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If you thought the road to a Chimney and Maddie would be easy, then this must have been a rough hour for you.
9-1-1 Season 6 Episode 16 was heavy on Chimney’s indecision as he wavered back and forth whether or not now was the time to propose to Maddie. And the flip-flopping was a lot at times, for both the audience and Hen, in particular.
It was an odd hour.
I questioned the decision to have Chimney suddenly be struck with the idea of marriage after that accountant brought it up on 9-1-1 Season 6 Episode 15.
And this episode did very little to make me feel better about it because Chimney and Maddie had no significant conversation during the installment. Not a single one!
Instead, we had multiple discussions between Chimney and Hen, often very similar, as Chimney worked through the nerves that set in when he realized the magnitude of a proposal.
Do I think Chimney and Maddie should get married? Yes, if that’s what they both want.
But they need to talk to one another about it before Chimney takes the plunge because, from the talks we’ve heard them have with others, they aren’t on the same page at all. And poor Chimney kept changing pages every other minute.
Walking into the jewelry store and looking at rings was a big step, and just picking out the ring had Chimney already scrambling, not knowing if he was doing the right thing. Hen was there to calm him down, but it became clear early this hour that Chimney would have difficulty with the decision.
Chimney can be very dramatic when he wants to be, as evidenced by his Michael Corleone impression when the ring turned up missing, but I don’t know if he was being dramatic so much, as he was just plain scared.
The Madney relationship has been a whirlwind from the very start. And if you look back upon their relationship, it can sometimes feel like there were more downs than ups, though so much of their struggles were out of their control.
It isn’t a scenario where Maddie and Chimney have been continuously hurting one another over the years in some toxic union. They’ve been dealt with challenging circumstances but worked to get to a stable place.
To call their relationship perfect wouldn’t be accurate, but it is solid now. And I think they’re both aware of the work it took to get there.
And because of their complicated past and how calm and good things had been lately, it made sense that Chimney would have doubts about rocking the boat for various reasons.
His first worry about it being a mistake could have been avoided if he’d talked to Maddie about literally anything involving marriage. He doesn’t have a pulse on how she feels about it, and it doesn’t seem like she has a pulse on how he feels, either.
Just knowing if it was something Maddie even wanted would have alleviated so many of his fears, though, in a way, each time he freaked out and decided he wasn’t going to propose, he was able to ask himself some fundamental questions.
The 118 were, of course, their usual selves, which is to say menaces, though you could tell how genuinely happy they were for Chimney. They jumped right into wedding planning the minute they saw that ring, and it was just another thing that caught up with Chimney down the line and made him question things.
And to be honest, I was right there with Chimney’s line of thinking because how could you not have a little doubt about whether or not someone will say yes to a proposal?
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch and all that, right?
Everyone was coming from a good place in assuring Chimney that Maddie would say yes and that everything would be golden, but no one had a crystal ball, and no one could know for sure what would happen.
That was a legitimate thing to scare Chimney.
But things started to get dicey when he kept going back and forth because it started getting tedious.
Hen was the one that got the most of Chimney’s flip-outs as his best friend.
Hen and Chimney have the strongest friendship on the show. They are ride or die and love and care about one another fiercely. But I’m not sure I ever saw them as disconnected as they seemed during this hour because Hen refused to be totally honest with him.
If you’re lucky enough to have a best friend, you know how strong that bond is. It’s different from a romantic relationship but just as strong and important.
Chimney and Hen have this established and profound friendship where they typically tell each other everything and trust one another explicitly. But Hen had a lot of complicated feelings about Chimney’s decision that she didn’t express until it came out at the worst possible time.
Hen: Maybe your nerves are trying to tell you something.
Chimney: Like what?
Hen: Like maybe you shouldn’t be getting married!
I’ve always wondered about the relationship between Maddie and Hen, or lack thereof. I’m not sure the two have ever had a meaningful one-on-one scene in all these seasons, and that’s kind of weird.
For a show that does relationships so well, that are particular dynamics they have never explored, that they should have.
We don’t necessarily need to see Maddie being best friends with everyone because it’s not realistic. Maddie and Bobby, for instance, don’t need to be besties. He’s her brother and boyfriend’s boss, so seeing them grabbing coffee is unnecessary.
But you would think that Maddie and Hen would have some relationship seeing as how they are the two most important people in Chimney’s life outside of his daughter.
Do they need to be hanging out regularly? No, but the fact that we never get them chatting or even Madney and Henren double dates is suspect.
It became noticeable how little connection they had when Hen started voicing her frustrations to Buck because I never knew she felt that way. She didn’t blame Maddie for leaving and her illness, but she was afraid of Maddie hurting Chimney again.
It was almost as if she was talking about someone she knew from a distance, not her best friend’s partner. Which I guess is technically accurate.
Now, is that a normal reaction for a best friend to have? I would say so. She saw how guilty Chimney felt and how difficult a time Chimney had when Maddie was gone, so naturally, she wanted to protect him from feeling that again.
Hen: Why is this always about what Maddie deserves? And what’s best for her. What about what Chimney deserves?
Buck: They both deserve to be happy.
Hen: You’re right. You’re absolutely right.
Buck: No, don’t do that. You’re still blaming Maddie.
Hen: I’m not blaming her. All I’m saying is that their relationship has been one trauma after the other from the beginning. Maybe they both need to heal from that before jumping into marriage.
Buck seemed to assume she was just angry with Maddie, but everything she felt was based on concern for Chimney. Nothing more or less.
But the problem lies with how little Hen knows about their relationship because she’s not a part of it, no matter how much Chimney confides in her. She knows what she knows through Chimney, and she’s held onto that pain Chimney felt without truly embracing all the work they’ve put into their relationship.
She wasn’t wrong when she talked about them healing from their past traumas, but she didn’t stop to think if they’d done that.
Not to mention the forgiveness aspect Chimney also touched upon. Trust and forgiveness are essential parts of any relationship, whether platonic, romantic, or even professional.
Your feelings may get hurt, or miscommunications can ensue, and deciding to forgive someone is a choice you have to make.
Chimney forgave Maddie a long time ago, and they worked like hell to get their family to this beautiful place they’re at now, where they’re committed to one another and their family.
When Chimney brought up Eva, I gasped. But it was done to prove his point that no couple is perfect, mistakes are made, forgiveness is sought, and if forgiveness is given, you can’t hold onto that hurt and continuously worry if it will happen again.
Hen and Chimney spent the hour having so many deep conversations, and the one at the end was pretty heartbreaking because even through all the waffling, you still sensed that Chimney was going to propose no matter what.
But he sounded so defeated at the end, as if losing the ring told him, once and for all, that things weren’t meant to be.
I believe in signs as much as the next person, but if anything, the universe continuing to bring them together should speak more to Chimney than the misplacement of a ring.
The big reveal that Jee-Yun had the ring in her stroller, and it luckily made it inside the house, resting in her dollhouse, safe and sound, was a cute little ending to an up-and-down hour.
If I had to guess, Maddie will find the ring and then go through her own existential crisis about whether or not she wants to get married and ultimately decide she does, and we’ll get our Madney wedding come hell or high water!
The emergencies this hour concerned the loss of something. Shocker! The most notable probably being the landfill one because what in the hell would possess you to break into a landfill and look around?
A hard drive tower and a ring, apparently!
Do you know how lucky those two roommates were that trash didn’t swallow them up? It’s incredibly dangerous to wade into a landfill and climb through the trash like they did.
At least Hen and Chimney weren’t trying to traverse the trash pile like it was a mountain.
Sometimes, what’s lost can be found, and sometimes what’s lost stays lost. But if you can recover what once was lost, hold on tight because you may not get lucky twice.
Loose Ends
- How many members of the 118 have been in the back of Athena’s cruiser at this point? I know she is so tired of her husband’s other children getting in trouble.
- The missing child story made me wonder how often that happens when people go missing in a mall. Usually, they will call for the person over the loudspeaker, but a crowd shouting might be even more effective.
- Buck and Hen’s beef was so awkward! Buck was defending his sister, and Hen was supporting her best friend, and neither one was hearing what the other was saying, which made things more awkward.
- Chimney blaming the 118 and thinking they pranked him was hilarious and something I could have seen them doing IF they hadn’t noticed how freaked out Chimney was all day. They’re not that cruel.
- Ravi, on a loop, questioning Chimney’s decision to bring that ring along and then hitting him with that ‘I told you so’ was excellent. Ravi, you have been missed, my friend.
The countdown continues, guys! There are two more weeks until we’re done with 9-1-1 Season 6, and there are still so many storylines to check in on.
We’ll have the ongoing Madney will-they-won’t-they get engaged, and I’m assuming we’ll check back in on that’s sperm donor plot.
Plus, was that the extent of Eddie’s dating story?
Or is there more to come on that front?
As I said, there is still a lot to get through in the final two hours before the show moves to ABC!
Drop your predictions in the comment section and watch 9-1-1 online so you’re never left behind!
Whitney Evans is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.