Recap / 9-1-1: Lone Star S3E14 "Impulse Control"

Following

Tropes featured in this episode:

• Asshole Victim: The drunk driver who cut in front of Al and splashed his beer on the latter’s windshield was undoubtedly a jackass, but the first crash he ends up in definitely leaves him both unaware of what he did and badly burned. Then a gun he’d had on his person goes missing…
• Big Damn Kiss: Tommy and Julius share one after they clear the air between them, but decide to pretend it didn’t happen. Tommy is still left clearly conflicted about initiating the kiss, however.
• Bittersweet Ending: Al ends up going to prison for killing a Drunk Driver, but this convinces Owen to start addressing his own anger issues.
• Calling the Old Woman Out: Izzy and Evie do this with Tommy after the party, first through their thank-you card to Julius, and then in-person after she reads it out loud.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Marjan comments about Owen’s assaults on Billy, O’Brien, the redneck who badmouthed Catherine, and Jon Griffin taking place before he stopped attending anger management therapy. She’s also implied to have heard about his breakup from Catherine through Mateo.
• Cool Uncle: Despite his sporadic visits, Izzy and Evie see Julius as this.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: Al desperately pleads with Owen to help Joy and Brian and describes their injuries from the crash, but Owen and Tommy have to quickly tell him to wait for additional ambulances. As the police and firefighters are further working the scene, Mitchell notes that the drunk driver had a gun on him that went missing… and then Al walks through the crowd of cars with his hands in his pockets and a determined look on his face.
• Flatline: Nancy is clearly haunted by the sound of the EKG right after Al’s gunshots kill the driver right in front of her.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: From what can be gleaned about Tommy’s remarks, Charles acted as another parent to Julius, who was more… shall we say carefree.
• Get Out!: Tommy says as much to Julius when he shows up at Izzy and Evie’s birthday party unannounced, albeit with a heavy hit of amiable Tranquil Fury.
• Hair-Trigger Temper / Papa Wolf: Al is a deeply loving and protective family man, but he is not a particularly even-tempered or patient one when any poor sod insults him or hurts his wife Joy and son Brian. This flaw bites him in the ass multiple times.
• Heel Realization:
  • After being freed from the bleachers, Al has a crushing one while looking on at the crowd and processing Owen’s words about his anger management.
  • Deeply shaken by Al’s shooting and arrest, Owen finally decides he’s ready to address his own temper, so picks up his phone and calls his anger management therapist to schedule an appointment.
• Help, I'm Stuck!: How Al is first introduced in the episode, and it happens to him more than once.
  • When a fast food employee intentionally messes up his dinner order for Joy and makes a body-shaming remark toward her, he lunges through the diner’s drive-thru window and accidentally lodges his midsection through the opening.
  • Watching Brian’s wrestling opponent make an illegal move sets Al off again, and it gets him wedged into the indoor benches.
• Hope Spot: Al is shown driving to a therapy session with a positive attitude, and his wife and son are clearly proud of him for deciding to get help for his temper. Then a Drunk Driver causes a pileup that leads to Al making the worst mistake of his life.
• Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: At least one of Al’s angry outbursts have been viral hits (or an #EngineeredHashtag) on social media.
• Liquid Courage: Tommy and Julius share a few shots of Jack Daniel’s rum so they can civilly work out their bad blood without Izzy and Evie present. And then things escalate from there…
• The Nicknamer: Mateo and Marjan take to calling Al “lard-ass” after the team have to use liberal amounts of Crisco in addition to their own lube to pull him through the drive-thru window.
• Noodle Incident: Al apparently had gone viral under similar circumstances as at the diner on a family trip to Six Flags. Brian and Joy don’t like discussing it.
• Not Me This Time: Owen initially thinks that Al caused the car crash before Al and Officer Mitchell clarify that it was caused by a Drunk Driver.
• Obviously Not Fine: Marjan expresses concern for Owen’s decreasing temper, and Owen’s Suspiciously Specific Denial and attempts to deflect the topic with humor underscore her point.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Marjan when she finds that being blunt with Owen about his worsening temper is just riling him up.
  • Al is just able to avoid hitting the drunk driver, but Brian points out an oncoming car too late, which causes a mass pileup.
  • Owen senses something off when he notices Al’s desperate reaction to the driver taking priority for the paramedics over Joy and Brian’s injuries, and then, as Nancy starts hooking the driver up to the rig, realizes that Al is about to shoot at him.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: Joy and Brian react this way numerous times to Al’s enraged outbursts on others.
• Rage Breaking Point: More than one for Al, but the third one following his car accident truly tops the others.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
  • Owen and Catherine’s date quickly falls apart when they attempt to discuss the flaws they’ve been noticing about each other, with Catherine reiterating her point about Owen’s short temper and tendency to get in his own way, and Owen defensively calling her pushy and presumptuous.
  • A more respectful and intense version occurs between Tommy and Julius, with Tommy angrily telling Julius that he should have appreciated how much Charles unconditionally loved and supported him no matter how short he fell or how many promises he went back on, and reminding him of his absence from his brother’s funeral. Julius takes it all, and clearly admits his regret about those very points.
• Recurring Extra: Lexi Mitchell, Carlos’ partner, appears as one of the responding officers to the pile-up.
• Remember the New Guy?: Julius Vega, Charles’ younger brother, is this for Tommy, Izzy and Evie.
• Road Rage: A Drunk Driver threatens Al with a gun and flips him off before throwing his beer bottle onto Al’s windshield. Al attempts to swerve through the rest of the traffic in the midst of agitation and confusion while the driver ends up flipping onto the side of the road, until he accidentally crashes into a car from another lane, resulting in a messy pileup.
• Shadow Archetype: Over the course of the episode, Owen realizes that Al is this to him even when the latter did get help to manage his temper.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mateo name-drops Russell Crowe, comparing his 2005 assault arrest with Owen’s recent use of fisticuffs.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted again with Owen referring Al to one of his psychiatrists, Dr. Patt, and eventually returning to anger management therapy himself.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Had Mateo led Al away from the ambulance and back to where Brian and Joy were, there might have been a chance that he wouldn’t act on shooting the driver on their behest.
• Wham Line: "Rage. I have rage".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Brian and Joy are not followed up on after Al’s arrest.
• Would Hurt a Child: Al rugby-tackles one of his son’s wrestling opponents after he, on his Jerkass father’s demands, makes an illegal move.
• You Are Fat: Body-shaming him and/ or his wife is one such Berserk Button for Al.