Last week, viewers learned Gywn had died.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What can you tease about tonight’s episode?
Why have her death take place off-screen and relayed through a dispatch call?
Lisa Edlestein and Ronen Rubinstein on ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’.Kevin Estrada/FOX
I listen to a lot of true crime podcasts, and there’s one calledSword and Scale.
And it uses a lot of audio and a lot of 9-1-1 calls.
And it’s just incredibly compelling to just hear this stuff.
And it interested me to just hear the call and never see anything except the text on the screen.
I wanted it to almost feel like it was going on almost too long.
So I did that.
One’s a flight to a funeral and one’s a flight to rehab.
And it all culminates with a goodbye.
What’s it been like working with Lisa on the show for the past two seasons?
LOWE:Lisa and I have always worked well together.
I thought we hadreally special chemistryfrom the minute I met her, in the pilot episode ofThe West Wing.
I love any time I get a chance to work with her.
And she was a great lift on the show.
What does it mean to T.K.
to lose his mother?
She put me in the car and drove me to Cerritos from Whittier.
And she didn’t judge me.
She didn’t cry.
She gave the strength to do that.
I’ve been sober ever since.
So that’s what it was based on.
And Rob, what does losing Gwyn mean to your character, Owen?
And so this is definitely an issue that Owen has to struggle with.
But I think his real concern is “what does it mean for his son?”
Because at the end of the day, T.K.
is losing a parent.
Why did you decide to kill Gwyn off?
LOWE:We felt like this was the best resolve of her character’s arc.
Those are stories that certainly wouldn’t fit in the9-1-1: Lone Star, Texas universe.
She lives a separate life there.
So it had kind of run its course.
Lisa never met my mother, but there’s so much of her in that performance.
She’s true mother love, like tough mother love in this episode.
And it’s a real tribute to her skill as a screen actor, I will tell you that.
Obviously…
MINEAR:But that wasn’t really your question.
Your question was, “Why now?”
Well, why not?
She doesn’t play a first responder on the show.
They have to be available.
I have to be able to afford them for an episode.
I just don’t want people just spinning their wheels on screen.
I want to give them something to play.
I want to give them something to do.
And it was time for me to explore T.K.
’s sobriety, and this just felt like the right way to do it.
It’s just full of emotion.
I wanted it to feel like a tragedy feels.
Tragedy isn’t planned for often.
Sometimes it just happens.
Sometimes a piano just falls on your goddamn head.
We’ve seen Gwyn show up in flashbacks and in some surreal moments where she’s not actually there.
Have we seen the last of Lisa on the show?
We’re cooking up something super special for our season finale.
And when Tim Minear is ready to tell everybody about it, I’m sure everybody will know.
But if we go with his brilliant idea, I think Lisa would probably play a part in it.
Well, Tim, what say you?
Have we seen the last of Lisa onLone Star?
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
9-1-1: Lone Starairs Mondays at 8 p.m.
