Much to our chagrin, it was the last call for Station 19.
While the fight still rages on for anything more, Station 19 Season 7 Episode 10 provided closure for these characters we've come to love as best as they could manage.
Join Station 19 Fanatics, Elodie MV, Heather M, and TV Fanatic Haley Whitmire White for one final round table.
Station 19 had the challenging task of wrapping up many storylines and arcs in under an hour. Do you think they succeeded?
Ellie: No. What exactly have they wrapped up?
All I think about that final episode is that everyone made it; they are all alive. In the last five minutes, we know that Andy is Chief and Maya is Captain. And the others? We don't know.
We know that Pru is a probie at 19 and that Travis and Vic go to D.C. It feels incomplete.
Heather: Ellie, I absolutely agree. I didn't love or hate the finale, but I can't say any storyline was really wrapped up.
They spent too much time on the wildfire and not enough on what made this show: the characters.
Haley: I'll be the odd one out! They did an amazing job of wrapping everything up.
I didn't love all of the future storylines, but I appreciated that they tried to give everyone a happy ending.
It was a challenging task.
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The writers missed an opportunity to flesh out some of those futures this season, and I wonder if that's because they were holding out hope that the show would be saved and didn't want to set anything in stone too soon.
But as far as series finales go, it was well done.
Ben is set to return to Grey's Anatomy. What are your thoughts on him shifting back to medicine? Also, do you think Carina will join him too?
Ellie: With Ben shifting back to medicine, it sounds like Ben is a man having a life crisis in his 50s, and it's a little annoying…
And it was too predictable that he would go back to medicine.
As a huge Carina fan, I sincerely hope Stefania will return to Grey's because she deserves it.
Carina deserves a storyline on Grey's Anatomy, so I hope she will.
If she doesn't, I will be very disappointed, but I will look forward to Stefania's new projects.
Heather: I feel like Ben returning to medicine wipes out everything in his story of sticking with firefighting.
And I was bothered by how his character was always working triage or doctoring someone at the station rather than fighting fires.
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The whole thing about how it affects Miranda was dragged out too long, so using it as part of why he returned to medicine felt like a cop-out.
Carina deserves to start her own practice, as she has mentioned before.
Haley: I assumed this was how Ben's story would play out, so I wasn't surprised.
For me, it was the first time we've seen him make a calculated, thoughtful decision about his career.
He quit anesthesiology to become a surgeon, and then he quit his residency to become a firefighter, and those felt like decisions made by a man chasing fulfillment.
I think he found that at Station 19, but at his age and with his history, fighting fires would never be a practical long-term career for him.
I'm glad he'll return to Grey Sloan to finish his residency.
I think it'll be good for Miranda, too, who spends a lot of time worried for Ben's safety.
I hope to see Carina (and Maya) over on the Grey's side, too, and I think there's a good chance that we will.
(Spoiler alert for Grey's Anatomy Season 20 Finale: Now that Jo is pregnant on Grey's, it makes sense that Carina would come back and be her OB-GYN, especially because it's rare for a major character on that show to have a straightforward, uncomplicated pregnancy.)
Were you underwhelmed by how they handled Theo's scare? Did you find it odd that they shifted all their attention to Andy at the hospital?
Ellie: I mean, Theo's scare was nothing. I would have been happy if he died.
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I did find it odd for two reasons:
- Why injure Theo if it's for shifting all their attention to Andy?
- Maya got surrounded by fire, and she was fine?! I would have liked to see Maya faint rather than Andy.
Heather: The Theo scare was handled terribly.
I really was scared they would kill him and have it affect Vic somehow, and I'm glad they didn't go that route.
But they put the bulk of Theo's injury story on Grey's Anatomy Season 20 Episode 10, and on Station 19's finale, I think only Vic asked about him.
They only did this to scare the audience with multiple cliffhangers. It didn't add any real value to the story.
Haley: I'm happy Theo didn't die, but I am glad they had him experience this life-threatening injury at the end.
It was a full-circle moment for his character and a way for him to get full absolution (hopefully finally forgive himself) for getting Michael killed.
Saving Travis's life by risking his own was a completely selfless act, and it needed to be a near-death experience so that Theo would feel like it would, in a way, make up for his past.
Which of the dreams/flash-forwards did you find the most emotional? Were there any that you didn't enjoy?
Ellie: Vic's dream was the most emotional because we got a cameo of Oak (Dean), so it was great to see Vic succeeding with Crisis One.
I enjoyed none of the flash-forwards because I felt it was unnecessary.
I just did not see the point of them in the episode because no one has died (disappointing).
I think instead of making those dreams/flash-forwards as if the characters were about to die; the writers just could have done a time jump with everyone at the end, like Travic in D.C. for Crisis One, Maya & Carina with their three kids, Sullivan and Ross married, Andy being the Chief, etc…
They could have done something that feels more like an ending because I didn't feel that the final episode was an ending of the show.
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Heather: Again, Ellie, I agree.
All the flash-forwards had a sweetness to them, and I especially enjoyed seeing Dean and Pru graduate from the fire academy.
But the flash-forwards were unnecessary.
They could have better conveyed what they were trying to get across the screen with flashbacks instead of flash-forwards.
Kinda like people's fan edit videos, just quick clips of all the people they love from past episodes. To me, that would have been more special.
Haley: It was definitely nice to see Dean back for a moment to tell Vic how proud he was of her.
I really liked the flash-forward scenes because I like knowing where characters end up.
I was most emotional when I saw Vic and Travis together in the end and when I saw Ben and Miranda's kids all grow up and accomplish big things.
Pru at Nineteen was really sweet!
Seeing Tuck graduating from college was weird because it felt like Bailey was just pregnant with him.
As for what I didn't like... yeah, I could have done without Andy and Jack ending up together, but I'm glad they're both happy, I guess.
Did the hints of Jack and Andy's endgame come out of left field?
Ellie: Jack and Andy as endgame was so unnecessary because they have been best friends for six seasons, and suddenly they are endgame?
That sounds like the writers did not know what to do with Jack, so they made him endgame with Andy.
The writers have done Jack so dirty this season, which is incredibly disappointing.
Heather: Yes. I have never felt at any point on this show that Andy was in love with Jack in that type of way.
After reading articles about the finale from the showrunners and learning that this idea was a last-minute idea given by Jaina Lee Ortiz, it tells me the writers weren't doing their job and really didn't know what to do with either of them.
I would have preferred to see Andy as a single and thriving career woman. Firefighting has always been her love.
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And they did Jack so dirty by not even giving him a flash forward and showing some of the ideas they had for him, like social work for foster kids.
Haley: Yeah, absolutely. These two haven't been a thing in years, and most recently, they've shared a more sibling-like friendship.
I don't feel like they have much chemistry, really, because Andy kind of treats Jack like a sick puppy.
But I am glad they gave Jack a happy ending on the show, even though he deserved so much better than what he got this season.
Did Travis make the right call moving with Vic to D.C.? Did you enjoy their Platonic love story being so central to the finale?
Ellie: YES, YES, YES! I was SO happy that Travis decided to go with Vic to D.C.
I'm so happy we got to see their platonic love story until the end because I could not picture Travis still in Seattle and Vic in D.C.
They are platonic soulmates, and I'm so happy they got a great ending.
Heather: Yes! I really enjoyed this so much.
I cried so hard for that airport scene.
They are the two characters I love the most, and it would have been hard to see Vic moving on her own.
The issue I had related to them was again about the writing.
In Station 19 Season 7 Episode 9, Travis acknowledges Vic is right and that he is afraid of change.
In the finale, he argues with Dom during the wildfire.
On their way back to the station, he tells her he can't go; his life is in Seattle.
Then we get to the airport scene.
So, I really would have liked to understand better what made him change his mind.
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Haley: I was devastated when he said he wouldn't go with her because his "life is in Seattle."
So when she sat down at the airport, I saw the back of Travis's head before he was revealed and immediately started crying (sue me).
I'm so happy that he decided to go with her.
I would give just about anything for a Crisis One spinoff set in D.C.
Station 19's legacy lives in its final scene. What's your reaction to Chief Andy Herrera and Captain Maya Deluca Bishop's dreams coming true in the parting scene?
Ellie: My initial reaction was, "WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE AWFUL WIGS ?! Who got that ugly idea? Ew." My reaction to Chief Herrera and Captain DeLuca-Bishop was that Maya should have been Chief first.
Maya was a great Captain, and everyone has been so unfair to her. Yet, she got the best character development on the show, and Andy got all the credits again at the end.
Nope, I don't buy this.
Let's say that the time jump to the future is 15 years.
Why is Maya still Captain when she could have ended up as Chief, too?
Why can't the fire department have two female Chiefs?
As a Captain Bishop fan, I wish Maya had her captaincy back during season 6, not at the show's end.
Specifically with that horrible wig when Danielle cut her own hair in the Station 19 Season 3 finale.
Heather: Oh god, those ugly wigs!
And why make them have short hair when Andy has always had long hair, and Maya grew hers back out?
Sadly, that might be the most impactful part of the episode, and it wasn't that important.
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Again, this was another unnecessary scene.
Why do writers want to wrap up shows by showing the future?
Why not leave it open to interpretation?
I love the idea of Maya and Andy running things, and I agree that Maya should be higher than Captain.
My only explanation is that Maya stayed lieutenant for a long time while raising their family and then got back in the Captain race.
I would have preferred if they had ended the show with Andy's captaincy (since she has been fighting for that since day one) and her giving some variation of that speech after a call or maybe on Travis's or Ben's last day when it feels like the family is going separate ways.
Haley: You guys are cracking me up about the wigs!
They were super weird, weren't they?
It was nice to see that they both did so well in their careers, but it would have made more sense if their roles were reversed.
Maya could have left 19 for a short while to be Captain somewhere else and ultimately worked her way to Chief.
But the whole thing about Andy was that Nineteen was her legacy, and I always assumed she'd be Captain there until she retired.
What were your overall thoughts on the final season? Is there anything you wish was handled differently?
Ellie: I hated it.
I hated the final season because it felt like such a fan service season, and every episode was too predictable, so it was not enjoyable.
I wish the writers had put more effort into writing a great final season, developing and focusing more on every O.G. character (and not bringing new useless characters like Dominic) instead of making the last season for the fans.
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Examples:
- I wish the writers had written Jack so much better than this tiny dispatcher role.
- I wish the writers didn't bring Emmett back to make Travis looks like a cheater because he could not get his shit together.
Heather: I wish so much of this season had been handled differently.
It felt so disconnected from the last six seasons.
The acting was the only part of this show that felt consistent this season.
The writers and/or showrunners just tried to get cute with this season to put their spin on things and threw all these unnecessary stories in it.
To add to Ellie's list:
- Why did we need two episodes with stories based on Michael Dixon's funeral to have two Travis sex scenes to make him a cheater?
- Why did we have an episode with everyone fighting because of budget cuts when this is not the people they are, and it never has been the entire series?
- Marina's storyline was so baby-focused that there was barely any room for them as a couple. Then they threw in the Mason and lawsuit storylines, which went nowhere.
- I hated how they did both Jack and Theo's exits from the station, and we knew then that they would break this family up. For what?
- Dragging out the Tully proposal and love story took up way more time in each episode than necessary.
Haley: There were definitely some low points, and I wish things had gone differently.
Jack should have never been written out the way he was, Travis should have never had a cheating era, and if Jack and Andy were going to end up together, they should have done more to hint at that throughout the season.
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There were things I did like, though.
Vic's mental health struggles were handled really well.
Kate got killed off, which I'd been hoping for all season (sorry, not sorry).
Beckett's redemption arc was convincing and changed my mind about the character.
So, there was good and bad, for sure.
What was your favorite thing about this series, and what will you miss most?
Ellie: My favorite thing about this series is the chemistry between Stefania Spampinato and Danielle.
Their chemistry is so special; watching it for four seasons was amazing.
Stefania's acting is my other favorite thing about the show.
She has shown in four seasons how talented she is as an actress, and she absolutely deserves recognition for this.
I will always miss how great Station 19 was in seasons 1-3.
I miss the old seasons when everyone was funny, 19 felt like a family, and the calls were great… Everything in the first three seasons was so special; I will miss that most.
Heather: The two things about this show that grabbed me are its heartfelt nature and the diversity of its characters.
It's not only about the firefighting and saving lives but the things everyone goes through.
Each character on this show has a deep feel for helping people and going above their job duties.
It is never about money or power for them.
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The show brought real-life issues into the stories and showed us how the things going on in the world affect people.
It then used these flawed characters with big hearts to show how we can be better humans.
At the same time, we see that no one is perfect, even people trying to do good.
We get to see these characters go through so many mental health issues, heartache, and grief, among other things, all while still being full of love.
And seeing their love for each other is the glue for this show.
Everything, every story, comes back to that.
More than anything, I will miss the characters and their relationships with every other character on the show, whether big or small.
There was always a lot of love there.
Haley: Vic and Travis's friendship was my favorite thing about Station 19.
I am a sucker for platonic soulmate storylines, queer representation, and found family, so the whole show was really great for those things.
I will miss the feeling of family these characters brought every week.
Thanks to Grey's Anatomy, I'm glad we don't have to say goodbye for good to some of them, and I'm going to hope against all rationality that Shonda gives us a Crisis One spinoff.
Over to you, Station 19 Fanatics. Share your thoughts about the series finale below!
You can stream the entire series of Station 19 on Hulu.