9-1-1 Season 8, Episode 13 Review: Henrietta's Story Was Hilarious While Eddie & Christopher's Story Finally Clicked In One Of The Season's Best Episodes

This article contains spoilers for 9-1-1 season 8, episode 13, "Invisible"

After a run of disappointing episodes, 9-1-1 season 8 has finally delivered an hour of pretty great television. Henrietta (Aisha Hinds) steps back into the spotlight for a birthday that doesn't unfold as she hoped. After the muddled reunion they shared in the previous episode, Eddie (Ryan Guzman) and Christopher (Gavin McHugh) have a full-hearted reconciliation that honors both of their characters and the father-son bond they've built

But the secret to the success of this episode, titled "Invisible", has to do with the guest star at its center. The 118 repeatedly rescue a man who is decidedly down on his luck, getting into the absurd emergencies that make up this show's bread and butter. It's funny until it isn't, and then it works its way up to being hilarious. It's a reminder that 9-1-1 is quite skillful at switching between different tones when it wants to.

Archie Is Out Of Luck

His Situation Goes From Bad To Worse

"Invisible" begins the episode with Archie, the episode's main guest character. Timid and unassuming, Archie is getting fired from his job at a fast-food chicken restaurant. Though he begs for his job, explaining that he has a fiancée, as well as a cousin he needs to help, he's told he's too forgettable and therefore expendable. It could have been worse. Archie was supposed to be fired over the holidays, except that he was so forgettable that he slipped through the cracks.

Archie returns to his place, which he shares with his wife-to-be and his cousin. While cleaning up the mess they've made, Archie gets trapped under the bed. He soon discovers that his fiancée and his cousin are sleeping together, fooling around on top of him. He calls 9-1-1, and the 118 responds. Buck (Oliver Stark) is giddily excited at the chance to ram his way through the door.

The opening scene is effective, establishing that Archie is not someone who likes speaking up for himself, even in the most extreme circumstances. Once he's rescued, Archie is reluctant to go to the hospital because he feels like he'll be a bother. More than anything else, though, by having an essentially recurring emergency that escalates throughout the episode, 9-1-1 ties Hen to Archie in a way that makes for a very satisfying payoff.

Hen Is The Only One Excited About Her Birthday

It's Kind Of Funny

Hen wakes up with a bit of extra energy in her step. She turns on "Happy Birthday", the 1981 song by the Scottish band Altered Images, and takes her time deciding what to wear. But when she goes downstairs to greet her family, none of them remember. Karen (Traci Thoms) and the kids can't leave the house fast enough, almost not noticing that Hen is dressed up. To make matters worse, Karen asks Hen to get some takeout. Athena (Angela Bassett) does remember to give Hen a birthday call at least, albeit it only serves to contrast with the call that Hen gets from her mother a moment later.

It is a very amusing scene. Hen is gassed up by Athena, who is so confident that a mother wouldn't forget her daughter's birthday, though Antonia Wilson (Marsha Warfield) says that it must have been a butt-dial. She adds that she was planning to call her daughter later. Hen's face lights up and then falls quickly when Antonia asks to borrow her car. It's some great phone acting from Hinds and Warfield.

Hen's mood lifts, temporarily, when she arrives at work to find that Buck, Bobby (Peter Krause), and Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) are ready to celebrate Hen Day. That, of course, refers to the high-efficiency nozzles that the 118 received. Henrietta's face falls once again when Howard (Kenneth Choi) tells her to get excited, but she seems to be taking it in stride.

That facade begins to falter when the 118 responds to Archie, who has found himself trapped under a truck while attempting to retrieve a sentimental item. Hen is the only one on the team who remembers him without needing to be reminded that he's the guy who was trapped under his ex and his cousin. Archie is recused for a second time, telling Hen that he's been living out of his car since he was kicked out by his ex. He also says that no one helped him or even noticed him when he was dropped off at the hospital last time.

Hen tells him, rightly, that he is the one that's making himself small and reminds him that he can stand up for himself. It's sound advice, though Hen might be mostly projecting. During her rant, she accidentally lets slip that the 118 forgot that it's her birthday. Archie wishes her a happy day. Bobby, Howard, and Buck are especially mortified.

Hinds does a perfect balance of sincere and comedic as she tells Archie to “take up space” before snapping and blurting out that she's actually talking about the fact that her friends and family forgot her birthday. That escalates when Hen returns home, delivering the episode's best scene. Having been informed of the birthday blunder by Howard, Karen is all apologetic. The schedule has been packed, she says, and she might have deleted the reminder from her calendar.

Soon, the door begins ringing with presents: there's a balloon bouquet from Chimney and gourmet chocolates from Bobby. Denny (Declan Pratt), Mara (Askyler Bell), and Antonia show up with cake. Just when it looks like the evening might devolve into a mother-daughter spat between Hen and her mother, who understandably points out that Hen is overreacting, the scene shifts back to comedy.

There is some top-tier delivery from Hinds on a few lines, like when Hen says of Chimney: “He usually goes whimsical when he knows he’s done wrong.” It's also great when she admits that “I’m yelling at people while holding a balloon bouquet; of course I know it’s silly.” The silliness continues when Hen wants to storm out of the living room, except she can't because the balloons are too big to fit through the door.

What works best for me is that this is a storyline that involves nearly all the main cast. It even comes up, played well, during a conversation between Buck and Eddie. Whether it's heists gone wrong or false treasure haunts, 9-1-1 works better when more characters are interacting meaningfully rather than being cornered off in their own separate vortexes.

Eddie & Chris Have A Much-Needed Heart-To-Heart

Eddie's Protective Instincts Take Over

Over on Eddie's side of the story, he's feeling nervous because he's prepping the first family dinner with Chris, Helena (Paula Marshall), and Ramon (George DelHoyo). As he tells Buck in a video call, he's less concerned with impressing his parents than he is about Christopher moving back in with him. He hasn't asked Chris to come stay with him, even though his house is now fixed up, because he's hoping the request comes from Chris himself.

It echoes Eddie's comments in the 9-1-1 season 7 finale, when he tells Buck that he wants Chris to open his door rather than breaking it down by force. Maybe because of being a young father, maybe as a reaction to how he was raised, Eddie doesn't want to be a stern and overbearing parent. Unfortunately, his approach doesn't work out. Chris is participating in a regional chess tournament on the same weekend that Eddie wants to invite his son out to a basketball game. Even though Chris doesn't seem excited about participating, and even though Helena clearly didn't mention it, Eddie doesn't want to make a big fuss, so he backs down.

Eddie runs into Helena while in the parking lot, buying groceries for an Uber customer. Helena speaks with dismissive sympathy of Eddie's freelance job, referring to it as “this” and then gesticulating with disdain at Eddie's car. It's a fun turn from Marshall, a veteran performer who also plays the questionable parent of Jacob Elordi's character on Euphoria. Still, what's most striking about the short conversation is how often and how, relatively willingly, Eddie bites his tongue.

"Invisible" taps into the feeling of a person making themselves small for a parent, avoiding a binder of sensitive subjects and letting a litany of hurtful comments go for the sake of maintaining the peace and not upsetting someone who, despite everything, means the world. That's exactly what Eddie is doing, and it's exactly what Helena exploits. She tactfully guilts her son into not attending Christopher's chess tourney, saying that he'd be taking Ramon's seat on the bus that transfers participants to the tournament. Eddie agrees, telling himself that there will be other tournaments.

Buck and Eddie have another video call. In a perfect exchange, Eddie reveals that he remembered Hen's birthday because they're friends on Facebook. “How old are you?!” Buck mocks in response. All the same, Eddie has other things on his mind. Buck encourages him to attend the tournament, even if he has to take his own car, and Howard reluctantly agrees with Buck's assessment that Eddie should “dad up.”

Eddie takes Buck's advice, which is exactly right for the second week in a row. He shows up at the event, learning that Ramon has seemingly been introducing himself as Chris' father or at least not correcting people when they make that assumption. Eddie watches from a distance, springing into action when Chris vomits on himself during a match. The pressure apparently got to him.

Eddie helps Christopher clean up in the restroom. That's when Chris admits that he hates chess and that he's been mostly doing it for the sake of his grandparents, particularly because of Ramon's love of the game. The confession and Chris' fear of disappointing his grandparents set the stage for a conversation we've been asking for since the beginning of season 8, summed up in the exchange below:

Eddie: “You’re moving back in with me, whether you like it or not. Because you’re my kid.”

Chris: “You’ll be my dad again?”

Eddie: “I’ve always been your dad. Now I’ll start acting like it.”

Eddie, Hen & Archie Learn To Stop Being Invisible

Their Results Vary Pretty Wildly

I don't think the conversation between Eddie and Chris, as sweet as it is and as well-acted by McHugh and Guzman, absolves some of the missteps in the storyline. 9-1-1 season 8, episode 12, "Disconnected" still feels more about Eddie's identity as a firefighter and Chris as a secondary thought. The time jump also erases Chris' process of forgiving his father and understanding him better.

But if the latest episode is all about Eddie and Hen finding the motivation to speak up for themselves, it is kind of beautiful that protecting Chris is Eddie's motivation. That's been true for as long as Guzman has been on the show. Eddie should have gently put his foot down all along, insisting that Christopher can be as angry as he wants without leaving Los Angeles.

When he finally gets to that point, it's because he sees that Chris is being pushed into chess just like Eddie was pushed into ballroom dancing by Helena and Ramon. It's an elegantly compact confrontation when Eddie drops by, not bothering to hear a word that Helena has to say as he packs up Christopher's things. He loves her, despite her prodding and passive-aggressive scolding, but he won't let those things impact Chris. As long as the focus remains on Texas, I don't expect that this disagreement is fully over. For the time being, and for the first time, it feels like Christopher's absence was genuinely worthwhile.

Archie's solution is bloodier. After losing his car while he's sleeping in it, and after his modest belongings are scattered by passersby who didn't notice him, Archie snaps. Armed with a knife, the unlucky guest character follows the passersby onto a bus. 9-1-1 does a slight Speed homage after ABC's The Rookie did one of its own. Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) takes the distress call and gets the 118 the information.

In the chaos, with the police setting a trap, Archie non-fatally and accidentally stabs one of the passengers who attempts to talk him down. Wearing a safety vest, Hen gets on the bus to negotiate with Archie. They arrive at an understanding, and Archie agrees to surrender, thanks to the fact that he's learned to trust Henrietta. She even saves him one last time.

He almost gets his head shot off when police think he's reaching into his pocket for a weapon. It's actually just a keychain from the fast food joint where he used to work. He wants to give it to Hen for her birthday. She's not exactly deeply moved by the gift, watching Archie get hauled away by Athena in handcuffs.

It's a swerve that doubles as a big sigh of relief, keeping the vibe generally light for an episode that functions as a sequel to the season 2 flashback-focused "Hen Begins." There, too, Hen needed time to figure out when to use her voice and how. Her actions have earned her adulation from the press and a fancy dinner fixed up by Bobby and shared with Karen and Athena.

In the end, Hen says, it just might be her best birthday ever. It doesn't hurt that a guilt-ridden Buck is hanging around, ready and willing to do Hen's household chores until he's forgiven. He is forgiven, it should be said, but Hen isn't going to volunteer that information and turn down free help. It's one last punchline that's just right and true to character, punctuating an exceptionally breezy 9-1-1 episode.