How an unaired 9-1-1: Lone Star pilot scene finally made it to screens 5 seasons later

As the 9-1-1: Lone Star team started to envision the series’ final episodes, they thought back to the Fox drama’s beginning.

In particular, co-showrunner Rashad Raisani thought back to a trip to the 9/11 memorial the Lone Star team took for research while writing the pilot of their first responder series. “The docent told us that people write down messages to the fallen and put them into these slots,” Raisani tells Entertainment Weekly, “so we had Owen do that too, make some pledges to his firefighters [he lost in 2001.]”

The scene wasn’t ultimately included in the January 2020 series premiere, but Raisani “knew that footage was always there, and I loved the idea that we were able to harken back to that moment,” says the co-showrunner. Season 5, episode 9, “Fall From Grace,” allowed that opportunity, with Owen weighing the option of leaving the 126 in Austin to become fire chief of the New York City fire department.

“I was thinking the only thing that could get Owen to leave his son and leave this firehouse that he loves so much would be an even greater sense of calling,” Raisani says. “So we planted the seed that New York needs him again — specifically the children of some of the guys who he was their captain. We thought that would put him in a nice tension to pull us through these last four episodes. And what more potent way to show that than to finally use the footage from the memorial.”

But nothing is ever easy on Lone Star. To make the most of that “tension,” first Raisani wanted to lull Owen into a false sense of accomplishment. “We wanted to make Owen think, ‘Okay, I’ve kind of fulfilled my duty: my son, TK, is thriving, and my firehouse is thriving, so I’m not really needed here anymore,'” says the co-showrunner, who then pulled the rug out from under Owen by revealing Judd (Jim Parrack) is struggling with alcohol abuse.

“Part of this episode is saying to Owen is ‘Yes, you are still needed here. Judd needs you,'” Raisani says of Monday’s season 5 winter finale.

A preview for the final three episodes (which begin Jan. 20) shows Owen gathering the 126 to tell them some news that isn’t “the end of the world.” That is presumably his planned departure, but his announcement is interrupted by a phone notification declaring that an asteroid is headed right to Austin. All of the core 126 firefighters appear to be in peril, including Owen — so maybe it’s the perfect time for a move to New York…