‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ Boss Unpacks Firefighters’ Fate After Asteroid Catastrophe — and Mateo’s DACA Storyline

Note: This article contains spoilers from the series finale of “9-1-1: Lone Star.”

Despite Austin being hit with both an asteroid and a nuclear disaster on Monday night’s “9-1-1: Lone Star” series finale, all of the main characters walked away with their lives.

The episode briefly led us to believe that both Tommy Vega (Gina Torres) and Owen Strand (Rob Lowe) had died, but in the end, executive producer Rashad Raisani didn’t have the heart to kill anyone off the Fox first responder drama.

“I wanted people to leave with a sense of hope,” Raisani told TheWrap in a phone call before the finale aired. “It’s sad enough that the thing is ending, in my opinion, too soon. Why punch people in the stomach on their way out the door?”

Tommy (Gina Torres)

Raisani revealed that he promised Torres, whose character was fighting breast cancer and seemed the closest to death, that he’d never kill her off.

Raisani also explained why Tommy’s late husband Charles (Derek Webster) made a re-appearance. “We just love that character,” he said, “We wanted to give them one little last chance to be on screen together.” While it seemed like Charles was there to welcome Tommy to the afterlife, the finale finds her in remission a few months after the asteroid crash.

Mateo (Julian Works) and Nancy (Brianna Baker)

Paramedic Mateo, who is in the U.S. thanks to the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) immigration policy, is nearly deported, a grim reality that thousands of real life “dreamers” are facing right now under a second Trump administration.

Raisani didn’t now how timely the storyline would become. “This was written in April or something of last year, the DACA thing is now in the headlines in a way that we could have never even anticipated,” he said.

Fortunately, because of his near-fatal heroism during the asteroid and nuclear crises, Mateo is fast-tracked for citizenship despite telling the judge to “kiss my ass.” “What we wanted to do with this final story was dramatize him throwing off the chains, whatever the consequences,” explained Raisani.

Mateo marrying girlfriend Nancy might have been an option, except that Nancy is firmly against marriage. “We never wanted to do that. We didn’t want it to be tainted. We wanted their relationship to hold firm under great pressure,” said Raisani.

Owen Strand (Rob Lowe)

Captain Strand appears to sacrifice himself to save his team and all of Austin by turning off the nuclear reactor at the very last second, but the character survives. As the show has previously teased, he accepted a new job of fire chief and moves back to New York.

“It felt wrong to me to kill him, and it felt wrong for him to just remain. I felt like he needed a change,” said Raisani. He said he rewatched the pilot to revisit where the characters started: Owen had cancer, TK (Ronen Rubinstein) had just overdosed and Judd (Jim Parrack) was the traumatized sole survivor of the 126 after a catastrophic fire.

“By the end of this series, everyone has healed in their own ways,” the executive producer said. “The 126 no longer needs Owen. Owen has to go where he is needed.”

TK (Ronen Rubinstein) and Carlos (Rafael Silva)

After being rejected in their bid to adopt his young half-brother Jonah because of their dangerous lines of work, TK quits his job and becomes a stay-at-home dad.

Marjan (Natacha Karam)

The firefighter who married boyfriend Joe (John Clarence Stewart) in the previous episode, was seriously injured after an explosion at the nuclear facility, along with Mateo, Judd and Paul. But they kept each other from bleeding to death. In the final segment of the finale, we learn that she is pregnant.

Judd (Jim Parrack)

Judd, the lone survivor of the previous 126 at the start of the show, was also its most senior firefighter after Owen — until Judd’s son Wyatt (Jackson Pace) was paralyzed in a car accident. Judd quit to devote himself to Wyatt’s rehab and making a home accessible for his now wheelchair-bound son. He eventually rejoined the 126 — as a probie. In the finale, he is named captain now that Owen is headed back to New York. Wife Grace (Sierra McClain) is still absent, due to a salary dispute, but Judd mentions he will send her the video of the ceremony.

“I wish that his wife had been able to be there with him, but that wasn’t in the cards,” said Raisini. “We decided since we can’t have her, which is excruciating, let’s at least use that as fuel to get him where he needs to go,” he explained.

Paul (Brian Michael Smith)

As Raisani previously told TheWrap, Smith asked if the show could fulfill the promise Owen made Paul in the pilot: That he could be a role model for other trans or people. In the two-part finale, Paul saves Jax (trans actor Miles McKenna), who had been filming dangerous stunts as a way to make friends. After Paul reveals he’s also trans, he inspires Jax to show up at the fire station when the asteroid hits, where he’s quickly put to work helping an injured victim.

“9-1-1: Lone Star” is available to stream on Hulu.

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