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Recap / 9-1-1: Lone Star S1E4 "Act of God"

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Tornadoes hit Austin, and the team scrambles to do help. Also, Grace asks Judd why he's not attending church anymore and TK learns a secret from Owen.

Tropes featured in the episode:

  • Almost Out of Oxygen: A man named Caleb gets stuck in a gun safe and slowly begins to run out of air, while Grace talks his girlfriend Brianna through unlocking the safe.
  • Attention Whore: Marjan suggests that she is the one to repel down to a stuck car because she’s lighter, Paul thinks she only wants to do it because a news crew has just rolled up. Marjan smiles and tells Paul that someone has to make the night time news.
  • Appetite Equals Health: Owen doesn’t have much of an appetite after his cancer treatment.
  • Belated Injury Realization: After Owen successfully emerges from the house’s rubble with the two children, the father is so relieved to reunite… until he collapses in front of them. Michelle and her team then find his injuries and try to revive him, but it’s too late.
  • Bittersweet Ending: When the tornado hits, a father is separated from his two kids and the kids end up trapped in the ruins of their house. The firefighters desperately try to locate the two kids and Owen then has to attempt a dangerous rescue. The kids are saved but the father is revealed to have sustained a major internal injury, which ends up killing him.
  • Bringing in the Expert: When the tornadoes hit, Owen refers to Judd’s expertise on how to handle the situation.
  • Buried Alive: A father ends up buried under his collapsed house after a tornado tears it apart. He manages to crawl out as AFD and the 126 EMS arrive on scene, and tells them his kids Nico and Ada are still buried.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Owen uses his anti-nausea medication at the firehouse and leaves the bottle in his office. Later, TK goes into his office looking for some gum and finds the bottle. This allows him to work out that Owen has lung cancer.
    • As Michelle and her mother look through photo albums from their shed, they find one picture featuring Iris, an unfamiliar group of people, and a blue pickup truck. This confirms for them that that truck was involved in her disappearance.
  • Crisis of Faith: After the death of his original team, Judd doesn’t see the point of going back to church with his wife. By the end of the episode, this crisis isn’t fully resolved, but he agrees to attend a few of Grace’s Bible study meetings as a compromise.
  • Disaster-Dodging Dog: A cat example. One man leaves his kids in the shelter of the bathroom to find the family cat. The tornado razes the house as he's in the living room, and it traps the kids under the rubble. After the 126 arrive on scene, the cat is revealed to have gotten out unharmed.
  • Film the Hand: Marjan does this to block a news crew filming a recently deceased Ray in front of his children.
  • Friendless Background: Michelle’s grief and determination to find Iris left her with a significantly diminished social life, which her mother concernedly brings up.
  • Help, I'm Stuck!: While driving when a tornado hits, a woman’s car ends up stuck upside down in between two buildings, high off the ground.
  • Hostile Weather: A tornado rips through Austin.
  • How We Got Here: After the opening scene, where the tornado hits a family’s house, the episode starts 12 hours before the tornado hits.
  • Innocently Insensitive: Judd, while explaining why he doesn’t want to go back to church, accidentally insults Grace’s faith.
    Judd: So you gotta forgive me if the last thing I wanna do in the world right now is, you know, like, raise my hands up like some sort of singing half-wit and praise His name.
    Grace: That's what you think I am. Some singing half-wit?
    Judd: I didn't mean you.
  • Internal Reveal: TK works out on his own that Owen has cancer and confronts Owen as to why he didn’t tell him himself.
  • Missing Child: During the tornado, a father is separated from his two children. In the morning, the father is able to dig himself out of the ruins of his house and can't find his children anywhere. He has to be held back by the firefighters so he does not run into danger. He then has to wait while the firefighters insert microphones into the pile of debris and then listen for any signs of life. The father's actions are completely fueled by the need to find his kids.
  • Mission Control: When Owen goes into a collapsed house to rescue Nico and Ada, TK tells him where he should be going with help from Ray.
  • Parental Title Characterization: After Owen’s GPS signal cuts out from the house collapse, TK calls out to him by “Captain Strand”, then “Dad” as he turns more frantic.
  • Real Men Cook: Paul cooks dinner for the 126 crew, but complains about their dietary preferences.
    Paul: Man, it is halal, gluten-free, nitrate-free, because y'all are the hardest bunch of people to cook for.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the tornadoes hit, Caleb panics and locks himself in his parent's gun safe, leaving Brianna behind.
    • Judd announces that everyone in the 126 hunker back down in the station after Owen asks him what to do.
  • Sudden Lack of Signal: Owen’s GPS signal cuts out when the house he’s in collapses on top of him and the kids he’s rescuing.
  • Time-Delayed Death: A single father, Ray, refuses to seek medical attention when he crawls out from under his collapsed house, too worried about his two children who are still trapped inside. So while Nico and Ada are rescued safe and sound, no one notices that he sustained his own major injuries until he collapses to the ground. He ends up dying due to internal bleeding.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Downplayed. A father ushers his kids into the bathroom when a tornado hits. When they get worried about the family cat, he goes back out to rescue it to make them feel safer in their makeshift shelter. The tornado then levels the house as he's trying to get the cat out from under the couch, leading to his fatal internal injury.
  • Vomit Discretion Shot: After Owen has his cancer treatment, he ends up throwing up back at the firehouse discreetly.

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