[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5 premiere “Both Sides, Now.”]
Judd (Jim Parrack) may just be without purpose—and Grace (with Sierra McClain not returning) —as the final season of 9-1-1: Lone Star begins, but things are about to get worse for him.
Grace is off “doing the Lord’s work,” as Judd puts it in the Season 5 premiere. We learn that Grace couldn’t forget about photos, hung up by the church, of little kids from an orphanage that the world forgot about. Last Judd spoke with her, she was on her way to the Solomon Islands with that group, Mercy Ships (which delivers medical care to those in need). Judd, meanwhile, is trying to figure out what’s next for himself, since he retired to take care of his son after his accident; Wyatt’s (Jackson Pace) now working as a dispatcher. “He’s out to sea, literally just lost,” Parrack tells TV Insider in our first 9-1-1: Lone Star aftershow, First Response. Watch the full video interview above.
Judd is not doing well without Grace, he confirms. “As the season goes on, you start to see some of the, I would say, darker coping mechanisms rear their heads up a little bit.” For now, the seeds will be planted for that. “We wanted there to be some indicators that something was a little bit off, that between Grace being gone and not being a firefighter, there’s just sort of this dead zone [for] a guy that’s usually been really driven, very clear about where he stands, what he’s about,” he explains.
Owen (Rob Lowe) does go to see Judd about the open lieutenant spot in the premiere—to get his opinion on the two people seeking to fill it: Paul (Brian Michael Smith) and Marjan (Natacha Karam). Judd hadn’t wanted to take advantage of his friendship with Owen to try to un-retire, but he would’ve immediately said he’d return if the captain had asked him to.
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“One of the things from Season 1 that we talked about was Judd being this big tough firefighter but with a really kind of low opinion of himself. He doesn’t have great self-esteem, doesn’t take himself into consideration, doesn’t take great care of himself, is sort of reckless and careless,” Parrack notes. “And once he resigns and he is looking over at who is at the 126, it’s people that he admires— and I think probably there’s some hurt pride involved—[and] he’s not about to reverse course.”
So what will it take for that to change? “Probably have to be convinced of his own value at the 126. He’d probably have to realize that he does have something to offer there and that maybe they do need him and maybe he could help keep people safe there,” says Parrack. “But short of that, Judd’s going to be trying his hand at other things.”
Watch the full aftershow video above with Parrack as he discusses Judd’s drinking and who will help him; when we’ll see him in the middle of an emergency again; if we need to be concerned about his and Grace’s relationship; how the series ends and how he found out this is the final season; and much more.
9-1-1: Lone Star, Mondays, 8/7c, Fox
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