#re-entry

The Curse of Athena

In general, I don't tend to enjoy Athena-focused episodes, because they always focus these episodes on her professional life and her profession as a cop (my feelings on it aside) is the most removed from every other main character on the show, which is very annoying because when the show chooses to focus on Athena it can never quite figure out what to do with it's other characters.

For the first time, I feel like the show would genuinely do something different because Hen and Athena were going to space TOGETHER, and I really thought we could finally change things up. But, instead, we just copied and pasted season 8's opening arc and Athena's at it again ALONE.

I do understand how the episode serves as an allegory of Athena's grief. However, the show is 9 seasons in, and the fact that it still hasn't figured out how to do an Athena storyline that actually incorporates the other characters on this show is an endemic problem. I really thought we were on the way to solving this one since Bobby's death means that Athena will actually need to form more connections with the 118 for the show to still work coherently, but I guess that's still a work in progress.

The Grief Olympics

I didn't like Athena's 'Not like I did'. Fuck amatonormativity! I hate the idea that when someone dies, apparently, the only person who is allowed to win a grieving contest over that person is their significant other. Yeah, Hen didn't lose Bobby like Athena did, but neither did Athena! How can you compare these two, and if you do want to go there, you would need to acknowledge that maybe Hen's grief over losing Bobby won't be Athena's or your experience of losing a superior officer, which means that we don't actually know how deep that grief is but it would be disingenuous to think that that means it can in no way be more than the grief a romantic partner experiences.

Does Athena always win by default just because sex and romance add an ingredient to a relationship that automatically makes it superior, completely misplacing what makes a relationship actually deep, getting to know someone? It's always disingenuous to compare grief.

I also understand that Athena dismissing Hen's feelings is also a part of how her grief has isolated her from everyone else to the extent that she can't even recognise that other people are grieving Bobby just as much as she is.

Everyone processes grief differently because you relate to the person on different levels, but there is nothing to say that grief is comparable, and if we must play the grief Olympics, it isn't always going to be the romantic partner who wins the trophy. The scope of human relationships is diverse and endless, and amatonormativity is a great way to never recognise that.

Harry and Athena

Athena has been making some weird parenting choices when it comes to Harry, and I would love for them to be explored for what they are - unconventional. If Athena thinks it's okay for her legally adult high school kid to live with his college-age sister with no parental supervision, either have it actually discussed on the show so that the characters can offer up why it works for them, or treat it as what it is, a form of parental neglect, because, just going on with this charade at face value is absurd.

It's made worse by the fact that Athena is not even trying to convince Harry to go back to school, which I feel safe in thinking is her actual position. I understand where she might be coming from on this; she probably feels she has no right to dictate her son's life decisions, given how absent she was from her son's life for the past six months, but I will not accept this being the last conversation they have on this topic. Because that would mean acknowledging Athena as a mid-tier mother, and I don't think that society offers that amount of grace to mothers. If you are a mother, you are either a great one or a bad one, and I don't think the show wants you to think of Athena as anything other than a great one, which makes this whole storyline pretty dissonant.

I would love a storyline to explore what it means to not be a great mother but also not a bad one, but this is not that show. So, given that the former is a no-go, I expect the show to pick up the slack and clear up the dissonance it's created.

Realistically, I don't really know how someone can drop out of school without parental consent whatsoever. Wouldn't it be the school's obligation to inform Athena in such a case? So exactly how did this happen without her knowledge whatsoever? Also, I'm pretty sure Harry requires a high school degree to qualify for the fire academy, so what's up with that? Again, not completing high school is outside the norm, so give the decision the diligence it deserves if you want it to seem like one that works for the character or otherwise treat it as the impulsiveness it is the product of.

Also, I feel like Athena getting a call about Harry dropping out of high school could have worked as her wake-up call to be present for the loved ones she still has and who need her, who are also grieving a loved one. Because at its heart, Athena's grief is about isolation. Her grief has caused her to self-isolate to the extent that she doesn't even realise she is not alone in her grief.

Probationary Firefighter Harry Grant

I feel like the show had a great opportunity to have Harry's decision to be a firefighter feel more organic. I liked that they used the plot of Harry riding along to explore his grief, but if this is the ending they wanted, they should have probably put in the work. But, sometimes with shows, you can't really tell if the decision a character is making is necessarily for the better; it's equally likely that Harry's impulsive decision, which doesn't seem even a little bit thought out, will pan out exactly as such, but then again, given the scope of the show, likely not. There are only so many ways to incorporate characters into storylines, and it's easiest for the first responder show to just have main characters be first responders.

Again, this could still be a good storyline, but as it is right now, it feels very poorly executed because it didn't feel like Harry's ride-along contributed to the moment, so making it feel like it did seems iffy. I feel like in the moment it would have made more sense if Harry was somewhat equating being a firefighter to honouring Bobby or trying to feel closer to him, and in that way it would still be an extension of his grieving arc instead of whatever this was. It's really something when the show manages to make something audiences could see coming from a mile away unexpected.

I have more complaints

Let's talk about Officer McCluskey, who is a complete idiot as far as I'm concerned (considering I really don't remember him from his previous appearances), and Athena equating him to a hero because 'the real heroes are the ones who never made it home' is absolute bullshit. McCluskey starts shooting at the bank robbers when not doing so would have been a much better decision. Why would you open fire in the middle of the city right outside a bank when the robbers appear to be leaving and no one's life is being immediately threatened? You could have trailed them and diverted them to a less populated area, which hopefully wouldn't involve opening fire in the middle of a city road. Also, what exactly is the heroism he's committing, not letting bank robbers get away (I feel like Athena does a better job of foiling that attempt than he does). I can use my imagination to paint McCluskey in a better light. He might have been worried about the bank robbers heading back into the bank to either threaten someone to give them their car keys or to turn it into a hostage situation, but again why isn't the show doing this work, considering it wants me to see him as a hero because otherwise he could have just waited for backup and everything would have still pretty much happened the way it did except he would probably still be alive and I wouldn't have to see Athena try to pass off his actions as "heroic".

I'm also annoyed by Tricia and Parker pairing up. I do concede that amotonormativity is the reason I think they are together, but considering the society we live in, it is a completely valid reading. The show had Tricia and Parker for three episodes in high-tension situations, and it couldn't think of any way to sprinkle in some moments between the two that would have made their relationship feel less like it came completely out of left field.

Did I like anything in this episode?

I think the part of this episode I absolutely loved was the interaction between the Athenas and how Athena talks about grief and joy, and pain. That was the highlight of the episode!

I was thinking about, given how Michael and Athena end up, whether this was a good moment of joy in her life to focus on as she tries to move on in two different timelines and then I realised that knowing how Michael and Athena end up is the point because 'pain is the price we pay for joy' but more than that because it's 'for all the moments in between'.