Things are getting hot in this week’s 9-1-1: Lone Star! Owen’s recovering from his cancer surgery and he’s finding it hard to relax, but he’s soon in search of an arsonist that puts him in a dangerous situation. Meanwhile, after a devastating end to a call, Marjan not only finds herself struggling with the aftermath, but also going viral for all the wrong reasons.
Keep reading for a full recap of the newest episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star, “Slow Burn.”
Warning: Brief graphic mentions of suicide.
Gabriel Reyes is telling his fellow Rangers that today is a very big day. “I don’t need to tell you how ruthless our suspect is.” Gabriel says that he’s a public menace responsible for tens of millions of dollars in property damage. He’s burned, maimed, and killed innocent people. “And he’s done it all while hiding in plain sight.” He thinks he’s smarter than them, and for too long he’s been right. As the Rangers and officers get in their cars, Gabriel says that this man is a dangerous sociopath who will do anything to avoid capture. Multiple police cars drive up to a single man wearing a hoodie, and some officers take him down. However, when they take off the hood, it’s Owen. “Owen Strand, you are under arrest for criminal trespass, reckless destruction of property, aggravated assault, and arson.”
A week earlier, with Owen out of commission due to his recovery, Captain Judd Ryder and the 126 make their way to a call on a bridge. A truck is over the bridge, hanging by the chain that’s attached to a boat. A husband and wife are stuck in there. As Paul and Marjan get their gear ready to be lowered down, a crowd has formed and a guy recognizes Marjan as FireFox. “She’s, like, the Serena Williams of firefighters.” The guy asks Marjan to say something to his followers as 9,000 are watching, and Marjan says to keep calm, carry on, and feel free to like her on Insta. Marjan and Paul are lowered down to the couple, Paul on the wife’s side, McKenna, and Marjan on the husband’s, Brady. Paul manages to get McKenna free and to safety; however, Brady’s legs are pinned under the steering wheel. Marjan uses the Jaws to try to free him, but the chains holding the car snap and it falls, taking Brady with it and exploding once it hits the ground.
T.K. and Carlos get food ready for their game night with the 126. Carlos just looks at T.K. and wonders if a board game is really the right idea for tonight. He confesses it just feels weird after what Marjan went through, to act like nothing’s wrong. Well, the whole point is to act like nothing’s wrong, T.K. says. He’s sure she’s cried enough for one day. So they’re going to give her a good time and to get her mind off of it. T.K. tells his boyfriend to not bring it up and whatever he does, to not give her the Carlos cow eyes. T.K. tells Carlos when he gets all lovey and concerned, with his soulful, big, brown eyes, it absolutely wrecks people. Carlos gets closer to T.K., who is trying to avoid contact with those soulful, big, brown eyes. “You think they’re soulful?” There’s a knock on the door, and Marjan and Nancy have arrived, and soon Paul and Mateo come and they’re having a good time playing games.
Marjan’s phone is blowing up, and her expression is not a good one. Everyone looks at her, concerned, and she says that people are being really mean. Marjan doesn’t know what’s happening, but she keeps getting tagged in a video. Everyone gathers around Marjan to watch the video, and it’s McKenna. Crying, she says she didn’t think this week could get any worse, but it did. She just found out while she and Brady were hanging 100 feet off the ground, terrified, the firefighter who was supposed to save them was taking her sweet time flexing for the cameras. She tells FireFox she should be ashamed of herself. She cares more about likes than people’s lives. “‘Going down’? Hilarious. Well, I hope everyone who sees this video makes sure you go down. Because it’s what you deserve.”
After a day of painting, planting and puzzles, as well as listening to a meditation app and Austin Emergency Dispatch, Owen is out for a walk and he gets to a coffee shop. He’s still listening to Austin Emergency Dispatch, and he hears a report of smoke at a nearby address. He immediately leaves, forgetting his juice, and when he gets to the building, it’s up in flames. Owen runs toward it, looking for anybody, and a guy comes out, running away. Another guy, on fire, frantically comes out of the building, and Owen uses a blanket to get the fire out. The guy tells Owen there’s another guy, Gerald, trapped in the back. Owen assures the guy that help is on the way and he leaves to save Gerald.
Covering his face with his hoodie, Owen tries to find Gerald, and he hears a faint screaming. He finds Gerald and grabs a sheet, putting it over his head and the two make it out just before the fire gets worse and consumes the building. The 126 pull up to the scene, and Judd is not happy about seeing his off-duty captain. Owen says he was in the area. “Talk about Johnny on the Spot.” He tells Judd they’re dealing with arson, he saw signs of accelerant in there. Owen begins to tell his team what to do, though Marjan and Paul are hesitant. Judd tells Owen he’s not captain tonight, he’s a civilian. He’s got to go. Owen tells Judd, captain, he’s right. It’s his scene. “126, give ’em hell.”
Owen and Judd sit down with AFD Arson Investigator Dennis Raymond so Owen can give an official statement about what he saw. While Owen believes it was arson, Raymond isn’t so sure. Raymond understands that recently, Owen discovered some explosives that cracked a major case for the Texas Rangers. He read that Owen personally tracked down the perpetrators himself. Owen was just trying to help his son. Still, that must have been a thrill, Raymond mentions. And it might be tempting to want to break open another one with all that free time he has on his hands. This isn’t about him getting a new hobby. If Raymond goes back to that scene, he’s going to find something. Raymond promises they will leave no stone unturned.
After testing his theory using a lamp, a makeshift wall and a substance which created a perfect fire, Owen points out the alligator char to Billy Tyson, whom he’s been catching up with while recuperating. The accelerant matches what he saw in the textile factory. Owen knows this sounds crazy, but in the past six months, there have been at least eight mysterious electrical fires all over Texas, all targets full of fuel, each miraculously started in off-hours or during a holiday when there’s nobody in the building, except for the cleaners the other night. Billy wonders if there was any meat on this bone, doesn’t he think somebody would have taken a bite already? Owen says if the guy mixed the accelerant with a diluted substance, like he did, then the dogs would miss it. And if he tampered with the wiring of an appliance, it could still be sitting out there. Nobody would even notice.
This whole theory depends on an appliance shortening out. Circuit breakers in those places, they’d trip the circuit long before that could ever happen. Yes, Owen says, unless he switched one out with a counterfeit, like he did. Owen shows Billy the real circuit breaker and what it looks like on the inside. Then Owen shows him the counterfeit. Billy realizes there’d be no way to stop the surge. “An accident waiting to happen.” Billy wonders why Owen is telling him this and not Investigator Raymond. Because Owen doesn’t want him to think he went around the bend if he’s wrong. “You probably don’t want him to take away your new little pastime, either, huh?” Owen says they just need some proof before they go. If any one of these buildings has a counterfeit switch in the circuit breaker, that’s the smoking gun. To make that happen, though, they would have to be breaking and entering. Owen says the places are abandoned and burnt out, but Billy says it’s still private property. Billy reminds Owen he’s fighting Stage III cancer. They get caught, he loses his health insurance and pension. He’s sorry, but Owen’s going to have to do this on his own.
Paul follows Marjan to McKenna’s, or rather, he knew she would be there, because he knows who she is. “Then you know you’re not gonna stop me.” Paul assures Marjan he’s not there to stop her, he’s there to have her back… and to be an impartial witness in case this goes sideways. Marjan knocks on McKenna’s door, trying to get her attention. She talks into her doorbell camera, saying she’d love to talk if she has a second. Paul suggests that McKenna’s not home, but Marjan can hear music and her car’s there. Marjan turns back toward the camera and says she knows that she is the last person in the world she wants to hear from right now, but she wants her to know that she’s sorry for causing her more pain. Paul interrupts Marjan and shows her something that McKenna posted 10 minutes ago. “I’m so sorry you guys, I’ll miss all of you, but I’ll miss Brady more.” That sounds like a goodbye, Marjan realizes. Marjan knocks on the door again and Paul tries looking through the windows, but nothing. Marjan breaks the glass window on the door and unlocks it. They both look through her house, and find McKenna in her bathtub, unconscious, a wedding picture in her lap, and blood everywhere.
Thanks to the help of a 9-1-1 Dispatcher, Paul and Marjan manage to save McKenna and keep her stable until EMS arrives. Outside, Marjan asks if McKenna’s going to make it, and one of the paramedics says he thinks she will. Thank God, Marjan says. “Thank FireFox, more like.” The paramedic admits he follows her on Insta, and she’ll probably get an endorsement deal from the plastic wrap company. Marjan says he never saw her there and the paramedic tells her the doorbell cam did, and there’s going to be paperwork. That’s fine, but Marjan pleads with him to not post about it. Nobody else out there needs to know. “That’s a shame. Because this was clutch. You saved her life.” Paul asks Marjan if she heard that. He said she’s a lifesaver. “Because that is who you are.” “It’s who we are.”
Andrea and Gabriel show up at Carlos and T.K.’s for dinner, finally getting a proper meeting, not like the market. Andrea tells T.K. she owes him an apology when she called him TJ the day at the market. T.K. dismisses it, saying it was an easy mistake. “That our son should have corrected.” As Carlos looks disappointed, T.K. tells Gabriel to not worry, they had a conversation about it. Switching topics, Carlos offers his parents some drinks. Carlos goes to his fridge but realizes he forgot about the limes, and T.K. tells him to pull himself out of that shame spiral, it’s no big deal. He gets his dad on the phone, and Owen tells him he had an errand he had to run real quick. T.K. asks if he can pick up some limes and Owen obliges. Crisis averted.
Meanwhile, that errand Owen is running is taking him back to the textile factory. He gets a crowbar from his car and breaks into the building, trying to find any proof. He finds alligator char and begins to take pictures of it with his phone. He continues walking and finds a circuit breaker, looking through all of them. “I got you, you son of a bitch.” He takes pictures of the faulty breaker, and someone comes up behind him and hits him over the head. When Owen wakes up, the building is on fire and the arsonist is standing a distance away.
See what happens in a new episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star this Monday, May 10 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on FOX, following an all-new 9-1-1!
