'9-1-1 Lone Star' Episode 4: An act of God forces Owen and Judd to address their dilemmas over faith
Contains spoilers for '9-1-1 Lone Star' Episode 4 titled 'Act of God'
In Episode 4 of '9-1-1 Lone Star', an act of God has taken Austin hostage. A deadly tornado has ripped half the city apart resulting is loss of life and property. And for the protagonist of our show, loss of faith.
Owen Strand (Rob Lowe) had lost his faith when he found out that he had lung cancer. And even more so when the cancer started affecting his vanity. That is not entirely correct. Owen actually lost his faith when he lost his entire team of firefighters when the towers came crashing down on 9/11. The world might deem him a hero, but he believes that the real heroes never managed to get out of the tower in the first place.
The Captain of the 126 is a proud person — he has kept the life-threatening disease a secret from his son T K (Ronen Rubinstein) and believes that he can keep the charade on for a while before it must inevitably be out. Save two people he works with Michelle Blake (Liv Tyler) and Judd Ryder (Jim Parrack), no one else knows the full truth.
In fact, Judd is also going through a faith crisis of his own. Early on in the episode, before the tornado went roaring around Austin, Judd and his wife Grace (Sierra Aylina McClain) find themselves in an argument that has no winners: faith in God.
Judd, who, like Owen, had lost all his firefighters in a fire accident, is unable to entrust a higher power. If 'He' were really merciful, why would he send calamity in the first place, Judd remorsefully points out in the episode. Their argument is left loose with the indication that he would be sleeping on the couch that night.
But he does not sleep. The crew is called for one rescue mission after the other. The randomness of the disaster forces both our heroes to confront the volatility of life. When they see two children losing their father as a result of the tornado, Owen and Judd confront the fact that they need to invest their faith — be it in a loved one or a higher power — but they need to believe in something other than the brittleness of life.
'9-1-1 Lone Star' airs on Mondays at 8 pm ET/ PT on FOX.