And with that, we have another season of Station 19 under our belts.
They opted for something happier with Station 19 Season 5 Episode 18, and the closest to a cliffhanger is that Jack seemingly quit his job and drove off, leaving his found fire family behind him.
Of course, there’s also the possibility that Maya has solidified her job as Captain again, or she’ll rue the day she threatened and blackmailed Ross and Sullivan.
The hour didn’t exactly feel like a season finale. Instead, it felt like a regular installment, and while they wrapped some things up, there were a bunch of loose strands they did nothing with, which was a bit surprising and disappointing.
It felt like they remembered it was supposed to be the last installment of the season, so they ended the most pressing storylines quickly and put a bow on everything.
In hindsight, we spent a lot of time on unnecessary story arcs and then sped through ones that deserved more breathing room.
The series also introduced storylines that should’ve been more significant and either placed them on the backburner for most of the season only to wrap it up in a blink of an eye, or they brought them in at the tail end of the season and acted as if they were there all along.
I’m still trying to figure out how we got to this Travis running as mayor arc. It is literally something that they started laying the groundwork for in Station 19 Season 5 Episode 14 when Travis found out that Dixon was running for mayor. It inconsistently grew legs within the past three installments.
While powerful, Andy’s sexual assault arc came so late into the game, only to get handwave away and resolved with such little fanfare that there were no stakes to it in the least.
I am not sorry. I am not playing by the rules of a system designed to break me.
Andy
They introduced her long-lost mother briefly, then she just vanished again, which was so bizarre that it’s jarring if you give it much thought. Is there a reason why we didn’t get half a season of Andy getting reacquainted with her mother and working through the mixed emotions of that?
Is it something that they’ll push into next season instead? If that’s the case, why introduce it here and abruptly drop it?
It makes many of the season’s storylines feel like the majority was a filler season, and the real drama and outcomes will play out in the next one.
They never addressed how Ben weaseled out of quitting his job to keep Pru, but they celebrated them gaining custody of her during the final moments and gave a small tribute to Dean, who we haven’t seen mourned since Vic and Jack tore up a bathroom and kissed.
And they spent almost the entire season on Maya and Carina figuring out sperm, placing Carina’s green card issues on the backburner, only for their interview to pop up in the finale and the caseworker to sign off without batting an eye.
After all that baby drama for Carina and Maya, it’s a genuine shock that they didn’t even end the installment with the two taking a pregnancy test to determine if Carina is, in fact, pregnant.
Maya and Carina had some fun moments (and were dressed immaculately). They really do bicker like a healthy married couple regardless of how we got here. The interview process with the immigration officer showcased their full dynamic while answering all of those questions.
Carina talking about when they had sex was funny and so very her, and it was lovely hearing their love story as they told it to a stranger. We got some great Marina content here.
Congratulations, you have a green card. You remind me of me and my wife. The bickering is endless.
Official
Maya was doing the absolute most. She couldn’t stop with the sarcastic quips and responses and couldn’t help answering on behalf of Carina in the face of what she deemed was stupidity.
It felt like Maya had reached her highest point of done, and she no longer gave a damn about appearances or anything else. It was a risky as heck approach to take during the green card meeting, but it worked out.
Some of her actions and lines were funny, and you could enjoy them. For example, all those snippy comments at Ross were pretty damn hilarious, and her annoyance with some stupid interview questions was a mood.
But others felt a bit too crass and offputting. While understandably irritating to her, her reaction to the human trafficking question felt far too insensitive because of how Andrew died.
And regardless of how you feel about Sullivan, her line about a “backstabbing drug addict” was pretty effed up.
Maya has sat on her feelings for a long time, and now she’s ready to unleash that fury. We see it in full force. Her throwing the gauntlet down as she threatened Ross and Sullivan unless she got her job back is a bold move.
Even now, I’m undecided on whether it was badass or unhinged. Either way, it feels like something that will backfire, and I’d be curious to see how the others respond.
Why? Because Character likability aside, it’s getting harder and harder to determine what is and isn’t acceptable by the characters here.
They try to sell the narrative that Sullivan is conniving all the time, even when they don’t always succeed in showcasing him as the villain that some purport him to be.
And what is and isn’t deemed conniving versus ambitious seems murky depending on which character is doing it, where it’s coming from, and what’s behind it.
They’ve put Maya’s demotion on the backburner for so long without doing anything with it that her coming out the corner swinging this hard almost feels jarring. However, it is interesting, and it should shake things up, so one looks forward to how this plays out.
And, whether you cheered for her or thought she went too far, this is a return to the ruthless Maya of the early days.
It already feels like Ross was setting Andy up for Captain, which would cause some serious friction and bring about a new set of issues and questions about worthiness.
But where does this leave Beckett? He claims he’s getting help, and Sullivan can’t have his job. But if he’s going to rehab, will Ross give into Maya’s demands? And if so, for how long?
It is disturbing that Beckett has been allowed to stay on the job this long when everyone knows that he has a drinking problem. But it’s also confusing and weird that whether it was Ben or Maya, they kept accusing Sullivan of being conniving and opportunistic for reporting who they knew was a drunk.
The way they’ve handled Sullivan this season is confusing because they’re still treating him like a villain. But they have rarely shown anything else to support it after the situation with Maya. It’s like we’re supposed to only ride on what he did to Maya, which wasn’t enough to carry us through the season.
You know, I would say unofficially, it was sexism. Possibly homophobia. The chief was threatened by me, and then the new chief, the female chief, had the chance to correct the mistake, but she declined because she’s doing it just like the boys club, which is not progress at all. It’s just the same thing. Instead, I’m stuck watching an incompetent drunk and a backstabbing drug addict have a pissing contest over a job that’s rightfully mine while I just wipe up their urine so that nobody else slips and falls.
Maya
His actions with Beckett shouldn’t count. It’s rather scary that everyone else was content letting Beckett serve as Captain despite his alcoholism and questionable calls until he owned up to his drinking and stated he was getting help.
It feels like a lot of moving of chess pieces at Station 19 with characters and their positions. Will Ross make Sullivan Captain? That would be wrong.
But if she makes Maya Captain, she’d be giving in to her blackmail, and Ross doesn’t seem like the type of person who would do that. Of course, there’s Andy, who it did seem like Ross would make Captain, but that would pit the women against each other, among other things.
When she asked Sullivan if he could work with Andy, it gave the impression that she was considering making Andy captain. It would be a hell of a come-up after she almost lost everything with the murder trial.
The way they handled the aftermath of the sexual assault case was anti-climatic. It lost momentum, and the lack of focus meant there wasn’t a genuine concern that she’d go to jail.
It was weird that Andy’s lawyer never looked into other potential victims extensively or do their diligence attempting to get any of them on the stand.
Andy doing all the leg work for her case was irritating, and the way they dropped the charges, no problem, felt so neat it was absurd.
Her ability to convince Holly to come forward with a rousing speech about how everyone has to care for us to make change felt flat because of the low stakes and limited focus on this part of the arc.
We reported it to the Dean, and he said that he didn’t want to throw away a young man’s future on the account of a drunk college girl.
Holly
Holly’s experience with Jeremy was horrific, and you felt for the woman. However, it was disturbing that she knew Andy was innocent, saw how high-profile this case had become, and was okay letting things play out without adding assistance.
What if Andy went to prison for it? Wouldn’t she have felt guilty?
Andy slipping in that the charges were dropped on the tail end of Ben’s speech felt cheesy. And Jack has been the only one who seemed genuinely concerned about Andy and been more active with the trial portion of the arc.
Andy and Jack’s relationship has been a highlight of the season, and the two have truly evolved and grown within their relationship.
It’s no wonder that he left her that note before he pulled off. Driving away from her was probably one of the hardest things he’s done, but he’s not in a good place at all. Jack is another example of the season dropping the ball on him for a long time and then picking it back up again at the end of the season.
The ending showed that a culmination of things had prompted Jack to quit and leave. Dean was his best friend and brother, and he never had the space to really mourn his death — that still lingers and is hitting him hard.
He’s probably just now realizing that he contributed to Marina having a family, but it’s never going to be his family, not like the one he’s always desired. His moments with that kid from the bus hit him hard.
And he is still reeling from all the information he learned about his brother and parents. He has not had the time to process that, which is one of the most frustrating parts about them introducing this storyline at the end of the season, so now it feels incomplete.
Maya: I want my job back.
Ross: Bishop.
Maya: I know you two are sleeping together, I want my job back or I’m going to report you.
Not to mention, everyone around him is happy. Theo and Vic are impossibly in love with each other. Warren and Bailey have Pru and their happy family. Carina and Maya are starting their family with no fear of Carina getting deported. And Travis has found a new passion and is running for mayor.
Andy got her charges dropped, and it was obvious she’d be rejoining the station. To Jack, everyone’s lives are all together, and he’s the only one who is falling apart.
For someone who always feels like the piece that never fits, it makes sense that so many things have triggered him and prompted him to leave.
It hits all the harder when one of the most common criticisms of the series is how little they do with his character.
With this move, it feels promising that Jack could have a much bigger, meaningful arc in the next season, and they’ve set it up with his final scene.
My heart hurts for him, though. He’s not okay and hasn’t been for some time, but it’s been simmering under the surface. Jack needs therapy and a support system.
If he thinks Andy will settle with taking his position and not try to find him, he has another thing coming. Of all the things set up for the next season, Jack’s potential storyline is one of the most captivating.
Over to you, Station 19 Fanatics.
Jack: You found her?
Andy: Power of the internet.
Jack: The power of Herrera.
What are your thoughts on this finale? What did you think of Maya’s threat? Are you shocked that Jack left everyone behind? Hit the comments.
If you need to relive the season, you can watch Station 19 online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.