Station 19 is about first responders in Seattle, so of course the show tackled the pandemic head-on in season four. On top of Covid-19 making everything more difficult and heartbreaking for the team, there was also a brother lost, a wedding, a cancer diagnosis, and a whole bunch of interpersonal problems, as is tradition. Seriously, Station 19 was filled to the brim with so much drama last season that if you need a little refresher as to what went down before jumping into season five, no one blames you. And, even better, we’re here to help. Because there was so much going on, we’re rehashing the biggest developments from last season below by way of pairs — think of it as a TV buddy system.
Andy and Sullivan
Could these two have, like, five minutes without drama? There just seems to be something making their lives difficult at every turn. Season four starts off with Andy reeling from the discovery that her dead mother is very much alive, and that she left her when she was little because she never wanted to be a mother and was suffering from some undiagnosed postpartum depression; Pruitt thought it would be better to lie and tell Andy her mother was dead than for the young girl to know her mother abandoned her. Meanwhile, Sullivan is working on his sobriety, and part of that includes him and Andy living separately for 90 days. Plus, he’s still coming to terms with the fact that he lost his battalion-chief job and is especially humiliated by the fact that he has to start over at Station 19 as a probie. But then things seem okay? Andy forges a bond with her maternal aunt and cousin, so that’s good. Andy and Sullivan have a lot of sexy time together — that’s good too. Alas, this does not last. When Maya defies the fire chief’s orders during a call in order to save a boy’s life, the chief is so angry, he’s ready to fire Maya or, even worse, close down Station 19 altogether. Sullivan comes to him with a solution: If he were captain at 19, he’d be able to keep them in line. It’s one thing betraying Maya like that, but on top of that he also put his career ahead of Andy’s: If Maya had been fired, Andy, as lieutenant, would be next in line for the promotion. When Andy learns what he did, she can barely look him in the face.
Maya and Carina
Based on the aforementioned treachery, you can probably guess how things ended for Maya. Although she doesn’t know it yet, at the very end of season four, Maya Bishop is fired from her captain position at 19. That news will most definitely ruin the high she’s feeling after she and Carina get married in a lovely little ceremony in Vic’s parents’ restaurant. That’s right! After Carina learns that her visa is expiring and plans to go back to Italy — in the middle of the pandemic, mind you — it puts some pressure on their young-ish relationship. They moved in together so that they could still see each other while both worked the frontlines, but marriage hadn’t come up before. Carina doesn’t even want to get married at first, but the thought of losing Maya is too much. She realizes this on the way to the airport, tracks Maya down, and proposes. It’s a reverse rom-com move (usually, people are racing to the airport to make declarations of love!).
The other thing that might be coming into play in changing Carina’s feelings toward building her family: Please don’t forget that she recently watched her little brother, Andrew DeLuca, get murdered over on Grey’s Anatomy. They were two halves of one whole, in case you’d like to cry a little bit more about it. Anyway, Maya and Carina decide to take the plunge, Maya marches over to her parents’ house (her mom moved back in with her dad for the pandemic, and he’s still very much a manipulative abuser) to let them know and tell her mom she has a place to stay should she want to leave, her mom ends up coming to the ceremony, and Maya and Carina seem beyond happy. Yup, the news of Maya losing her job should hinder that newlywed bliss at least a little bit. Fun times ahead!
Dean and Vic
We could have had Dean, Hughie, and Pruey! We could have had it all! Dean has been pining away for Vic since the end of season three, and that never changes, as hard as he may try, throughout season four. When he and Ben are near death, floating in Puget Sound after diving off a ferry in an attempt to save the SFD chief, he confesses his feelings again, and, as Ben says, that kind of confession means it’s real. And Ben Warren is wise, okay? Dean decides he’s going to tell Vic how he feels at Maya’s wedding, but, just as he’s about to do it, he finds her making out with Theo Ruiz, and Dean walks away alone.
Who is Theo Ruiz, you ask? He’s the very handsome firefighter Vic befriends on her daily runs through the park (is running suddenly worth it?). There is an immediate spark between them, but, just as they get things started, we learn that Theo was the captain when Travis’ husband, Michael, died, and Travis blames Theo for his death. At one time, the three men were best friends, but when Travis learns about Theo and Vic, Travis tells her that he can’t be her friend if she dates him. So, she calls it off. It’s very sad! Eventually, Travis works out his crap (see below), sees how happy Theo makes Vic, and gives his blessing. Hence the furious make out that Dean walks in on.
Love and heartache aren’t the only things these two are going through in season four, though. While off-duty one day, several of our Station 19 firefighters come across a mother, Joyce, on the street screaming that her daughter and daughter’s friend were kidnapped and are being held in a house in the neighborhood. The situation escalates to the point where the man at the house says he’s calling the cops, the girls downstairs start a fire in the basement to get someone’s attention, and Dean and Sullivan burst into the house without gear on, defying Maya’s orders to stand down. They save the girls, but outside the man starts yelling about how the girls are arsonists, and Joyce and the firefighters were trespassing. The cops choose to believe the white kidnapper over Joyce, a Black woman. Things get heated, and eventually the cops pull their guns on Dean and Sullivan — the two Black men on the scene — and arrest them. It’s a harrowing situation that goes viral. Dean is deeply affected by it all, on top of everything going on with George Floyd’s murder, and decides to take a stand and sue the Seattle Police Department even though it’ll cost him becoming a lieutenant. Tensions are high between SFD and SPD throughout the season, and eventually Dean decides to take a rare settlement offered by the police department. Meanwhile, Vic’s parents’ restaurant is burned down by rioters. It forces Vic to have some difficult but ultimately healing conversations with her parents, especially her mother, a white woman. So, yes, both Dean and Vic go through a lot of pain while the country has its racial reckoning, but both find ways to begin to move forward.
Ben and Bailey
Ben discovers he has testicular cancer. Well, actually, Bailey discovers it one day while they’re in bed. Sex is good for your health in so many ways! Ben’s angry. Angry that he takes care of himself and is healthy and still got cancer. Angry that this is the same thing that Pruitt Herrera had, and it just doesn’t seem fair. In the end, thanks to a reminder from Bailey, who recently lost her mother to Covid-19, that he has people who need him, and one night where he almost drowns to death with Dean, Ben has surgery and ends the season cancer-free. Also, throughout the season, everyone in 19 calls Ben “Dad,” and he hates it, and it is very cute.
Jack and Inara
Jack starts off season four very much on with Inara, the woman he helped get away from her abusive husband in the previous season. Well, as “on” as a couple can be in the middle of a pandemic when she’s living with her young son and Marsha, who has taken them in. When Jack and Inara do end up getting some time alone, it gets awkward fast, and Jack’s heart never really seems in it. He wonders if he is simply drawn to crisis, and when things are good, he doesn’t know what to do. Inara isn’t blind to this, and when she decides to move to California to help her sister out, she tells Jack not to come. It’s for the best, really.
Travis and Emmett
You know that nightmare you have about running across one of your parents on your dating app? Well, Travis experiences that in real life, but it’s much more shocking: He comes across his dad’s profile on a gay dating app. You know Travis’ dad, the one who shamed him for being gay every day of his life, basically disowned him, and definitely didn’t attend his wedding? Travis and his father have some very painful conversations, and then his father tells him that he’s in love with someone he’s been seeing. In love! Travis can barely stand it. This news paired with the reemergence of Theo Ruiz in his life forces Travis to think about how he’s living his life frozen by his past. He needs to move forward. So, he eases up on Theo, and he tells Emmett that he has feelings for him. Emmett is understandably taken aback by that since it wasn’t too long ago that Travis basically told him that he only felt a friend vibe, and it took the poor guy a while to move on from that heartbreak. No matter! They make out in the bathroom during Maya’s wedding, and everything seems right with the world again.
Are Travis and Emmett in it for the long haul this time around? Will Andy ever be able to forgive Sullivan? Will Maya? And, for the love of all things holy, will Dean ever tell Vic how he feels? Please?
