The second half of 9-1-1 Lone Star season 2 has remained as action packed as the first half and this episode is no exception. As Grace fights to recover, Owen struggles with some personal decisions, and the 126 continue to save lives, there’s a lot going on in episode 10, “A Little Help From My Friends.” Let’s jump right in.
Fresh off a 24 hour shift, Mateo struggles to fall asleep as his roommates loudly host a party in the living room late at night. Abandoning any hopes of sleep, he jumps out of bed in his Captain America pj’s to tell them to quiet down. His roommate informs him he did some rewiring on the stove so he could sear some delicious looking ribs. That’s when Mateo notices an odd smell and goes to the kitchen to discover a gas leak. He forces everyone to evacuate and cuts off the gas line to the house. He comments that it’s good there are no open flames in the home, but another roommate says she might have left incense burning in her room. At that moment, the entire home explodes. Mateo deadpans that he needs new roommates.
Carlos and TK are taking the next big step in their relationship, TK is moving in with Carlos. They carefully carry his workout machine into the house as they talk. Owen is also helping with the move, carrying in boxes and gives them a housewarming gift before he departs. Much to TK’s surprise it’s Owen’s favorite blender, Marlon Blendo. They are both touched and thank him for the gift. Before he leaves, TK takes a moment to check in with Owen to make sure he’s ok with having an empty house. Owen reassures him he is totally fine. Owen arrives home to feed Buttercup who is returned by his neighbor. It seems Buttercup is becoming an escape artist and was smitten with the neighbor’s dog.
At an Ol’ Softies Soft Serve joint, a very chipper teenage employee, Keith, thanks customers for visiting. His less than happy coworker, Sheila, asks why he’s so happy just as a group of jocks enter. Keith says they are friends but Sheila points out they just want free ice cream. The head jock acts buddy buddy with Keith who agrees they can have the friends discount and sets to work on their very large order including an item from a malfunctioning machine. Eager to impress the group, Keith sticks his hand with a scooper into the jammed machine which begins working again enough to cut into his hand. Sheila tries to free his bleeding hand by pushing the blade back with her own resulting in her entire arm being sucked into the machine and slicing up her hand and forearm. The 126 arrive on site to help. Tommy and TK immediately take her vitals while Owen determines they’ll need to cut her out. Mateo and Owen sets to work with the grinder when Marjan and Paul notice the jocks recording the incident to make fun of Sheila as she struggles with shock and to remain calm.
Annoyed by their lack of empathy, Marjan hatches a plan to set things right. Nancy treats Keith’s injured hand as he explains what happened and Nancy points out that he already has a friend in Sheila and he agrees. The team frees Sheila from the machine, but her artery has been cut and they rush to save her life. She regains consciousness and promises the crew a friends discount for life. As they move Sheila on a gurney, Marjan approaches the group of jocks and asks if they are trying to go viral. She shows them the video she took, making fun of them for trying to meme Sheila and informs them she’s already posted it to her five million followers. The group is mortified.
Back at the station, TK invites Owen over for dinner but he declines claiming to have a lot of paperwork. When TK leaves, he resumes playing solitaire. Alone now, Owen passes the gym to find Mateo dead asleep on the workout bench. He wakes him up and finds out that he’s been crashing at the station since his house blew up. Owen invites him to stay at his house instead, and the two officially become roommates.
Grace wakes up alone in bed and in pain. She struggles through to slowly make her way out of bed and down the hallway to the kitchen. Judd finds her in the hallway and hovers as she waves him away and continues to make her way to the kitchen table. She’s determined to do things on her own since he is returning to work today and will be on her own going forward. Judd’s already put a trashcan (for her morning sickness), her favorite crackers, and a ginger ale by the couch so she can head straight there to relax throughout the day. He also reminds her that she can text if she needs any help at all and the neighbors are also home to help if she needs anything. She agrees and sends him on his way, obviously not going to take any of his advice or offers of help.
At the station, Paul talks Marjan through making the best oatmeal as a hungover Mateo sits down. He then explains what happened the night before with Owen. Mateo was excited to finally get some sleep and comes downstairs after settling into TK’s old room to tell Owen goodnight. However, Owen has other plans and breaks out an expensive tequila. One shot turns to two and suddenly the pair are laughing and sharing secrets as they drink the entire bottle. Extremely drunk, Owen confides in Mateo that he canceled his surgery even though he told TK he rescheduled it, and tells Mateo to never get comfortable because everything can be taken away in the blink of an eye. As Mateo tells this to Paul and Marjan, Owen enters looking just fine and not at all hungover. Tommy finds Judd texting Grace and checks in with him, calling him on how worried he is about her. He’s concerned she won’t ask for help if she needs it but Tommy tells him not to worry, “If she’s anything like I was early in my pregnancy, she won’t stray too far from that couch.” Judd seems mildly reassured.
Meanwhile, Grace has strayed from the couch all the way to the grocery store where she’s slowly making her way around with her brace. An employee asks if she needs any help but she turns it down and continues to shop. Grace makes it outside to her car and throws her groceries in the backseat, clearly in pain as she does so. However, she accidentally throws the keys into the floorboard. She crawls her way into the car but her muscles seize up and in serious pain, she can’t move. She’s effectively stuck in her backseat with the door open. Judd texts her to check in and Grace texts back that she’s “hanging in there.” An elderly lady asks if she can help Grace with anything, but again she declines the offer and the lady points out her ice cream is melting before leaving. Grace grabs it and starts eating with the lid as a spoon.
The 126 respond to a call where a young boy has climbed onto the roof of a two story house. The mother tells Owen that they are new in town and she threw him a birthday party inviting all the neighbors but no one showed up and the boy is upset. He yells that he doesn’t want to come down. Marjan, Paul, Mateo and Judd use the radios to discuss how they think Owen might be depressed after what Mateo shared. Owen radios to inform them them they are on an open channel. Owen heads up the ladder to rescue the boy as he tells the team on the radio that he is not sad or depressed. On the roof he manages to talk the boy down after accidentally telling him about his own problems and they make their way safely to the ground.
Tommy arrives at the grocery store to find Grace in the parking lot. It’s revealed that she waited six hours before finally texting Tommy for help. Grace is her own level of stubborn and Tommy tells her as much. She also didn’t tell Judd. Tommy checks her out and gives her some muscle relaxers to help her be able to move. Grace confides that she doesn’t know how to be the person that needs help, she’s used to being self sufficient and Tommy reminds her that they are human and asking for help doesn’t mean she’s weak, it means she’s wise. Tommy snags the keys and drives her home.
TK charges upstairs into Owen’s room, opening all the blinds and waking him up. He’s angry that Owen is still in bed at 2:30 p.m. and never bothered to tell him that he’s depressed. Owen says again that he’s fine, but TK demands he take a shower, dress, and meet him downstairs. Owen finds the entire team waiting for him in an intervention of sorts. The group wants to talk about Owen’s emotional well-being and Judd lays out the hard truth that Owen doesn’t “roll with the punches” like he says, he “takes the punches” and when that stops he goes looking for more. Owen finally confesses he did cancel his surgery but it was because he felt like the timing was wrong. TK was in the hospital, Judd drove off a bridge, a volcano, but TK says he can’t keep putting it off. Owen asks what if the surgery isn’t successful, and when TK says he thinks Owen doesn’t want to lose his excuse to feel sorry for himself Owen shuts it down and has everyone leave. Mateo too leaves to crash at Paul’s so he can finally get some real sleep.
Grace wakes the next morning and tries to undo her sleeping support so she can get to her walker. She struggles and is in too much pain when she ultimately decides to wake Judd and ask for help. He immediately jumps out of bed and helps her slowly get out of the bed.
At home, Owen calls for Buttercup and finds him laying on the ground whining. Owen rushes him to the vet where TK and Carlos arrive to find him waiting. He tells them it’s a bowel blockage that could be a tumor. Owen tells TK that he’s going to reschedule his surgery that day and TK is grateful he’s deciding to move forward with it. However, the doctor arrives to tell them that Buttercup swallowed the little sloth tea infuser which he successfully passed. Buttercup is going to be fine. TK says Owen still needs the surgery and Owen says they are having a party first. The crew take the fire truck back to home of the little boy who was sad about no one coming to his birthday. As they pull up, Owen asks on the speaker system for everyone to evacuate their homes to help celebrate. It’s a block party complete with the Ol’ Softies duo, Keith and Sheila, serving ice cream from a food truck to the neighborhood kids as they play music and everyone dances.
9-1-1 Lone Star airs Mondays on FOX at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. C.
