9-1-1: Lone Star “Texas Proud”
Texas Proud has been the best episode by far. For the first time, I don’t have medical scenes to complain about (mostly), and I enjoyed the character development and focus on a few storylines. The ball is getting rolling on this season and it’s picking up speed quickly. Let’s get into Lone Star Episode 3…
Everything is bigger in Texas?
You can’t start an episode titled Texas Proud any other way than with a very Texas 9-1-1 call. Ladder 126 heads to a call at a corn silo where a teenage boy is sinking in the corn. You heard that right, corn can be quicksand. Captain Strand hands the lead off to Judd being he’s the only person on the crew who’s been on a corn silo call before.
In the middle of the rescue, Marjan’s line breaks and she falls into the corn, quickly sinking herself. They were given specific instructions not to step on the corn and Marjan panics as she starts sinking. T.K. immediately springs into action trying to pull her back up. Judd yells at T.K to stop trying to help Marjan but he doesn’t listen. Soon both are sucked into the corn and Owen has to saw through the bottom of the silo to rescue all 3 victims of the corn.
When the corn spills out and all 3 people come tumbling out as well, Marjan’s hijab falls off. She does a hair flip that is caught on camera by some bystanders. I’m not gonna lie, the hair flip was probably one of the most epic hair flips I’ve ever seen. Marjan quickly realizes her hair isn’t covered and the guys build a human wall to protect her while she covers her hair again.
Fight
Judd calls T.K. out when they get back to the firehouse and T.K. is ready to blow with pent up anger. The two of them get into a little fistfight before it’s broken up. The tension between them can be felt through the screen and T.K. is teetering on the edge of destruction.
T.K. goes to a bar looking for trouble. It isn’t long before he initiates an all-out brawl and ends up in police custody. T.K. opens up to Carlos and lets him see what he was desperately trying to hide.
Nothing screams Texas like an eating contest. A petite woman faces off against a large man in attempts to see who can finish a 96oz steak first. The woman is dominating the competition while downing several pitchers of water. I for one was impressed with how much steak and water combined was going into her system. Water always fills you up so to combine the two was crazy. After she takes her last bite and wins the competition, she passes out. We soon learn she has water intoxication and Michelle must use a catheter to release the tension on her bladder. I’m not a medical expert but the way this scene was laid out did seem a bit on the unrealistic side. It wasn’t egregious enough for me to pitch a fit, but it did make me scratch my head a bit.
Needle in a Haystack
Michelle’s story evolves and we get a deeper look into this storyline this week. Carlos printed out a list of every blue truck registered in the greater Austin area and it contained thousands of vehicles. This situation feels worse than trying to find a needle in a haystack. Michelle realizes she needs to talk to Dustin to get more information on what happened the night Iris disappeared but with her harassment over the past 3 years she’s doubtful he’ll help her.
Michelle attempted to reach out to Dustin, and he doesn’t want anything to do with it. She begs Dustin to help her but with everything she’s done he can’t even fathom wanting to be near her.
Something Bigger
Marjan is once again going viral for her hair flip after the corn rescue and she is struggling with it while some of the guys make jokes about it. To Marjan, her hijab connects her to something bigger and for the world to see her hair is one of the worst moments for her.
When Marjan is at her mosque another woman confronts her about her viral status and overall personality. In a not very smooth fashion, she tells Marjan to find another mosque because she isn’t wanted there.
Gang Up
Owen starts his chemo and makes a friend during his infusion. He admits to his new friend he hasn’t told his firefighters about his cancer yet. Wayne advises Owen to gang up on the cancer cells and gather a team of support around him. Owen is still afraid to let everyone know about his battle, but Wayne tries to break down those walls. When Owen is lifting weights later, he is unable to bench his normal weight and T.K. becomes concerned. Judd comes to the rescue, but we can start to see the tipping point when Owen must come clean about his diagnosis.
Had a Great Fall…
How would you react to a person falling from the sky and landing on a car? I jumped. I most definitely wasn’t expecting that. And I was also a bit shocked that the man who was driving the car didn’t get injured when his roof collapsed. The woman who fell though was looking a bit like Humpty dumpty with her limbs tangled in unnatural ways.
Once Ladder 126 arrives on the scene she takes a deep breath in and we realize that she is not, in fact, dead but very much alive. I also have another issue with the medical here because they start to move her before they stop when they realize her legs are shattered. It does not take an expert to notice the state of her legs when they are twisted like Gumby. They do stabilize them, and the scene can continue.
It is hard to make out the words she is uttering as she tries to speak to the team, but it sounds like she’s asking for a guy named Michael or Micah. Carlos and Owen go to her apartment to investigate and check to see if anyone else is involved. What they find is a phone with a video recorded on it that shows her attempting to create a yoga pose by hanging upside down by her legs from the balcony. We all know how this one ended and I think we can all agree that it isn’t the smartest decision to make 7 floors from the ground.
Drinking Battle
When the group is decompressing at the bar, Owen and Michelle get into a drinking battle. Michelle opens up about her issues with Dustin and how she needs his help to find out what happened to her sister. Grace, with her wisdom, advises Judd to make amends with T.K.. T.K. keeps ranting about the way Judd treated him and Carlos calls him out for his reaction and the fact that no one has probably called him out before for being the Captain’s son. Paul uses his special skills once again to deduce that something isn’t sitting right with Marjan. When she tells him that she was asked to leave the mosque, he encourages her to fight for what she wants.
A very drunk Owen ends up on Dustin’s front porch and after a speech to get Dustin to speak to Michelle, he ends up losing his cookies all over the place. Dustin and Owen get into an altercation and Owen basically assaults Dustin after Dustin calls him a sick old man. This was also one of my favorite moments of the episode. It was great to see cool and collected Owen Strand lose it for a moment.
Heart to Heart
You can’t have an hour of drama without a bit of resolution at the end. The next day at the firehouse Judd apologizes to T.K. and T.K. admits to Judd that no one has called him out like that before. They mend their fences and for the first-time act like brothers. Owen informs Michelle of his late-night encounter with Dustin and he learns of the restraining order against her. The fact that he assaulted Dustin puts them both in a precarious situation but wait there’s more.
Of course, Dustin shows up and he and Michelle have a little heart to heart. He informs Michelle that Iris wasn’t the perfect angel that she thought she was, and things were not going well for her before she disappeared. It appears that Iris was hanging with the wrong crowd and might have gotten herself into situations that weren’t the best for her. Michelle and Dustin both admit how hard it was losing Iris and how they both blame themselves for what happened.
We end the episode with a tornado barreling down the road right into the path of a woman driving her car. This is going to set up a wild ride for next week. Who doesn’t love a little tornado destruction? Hell Twister. Stay tuned on Monday 8/7c to see who and what will survive this natural disaster.
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