Things get worse for Nancy on tonight’s 9-1-1: Lone Star.
The first responder from Austin (played by Brianna Baker) kicked off season 5, episode 6 of the Fox drama by accidentally sending a nude photo to the entire fire department. And, in an exclusive sneak peek for Entertainment Weekly, her boyfriend Mateo (Julian Works) thinks she might have been fired by Tommy (Gina Torres) because of the incident.
But Nancy isn’t in her regular clothes because she’s been fired, her boss has given her the day off because she noticed a lump in the “nude” photo. “I just checked in the locker room, there it is,” Nancy tells Mateo about the lump in her breast. “She recommended I get a mammogram and she said I shouldn’t panic unless I have a family history of breast cancer.”
And she does. Nancy reveals that her aunt, grandmother, and mother all passed away in the hospital. “Everyone else gets sick when they’re around 50. I’m 35,” she explains. Mateo tries his best to comfort his girlfriend, but after he says “sorry,” her mood changes. “Don’t… look at me like that, with pity,” she says. “I used to look at my mother the exact same way.”
9-1-1: Lone Star co-producer Rashad Raisani tells EW that the group text photo scenario was partly inspired by the true story of a local Florida news anchor who discovered his thyroid cancer early after a viewer wrote in to note a lump in the reporter’s throat.
“And Mateo and Nancy are a relationship that we love but haven’t really had a chance to explore in depth this season,” Raisani continues. “We thought, ‘Well, what if we had the equivalent of a sex tape that was leaked, and what if that could turn into something bigger and allow us to explore Nancy’s backstory in a deeper way?’” Sign up for Entertainment Weekly’s free daily newsletter to get the latest TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
“I think Brianna Baker is one of the great breakout actors on this show,” Raisani says of Nancy. “She’s grown so much. If you go back to season 1, when she was almost an extra in the first episode—she might have one line in the script. And look at her now. She’s so funny and she can act, she can do everything, so I really wanted to showcase her.”
