Before Leaving ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ Sierra McClain Delivered This Devastating Storyline
Although Sierra McClain has left 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5, her impact is still
felt. Her character is constantly referenced, even as her life unfolds off-screen.
However, showrunner Rashad Raisani told Entertainment Weekly that McClain’s impact on the show doesn’t stop with her character. He revealed that the former series star delivered the cancer storyline that happened to Tommy in Season 5 before she left the show. Tommy’s cancer storyline was inspired by a real-life headline, in which a viewer discovered a tumor on a newscaster and wrote to her. Raisani spoke about being pitched the idea by McClain, saying, “She and I are very close, and we met to talk about her character, but then she mentioned Gina. She said, ‘I think Gina Torres is just a special actress and she could take on an even bigger storyline than anything we’ve ever done for anyone, with more depth and more risk.’ And she said, ‘I mean, I don’t want to speak for another character, but what if she found out she had breast cancer?’ And I just thought, ‘Oh, that’s a genius idea.’”
‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ tackles cancer for the second time Owen and T.K. sit side by side on the lawn and look ahead in 9-1-1 Lone StarPhoto via FOX ✕ Remove ad Tommy’s cancer storyline isn’t the first time the show has tackled the subject. Owen also had cancer, but is in remission. The production team partnered with Stand Up to Cancer, an organization that promotes information about the disease, including educating people and using the latest research. “They’re an incredible organization. They helped us so much with Owen’s cancer story in the first few seasons. And then, because he was in remission and beating cancer, we didn’t get to work with them the way we would have loved to have in our first few years,” Raisani revealed. “They worked very closely with us, episode by episode, to make sure we got the terminology and the treatments and all of that right and hopefully told them with as much humanity as we could. We’re so grateful to have them involved again.”
As the show wraps up, this storyline sets up the final arcs for Tommy and Nancy. The producers “didn’t want to just go too straight into Tommy’s cancer,” choosing instead to bring in and “explore Nancy’s backstory in a deep way.” The storyline was a way to “begin the final arcs for both Tommy and Nancy for the show because we don’t want to go too far, but Tommy’s going to have to deal with this monster of cancer. It’s going to affect everyone,” the showrunner said.
