What Happened to Carlos’ Father on 9-1-1: Lone Star?

9-1-1: Lone Star, which began in 2020, follows the work and personal lives of first responders in Austin, Texas. Fire Captain Owen Strand (Rob Lowe) leads the team at Firehouse 126, along with the paramedic captain of the house, Tommy Vega (Gina Torres), and they work closely with police officers at the Austin Police Department, the Texas Rangers, and 9-1-1 dispatchers to care for the people of Austin. As the show wraps its fifth and final season, it has begun to bring its biggest storylines to a close, and no storyline has needed it more than that of Carlos and Gabriel Reyes.

Carlos Reyes (Rafael L. Silva) was first an APD officer but, as of Season 5, Episode 1, “Both Sides, Now,” has transitioned to being a Texas Ranger. Married to T.K. Strand (Ronen Rubenstein), a paramedic and the son of Owen Strand, Carlos has spent the bulk of 9-1-1: Lone Star‘s final season trying to solve the murder of his father, Gabriel. In Season 5, Episode 8, “The Quiet Ones,” and Season 5, Episode 9, “Fall from Grace,” — the show’s Fall finale — Carlos finally got his answers.

Who is Gabriel Reyes?

Gabriel Reyes (Benito Martinez) first appeared in Season 2, Episode 4, “Friends with Benefits,” alongside Carlos’s mother, Andrea (Roxana Brusso). In the episode, Carlos and T.K. run into Gabriel and Andrea at the farmer’s market, putting an unexpected chip in their relationship when Carlos introduces T.K. as simply his “colleague.” Later, T.K. learns that while Carlos’s family didn’t outright reject him when he came out, they didn’t really acknowledge it either, leaving Carlos feeling uncertain about how to share his relationship with T.K. with his parents.

Gabriel and Andrea’s marriage was a long and happy one, and they had three children — Luisa, Ana, and Carlos. Gabriel spent his entire career as a Texas Ranger, something that occasionally came between him and his son, and he was very proud of the work that he did and hoped that one day, his son would follow in his footsteps. Gabriel sometimes butted heads with Owen — like in Season 2, Episode 11, “Slow Burn,” when Owen was a suspect in a serial arson case, or in Season 4, Episode 14, “Tongues Out,” when Owen’s girlfriend, Kendra, was suspected of killing her husband — but they enjoyed being in-laws, and Owen considered Gabriel a good friend.

Carlos and Gabriel Had a Complicated Relationship

Carlos and Gabriel weren’t the first — and won’t be the last — television characters to have a strict parent-child relationship. Most of their struggles stemmed from Gabriel’s absence during Carlos’ childhood, thanks to his work as a Texas Ranger, but things certainly didn’t get any better when Carlos came out. Carlos even worried that he wouldn’t be able to be a good father since he didn’t have a good relationship with his own.

One of the most difficult things about Carlos’ relationship with his father was that Gabriel didn’t handle Carlos joining the APD very well. Though he had long wanted to leave a legacy with the Texas Rangers that included his son following in his footsteps, he soon began to feel that Carlos wasn’t capable of being a Texas Ranger. In fact, when Carlos joined the APD, Gabriel told his son that he was “too soft” to be an officer of the law. His perspective began to change in Season 2, Episode 8, “Bad Call,” though. First, Carlos believed a bank robber who was wearing a bomb and promised that he would turn himself in once his son, who he said was being held hostage by the real bank robbers, was safe, and while his supervising officer and the Texas Rangers thought he was been played, Carlos ended up being right to trust the man. Later, T.K. and his team — Captain Vega and the third paramedic at the 126, Nancy Gillian (Brianna Baker) — go missing, and Carlos was the one who was able to find the paramedics, and connect their abduction to the bank robbery earlier in the episode. By the end of “Bad Call,” Gabriel had finally told Carlos that he had good instincts, something audiences already knew and a major turning point in their relationship.

How Did Gabriel Reyes Die?

Between Season 2 and Season 4 of 9-1-1: Lone Star, Carlos and Gabriel made a pointed effort to rebuild their relationship, though it wasn’t easy. Given how Gabriel reacted to Carlos joining the APD, it was a surprise to Carlos when Gabriel extended an offer for Carlos to join the Texas Rangers in Season 4, Episode 17, “Best of Men.” The conversation opened old wounds for both men, especially when Carlos expressed his concerns with how the organization had historically treated people of Mexican and Indigenous descent — people who look just like the Reyes family. Gabriel accused Carlos of being ashamed of him, and it took interference from T.K. and Andrea for the two men to patch things up.

Carlos mended things with his father later in “Best of Men” when both men apologized, and Carlos asked Gabriel to be his best man at his upcoming wedding to T.K., a role that Gabriel was thrilled and honored to take on. Unfortunately, their joy was short-lived. While trying on the tuxedo he would be wearing at the wedding, Gabriel answered the front door, assuming it was a food delivery. Andrea was on the phone with Carlos at the time and turned when she heard the gunshot as soon as Gabriel opened the door. Carlos heard what was happening over the phone but couldn’t get there in time, and Gabriel was pronounced dead at the scene. The loss of his father devastated Carlos, and they nearly canceled the wedding until Andrea convinced Carlos that his father would want them to celebrate.

9-1-1: Lone Star’s Most Recent Episodes Made Huge Strides in Gabriel’s Case

Season 5, which premiered on September 23, 2024, began nine months after the events of 9-1-1: Lone Star‘s Season 4, Episode 18, “In Sickness and in Health.” The biggest surprise for many fans was that Carlos had chosen to do what he always said he would not do and was following in his father’s footsteps as a Texas Ranger. While he was investigating plenty of cases with the other Texas Rangers, Carlos was also spending late nights and his spare time trying to find his father’s killer. In “In Sickness and in Health,” Carlos and Andrea had discovered a false-bottom drawer where Gabriel had kept files and recordings pertaining to a long investigation. What Carlos soon learned was that Gabriel believed that someone within the Texas Rangers was corrupt, and Carlos became certain that that was why his father was killed.

Beginning in Season 5, Episode 1, “Both Sides, Now,” Carlos spent most of the first nine episodes of the season obsessed with finding Gabriel’s killer and outing the corruption inside the Texas Rangers. It takes a toll on Carlos and T.K.’s new marriage, even sending them to therapy until Carlos admits that he’s spending too much time working and promises to set aside his phone and his files as soon as he gets home — a promise he keeps, much to the delight of both T.K. and “Tarlos” fans. Then, in Season 5, Episode 8, “The Quiet Ones,” T.K. reveals that he wants to adopt his younger half-brother after the boy’s father, Enzo (Henry Ian Cusick), is arrested for fraud, but Carlos isn’t ready and doesn’t think he will be until he has solved his father’s murder. It causes another bump in their marriage, one that seems like it might be a dealbreaker for them. And then, after the brutal murder of a gang member, Carlos finally catches a break.

Near the end of “The Quiet Ones,” Carlos and his partner, Sam Campbell (Parker Young), locate a confidential informant (CI) that went missing around the same time Gabriel was murdered. It is this informant that breaks the case for Carlos when he tells him that Gabriel had warned him to stay away from one specific ranger — Sam Campbell. Season 5, Episode 9, “Fall from Grace,” opens with Carlos taking the CI’s claim to Ranger Bridges (Alan Autry), Carlos’s boss and an old friend of Gabriel’s. They spend most of the episode chasing after Campbell, only for Carlos to finally realize that it wasn’t Campbell at all — it was Bridges. Bridges tells Carlos it was all about money and that when Gabriel got too close, Bridges killed him and tried to set up Campbell to take the fall. “Fall from Grace” provides some closure for Carlos, now that he finally knows what happened to his father, but he’ll still be processing through his grief for a long time to come.