Aftershocks rock downtown L.A threatening to bring down a high-rise hotel, as the 118 continue rescuing victims. The 118 are faced with a tough decision when Hen goes missing within the hotel. Maddie must find a way to help a couple deliver their baby, while dealing with the damage of the earthquake. Athena has her hands full trying to keep the peace.
As Los Angeles continues to reel from aftershocks of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake from the San Andreas Fault, the 118 continues to try and get to Hen as she looks for Kat, the young girl who was on her way to the restroom and separated from her parents when the earthquake hit, even as he father becomes more and more desperate to go back in and look for her himself, to the point where when he finally snaps and starts to go back in, he's restrained by LAPD. Hen encounters an off-duty member from Station 221 named Russ, but he knows his injuries are mortal and asks her to leave him behind as he's not going to make it. He soon succumbs to his wounds before Hen can give him treatment.
Meanwhile, Athena is called to a convenience store when the owner is forced to use a shotgun to keep the mob of civilians from trying to loot him. However, she and her fellow officers discover that the owner was trying to swindle the civvies by overcharging prices for goods, like $100 for a pack of water that was only $14.99. After Athena warns the man about violating the Penal Code with price gouging during a state of emergency and threatens to arrest him, the guy only cracks and agrees to a 50% discount on everything when Athena pulls out her handcuffs, forcing him into compliance over spending a year in the slammer.
Back at the 911 Dispatch at Parker Center, the new dispatcher on duty when the quake hit sends a husband and his unconscious pregnant wife to a nearby fire where the closest LAFD firefighters/paramedics could treat her, earning her some commendations from her superior.
As for Hen, she finds the dog that belonged to the owner who complained of panic attacks without it who died in the quake, and it leads her to where Kat had taken refuge after the quake hit, safe and unharmed. Hen returns her shoe to her, while Bobby and Chimney attempt to use what gear they can find from some of the undamaged cars in the parking garage to clear the rubble leading to them, using the keys from the valet service that parked them. Just after their first attempt using snow chains fails due to the chains snapping, reinforcements arrive in the form of Eddie and Buck and the LAFD 7th Battalion Chief with her men, having been convinced to take the firefighters under her command back in to help rescue Hen by Captain Nash's 118. Together, they manage to create a big enough gap that Hen emerges safe, alive, and with Kat riding on her back, along with the dog.
Kat is reunited with her overjoyed and relieved parents and elder brother after all the paranoia they went through regarding if she was alive, Hen is treated for any injuries she sustained, and every first responder there pays their final respects to Russ as his body is loaded into the LAFD ambulance to be taken to the Medical Examiner before he will be laid to rest with full honors for his Heroic Sacrifice in the line of duty.
All in all, while the earthquake and its aftershocks devastated L.A., it could not break the spirit of its people or its first responders. The San Andreas Fault may always be a threat to Los Angeles, but the city has proven time and again to bounce back from the brink.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Big Disaster Plot: A continuation of the earthquake from the previous episode taking place during the same day.
- Cowboy Cop: Athena comes across a convenience store owner who she finds out is overcharging for water, so she makes him sell all the contents of his store to the mob outside at a 50% discount.
- Cutting the Knot: Road obstructions prevent the expectant husband from driving his wife to the hospital, and none of the ambulance crews will be available for more than an hour. Maddie directs the couple to a nearby burning building where a team of FD paramedics is already on-site, sending the couple to the ambulance instead of the other way around.
- No One Gets Left Behind: The 118 refuse to evacuate without Hen. Hen also tries to help Russ from Station 221 so he can be rescued too, but he succumbs to his wounds. However, he is later recovered as well to be given a proper sendoff for having died in the line of duty.
- Screw the Rules, It's the Apocalypse!: Increasing prices of goods is restricted after a formal state of emergency has been declared. The shopkeeper, who had been charging $100 for water, asks Athena whether such an emergency has been declared. Although she tells him that the earthquake fault has declared a state of emergency, it's not legally sufficient.
- Timmy in a Well: Paisley the dog helps Hen find a little girl who was buried under the rubble.
- Title Drop:
- Maddie tells the husband of an unconscious, pregnant woman that "help is not coming."
- The battalion chief in charge says this with slightly different phrasing when she leads the rest of the squad back in to rescue Hen..
