Warning! Minor spoilers ahead for the January 31 episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star, “The New Hot Mess.”
Tommy Vega is getting back on the dating horse in Season 4 of 9-1-1: Lone Star. In last week’s season premiere, the paramedic gave her number to a repeat victim she felt a connection to, only to find out later that he was the new pastor at her church. Despite the complication, the relationship progressed in “The New Hot Mess,” and while Reverend Trevor Park may be new to Tommy, the pairing is one Suits fans are quite familiar with. Trevor is played by D.B. Woodside, who portrayed Jessica Pearson’s lover on the USA legal drama. Gina Torres opened up about reuniting with Woodside and the possibility of more Suits reunions to come.
Despite feeling like she’s finally ready to move on after her husband’s death, Tommy was conflicted in the latest episode about dating her pastor. She invited Grace (Sierra McClain) and Judd (Jim Parrack) to “chaperone” her first date with Trevor, and while he seemed disappointed, he was not deterred, and the night ended with a goodnight kiss and the promise of a second date to come. But for Suits fans who were feeling nostalgic for Jessica and Jeff Malone, Gina Torres says not so fast, telling TV Guide:
They're two completely different people! [Laughs.] You can't compare the pastor to Malone; you can't compare Pearson to Tommy Vega. These two entities could not be more diametrically opposed. So get that out of your brain; get that out of your system. It's actually one of the hardest things about moving on as an actor. I've been so blessed to play characters that have become iconic in their own way. … But you also have to leave that other character behind, and it's incumbent upon myself to make sure that all you see is Tommy, and it also is up to the audience to just want to be around Tommy and not look for Jessica or Gina in any of those portrayals.
While Gina Torres and D.B. Woodside have a history on screen thanks to working together on 24 and Pearson as well as Suits, the actress said it was an extra challenge for her to create a new relationship between Tommy and Trevor, to where memories of their past characters don’t distract the 9-1-1: Lone Star audience. She admits, though, that steamy dream she had about the reverend might have contributed to the Suits vibes. Torres continued:
Because trust me: I'm not thinking about what Jessica would do in that situation, because it's not authentic. It doesn't pertain to that moment, and maybe you had that flashback because we were all dressed up. He was in a suit. I wasn't in uniform. But they were still different. It was a dream sequence; it was a heightened kind of reality as well.
D.B. Woodside is set to return for at least several more episodes in Season 4, so fans are promised more of this welcome reunion. Suits fans have already seen a couple of other familiar faces this season as well, with Neal McDonough and Amanda Schull recurring in a storyline that involves Rob Lowe’s Owen Strand. Whether or not they’ll cross paths with Tommy is something Gina Torres is keeping close to the vest, saying:
I'll let you figure that out. [Laughs.] But the Lone Star universe is quite broad, as was Suits. There were things that happened on Suits and people that guest-starred that I never got to interact with, which really pissed me off sometimes. Like, ‘You're getting to work with [so-and-so], and I don't even get to walk in on a meeting?!’ There were little things like that that would happen. And yeah, sometimes we run into each other in the scene, sometimes it's in the makeup trailer. But you'll have to watch to find out.
You definitely don’t have to have been a Suits fan to be excited about what’s ahead for 9-1-1: Lone Star. Like Gina Torres said, it’s a broad universe, and there seems to be plenty of drama ahead for Owen and his “motorcycle gang,” as well as T.K. and Carlos after that big twist in the season premiere. New episodes air each Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Be sure to check out our 2023 TV schedule to see what other premieres are coming up.
