Spoilers ahead for Episode 2 of 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5, called "Trainwrecks."
Under most circumstances, describing a TV show as a giant flaming trainwreck would be the worst kind of insult; for 9-1-1: Lone Star's fifth and final season in the 2024 TV schedule, that description is very, very literal. The heroes of the 126 were on the scene of a burning trainwreck that needed to be suppressed as quickly as possible, while also rescuing a dad who was trapped in his crashed car and only Mateo was small enough to fit in and help him. And this is all while Owen has yet to decide whether Marjan or Paul will become Judd's replacement as lieutenant!
When I spoke with Lone Star executive producer and co-showrunner Rashad Raisani, he shared some insight on the disaster as well as Owen's problem. His comments leave me wondering: could the trainwreck change his mind about selecting a new lieutenant?
Why 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5 Is A Real Trainwreck
When I spoke with Rashad Raisani about the adversity on the way for Tarlos and why writing Grace's absence was "tough to swallow," we also discussed the show's first epic disaster of the fifth and final season. I asked the EP how much of a goal it was to go for a huge crisis to start Season 5, and he shared:
It was THE goal, to be honest, because I knew that we needed to come back big, to try and just remind people that we were out there and our hope was that during these terrible strikes, that people maybe had time to pick up the show, and maybe they watched 9-1-1 or they're on Hulu and they see [it] and say 'What's this all about?' Hopefully we built our audience a little more during this sabbatical, but I knew also that for the first time since Season 1, Fox would be able to promote the show during football. So we just really wanted to give them the biggest, most exciting, explosive trailers we could. It was hugely important to come back big.
The fifth is the first 9-1-1: Lone Star season to actually premiere as part of the fall TV season, which means that Fox can promote it during the football season. Plus, like 9-1-1, the full series so far has been streaming with a Hulu subscription for quite some time, making Lone Star a viewing option during the WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike.
Unfortunately, coming back in a big way with the trainwreck isn't enough to save Lone Star from cancellation, with Raisani also sharing when he knew that the "writing was on the wall" for the show's end. The crisis was still ongoing when the final credits rolled on "Trainwrecks," with Marjan and Paul still competing for lieutenant and Owen really only resolved on not wanting to pass them over to bring back Judd.
Will Owen Change His Mind About Choosing A Lieutenant?
9-1-1: Lone Star has practically played Owen's conflict over choosing between Paul and Marjan for laughs. He even thought he found a solution with the plan to just give the position to whoever scored higher on the exam for promotion... only to learn that they tied to break the department's record. It's a problem that he wouldn't be having if Judd hadn't quit. EP Rashad Raisani addressed what Owen is looking for in a lieutenant after losing Judd:
Owen's problem is that what he's looking for is somebody who is incredibly competent, who's reliable, who's faithful, who's selfless, who's talented, who is easy to work with. And Owen's big problem, of course, is that he has a few of them. [laughs] He's done too good a job with his team, because as we mentioned in the show, Mateo has already had this job... when he was working for the guy who ended up having early onset dementia, so he's had that job as lieutenant, and then Paul and Marjan are both just incredible firefighters, and that is the very horn of Owen's dilemma. Everything he wants, he has in two different people, and they both have it. So how do you choose?
Owen's answer to the question of "How do you choose?" so far has been to just not choose, and it seems safe to say that the deadline is going to pass without a definitive choice in light of the deadly trainwreck. Marjan stepped up in particular on the scene of the crisis, with firefighters from another house even assuming she'd be the lieutenant. I just can't help but wonder how bad the situation will get and if it will shift what Owen wants. When I noted to Raisani that neither Paul nor Marjan is Judd 2.0, the co-showrunner said:
Honestly, they each have things that Judd doesn't. I think that was a big part too. Judd is an amazing firefighter, but so are they, and it's their turn. That's another thing we wanted to play here. Judd had his moment, and so now it's somebody else's turn.
Rashad Raisani's comments match what Owen told Wyatt when Judd's son turned up to ask Owen to give his dad the job back. This was before the trainwreck, though, and possible changes to Owen's dilemma. A decision needs to be made sooner rather than later; the only thing I'm really confident of is that Judd isn't going to spend the very last season of the show long haul trucking across Texas.
Find out how the firefighters and paramedics of the 126 deal with the trainwreck in the next new episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star on Monday, October 7 at 8 p.m. ET on Fox ahead of Rescue: HI-Surf. You can also stream the fifth season on Hulu.
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