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.
Social Situations
The next 9-1-1 call gives us a glimpse of how the diverse Ladder 126 works in difficult social situations. They are called to the scene where a lady has called 9-1-1 because her neighbor’s yard has a small amount of smoke rising from the dirt. It didn’t take long to learn they were cooking barbacoa underground. It quickly comes to light that the neighbor has called to police on them several times and she is judging them based on their ethnicity.
When Owen states he is going to citizens arrest her for creating a nuisance 9-1-1 call she quickly fakes a heart attack. She doesn’t want Marjan touching her, and as she learns that T.K. is a homosexual, Captain Strand isn’t certified, and Judd refuses, she lands on Paul. As he starts assessing her, he informs her that he is trans and decides she’d rather go to jail than continue the charade. The way they lightheartedly brought discrimination to life was entertaining and shed light on real-life situations.
Wavelengths
T.K. and Carlos have a steamy session at Carlos’ place and it’s easy to see the two are on very different wavelengths. Michelle decides to see a curandera and decides to follow her instructions in hopes of finding her sister, Iris. Owen has a crazy dream about being bald and being made fun of by the crew and Michelle. He also attempts to rescue someone from a burning building but she declines, stating she’d rather die than be rescued by someone who looks like him. He awakes with a start, visibly rattled by the dream.
Owen opens up to Michelle about his dream and irrational fear of losing his hair and she shares with him the fact that she went to see a curandera in attempts to find her sister. It was great to see the two captains bonding over their crazy lengths they go to obtain what they highly value. She informs him the witch gave her a spell to try and help find her sister.
Creative Thinking
Ladder 126 is dispatched to an apartment complex with a gas leak. They evacuate all the residents except for a man, Howard Dalton, who refuses to leave because he believes there are people out to get him. He pulls a gun on Marjan claiming she’s with the overlords. When Marjan tells Captain Strand that he couldn’t get him to leave he decides the only way to get him out it to jump into his fantasy.
They pretend to be with the resistance and tell him they are going to smuggle him out of the building. They give him a helmet and firefighter jacket to get him out. Halfway through the evacuation he stops, freaked out that he forgot a tool that will help him detect the overlords. T.K. quickly steps in and uses the gas leak detector to pretend the overlords are hiding in an apartment behind them. They quickly rush to safety as the building explodes and Howard shares his gratitude from the resistance for saving him from the overlords.
Cowboys in Texas
Judd takes Owen out into the country for a horseback ride. After donning their cowboy hats, they take off on a beautiful ride through the countryside. Judd explains to Owen that he needs to hold onto what matters in life and even if he loses his hair he needs to do whatever he can to stay alive. He also tells him that they now know he looks good in a Cowboy hat.
T.K. shows up at Carlos’ house for what he thought was going to be a hot night. Carlos made dinner, a fancy looking dinner at that. Carlos wants conversation and to get to know T.K. He says that it’s just dinner and not a marriage proposal which cuts T.K. deep. T.K. that an invite after midnight meant one thing but Carlos invited him over after both of their shifts were done. The tensions run high and T.K. leaves without explaining why everything set him off.
Grace helps Judd recall the details of the night of the accident and you can visibly see the tension leave his body after he recalls the details and Judd admits he feels so much better now. Their moments together are probably a highlight for me and I hope we see more screen time for Grace as the season progresses.
Thoughts
In the closing montage, we see Michelle completes the spell the curandera gave her and Owen look at old photos of his son. Owen gets rid of all his hair treatment supplies, throwing them in the trash. Owen is finally ready to battle his cancer.
While episode one was packed with tons of storylines, I loved how we got to dig a little deeper into a few storylines in episode 2. I felt this episode was an elevation of the pilot and we are getting a better feel of how this series will play out. With the graphic depictions of mercury poisoning as well as storyline development for some of our main characters, I can’t wait to see what is next. Don’t forget to tune in on Monday at 8/7c to see what crazy situations the team finds themselves in next.
Stay connected with So Many Shows:
More From So Many Shows:
Let’s Go Retro: 1980’s Best TV Shows
Prodigal Son Episode 11: Alone Time