S02.E11: Slow Burn

[formerlyfreedom]

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After being forced to take time off work to recover from his surgery, Owen finds himself immersed in the search for a serial arsonist. Meanwhile, T.K. and Carlos take their relationship to the next level and Marjan copes with the aftermath of losing someone on the job.

Airing Monday, May 3, 2021.

 

[ParadoxLost]

Owen is such a giant freaking dumbass that I'm not sure I can watch this show anymore.

It was getting bad the last couple episodes.  I didn't think it could get worse than Owen shooting the bad guy and saving the day despite standing next to a cop who got relegated to the part of tag-a-long boyfriend of hostage because Owen must be the bestest ever.  

But OMG.  The dumb in this one.  It went to 'did they accidentally cut out Owen's brain during surgery' levels of stupid.

He doesn't notice the arson investigator suspects him. So he goes and buys arson supplies to figure out how the arsonist did it.  He returns to the scene of the crime in his hoodie.

It seems like having three Lowes involved in making this episode was a really, really bad idea. 

In other news, I am thrilled that someone finally called out Marjan on her social media.  It was inevitable and deserved.  May we never hear about Fire Fox again.

 

 

[anna0852]

This whole episode absolutely stunk.

[shapeshifter]

7 minutes ago, ParadoxLost said:

He doesn't notice the arson investigator suspects him. So he goes and buys arson supplies to figure out how the arsonist did it.  He returns to the scene of the crime in his hoodie

Yeah yeah yeah. But with H!ITG! bad guy Todd Stashwick playing the arson investigator, and with Rob Lowe/Owen being the lead, it will all work out in the end. 
 

But, yeah, should’ve skipped this episode. 

[jewel21]

Owen really is a dumbass. His behavior completely ruined the episode for me. 

[DearEvette]

Ugh. after two good eps this one was kind of a stinker.

It is too early to put Owen's job in jeopardy for the second time already.   Also he was all kinds of an idiot.  Walking around in a hoodie at night.  Buying suspicious stuff -- in a hoodie, no less.  Not only that but they also by default are making the Arson investigator guy an idiot too.  If the signs of arson were so simple Owen can come out of nowhere and see them than should the investigator see them too?  Unless of course he is corrupt and doing it himself.

Also for a hot second I was excited to see Billy  But then of course he acts all squirrelly.  I can never feel he is really a good friend to Owen.  And didn't he get hit by lightning and went blind in one eye?  I swear...

The best part again belonged to Judd.  I liked his convo with Owen and his uncertainty about being tapped for Captain.

I think Marjan's storyline was necessary but a little clunkily executed. 

[shapeshifter]

24 minutes ago, DearEvette said:

for a hot second I was excited to see Billy  But then of course he acts all squirrelly.  I can never feel he is really a good friend to Owen.  And didn't he get hit by lightning

I thought Billy Burke's character got hit by lightning and died! Maybe Owen is still under from his surgery and his story was a dream? Even if I misremembered and Billy Burke's character was "just" blinded in one eye and didn't die, if both his eyes were normal in this episode, that would be a clue that it was a dream, right?
And even with allowing for the show's usual lack of realism, no way could Owen carry a man out of a burning building right after that kind of surgery. 

Edited May 4, 2021 by shapeshifter

[jewel21]

4 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

I thought Billy Burke's character got hit by lightning and died! Maybe Owen is still under from his surgery and his story was a dream?

Sadly, no. He survived. But he was either blinded in one eye or had a cataract. Also, he had those lighting burns all along the side of his body after being hit by lighting. I could handwave the fact that maybe he had cataract surgery, but I don't think those burns fade over time. I would much prefer the dream thing over the actual events of this episode because right now it's just dumb.

[NeenerNeener]

So, it's either the arson investigator or Billy Burke setting the fires, right? I'm assuming it's somebody we saw in this episode. Maybe Billy Burke will be the one who proves Owen is innocent, not his own crew. Oy!

Yeah, glad the Fire Fox stuff is over.

[shapeshifter]

24 minutes ago, NeenerNeener said:

Yeah, glad the Fire Fox stuff is over.

Except that social media can dredge up stuff just as easily as it can forget. 

 

 

26 minutes ago, NeenerNeener said:

So, it's either the arson investigator or Billy Burke setting the fires, right?

Ooo! I hadn’t considered Billy Burke’s character being the arsonist with the arson investigator being cast as a red herring. But it could be the opposite too. 

[CatLady]

I did not enjoy this episode at all.  It had a list of things that rang "off" to me.  Billy Burke pinged to me as the arsonist because of his loss.  Owen never seemed to consider that at all.  BB is a good actor but after his evil character Philip Stroh in "Major Crimes" it would be nice to see him as not a villain.  Owen being so blind to what he should and shouldn't do just came off as wrong.  The widow who lashed out at Marjan was also wrong.  She was there.  She had to know it was only by the grace of God that she, too, did not die.  Finally the arson investigator was too invested in Owen being the guy from the start. 

Couple of things I did love about the episode were Tommy and Charles with Grace and Judd.  Love their friendship.  Also like TK and Carlos's dinner with the families.

Some plots could use finesse but I do like many of the relationship subplots on the show.

 

[Florinaldo]

Owen probably caught the stupid from his new roommate.

Which means Mateo's former roommates did not cause the explosion because they are natural idiots, but because he is contagious.

And due to all the time devoted to Owen's idiotic actions (including touching things in a potential crime scene with his bare hands, leaving fingreprints!), the scene of the first family dinner at Carlos/TK was given short shrift...

[Lady Calypso]

This episode was on a whole other level of stupidity.

Let's start with Owen, who decides that testing out his arson theory in his backyard would be a good idea. The arson investigator was VERY VERY BLATANTLY suspecting him and not only did Owen NOT catch on (especially as a firefighter with years of experience), he decided to incriminate himself by testing it out. Not only that, but he told a VERY UNTRUSTWORTHY NON-ALLY instead of literally anyone else, while making a dumbass excuse on not telling the guy who SUSPECTS HIM. 

And, no doubt Billy Burke is the real arsonist who will set him up and I can't blame him, at this point. Even though I remember that Billy got struck by lightning in the stupidest of ways.

Also, the arson investigator has less brain cells than he should as an arson investigator. How could a VETERAN FIREFIGHTER possibly know about arson? How could someone with 30 years of experience not know the telltale signs of arson? And for someone who just had a very important surgery not even a week prior, of COURSE he'd be capable of buying supplies and burning down buildings for funsies. Not the fact that he could easily check out Owen's alibi of being at the juice place at the time of the 911 call, as well as him being on the phone with TK. And, when Owen tells himabout him listening to the police radio app, of COURSE it would be because he set the fires himself. Jesus, Arson Investigator, maybe use your head and think about it logically. 

Marjan getting caught in the act of being distracted by cameras during a rescue is probably the best part of this episode. These firefighters are usually nonchalant on these missions, but Marjan should have realized that acting so casual about rescuing the couple from the car would bite her in the ass. It was a decent episode for Marjan, at least, and Paul even got something to do.

Loved seeing the Judd/Grace and Tommy/Charles weekly dinner. And I even liked seeing Carlos' parents come over for dinner with their son and TK. 

[yanksno1]

Those earbuds Owen was wearing weren't real AirPods right? They looked way too big to be real ones. That kept distracting me through the whole episode haha.

And yeah, he started acting super dumb as the ep wore on. You guys spelled it out perfectly. This show walks the fine line between being great, and stupid at the same time.

[iMonrey]

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But with H!ITG! bad guy Todd Stashwick playing the arson investigator, 

Thanks for providing the actor's name, I had to go look him up. He's been in, like, every TV show ever.

So Marjan gets to rescue the woman who has been trashing her on Instagram, bringing the story full circle. Except . . . that woman probably isn't going to be so grateful. Just because she was rescued doesn't mean she won't still be suicidal, so this story shouldn't be over.

What should be over? The whole Owen stupidity. Strike that - it should never have begun.

[Madding crowd]

This episode was really off to me. Owen is an experienced fire captain and the arson investigator was treating him like an criminal who couldn’t possibly know a thing about fire .

I also hate the trope that a person come out of a serious and extensive surgery wants to work so badly they can’t rest and recover like the rest of us mortals. In reality he would be sleeping a lot, probably taking pain medication and watching TV. I was happy that Fire Fox got called on her behavior. She did nothing to endanger the victim but people in the service industry showboating for an audience doesn’t look right. I would have thought the department would have already talked to her about this.

[saber5055]

Everyone is talking about dumbass Owen and stupid fire investigator and yeah, I agree with all that. But the stupid started at the very beginning of this  episode. There's a big accident on the bridge so the firefighters pull up in their huge truck. They all get out and the convo starts, blah blah blah, how have you guys been, how's the wife and kids, what'd you do this weekend, blah blah blah. Then SOMEONE asks "Where's the truck." Oh yeah, it just HAPPENS to be hanging over the side of the bridge by two safety trailer chains. And oh yeah, i GUESS there are two people inside, dangling and hanging there and oh, maybe someone can save them? But first, let's do some more blah blah blah and mugging for the cameras.

Meanwhile, none of the dumbasses on the bridge thought about running a safety strap or two or three from a vehicle on the bridge to around the truck axle so it wouldn't fall and kill a couple of people? You mean I was the only one, a viewer sitting at home with no safety training, I was the only one who thought maybe THAT would have been a good idea? You know, just in case those tiny chains got ripped loose?

Then Owen has some kind of mystery surgery that's so serious he has to take a month off from sitting in a fire house or sitting in a fire truck giving orders, but he can do a dead-man carry to lug some huge dude out of that burning building? Plus, the cashier said the fire address was THREE BLOCKS AWAY, yet Owen could run (?) and get there before a speeding fire truck? Blocks where I live are long and if I ran three blocks, I'd be a tad winded, plus if I just had major mystery cancer surgery and was on doctor-ordered rest, that fire would have been put out before I could make it three freaking blocks.

Then the arson dumbassery started with dumbass Owen wearing a black hoodie in summer in Austin and doing fire experiments at his house. Please. That told me it was time to turn the channel.

The only bright spot was Judd having some dialogue. This show needs to be renamed 911 Judd. Then maybe it would be good again.

[tennisgurl]

After several good episodes, this episode was a real step down. There was a whole lot of stupid going on, especially from Owen. You would think that a veteran fire captain would know that he needs to rest to get back to his squad as soon as possible,  and logistically he would probably be tired and achy and a bit off because of the meds, he wouldn't be running around town in a hoodie tracking arsonists, especially after all of the health problems Owen has had. Of course he looks suspicious, he buys all of this stuff a arsonist would need, he runs around town in a hoodie at night into crime scenes, I cannot believe he wouldn't realize that what he was doing was ridiculous. Not even getting into the arson investigator acting like Owen was just some moron who had no fire experience, shouldn't he at least have looked into this, given Owen's years of experience. 

Just a reminder that Billy Burke was once struck by lighting on a golf court, in case you forgot how ridiculous this show can be. I would guess that he's the arsonist, but it does seem like a lot to imagine a guy with stage three cancer would be able to run around doing all of this stuff, but since Owen can do all this I guess he can too? I do like seeing Billy though, even if its really hard to get a beat on his character. 

The story with Marjan was the stronger part of the episode, it was nice to see her having an actual subplot, that's the first in awhile. I am glad they finally dealt with her whole social media star thing, that really needed to be discussed. It wasn't Marjan's fault that the guy died, when it actually came to the rescue she stopped the showboating and seemed to be doing everything she could, but it is a bad look to be laughing and asking people to like her on Insta when lives are on the line. The ending was rather clunky though, its good that Marjan and Paul saved the wife but her husband is still dead and could still be suicidal even after she wakes up, it feels like her story wasn't completed. She will presumably get help at the hospital but they are seem to be leaving her without any closure. 

[marceline]

The Firefox thing has always rubbed me the wrong way but Marjan wasn't the only one who wasted time. When the 126 showed up to the accident scene everyone was acting real casual. Tommy, especially, was oddly chill when she was describing the accident. She was welcoming Judd as captain and just acting like it was one of the many kooky cases that they see instead of acting like two lives hung in the balance. It completely confused me. I just wished there was some discussion of gallows humor and how the responders need to protect their emotions. Instead it was "Oh someone died horribly on our watch today. Sounds like a perfect time for GAME NIGHT!!!"

Add me to the list of people who thought Owen was an idiot. I feel like everyone in this show was carrying an idiot stick in this ep.

Edited May 4, 2021 by marceline

[ParadoxLost]

18 hours ago, DearEvette said:

Ugh. after two good eps this one was kind of a stinker.

I kind of think that its because it was a Lowe family endeavor this week.   Having the star (Rob), writer (Son) , and director (Brother-Chad) being from the same family is not a good move for pointing out where the weaknesses are and correcting them.

[Lady Calypso]

4 hours ago, saber5055 said:

Then Owen has some kind of mystery surgery that's so serious he has to take a month off from sitting in a fire house or sitting in a fire truck giving orders, but he can do a dead-man carry to lug some huge dude out of that burning building?

Well, it was a surgery to get out the rest of the cancer, so yeah, pretty serious (though not serious enough where he was able to reschedule/cancel it) and Owen being able to easily carry someone out of a burning building was sort of ridiculous. If this was two weeks into his recovery, then it MIGHT be a bit more believable. But it was only a couple of days. 

 

[saber5055]

9 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

Well, it was a surgery to get out the rest of the cancer,

I knew it was cancer surgery, but have we ever been told what kind of cancer? Lung cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic ... ? He had to have been cut open since the doctor said they the tumor was bigger than thought but they got all of it. So it couldn't have been a laser surgery. Man, i get a cut on my finger and I can't use my hand for a week.

Although I guess like in most shows ... "hand wave."

[Florinaldo]

Well, Owen is the Captain after all and he is played by RL. Which means he is above such pesky trivial human considerations as needing to rest after a major operation.

[Lady Calypso]

34 minutes ago, saber5055 said:

I knew it was cancer surgery, but have we ever been told what kind of cancer? Lung cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic ... ? He had to have been cut open since the doctor said they the tumor was bigger than thought but they got all of it. So it couldn't have been a laser surgery. Man, i get a cut on my finger and I can't use my hand for a week.

I think it was...lung cancer? They haven't mentioned his cancer this season, but it was a huge part of his story last season. I think it was his lungs.

[DearEvette]

Yeah, lung cancer due to exposure when the twin towers came down on 911.

[possibilities]

I thought they said it was a lobectomy, i.e. the tumor on his lung was larger than they thought, and they would have to get a big chunk of lung along with the actual tumor. Definitely lung cancer, per previous season.

[Bulldog]

7 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

It wasn't Marjan's fault that the guy died,

While I wouldn't say that it was Marjan's fault that the guy died, it did seem the type of situation where a few mere seconds could have made the difference between saving him and not. I certainly don't blame the wife for thinking that if Marjan had not been showboating for the camera, she might could have begun the rescue in time to save him.  

Completely agree with all those pegging Burke as the arsonist. 

I blame the quality of this episode on a distinct lack of Grace. 

[shapeshifter]

2 minutes ago, Bulldog said:

While I wouldn't say that it was Marjan's fault that the guy died, it did seem the type of situation where a few mere seconds could have made the difference between saving him and not. I certainly don't blame the wife for thinking that if Marjan had not been showboating for the camera, she might could have begun the rescue in time to save him.  

Marjan has been such a likeable character (aside from rather than because of your YouTube-iness and TicTok vids) that I hadn't thought this through, but, yeah, you're right, it is possible (from what we saw) a few seconds could have mattered.

[possibilities]

Am I the only one who sees a lot of chemistry between Marjan and Paul? They have been pairing them up a lot, but it's not just that. There's something about the dynamic between them that to me says: intimacy.

[bilgistic]

I'm ducking as I say this: I think Rob Lowe is the worst part of this show.

[jcbrown]

2 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I'm ducking as I say this: I think Rob Lowe is the worst part of this show.

Completely agree. There are so many good characters here but Lowe sucks all the oxygen out of every scene.

[iMonrey]

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I'm ducking as I say this: I think Rob Lowe is the worst part of this show.

He's not a good fit for this kind of show. He's great in comedies, especially when he mocks his own persona as a pretty boy. He might be OK in a legal drama, I never watched West Wing. But this just isn't a good vehicle for him. 

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Blocks where I live are long and if I ran three blocks, I'd be a tad winded, plus if I just had major mystery cancer surgery and was on doctor-ordered rest, that fire would have been put out before I could make it three freaking blocks.

Especially when it's lung cancer. I don't know if they had to crack him open or if they were able to go down through his nose or something to remove the tumor but either way, his lungs would be seriously compromised right now.

[Florinaldo]

18 hours ago, saber5055 said:

I knew it was cancer surgery, but have we ever been told what kind of cancer?

Considering his behaviour post-surgery, perhaps it was a brain tumour and they had to take out a chunk of grey matter along with it.   😉

[saber5055]

17 hours ago, possibilities said:

I thought they said it was a lobectomy, i.e. the tumor on his lung was larger than they thought, and they would have to get a big chunk of lung along with the actual tumor.

Yeah, Owen is cracked open, a big chunk of his lung taken out and two days later he's out running around, wrestling bad guys and hauling big dudes out of burning buildings via the dead-man carry. The name of this show should be 911-Marvel Universe.

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

I don't know if they had to crack him open or if they were able to go down through his nose or something

This made me laugh, picturing going down Rob Lowe's nose.

4 hours ago, bilgistic said:

I'm ducking as I say this: I think Rob Lowe is the worst part of this show.

No need to duck. I personally think Judd should be the star of this show. Owen can go back to NYC.

Edited May 5, 2021 by saber5055

[Kel Varnsen]

On 5/4/2021 at 2:43 PM, saber5055 said:

Meanwhile, none of the dumbasses on the bridge thought about running a safety strap or two or three from a vehicle on the bridge to around the truck axle so it wouldn't fall and kill a couple of people? You mean I was the only one, a viewer sitting at home with no safety training, I was the only one who thought maybe THAT would have been a good idea? You know, just in case those tiny chains got ripped loose?

That seemed weird to me. I wasn't paying a ton of attention since the audio and video on my recordings wasn't synchronized but I couldn't understand why they didn't secure the car. I mean they said there wasn't enough time but would it take more time than it would to cut the guy out?

Also did Marjan really need to tell the paramedic guy at the end not to post anything about her rescue of the wife? I mean do you really need to tell someone like that not to post any details of a call you went ok, especially one that is a suicide attempt?

[ParadoxLost]

21 hours ago, iMonrey said:

He's not a good fit for this kind of show. He's great in comedies, especially when he mocks his own persona as a pretty boy. He might be OK in a legal drama, I never watched West Wing. But this just isn't a good vehicle for him. 

I've come to the conclusion that he doesn't have much range.  He was great in the West Wing.  But I feel like he is playing a variation of the same character here but the writing is worse and no one is putting his need to be the clear lead of the ensemble at all times in check. And frankly the lighthearted, comedic thing he's good at is a bad fit for the part of fire captain who was the sole survivor of his house on 9-11, had his son attempt suicide, is battling cancer, and just thought he was a father and then learned he wasn't, and had a coworker die in front of him.

He doesn't seem to have a thimble full of the gravitas needed to pull off his part in this show.

[saber5055]

So is Marjan on SM to make money by getting a ton load of followers/likes and shilling product? Or is it a personal pride thing. Either way, especially since she's so sensitive to the haters who live on SM, she needs to shut down all her SM accounts or at least make them private. She can make her Tik Tok vids for friends and family if they are that important to her. That will save her sensitive ego from people who say what they think about her self-important dumbass.

There is life outside SM.

[JH Lipton]

On 5/4/2021 at 1:15 PM, tennisgurl said:

The ending was rather clunky though, its good that Marjan and Paul saved the wife but her husband is still dead and could still be suicidal even after she wakes up, it feels like her story wasn't completed. She will presumably get help at the hospital but they are seem to be leaving her without any closure. 

 

On 5/4/2021 at 9:47 AM, iMonrey said:

So Marjan gets to rescue the woman who has been trashing her on Instagram, bringing the story full circle. Except . . . that woman probably isn't going to be so grateful. Just because she was rescued doesn't mean she won't still be suicidal, so this story shouldn't be over.

One of the issues I have with both 911 shows is that there's rarely follow-up on the case(s) of the week.  It makes sense, since the follow-up almost certainly wouldn't involve the cast, but it still bugs a bit.

At least in this case, McKenna would be put on suicide watch at the hospital, giving her friends time to console her. 

[saber5055]

I'm still irritated that the fireflighters standing around on top of the bridge didn't send a third person down on a cable to attach holding straps to that truck. They had enough time to run four or five straps while Marjan and the other firefighter chatted up the truck occupants while trying to extract them.

I'll have to blame Owen for that oversight. Even though he wasn't even there.

[shapeshifter]

I just happened to notice that Natacha Karam (Marjan) does not have a Wikipedia page ——which I’m guessing requires some effort to avoid at this point in her career.