Rob Lowe’s character has a serious clown phobia

Gina Torres and Rob Lowe in "9-1-1: Lone Star" (Fox)

The “9-1-1: Lone Star” team is called in to aid a clown who’s trapped in a play castle at a boy’s birthday party in Monday’s episode of the Fox drama. But Rob Lowe’s Owen is stuck sweating on the sidelines.

Turns out he has a serious clown phobia and can’t go anywhere near Zippy the Clown, who stays in character throughout the rescue.

The birthday boy’s mom assures him that the “very, very brave” EMTs will save Zippy, but the boy points to visibly freaked-out Owen saying, “That one looks scared.”

Tommy (Gina Torres) also notices Owen’s distress and diagnoses him with a panic attack — and coulrophobia, the official word describing fear of clowns. When Owen begs her not to “make this a thing,” she smoothly covers for him and tells everyone else that he simply wants to stay behind and “see the whole picture.”

Watch the scene in an exclusive sneak-peek video at the top of this story.

The episode “Down To Clown” airs Monday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Fox.

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Photograph by Irvin Rivera for TheWrap

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