911 Lone Star 4x17 ‘Best of Men,’ & 4x18 ‘In Sickness and in Health,’ Recap/Review
- Kassia Skorzewska
- May 17, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: May 19, 2023
911 Lone Star’s T.K. Strand and Carlos Reyes (Tarlos), have finally tied the knot after four long years of watching the couple go through many obstacles in their way, including a brief breakup.
Wyatt and Judd
Near the end of last week’s episode, Judd’s son, Wyatt was hit by a car while riding his bike and was rushed into spinal surgery with a fractured spine as well as swelling of the brain. In the finale, Wyatt finds out he’s paralyzed, so Judd makes the decision to quit his job at the 126 and become his son’s full-time caregiver.
Carlos and Gabriel Reyes
At the beginning of 4x17’s ‘Best of Men,’ Gabriel arrives to the Tarloft with news that his son is being extended an offer to join the Texas Rangers and work alongside his father. Carlos rejects the idea, however, as he doesn’t like the Texas Ranger’s history of targeting Indigenous groups.
Later, to repair the rift between Carlos and his father, T.K. sets up a meeting for Carlos and his mother, in which Andrea points out that part of Carlos’ rift might have some part to do with how his father reacted when Carlos came out to his parents.
Going over to his parents’ house to apologise, Carlos asks his Gabriel to be his best man, which the latter happily accepts.
Later, while Carlos is on speaker phone with his mother at night, Gabriel goes to answer the door thinking his and Andrea’s food has arrived. But as Gabriel answers the door, a masked man raises a gun and shoots him straight in the chest, killing him.
With the Tarlos wedding postponed due to Carlos’ grief, T.K. begins unplanning their wedding while Carlos and Andrea are going through Gabriel’s desk in the Reyes’ home office.
Finding a false drawer, Carlos discovers a burner phone, a VHS tape, and some confidential papers, leading him to believe his father was murdered due to something he was investigating off the books.
Looking into it further, Carlos discovers there is corruption among Texas Law Enforcement involving the Cartel.
Coming across a name of a guy, Pablo Martinez, Carlos believes Pablo is the one who murdered his dad, so in the grief stage of anger, he heads to Pablo’s house and confronts him.
Showing up to help get Carlos to back down, Owen and Sgt. O’Brien arrive as well as Ranger Bridges. Eventually getting Carlos to back down, Ranger Bridges explains to Carlos that Pablo is a former cop and was actually a friend of Gabriel’s. Carlos finds out that his father was going to testify in a cartel case, but when Gabriel was warned his life would be in danger if he did, he didn’t end up testifying, leading Carlos to realise there’s a dead end in his father’s murder now.
Going back to Owen’s house, Owen tells Carlos he won’t be able to live his life if he can’t accept he might never find his father’s murderer. Owen’s words leave a parting mark on Carlos and he decides to go through with the wedding after all.
Tarlos Wedding
With Iris as Carlos’ best woman and Owen as T.K.’s best man, Paul Strickland, a black trans male, officiates the Tarlos wedding, a wedding between an inter-racial, same-sex couple, in Texas. Saying their vows, both T.K. and Carlos vow to be the caretaker of each other’s heart.
Following the wedding ceremony, T.K. and Carlos slow dance with each other, as around them, their wedding guests also dance. Later, with some pushing from T.K., paramedic captain Tommy Vega sings T.K.’s mother’s favourite song, with the grooms looking on, crying.
Owen and Robert
Last episode, the audience saw Owen’s half-brother, Robert, ask him to assist him in dying, as the Huntington’s Disease keeps progressing. After the wedding, Robert says goodbye to his wife and daughters, before Owen takes Robert home to help him die.
126 Emergency
The only emergency the 126 responded to in the finale was in ‘Best of Men.’ As a mother is filling up gas in her car, a man suddenly comes up to her, pulls out a knife and steals her car with her toddler, Piper, inside.
As Sgt. O’Brien, multiple police cars, and the 126 fire engine gives chase on the car, they eventually box it onto a residential street, before the carjacker drives the car through a fence and into a backyard pool. Escaping the car, the carjacker tries to flee over a fence before Sgt. O’Brien tackles him, while Owen sheds his turnout coat and dives into the water to rescue Piper. Getting the car door open and freeing Piper from her car seat, the 126 EMS take over with Piper’s care and eventually revive her, happily listening to her cry.
Parallels
There were a few parallels I noticed in the season 4 finale.
With the rescue of Piper, I realised that in season 1, Owen rescued a baby on the very first 126 call, which was also the first night T.K. and Carlos met. And now, in the season 4 finale, Owen is rescuing a baby right before T.K. and Carlos are getting married.
Another parallel I noticed was when T.K. woke up in the middle of the night in ‘In Sickness and in Health.’ He reaches across the bed to where Carlos sleeps, and when his arm hits empty space, he wakes up seeing Carlos is not in bed. Getting up, he finds Carlos in the living room. This scene mirrors the 3x13 scene where Carlos wakes up to an empty space next to him and finds T.K. in the living room. These parallel scenes lead me to the conclusion that the boys can’t sleep without the other next to them.
Another parallel shown was a parallel between the pilot and the finale. In the pilot, we saw Carlos ask T.K. to dance, and at their wedding we saw Carlos holding his hand out to T.K. to dance.
Another parallel shown was an extremely sad parallel between the moments after T.K.'s mother died in season 3, to when Carlos' father died in the finale.
Thoughts
In my honest opinion, I don’t think the murder of Gabriel should have happened in the finale. I think it would have been a better storyline to happen a few episodes ago, to give Carlos time to process some of the grief, have the wedding postponed, and maybe lead Carlos into finding Gabriel’s murder. I think the overwhelming of emotions of Gabriel’s murder made the wedding kind of underwhelming. For me, it was difficult to be totally happy for the wedding after being so shocked and sad over Gabriel’s murder.
That being said, the wedding was beautiful. These days, with anti LGBTQ+ laws being passed, it was beautiful to watch a wedding between an inter-racial, same-sex couple, officiated by a black trans male, on network television on a show based in Texas. Representation matters, and the Tarlos wedding was one of the most beautiful images of representation.
Rafael Silva did a phenomenal job portraying Carlos Reyes this season, especially in the finale. After Gabriel’s death, I felt every single one of Rafael’s emotions through the screen and was blown away by how incredible an actor he is.
Ronen Rubinstein also did a phenomenal job portraying T.K. Strand this season, and I was in tears watching T.K. cry as Tommy sang his mother’s favourite song.
I am so happy and proud for Ronen and Rafael because they have put their heart and soul into T.K. and Carlos for four seasons, and to finally see their characters get married means so much to me.
Next Season
I am excited to see what next season has in store for the characters. How will the progress of Wyatt’s recovery be going? What will Tommy and Trevor’s relationship look like? Does T.K. know Owen helped his uncle die? How will we see Gabriel’s death effect on Carlos and Andrea? What will T.K. and Carlos look like as husbands? Will Carlos become a Texas Ranger to honour his dad and investigate in his murder? What sort of emergencies will the 126 respond to? There is so much the show can take the characters and I am excited to find out!
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