Maddie goes on a ride-along with Athena, wanting to see the people behind her 911 calls. A seemingly "perfect" dispatcher must be dealt with when her true nature is discovered. Hen’s family is threatened to be pulled apart by a familiar face.
Athena and the 118 have to deal with people being Jerk with a Heart of Jerk throughout this episode. Chief among those was Gloria, a fellow 911 dispatcher at Parker Center who seemed all nice when she talked to Maddie, but was really a Jerkass with hanging up on calls she felt were below her. After Athena and Maddie arrive at a restaurant that was robbed and save the owner, who explains what happened when he called 911, Maddie has Josh and Sue look over the records and find that Gloria had hung up on hundreds of serious 911 calls for the past 8 months, believing that her husband serving her divorce papers was what triggered her Berserk Button, especially in the middle of a 911 call which Gloria hung up on so as not to hear the victim meet their end at the business end of a gun. In the meantime, during the ride-along, Maddie and Athena deal with protecting a USMC funeral from protestors, but have to call in the 118 when the leader of the protest group keels over due to his colostomy bag being compromised. He refuses treatment from any of the 118 until he gags on his own digestive waste, then they are able to treat him and get him to the hospital, while the rest of the protest group are reconsidering their behavior because of what they just saw.
As a result, Gloria is fired and facing serious jail time for having dishonored and disrespected her duty as a 911 dispatcher, and swears Revenge on Maddie, leading to her haranguing Maddie with calls until Gloria sinks so low that she uses 911 to continue to harass Maddie, even impersonating a first responder, which is a serious offense. However, Gloria gets her Laser-Guided Karma when she loses control of her vehicle and crashes, leaving her severely injured and unable to reach her phone due to her airbags. Unable to hear Maddie and thinking she hung up on her as Disproportionate Retribution for her harassment, Gloria breaks down in guilt-ridden tears as she gets a dose of her own medicine. Unknown to her, Maddie overhears her Engineered Public Confession and plea for a chance to make things right, and upon finding her location, sends the 118 to help her. Gloria is rescued, and quickly sees to atoning for her mistakes when she recovers and apologizes for her actions.
Hen meanwhile deals with Eva and her Smug Snake threats of taking Denny away from her and Karen with the support of Denny's father, Nathaniel. However, Hen discovers Eva violating parole with getting drugs, and soon finds her having overdosed on them. Despite wanting to leave her to die as Revenge for her actions against her and Karen, Hen still calls for help for Eva, but also notifies Eva's parole officer of what happened, thus having Eva be sent back to prison for good, ruining her plans, especially after Hen gives her a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to tell her off, showing she has no Sympathy for the Devil in Eva, and Nathaniel makes a deal with Hen and Karen so they can keep Denny.
- Eva: (thankful) You saved my life, Hen.
Hen: (scornfully) I save lives everyday! That's my job!
The episode ends as Captain Nash and his crew free Gloria from her wrecked car, Eva is loaded into an LASD transport van to be taken back to prison forever, Sue commends Maddie for her efforts, Athena deals with the wounded suspect that shot the restaurant owner, and then joins the 118 for a meal at the firehouse.
Tropes featured in the episode:
- Asshole Victim: The theme of the episode is about the awful people the team has to deal with day in and day out.
- The Bus Came Back: Eva Mathis, and attempts to regain custody of Denny.
- Call-Back: Lorraine is the Porch Pirate, having moved up from stealing packages to Insurance Fraud.
- Evil Old Folks:
- Gloria starts off as a kind mentor figure to Maddie, but is shown to be dismissive to her callers, hanging up on them when they desperately need help. She's been hanging up on callers for 8 months, ever since her divorce.
- At a military funeral, a homphobic and racist old man's colostomy bag is about to burst but he won't let Chimney, Hen, or Diaz touch him because they're Asian, black, and Mexican respectively.
- Expy: While the name isn't said, the religious group protesting the military funeral is likely based on the Westboro Baptist Church.
- Gone Horribly Right: Lorraine prepares to get hit by an old woman backing up, only for another driver to run her over, then get backed over by the old woman.
- Insurance Fraud: Lorraine stands behind cars and pretends to be hurt so she can claim a big payday. At the mall food court, she spills ketchup on the floor and slips, so the mall pays up. The second car is a case of Gone Horribly Right when she gets hit by a car and then backed over.
- Last Disrespects: A religious group protests outside a fallen Marine's funeral.
- Motive Rant: Gloria details why she started hanging up on her calls after her crash. After she was served divorce papers, she had to listen to a dead-end call where no matter what she said, the woman on the other end was going to be killed by an ex-client. She hung up to save herself the trouble of hearing it.
- Put on a Bus to Hell: Eva is sent back to prison for violating her parole, which involved keeping away from drugs.
- Spotting the Thread: Athena notices something's wrong with the Vietnamese restaurant when she sees the sign is flipped to CLOSED during lunch, but there's an order of food on a table.
- Wham Line: The Vietnamese restaurant owner drops one to change the tone of the episode.Lanh: How you here? They hang up.
Athena: Sir? Who hung up on you?
Lanh: 911. - What You Are in the Dark: Hen discovers Eva suffering a drug overdose, and she seems tempted to just let her die after trying to take Denny away. Hen, however, decides to save Eva... but not before telling Eva's parole officer about what happened, meaning she'll get sent back to prison, and out of Hen and Karen's lives for good.
