‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ Recap: The 126 and 118 Battle a Raging Wildfire Together in Season 2, Episode 3 “Hold the Line”

Megan
16 Min Read
FOX

The crossover that fans have been waiting for is finally here! The 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star crossover event finally aired and it didn’t leave anything out. With a blossoming friendship between T.K. and Buck to Owen and Hen fighting for their lives after a crash to Eddie bonding with Judd and Marjan, and more, all while trying to fight a rapidly growing wildfire in West Texas, seeing the 118 and 126 together was everything.

Keep reading for a full recap of the crossover event in 9-1-1: Lone Star‘s “Hold the Line.”

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A flashback to the volcanic pool party and what happened to Tim immediately starts off the episode and Owen wakes up at the firehouse, breathing heavily. He splashes water on his face but afterwards, he sees Tim, bloodied and ghost-like behind him. A woman, Savard, wakes up Owen and tells him the wind’s shifted. He and Savard walk out of the tent into daylight, seeing the fire among the mountainside in front of him.

The 118 pull up after a 20-hour drive and Hen wakes Buck, telling him they’re there. Getting out of the firetruck, Buck comments on the air. “The wildfire, remember? That’s why we’re here.” Buck means the way it feels, like getting slapped with a wet towel. Eddie tells Buck it’s called humidity. “Welcome to Texas, Buck.”

As all of the firefighters gather around, Deputy Chief De Leon of the San Angelo Fire Department, acting incident commander and Owen, as operations section chief, stand before them all. “The thing we were praying wouldn’t happen has happened.” The wind has shifted and the fire is now on a collision course with the City of San Angelo. Possibility of weather coming in but they can’t rely on it and they won’t. “We have one last shot to turn the tide.” Owen discusses what the plan is, pointing out on the map. They are going to get them up on that fire line and they are “gonna cut like hell.”

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Savard tells Owen and De Leon they have a situation and Judd overhears. She tells them there’s eight kids and one counselor up there, no contact in at least eight hours. It’s too dangerous to get an evac chopper and the access roads are all aflame, they can’t get an engine up there. Judd interrupts them and says they could get to it with ATVs easy enough. De Leon tells Judd he just became strike team leader. Paul and Marjan volunteer to go and Owen tells Judd he needs to have an eight man team and a medic. Eddie comes over, saying he was an army medic and he’s been on more than a few missions that looked a lot like this. “What you waiting for, Hollywood?” Judd tells Eddie to get his bag and meet them down by the motor pool, they’ll roll out.

T.K., Mateo and Buck are at the fire line. Mateo tells Buck he’s got a cousin in LA, Marvin. People say they look alike (season 2 earthquake ring a bell?), but he’s in jail. Mateo bets Buck gets some pretty crazy calls out there. “You have no idea.” Buck and T.K. then start comparing some of the calls they’ve had. Soon, though, a car on fire makes its way down the hill and T.K. gets Buck out of the way, saving them both. Buck tells T.K. nice moves, good reflexes. T.K. tells Buck the same thing.

After hearing over radio about a missing boy, Hen finds Owen. When he asks what he can do for her, she tells him he can approve a chopper, equipped with a rescue wench and infrared FLIR tech to search the hillside for a missing boy from Great Oaks before it gets dark. The strike team was able to evacuate everyone except for one boy who’s still missing. Owen and Hen walk over to the map and Owen tells her it’s right on the edge of the fire line. That wind is blowing 20 knots, he doesn’t feel good about sending anybody up there. Owen lets Savard know to tell Commander De Leon he had to take a run up the mountain.

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Owen gets to the helicopter and gets in, Hen also getting in, telling him she’s coming with him. He tells her it’s dangerous but she says it’s dangerous to fly into this without a medic. They’re burning daylight and Owen is not crazy about this. “Yeah, me neither.”

Once up in the air, Owen asks Judd over radio what his 20 is. Judd says they’re a few klicks west of the camp, they haven’t found the kid. They found the tent but no remains so they think he went deeper into the woods trying to get away from the fire. Looking for heat signatures, Hen thinks she found something, movement under a grove of trees. Owen tells Judd, he’s going to try to get over on top of it. Judd and Paul start driving in JJ’s direction and calling out his name, and soon, JJ calls back, screaming for help. Judd and Paul take care of JJ but the winds get worse and the helicopter starts going down. “Mayday. Mayday. We are going down.” The helicopter crashes among the wildfire-filled mountainside.

Back at base, Buck and T.K. are still comparing crazy calls, with Mateo walking alongside them. They see Judd, Paul, Marjan and Eddie, still reeling from what happened. Marjan realizes they didn’t hear what happened. T.K. is fearing for the worst. “Hear what?”

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Owen and Hen are alive and fine after the crash, but neither of them can get cell reception. Owen notices the flames getting bigger and tells Hen it’s creating its own wind. It’s a firestorm. They have to find some shelter and Owen brings out a map showing Hen where they could go. Owen tells Hen again about the firestorm and she says he just repeated himself. Hen checks out Owen and she tells him she thinks he might have a concussion. He can’t really stay off his feet or avoid stress considering the situation they’re in. Or in this case, “Run like hell!”

At base, De Leon says they need to get containment and as he’s pointing out on the map, T.K. says this is a joke. They know exactly where the chopper went down. So why hasn’t he sent out a rescue team? The beacon is coming from two miles inside an active burn zone. It is not safe to send anyone up in the dark. Judd tells De Leon that with all due respect, they accept the risk and they’re not asking anybody else to go. He can’t authorize it. Buck tells him those are their people up there, too. T.K. mentions they could be bleeding out, dying. De Leon says they haven’t had any cell or radio contact at all since the Mayday. Nobody else is risking their lives tonight. “And your father would be the first one to agree with me.” Upset, T.K. leaves the tent.

Owen and Hen manage to find a mine shaft, the deeper they get, the more protected they’ll be from the heat. They set the pilot down and Hen notices dynamite, gotta be 100 years old. The two of them get comfortable, it’s going to be a minute before anybody comes looking for them. Owen tells Hen she picked the right person to be in a helicopter crash with. Why’s that? “Because I’m invincible.” Owen, though, is still being haunted by Tim’s death, or, rather, Tim himself.

T.K. gets off the phone and Buck brings him pizza. Buck assures T.K. they survived the crash. “Believe it.” Plus, Owen is with Hen so he’s in really good hands. So is she. Buck tells T.K. that his captain is not his dad, but he might as well be. He could have given up on him so many times and he never did. Even when he used to steal the firetruck. T.K. says that his dad has never given up on him, either. And he’s done lot worse than steal a firetruck. It just sucks, sitting there and doing nothing. Buck pulls out a key and asks T.K. what if they didn’t have to. Is that? “A key to a firetruck? Yes it is.”

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Buck and T.K. get to the motor pool and they sneak over to the firetrucks. T.K. finds the 118 firetruck but Buck tells him that’s not it, they are not taking it. Bobby would kill him if he brought it back all scratched up. This is the key to the 126’s. “Hey dumbass. Dumbasser!” Flashlights are shined onto Buck and T.K. and Judd asks if they stopped and considered the consequences of what they’re about to do at all. “You obviously don’t know Buck.” Marjan asks if they seriously thought they could sneak off and drive into wildfires, did they? “Yes?” Paul tells them that’s not going to happen. They’re not going to stop them, they’re going with them.

After deciding to use the dynamite, Hen comes up with a plan to leave their brush jackets outside to use as a marker, since they’ll be locking themselves in a mine, someone might find them. “Try not to blow us up.” Owen starts setting up the dynamite and Hen sets it off. The two start running for their lives. As they’re sitting on the ground, trying to stay awake, Owen says he should have never let Hen get on that chopper, he’s sorry. What is he talking about? He’s invincible. “It’s the people around me that tend not to be.” Is that what’s been haunting him? Someone who didn’t make it? Owen admits that recently, a paramedic got killed not two feet from him. Hen says it’s brutal sometimes, being the one who survives. She tells Owen about the ambulance crash and Evelyn. He’s not the only one locked in there with a ghost. Hen goes to sleep and soon, Owen does the same. “Nighty-night.”

The 126 engine has made its way to the crash and Buck and T.K. race over to the helicopter. Everyone looks around, under, and on top but they’re not there. Judd tells them to fan out and search the area. Marjan notices something and calls everyone over. The brush jackets. They start to clear away all of the wood and get to an opening in the mine shaft, seeing Owen and Hen. T.K. tells his dad to stay with him, they’re there. They’re going to get them out of there.

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Owen wakes up in the med tent and Tommy is the first to greet him. She says between the containment line and the rain last night, they’re saying it’s boxed in. Commander dismissed all the out-of-state crews. Owen sighs with relief.

Judd tells Eddie it makes sense that a California firefighter as good as him had to have been raised in Texas. Eddie tells Marjan he was hoping he could get a picture with her for social media. It’s not everyday you get to take a selfie with “#Firefox.” The two take a selfie and Paul tells them that is just way too much pretty (he’s not wrong). Paul and Judd get onto the ATV and Eddie tells them it was great working with them.

T.K. tells Buck he really put himself out there and he can’t thank him enough. It’s what they do, right? Buck mentions to T.K. that if he ever finds himself in LA, they should get together. T.K. says sure, but, “I gotta mention, though, I already have a boyfriend and it’s pretty serious, so…” but it was really nice meeting him. T.K. leaves and Buck is flustered.

Hen visits Owen in the med tent. He heard she was shipping out and he wanted to make sure he caught her. Hen is still amazed they made it out of there alive. He told her, he’s invincible. He cannot think of a more logical explanation for how they survived what they did and still walked out of there alive. Well, Hen can think of about two teams of logical explanations. And they didn’t walk out, they were carried out. “What happens in the mine shaft, stays in the mine shaft.” Hen suggest that Owen could leave some of those ghosts in there, too. She tells Owen it was a pleasure to share a foxhole with him and to take care of himself, even though he is invincible.

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You can rewatch the 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star crossover now on Hulu and the FOX NOW app. 9-1-1: Lone Star airs every Monday at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on FOX.

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By Megan
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Megan has been passionate about writing since she was little and has been passionate about all things pop culture and nerdy since almost as long. Joining Nerds and Beyond in 2019, she also graduated from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in 2020 with a Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Journalism. Megan is constantly binge-watching shows and finding new things to obsess over. 9-1-1 and Marvel currently reign as the top obsessions. You can find her on Twitter @marvels911s if you ever want to discuss some certain firefighters.
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