‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ Reveals Tarlos’ Struggles in the Final Season — Plus a Premiere Preview
Husbands (we love typing this as much as you love reading it) T.K. (Ronen Rubinstein) and Carlos (Rafael L. Silva) are entering the fifth and final season of 9-1-1: Lone Star (premiering Monday, Sept. 23 on Fox) dealing with his father’s unsolved murder. But there’s more drama to come.
Carlos’ obsession with that investigation will put their marriage to the test. T.K.’s half-brother Jonah will be coming to Austin (which will no doubt affect Rob Lowe’s Owen). Here, co-showrunner Rashad Raisani previews that and more for the fan-favorite couple. Plus, check out the exclusive sneak peek above of Carlos and T.K. in the Season 5 premiere.
T.K.’s half-brother is coming. What can you say about what brought him to Austin and what it means for both T.K. and Owen?
Rashad Raisani: Great question, because it’s not just about T.K., it’s about Owen. We had such a big storyline in Season 2 where Gwyn [Lisa Edelstein], T.K.’s mother, got pregnant and Owen thought it was him and then it was revealed that it was actually Enzo, her second husband and the person who took over Owen’s place in T.K.’s life after Owen stepped away from the role of father because of 9/11. Enzo was really instrumental in raising T.K. and he fathered T.K.’s younger brother, Jonah. So as we were looking at the end of the series and talking about family, we wanted to go back to the question of who T.K. is as a son, as a brother, and as a father in the future when the series ends. Jonah, that boy, and Enzo, his stepfather, seemed like the perfect characters that we could tell that story with.
Also, it would force Owen to acknowledge, going back to his past as T.K.’s father and the years he was away, that some trauma happened to T.K. and Enzo has been very vocal about who T.K. is going to be. So there’s a lot of reckoning with that past that’s going to come out in his character. Also, he’s really funny. So I think there’s a lot of funny stuff going on.
Carlos is investigating his father’s death. Can you preview anything about that investigation? It will involve Campbell (Parker Young) as well, right?
The way we talk about Campbell and Carlos is that they are like two brothers, older brother and younger brother. Carlos comes along, and in Campbell’s mind, he’s free because his father, Gabriel Reyes, is a legend, and he gets to go first and become a Texas Ranger. The first episode is about these two brothers, both of them fighting for the love of their father, and their father is Sheriff Bridges, their boss. But what happens is they learn to respect each other and they discover that they are so much better when they work together as a team and they really complement each other brilliantly, not only as investigators, but as characters and honestly to me, as actors. I think they have a great dynamic that only gets richer as the season goes on.
The murder of Carlos’ father is something that Carlos will not give up. That’s the main driving force in Carlos’ life. And there’s no way we can end the series without giving that poor guy some answers. So there’s going to be some answers at the end of the day about that.
The season description says that T.K. and Carlos’ marriage is tested because Carlos becomes obsessed with solving his father’s murder. What can you say about how we see that play out and how difficult things are in the middle of that for them? I believe they’ll be okay by the end.
A big part of their marriage for me is that I really wanted to treat it like a real marriage, and I mean, even though these guys are great together and they’re really good-looking, life isn’t perfect no matter who you are and people have real struggles that affect even great relationships. And the real strength of a relationship is not the absence of challenges and problems, but how you grapple with them and face them and whether they make your relationship stronger or weaker.
