In last week’s episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star, Marjan found herself in a difficult position after losing someone at the scene of an accident. Meanwhile, Owen’s off-duty activities — tracking down a potential arsonist — ended in a concerning cliffhanger, in which he was knocked out by someone while the building he was inside of was set ablaze. Keep reading to find out what happened in episode 12, “The Big Heat.”
We pick back up right where the previous episode left off. Owen wakes up inside of the burning building, and there’s a silhouette of a figure off in the distance that disappears. Later, he wakes up at Billy’s house, and he tells him that he tracked him down at the warehouse and dragged him out to safety. He also, unfortunately, didn’t see whoever knocked Owen out and started the fire in the first place. Owen now has photos of the counterfeit breaker box on his cellphone and wants to bring his latest evidence to the police, but Billy doesn’t think it’s a good idea and tries to convince him otherwise.
Realizing that he completely forgot about his actual plans for the evening, Owen shows up two hours late to the Reyes/Strand family dinner — but at least he remembered the limes! When T.K. is suspicious as to why he’s late, Owen blames it on traffic. He learns from Carlos’ father Gabriel that, although nobody took his arsonist report seriously, the Texas Rangers have been looking into it. Gabriel suspects that it’s a firefighter and shares the profile that he’s put together for the suspect. Owen heads over to Judd’s house afterwards and shares his latest concerns: he thinks that the arsonist is Billy. He fits the profile, and he’s the only other person that Owen has talked to about the situation. Judd is upset and angered by the accusation, but Grace tells Owen that he needs to report it either way.
Wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, Billy meets up with AFD Arson Investigator Dennis Raymond on a park bench and shows him incriminating photos of Owen at the warehouse fire. As a result of this, the police show up and raid Owen’s house as Mateo watches on without the faintest idea of what’s happening. Once they find the “evidence” that they need (which was actually just Owen’s materials that he was using in his investigation), Gabriel and the police catch him as he’s leaving a coffee shop and place him under arrest.
At Station 126, Mateo tells the team about the raid at the house, and T.K. frets, because his dad hasn’t been answering his phone. Carlos shows up and asks to speak to T.K. privately, explaining that Owen has been placed under arrest as the suspected arsonist. What follows is an incredibly emotional scene between the two as T.K. begins to shove Carlos, upset that he appears to be siding with his father. As Carlos tries to hold him still to calm him down, T.K. tells him to leave him alone, and then Judd intervenes and tells Carlos to leave.
At the police station, Gabriel has begun interrogating Owen. Investigator Raymond watches from the other side of the two-way mirror and is surprised to learn that Gabriel’s and Owen’s sons are dating. Owen tries to explain that they should be investigating Billy, not him, but Gabriel won’t budge. The evidence is stacked up against him. Meanwhile, T.K. — out of sorts between what’s going on with his dad and the fight with Carlos — decides to stay with Mateo for the night. Though he can’t seem to find any hope in the situation, Mateo remains firm that Owen will pull through (with a handful of superhero references, of course, because it’s Mateo).
Taking things into his own hands, Investigator Raymond enters Owen’s interrogation room and turns off all of the recording devices. He shares that Gabriel is already planning a huge press conference about the arrest, which means that Owen’s chances of being cleared are slim to none at this point. However, Investigator Raymond doesn’t think it was him, and he seems to be on board with Billy as the real suspect. He asks Owen if there’s any additional information he withheld, specifically any other fires connected to the arsonist, but they’re interrupted by Gabriel before he can tell him anything. Gabriel then tells Owen that they have a witness who’s currently in the hospital, and he gives him the opportunity to confess on the spot in order to reduce his sentence. Owen refuses, because he knows the witness will exonerate him when he wakes up.
Judd, having picked a side, shows up at Billy’s house and ends up arguing with him and punching him. Meanwhile, someone shows up at the hospital and enters the room that the aforementioned witness is in, holding a syringe. Gabriel and his team burst into the room and catch Investigator Raymond in the act.
The tables are turned for Investigator Raymond as he now sits in handcuffs in the interrogation room. Gabriel explains that he’s been onto him for a few months. He fit the profile, because he was denied a promotion and then his wife died after Christmas. We learn that Owen had previously approached Gabriel to tell him what happened at the warehouse and to share his concerns about Billy. Gabriel knew it wasn’t Billy, so he instead formulated a plan to trap Investigator Raymond with the two of them involved. Investigator Raymond requests for Owen to step into the interrogation room, and he asks him if he knows how many fires he was responsible for in total. Owen says 11, which is correct, but the man then hints that there are a few more to come. Investigator Raymond then tells them that because the most important thing in the world was taken from him, he’s going to repay the favor. He then proceeds to explain the chemical reaction caused by dumping water on aluminum iodine powder, demonstrating it on himself with the pitcher sitting on the table in front of them. He’s immediately engulfed in flames and dies as a result.
Owen calls the 126 and tells Judd to evacuate the firehouse immediately. Everyone manages to get out in just in time as explosions begin to go off inside of the building. Later, T.K. returns home to Carlos, and the two finally make up from their argument as they express their surprise that both of their dads managed to con them as they worked the arsonist case. At Judd’s house, he, Grace, Owen, Tommy, and Billy sit around relaxing and having drinks, and they come to the horrifying conclusion about what other fire Investigator Raymond was hinting that he had planted.
At Carlos and T.K.’s house, T.K. is attempting to set the house alarm before bed but Carlos tells him that it’s been acting up all day. They’ll handle it tomorrow. They head up to bed, hand in hand, as a fire that is unbeknownst to them sparks to life underneath the steps. Owen and Billy race over to their house, and we see more small fires begin to ignite throughout the living room. Carlos and T.K. are none the wiser, unaware that Owen is repeatedly trying to call them as they’ve begun to dive into a passionate moment in bed. A fire is now raging downstairs, and they finally take notice when T.K. begins to smell smoke. Terrified and without a fire extinguisher on the second floor, they begin to weigh their options. They’re going to have to jump out the window. They share an emotional exchange as they prepare to jump, but then Billy and Owen burst into the room and lead them out of the house to safety.
As they stand outside staring at the charred remains of the house, Carlos is visibly upset. He tells T.K. that he didn’t think they were going to make it out, and he’s distraught because he didn’t have a fire extinguisher upstairs. Crying, T.K. assures him that they’re okay, and they embrace. After Owen and Billy have received medical attention for their own injuries sustained during the rescue, Judd and Tommy give them a hard time and tell them to stick to golf. Although Billy did get struck by lightning the last time they did that.
Tommy finally arrives at home for the evening, and she enters the living room to find Charles sitting in a chair folding laundry, which is what he had been doing when they were on the phone earlier. When she realizes he’s not responding to her, she approaches him to see him sitting completely still in what appears to be a catatonic state … with a bloodshot eye.
Another week, another emotional, heart-wrenching cliffhanger.
Catch new episodes of 9-1-1: Lone Star on FOX Mondays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT, following new episodes of 9-1-1 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT.
