‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ actors preview the journey ‘Tarlos’ should take to the marriage altar

This text accommodates spoilers for “The New Hotness,” Tuesday’s season premiere of “9-1-1: Lone Star.”

After getting engaged to police officer Carlos Reyes (Rafael L. Silva), paramedic T.Ok. Strand (Ronen Rubinstein) was hit with a stunning secret within the season 4 premiere of “9-1-1: Lone Star”: Carlos was already legally married to a lady. Extra particularly, Carlos was married — in title solely — to Iris Blake (Lyndsy Fonseca), the youthful sister of his greatest pal Michelle (Liv Tyler).

It’s a secret that, Silva mentioned, has been gestating for years. In the course of the present’s freshman run, co-creator and showrunner Tim Minear pitched Carlos’ marriage to Iris as an off-screen clarification for why Carlos and Michelle, who’ve a big age hole, are shut pals. However the writers had been pressed for time within the first 10 episodes, and Tyler’s departure between the first two seasons meant they couldn’t tackle that connection instantly.

“So the story behind Carlos and Iris has been brewing,” Silva instructed NBC Information in early January in a joint video interview with Rubinstein. “And it’s lastly come to fruition now that Carlos and T.Ok. are on their path to turning into a legally unified couple.”

Within the Jan. 24 episode of the hit Fox procedural drama, which finds the primary responders coping with uncommon and excessive climate occasions in Austin, Texas, Carlos discovers that the couple’s dream wedding ceremony venue, which initially had a ready listing of a yr and a half, had an surprising opening in eight weeks, prompting him to fulfill T.Ok. on the firehouse and confess privately to his marital standing.

“After I got here out [as gay] to my mother and father, and the best way that they by no means talked about it once more, it felt like I dissatisfied them,” Carlos tells T.Ok. in an emotional scene. “We beloved one another … and we tried to persuade ourselves that we may make it work. We had been fallacious.”

Carlos and Iris — who has a historical past of psychological sickness and was final seen residing in a tent metropolis in the course of the first season finale — went to highschool collectively and knew all the pieces about one another, together with his sexuality. After Iris disappeared after which reappeared on the finish of the primary season, they by no means obtained a divorce, as a result of Carlos believed he was serving to her get therapy for schizophrenia together with his medical health insurance. It isn’t till Carlos arrives at a shelter the place Iris was in search of therapy that he discovers she will not be solely doing properly now however can be working there — with well being advantages — to higher serve individuals with comparable circumstances.

Silva mentioned he believes any selections that Carlos made instantly after popping out stemmed from being instructed “within the tradition that he grew up in” that “he was not sufficient” and from desirous to be beloved and accepted by these round him.

“I feel Carlos getting married was his means of making an attempt to repair the uncontrollable — one thing that was fully out of his arms — and that’s extraordinarily human,” Silva defined. “That’s one thing we will all hook up with: Looking for a solution to talk to the individuals that you just love that, ‘Hey, I do know I’m not what you anticipated, however I’m nonetheless lovable. Love me for who I’m.’ I feel it coincided with the truth that Iris was additionally somebody who was not accepted for who she was.”

He described them as “two individuals, in a time of want, coming collectively and being that help system for one another.”

Rubinstein mentioned that scene, during which T.Ok. and Carlos understand they’ve just a few weeks to get Iris to signal divorce papers, is considered one of his favourite “Tarlos” scenes thus far.

“At first, T.Ok. is confused and possibly a bit bit postpone,” he mentioned. “What’s so stunning about that scene is, [T.K.] can’t take it too personally. It was Carlos being an amazing pal to Iris, and as soon as T.Ok. figures out why it occurred, it snaps again into T.Ok. supporting Carlos, after which we present that loving couple. … It comes again to: ‘We’ll determine this out. I obtained you. You bought me.’”

That loving couple — affectionately dubbed “Tarlos” by followers — has successfully taken on a lifetime of its personal in digital areas. Within the handful of fan conventions that he and Silva have achieved within the final yr, together with in-person occasions in Paris and Milan final summer time, Rubinstein famous that “there’s been extra new faces than acquainted faces,” and other people have shaped shut friendships and even romantic relationships by way of their connection to the characters on the present.

“Once you do get to inform a narrative, it’s yours for that point [when] you’re capturing it. However then as soon as it’s full, the story doesn’t turn into yours. It goes out into the world, and also you simply must let or not it’s,” Silva mentioned. “It’s stunning how individuals have seen T.Ok. and Carlos collectively, and we noticed that in the course of the summer time — people who join from all elements of the world — and the one factor that I can do is simply to say thanks.”

Whereas a lot of the dialog surrounding T.Ok. and Carlos in latest months has centered round their impending nuptials, Silva cautioned that their journey to the marriage altar can be something however simple.

“We’re speaking about two individuals coming collectively to turn into one for the remainder of their lives. Clearly, these are two individuals from very totally different backgrounds [and] upbringings,” Silva mentioned. “And similar to all of us, we have to, as characters, treatment some issues from the previous, and that instantly begins from episode one.”

Silva mentioned there are some tales “nonetheless being developed for each Carlos and T.Ok. “that can “help in creating this stunning wedding ceremony.”

“Evidently, it has not been shot but. It’s a marriage, man, and you may’t simply have that in the course of a season! It’s the wedding ceremony, so we’re strolling collectively in the direction of that,” he mentioned.

With the reappearance of Iris, who insists on assembly T.Ok. earlier than signing divorce papers, Carlos can be pulled right into a thriller that can pressure him to reckon together with his previous and permit viewers to see him “flourish” in a brand new mild.

“You’re going to be seeing a devoted police officer tirelessly making an attempt to get his solutions, and he gained’t cease till he does,” Silva mentioned about his character’s arc this season.

Silva mentioned followers will see a “aspect of Carlos that we’ve not ever seen earlier than.”

“There’s a maturation that comes about,” he added. “You possibly can’t run away from the issues which have damage you, as a result of they primarily have taken away an influence that you’ve got, and with a purpose to achieve that energy again, you want to sit down with it and face it — and we see Carlos doing that.”

Regardless of having fallen into a number of comas and skilled heartbreak and tragedy for the reason that begin of the present, T.Ok. can be extra wired than ever, as a result of “a variety of the stuff that occurs to him this season is totally out of his management,” Rubinstein mentioned.

“Mentally and bodily, issues begin to not go proper round him, and I feel that’s actually scary for him. It’s undoubtedly the sassiest T.Ok. can be in 4 seasons,” he added. “Carlos has been the one worrying about T.Ok. for 3 seasons, and [T.K.] is continually getting damage and touchdown in comas and this and that, whether or not it’s bodily or psychological. So it’ll be fascinating to see these roles reversed.”

Silva and Rubinstein, who’re about midway achieved capturing the 18-episode season, additionally revealed that Carlos’ mother and father, Andrea (Roxana Brusso) and Gabriel (Benito Martinez), can be round extra usually this yr. T.Ok. will develop a more in-depth relationship together with his future-in-laws, and he’ll group up with Gabriel within the pulse-pounding fourth episode.

“I feel the followers are going to be extraordinarily, extraordinarily excited, particularly for ‘Tarlos,’” Rubinstein teased with a smile. “There’s lots of ‘Tarlos’ within the first half of the season.”

“9-1-1: Lone Star” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Fox. All new episodes will stream on Hulu and Fox Now after their preliminary broadcast.