Villainess Review: Fiona (9-1-1)

I've mentioned this in past reviews centering on 9-1-1 and its spinoff series, 9-1-1: Lone Star, I absolutely love that a number of their episodes have themes. For the most part, episodes operate under an anthology format, with a number of different emergencies that all have the same thing in common. One such episode that stands out is "Peer Pressure," which deals with just that; the pressures of being part of the crowd.

It's at the near midpoint of the episode that the scene shifts to a retirement home, and a conversation between two couples: Marcia and Herman Jones, and their friends, Felix and Fiona. It starts out with Herman and Felix doing some sort of comedic bit before the attention is directed towards Marcia's expensive bracelet. Fiona fawns over the bracelet, and after Herman mentioned that he bought it for Marcia some time ago, Fiona suddenly mentioned that she would be receiving an expensive, white diamond encrusted bauble, from Felix, who had to be reminded by Fiona about the gift--which would be for their 51st wedding anniversary.

Jennifer Rubio, the retirement home's owner, approached Lewis, an orderly, about a strange odor coming from the basement, which also had a chapel. Lewis is sent down to the basement, but at that same time, Fiona sent Felix down to the basement as well. After both men entered the basement, Felix told Lewis that he had it covered, but that changed with a simple flick of the light switch from Lewis, as an explosion happened. This led to Bobby's crew being called, and they managed to rescue both Felix and Lewis, with the former being stretchered out. Despite this, Felix stated that he felt wonderful, but it was the morphine talking.

Apparently, that morphine had a bit of sodium pentathol in it, because Felix revealed some damning truths. It was Bobby to revealed that a meth lab was found in the basement, and after this, Felix stated that it was the only way that he could afford the bauble. Fiona's attempts to keep Felix from talking failed, as Felix revealed that he wanted nothing but the best for his wife, who was, as Felix also uncovered, was obsessed with beating Marcia. With the truth exposed, Fiona confessed to pressuring Felix to operate a meth lab, saying that it wasn't just the gifts, it was also living in the retirement home as well. In her rant, Fiona stated that the cost of leisure living turned her into a criminal villainess, but all of that has literally went up in smoke.

"Peer Pressure" was the fifth episode of 9-1-1's fifth season, and aired on October 18, 2021. The episode featured Anne Gee Byrd as villainess Fiona, and I remember watching this and was very surprised by the developments that were uncovered. A meth lab in a retirement home was crazy enough, but the fact that Felix operated the lab under the orders of his envious wife was even wilder. Regarding Fiona, Felix's revelation pretty much established Fiona as being insanely jealous and ruthlessly greedy, and those traits ended up motivating Fiona's heel turn into a life of crime. Her self-justification of her villainy was so "poor me" filled; she had no choice because of the cost of leisure living? Really? Byrd's performance in the brief segment was stellar; she acted out Fiona's early frustrations with Felix hilariously well, and really showed out during Fiona's reveal and her attempt to justify her villainous actions. All of these factors truly make Fiona a very memorable 9-1-1 villainess.

Anne Gee Byrd has been acting for nearly five decades, making her TV debut in an episode of Little House on the Prairie and later appearing in episodes of Happy Days, The Rockford Files, and Cagney & Lacey (among other shows). In recent years, Byrd has appeared in episodes of How to Get Away With Murder, NCIS: Los Angeles, and Station 19.

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Check out Fiona's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!