Our favorite Seattle firefighters are back, and with Station 19’s Season 6 premiere making the same six-month time jump as flagship series Grey’s Anatomy, there was a bit of catching up to do in regards to the events of the Season 5 finale. The biggest question mark seemed to be Jack Gibson (Grey Damon), who abruptly quit the firehouse as he struggled with newfound knowledge about his biological family. Well, Jack did make an appearance in “Twist and Shout,” but in the most unexpected of ways, so while we’re relieved that he’s still around, showrunner Krista Vernoff warned fans not to get too celebratory just yet.
After the tornado sent a tree crashing into what turned out to be the home of Eva Vasquez (Kelly Thiebaud), the widow of former Station 19 firefighter Rigo, the team was surprised to find Jack in Eva’s bed — and even more surprised (and amused) when they realized he was handcuffed there. It was a rock-bottom moment for Jack, as his ex-colleagues expressed disappointment that he’d slid back into that affair, and Krista Vernoff told Deadline there is no quick fix for what Jack is going through. The showrunner said:
One of our favorite things to do always at Shondaland is to look at what happens to people when they go to their darkest versions of themselves— when they, as you say, hit rock bottom. When people were speculating if he was going to come back, I was like, ‘Oh god, that’s like our favorite story.’ But we are not racing to his return to the station, because he’s in a profound amount of pain and he’s comforting himself through that pain in a really disruptive way. And helping him return to someone capable of functioning in a work environment is going to take some time.
It sounds like we might see Jack return to the fire station at some point, but given that he lied to Andy (Jaina Lee Ortiz) about where he’d been the past few months and restarted a relationship with Rigo’s widow — on top of the terrible way he abandoned Maya (Danielle Savre) and Carina (Stefania Spampinato) after agreeing to help them start a family — it seems like Jack’s not quite done trying to burn all his bridges.
However, Andy said at the end of the episode that she’s going to help him, whether he wants it or not. Plus, fire chief Natasha Ross (new series regular Merle Dandridge) also said when Jack was ready to come back, they’d get him the help he needs. So there’s at least a support system there whenever he’s ready for it.
Jack was dealt a heartbreaking twist in the final episodes of last season, as he met his biological brother, only to learn that he was the only one of his parents’ five children who was put up for adoption. Furthermore, while he’d grown up with a series of abusive foster parents, his four biological siblings had lived a life of privilege. This came after Jack was already reeling from the death of Dean Miller and the end of his relationship with Inara.
It’s great that Grey Damon is still around on the show, and that his character still has a family at Station 19, even if he doesn’t want to acknowledge that. We’ll have to see how Jack’s story develops, but it sounds like it’s going to be a long and winding road, but hopefully one without any further soul-crushing reveals.
