SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from Monday’s episode of Fox’s “9-1-1: Lone Star,” titled “All Who Wander.”
The 126 returned Monday with the first of the final batch of “9-1-1: Lone Star” episodes. And if the Fox first-responder drama has prepped its fans for anything over the past five years, it’s to expect the Ryan Murphy series to always be darkest before the dawn of a new season. Except no new season is coming for the Rob Lowe-led series this time, and the show has several loose character storyline ends to tie up if it’s going to leave viewers with a happy ending.
Case in point: on this week’s episode of “9-1-1 Lone Star,” “All Who Wander,” Marjan (Natacha Karam) got a whirlwind fairy tale wedding to her returned boyfriend Joe (John Clarance Stewart) during a visit from her parents, while Judd (Jim Parrack) hit rock bottom with the alcoholism he’s developed in isolation as his wife Grace (exited cast member Sierra McClain) is off on an extended missionary trip.
With just one more episode to go before the finale airs Feb. 3, Karam and Parrack spoke with Variety about where their characters are headed from here and what the 126 will face before all is said and done in Austin. The two “9-1-1: Lone Star” cast members also opened up about their feelings regarding the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles and their support for the real-life firefighters trying to contain the disaster.
Kevin Estrada/Fox
Where did Judd’s alcoholism storyline come from, and what were your thoughts on the turn for him so close to the end of the show?
Jim Parrack: Alcoholism doesn’t develop, nor is it resolved, overnight. Midway through the season, [“9-1-1: Lone Star” showrunner] Rashad [Raisani] was saying, “This is a direction we might go.” And I said, “Then let’s start layering in what we can now. Doesn’t have to be something written in the script, but if it’s a group scene, put me over in the corner by myself, or kind of isolated or drinking or whatever the case may be,” so that it didn’t just come out of nowhere at all, even if we had a whole season to resolve it. That’s not exactly the way alcoholism works. I’m an alcoholic, I’m a sober alcoholic. I got sober when I was 22 years and two days old, and it took some doing to get there, and it took some doing to get out of it. So I was excited to get to add something I knew something about, and the writers were as receptive and generous as they could be. It is still network television. There is still a limit on how gritty things can get. So within the world of the kind of show we were making, my concern was that it be as realistic as possible.
Sierra McClain, who played Judd’s wife Grace over the first four seasons of “9-1-1: Lone Star,” chose to exit ahead of the final season. How has her absence affected both you, personally, and how you portray Judd?
Parrack: That’s a good question. I guess it’s a dramatic literature concept of a character having a spine, and it’s essentially the emotional thrust that moves them through their lives, usually one that they’re unaware of. They can’t usually name it. They’re not conscious of it, but something’s motivating every single thing that they do. And for the way I approached the character of Judd for five years was that that was family. My family was above all things. My wife, Grace. And so there was a little adjustment to make acting wise, because all of a sudden, that spine can’t be fulfilled. I can’t trick myself, I know Sierra is not coming. And here is where I think the show did a good job with the dramatic literature. That spine was broken when she left. You can’t live for her anymore. She’s not there to live for. And so oftentimes, I think what happens in life, and certainly in the drama, is people start to spin a little bit. The thing that’s been moving them through their lives is removed. They usually begin to take pretty broken steps.
But as an actor, adjustments are part of what we do. Personally, she is one of my favorite people to act across from, and to act with and to connect to while you do your acting. So it was a loss that I supported, because I love her, and I think she was doing what she was genuinely convicted to do. And how could you not respect that? She’s a woman of faith, and she was seeking guidance from the God that she believes in, “What should I do?” And she got an answer, and she had the courage to act on it. So it was a little bit of mixed emotions. I was real proud of her, and still am, but I was a little bummed that I didn’t get to wrap up this thing that we started together. We didn’t get to finish it together. But that’s OK.
Without Sierra returning on screen for the final episodes, how do you expect fans will be able to find closure in Judd’s storyline?
Parrack: The original 126 that we lost in the pilot, these were my brothers. And by the time we get around to the final episode of the series, these people that were strangers in the pilot have long since been family, and I’ve got my daughter, and I’ve got a new son, and I’ve kind of got family with Robyn [Lively]’s character, Marlene. And there is this link, this connection to Grace, and the presumption is she’s coming home when her work is done. It’s not a fractured family, she’s just away. And the step I get to take, Judd’s position change at the 126, it’s a man who lives for family, and now his family has expanded well beyond what he could have conceived of five years ago. And he’s in a position to be the head of this family.
During this episode of “9-1-1: Lone Star,” it’s established that Judd and Grace’s baby daughter Charlie has gone to live with her grandparents because she’s too sad to be in the house without her mother there. After Judd’s choice to pour out his alcohol and commit to sobriety at the end of the episode, with the help of Owen (Rob Lowe) and before he even hears from Grace, is it fair to assume he’s in a good enough place that Charlie will be able to come home?
Parrack: By the end of this episode, there may still be some wrestling to do with God, but it’s only because Judd believes that God’s there to wrestle with him at all. And sobriety begins. And I can speak from my own experience, one of the things that happens when you remove alcoholism is what is precious to you becomes more clear immediately.
As someone who plays a firefighter on TV, what has been your reaction to the effects of the wildfires in Los Angeles?
Parrack: One of my big takeaways from the five seasons of the show is just, if I had what I thought was as much admiration as possible for first responders before I started playing one, after playing one, it’s just gone through the roof. There were so many times my cast mates and I would turn to each other and just say, “Can you believe there are people who really do this?” And thank God for them. I’ve been praying pretty fervently that L.A. gets the help that it needs, those first responders are protected and brought home safe. And I just thank God for the courage, thank God that they’re willing to do what none of the rest of us are willing to or know how to. And my heart goes out to the people that really lost so much.
Kevin Estrada/Fox
In this episode, Marjan goes from introducing her boyfriend Joe (who the audience hasn’t seen for some time) to her parents Waleed (Michael Benyaer) and Nasreen (Anne Nahabedian), and being nervous about their initial critical response, to proving to them that this is the man she should be with — to then marrying him while they’re still in town, all in the same episode. How did you approach this storyline with the writers, and what would make it believable for Marjan?
Natacha Karam: Taking all things into consideration, we knew we were getting a shorter season and that we needed to wrap up some of the characters’ stories and arcs in a way that felt satisfying to the audience, and did justice to the characters and everything they’ve been through. And due to having fewer episodes, we knew that there was quite a lot of ground to cover. So I knew it was going to be sort of this expedited journey within this one episode. And it kind of ended up working for us, because the stakes are so much higher, because it’s compressed. I think after the initial shock of the audience being like, “Wait, what? He’s back? Oh, great. He’s always been there!” — I think after the initial introduction, the audience just joins in and goes along for the ride. And then it’s like, “Of course, we wanted her to marry this man! Of course we want her to have what she wants in life.” And it has such a beautiful contrast with Judd’s storyline, sort of new love and old love, the trials and tribulations.
What input did you have on what Marjan’s wedding would look like, especially given that it is put together very quickly?
Karam: I was super, super, super involved in that. From the moment we decided we were doing this sort of shotgun wedding thing, I called Rashad and was like, “There has been nothing low-key about this character for the last five years. So there’s no version in which we have a, ‘Oh, I’m just here for love,’ small ceremony.” That is as absurd as saying, me, Natacha Karam, is gonna have a small wedding and maybe just get married in a white suit or something. We’re both a bit larger than life. We like the shiny things. We’ve established fashion as her thing, she’s an Instagrammer and gets all this free stuff and has all these connections.
There was a version where we decide that morning to get married that afternoon. And I was like, there’s no universe. It still needs to feel extremely decadent and quirky and like she’s having the wedding of her dreams in the way that she wants it to be. Part of that for me was the outfit. I think I did five fittings. I was so involved in creating it that the costume department actually made the outfit for me based on some illustrations and pictures that I had sent them, wanting this powerful jumpsuit with an overskirt. And she had it in her cart from the moment she met him.
How did you approach the wedding night scene and the depiction of Muslim love on screen?
Karam: It was really important to focus on the intimacy and not anything to do with sexuality. This was a conversation we had a lot because this woman, who is so powerful and so strong and capable in so many arenas, anytime we’ve seen her in a situation which comes to do with love or that sort of intimate relationship — in courting, in dating — she becomes very new and naive and shy. And we’ve seen her uncomfortable and sweating, not as confident as she has been in any iteration of love that she’s encountered over the last five seasons. And I thought it was really important that she suddenly wasn’t someone who felt like they had done this a million times, because she hasn’t.
I wanted to feel the true innocence and intimacy and connection being explored for the first time. For me, it was really important that it stayed delicate. And Brad, our director, he was really good and had some reference points for what just looks like immense love and tenderness, as opposed to anything explosive or sexual, because it wasn’t anything to do with that. It was about seeing and being seen for the first time in a new life and safety, making sure it felt like she was 100% herself and 100% safe, which I think it was. I think it was captured very nicely.
Now that Marjan is married and happy with Joe, and they’re even discussing having children sooner rather than later, can we assume her storyline is smooth sailing from here until the series finale next month?
Karam: We’ve got two episodes left after this one. There’s gonna be emergency after emergency, after asteroid, after nuclear-something-or-other, after truly world-ending stuff, and then perhaps there’ll be a horizon that’s a little bit brighter all the way at the finish line. I think we love our audience too much to have taken them on this journey for five years and not end with some kind of satisfying wrap our arms around the audience.
As someone who plays a firefighter on TV, what has been your reaction to the effects of the wildfires in Los Angeles?
Karam: I’ve learned a lot from the firefighters that we’ve been around. And the more time in the last five years that I’ve spent around firefighters, the more I admire them as individuals, because they all have this true understanding of what it is to be of service. And I am so inspired by all the men I know and all the women that I’ve met, and truly what is their moral compass.
Our group chat, we were all just texting as the fires kicked off about all of the people who do this in real life, and finding any which ways we can to continue to support these people. To swing by firehouses to drop things off. The couple firehouses I went by, there were families hanging out in there with their moms and dads, and that is something, as someone who has even a small insight into what a firehouse is like from the multiples times that I’ve been into operating firehouses, that I think our show does well is exploring the family dynamic and how close-knit these firefighters become.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.
