Why Did Marjan Leave 9-1-1: Lone Star? Her Actress Confirms She’s ‘Gone’ But Could Come Back For This Occasion

As a fan favorite from the pilot, it’s understandable why fans are asking: Why did Marjan leave 9-1-1: Lone Star and where did she go?

9-1-1: Lone Star is a spinoff of FOX’s 9-1-1 and follows the firefighters, paramedics and other emergency personnel at the Austin Fire Department’s fictional Station 126 in Austin, Texas. Natacha Karam plays Marjan Marwani, a firefighter and paramedic and Instagram celebrity with more than five million followers.

In an interview with The Observer in 2022, Karam, who has starred on 9-1-1: Lone Star since season 1, revealed that she had decided to end her lease in Los Angeles and was about to quit acting when she received a call from her manager and agents telling her that she’d been cast in 9-1-1: Lone Star off one self-taped audition. “‘You booked it. It’s yours! It’s done,’” Karam recalled her agents telling her. “I was like, ‘Off of one tape?!’ I’ve never met that casting director; I’ve never worked with any of these people.’ And they were like, ‘These are people who know what they want, and when they see it, they go for it.’ I was in such shock.”

Years later, Karam is still on 9-1-1: Lone Star, but the fate of her character could be undecided. So…why did Marjan leave 9-1-1: Lone Star and where did she go after her last episode? Read on for what we know about why Marjan left 9-1-1: Lone Star and what happened to her.

Why did Marjan Marwani leave 9-1-1: Lone Star?

Why did Marjan Marwani leave 9-1-1: Lone Star? Marjan left the Austin Fire Department’s Station 126 in season 4, episode 5 “Human Resources” after she was confronted by a woman she rescued in the season 4 premiere. In episode 5, the woman—whom Marjan called a “crazy lady” after she rescued her from a mobile home barreling down a freeway at 50 miles per hour—and her husband (who was driving the car the house was attached to) demanded that Marjan apologize for the “hurtful” and “sexist” language she used to describe the woman. “The reason we’re here is my inappropriate language. It was unprofessional and unacceptable. My job was to protect, not insult you, Mrs. Geralds. What I said, calling you a ‘crazy lady,’ it was out of line and it was messed up,” Marjan told the Geralds. “I am so ashamed I said it. I’m sorry, truly, Mrs. Geralds.”

Mr. and Mrs. Geralds call Marjan’s apology “beautiful” and “heartfelt” before asking her to apologize again. “You should do it just like that,” Mr. Geralds tells Marjan, who asks him, “Do what?” Mr. Geralds responds, “What you just did. Apologize,” to which Marjan replies, “I just did?” The Geralds’ lawyer then tells Marjan that the couple wants her to apologize again—this time, in an Instagram post to her five million followers with a link to their GoFundMe page so they can raise money for a new home. “The Geralds would like you to publicly post your apology on social media,” the lawyer says.

“Marjan has absolutely no problem with [apologizing]. I think, in general, we should be calling people in not calling them out when people make mistakes. It gives people the opportunity to be accountable, to grow, to change, to be better, and that’s what Marjan wants,” Natacha Karam, who plays Marjan, told Entertainment Weekly at the time of the episode. “It’s not a sincere apology that they want. The whole thing has been teed up in order to manipulate and exploit her and her followers. That causes her a lot of inner turmoil because she is a woman of a lot of moral integrity. And when something doesn’t feel right to her, she can’t quite follow through with it.”

Karam continued, “This is about her entire career, not one moment or one opportunity to say sorry and be better. And she has a responsibility towards the people who follow her. She has an obligation and feels morally responsible towards them to not exploit them or manipulate them. It’s extremely difficult for her to process.”

In the end, instead of posting an apology and linking her followers to the couples’ fake GoFundMe page, Marjan decides to post a video exposing the Geralds for trying to take advantage of her before resigning from Station 126. “Access to five million people is not something to be taken lightly!” Marjan says. Marjan’s final scene saw her saying goodbye to her firehousemates at Station 126 before riding off on Captain Owen Strand’s motorcycle. “It was heavy. It was a heavy scene,” Karam told Entertainment Weekly at the time of the episode. “There was a lot of sadness in the room. No one had seen the next scripts, so even as actors we didn’t know. It was like, ‘Okay. Well, when am I going to get to work with all of you again as characters?’ It was extremely sad.”

Did Marjan Marwani leave 9-1-1: Lone Star for good?

Did Marjan Marwani leave 9-1-1: Lone Star for good? The answer is no. Natacha Karam confirmed to TV Line in February 2023 that season 4, episode 5 was Marjan’s last episode “for a while” but not her final episode ever. “This is the last we’ll see of Marjan for a while,” Karam said. “It’s not going to be, like, oh she’s back in the next episode. She’s getting out of town, leaving the state. When you do finally see her, it’ll be to go on the journey that she’s on. The audience will get to follow her on Route 66, living her own life without the firehouse, doing her soul searching. Things will arise on the road to keep her busy.”

Karam explained that Marjan’s time away from Station 126 will allow her to ask some difficult questions about her life and her career as a firefighter and paramedic. “Is this something she’s going to be able to come back to and silence the inner critic that’s keeping her from following her instincts? Does she really need to be a firefighter? Internally, how capable does she even feel to return to firefighting? Is that chapter over for her?” Karam said.

Karam also confirmed that, financially, Marjan will be OK, despite losing her job at Station 126. “It’s funny, we don’t really see that side of Marjan, but anyone who has millions of followers probably has multiple streams of income and spends a lot of time creating content for brand partnerships,” Karam said. “There are definitely ways for her to make money, though that’s not the real issue. This is the thing she thought she wanted to do for the rest of her life, and now she’s not sure if she knows how to do it anymore.”

Karam also confirmed that Marjan leaving Station 126 was a “surprise,” though she had her suspicions based on her scenes in the season 4 premiere. “It was definitely a surprise,” she said. “I didn’t know exactly how they were going to come back, but when I said that line into my radio [about her being crazy], the director asked me to do it again louder for everyone to hear, so that was my hint.”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in February 2023, Karam opened up about Marjan decision to leave Station 126 and not give into the Geralds’ demands. “I think when we offend people, our first response shouldn’t be defense, or deflection, or retaliation,” she said. It should be, ‘Oh my God. I’m sorry I hurt and offended you. Let me know how I can do better.’ You can’t tell someone that they didn’t take offense at something. That is their reality. They were offended. And then it gives you the opportunity to be accountable, and grow, and be better. And Marjan is willing to say I’m sorry. But they don’t want a sincere apology. They want to take advantage of the five million people following her — people she feels a responsibility to protect.”

Karam explained that Marjan felt like was “backed into a corner” between what her morals were and what it meant to keep her job. “Any part of her that was like, ‘Oh, we may be able to find a creative solution. Let’s see if we can come to some kind of compromise,’ is quelled by what happens out in the field where she’s unable to follow her instincts,” Karam said. “She second-guesses herself when trying to rescue a man from a fire. Those extra seconds she took could put everyone’s life in danger. So that feeling that maybe she could figure out a way to stay is very quickly disappearing. And she’s like, ‘I can’t do this job if I’m going to freeze up in the field. And I’m not really allowed to be here anyway unless I start meeting this couple’s demands. And I can’t do either of those things and go to bed and be okay with myself at night, so I have to go.’ She feels like she’s been backed into a corner, and there’s absolutely no way that she can stay and be in line with her morality and her integrity.”

As for how Marjan will return to 9-1-1: Lone Star, Karam confirmed she’ll be at the wedding between Tyler Kennedy “TK” Strand and Carlos Reyes. “standing in that room in that firehouse saying goodbye, no one knows when they’re going to see her again,” she said. “And the idea of the wedding is like, ‘Yeah. Yeah. Of course all my friendships and relationships are going to sustain themselves. It’s just the professional element of it’ Of course, I’m going to still come to my friend’s wedding. Of course I’m still going to show up for birthdays and be on FaceTime. But I’m not going to be here as a firefighter anymore. That’s the part that’s going to be different.”

Karam also suggested that, when Marjan returns to 9-1-1: Lone Star, it likely won’t be as a firefighter at Station 126. “It’s not like Marjan is just going to come right back and start working at the firehouse again,” she said. “That is not the arc of this season. She is gone. She’s out of state. She is alone. She’s off on her own adventures, which the audience will get to follow her on — but not right away.”

9-1-1: Lone Star airs on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.

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