Last week’s 9-1-1 Lone Star episode left us on a heckuva cliffhanger, with Carlos having been knocked unconscious by an unknown assailant and no one knowing his whereabouts. This week’s “Abandoned” shows us what happened to Carlos, as well as Owen’s latest actions to work with the FBI against the Honor Dogs.
Thunderwear
FBI Agent Kacey shows Owen what he will be wearing to a future meetup with Sgt. O’Brien — a pair of undergarments called Thunderwear. They’re equipped with equipment to record audio through a microphone in his shirt button. Kacey tells Owen that if the Honor Dogs require Owen to remove his shirt, no one will know he is wearing a wire. “What if O’Brien asks me to drop my pants?!” Owen asks. Agent Kacey rolls her eyes a little too loudly at that question.
Later, Owen is on his bike, waiting for the meetup. O’Brien pulls up while the FBI agents are in another location listening in to the goings-on. A few seconds later, about a dozen Honor Dogs roll up to the guys and direct them to follow them to their club bar.
At the bar, Owen and O’Brien are left alone to sweat it out while the others hold a meeting in another room to decide how to handle them. While they’re alone, O’Brien sticks to his story about not really being a loyal member of the group, but he does admit that he is a founding member. But as the years went by, the group evolved into something that O’Brien no longer recognized, so he quit. No one in today’s Honor Dogs club recognizes O’Brien as a founding member, which is how he’s been able to go undetected.
When the guys end their meeting, one of the elders tells Owen and O’Brien that they suspect there is a rat in their midst. While Owen tries to convince him that he must be mistaken, O’Brien gets angry and tries to start a fight with everyone. Owen becomes very nervous and admits that, not only is he the rat, but he is currently wired, and the mic is in his shorts. You can almost hear Agent Kacey’s eye roll from her van parked a few streets away.
Later that day, O’Brien is debriefed at FBI headquarters, but Owen is told to just go home. The agency wants nothing more to do with Owen, and the FBI is convinced that there was no ammonium nitrate at all. Resigned, Owen and O’Brien ride off on their bikes into the night.
Where is Carlos?
Carlos wakes up in a strange house and sees an elderly woman making some cookies. She sees that Carlos is awake and tells him that she is the one who hit him over the head with a shovel. As Carlos watches the woman, Trudie, walk around her kitchen, he notices a woman’s body in the pantry when Trudie opens the door. Carlos asks if that is Donna Burton (the woman Iris was searching for when she was kidnapped). Trudie tells him not to worry about it.
While she offers Carlos a sugar cookie, her son comes home. Darryl enters the kitchen, and he matches the description that Iris gave to the police of her kidnapper — including the burn scars on his left hand. Darryl is surprised at Carlos’ presence, but his mother tells him that she did everything right — Carlos’ wallet and belongings are on the table, and his gun is in the crisper drawer. Darryl sees that Carlos is a cop and realizes that Carlos will need to be “taken care of” as soon as possible.
He asks his mother to “get the kit,” and when she returns with a small metal box containing vials of morphine and some needles, Darryl realizes that he doesn’t have enough to do the job. So he leaves to ditch Carlos’ car and get some more morphine.
The Search for Carlos
T.K. has been trying to reach Carlos all night and day, but Carlos isn’t responding to texts or calls. At the 126, the others tell T.K. to not worry about anything, but Marjan isn’t so convinced that something isn’t wrong. She tells T.K. that Carlos’ “ghosting” behavior is unlike him. This gives T.K. the push he needs to investigate a little further. He asks Nancy to call the hospital where Iris is, so he can check on Carlos without letting him know he’s doing so. But when Nancy requests to speak to Iris’ visitor, the nurse tells her that Iris hasn’t had any visitors in the last day.
T.K. then calls Grace at work. He asks her to locate Carlos’ phone. Grace says she can’t because either the phone battery has been removed or the phone has been destroyed.
Running out of options, T.K. goes to Carlos’ parents’ house and fills them in on what’s going on. While they’re talking, Grace calls T.K. back and tells him that Carlos’ last call was to him the night before and that he was at the abandoned house where Iris was rescued — not the hospital. Maj. Reyes immediately requests a BOLO be put out on Carlos’ car, and he and T.K. rush to the abandoned house to investigate.
At the house, T.K. finds part of a burned driver’s license belonging to Donna Burton, the woman Iris was looking for. Clearly, the license was meant to be destroyed, so this information gives the men enough reason to go to the police station and see what they can figure out. At the station, they gather all the names of women who have gone missing in the same area over the last five years. And no one can put together any connections among them — except T.K. realizes that all the women had mental illness diagnoses and that their medications were all filled at the same pharmacy.
We then see Darryl arrive at the pharmacy — where he is the pharmacist. He sneaks in the back and steals some more morphine. He leaves quickly on his bike. A few minutes later, Maj. Reyes and T.K. arrive at the pharmacy and get the name and address of the pharmacist, knowing that he is the one piece of the puzzle that connects the missing women, Iris’ abduction, and Carlos’ disappearance.
The Rescue
Back in the kitchen, Carlos uses his training to talk to Trudie and convince her that her son is a monster and that she does not need to do his bidding for him anymore. She appreciates the love he has for his own mother and wishes Darryl had the same for her. She tells Carlos that Darryl burned his hand when he was 10 years old with some dangerous chemicals when he was trying to dissolve something. “You know how boys are,” Trudie says. (Yes, Trudie — sociopathic boys.) She then says that Darryl told the social workers that Trudie hurt him, so he could get out of her custody and live with his father. Carlos tells him that he shouldn’t have mistreated her so badly and that he should appreciate everything she’s ever done for him.
This convinces Trudie to let Carlos go. She removes the zip ties that shackle him, but then Darryl bursts into the kitchen and sees what’s going on. Carlos grabs a hot pot from the stove and hits Darryl with it, but Trudie intervenes and gives Carlos a needle filled with morphine, and knocks him out.
Just then, T.K. and Maj. Reyes burst through the front door and see what’s happening. T.K. begins compressions on Carlos, who now no longer has a heartbeat, while Maj. Reyes calls in for backup and some Narcan for Carlos. Help arrives shortly thereafter, T.K. administers the Narcan, and Carlos is revived. Darryl and Trudie are taken away in handcuffs, and Carlos is taken to the hospital for observation.
Everything seems resolved: Carlos is alive, T.K. has him back, and Owen is finally out of the Honor Dogs’ and the FBI’s grip. But in the final scene of the episode, we see a mysterious person huddled over a desk, building a bomb just a few feet from the relocated ammonium nitrate. Surrounding him are newspaper clippings and photos of Owen from over the years. Whoever this is, the ammonium nitrate seems to be meant for Owen and the 126.
Tune in next Tuesday, February 21, for 9-1-1 Lone Star‘s fifth episode of the season, “Human Resources,” at 8 p.m. EST on FOX. And check out the rest of our 9-1-1: Lone Star coverage here.
