[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5 Episode 4 “My Way.”] Lt. Paul Strickland seems like a good fit, right? He’s settling into his role by the end of the latest 9-1-1: Lone Star episode, after initially trying to take on too much on his own, including chores that no one else likes to do.
“When you’re in the trenches with someone, you really form a bond and then it can be a challenge to go from, ‘Hey, we’re all on the same level,’ to ‘Hey, I need you to do the things that I’m asking you to do and now I have this authority and how am I going to use that authority?’” Brian Michael Smith explained to TV Insider in our 9-1-1: Lone Star post-show, First Response, which can be viewed in full above.
Paul pushes himself so hard that his back hurts, and Owen (Rob Lowe) finally steps in to talk to him about the burden of leadership. It all stems from his childhood, as we glimpse in a nightmare when he shows up to play 126 only to find they’ve taken his place—with two kids. Those kids were Paul’s childhood best friends, who did everything together until they excluded him because he was transgender.
But after a talk with Owen, Paul steps up and takes charge—and then sees firsthand how things aren’t going to change with his friends when Marjan (Natacha Karam) checks his weekend plans.
“As soon as he starts to feel like, oh no, I might lose my friends, it brings him back to this deep old wound where he realizes, ‘I’m still operating from this painful place.’ He’s really, really anxious and really scared of losing his friends because this is his family now,” Smith said. “This is the unconditional support that he’s always wanted in his life, and putting that on the line is scary for him and he’s willing to do anything. He’s willing to sacrifice himself in a lot of ways to keep this going. So when he steps up and takes the leadership position and his friends are like, okay, and you’re still under, that’s what he needs to keep letting go of this old belief. It’s great to see that on screen.” Smith praised the writers room for this episode, saying, “‘We’re going to throw everything at him again to push him to his breaking point and help him figure out what his breaking point is.’” I feel like Paul will continue to carry the weight as an individual because he feels like he has to hold on to what’s important to him in this job until his body gives out. And I feel like as a trans man, I think that can translate to his own experience of feeling like I have to do everything myself because this is the only way I can achieve my goals. People aren’t really going to support me or stand up for me the way I’m going to stand up for them. And so he realizes that’s not true anymore. You’ve found family. You have people who believe in you and believe in your vision and your leadership, and they’re not going to abandon you just because you do something they don’t like.
And so, moving forward, we’re going to see “a much more fully fleshed-out Paul.”
His relationship with Asha [Amanda Payton] is still going strong. Smith previewed that “having someone at home to help him understand what he’s going through is really important. So you just see her presence and support that helps ground him and ground him.”
Plus, after seeing Paul challenged as an individual, watch the 126 as a unit “get pushed to the limit in the next few episodes. It’s going to be a beautiful thing,” he promised.
Watch the full interview above for more from Smith on Paul as a lieutenant and what’s next, his farewell to the show, and how it’s ending.
