Christopher is about to be ruined, judging by the huge wave heading their way in the final moments!
So, what's in store for Buck and Christopher next week? Well, I doubt that 9-1-1 would kick off a new season by doing something so awful as killing off a child character or a major character like Buck. That said, they're not going to have an easy time in the next episode. They were right on the edge of the pier when the wave swelled toward the shore, and even Buck isn't fast enough to grab Christopher and outrun a tsunami.
Fortunately, he did already have a hand holding onto Christopher as Christopher peeked over the edge of the pier, so at least they were together when the crisis began to approach. That's not to say they won't be swept apart after the wave hits, but Buck knowing where Christopher is/was should be immensely helpful.
He does have the training of a firefighter, and he was recently setting records in his training. If not for the blood clots, he'd've been back with the LAFD. If Christopher was going to be with anybody in an area being hit by a tsunami, he could do much worse than Buck! Ronda Rousey will debut on 9-1-1 in the not-too-distant future, and there's no way she wouldn't be a huge asset to anybody in a crisis situation. She can't exactly punch a tsunami into submission, but we already know that she'll be one of the good guys.
Find out what happens next with new episodes of 9-1-1 on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox, and swing by our fall TV premiere schedule for some additional viewing options.
