Critic’s Rating: 4.2 / 5.0
4.2
Changes are abound as 9-1-1: Lone Star gears up toward wrapping its run.
And you can feel it in the air, especially after 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5 Episode 7, which saw Tommy step back from the 126 after her health scare, Nancy step up, and the Strand family face some difficult truths.
We also saw Enzo, who is living proof that people really do contain multitudes.
The hour was perfect for balancing calls and personal developments, which is when 9-1-1: Lone Star is at its best.
For the past few installments, we’ve lacked in the calls department.
Wyatt, in particular, got to stand out twice in the hour, and despite all the mixed feelings and void that Grace leaves behind, over time, it’s evident that Wyatt is perfectly cut out for this position as a dispatcher.
The suicide call, in particular, was an impactful one as it gave us more insight into his character as he was able to connect to the caller via his own experiences.
If anyone understood what it was like to feel as if your entire world shifted on its axis because of a prognosis, Wyatt does.
And it can get dicey when capturing what it’s like for able-bodied individuals shifting into the unknown after something rocks their world and renders them unfamiliar.
If there was any criticism regarding that call, it was how quickly it flew by, which made it seem like Wyatt didn’t have to do or say very much to talk this woman off the edge.
It was more a time-constrained issue than inefficiency or shoddy writing, though.
Jackson Pace is doing incredibly well this season and has found his groove.
Heartening cases related to the hour’s theme can be a mixed bag.
Will is doing everything in his power to appease his girlfriend’s daughter, which fits nicely with the tension Owen is experiencing with Enzo’s sudden appearance.
Will just wanted to be a happy family, and his love for this young girl was transparent, but he felt a bit displaced as the man who did everything a father should but didn’t have the title of “dad.”
At least he didn’t until the end of that call, and presumably, knowing that he had her blessing and that she genuinely loved him and embraced him as her bonus father was enough to keep him from the grips of death.
Even after amazing, Tommy performed an in-field laposcopy.
One element playing out in real time gave Owen the insight he needed to recognize Enzo’s importance in T.K.’s life.
Initially, he was put off by the man and clearly jealous.
It was hilariously ironic to hear this man rant and rave about how a devilishly handsome Enzo was the type of guy who makes everything about himself.
Pot meets kettle and all of that. At least the series is having full-on fun now calling Owen out, and they’re being good sports about all the critiques.
That even shifted to addressing some issues between T.K. and Owen and their father/son dynamic, which has felt a bit off for some time.
Enzo’s presence allowed T.K. and Owen to talk about things they would never have gotten into, and it was uncomfortable for all, including myself, while watching it.
Owen can be a lot to take in sometimes. However, it still didn’t make it any easier to hear T.K. laud and credit Enzo, not Owen, for becoming a firefighter and bluntly acknowledging that Owen was a loving but absent father.
T.K. even told Owen that it was Enzo who encouraged T.K. to show his father grace and that Owen was devastatingly broken and hurting because of all that he went through to add context for why Owen may not have been the dream father that T.K. envisioned.
It was a tough pill to swallow, but I deeply appreciated the honesty in that. It’s a rarity that we’re ever willing to cut through to the uncomfortable bits with each other and acknowledge the truths about our dynamics with those we’re close to and/or love.
Knowing how T.K. felt about Enzo and even stepping outside of his own jealousy and animosity to see how Enzo aided T.K. and Owen’s closer relationship rather than threatened it helped Owen.
He could step outside of his petty rivalry with the man that had him literally fracturing the guy’s arm during an arm wrestling competition to see how the only real threat to his relationship with T.K. was himself.
But because people contain multitudes, it was refreshing to know that Owen was also partially right about Enzo.
The Feds crashing the party sucked, and now Enzo is in jail for wire fraud and a litany of other white-collar crime charges, and T.K. is absent the fancy sports car Enzo gifted him partially as cover.
One could guess that Enzo was the flashy sort who maybe bought affections, but he clearly loved T.K., too, so the situation at least allowed Owen to refrain from “I told you so” and repay the favor by reminding his son that this other dad is every bit as complex a person as everyone else.
We all lose when we compel ourselves to see everything in black and white.
But the hour wasn’t just about fathers and sons; we also had mothers and daughters as it related to Tommy, Nancy, and the girls.
Tommy is so headstrong, and she never wants anything to slow her down.
She couldn’t envision allowing cancer to slow her down or keep her from being a superhero to her daughters and in the field.
The Will call applied every bit to Tommy regarding endangering oneself to play hero as it did to Owen.
Poor, doting Nancy was beside herself with worry and trying to look after Tommy as best as possible. After everything we learned in 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5 Episode 6, we know the personal cost for her and how triggering this all is.
Tommy couldn’t help reminding Nancy that she’s not Nancy’s mother because she, like Nancy, is afraid of this situation having the same result, but it was such a sharp slap to the face when we all know far better than that.
Their dynamic has been one of the best of the series, especially this season, as the closeness is undeniable.
Tommy jumping into the outpatient surgery the next day and then going back on the job was on brand for her, and it sucks that she couldn’t take a moment for herself or listen to Nancy when it mattered.
She almost died via a blood clot because of her efforts to carry on like nothing was happening and be everyone’s all.
Sometimes, strength can be the literal death of a person, especially a woman like Tommy.
You can’t be of any good or use to others if you don’t take care of yourself, yet that’s something that never fully clicks into place for most of us until it’s too late.
Tommy tried to do too much, from working and having a busy day on the job to partying it up at T.K.’s bash and dancing the evening away with the D.J.
And then she still came home to fix her daughter’s dress.
Her collapse was inevitable, and knowing how Charles died in that house made her fall all the scarier.
The twins rose to the occasion thanks to Wyatt’s assistance, and it’s not lost on us that he was the one on the phone the last time Tommy’s life was endangered.
Reaching out to Judd was the best call, but it also sucked that we didn’t get to see him find out about Tommy’s cancer.
She’s his best friend, and his wife is already halfway around the world, and we all know he doesn’t take things like this well.
As a side note, has anyone noticed that he drank a lot? Should we be concerned?
I’m still upset that without Gracie, there’s not much grounding for the big guy and little for him to do. Given that he’s always been a personal favorite, it’s a struggle to see Judd so aimless and pushed to the peripheral.
But back to Tommy, who finally, laying in that hospital bed, looking impossibly gorgeous despite Judd’s warning to the contrary, realized that she had to take a step back.
She really can’t fight cancer, and I’m assuming that means there will be far more to this depressing arc I don’t have the emotional bandwidth for, with her hands tied behind her back.
Tommy benched herself and has now placed Nancy in charge, making her interim captain in her stead.
Nancy has more than earned this, and it never hit me how much until this season and situation.
There was something special and meaningful about Tommy passing this on to Nancy as she did, and I love every second of what Brianna Baker has been delivering this season.
It’s such a bittersweet thing.
I love Nancy’s evolution and Brianna Baker’s majestic performance, but my gratitude conflicts with disappointment that it took this long to achieve all of this.
It was an emotional but balanced hour.
Over to you, Lone Star Fanatics.
How do you feel about Tommy passing the reins to Nancy?
Did you enjoy exploring the Strand dynamic?
Do you think Judd is developing a drinking problem?
Let’s hear it all below in the comments!
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