9-1-1 Lone Star Episode 2
I may have never closed my eyes more than while I watched episode 2 “ Yee-Haw”. There are some gruesome visuals and even though I don’t have a weak stomach, I just couldn’t watch some of what unfolded in front of me.
Of course, before we get to the juicy stuff, they let us in gently with a little fluff. Captain Strand was excited to find a doctor in Austin who can perform his specialized hair procedures. He has an entire regime of pills, oils, and injections to keep his hair full and looking good. While the rest of the crew ribs him for his extreme hair care ritual, Owen holds steadfast to it.
Trouble Brewing
When a corporate office is having lunch catered for a meeting and they sign the bill without leaving a tip, you can feel trouble brewing. The meeting starts and the presenter starts sweating and itching herself like crazy, digging into her skin. It isn’t long before she grabs a metal fork and starts clawing at her arm. At this point, I had to look away because that was too visually jarring for me. Why no one stops her when she starts banging her head against the glass window is beyond me, but next thing you know she breaks it and throws herself several stories to the atrium below.
Once Ladder 126 gets on the scene things go from bad to worse. More and more people in the meeting are going crazy. A guy is stabbing himself in the chest with a knife, other people are clawing at their skin with forks, and more people are banging their heads against anything in sight. Pretty soon more people are throwing themselves out the window as the first responders try to hold them back. The longer the time elapses, the more people are losing their minds.
Analyze Every Detail
It doesn’t take long for Paul to start doing his “thing” and analyze every detail of the scene in front of him and asking the still sane people questions. Michelle realizes the victims are suffering from mercury poisoning as she is examining the patients and their symptoms. Paul quickly narrows down the culprit to the catered lunch. Once he lifts the top off a sandwich, he sees a pile of mercury sitting on top of the lettuce. The people are suffering from Mad Hatter’s disease, also known as mercury poisoning. Hatter’s use to go crazy due to the small amounts of mercury they were handling. At doses this big, the people were going insane quickly.
It was incredibly hard for me to watch as everyone was losing their minds and actively trying to rip themselves apart. I had to close my eyes so many times and I give major props to the show for creating such a visually jarring and realistic scene. I probably won’t watch that part again though, almost once is enough for me.
Special Delivery
Ladder 126 orders a delivery from the same restaurant and when the delivery guys brings the food to the station, he is the same person who delivered to the company. He is quickly apprehended and they discover a vial of mercury in his car. He admits to poisoning them because they never tip. And he had been delivering their catered lunches for years and was invisible to them but now they know who he is.
Captain Strand decides to meet with a doctor in Austin to create a treatment plan for his cancer. When she suggests a protocol that normally doesn’t cause hair loss he is ecstatic. His joy is quickly turned to sorrow when he learns he must stop his hair treatment protocol because it could interfere with this treatment. Since he’s been on his hair regime for so long there is the possibility he might lose his hair when he stops and he can’t handle that.
Not Ready to Face it
Judd and Grace start seeing a therapist to help with Judd’s PTSD but the appointment is a lot of Judd to take in. The therapist wants Judd to recall the night of the accident so his mind won’t replay his trauma on loop. Judd doesn’t want to go back to that night and as he starts to visualize the moments before the explosion, he quickly gets up and runs out of the room. He just isn’t ready to face the details of that night.
More Medical Inaccuracies
We then see Michelle arrive at the house of the neighbor boy who has asthma with her medical supplies. 9-1-1 wasn’t called, just her, and she rushes to the aid of Tomas. Once again, I struggle with the medical aspect of this scene. Michelle gives him a few puffs of an inhaler and then decides she needs to intubate. She explains to the father she needs to hold him down while she performs the procedure but there is zero struggle or discomfort shown by Tomas in this situation. If awake intubation is required, they use some sort of mild sedative or anesthetizing the airway, neither was done in this case.
After he is intubated we cut to a scene of Michelle giving Tomas an inhaler and explaining to his father how to treat his asthma with the medicine she provided. Once again this felt unrealistic and appeared to be quick extubation after intubation. I really hope the medical aspect starts to feel more real.
Valuable Information
Tomas’ dad is grateful for her help and after she refuses payment he offers her a valuable piece of information. He tells her, her sister and Dustin got into a fight the night she disappeared and she stormed out of the house. Someone in a blue pickup truck picked her up and drove off. This revelation changes everything Michelle has thought about her sister’s disappearance because now she knows Dustin wasn’t involved but there is now a new mystery player in a blue pickup truck.
Michelle tells Carlos her new lead at lunch the next day and he doesn’t want her to get her hopes up, especially since a quarter of the vehicles in Texas are trucks. His advice to her was to see a curandera, a witch since one had been helpful to his aunt. He agrees seeing a curandera might be ridiculous but he plants the idea in her mind.
Judd and Owen have a little heart to heart when Owen has to ask Judd to provided documentation that he is going to therapy. Judd asks Owen if he has seen anyone about his cancer. Owen informs him about the doctor and her treatment plan but how he would have to stop his hair treatment and he doesn’t want to lose his hair. He also informs Judd that he hasn’t told T.K. yet about the cancer.
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