9-1-1 Season 3 should have kept Athena out of the Episode 17 promo
During 9-1-1 Season 3, Episode 17, there was a major storyline involving Athena. However, the promo for the episode removed the heart-wrenching effect.
Caution: There are spoilers in this post for 9-1-1 Season 3, Episode 17. If you haven’t watched the episode yet, you’ll want to before you read on.
9-1-1 Season 3, Episode 17 opted to put Athena’s life in danger. That wasn’t all too surprising considering the promo for the episode. We saw Athena being pulled out on a stretcher, which meant that there was a dramatic moment coming up. Sadly, putting that in the promo took away from the heart-wrenching effect that the show could have created.
As many expected, Athena made it her mission to take down the serial rapist. She was going to put him down after failing to keep him in custody. At least, she thought she’d failed. (We know it wasn’t her fault that he was let go). It all built up to her heading into a storage unit where this guy was hiding out.
Of course, that led to a fight. It was all heard over the radio. Maddie from her desk at dispatch and the entire 118 on their way to help her could hear the fight happen. They could hear her in pain as she faced the assault and tried to take the rapist down. Then suddenly there was a gunshot.
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We didn’t get to see who was shot. All we saw was everyone else as they all thought the same thing—had Athena just been shot?
This was something we were clearly supposed to think. It wasn’t until Bobby got to the storage unit that he realized Athena was alive. She’d shot the rapist (although not killed him).
The promo gave that ending away
I’ve got to be honest, but I didn’t feel shock or fear. I didn’t worry that Athena was going to be killed off. And it all comes down to the promo.
We’d seen Athena being carried out on a stretcher. Since that moment hadn’t happened yet, it was clear that it would happen after this fight. And that meant Athena hadn’t been killed. She could have been shot but she hadn’t been killed. There was a lot of hope that she was going to survive. After all, there’s no way that 9-1-1 would now survive without Angela Bassett on the series. She is the one I tune in for each and every week.
It’s a shame, though. As much as deep down we’d never expect Athena to be suddenly killed off on the show, the conclusion to the episode could have been much stronger had the promo not given things away. There were other shots that could have been used to show Athena had a big storyline without giving the game away at the end. I wish those who created promos would think of this. There have been too many recently (movies and TV shows) that give everything away to lure us in. I thought 9-1-1 and FOX were better than that.
I also think Connie Britton should have been left out of the promo. It would have made that shock much bigger. I think of the shock of seeing Graham McTavish back on Outlander. I loved having that surprise, so wish we could have had this surprise for the end of the episode.
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That being said, I’m looking forward to the 9-1-1 Season 3 finale. I just wish there were more surprises.
9-1-1 Season 3’s finale airs on May 11 at 8/7c on FOX.