‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ Finale: Gina Torres & EP Rashad Raisani On Captain Vega’s Emotional Farewell & Series’ Cancellation: “Ridiculous This Is Ending”

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains details about Monday’s series finale of 9-1-1: Lone Star.

With 9-1-1: Lone Star answering its final call Monday, the series finale was a particularly emotional ride-along for star Gina Torres.

Sitting down with showrunner Rashad Raisani, the actress behind Station 126 paramedic’s Captain Tommy Vega told Deadline it’s “so rare” to be part of such a talented TV ensemble cast, as they both mourned the end of the spinoff after five seasons.

“I think it was right on the money for Tommy,” said Torres of her character’s farewell. “None of that surprised me. When I read it, I thought, ‘Yeah, of course, she’s a soldier.’ She’s gonna go out the way. She came in fighting and doing what she can. That’s what first responders do.”

Although in the final episode, Captain Vega has been put on bed rest during her bout with cancer, seeing what appears to be the ghost of her late husband Charles Vega (Derek Webster), she chooses to join her fellow 126 family one last time in shutting down a nuclear reactor as an asteroid heads toward Austin.

With Hawaii being eyed as a new locale for the 9-1-1 franchise and the future of the parent series up in the air amid its Season 8 midseason hiatus, Raisani is hopeful Captain Vega and some of her 126 family will return.

“There’d be nothing better than to have to revisit these characters in whatever context where they go to one of these cities or whether that city comes to them or LA, whatever it is,” he said. “And I think on a more fundamental level, any chance I can work with — I loved our cast, and Gina and I have a special bond. … I just think it’s just a delight, and I would hope the answer to that is yes and more, I hope.”

Read below about Torres and Raisani’s reaction to Captain Vega’s ending and the future of the 9-1-1 franchise.

DEADLINE: Tell me about the emotional experience of wrapping up this series. That one scene with the “126 forever” moment when I thought everyone was gonna die, that really cut deep.

Rashad to Raisani: Well, funny enough, that’s the last scene of the series that was shot, and so it was this incredibly, emotional situation where they were all saying stuff to each other as characters, but also the actors were saying it to each other, “I love you, I love you like my own family, I love you more than my family.” I mean, it was all working on multiple levels for the gang, so it was really difficult. And honestly, I was a little bit angry there cause… it’s ridiculous that this is ending. I mean, they’re all so good, and nobody more so than the lady in my bottom left corner. There was just so much talent and so many stories to tell. But at the same time, I was really proud of this gang of these actors and this crew, who were wonderful.

GINA TORRES: Absolutely. It was 100% bittersweet, and [my character is] dying on top of — we just saw each other a couple of nights ago. Jim [Parrack] was in town, and we got as much of the gang together as we could. Most of us came, and we just miss each other. And we absolutely feel the same way. Nobody wanted this to happen. This was not in anyone’s plan. It is so rare — and I’ve been doing this for a while — it is rare that you have an ensemble cast that works at this level, that is scrappy and ready to do whatever we have to do to get the day done. … It’s always joyful even in the most difficult of situations that Rashad and [co-creator and EP Tim Minear] managed to put us in. That’s rare.

DEADLINE: You touched on this earlier, but Captain Vega wants to help save the world even though she’s literally, practically dying in that last episode. Tell me about going through that as Vega.

TORRES: I think it was right on the money for Tommy. None of that surprised me. When I read it, I thought, “Yeah, of course, she’s a soldier.” She’s gonna go out the way. She came in fighting and doing what she can. That’s what first responders do. They ignore the pain, they ignore what their bodies are telling them so that they can do their best for somebody else on their worst day. And so, it made perfect sense that that’s how Tommy would respond.

DEADLINE: Yeah, and it was so great to see her have that after the heartbreaking FaceTime with her daughters and those scenes with her husband.

To waste: I think Gina’s a treasure. I mean, I love writing for her. I love working with her. And when we first approached her with this cancer story, we’ve always promised we’re gonna end with a smile. It’s gonna end OK. But Gina’s performance, I just thought it was magnificent. And there’s so many moments that always get to me, but I think the way that she plays vulnerability, she’s showing that vulnerability, but then is doing the strong thing at the same time — like when she hangs up with her daughters and decides not to tell them because she wants them to just enjoy their time, doesn’t want to ruin their concert. That to me wow, it gives me goosebumps. I text her at one point I was just crying in front of these editors, like, “This is so embarrassing, because I’m trying to get through your performance.” But she does it throughout every scene. There’s always this nuance, beautiful interplay. You can always see with Gina’s eyes what’s happening and her reacting and being so present in these moments. And just a source of light, I think for the the character and the actor who played her for our show.

TORRES: Yeah, it’s a pleasure to play her, absolutely.

DEADLINE: It’s amazing that her cancer ends up in remission in the end, but I was curious, just my Overactive brain wondering, is it because she went so close to a nuclear reactor that it worked as super chemo or something like that?

To waste: I don’t know. That’s an interesting — I never thought about that theory, and I won’t discount it. We partnered from the very beginning of this story with Stand Up to Cancer, and one of the things I talked to Stand Up to Cancer about before we even started to talk to Gina, was I said, “We’re thinking about doing this. I haven’t even talked to the actor yet. But we’re gonna give you an incredible, as good as we can give, performance as an actor who’s going to show what going through the cancer experience looks like and to show the courage that all these people” — you pass them on the street, you may not know what they’re going through and how much fear they have in her every doctor’s appointment. It’s just like, “What is my life about to be at the end of this?” And to see the way she played it… one of the things we really wanted to do also was to say, look, we don’t want to do any Hollywood version of this. Obviously. we’re Hollywood, we are the Hollywood version literally, but we don’t wanna sugarcoat anything. We don’t want to make too big of a leap. So if we have her seeing someone who may not be there, is there a scientific back basis for how we could base on it? So in episode 11, I said I want her to be going well, but I wanted it to almost take a lethal turn. They were like, “Well, here’s what happens.” Sometimes these tumors, as Tommy says in the scene, is it possible that these can swell because of the immunotherapies that are coming on these tumors and make them actually bigger than they appear, which is absolutely something that happens. And could it kill you anyway? Yes, because all your organs are in here, and it’s pressing against the wrong thing. So, we wanted to always just honor the the real of what was going on, even as we told a narrative drama.

TORRES: Yeah, I learned a lot. I have to say I learned a lot during the process of this, and I’ve had people in my life who have suffered or passed from cancer, and even then, I still learned more. It was great to be able to —

To waste: Yeah, I don’t wanna speak out of school, but Gina talked about some people coming up to her and telling her what it meant to see her character going through stuff that they were, in the real, going through at that moment. And for Stand Up to Cancer, that’s what they want. That’s what their ultimate goal is to have people get some support and comfort and inspiration from people, when Gina’s magnificently portraying this experience, it means something to people, and it gives people strength, so I’m very proud of that.

TORRES: Yeah, there was one woman in particular who came up to me, and just said thank you. She started weeping, and she held it together and said, I love your work. And she said, “Thank you. I’m going through cancer and I don’t feel alone. I’m going through it with one of the strongest women on TV.”

DEADLINE: With a potential new spinoff coming up, are there any other, you know, Lone Star characters we might see coming back in the future or maybe returning to the original one?

To waste: The reason why everybody’s alive is, that would be great. There’d be nothing better than to have to revisit these characters in whatever context where they go to one of these cities or whether that city comes to them or LA, whatever it is. And I think on a more fundamental level, any chance I can work with — I loved our cast, and Gina and I have a special bond. Tim is the original relationship with Gina, and brought her in, and he said, “You’re gonna love her.” I just think it’s just a delight, and I would hope the answer to that is yes and more, I hope.

TORRES: It’s been my honor to play this character, to play Tommy. I really, at first I was just happy to get a job. You guys brought me on in the middle of the pandemic when we didn’t even know what the industry was going to look like, and I was so grateful to be reunited with an old friend who I have nothing but the most respect for, in Tim.  And then, bringing Rashad into my life and into my world, it wasn’t just a job. It was an opportunity to create family and really incredible magical moments on screen, and to play. And I really cannot stress stress this enough, especially in these times — like I said, I’ve been doing this a long time and it is very rare that a woman, and a woman of color, gets to play a character that is so fully formed, that is so layered, that has depth and can show you her humor and her vulnerability and her strength, and also be allowed to fail and come back. So for that, I will always be eternally grateful. And yes, more please.

To waste: Yeah, and I just feel the same, and just feel so grateful to have gotten to have been a part of this journey. I hope that if our show is cut short as I still feel like it was, that its legacy could be that it leaves people feeling a little hopeful at the end, that’s there’s a hope. That’s what her character is all about, and the show hopefully was a mirror to that of just, yes, life is filled with horrible suffering and injustice and unfairness and just terrible s—. But at the end of the day, these people still get up and go, like Tommy — she’s got cancer, she’s dying and she’s like, “I’m gonna put on my clothes and go out there and help.” That’s who they are, and thank God that there are people like that.