What a tremendous hour.
They brought all the emotions during Station 19 Season 6 Episode 17, which made up for a less flashy call, and to say they took us on a rollercoaster is an understatement.
Can I just say that Barrett Doss and Josh Randall were absolutely incredible? Because they were true phenomenons with tour de force performances.
The hour was well-balanced, even if the tonal shifts had the occasional jarring moments. And it’s evident that the penultimate installment would lead us into a finale that will either wrap up some story arcs of the season or introduce new prospective plots for the next.
For one, we finally got to wrap up this mayoral campaign situation, and it’s such a relief.
To be honest, this wasn’t the most compelling storyline we’ve had over time, and it’s dragged on longer than necessary and, in some moments, felt relatively pointless.
In the end, Travis didn’t want to be mayor, we couldn’t afford to lose him at the station anyway, and real life has already been exhausting enough with politics.
However, we can at least celebrate that fictional politics can turn out infinitely better and provide us with hope. The whole idea of this mayoral run was that it had to be anyone but Dixon who won, and blessedly, that’s what happened.
Travis’ campaign spread like wildfire. It’s through his actions and the time he put in on the campaign trail that the other guy, whose name I don’t even remember because he was mostly irrelevant, got to win.
Seattle has a new mayor, and it’s not the racist, sexist, homophobic, corrupt cop. Dixon is a monster who needed to be slayed for a long time now, so hopefully, this will be his last for a bit, if not at all.
One of the most satisfying moments of the hours was Ross putting Dick in his place, checking him after all the underhanded and conniving, ugly things he did to ruin her.
And all of that was for naught as he lost and now has to slink back to the gutters he came from to deal with his crappy marriage. The heroes prevailed on this one.
Aside from Dixon losing, one of the few entertaining things to come for this arc was Eli and Travis making up and making out. Of course, even that took a while, and I had long since failed to understand why Eli was so pissed at Travis in the first place.
Fine, he had all this faith in Travis and what he represented.
As much as I enjoy Travis, Eli was definitely looking at him through rose-tinted glasses and lust because he oversold how amazing Travis was during this entire venture, especially when, the majority of the time, we saw a whiny version of him who didn’t want this and accidentally fell into people rooting for him without much effort on his part.
You can keep smiling if you want to, but you don’t have a chance in hell of becoming mayor of this city.
Ross
Eli’s anger about Travis was all over the place, and there’s still a weird thing with Eli’s part in the love triangle, mostly going unaddressed.
But Eli and Travis look cute together, so that’s all that matters in the end, right? Dixon is finished, and Travis and Eli are made up. A win is a win is a win.
Maybe now that Travis’ goal of Dixon losing has come to fruition and he got the cute boy with the great accent, he can maybe lend an ear and a helping hand to Vic and Theo because those two are struggling, and Theo is inexplicably a hot mess.
Election day and the firehouse serving as a polling center also brought back some memorable guest stars.
Reggie’s return was perfectly sentimental and sweet. It was also exactly what Ben needed to get his head on straight. It’s troubling that he’s still been beating himself up about the sober house call and the man he couldn’t save.
He’s directing all his attention to the life he didn’t save and isn’t weighing that with the ones he did or the impact he’s had on people because of his actions.
Ben’s heroics earned him commendation, and he was still ready to toss that aside because of his guilt and self-flagellation.
Ross was right about the honor he got and how heroic he is, and I’m relieved that Reggie’s visit put some things in perspective for Ben.
Because he saved Reggie, this man could say all the things he needed to his wife, they traveled to Italy together, and he had a new lease on life.
Ben did that for him. It’s the type of boost he needed, and you know he’s going to cherish that trinket from Italy and hold onto the meaning of it on the tough days when he feels like this again.
But for now, Ben deserves the recognition, and a commendation ceremony is a grand affair and something that will boost the entire station’s morale as they rally behind one of their own to celebrate his achievement.
It’s not just about Ben here. They all need this, and we do as well.
If Ross couldn’t talk some sense into him, I’m glad Reggie’s visit managed to shift Ben’s perspective and persuade him. On a more personal front, he and Bailey have gone through so much this season that they deserve this moment.
Voting also brought a blast from Jack’s past, and it couldn’t come at a better time as he weighed whether or not he wanted to accompany Brooke for a meal with one of his siblings.
It was nice to briefly check in with Marsha, as she had become an integral part of Jack’s family life outside the station. Her appearance served as a refresher for Jack that family comes in many forms and reminded him of what she’s been to him.
Family is always at the center of Jack’s character as he tries to find one and his place. We’ve endured these same types of arcs for Jack.
The hour they had him acknowledging all the growth and change he’s made as he’s in this much healthier and better place. But sometimes, when they make those points in throwaway lines, it only feels more glaring that they tend to bench Jack or put him in the background.
Beckett: Ask what you need to ask, Hughes! Just ask it!
Vic: Did you skip shift… did you skip shift today because you were thinking about killing yourself?
In hindsight, he hasn’t had any significant storyline all season. Even the relationship Jack has formed with Brooke has mostly happened offscreen or been through throwaway lines and treated like an afterthought.
But man did a girl’s heart melt when he made it to that bar and reunited with Lila. I’m so glad he listened to Maya and followed her advice in a great moment between two characters who were in rough places at the start of the season and have since found healing.
Suppose Brooke isn’t remembered for much in regards to contributing much to Jack’s storyline. In that case, we’ll at least remember her as his biological sister who tracked down Jack’s foster sister and reunited them.
It’s such a heartwarming, exciting development for him. Lila is embedded within the fabric of this series because of how significant she’s been to every aspect of Jack’s life and who he has become.
Carina: There’s nothing she wants more than her captaincy back.
Warren: You’re wrong. There’s something she wants more.
Getting separated from Lila has haunted Jack his entire life, and now she’s back in his life. It was such an emotional scene when he realized who she was, and I cannot wait to explore this dynamic further as the two of them catch up. Jack went from not feeling like he had any family or a place to two sisters who mean the world to him. I love that for him.
Ross was in her best form, whether it was putting Dixon in his place smugly or leveling with Ben.
Natasha Ross has emerged as one of the season’s best characters without a shadow of a doubt. It’s truly been her season.
She went from this mysterious and sometimes one-dimensional new character to this beautiful, multilayered, complex woman rich with depth. Merle Dandridge has done some beautiful work bringing this character and all sides of her alive.
We better understand who Ross is, what she stands for, and how she’s carved out a space for herself in this family. And she’s been able to do that and expand on her role outside of just being the woman Sullivan loves.
Admittedly, there are moments when it feels like we traded in Sullivan’s development for hers. But we still have some solid Sullivan moments.
Ross refused to resign, which caught some people off guard, but we’re still not close to resolving the relationship issue between her and Sullivan.
It was tense when he stepped forward, throwing his hat in the ring for the captain. People assume that he can’t ever get the position again as long as Ross is chief because of the conflict and controversy.
But it felt like Sullivan was hellbent on causing chaos anyway. While his relationship with one of the ladies in his life has been complicated, we got some great scenes of him with the other woman in his life.
Whenever Andy and Sullivan are onscreen together and having deeper conversations, it reminds me how enjoyable they were.
Sullivan and Andy play off of one another so well when they’re not at odds. Even when it’s not romantic, there’s a bond there that’s just unlike anything else they’ve had with other people.
Andy sees right through Sullivan, and it often makes her the best person to give him advice or call him out. Even if he doesn’t like what she says, he at least hears it.
You gotta dress for the job you want. So be the wolf, or you’ll be the one that gets eaten.
Sullivan
While it still didn’t feel like Sullivan owed Andy anything regarding his relationship with Ross, I appreciated that he had the insight into her and how she ticks to know how he triggered her with his dishonesty, and he apologized.
They just know each other so well that it works.
And thanks to her advice, it looks like maybe Sullivan will fight for Ross more than just fighting her.
You can’t say that Maya didn’t fight for Carina.
While Andy, Sullivan, and Theo were an utter mess at that car wash call trying to prove themselves as captain material, Maya was stepping back from her ruthless ambition.
In fact, Maya did a lot of topping back, and that’s probably how she hilariously ended up attached to a machine and spinning around in circles in a laugh-out-loud moment.
Carina needed a sight that Maya was fighting for them and taking their relationship seriously, and she inadvertently got it.
It’s a mark of how serious Maya is taking everything that she didn’t back out of the captain position for the show. She doesn’t want to deal with it anymore, or at least not now.
Carina: You turned down your opportunity to become captain.
Maya: Yeah.
Carina: And I’m coming home, bambina.
Maya: For good?
Carina: For better or worse. For richer for poorer.
Maya is taking care of herself and her own mental and emotional well-being. She’s in a much better, healthier place right now, and chasing after captain isn’t her biggest priority.
It’s important that they showed that she wasn’t sacrificing a job that she’s always wanted for Carina. She isn’t giving up on her dreams for a girl. But she is learning how to prioritize her own well-being.
Carina needed to know that their relationship mattered and that it was at least as important as Maya’s ambitions. But Carina also needed to know that Maya could work towards healing herself, too.
Carina wanted the best for their relationship but also Maya as an individual. And fortunately, Maya’s been working on herself and succeeded.
Carina wouldn’t have even known about Maya’s gesture, which made it perfect because she wasn’t blindly doing it to win Carina over, if not for Ben and Ross.
Ben is such a Marina fanboy, and he’s been trying to get them to work things out for the majority of the season.
Maya was none the wiser that word got around to Carina and barely knew how to respond when Carina shared that she was finally ready to come home.
It was such a great moment for the two. Maya was caught off guard, then elated.
It was riddled with passion and sweetness as Carina shared her intentions and inserted their signature pet names.
And we got such a cute, well-earned moment when Maya lifted Carina off her feet and carried her into their home together. They’ve fought tooth and nail to get to this point.
It has been a long, arduous, emotionally wrought journey with some of the bleakest points one could’ve imagined. But it was well worth all the pain and the angst if it got us to this moment.
At this stage, there isn’t anything this couple can’t overcome together after enduring such serious trials and tribulations.
It’s been an emotionally wrought, raw season, especially for Maya and Marina, but the fruits of that labor are incredibly sweet. It’s a great payoff.
Maya has earned her healing, and Beckett deserves him too.
During this installment, I cannot gush enough about Barrett Doss and Josh Randall. Never in a million years would I have envisioned that those two sharing the screen extensively would have me on the verge of weeping and clinging to every second of it.
They were magical together, with this utterly raw storyline that stuck viewers to their souls.
I don’t want to sit in this pain, I don’t want to feel this.
Beckett
Barret Doss has always been the wunderkind of this series, and when given the material, she blows you away.
Vic’s compassion, empathy, intuition, and destination are all qualities that define her and rule everything that she does.
Unsurprisingly, she could see how others didn’t regard Beckett, and she was hellbent on seeing him through the other side of his darkness, bleeding her own light if it meant saving him.
And Vic saved Beckett’s life. For the rest of his days, and hopefully, they’ll be long ones; he’ll remember that she was literally his saving grace.
Even if it meant making up some peer review check-in and utilizing all the tools she’s learned working with Diane for Crisis One, she was going to get Beckett the help he deserved.
He was still boxing up his belongings, tossing sentimental things in the trash, or planning to donate them.
As much as he fought her at every turn and attempted to send her away, you could also tell he wanted and needed her to stay.
Vic has a way of getting under a person’s skin, disarming them with her warmth and earnestness, and it was arresting witnessing her do exactly that with Beckett the entire time.
She got him to open up about the bowling he no longer partakes in because of the loss of the majority of his crew. She got him to discuss rehab, why he didn’t feel like he could stay, and his worst day on the job.
And we got all these little nuggets of information to continue humanizing him and his pain. Beckett has excellent taste in music and an appreciation for the classics, including the record player.
It wasn’t long before he realized why he was really there and challenged her to explain herself. It was one of their best moments, as he screamed out the inquiry with such pain in his voice, and she had to put her worst fears into words and call him out.
The basketball game was a nice way of getting Beckett to share, and through that, we gained an understanding of the therapy sessions and why Beckett left them.
I don’t want to sit in this pain, I don’t want to feel this.
Beckett
When he explained his worst day on the job, describing how much worse the quiet ones are and recalling the deaths of children to carbon monoxide caused by their mother taking her own life, it was gut-wrenching.
But Beckett finally broke down as so much worse. That collapse and his sobbing felt reminiscent of Judd’s painful display during 9-1-1: Lone Star, and you could visibly see how exhausted Beckett was after stripping himself bare.
Vic went to that man’s house at the start of her shift, and it was dark by the time she finally saw him off after a hug and a new understanding of this man.
She couldn’t let him go, and the sheer weight of everything she was enduring during that time had her sobbing in her car. It must’ve hit how close she got to losing this man in the way far too many first responders have.
It truly hit Vic that she saved a life.
Beckett has been an interesting character. And I have to commend Josh Randall for his difficult task of bringing out the different layers to a character who was mostly loathsome to the masses.
It takes talent to be able to flip people on the dime with this character. He went from abhorrent to the masses, for many of us worried that his storyline would end in tragedy.
You can’t truly appreciate the restraint and care he took with depicting this character, building up to this point until now.
Beckett: Why are you still here?!
Vic: I’m not leaving, Sean.
Beckett’s journey was less in-depth than Maya’s, but it had a way of sneaking up on the viewers, and it was undoubtedly compelling.
It was a storyline worth exploring, and the results felt right. They earned this development and how they chose to address it well.
As for Beckett, I hope he finds healing, and I would love to explore him further and even touch on the special bond he has now formed with Vic.
It was such an unexpected dynamic, but it was the perfect one.
Over to you, Station 19 Fanatics. Are you relieved that Vic saved Beckett in time? What are your thoughts on the Marina reunion? Are you thrilled that Jack is meeting the new baby?
You can watch Station 19 online here via TV Fanatic.
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Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You’ll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on Twitter.