5 months have passed and the 118 are dealing with living and working in a pandemic. Athena is finally returning to work, despite Bobby’s valid concerns. May starts her first day at the dispatch centre, only to start taking calls when the Hollywood Reservoir dam breaks.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Asshole Victim: One man sits in the handicap section of the bus before the mudslide and gets glass in his thigh. He pulls it out and nearly bleeds to death from a femoral artery puncture until CJ puts on an emergency tourniquet for him until he can get pulled out from the bus.
- Big Disaster Plot: The episode revolves around the aftermath of a mudslide caused by a dam break.
- First Day from Hell: May has her first day as 911 dispatcher in this episode. In a similar way to Maddie's first day, she is able to take one call before a disaster happens, this time the mudslide caused by the Hollywood Reservoir dam breaking
- Hikikomori: Sylvia is a medical consultant who hasn't left her home in seven years. Just as she's finally about to take her first step outside, the hill the house is on collapses.
- How We Got Here: Janell's story starts six months prior, when the pandemic started. She orders everything online, having it delivered to her door, then to the curb. Her husband Steve dies of COVID-19, and she can't travel to see her family in Wisconsin.
- Literal Metaphor: When Keith says to Ashley "I did not throw you under the bus," a bus gets thrown into him by the mudslide, pinning him under it.
- Monumental Damage: The Hollywood Sign gets partially damaged by the mudslide at the end of the episode. In the next episode, the 116 ends up using part of the 'H' and its supports in order to rescue someone trapped in a mud pit.
- Oh, Crap!: The dam worker is the first victim of the dam breaking when it collapses in front of him.Worker: Oh. Come on, 2020, don't do me like that.
- Once a Season: The season's opening disaster is a dam breaking and the mudslides that follow.
- Outrun the Fireball: Outpedal the wave. Janell is at ground zero on her bicycle at the Hollywood Reservoir when it breaks. She tries to get away from the wave, but gets swallowed up.
- Punctuated Pounding: Janell lets this out while bashing the padlock on the spillway junction box.Janell: I! REALLY! HATE! THIS! YEAR!
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The COVID-19 Pandemic becomes part of the series' plot with this episode, showing the cast wearing face masks, social distancing, doing Zoom calls, checking temperatures, and regular washing/disinfecting their hands.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: The dam worker says this when talking to his girlfriend on the phone.Worker: Yeah, I wish this year was over too. But hey, it's September. How much worse could it get?
