Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteSpoilers for “9-1-1” Season 9, Episode 4, “Reentry.”
“Reentry” makes its space-rescue climax matter by turning Athena’s fight to get home into a question of whether she wants to return to a life reshaped by Bobby’s death. Angela Bassett anchors that emotional pivot, while Hen’s friendship gives the episode’s grief story a necessary counterpoint. It is a compelling Athena-centered hour—and a strong case for calling it one of her finest episodes—though its intimate character work has to share space with an unusually heightened rescue premise.
What happens in “Reentry”
Season 9, Episode 4 concludes the opening space emergency. Athena and Hen are among the astronauts stranded after damage to their spacecraft, and getting everyone home requires a dangerous repair outside the craft. Both friends volunteer. Athena presses ahead while admitting that she feels she has nothing left on Earth.
That crisis is intercut with memories of Athena’s younger years, including her struggle to move forward after Emmett’s death and her eventual openness to a relationship with Michael. In an imagined conversation with her younger self, Athena confronts the idea that another loss makes life without Bobby pointless. She chooses to return. Hen helps her through the danger, and the stranded astronauts make it home.
Recommended Free Tools
#1 Best Overall
Afterward, Harry tells Athena that he has applied to the LAFD. The reveal gives the rescue a family-centered coda: Athena’s return is not only a decision to keep living, but a return to a household with its own future taking shape.
Why the episode works as an Athena story
The danger outside reflects the crisis within
The episode’s clearest dramatic choice is to put Athena’s despair in a situation where survival is both an immediate physical challenge and an emotional decision. She is exposed in space at the same time she is weighing whether a future without Bobby is worth choosing. The parallel makes the rescue more than spectacle, even if the space premise is deliberately larger-than-life.
Flashbacks make grief feel cumulative
The Emmett memories connect Athena’s present loss to an earlier one rather than treating Bobby’s death as an isolated wound. Her younger self gives that history a voice in the present, and the conversation helps frame her decision as a choice informed by what she has already survived—not as a sudden cure for grief.
Rank #2
![Airport Terminal Pack [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51u7TvlKDzL._SL160_.jpg)
- Factory sealed DVD
Hen offers connection, not a simple answer
Hen is essential to the rescue, but her importance is also emotional. The episode lets the two friends process Bobby’s death differently without suggesting that one response cancels out the other. Aisha Hinds described that contrast to TVLine this way: “I think they process their grief, especially as it relates to Bobby, very differently.” Hen’s presence gives Athena support without making grief seem easy or uniform.
Bassett carries the emotional turn
The story depends on making Athena’s change of heart feel earned inside a high-stakes, fast-moving rescue. Bassett is the anchor: the performance has to hold the weight of Athena’s exhaustion and make her eventual choice to return register as a real turn, not just a beat required to complete the mission. The younger-Athena material widens the emotional frame, but Bassett’s present-day work keeps it centered on the character.
One of the episode’s key lines, spoken by Athena, is: “Pain is the price we pay for joy.” TV Guide reproduces the thought’s continuation: “and it’s a fair trade, a good deal, because any second, instant, moment of joy is like a diamond in the darkness.” The line expresses the episode’s argument without implying that pain disappears: joy remains possible even when loss is part of the bargain.
Rank #3
- Immersive Audiovisual Experience: Enjoy stunning clarity with 1080P HD DVD player, it brings vibrant colors and clear details to your screen, satisfying all your home entertainment needs. The enhanced brightness and contrast of this home DVD player deliver cinema-quality visuals, while the included HDMI and RCA cables ensure easy connection to any TV, projector, or home theater system.
- Durable and reliable design: This TV-specific DVD player DVD player for TV features a durable plastic and features excellent shock resistance, ensuring long-term, stable operation. Equipped with a precision laser tray, this HDMI DVD player plays discs from all regions smoothly (does not support Blu-ray discs). Note: Do not repeatedly press the eject button
- Universal Disc and USB Input: This region-free DVD player is designed with a focus on playback quality and universal compatibility with a wide range of disc and file formats. In addition to supporting DVD formats [DVD, DVD-R/+R, DVD-RW, CD, CD-R/RW, VCD, SVCD], this all-region DVD player can also play music, and photos from USB hard drives or flash drives, supporting file formats such as MP3, JPEG, WMA, to meet all your entertainment needs. Supports only the FAT or FAT32 file systems. The copy function supports copying CDs to USB. The maximum supported USB capacity is 32 GB
- Easy-to-Use Remote Control: The HDMI DVD player can be easily operated with a remote control with a range of up to 10 meters. It integrates a variety of functions, including memory playback, copying CD/MP3 format files to USB, A-B loop playback, slow playback, hiding/displaying subtitles, and adjusting the screen angle. The DVD player with remote control is very easy to operate and is ideal for elderly people
- Warranty & Package: Package included 1 x 1080P HD DVD Player,1 x Remote Control (Battery not included),1 x 5.05ft HDMI Cable,1 x 3.34ft RCA Cable,1 x User Manual
Where “Reentry” is less grounded
The episode’s character work is emotionally focused, but it unfolds within a very heightened space-rescue scenario. That scale creates urgency and gives Athena’s choice a striking physical counterpart; it can also make the story feel more constructed than the quieter grief material around it. The balance is the episode’s main trade-off: the space emergency supplies momentum, while the flashbacks and Hen’s friendship supply its emotional substance.
Rotten Tomatoes displays four critic-review excerpts that are positive about the episode’s emotional and character focus. That small set is not enough to establish a broad critical consensus or a meaningful critical split. The more useful measure for viewers is whether the character story lands amid the spectacle—and “Reentry” gives it enough room to do so.
Free tools Windows power users keep installed
One-click scans. No signup required.
Is this the best Athena episode?
“Best Athena episode to date” is a defensible personal verdict, not an objective ranking the available coverage establishes across the series. “Reentry” brings Athena’s grief, earlier loss, friendship with Hen, and decision to keep living into one story, then gives that decision a concrete family consequence through Harry. Bassett’s performance makes the emotional center persuasive. Those elements make this a standout Athena episode, even if viewers may differ on how much the space-rescue framework enhances or distracts from it.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
