9-1-1 season 3, episode 7 recap: Athena Begins

9-1-1 gives us an emotional episode as Athena’s past comes full circle.

9-1-1 does a wonderful job of going back into the past of its characters to help us understand them on a deeper level. And this time around, it was Athena’s turn. Not only did we learn about her journey to joining the LAPD, but we learned that Athena was engaged to someone on the force.

The episode kicks off with Athena in the present-day learning that the gun that was used to kill her fiance (huh?!) has been found. To learn more about this man and what happened here, we have to go back to the 90s.

When Athena was still in college, she stumbled upon a booth that the LAPD put up to recruit people to the force. It is here where Athena meets Emmett for the first time, and the rest, as we say, is history.

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The two hit it off and were basically the perfect couple and brought out the best in each other, and even got engaged! She was inspired to join the force as a result, and things were on the up and up–until they weren’t.

One night Athena found out that Emmett had been shot and killed during a convenience store robbery. The part that hurt the most was that Athena had asked him to stop by to pick something up.

In the present, the memory of Emmett drudged up a lot of feelings for Athena and she was determined to find out who was responsible for his death all those years ago.

It was essentially locating a needle in a haystack and she had to trace all the owners of the gun until she finally found the person responsible.

Not only did she find the guy, but she learned since that fateful day, the man had tried to do good in the world. He carried the burden of killing an innocent man and running away, and to pay for his mistakes, he tried to do the best he could. Of course, that’s not enough to bring Emmett back or make up for his crimes.

Athena finally gets the closure she needs on 9-1-1 when the man confesses to his crime and is arrested by the authorities. It’s hard to manage your feelings during that moment because of who the man became, but at the end of the day, he committed a horrible crime and is being brought to justice for it.

Oh, 9-1-1, you always manage to break my heart.

9-1-1 airs every Monday on Fox at 8 PM EST!