911 Lone Star 4×07 ‘Tommy Dearest’ Recap/Review
- Kassia Skorzewska
- Apr 23, 2023
- 4 min read
Tommy Dearest has two main storylines.
Tommy and Trevor
It follows paramedic captain Tommy Vega as she and Pastor Trevor Parks (played by D.B. Woodside) tell their children about starting to date. After initially seeming like she’s fine with her father dating again, Trevor’s daughter, Melody, then reveals her true colours and turns out to be a ‘bad seed.’ On the night of Trevor and Tommy’s date, Grace, who is babysitting Melody, calls Trevor because Melody is feeling ‘sick.’ Arriving back to the house, Tommy checks Melody out and diagnoses her with a made-up illness, telling Trevor and Grace to concoct a drink with tabasco sauce, pickle juice, and a raw egg, among other ingredients.
Thinking Melody will fess up about faking sick to ruin the date, she instead drinks the concoction. The next day, Melody shows up at the firehouse telling Tommy she researched the illness to realize it’s fake. Melody then blackmails Tommy by telling her father she’ll tell him about Tommy’s past fling with her brother-in-law, revealing she recorded Tommy admitting to it. Tommy later shows up to Trevor’s house, deciding to break it off, but when Melody comes out of her room, with a stomachache, Tommy says it’s not going to work, thinking she’s faking it again. When it’s revealed Melody has gotten her period, Tommy helps her, and Melody apologizes for trying to ruin her father’s new relationship, saying she’s mad about her parent’s divorce. Melody then asks if Tommy can un-dump her father, and the episode ends as Tommy and Trevor are seen getting ice cream with their daughters.
Paul and Asha
The second storyline follows Paul as he goes on a date with Asha, the HR woman who recognized Paul from middle school back in Chicago, back before he transitioned. While out on the date, Asha pulls out their school’s yearbook and begins talking about their time before Paul transitioned, asking him if he remembers the basketball team they were on. The next day, Paul blows up at Nancy, Mateo and T.K., saying he doesn’t think he’ll be seeing Asha again. When Owen calls Paul into his office, Paul reveals he was hurt when all Asha could talk about at the date was “remember when this happened, remember when we did that?” Paul then reveals that in order to be who he is now, he had to close doors on who he was back then. “Before I transitioned, there were these parts of myself that were so tied to who everybody thought I should be, that I had to close the door on them in order to be who I am.” Near the end of the episode, Owen rolls a basketball into the changing room where Paul is, giving Paul a message it’s time to open those doors. The episode closes out with Paul and Owen shooting hoops in the firehouse, later joined by Nancy, T.K., Judd and Mateo.
Medical Calls
The 126 also responded to two medical calls in Tommy Dearest.
The first one had a husband, Jerry, wheeling his upside down wife, Hannah, into the firehouse on a fridge dolly. When Owen suggested they get her upright, Jerry explains that his wife keeps dying when she’s not upside down, explaining how it all started when they were having sex in bed. Not believing that’s the case, Tommy has T.K. and the firefighters lay the dolly flat so they can get Hannah on the gurney. But just as she’s laid flat, her heart stops again. Bringing it back up, her heart restarts, and that’s when it’s revealed she has a pacemaker. Tommy then believes that the pacemaker’s wires became dislodged, and when she’s upside down, they fall back into place. Not being able to transport her to the hospital in the ambulance or the firetruck, because they’re not tall enough, Hannah gets transported to the hospital on the back of the firetruck, with T.K. and Mateo geared up on the back with her.
The second medical call involved a pizza delivery driver, Lance, and a recluse woman, Valerie. Bringing the pizza to her front door, he knocks a few times and calls out her name. When he gets no response, he peers through her front window, and sees Valerie on the floor, convulsing. Lance calls 911, and it’s revealed the homeowner is diabetic. Grace talks Lance into breaking open the front door, and then tells him to look for a glucagon pen in her purse. Finding one, Lance is talked through how to inject it, and when Valerie wakes up and sees Lance over top her, she grabs a taser from her purse’s contents on the floor and shocks Lance right in the heart. Valerie then calls 911, saying someone broke into her house and she thinks she killed the guy. When Grace gets dispatched into the call with Valerie, she explains the situation which is when Valerie recognizes Lance. Later, as Lance is being wheeled to the ambulance, Valerie runs out of her house and expresses her love for Lance, suggesting they go on a date.
Brian Michael Smith
Seeing Paul’s storyline this episode was beautiful. As a trans man in real life, Brian portrays Paul so well and ‘Tommy Dearest,’ did a wonderful job representing Paul’s past and his hopeful future. It’s always great to see LGBTQ+ representation on TV, and I really love how Brian gets to portray a character like himself.
Next Episode
4×08, ‘Control Freaks,’ airs on March 14.
4X08 synopsis: The 126 must rescue a father/son involved in a drivers ed lesson gone haywire, then encounter a self-help guru who has lost self-control. Meanwhile, Owen turns into a ‘Dadzilla’ in helping plan T.K. and Carlos’ wedding, and Marjan is suspicious when she meets a couple on her road trip.
I am excited for ‘Control Freaks,’ as we will be seeing at least three wedding planning scenes, Carlos’ mom, as well as T.K. saying “my father’s gone insane.” The March 14 episode is going to feed us so well with lots of Tarlos moments and I highly believe it will become one of my favourite episodes of the whole show!
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