And that’s a wrap on this often polarizing and controversial militia terrorist attack plot.
You can definitely say that 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 4 Episode 6 was explosive as this heavily Owen-centric hour accelerated the gas on all the drama and action and didn’t let up until the end.
It was a strong showcase of Owen and how his experience with 9/11 affects him and influences how he approaches many aspects of his life and the job.
Owen has spent a long time under the impression that if they had known if he had known that those planes would hit the tower, more lives could’ve been saved.
He always felt that they would’ve lost fewer people and were better prepared for it, and to some degree, that’s true.
But nothing really prepares you for that moment once you’re in it, and you can’t go back and change the past.
That’s why it was imperative to Owen that he could prevent something as horrific from happening in the future. The F.B.I. knew this, and it’s why they recruited him in the first place because of his experience.
Do you know why so many of us died on 9/11? Because we didn’t know what we were walking into.
Owen
In their effort to use it to their advantage, they should have considered the baggage and heroics with Owen.
Leaving Owen in the dark and shutting him out after wasn’t beneficial to anyone. Because it left, Owen had extensive knowledge of something that would transpire and no idea when and how it would happen.
And it did make you think about the job of a first responder. Most of the time, they’re not a preventative force; as the very phrase suggests, their job is to respond to things that have already happened.
It must be taxing on the soul when you think about how every time you’re called in, it’s to react, and you’ll never be able to get ahold of the ball on anything.
It’s not necessarily a gift to know that something horrific is coming because you’re also stuck with how helpless you are to prevent it when it inevitably does.
The hour very much showcased some things that can get annoying and redundant, Owen’s particular brand of heroics that has him trying to be everything for a situation, by himself, outside of his wheelhouse, as a maverick, to the point of driving a person insane.
But it also showcased some of the “why” for Owen’s behavior. It did a solid job of depicting how his behavior and who he has become, good, bad, and annoyingly, is so heavily intertwined with 9/11, a day he truly will never forget a day in his life.
His reaction to the humor the gang displayed after they failed the drill was telling, and it was Owen at his most serious and Captain-like.
Owen: I’m not just going to sit here and wait for the tones to go off. Judd, you’re acting Captain until I come back.
Judd: What do I tell people when they ask where you are?
Owen: Tell them I’m out there not taking no for an answer.
He and Judd are indeed in a different league than the others regarding losing a mass amount of people to a horrific event at once and the toll it takes on them.
If anything, small moments of the two connecting over that make you wish they’d discuss it more, share those moments more, and explore how things like Owen and Judd’s PTSD don’t disappear or go away. These men must actively work through it regularly and will for the rest of their lives.
Owen had a series of rallying the troops and solid speeches that exemplified who he is as a firefighter and a leader well, and I long for the days when we see more of that side of Owen as a captain and their fearless leader.
Hopefully, this is the last side quest he goes on for a while because when Owen gets to settle into his captain role, he really can command a room and the respect of his crew, and the show is all the stronger for it when they remember and take advantage of that more.
His vulnerability with them about how the impending terrorist attack affected him because of his personal experience was significant.
Nevertheless, there is nothing more delicious than Judd as acting Captain and the leadership role he frequently holds with the crew.
He’s the perfect second-in-command to Owen because Judd does a remarkable job of slipping easily between a peer and superior in the group without ever straining any of his bonds.
And when Owen isn’t as preset with the group, Judd is. He also has a good enough read on Owen that he knows how to worm himself in and assist Owen, with the help of the others, without Owen even knowing he needs it.
Owen got most of the heroics during this hour, as customary in these things, but it was typical for Owen to go on some Hail Mary life-threatening mission to get rid of the AMFO before it blew up and killed people by himself.
By now, based on comments like T.K. acknowledging how much he hates his father’s Cowboy antics, at least the presence of the line confirming that the series is at least self-aware when it comes to all of this, people know what to expect.
And Judd coming in clutch with the rest of the crew, driving the firetruck right into the ambulance until it submerged, ensuring that Owen’s reckless plan actually worked was a great moment in showing that despite all of Owen’s behavior, things truly work best when they’re a team.
Judd knows Owen, and while you can’t stop the man from doing what he always does, you know how to work with and around it, which is how teams function.
The explosion at the Honor Dogs was likely the biggest tipping point in Owen going full Cowboy for most of the hour, spurred on further by the sad death of Casey.
But it was still generally frustrating how inept the F.B.I. appeared to be for the entire duration of this storyline.
Once that explosion happened, it should’ve been obvious that the Honor Dogs weren’t part of the terrorist attack planned.
I hate this series for compelling me to defend a fringe Nazi militia group, but the Feds really were the absolute worst in this.
They kept asking the dumbest questions, like why wouldn’t the anti-government militia group they know is an anti-government militia group wouldn’t trust the government and confide in them about things or give them leads?
Be real, people! The feds were still trying to close their investigation and pin everything on them, and there would’ve been another terrorist attack on their watch.
They were so blinded by the fact that they were an anti-government group with strong political thoughts that they didn’t focus on much else.
In hindsight, they didn’t have enough information to assume they were plotting an attack. It was unusual to play both sides with racist militias since the Honor Dogs weren’t the actual terrorists planning the attack. Mikey and Andy were spurred on by the same talking points the Honor Dogs champion was.
O’Brien: Andy’s not a murderer.
Agent: No, sergeant. He’s a mass murderer.
O’Brien was devastated to find out that his nephew was behind all of this and thought he had failed him at every turn. But at least it didn’t stop him from trying to get to the truth and stop the attack.
He and Carlos working together were unexpected but an interesting part of the storyline, especially once Carlos saved him from Mikey.
There is a complicated series of emotions for O’Brien. He sacrificed so much to be there for his late sister’s son. It all resulted in something like this. He couldn’t envision how his nephew even got there.
But the hour would’ve been stronger if they had let Andy be the bad guy. Instead, they opted to switch things up to portray him as someone under Mikey’s influence doing all of this under duress, and it was too hard to sell that.
It felt like they were trying to let Andy off the hook for how he ended up there and wanted to make him still out to be a good but misguided guy, but that doesn’t fly when you’re heavily involved in a full domestic terrorist attack.
He was upset he got kicked out of the Honor Dogs because he presumably wanted to do more than talk about their ideas and was more radical.
Mikey appealed to that and ran with it, but that was still where Andy was. And Mikey wasn’t a convincing enough threat being this scrawny kid with a ponytail.
It was hard to believe that someone who was at least somewhat as radical as Andy would be intimidated by this kid and feel his family was in danger because of him.
And even if Andy didn’t trust the authorities, he knew his uncle cared and was an Honor Dog, a founding father at some point.
Andy’s not even turning to his uncle regarding Mikey, and the threats against the family seem unfathomable.
Andy kept going along with this plan even though he was against it and was the face and person spearheading most of the measures.
It took more work to attempt to make Andy sympathetic and failed than it would’ve just let him be the terrorist with specific motives.
O’Brien: Owen, thanks for being the pain in my ass.
Owen: It’s what I do.
Sometimes watching fictional depictions of things like this can be tough. Andy was able to orchestrate or be part of a conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack, and thanks to Owen, he didn’t get a bullet to the head the second someone had a clear shot, which is more grace than some get for a freaking traffic stop.
He got 20 years in prison, but even thinking about the crowd he may fall into once in there is enough to make you shudder.
Wrapping up the case and the conversations Owen had with O’Brien were enough to bring Owen back to T.K. so he could finally spend some time with his son.
T.K. found out when everyone else did that Owen was absent, including during Carlos’ disappearance, because he was working with the F.B.I.
I really hate when he does this.
TK (On Owen’s Rogue Heroics)
It didn’t give them much time to talk about that, but as guys can sometimes do, they tended to gloss over that and let the unsaid speak for itself.
Owen’s gesture of getting the Chinese takeout Gwyn loved and having dinner with his son and future son-in-law, talking about their wedding, was some form of penance and amends.
Did anyone chuckle when he said that line about it being their first wedding? Does Owen even know anything about Iris and Carlos? He’s been so detached from everything else that he probably doesn’t.
Over to you, Lone Star Fanatics. Are you happy the terrorist storyline is over? How do you feel about the conclusion? Sound off below.
You can watch 9-1-1: Lone Star online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.