For your unedited gif game, can you do something from the rehearsal dinner? Maybe Owen and his brother looking over at TK and Carlos taking selfies with TK's cousins? Thank you!
Thank you so much for the ask, anon!
Yes, I can absolutely do that. There are several very sweet shots of the group taking photos. For now, let's go with this one:
so soft at TK calling him uncle robert right away he's not wary or guarded, he's open & welcoming asking to see pictures of his cousins, wanting to connect and indulge in finding out he has a big family, something he probably always thought of.. and I'm also emotional at owen who's just sentimental taking it all in, how having a brother in his life again, a blood family beyond his found fire family and the family he's established with the reyes. how having some of what he was so brutally deprived from long long time ago coming into his life again.... just him and TK being surrounded by family on a dinner table sharing a meal, talking, being gifted personal belongings.. they deserve that so much 😭
And Owen is back at that pool rescue in like 17 per RL’s Instagram so it’s def negative.
I don't think there was any real question as to what the result would be: if Owen had the gene they would be lining up TK to lose another parent and adding to the trauma this boy has been enduring for four straight seasons. In some ways Gwyn's sudden death would have been the better loss for him than watching his father, who has always been this strong and capable character - even when he was fighting cancer - fade away in front of him.
They're throwing this in as some Drama™ for the Strands, for having TK and Carlos face up to the fact that their lives together might not be what they thought or planned. It has already shifted with the kid talk and they showed they can deal with it, but TK isn't going to want Carlos to feel like he's signing up for a carer's role and Carlos pointing out that this is exactly what he's signing up for - it's in the vows for a reason. If he only gets 20 years instead of 50 then he'll take those 20. He'll take 20 weeks, 20 days as TK's husband rather than be anywhere else.
(Probably with a quip about how TK could more feasibly get himself killed on the job long before anything in his genetic code kicked in.)
Meanwhile Owen will be facing a health issue that he can't fight, losing another brother, and wondering if he's handed over a timebomb to his son.
It will all come good but the Strand men are going to have quite the renewed sense of life and determination after this. Owen and Robert will make the most of the time they have, TK and Carlos will go into their marriage knowing that no matter what comes their way they will, as we hear Carlos say in the promo, deal with it together.
I just really love 3x16 so much. The theme of the episode was fathers and sons. We have Owen confronting his past and how he didn’t have a good relationship with his father, and resolving the epiaode with his father showing that he did care about him and kept up with his life from afar, and Owen reaching out to TK knowing he needs to repair the distance between them after a season of them hardly interacting.
And of course we then have the B plot of Judd, Wyatt and Stuart. Judd becoming a dad™️ when his son fucked up and got arrested. His own father reminding him he had to do the same when Judd acted out. The way Wyatt got to be an angry kid and Judd was then in a position to be a father figure to him in a real way. Then we get Judd being hurt and Wyatt having to look out for him? Them finally connecting and having honest communication? Beautiful. Wyatt calling him dad for the first time?? I love it.
Honourable mention: Robert losing a father but gaining a big brother !!
I didn't think I would cry again during their wedding but I was wrong. Everything about it is beautiful, Paul being the officiant, the vows, ugh the vows are beautiful, seeing Gwyn again, Tommy singing and seeing TK and Carlos so emotional and holding onto each other. Even Owen and Robert sharing a look/nod when Owen mentions how it's a perfect moment.. cause.. yeah 😭
I don’t know how other people feel about it and I’m not here for a debate but I am so so pleased with how the writers dealt with Robert’s request to Owen to help him die.
The right to die with dignity is such a hard topic but so often shows that touch on it end up finding a way to “convince” the character to not go through with it and to “live the time they have left”. I am glad Lonestar did not try to do that.