‘I’m Going Away’: 9-1-1: Just Got Lone Star Removed [Spoiler] Before Series Finale?!?
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Tommy Vega is facing a devastating health diagnosis that could force her to leave 9-1-1: Lone Star. The promo for the upcoming episode suggests that Gina Torres could be removed from the show before the end of the final season.
In the promo for 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5 Episode 7, Tommy tells Owen (Rob Lowe), “I have breast cancer. I’m going to have to leave 126.” The episode synopsis explains, “TK gets a big surprise on his 30th birthday when his stepfather Enzo arrives in Austin with TK’s half-brother Jonah; Owen’s resentment towards Enzo turns violent; Tommy is determined to overcome his latest crisis; Wyatt tries to convince a suicidal caller and 126 must perform dangerous surgery in the field after a man is impaled on a tree.”
Is Tommy Vega Leaving 9-1-1: Lone Star?
In Episode 6, Tommy reveals his cancer diagnosis, telling Nancy about her mammogram results. “I called my doctor about my mammogram. She said they found something… bad,” Tommy shares.
9-1-1: Lone Star is in its fifth and final season, so the storyline will need to be tied up, but will Tommy get a happy ending or will the character be written off before the end?
It doesn’t seem like Tommy will be leaving the show, based on recent interviews from one of the showrunners and Torres.
In a November 4 interview with Entertainment Weekly, co-creator Rashad Raisani discussed Tommy’s storyline and credited former cast member Sierra McClain, who played Grace, for the idea.
“We didn’t want to just go straight into Tommy’s cancer, Tommy,” Raisani notes, because the show initially focused on Nancy’s health scare. This also gave her the opportunity to “explore Nancy’s backstory in a deep way.”
McClain discussed Tommy’s cancer storyline with Raisani before she left the show. “She and I are very close, and we got together to talk about her character, but then she brought up Gina,” Raisani explains. “She said, ‘I think Gina Torres is just a special actress and she could take on an even bigger arc than anything we’ve ever done for anyone, with more depth and more risk.’ ‘I mean, I don’t want to speak for another character, but what if she found out she had breast cancer?’” And I just thought, ‘Oh, that’s a genius introduction.'” This provides a way to “start both Tommy and Nancy’s endings for the series because, not to be cocky, but Tommy’s going to have to deal with this cancer monster,” Raisani noted. “It’s going to affect everyone.”
Tommy will certainly be going through a lot in the upcoming episodes, but things will end well for her. In a September 30 interview with TV Insider for the 9-1-1: Lone Star aftershow, First Response, Torres confirmed, “We’re all getting to the end of the season, so let me put everyone at ease right away.”
She also noted, “Tommy, I think we’re going to see… we’re going to see a side of Tommy that we haven’t seen before. Tommy is very dangerous ahead.”
Of course, Torres couldn’t reveal how her character’s storyline will play out in the final season, but assured, “It ends as expected. You’ll see us come together and you’ll see all the people and all the relationships that everyone out there has invested in over the course of these seasons.”
