9-1-1 Lone Star Recap: “Spring Cleaning” (S3E17)
By Distributel
Spoilers ahead!
Captain Tommy Vega and her brother-in-law, Julius, are cleaning up some of Charles’s things. Tommy insists that he try on a pair of Charles’s shoes, which fit perfectly. He then invites her to a show later.
A couple is packing up their things. They’re clearly in the middle of an amicable but fraught breakup. The woman asks that the man throw away Wingo, a ceramic owl that he bought for her, so he puts it in a trash bag and takes it to the garbage chute. After he tosses it, the woman comes running down the hall, asking to keep Wingo. The man sees that the garbage bag is stuck in the chute atop some pizza boxes. He reaches in for it, but falls down.
The 126 arrives on the scene to find the man dangling upside down halfway in a trash compactor. The building super says he has turned off the power. Marjan and Nancy have to empty the dumpster and jump in to try and assess the man. Then the trash compactor boots up and starts compacting. Captain Owen Strand tries the emergency shutoff, but it’s broken. Nancy and Marjan brace the walls of the trash compactor, just like in Star Wars, but the light stand they use breaks. They try and yank him out and brace the walls again. Then the trash compactor shuts down. Mateo has unplugged it. The man, now in a neck brace, apologizes to his ex-girlfriend who seems ready to get back together with him—he’s broken Wingo the ceramic owl.
Judd and Grace are having Wyatt, his mother, and stepfather over for dinner. Wyatt gets a message about an internship he’s applying for—it’s now in-person in Austin, not online. Wyatt and Grace offer to have him stay with them, and Judd offers to help him get ready for the interview.
At Owen’s house, Owen knocks on Mateo’s door and offers him some golden milk. Mateo declines to come out—Nancy has spent the night and they don’t want to tell Owen anything. However, Nancy insists they let everyone know what’s going on so they don’t make it weird later.
Judd takes Wyatt shopping for a suit for his interview. Judd talks Wyatt through the ins and outs of looking people in the eye and appearing confident.
At the firehouse, Paul has made chili and can’t figure out why Texans need corn chips for their chili. He tells Mateo where they’re hidden, but Nancy has to reach them for the somewhat shorter Mateo. Nancy keeps prodding Mateo to say something to the group, but he doesn’t.
Later, at the weekly hangout, the group plays Settlers of Catan. Mateo wants to trade for a brick, but Nancy rebuffs him and trades her brick to Marjan. Mateo and Nancy then have an awkward and weird argument that the rest of the group can’t interpret.
Tommy and her girls visit Julius’s performance. It’s an acoustic set that’s clearly heartfelt and about Tommy. Later, the two kiss once more. Before things go too far, Tommy puts a stop to it. The next day she visits Charles’s grave and talks things over with him.
At the firehouse, TK tries to get Nancy to open up about why she’s acting so oddly. Nancy then presses for different games at game night, like Yahtzee or Scattergories.
A woman has her two young kids buckled into their car seats. She’s attempting to back out of her driveway when her angry husband calls. He hears the voice of his son and demands to know why he’s not in school. She angrily tells him that he won’t hurt her or the kids any more. Amid this argument one of the children is upset over a missing stuffed animal, Purple Llama. She jumps out of the car to get Purple Llama but only puts it in neutral. The car starts rolling back, but the door is locked.
After a 9-1-1 call, the 126 is on the scene. The mother has thrown herself under the car to act as a speed bump to slow things down. She’s incredibly frightened of her husband showing up. As the team helps her, that’s exactly what happens. The first responders become aware of the concerns around her husband, but Carlos points out that because there’s never been a report of abuse, he legally cannot prevent the husband from taking the kids. Owen chooses to get in the guy’s face. Everyone expects Owen to throw a punch. Instead, Owen goads the man by calling him a wife-beating cuck, which causes the man to punch Owen. He’s arrested.
Judd takes Wyatt to the job interview. Wyatt turns out to be the only one in a suit. He’s very awkward with the tech founder. After the interview he angrily gets in Judd’s truck. Things clearly didn’t go well.
Nancy arrives at game night to find an intervention. The whole crew want to know why there’s so much awkwardness. Nancy and Mateo come out about seeing each other, and Mateo confesses that he thinks Nancy will be embarrassed because she’s so much taller than him. But she points out that she’s been taller than all the people she’s dated. The two don’t stay for game night—they leave to go get “coffee.”
Tommy and Julius talk over their situation. Julius loves Tommy but can’t stay. He can’t risk messing things up any more for Tommy and the girls. He apologizes, but Tommy informs him that there’s nothing for which to apologize.
Judd and Wyatt return to the internship office. Judd says he’s going to talk to the founder and try to get Wyatt another shot at the interview. After he goes into the building, the building security meets with a gas company guy, who looks for a gas leak. In the basement of the building he reports that his readings are so high that they shouldn’t even be there—at which point everything explodes. We see the building come down and Wyatt crawls out of the truck, coughing.
Final Thoughts
We’re glad Tommy concluded that situation without getting hurt. She’s the best.
Wearing a suit to the job interview wasn’t terrible advice at all. That guy was kind of a jerk for making Wyatt feel uncomfortable about it.
Why would the guard let people in the building if he suspects a gas leak?