Tommy Vega is officially in for the fight of her life. Monday’s episode of 9-1-1: Lone Star confirmed that Gina Torres‘ character has stage 2B breast cancer.
“Trust me, I did not want this,” Torres tells TVLine. “I felt like I had already done plenty in terms of sad, depressing storylines. But no, they wanted one more battle.”
It’s a storyline Torres calls “challenging but also gratifying,” adding that there’s a responsibility to get it right for people whose lives have been affected by cancer, including those watching the show in real time. “We want to honor them, just as we try our best to honor our first responders,” Torres says. “It’s a level of responsibility that we don’t take lightly.”
Tommy’s instinct was to minimize the impact cancer was bound to have on her life, with Nancy serving as her lone confidante and voice of reason. “It was quite reflective of how [actress Brianna Baker and I] feel about each other in real life,” Torres says of Tommy and Nancy’s dynamic. “The writers were able to tap into that. There’s a great deal of love and respect between us.”
One of the most touching moments from Monday’s episode came when Tommy revealed that she wanted Nancy to take over as acting paramedic captain during her medical hiatus. “It’s super important to put this on screen for our fans to see, for the world to see,” Torres says. “It’s important to see women supporting other women. It doesn’t have to be competitive. In fact, more often than not, it’s not competitive. We understand that the way to get things done is to do them together.”
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And now that word of Tommy’s diagnosis is beginning to spread, her life is about to change “quite a bit,” Torres says, advising viewers to “just hold on” for the emotional rollercoaster still ahead.
Many fans are hoping that this will include a reunion between Tommy and her almost-fiancé Trevor. After all, this feels like something he should reach out to her about. “I mean, you’d think so, right?” Torres says, admitting that the self-imposed secrecy of Tommy’s cancer battle could keep that from happening: “Does he even know [that she’s sick]? Will he ever know?” We’ll find out soon enough.
Elsewhere in the episode, TK received a pair of surprises — one good, one not-so-good — on his 30th birthday. The good: his stepdad Enzo (played by The 100 vet Henry Ian Cusick) finally visited Austin, bringing TK’s little brother Jonah along for the ride. Now for the bad: the FBI crashed TK’s party, taking Enzo into custody on multiple charges of fraud and conspiracy.
Your thoughts on Tommy’s devastating diagnosis? What about Enzo’s shocking arrest? And what are your hopes for 9-1-1: Lone Star‘s remaining five episodes?
