911: Lone Star boss dashes hope of seeing Grace in the series finale

911: Lone Star was forced to write out Grace in the season premiere, but is there a chance she can return in the series finale? 

Caution: This article contains SPOILERS for 911: Lone Star season 5 premiere

The premiere for the final season of the series picked up nearly a year after the season 4 finale. Carlos and TK were still doing well, although Carlos, now a Texas Ranger, had been consumed trying to find out who killed his father, Gabriel. Owen was dealing with his brother’s death and breaking up with his girlfriend Kendra, while Paul and Marjan competed to fill out Judd’s spot as lieutenant.

As for Judd, he was still at home with his son Wyatt moving in with his family.  Wyatt was now working at the dispatcher center as Grace was explained as having departed to do missionary work, with Judd defending it since Grace knew this was bad timing but she felt the need to do it. 

The reason for this, of course, was that Sierra McClain unexpectedly left the series. That was a big hole as it also meant the writers had to come up with a logical reason why Grace would leave both her 2-year-old child and Judd to help Wyatt, who now uses a wheelchair. 

Speaking to Variety, co-showrunner Rashad Raisani explained the hopes that McClain could show up in the final season but it didn’t happen. 

"Sierra is the soul of “Lone Star,” and she is so central to what the show is all about, that I didn’t ever want to think about doing the show without her. And for a minute, it looked like it might work out — and even two or three weeks before production, we thought there was a chance, and then it just ended up not being in the cards. So it forced us to have to pivot and it was very difficult. I felt it was critical to both protect the character of Grace and actress Sierra McClain — I adore both of them. The challenge was, how do you explain her absence in a way it doesn’t involve just sort of mindlessy killing her off, which I think would have just been a travesty, or doing something like: she left Judd, divorced him, or something kind of gross like that — which I think nobody would believe. So that became our challenge as to how to explain it away, or at least explain it to level that we could continue the show. And I’ll let the audience decide if we did — I think we did."

As Raisani said, killing Grace off would have been a bit too much. Instead, this workaround sells how she’s still out there helping others and leaves hope for a return. Too bad it’s likely not going to happen on screen.

Is Grace coming back for the 911: Lone Star finale?

Raisani explained that “The writing was on the wall” in regard to this being the final season. While they certainly hoped it could continue, they were prepared for this being the final year and prepped the finale accordingly. That meant that the window to get McClain to do a cameo in the finale closed far too rapidly and thus, sadly, she won’t be appearing. 

"Unfortunately, we’ve already shot [the series finale]. I held out hope until the last minute, I’ll put it that way. I do think that, without seeing her on screen, how satisfying could anything be? But short of that, I’m just immensely proud of where the show goes."

It is a bit sad that fans will never get to see Grace again or even a proper sendoff for her. While it’s good they didn’t go for the cheat option of killing the character off, just having her leave her family for missionary work seemed off as well. It was McClain’s decision to go, and the writers were doing their best, yet it's still annoying to see this happen.

Maybe had the show managed another year, McClain could have returned, but for now, as 911: Lone Star embarks on its final run, it’ll be without one of its most notable faces.

911: Lone Star season 5 airs Mondays at 8/7c on Fox.