9-1-1: Lone Star finale reveals ultimate fate of queer couple Tarlos

With Ryan Murphy’s 9-1-1: Lone Star ending with an asteroid rocketing towards Texas, it wasn’t looking good for the show’s team of first responders.

It would’ve certainly be a cinematic, if devastating, way to close out the Fox series.

How serendipitous then, that a disaster of meteoric proportions left all of 9-1-1: Lone Star’s main players (relatively) unscathed. Things looked patchy for firefighter Owen (Rob Lowe) for a minute as he raced to stop the resulting nuclear meltdown after the asteroid touched down, but later flashforwards revealed that even he survived.

For queer fans of the show, which ran for five seasons between 2020 and 2025, it was Owen’s son TK (Ronen Rubinstein) and his husband Carlos (Rafael L. Silva) – AKA Tarlos – whom they were most concerned about.

Early on in season five’s finale, their future seemed uncertain, as they faced one final call before TK’s role as an emergency medical technician meant he was off to deal with the asteroid head on. The adored queer couple had just found out that they hadn’t been cleared to adopt TK’s half brother Jonah due to their perilous careers, but fans held hope after TK told Carlos he had the “perfect solution” for the rejection.

And as it transpired, that solution involved TK quitting his job to become Jonah’s full-time carer. No burying your gays here, just happy families.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about how they decided to end the Tarlos fairytale, 9-1-1: Lone Star writer Rashad Raisani explained that he wanted them to have a “truly happy ending”.

“I just wanted that last scene with them to be a celebration of where they are as a couple,” he shared. 

“They’ve come so far together, and they’ve really earned their joy through suffering and sacrifice. I just wanted them to have a truly happy ending. And I think you see both guys look like they have the weight of the world off their shoulders, which they’ve been carrying around for a lot of the last two years.”

Similarly, TK actor Rubinstein told Variety that the end felt fitting for what has become one of the series’ fan-favourite couples.

“Once we introduced Jonah, you felt like this might be where the direction for Tarlos goes… I think it’s a really cathartic, beautiful full circle of how I wished we would end the show for these two. And for TK, it truly is a happily ever after for them, and a beautiful way to leave these characters.”

As for whether Tarlos could ever appear in Murphy’s original procedural drama 9-1-1, the door seems open. 

“I hope that that does happen. I certainly wouldn’t say no to it. That’s one of the beautiful things about all of them being alive, is that, who knows,” Raisani told Variety, with Rubinstein adding that it “would be kind of impossible to say no” to a return.

9-1-1: Lone Star is streaming on Disney+.

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