Spoilers ahead for 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 3, Episode 2 “Thin Ice.”
The ice storm is continuing to slam 9-1-1: Lone Star’s third season and the second episode was an emotional one for multiple reasons. In a storyline that’s been teased as far back as November, T.K. fell through some ice while rescuing a little boy in a freezing pond and was soon hit with severe hypothermia and fell into a coma. T.K. is yet again in serious danger, but the showrunner has a good reason for it.
Fans have gone through a T.K. health crisis before, as it is not the first time he has been in the hospital. So why does this keep happening to poor T.K.? Lone Star boss Tim Minear explained to TV Insider why the firefighter-turned-paramedic is being put through the wringer, even comparing it to T.K.’s 9-1-1 danger magnet counterpart, Buck:
It’s going to affect them a lot. I know that I’ve seen a little bit online — I get this on 9-1-1 too with injuring Buck [Oliver Stark] constantly — and the decision for this to happen with T.K. was not taken lightly. It’s not that I wanted to hurt a character just to have some story for an hour or two. The idea was to not give it short shrift. It’s funny. I felt like in Season 1, when T.K. got shot, that kind of was something that I did because we were so far behind, I needed something to happen, but it really was given short shrift. He was in the hospital and then like the next episode he woke up and he was fine. One thing I’m trying to do this year is to let these stories breathe a little bit and not just rush through them.
Just like Buck, it seems like T.K. is always getting hurt, whether that’d be physically or emotionally. While it seems like there will definitely be more to come out of this hypothermia storyline, including it lasting longer than an episode or two, fans will definitely be in for a ride.
Meanwhile, as T.K. fights for his life, his loved ones will be doing everything they can to support him and each other. Tim Minear previews what the next episode will consist of, and it will be as intense and heartbreaking as ever:
So what you’ll find is we’re really spending time on these things that happen. We’re trying not to lose what the ramifications might be when something serious happens. So T.K. is going to go through a lot to try to survive. We’re gonna sort of go into his head a little bit and he’s gonna learn something about himself and it’s gonna absolutely affect everybody around him. Tommy is his captain. Owen is his father. Carlos is the love of his life. Everybody else are family members to T.K. So T.K. becomes sort of a rallying point for all the characters, and it kind of slaps Owen out of his complacency, which is not really complacency so much as it is fear.
It will be interesting to see exactly what happens in the following episode. It seems like we’ll be getting a look inside T.K.’s head, while Owen, who has been in the hill country, ex-boyfriend Carlos, and the rest of T.K.’s chosen family will be waiting for any good news. One T.K. (hopefully) gets better, maybe Tim Minear and the writers will give him a break because I don’t think I can stand any more trauma from this show.
A new episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star airs on Monday, January 24 at 8 p.m. EST on Fox! Check out CinemaBlend’s 2022 winter and spring TV schedule to see what else to look forward to.
