Bromance, Romance, murder, and blood made for quite the Valentine’s day installment.
O’Brien turned out to be a friendly after all on 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 4 Episode 4, and Carlos got stuck in a hellscape with a serial killer and his mother.
Both plots felt like something on a different type of series and will likely have some lingering effects or be revisited as the season progresses.
One of the connecting points and takeaway from both plots is that law enforcement who aren’t Reyes are incompetent, ineffectual, and intolerable.
The stunning inability of the detective and the F.B.I. to do their jobs competently and effectively made parts of this installment maddening to witness.
Detective Grier is awful. Even with Carlos going missing, this woman still insisted that Iris made up a person who abducted her because of her mental illness. I guess she assumed that Carlos either took off on a whim of his own accord or was making something up, too.
It shouldn’t have taken Gabriel, from an entirely different agency, to encourage her to do her job, and even when they were unraveling a serial killer case, she seemed unfazed by the whole ordeal.
How many transient and unhoused women were reported missing and glossed over because of who and what they were?
It was apparent, based on Donna’s disappearance, followed by Iris’, that whoever took them intentionally preyed on vulnerable communities — the people society doesn’t care about or feels they can afford to lose.
And sure enough, the cops, particularly people like Grier, validated everything Darryl knew to be true. It’s how he’s gotten away with abducting and killing so many women for however long he’s been at it.
And we can guess he’s been doing this or something akin to it for a long time. The story Trudy told Carlos about how Darryl burned his hand implied that he was using those chemicals to destroy a crime scene or maybe get rid of a body or something. The man was sick and depraved.
It was just so unsatisfying to see how Grier disappeared into the background for this case, with T.K. and Gabriel doing most of the heavy lifting and actual footwork to find Carlos.
She couldn’t even muster up an apology once they rescued Carlos, but she didn’t hesitate to make that collar she put zero effort into getting.
It was a relief when Gabriel asked her if forensics went over the crime scene, and he barked at her to get on it. It was one of the most questionable aspects of them finding Iris and simply assuming that she had a delusion and bashed her own head in without even attempting to process the scene or confirm anything.
I didn’t know you were a gay. I love the gays. Sometimes I wish my Darryl was a gay. The ladies give him so much trouble.
Trudy
It would’ve been too little too late if T.K. didn’t enlist Gabriel’s help, and he could use his pull and resources. Carlos would have been dead, and many women would still go missing and get killed at the hands of Darryl.
It’s a shame Carlos and Iris had to experience this for a serial killer to get caught.
Darryl and Trudy had their amusing moments as a mother/son duo, and they also had some Bates energy. The casual way Trudy handled Darryl’s maiming and killing was nuts.
She kept suggesting ways he could kill Carlos and talking about how much of a mess it could get. And her reaction to presumably Donna’s corpse falling out of the pantry while she was baking cookies was surreal.
But she also took a liking to Carlos. Her assumption that T.K. was a woman wasn’t surprising, but her reaction to Carlos being “a gay” was. How comforting that she considered herself an ally despite his time spent zip tied under the kitchen sink, right?
If Trudy knew how her son was, it made you wonder why she went through the trouble of knocking Carlos out and tying him up, especially once she knew he was a cop.
The two of them had some interesting conversations. She opened up a bit about Darryl’s past, and from her interactions with her son, you could tell everything she did was to get his love, but she never accepted that he was incapable of giving it to her.
Her fondness for Carlos was evident. Carlos did a great job humanizing himself and appealing to Trudy simply by being honest about how much he loves his own mother and T.K. too. Silva did a beautiful job, period. He truly is one of the strongest actors of the brood in this series, and he knocks it out of the park every single time.
Trudy didn’t want to keep Carlos from a beautiful wedding with the love of his life. But the commentary about T.K. losing his mother and how Gwyn is still with them moved her to release Carlos.
Some of the best Tarlos moments tend to be when they’re not even with each other but speaking about one another. Carlos musing that he felt Gwyn’s love for her son filters through T.K. and pours out as love for him was such a gorgeous description.
To be loved like that and be aware of it is a gift. And Carlos knows and feels that T.K. loves him so much it seems to go beyond the capacity of what one person can hold.
And we got to see that in motion with T.K.’s desperate attempt to get Carlos back. He was anxious for the entire hour, and we got to see it build as he went from paranoid that Carlos was dodging him to genuinely worried to freaking out when he realized that Carlos got taken.
Trudy: what about TK? Do he and his mother get along?
Carlos: No son loved his mother more than TK loved Gwynn.
Trudy: Oh, did that sweet boy lose his mother?
Carlos: Last year.
Trudy: That’s so sad. She won’t be at the wedding.
Carlos: No, I think she will be. Sometimes I think all that love she had for him she sending it through me. Otherwise, I don’t know where all this love comes from.
He had some moments. His inability to grasp that, yes, finding out more about the other victims would help them understand the killer and locate Carlos was irritating.
At first, he seemed dismissive of those missing women who were already pinned on that wall because people didn’t give a damn about them or acknowledge that their lives mattered too.
And it was pure emotion that had him questioning whether or not Gabriel cared enough because of his supposed lack of expression.
But T.K. was instrumental in the investigation. Once he got a grip, he was the one who made that case breaker about the pharmacy, and had he not figured that out, Carlos would be dead.
It was refreshing to see T.K. ready to scorch the earth over Carlos. It’s not something we wouldn’t expect, but we don’t get to see the role reversal that much. Typically, it’s T.K. who is in danger, and they joke about that.
It was intense when Carlos’ heart stopped after that morphine injection. Without Narcan, he would’ve been a goner. It was too close of a call for comfort.
But is anyone else wondering if they’ll take this storyline down a potentially dark path after Carlos’ drugging? It could lead to intriguing conversations between Carlos and T.K. about drugs and addiction.
Although, Tarlos need a break after all of this. They never got around to discussing the tension between them after the Iris situation, but it doesn’t seem to matter now.
Carlos: Thank you for saving my life
T.K.: Oh, baby, you saved your own life. I was just holding onto it for a while.
Carlos: It’s yours.
It was two other upsetting factors in this situation. One of them is how at best, the other characters were only there to serve the Tarlos plot again, which makes it four episodes in a row where the majority of the cast are nothing more than background fixtures. Seriously, what gives?
It’s an unusual stylistic choice to bench most of the cast for nearly a quarter of the season right out of the gate. Six primary characters have been sidelined. At least two of them weren’t even in the installment, and the ones that were barely had a single line.
Mateo, Paul, and Marjan, in particular, are overdue for a storyline and some significant screen time. One can only hope that this means they’ll have ample plot points and storylines for the remainder of the season.
And hopefully, the series will get back to amping up the emergency calls. A highlight of the hour was T.K. and Grace getting to communicate with each other and her bending the rules to get him the location of where Carlos’ phone pinged last.
They’re a duo that only spends a little bit of time together. How fun would they be if we got more of them?!
Another upsetting factor about this situation is how Owen has gotten sucked into this Nazi bomb plot; he’s separated from all the other characters, including his son.
His future son-in-law was missing, and he had no idea. He couldn’t be there to support T.K. in any way, give him advice, or calm him down.
We shouldn’t have an all-or-nothing approach to the Strands’ relationship.
The Honor Dogs plot was the second storyline that consumed the hour, and in comparison to the missing Carlos bit, it came up short with investment.
It’s not that Lowe and McDonough aren’t doing everything they can to make it interesting; they are, and the two of them continue to play off one another nicely.
However, it’s a generally frustrating storyline and the weakest aspect of the season thus far.
It relies almost entirely on guest stars, and because it takes up so much time, it routinely comes at the expense of the characters we know and love most.
The F.B.I. is reprehensible in this. Literally, nothing they do makes any sense or seems reasonable. They should be so much brighter than how they’re presented.
Owen: it was ammonium nitrate there. I should have taken a picture of it.
Casey: Why didn’t you?
Owen: Because I didn’t know you needed it for your Instagram.
Sending Owen into the lion’s den when they knew he’d come across suspicious after their raid was reckless. They thought O’Brien was in on everything with the Honor Dogs and knew Owen told him everything.
Why would they risk putting Owen in O’Brien’s path if they had reason to believe O’Brien was a bad guy who also happened to be a cop?
The wired underwear might have been smart if they didn’t know Owen would have to be on a motorcycle at some point and could’ve missed out on valuable intel because of the noise.
And they sat there and listened to everything taking place in the club and didn’t make a move even when it seemed like Owen and O’Brien would be in danger, and then they got mad at Owen for telling the truth and getting himself and O’Brien out of there.
It’s no wonder they haven’t been able to make a case.
There doesn’t feel like any urgency over this imminent threat the Honor Dogs pose, and the Feds’ entire case hinges on Owen, which is absurd.
If anyone had proper intel on O’Brien, as a founding father of the Honor Dogs back when it was genuinely about first responders and as someone who quit when things shifted, it should’ve been the F.B.I.
Instead, it was like O’Brien was never on their radar. And while this type of terrorism is a federal matter, it still doesn’t feel right that the Feds haven’t roped in or given local law enforcement a head’s up.
O’Brien: You actually showed up.
Owen: Of course.
O’Brien: That was dumb.
Instead, they’ll be there to clean up the carnage and deal with the aftermath if things aren’t prevented, which sucks.
Owen’s level of sass with Casey was top-tier entertainment, though. His line about taking a picture of the ammonium nitrite for her Instagram was hilarious.
After everything they roped Owen into, they didn’t even debrief him after the whole situation with the Honor Dogs.
They dismissed him from the entire thing as if it was no big deal, shut him out of any future information about how this investigation was going and if they’ll get a lead on something and prevent this attack, then told him he couldn’t tell anyone.
Owen has been absent and distracted in so many ways; now, he’s not supposed to tell people why. It’s bullcrap.
To make matters worse, he’s apparently the bomber’s primary obsession, and if that map was any indication, they plan on putting a bomb at 126.
The entire squad could be in danger, and none of them know it because the F.B.I. thinks it’s better to keep this hush-hush and has totally disregarded people’s lives.
The storyline has had its fair share of twists, mainly whether O’Brien was on the right side of things. Thank goodness he is.
But with that ending, it doesn’t appear like it’s wrapping up just yet. If anything, things will get crazier from here.
The bomber has their eyes set on Owen, and nothing good can come from that.
Do you think the bomber is O’Brien’s nephew?
Over to you, Lone Star Fanatics.
Was this a great Tarlos episode? How do you feel about this Honor Dogs storyline? Do you miss the rest of the characters? Hit the comments.
You can watch 9-1-1: Lone Star online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.