Ahead of next week’s 9-1-1: Lone Star series finale, Monday’s episode blindsided Tommy with the devastating news of an inoperable tumor pressing against her aorta. Despite Tommy’s theory that the tumor could merely be swelling before it shrinks, her doctor was considerably less optimistic, strongly suggesting that she get her affairs in order.
“It’s quite shocking to see the difference between how she looks in Episode 10 to how you see her [this week],” Gina Torres tells TVLine. “That was jarring to see, even jarring to play. When I see it back, it’s like, ‘Whoa, OK, here we are.’ We know her to be such a fighter. She seems invincible in so many ways, like she’s got all the answers. But she doesn’t have the answers this time.
Though Tommy opted not to share the bad news with her girls, lest they forfeit their backstage passes to Olivia Rodrigo, the episode still gave us a dramatic family reunion between Tommy and… Charles. Yes, as in Tommy’s late husband, played by Derek Webster. And what more appropriate place for Charles to show up than the very room where Tommy discovered him unresponsive back in Season 2?
“It was very emotional,” Torres says of her on-screen reunion with Webster. “He’s such a generous, kind man and actor. We developed this lovely relationship in my first season, so it was wonderful to get to play with him again, especially in these circumstances, because we gave ourselves and each other permission to be vulnerable.”
A comforting presence from the moment he returned, Charles sought to ease Tommy’s troubled mind, encouraging her to “rest.” But what exactly is happening here? Is Tommy’s deceased spouse really guiding her to the afterlife? Or is this encounter, as Tommy suspects, merely a stroke-induced hallucination? Either way, it’s a situation Torres isn’t accustomed to navigating.
“It was hard with this fantastical situation where she isn’t sure how much of it is actually happening,” Torres admits. “Modulating that emotionally so that the audience buys it was the toughest part. There were constant check-ins with [director John J. Gray] to be like, ‘Is this working? Is this OK?’”
Torres will neither confirm nor deny Tommy’s fate after Monday’s episode, simply confirming that “we will see Tommy in the finale.” In what form, however, remains anyone’s guess.
Elsewhere in 9-1-1: Lone Star‘s penultimate episode, a violent incident with an undercover cop led to Mateo getting arrested (and potentially deported!), T.K. and Carlos were told by a social worker that their dangerous jobs make them unsuitable guardians for Jonah, and Paul became the mentor of a teen daredevil who showed an interest in becoming a first responder.
Oh, and an asteroid is barreling towards Austin, potentially triggering — among other disasters — a nuclear meltdown. Just another day for the 126.
Torres says that 9-1-1: Lone Star has always been “very reflective of all the things that are happening around us,” and this finale is no exception. “I mean, there isn’t an asteroid coming towards us in real life, but there is that feeling that the world is on fire. There’s also all of the things around immigration that are happening at the moment. And cancer is, of course, a constant. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t been touched by it in some way.”
OK, let’s talk: How are you feeling ahead of next week’s series finale? Did that dramatic conclusion make you more emotional than you expected? And are you as worried about Tommy’s fate as we are? Drop a comment with your thoughts on Lone Star‘s penultimate episode below.
