Surprisingly Don (our cap/Bobby knockoff) wasn’t really in this episode until the end and we focused on someone else, (which I think bodes well for this show).

I know people were worried that it would be Lonestar rip with it focusing too much on the cap (and it still might since this ep’s focus was on his son) but it’s also the second episode, so we don’t know that for sure yet.

Also Don sucks. (That’s the whole thought)

(Edit: actually I do have a thought. It’s so strange to me how we were able to get a wonderful captain that we all love in Bobby Nash [so much so that we all almost boycotted the og show for killing him off] yet the spinoffs can’t make a likeable captain. We hated Owen Strand and Don is on his way to pissing me off too)

Blue is kinda irrelevant to me. (He’s so blank slate, with a sob story, and really clearly marketed to be the heartthrob so much that’s it’s doing the opposite for me.)

The moms, Dixie and Blythe. Didn’t like that they’re fight over a man but imagine the day they team up 🤔 (no real thoughts, didn’t care that much)

Camie, our dispatcher, also got a lot of focus. I liked that we got an emergency that she handled on her own. My issue is that the way she works the calls also seems like she has too much power. (Does that make sense? Idk how else to describe how I feel)

Onto the main focus of the ep:

I like Matchstick a lot. (that’s my nickname for Ryan; it just clicks for me)

He is very Evan Buckley-coded but he is also being given an Eddie Diaz storyline ( & a little bit of his sass) with knockoff Shannon (maybe that means they won’t kill her off this time🤷‍♀️) serving divorce papers. Is the way this story being presented good? I never said that, but I like that we are developing his character.

Personally (probably just projection that I don’t want to go into) I want the divorce to stick so we can go full copy and have a new firefighter join the 113 in s2 and it’s a gorgeous black woman (who maybe has a kid, maybe a daughter this time, just to really steal from the og but make it different lol 😂 ) that Matchstick can slow burn end up with. (I know he would cherish her)

Another thing is that we see Match sad about the divorce papers and Roxie and Taylor try to comfort him after they also witnessed it. It solidified for me that:

A) these three are best friends and they are absolutely the trouble trio (it was so clear that the girls and him saw each only platonically, almost sibling-like but also not fully brother-sister) and B) I know they are absolutely the firehouse gossips. I know their groupchat is messy and they all dish with each other (i desperately need to see it)

Like I can see it now, they’re at the firehouse dinner table and Roxie’s venting about an ex-girlfriend and Match is just all-in listening and talking about what he saw and Taylor is sending memes in the gc (do you see the vision?! I need fanfics people)