I know it seems hard to believe, but I actually watched my weekly dramas on the nights they aired this week! Honestly, I’m as shocked as you are. Although, after the week and a half I’ve had, I almost needed the nightly escape that these shows bring me. Anyways, since Valentine’s Day is this weekend, it didn’t come as a surprise to me that one of these shows focused on love, while the others kept the drama high.
First up was 9-1-1 Lone Star, whose central focus this week was love. Gwyneth shows up at the station to ask Owen to clarify what it is they are doing. Owen doesn’t want to slap a label on it because he feels that he’d also be slapping an expiration date on it. After some advice from Judd, Owen takes it a bit too far and proposes to Gwyneth by episode’s end. She turns him down because although she wants to know what their relationship is, she doesn’t want to get remarried, or at least right now anyways. Turns out she’s asking for clarity because she’s pregnant! That will be a very interesting follow-up next episode. A lot of time was also spent with Marjan, who introduced the team to her fiancé, Salim (back from when she was 12 years old!). She explains that the two of them will get married eventually, as soon as they establish themselves as individuals. Well, too little too late for Salim because he wants to marry someone else who actually loves him. After getting dumped is when Marjan realizes she has loved Salim all along. Sadly, he ruins it by dismissing his other girlfriend immediately. Who’s to say he wouldn’t do that to her in the end?! Finally, there was a little bit of tension on the Tarlos train when Carlos introduces T.K. as his friend to his parents. T.K. is rightfully hurt and confused because Carols is out to his parents, but when Carlos explains that they are more traditional, T.K. vouches to be there for Carlos no matter what. They are relationship goals for sure! Aside from all the love this episode, disaster strikes at a wedding. Makes sense.
Last night I was yet again impressed, but also a little unimpressed, by the steps that Prodigal Son is taking. The case of the week involves some creepy dolls and some very “proper” murders, but I hate how the show flies through it all. This is a case that could have very easily spread throughout two episodes, especially given how well they wove it into Ainsley and Malcolm’s story. It’s clear Ainsley is fed up with being lied to, so she decides to beat Malcolm to the punch by solving the case first. It doesn’t hurt that she went to the etiquette school where the victims all previously went, but still. Towards the end of the episode when both Malcolm and Ainsley are in the room with the killer, it appears that Ainsley might be repeating her Endicott murder until Malcolm distracts her. Meanwhile, Jessica is panicking about the Ainsley revelation. So much so that she visits Martin twice! Gil is obviously not a fan of that, but Jessica thinks that Martin wouldn’t want his kids to end up like him. Based off Martin’s parting evil grin, he’s got other plans despite his reassurances to her. I still think Ainsley is the scapegoat this season and the Malcolm will ultimately follow in Martin’s footsteps, but it appears there will be a lot more content before we get there. I also imagine we’re only a couple episodes away from Ainsley finally discovering the truth. Again, they are making some really fun strides, but are just falling a little shy of being awesome.
Finally, the confusion that is Big Sky continues! Cassie and Jenny come up short when trying to catch Ronald in Merrilee’s house, and they also keep getting stone-walled by the police. They argue that it seems like they are giving up. I personally just think these two are extra motivated (obviously). So motivated that they can’t even begin to believe that Legarski doesn’t remember anything that he’s done. Cassie goes to confront him, and then Jenny, but it’s clear that his memory from the last few years is gone. He even passes two polygraph tests with flying colors. That’s still not to say he won’t ever get his memory back. I imagine he’ll get it in pieces, which should hopefully paint an interesting picture of how he became that monster. Elsewhere, Jerrie shows up a couple times throughout the episode, not offering much more than some extra information about Ronald’s semi-truck. Speaking of Ronald, he’s become even more unhinged than last week. He finally decides to put his mother in a basement freezer, and then abducts a paperboy who was taking pictures of him. Uh oh! Up until a couple episodes ago, I wouldn’t imagine that Ronald would kill a kid, but now I’m not at all confident. Before the boy can fight for his life, though, the local priest shows up for Ronald to kill. Things are not looking good for Ronald. Personally, I have no clue how no one has honed in on him yet. This town seems so small, and dark hair or not, it’s sort of hard to miss that face. The episode ends with the boy taking a staple gun to Ronald’s face, as well as the protection of a taser. We shall see!