9-1-1 Lone Star “Riddle of the Sphynx” 3×13 review: T.K. making us sigh.
Another week has rolled into existence, and you know what that means folks. Yep, you guessed it, Fox is kicking off our week with another episode of 9-1-1 Lone Star and our favorite neighborhood gays, T.K. (Ronen Rubenstein) and Carlos (Rafael L. Silva), make an appearance this week.
But you know how it goes, friends – if it’s not queer, we don’t cover it. So while a lot of other things may have taken place in this week’s episode, we’re only planning on covering the queer stories.
This week, T.K. is engaging in behaviors that have us biting our nails. Since Sadie (Julie Benz) drugged him, he has been going to N.A meetings daily to counteract any feelings he might be enduring. These new meetings bring with them a new sponsor for T.K. and let’s just say that Carlos doesn’t seem overly happy about the new addition to T.K.’s life.
Carlos has good reason though. T.K. is definitely behaving in a way that causes the red flags to start waving in the wind, so to speak. He starts dressing up to go to his N.A meetings, causing Carlos to raise his eyebrows. Then he starts going to more than one meeting a day, and tells Carlos that he is just “restless”. Clearly, Carlos is trying to establish himself as a support network for his man, but T.K. seems to have other ideas.
Then the sponsor shows up on T.K. and Carlos’ doorstep and Carlos gets a full view of what he is dealing with. Blonde, white, and cute. Carlos, our man, we are with you on this. T.K. is playing with fire.
Carlos is unable to hide his jealousy and in the midst of an argument, the real issues that are causing this situation are revealed. T.K. tells Carlos that he needs other people around him that have felt what it feels like to want and need to use drugs, and Carlos (thankfully) can and will never understand what that means.
So okay, it does seem like T.K. is right here. Carlos doesn’t seem to understand that but it doesn’t make the situation any less painful. Imagine being Carlos, wanting to help the one he loves more than anything in the world, and knowing that T.K. has to get that help from another man?
Just P.A.I.N.
But then, T.K. witnesses something on the job that seems to bring up a lot of emotions that Carlos realizes he is not equipped to deal with, so he calls the sponsor and invites him over to their house.
It’s really a lovely moment of growth and development. Carlos accepts that he can’t be everything for T.K. and that’s completely okay. It doesn’t mean T.K. loves him less or wants him less at all. Even in romance, we all have a lane, and sometimes the best thing we can do for each other is to respect the lane and stay within it.
Our heart hurts for T.K. right now, but we’re pretty sure that #Tarlos are going to be okay.
Final thoughts – whoever decided to let Carlos’ curls run free, you deserve a raise. We couldn’t possibly love him any more than we already do.
9-1-1 Lone Star airs on Monday nights on Fox at 9pm EDT. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram!
