S05.E12: Homecoming

[txhorns79]

Quote

In the wake of disaster, the 126 gives their all to protect the place they call home, which proves to be more dastardly than ever expected.

Airing 2/3/25 - Series Finale. 

[fastiller]

Less awful than previous episodes.

[possibilities]

3 minutes ago, txhorns79 said:

n the wake of disaster, the 126 gives their all to protect the place they call home, which proves to be more dastardly than ever expected.

I wouldn't call what we saw dastardly. I wonder why they blurbed it in that way.

dastardly /dăs′tərd-lē/

adjective

Cowardly and malicious; base.

Meanly timid; cowardly; base.

"a dastardly outrage"

Similar: cowardlybase

In the manner of a dastard; marked by cowardice; pusillanimous.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition • More at Wordnik

[gonzosgirrl]

Not the worst series finale ever, but I was entirely distracted by the idea that in the whole of Austin, only one person knew the location of The Big Red Button for a nuclear reactor. It was hard to take any of it seriously after that.

Glad Tommy didn't die, even if the cure was a large dose of plotonium.

Never believed for a second that Owen was dead. Happy endings all around. I half expected Wyatt to jump up out of his chair at the end. I did like the full-circle moment of Judd taking command of the 126 - it was his station from the start.

Farewell, 911 Lone Star. I will miss Rob Lowe. At least I have new episodes of The Floor coming soon.

Edited Tuesday at 02:49 AM by gonzosgirrl

[Artsda]

Totally was obvious Owen being dead was fake out.  

Finale wasn't bad they had good emergencies tied together. 

Grace still didn't come home, wow. 

Judd being new captain was fitting. 

Maybe next spinoff is NYC. 

 

Edited Tuesday at 04:46 AM by Artsda

[agathapenny]

The beginning of this episode actually reminded me of the show I loved. Better than anything else this season (though Carlos had just about less than nothing to do). And why was TK helping Nancy help Tommy walk out of the building, not running in to rescue Owen? How?!? Why?!? It's like at some point this show forgot they were father and son.

The end was schmaltzy in the extreme and just plain silly in some places, but given it was the finale I'm willing to overlook it (OK, I just have to say: miracle cancer cure! Worst and silliest immigration plotline in history solved by Matteo saying how much he loves 'Merica! TK becomes a tradwife arggg!)

Judd becoming captain was the one thing that actually made sense. You could have called that as the ending during the first episode — which is actual good writing.

That's all for now.

Except for: wouldn't everyone on their very first damn day get told how to shut down the nuclear reactor in case of an emergency? And couldn't that woman the head guy was talking to on the phone work out for herself that she was gonna need to do it? Because, duh. And she actually knew where it was!

Edited Tuesday at 05:07 AM by agathapenny

[possibilities]

Paul didn't get a happy ending, or even any ending. And I'm annoyed that "Firefox" got the stereotypical bullshit ending of "married with a baby!!" that all women apparently need to have. 

For a minute I thought they were about to show us that Judd and Tommy were now lovers. There was much more than a collegial vibe between them, it seemed to me.

TK and his brother seemed happy, but I will never understand the kind of parenting that says deliberately throwing food on the floo ris adorable. That brat was throwing the chips on the floor on purpose! That wasn't an accident! So to my way of thinking: no more chocolate chips for you, kid! And you have to clean it up yourself before we go to the zoo or have any kind of playdate.

At first, I was surprised TK was so chipper, if his dad died. But then of course Owen didn't die.

My understanding is that you do not get to stay in the country just because you got married. I know of people who were deported anyway. I know one couple where the USA citizen followed her husband to Mexico when he was deported, so they wouldn't have to be apart for years while he applied again for legal re-entry. I wish tv wouldn't make it sound less terrible than it is when ICE goes after you.

 

I liked that they showed how Wyatt was left without cover when everyone was supposed to get under the desks. I would hope the emergency call center woulod have a plan for him, but in most situations, there really is a problem that disabled people are not planned for. So it was good to show that.

[txhorns79]

7 minutes ago, possibilities said:

TK and his brother seemed happy, but I will never understand the kind of parenting that says deliberately throwing food on the floo ris adorable.

For the life of me, I did not understand why TK would have his brother calling him "Papa Bro."  Why can't he just call his brother by his name?  The show has been so odd about this storyline.  Party of Five managed to handle an older sibling acting as a parental figure to his younger siblings without making it this weird.  

I will say that it said so much about his character that a product placement truck was given more to do during the episode (and seemed to have more personality) than Carlos.   

And while I was happy Tommy wasn't dead in the end, it was all sorts of ridiculous for her to show up to work on an emergency when she was halfway dead herself.

[sweetandsour]

5 hours ago, possibilities said:

I wouldn't call what we saw dastardly. I wonder why they blurbed it in that way.

Yes, it was about as "dastardly as Mateo's "attack" on the tree guy was "savage."  I know prosecutors will use whatever language suits them (well, all lawyers), but if one punch with mild injury at best is "savage," what do they call actually cruel beatings?

What I wanted most, knowing Sierra McClain would not appear, is that Judd gets a phone call from her and announces to everyone that Grace is coming home.  Five month flash-foward plus time she was gone before the asteroid is well over a year at this point.  But no, Grace is just so OK with missing that much time in Charlie's life?  Knowing that Judd had to send Charlie to live with Grace's parents for months?  Sure.  Suuuuuuuure.

I was waiting for a Paul moment where Jax appeared in the flash-forward, or Paul made a passing reference to Jax entering the fire academy (or whatever it's called) because he's 18 now and believes the fire department is where he can be his true self, fearless and non-binary.  Not really a storyline for Paul, per se, but paying it forward and mentoring the next generation.

I didn't need this - because these two do not register for me at all - but it would have been nice if Tommy's daughters delivered any lines with passing adequacy as actors.  This was their last chance to do it.  But no, that didn't happen either.

They didn't seem to indicate what Jonah calls Carlos.  Presumably Carlos.  So why is TK testing out "Papa Bro?"  If Jonah calls Carlos "Papa Carlos," he should just call TK "Papa TK."  If Jonah calls Carlos "Carlos," he can just call TK "TK."

Why doesn't the nuclear reactor have a failsafe where, if it reaches a certain temperature, it automatically shuts off?  I don't know how this works in real life.  They established from the start that someone had to manually hit the SCRAM button.  But if the reactor is capable of detecting and announcing approaching meltdown, why can't it shut itself off?

And for the most important closure point - Did Wayne Knight get to enjoy his burger with his new neighbor friends, or did an asteroid piece take him out??

[Madding crowd]

It was better than I thought it would be. I also thought if the nuclear reactor could announce a countdown it could be programmed to shut off. Surely there would be more than one elderly man who knew where the button was located. Mostly happy endings so I’m fine with how it played out but would have liked Grace coming back.

Edited Tuesday at 11:37 AM by Madding crowd

[NeenerNeener]

It could have been a whole lot worse, I guess. That "Papa Bro" stuff was meant to be cutesy but just came off weird. Almost all of the spoilers I saw yesterday were way wrong; they had Owen and Tommy dying, Mateo and Nancy getting married and Judd sending Charlie off to live with Grace. None of which happened, halleluiah. The only one that was correct was TK and Carlos adopting Jonah, but everybody expected that for a series finale. 

[txhorns79]

6 hours ago, sweetandsour said:

They didn't seem to indicate what Jonah calls Carlos.  Presumably Carlos.  So why is TK testing out "Papa Bro?"  If Jonah calls Carlos "Papa Carlos," he should just call TK "Papa TK."  If Jonah calls Carlos "Carlos," he can just call TK "TK."

I don't know why he can't just call them "TK" and "Uncle Carlos."  That's who they are to him.  After all, his father is still alive and well, and presumably will come back at some point when he is out of jail. 

 

2 hours ago, Madding crowd said:

Mostly happy endings so I’m fine with how it played out but would have liked Grace coming back.

It was strange that they ended a past episode with Judd pleading over the phone for Grace to return home followed by her texting him to set up a call.  I don't believe there was any follow up and Grace obviously never returned.   

[fastiller]

1 hour ago, txhorns79 said:

I don't know why he can't just call them "TK" and "Uncle Carlos."  That's who they are to him.  After all, his father is still alive and well, and presumably will come back at some point when he is out of jail. 

Did TK & Carlos adopt Jonah or are they his guardians?  Like, when Jonah's father is released from prison will there be a custody battle?

[txhorns79]

Quote

Did TK & Carlos adopt Jonah or are they his guardians?  Like, when Jonah's father is released from prison will there be a custody battle?

It was always described during the show as an adoption.  Presuming that is what it was, Jonah's father would have had to surrender his parental rights.  When he got out of prison, he would not have any standing to sue for custody.

[possibilities]

I assumed that either dad expected a very long prison sentence, by which time the kid is an adult, or else the state moved to terminate his parental rights because they consider him unfit.

But it's just as likely that the showrunners didn't consider the difference between adoption and guardianship, just like they ignored the realities of being a firefighter with a pacemaker (Paul) or the reality of being deported even if married... or any number of other absurdities that were handwaved, from the RED BUTTON to "just call us TK and Carlos" or Tommy's magical remission.

[eel2178]

52 minutes ago, possibilities said:

I assumed that either dad expected a very long prison sentence, by which time the kid is an adult

They did say 25 years, so he'd have to serve at least 20 years before he could be released.

My question: did Marjan know that there was lard in the oatmeal cookies? (If that's really my only concern, I guess it's fair to say things had been wrapped up neatly for the most part.)

[Pepper the Cat]

18 minutes ago, eel2178 said:

They did say 25 years, so he'd have to serve at least 20 years before he could be released.

My question: did Marjan know that there was lard in the oatmeal cookies? (If that's really my only concern, I guess it's fair to say things had been wrapped up neatly for the most part.)

The person that made the cookies with lard was one of the people that was killed in the first episode. Before Morgan joined.

[fastiller]

1 hour ago, possibilities said:

I assumed that either dad expected a very long prison sentence, by which time the kid is an adult, or else the state moved to terminate his parental rights because they consider him unfit.

 

26 minutes ago, eel2178 said:

They did say 25 years, so he'd have to serve at least 20 years before he could be released.

 

Which is another entirely ridiculous thing: that long for a white collar crime is pretty much unheard of.  Ah well.

[tennisgurl]

This was a pretty rushed and cheesy ending, but I am much more happy to have an over the top happy ending than to have the scorched earth ending that it seemed like we were heading for, everyone getting a bad ending because the show runners are bitter about the cancellation. I am glad that we got a big rescue at the end, even if it was more of the shows usual melodrama and the ridiculous idea that just two people know where the big red button is. This show had a few really solid fun seasons, unfortunately it fell apart when they got too sucked into constant personal drama and near death experiences, but it has still been a pretty fun time. 

I'm glad that Tommy survived, even if it seems crazy that she would go from deaths door to totally fine after a few months, but I guess it does happen, its been such a weird depressing thing to throw into the show at the last minute, but at least Gina got to act her ass off. 

I do not like how things have ended with TK and Carlos, it still feels like TK manipulated Carlos into this huge responsibility that he didn't want. Like a lot of these subplots, I do not get it. But I guess they're happy, even with the weird names. 

Mateo is staying in the US after telling the judge to kiss his ass (of course) and he and Nancy are together! Marjan is pregnant! Paul is here! That's about all that they get, sadly, in this episode and in this season in general. 

Not even a tiny bit surprised that Owen is alive, it was hilarious listening to everyone act like he was dead as I wanted for the reveal that he was back in New York.

Judd becoming the new captain is at least an ending that makes sense, and I really liked when he showed his daughter the pictures of his team that were killed way back in season once, starting the show off, it was a nice moment to come full circle. 

[fastiller]

As I read @tennisgurl's comment (& others here too), particularly reference to how much time passed between potential nuclear meltdown and Judd's celebration I'm reminded how whilst watching the ep I wondered just how long had passed between these events.  And now I've started thinking about other possible finale episodes.  I think it'd have been cool for the last scene in the last act be a grown-up Charlie ending her tale recounting the events of the five seasons.  Her final line: "...and that's what set me on my path to becoming Austin's first female Chief of the FD".

[Quark]

This was better than the penultimate episode that's for sure.

Never in a million years did I think they would kill off Owen.

Glad Tommy survived.

Would have been nice to see Grace again, but I guess it wasn't to be.

[txhorns79]

1 hour ago, fastiller said:

Her final line: "...and that's what set me on my path to becoming Austin's first female Chief of the FD".

That would be depressing.  It would mean it took what, another 40 or 50 more years for a woman to get the job? 

[Infie]

I guess I'm in the minority - I thought it was absolutely ridiculous and not in a good way.  The Verizon product placement was egregious, and the very concept of a paramedic asking 'who has a drill' and doing an in-place trepanation with the DIRTY DRILL is just... no.  Then, the whole Tommy dragging herself to work and everyone being all 'absolutely, Cap!' as though someone who is on death's door and also on a whole bunch of different medications - some of which are psychoactive - would be competent to give treatment.  Which she wasn't!  Dirty drills in the brain in the hallway!  

Just.  No.  What an absolute horror show. 

[agathapenny]

20 hours ago, possibilities said:

Paul didn't get a happy ending, or even any ending. And I'm annoyed that "Firefox" got the stereotypical bullshit ending of "married with a baby!!" that all women apparently need to have. 

Both of these things were annoying. I guess Paul being promoted earlier in the season was considered his ending. And it always makes me want to vomit that a woman's happy ending is getting pregnant, but in this case (unlike Carlos explicitly not wanting children), Marjan has been shown to be traditional in a lot of ways, so it did make sense. Blah.

20 hours ago, possibilities said:

For a minute I thought they were about to show us that Judd and Tommy were now lovers. There was much more than a collegial vibe between them, it seemed to me.

There was also a bit of a weird vibe with the Charles hallucination/vision there for a minute that seemed almost ominous.

20 hours ago, possibilities said:

TK and his brother seemed happy, but I will never understand the kind of parenting that says deliberately throwing food on the floo ris adorable. 

Yeah, not cute.

20 hours ago, possibilities said:

I wish tv wouldn't make it sound less terrible than it is when ICE goes after you.

They definitely trivialized this, and at a time when the government is threatening to deport millions. Tone-deaf at best.

20 hours ago, possibilities said:

 

I liked that they showed how Wyatt was left without cover when everyone was supposed to get under the desks. I would hope the emergency call center woulod have a plan for him, but in most situations, there really is a problem that disabled people are not planned for. So it was good to show that.

I appreciated this as well. Unfortunately, very realistic.

20 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

And while I was happy Tommy wasn't dead in the end, it was all sorts of ridiculous for her to show up to work on an emergency when she was halfway dead herself.

Yeah, she was a liability in the field. They ended up having to take care of her, taking them away from taking care of others. Don't get me started on the impromptu drilling into a man's skull.

 

17 hours ago, sweetandsour said:

Five month flash-foward plus time she was gone before the asteroid is well over a year at this point.  But no, Grace is just so OK with missing that much time in Charlie's life?  

Charlie wouldn't know her when she returned. I found that inexplicable with the kind of person Grace was.

17 hours ago, sweetandsour said:

Why doesn't the nuclear reactor have a failsafe where, if it reaches a certain temperature, it automatically shuts off? 

I hadn't considered that, but absolutely. 

17 hours ago, sweetandsour said:

And for the most important closure point - Did Wayne Knight get to enjoy his burger with his new neighbor friends, or did an asteroid piece take him out??

LOL.

[Kel Varnsen]

18 hours ago, sweetandsour said:

 But if the reactor is capable of detecting and announcing approaching meltdown, why can't it shut itself off?

 

There was a lot of stupid in this episode but that really bugged me for some reason. Like the reactor has a control system that is so advanced that it can knows when it is going to meltdown and can count it down to the second. And it's also tied into the 911 computer system. But it doesn't have any kind of automatic shut-off? My iron has an automatic shut-off.

Also dumb was Mateo's comment about how Nancy wanted to get an expensive lawyer. Because I am pretty sure with his story about stopping a nuclear meltdown and almost dying, his deportation would be all over the news or at least social media and every lawyer in Texas would be camping outside of the courthouse to take his case for free.

And I am not sure if it was dumb or not but I thought the ceremony where Judd became captain and how he had to be sworn like the president just to get a promotion was pretty funny.

[possibilities]

10 hours ago, fastiller said:

 

 

Which is another entirely ridiculous thing: that long for a white collar crime is pretty much unheard of.  Ah well.

Bernie Madoff got 150 years, so I guess TK's dad was doing some really bad stuff?

[bilgistic]

13 hours ago, Infie said:

I guess I'm in the minority - I thought it was absolutely ridiculous and not in a good way.  The Verizon product placement was egregious, and the very concept of a paramedic asking 'who has a drill' and doing an in-place trepanation with the DIRTY DRILL is just... no.  Then, the whole Tommy dragging herself to work and everyone being all 'absolutely, Cap!' as though someone who is on death's door and also on a whole bunch of different medications - some of which are psychoactive - would be competent to give treatment.  Which she wasn't!  Dirty drills in the brain in the hallway!  

Just.  No.  What an absolute horror show. 

Oh, my husband and I were heavily rolling our eyes and yelling at the TV the whole time.

[Pepper the Cat]

Glad I’m not the only one who was rolling my eyes at the use of the drill.

[KeithJ]

This episode was a terrible conclusion to a terrible season. I don't even know where to begin:

Tommy - I get it that they didn't want her to die but to then have her go to work while pretty much on her deathbed? Then she's miraculously cured five months later?

TK and Carlos - This whole adoption story was just weird. They needed to provide just a little more depth and conversations to the story. The whole thing started with TK basically saying "I'm going to adopt my brother". A quick scene with TK and the father could have gone a long way here. You can't just say you're going to adopt someone and parents don't normally have their parental rights terminated when they are incarcerated. Was this really guardianship or an actual adoption?

Mateo - Five months later and he's still in court about this? If Firefox really has that large of a social media following, all she had to do was post about it and it would have been picked up by the media fairly quickly.

Marjan - Great, you're pregnant.  Whatever.

Paul and Nancy - Thanks for being in the finale?

Grace - She was gone how many months and now five months later she's still gone? I know the actress didn't want to come back but the writers really her character dirty. It would have been better to just kill her off.

Judd - A swearing in ceremony for becoming chief? Is that even a thing?

Owen - I think when we didn't immediately see a funeral or anything before the five month time jump we all knew he was still alive. But, he couldn't even take a day off to go for Judd's swearing in? Talking about leaving and forgetting.

 

[iMonrey]

9-1-1 has always been over the top, so in many ways the finale was appropriate. At least it centered around a big disaster and focused on rescues and the call center, unlike the first nine episodes of this season. And the shock wave effect was pretty cool.

That said, there was so much that was dumb, which has been enumerated here already. Not that the show hasn't always been kind of dumb, but still. I think bringing back Charles and then having Tommy not die was kind of pointless. It would have been far more poignant for her to be reunited with Charles on the other side. If she wasn't actually dying why was she hallucinating him? And if she's hallucinating should she really be going into work? Did she drive there?

The "red button" thing was just laughable, and when the computer voice counted down to one I immediately flashed to Galaxy Quest when Taggert and Gwen are racing to shut down the self destruct and Gwen says "It always stops at one on the show!" I mean, geez. How cheesy can this show get?

There had to be a better way to deal with Grace's absence than to make her look like the most selfish and horrible mother and wife in the world. There had to be. Maybe they went this route in hopes she might return, instead of killing the character off.

On 2/4/2025 at 2:05 AM, sweetandsour said:

I didn't need this - because these two do not register for me at all - but it would have been nice if Tommy's daughters delivered any lines with passing adequacy as actors.  This was their last chance to do it.  But no, that didn't happen either.

Ain't that the truth. Listen, The Shining has made twin girls creepy forever, but these two aren't helping remedy that. Talk about dead behind the eyes.

I guess I'm just glad it's over. It was always a red headed stepchild in the shadow of the mothership but this season was especially terrible.

[Kel Varnsen]

4 hours ago, KeithJ said:

Tommy - I get it that they didn't want her to die but to then have her go to work while pretty much on her deathbed? Then she's miraculously cured five months later?

I guess I was a little impressed that they didn't say that the radiation from the reactor killer the cancer cells.

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

guess I'm just glad it's over. It was always a red headed stepchild in the shadow of the mothership but this season was especially terrible.

On the plus side, I was impressed by how infrequently they tried to do the crossover thing to boost ratings. Compared to pretty much every other franchise spinoff kind of thing the level of restraint was impressive.

4 hours ago, KeithJ said:

Grace - She was gone how many months and now five months later she's still gone? I know the actress didn't want to come back but the writers really her character dirty. It would have been better to just kill her off.

I don't know why they didn't just recast the role. This show was way closer to being a soap opera than it was some kind of prestige drama, so recasting a main character wouldn't have been too out of line.

[mojoween]

Ryan Murphy never met a linear timeline he didn’t want to follow.

Oh no, Sierra *was* Grace.  The ending they gave her was stupid, but I can’t imagine anyone else in the role.  Really they should have had her take Charlie with her.  Seems like if the mission was that important to her, she would want to introduce her daughter to it.

Death’s Door Tommy showing up at the rig and Nancy and TK are like “yes you can absolutely help!” is ludicrous.