On 911: Lone Star Season 3 Episode 3, “Shock and Thaw,” things take a turn for the worst. The progress we made in the first two episodes nearly vanishes and is replaced with Owen and his white saviorism.
Dream Sequences Are So 2021
While dream sequences have been used in television and movies for as long as I can remember, that doesn’t mean they’re always necessary or useful.
These sequences, which feature TK and his mom, special guest star Lisa Edelstein, baking in his father’s kitchen, seem to go nowhere.
There’s a bit of talk about whether TK wants to stay there with her, or go back to his friends, which is odd because his mother is very much alive.
Scenes between TK and his mother in his dream/coma state are made to be sweet, but in the end, they’re tart. We don’t feel the homey warmth that TK is experiencing even once. All we see is two people speaking in riddles at each other.
While TK sleeps, his doctor gives Carlos, Tommy, and Nancy the news that there’s a good chance he won’t make it this time. Carlos is heartbroken, Tommy is blaming herself, Nancy has nearly no lines in “Shock & Thaw” and we’re left with an unbalanced feeling regarding TK.
Not unbalanced because we fear he’ll die, no, but because we almost know he won’t. Ronen Rubenstein is one of 911: Lone Star’s most avid fans and a section of fans watch the show solely for Tarlos.
Cast members leaving abruptly and without the press knowing has happened before, but it’s shockingly rare, and by now, there’s a good chance someone would’ve leaked that Ronen is leaving.
Knowing that he’s going to be okay doesn’t make the stakes higher, it lessens them. The stakes raise for Tommy, Carlos, and Nancy, but it’s not even believable enough to make us feel entirely for them.
In Which Milk Carton’s Apparently Make You Millions
While Paul recovers in the hospital, being teased by his besties Judd and Mateo, Lindsey’s parents come to thank him for saving their daughter's life.
Instead of the normal flowers and thank-you basket, though, he offers Paul a new car, several Rolexes, a specially made specially ordered blanket so he can get warm quicker.
Mateo, the most unashamed of the three, wants in on what Paul’s getting, and who can blame him?
The scene is set up like there should be a reveal; that Lindsey’s dad is a huge CEO or owns several franchises. Instead, he reveals that he makes his money by selling milk cartons.
Cool? Completely irrelevant.
Unless 911: Lone Star is going to shock us all by bringing this around by having him somehow be related to the undocumented people Owen helps in this episode, this detail seems short-sighted.
I’m sure it was put in there for laughs, so everyone would be shocked and amazed at how someone can have that kind of money from milk cartons, but it fell seriously flat amongst everything else happening in the episode.
The Owen of It All
911: Lone Star has a fantastic staff of writers. They’ve brought us heartbreaking, uplifting, inspiring storylines for two seasons now, so… what happened?
Every single thing that happens involving Owen in this episode is too unbelievable to suspend your disbelief.
First, after miraculously discovering a group of migrants during a terrible ice storm in Texas, he insists that he’s going to save them, bringing them all back to his cabin, no biggie.
In a whiteout ice storm. He and twelve other people traveling through in the ice and snow make it back to his cabin nearly unscathed. Marjan drove off the road during this storm, but Owen can map exactly where his cabin is from a random barn in the middle of nowhere?
Okay. Sure. I’ll give you that one, I suppose.
Then, though, when the sheriff who’s actually looking to capture these migrants shows up at Owen’s place, he lets him in.
When the sheriff finally reveals who he really is (and, come on, nobody suspected a thing?), he takes out a gun and holds it facing Owen.
So, if I’m doing the math correctly, we have fourteen people in a room, all huddled together, and one man with a gun.
I’m not saying I’m going to be the person who charges the man if that’s the case, but Owen couldn’t figure anything out with the woman he met hours ago and whose husband loves HAM radios?
Come on, y’all. Strike two.
To top it all off, after Marjan comes in and saves Owen and all of the migrants because Marjan is a badass we all love, they begin their drive home together with Buttercup in the backseat.
Owen denies that he’s coming back to the 126 (or what’s left of it), Marjan pouts and rolls her eyes, and then they burst into a song that comes on the radio.
Absolutely nothing was solved, time to sing together!
Goodness Grace-ious
The bright spot of this episode, Grace Ryder, the best woman on earth, is overshadowed by the dumbest storyline Lone Star has done yet.
While we don’t have the entire story written out for us just yet, the fact that we have to deal with even the hint of Billy being with Grace when she gives birth instead of quite literally anyone else is shameful.
Billy broke up Judd’s family, partially Grace’s family, by shuttering the 126, most likely causing an immense amount of stress from both of them during the most important period of Grace’s life, one that should be relatively stress-free.
And now because the writers think it makes for a good, on the edge of your seat story, there’s a chance that Billy will be delivering Grace’s baby? And Judd won’t even be there?
This isn’t shocking or crazy; it’s stupid, and it’s insulting to Grace and Judd as characters who deserve so much more.
Hopefully, the writers will surprise us more than we’re expecting. At least we got to see her enjoy a mini baby shower from her work.
What did you think of “Shock & Thaw?” Did you enjoy the Marjan and Owen duet? Are you excited to see Owen (possibly) back in the city? Should Rafael Silva get an award for his sad eyes? (You don’t have to answer that one, we all know the answer is yes.)
Let me know in the comments below!
