9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 10 sidelines Eddie, leans on repetitive, insensitive plots

Collider TV writer Jennie Richardson called Season 9, Episode 10 of 9-1-1 — “Handle with Care” — the show’s worst outing yet, arguing the hour makes baffling and insensitive choices that signal the series needs to course-correct. Richardson says the episode sidelines Eddie Diaz (Ryan Guzman) just as the season seemed poised to explore his fraught relationship with religion, repression and possible sexuality.

Instead, Abigail’s (Fallon Heaslip) return is treated as an obsessive crush and a plot device, denying Eddie a meaningful mentor role and reducing an unhoused, abused teenager to an infatuated young woman. The review also criticizes a repetitive Harry-centric arc: Chimney (Kenneth Choi) suffers nightmares about Harry (Elijah M.

Cooper) dying on the job, tied to the fallout from Bobby’s death. Richardson finds the lesson — that the team should trust Harry — heavy-handed and notes the episode even retcons Captain Gerrard’s past bigotry into mere mistrust, a comparison she calls mindboggling. Other beats include Harry proving himself on a garbage-truck fire and saving Chimney, a warm family moment with Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and the Grants, and a rushed attempt to seed a romance between Eddie and LAPD SMART officer Alex (Aimee Teegarden).

Richardson says the show’s pacing drags Chimney’s storyline while rushing Eddie’s, and that the episode leans into misogynistic undertones.

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