A security guard puts foil in the microwave. What a shock that it catches on fire. He dumps the firey burrito into the trash, and the entire place goes up.

Fire crews arrive on the scene, but they're having problems fighting the blaze.

Dispatch calls Engine 126. They need to pull back. There is ammonium nitrate in that facility.

The place explodes. Nobody responds.

Six months later, Owen Strand and his son are heading to a rescue in NYC. T.K. wants to get married. Owen reluctantly supports him.

Owen has a cough. It's not any cough. It's lung cancer that he got from Ground Zero. The doctor tells him it is the psychological of this that trip people up because he's young and otherwise healthy. The doctor can't even promise he'll make it to his son's wedding, though, so that's a lot to grapple with.

T.K. is gay and wants to marry a man who quite obviously seems to want to break up with him.

Owen greets Deputy Radford from Austin and shows him around the house. He wants Owen to go to Austin and do for them what he did there. The department of justice is included, and because of a civil rights issue about inclusivity, they're helping with the research.

Owen finds his offer strange in those circumstances and ultimately declines to stay with his son in the city they love.

T.K. hasn't come into work yet, so Owen goes to find him. Owen calls the crew to batter down the door. His son has overdosed and is in cardiac arrest.

When he wakes, T.K. grabs his dad and apologizes. It's not the first time T.K. has done this. He's a former drug addict. He says he wasn't trying to kill himself and tells Owen about his boyfriend.

Owen will report the situation as an accidental overdose. But he demands T.K. gets therapy, at least two times a week.

Owen also decides to take the job in Texas.

Engine 126 is closed and a mess when the duo arrives. It's like a tomb, and T.K. worries that they won't be welcome when he sees the dead flower aren't even gone from the street yet.

Owen accepts Radford's resumes, but he plans on casting a wider net. He starts by looking at Marjan Marwani, an adrenaline junkie in Miami, and Mateo Chavez, a rookie firefighter who flunked out four times.

Owen is even interested in a former Chicago firefighter who has a knack for threat assessment that is directly attributed to his being trans.

Finally, a guy who was part of the original 126 enters for an interview. He doesn't even know why he is interviewing for a job he's had since he was in high school. Owen didn't know if he was ready to come back, and after their conversation, he believes it.

The house they want to rent is $4500, which they think is a bargain after being in Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, paramedic Michelle Blake is pounding on the door of some dude saying he murdered her sister. He'll never get rid of her.

Outside of the house, she sees a little boy with breathing problems in the street. He needs an inhaler. They don't have insurance. She offers him a number to call that helps no questions asked.

She gets arrested by a friend who wonders why she can't believe there wasn't any foul play given the lack of evidence in her sister's death. She wants him to drop her at work. He's not an uber. She wasn't going to tip.

A family is having a picnic after discovering weed in the backyard.

Dude ate some of the weeds and begins choking like crazy chugging water and trying to clear himself.

Michelle Blake is the paramedic captain, and at the scene, she and Owen have a little tete a tete. She performs a procedure on the guy after he's hoisted onto a picnic table.

Judd and his wife, Grace, the call-center operator, talk about his future. He won't walk away from the 126 to take another job.

Grace reminds Judd that the man she loves has never taken no for an answer and not to start now.

At the station, Owen doles out skincare advice.

Their first real emergency is a car accident. A pregnant woman is trapped under a steering column.

Once they get her out, Owen transfers the command to Michelle and her team.

That's when the woman says her ten-month-old was in the backseat, but the baby seat is missing.

The baby is in a tree. The ol' baby in a tree trick.

There is a rather dramatic moment when the car seat falls from the tree, but the baby is safe in someone's arms up in the tree.

Michelle invites everyone to line dance. After some banter, they hit the floor, and Owen surprises Michelle with his prowess.

The only guy who isn't taken and who is kinda hot asks T.K. to dance.

While line dancing, Owen has an attack of cancer.

Outside, Grace introduces herself to Owen. She tells him about Judd's actions. She thinks they're a lot alike. Saving people is like oxygen for Judd, and he's suffocating.

She's asking Owen to do what he does best. She wants him to save her husband.

The next day, Judd and Owen have a chat that results in Owen sharing his cancer diagnosis. Owen says they'll both have to deal with their issues eventually.

Judd disagrees. If he opens the lid and lets the monster out, he may never get it back in.

Out in the engine room, Judd sees the photos of his fallen friends and falls to the ground in tears.

After a chat, the wife and daughter of one of the fallen men come by the house. Mabel saw him save a baby, and they wanted to welcome him to the family. She gives his station overhaul her stamp of approval.

For the next emergency, Judd is on the truck.