Spoilers ahead for Episode 6 of 9-1-1 Season 7 on ABC, called "There Goes the Groom."
After 9-1-1 started the seventh season in the 2024 TV schedule by quite literally turning Bobby and Athena's honeymoon cruise upside down, was there ever any doubt that Maddie and Chimney would have to deal with a disaster or two on their way to the altar? The previous episode ended on a cliffhanger about Chim possibly missing his wedding when Buck and Eddie turned up at the venue without him. The payoff in "There Goes the Groom" was incredibly emotional with a great performance from Kenneth Choi... but I also finished the episode wishing that one thing had been done differently.
In "There Goes the Groom," the problem was seemingly a runaway groom until it became clear that Chimney definitely wasn't in his right mind. Not only was he feverish and out of touch with his present reality, he was hallucinating Doug, a.k.a. Maddie's abusive (and dead) first husband. The paramedic had forgotten about two decades of his life, even though he still had some muscle memory about saving lives... and he was visibly getting worse with each minute that passed. The problem wasn't a nervous breakdown or stress, however, and the reason is what I wish was a bit different in the finished product.
After discovering that Chimney was confused about what time he was living in, Hen made a connection to a call from a couple of weeks earlier, when a peeping tom got stuck in the vents of a building when spying on the woman he said was his fiancée. He was feverish and thought he might be having a heart attack, but Chim ruled that out when he got up close and personal with the man in the vent. After spending some time one-on-one while the firefighters found a way to cut the man loose, the crew learned that the woman wasn't the man's fiancée, but his ex-wife.
The reason? Viral encephalitis, which he brought back from Central America and Chim unfortunately caught after spending time face-to-face with him. While the prognosis wasn't bad if a person with encephalitis was treated, the man died from the ailment, and Maddie and Co. needed to find Chimney ASAP. For his part, the hallucination of Doug was talking Chim into hiding from Buck when Buck was close to finding him, and it wasn't until he hallucinated Kevin that he realized he needed help. He went to his parents, who called 911 with enough time to save his life.
And this was really a solid episode that I can see myself rewatching once it joins the rest of the series streaming with a Hulu subscription, but every time there was a flashback to explain what was happening with Chimney, I found myself wishing one thing was different. I just wish that the man with the encephalitis had appeared as one of the victims in an earlier Season 7 episode. The situation was quirky enough to work as a normal 9-1-1 crisis on its own, with the reveal of the encephalitis not coming until "There Goes the Groom."
Just imagine if the solution to the mystery of what was happening to Chim had been in front of us all along and we simply hadn't known it! It's also fun when a show that tends to be fairly procedural plants a seed early on that grows into an important plot point later, and it could have been great if the man with the encephalitis had been one of the people in need of rescue in one of the first five episodes of the season. The reveal in "There Goes the Groom" could have packed more of a punch, particularly with the bombshell that the man had died from the encephalitis.
I did enjoy the episode, though, and Maddie and Chimney tying the knot in a hospital felt fitting for the wild ride of their relationship. All of the most important people were there for the unconventional ceremony, with Tommy making a belated appearance and getting another big kiss from Buck for it. In a fun twist, he had been smeared with soot after coming straight from a fire, and Buck's face being covered in soot was as good as an announcement about his new relationship.
The Buckley parents seemed less supportive at discovering that Buck had recently been kissing a man, and I'm wondering if this will lead to the pair causing Buck some grief about it or if it was just a quick moment to remind viewers that they haven't been great to Buck, even if they were celebrating Maddie for her wedding.
All in all, this was an intense hour of television that came to a happy ending, which seemed improbable for a good chunk of the episode. It also remains to be seen if there are still holes in Chimney's memory, so keep tuning in to ABC on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of 9-1-1 Season 7.
