Here comes a new episode of Station 19! The episode begins with solemn music as images of the park appear: parked trucks, firefighters putting money into a boot of those they wear with their uniforms. Sullivan appears on the scene and the camera approaches the boot, then we see a photo of Vasquez with the words ” Please contribute to the Vasquez family .” Remember that in the previous episode we learned that the firefighter had lost his life.
We continue seeing images of the park, Travis and Dean are in the locker room, Sullivan and Maya enter and the Battalion Chief says they have a meeting in the kitchen. Dean complains because his shift is over and he has to watch the baby. Our captain tells him to call the babysitter to let her know he’s going to be late. Dean wants to know how long but Maya leaves without saying anything.
The firefighters sit silently at the kitchen table, all in street clothes except for Maya, who’s still in uniform. Andy wants to know what they’re doing there, and the captain tells him something like “critical incident stress,” meaning a psychologist is coming to help them grieve for Vásquez’s death.
They’re all waiting in the gym, reluctantly, for the psychologist to arrive. When she arrives with Sullivan, he introduces her as Dr. Diane Lewis, a psychologist specializing in trauma. The truth is that, although her character appears infrequently in the series, she contributes a lot, and the actress performs very well.
The firefighters start getting impertinent with Diane because they’re practically forced to be there, and Sullivan calls them out on it. He eventually leaves, leaving the psychologist to stay with them. Diane starts saying that the Battalion Chief has a temper and asks if anyone wants to talk about it. Andy isn’t too happy about this comment and asks if the reason for her visit isn’t to talk about Vasquez. Diane stands her ground and says they’ll talk about whatever it takes. She then comments that more firefighters commit suicide than die in the line of duty. As the scene progresses, we discover that Diane used to jump out of helicopters and throw herself tied up into fires.
Then she starts giving them individual therapy. The first one she talks to is Jack, and they discuss the whole situation where he slept with Eva, Vasquez’s wife. Then the firefighter tells her he doesn’t understand why she stopped being a firefighter to listen to people’s problems. She tells him she fell badly from a helicopter and shattered her leg, then he tells her he’s an orphan and that a family adopted him. A flashback appears in which he and Dean go to a house that’s burning and try to rescue Marsha, the woman who lives there. When they return to the present, Jack starts crying because it was his worst outing, and Diane tells him to cry all he needs, that the tears have to be squeezed out.
The image changes to the outside of the park, where we can see it raining and water falling on the windows. Through them, we see Andy, who is now with Diane. The firefighter begins to list all the people she’s angry with: Maya, Jack, Sullivan… but assures her that otherwise she’s fine. Then she tells her that she feels more capable of jumping out of a helicopter than listening to people’s problems. Andy tells her that she was a salsa champion, and Diane wants to know how she ended up in the fires. Andy digresses and talks about her relationship with Sullivan, but says she’d rather talk about Vasquez. After a while talking about Sullivan and his father, we have a flashback in which she and Vasquez are rescuing a woman who has choked. The two begin to help her, but suddenly Andy climbs onto a table because a raccoon appears and starts screaming because it’s scared. Vasquez manages to save the woman. We return to the present, and Andy says that she barely knew him.
In the next scene, Travis and Emmett are in the kitchen cooking, in the same vein as in the previous episodes, that is, not speaking to each other. At that moment, Diane arrives, telling Travis it’s his turn. The firefighter asks if they can do therapy while she cooks, so he kicks Emmett out so he and the psychologist can be alone. Diane says she senses tension between them, and Travis says Emmett hasn’t come out yet and doesn’t respect him. He begins to tell her that Emmett has a girlfriend and that she doesn’t know he’s cheating on her with other men.
Diane asks him to stop because they’re in a public place and that she’s fine with him doing therapy there, but she doesn’t want him to out someone, so Travis starts using code so he can talk to her about his history with Emmett. Diane then tells him he’s a firefighter and that he’s out, and that he’s probably the only one in all of Seattle who’s ever said so. Diane tells him that’s very brave, and Travis says it’s 2020; coming out shouldn’t be considered brave anymore. Diane then tells him that she became a firefighter because she didn’t want to have anything to do with her family’s business, a pub where she was raped when she was 17 and that she hasn’t wanted to have anything to do with since. She says she’s not ashamed, but that the one who should be ashamed is the rapist.
We have a flashback again where Travis and a friend are dressed up, ready to go to a costume party, and suddenly they hear a woman screaming for help. Travis runs to the house where the woman is, and when he finally gets inside, he sees her husband beating her. The firefighter confronts the man and tells the woman to run away, which is why he decided to become a firefighter.
We change the scene. Now Diane is with Warren in Maya’s office. They’re talking about Bailey’s fear of something happening to him because he’s a firefighter, which is why he decided to build the Mobile Emergency Unit so he wouldn’t be near fires. The firefighter also tells her that his wife got pregnant but lost the baby. To get to the bottom of his pain, Diane wants to know the time Warren got the angriest. We have a flashback again. The firefighter is driving. A police car approaches and forces him to stop. A police officer gets out of the car and tells him to put his hands on the wheel where he can see them. Then he forces him out. Warren tells him his name and that he’s a firefighter, but the police officer persists and tells him to get out of the car. Then he forces him to lie face down on the ground and asks him to take out his ID. Warren is a person of color, and the police officer forced him to lie on the ground for this reason alone. When we return to the present, the firefighter says he thought about revenge.
Diane then approaches the gym, where Vic and Dean are. The psychologist asks Vic to accompany her to the office. Dean asks to go first because he wants to see his daughter and tells him they don’t have to go to the office, that Vic can hear everything. Diane isn’t convinced but agrees. Dean then tells her that his family doesn’t want to meet the girl because he’s a single father. Vic starts interrupting Dean, and the psychologist thinks they’re a couple, but they clarify that no, they’re just friends. Vic then tells her about when her grandmother started getting Alzheimer’s and about the death of her boyfriend, Ripley. Vic leaves, and Diane tells Dean that it’s possible that he’s in love with Vic but just doesn’t realize it yet.
And finally, it’s Maya’s turn. Diane enters her office. The captain wants to know how they’re handling Rigo’s death at the park, and the psychologist asks how she’s handling it. Maya feels guilty for putting Vásquez and Jack together because maybe Rigo would still be alive now. Maya thinks she’s a bad person. Then she tells her that she thinks about dying constantly, not because of Vásquez, but since she was 12, and that this thought helps her sleep because she’s exhausted.
Diane wants to know if she’s thought about suicide, but the captain assures her it’s not that, but rather a way of escaping. Maya then tells her about her father and how he raised her. The psychologist asks her if, after all she’s accomplished, she doesn’t believe it’s time for her to rest, sleep, and love without death needing to free her. Maya remains serious and says nothing.
A song starts playing and we see the firefighters after therapy. Travis and Emmett go to Eva’s house to bring her food, but she rejects them. Jack goes to Marsha’s house, the woman from the flashback he rescued, to bring her groceries. Warren plays basketball with his kids, and finally… Maya and Carina!
They are both on the couch at Maya’s house, having a drink, then the firefighter asks the doctor if she can take a few days off to go somewhere, Maya says she has a few days off, Carina happily accepts, Vic and Dean continue to take care of the girl, Andy and Sullivan start dancing salsa and Emmett goes to Travis’s house and they kiss.
And here ends this week’s episode, in which we can see how mental health is once again being given visibility and how important it is to see a psychologist.
As for our girls, they’re going on vacation next week! Don’t miss it, it promises to be exciting!
