Since its beginning in 2018, Station 19 has not just been a show about firefighters; it has been a show about family. The firefighters on the Station 19 team have supported each other through unimaginable losses, family issues, relationships beginning and ending, and so much more. Andy Herrera (Jaina Lee Ortiz), now the Captain of Station 19, has always made a point of talking about the team at 19 as a family, no matter where life takes them.
When Station 19’s seventh season began in March 2024, viewers knew there would be some endings coming. Before the season began, ABC had already announced that it would be the show’s final season. What audiences weren’t expecting was for one of those departures to be the heart-wrenching retirement of fan-favorite Jack Gibson (Grey Damon).
Who is Station 19’s Jack Gibson?
Viewers met Jack Gibson in Season 1, Episode 1, “Stuck,” as Andy Herrera’s love interest and fellow firefighter and her biggest competition for captain. Throughout the first season, fans saw Andy and Jack learn to navigate their romantic relationship and their friendship while both hoping to be the next captain of Station 19. When neither of them was chosen, both of them became very different firefighters than they were when the show first began.
Gibson has proven to be a strong firefighter and an excellent friend over the show’s seven seasons. He dated Maya Bishop (Danielle Savre) briefly and even agreed to be the sperm donor for Maya and Carina DeLuca (Stefania Spampinato) before Jack’s leave of absence and then COVID-19 put their IVF on hold. Gibson also befriended Marsha Smith (Jayne Taini), a woman whose Christmas tree caught on fire, and in Season 3, Episode 13, “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” Gibson helped a woman and her deaf son escape from an abusive home and moved them in with Marsha. Many of Gibson’s storylines centered around him having grown up in and out of foster care and having lived on the street in his teens and early twenties.
For all of Gibson’s incredible moments on the show, there have also been some tough ones. Gibson’s best friend, Dean Miller (Okieriete Onaodowan), died in Season 5, Episode 5, “Things We Lost in the Fire,” and in Season 5, Episode 17, “The Road You Didn’t Take,” Gibson learns that his biological parents, who gave him up when they were just teens, ended up staying together and having more children while he was struggling in the foster system and on the street. He also suffered from several injuries throughout the series, most of which he downplayed in order to take care of others first. Most notably, Gibson fell and slammed his head against the stove in the firehouse in Season 6, Episode 14, “Get it All Out,” leading to a serious concussion, which made his collapse in the Season 6 finale, Episode 18, “Glamorous Life,” all the more jarring for his fellow firefighters and fans alike.
Jack Gibson’s Farewell to Station 19
When Season 7 began, it picked up shortly after the events of “Glamorous Life.” Gibson, who collapsed in the final moments of the Season 6 finale, was undergoing brain surgery for a hematoma. Though the surgery went well, Grey’s Anatomy’s Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) told Andy that if Gibson woke up, it was unlikely he’d be able to be a firefighter again. Gibson woke up at the end of Season 7, Episode 1, “This Woman’s Work,” and it was clear that his brain injury had done irreparable damage. In Season 7, Episode 2, “Good Grief,” Gibson returns to Station 19 only to learn from Andy and Fire Chief Natasha Ross (Merle Dandridge) that he can no longer be a firefighter.
After getting the news from Andy and Fire Chief Ross, Jack packed up his locker and left Station 19, but not before stopping at the Dean Miller Memorial clinic, which was handing out vaccines that day. While he was there, he became worried that his vision for the clinic wouldn’t exist without him. The volunteer checking people in forgot that some patients don’t need to fill out paperwork, and he tried to get involved in helping a patient, but Carina DeLuca wouldn’t help him. Frustrated and sad, Gibson left the station, leaving his Station 19 fire helmet behind. Later in the episode, when Andy realizes Jack has left his hat, she calls Marsha, who takes Jack out to dinner to celebrate/lament the end of his firefighting career and tells Andy where they’ll be. Theo Ruiz (Carlos Miranda) and Ben Warren (Jason George) show up at the restaurant and make a scene, bringing the gurney right to Jack’s table and taking him out with them. When the three men arrived at the station, Jack’s fellow firefighters presented him with a cake, made sure he had his hat, and then they sat down and had a family dinner. At the end of dinner, Andy presented Jack with a Sharpie, which he used to write his name on the underside of the table, like so many other firefighters had before him.
What is particularly interesting and sad about this episode is that just before the final scene in the episode was filmed, the cast and crew were told that season seven would be the final season of Station 19. When Jack and Andy, followed closely by the rest of the team, were lying underneath the dining room table, it wasn’t just the characters crying about Jack no longer being able to be a firefighter. It was the cast reacting to the news that they were shooting one of their final episodes. It’s a powerful and emotional scene that viewers aren’t likely to forget.
Fans Found Gibson’s Final Episode to be “Heart-Wrenching”
Jack grew up mostly in foster care, but for a short time in his preteens, Jack lived with a family that wanted to adopt him. While there, he met his sister Lila, who is deaf, and began learning ASL. Before that family could adopt Jack, the parents died in a fire. Jack saved Lila and their brother, Cal, but the kids were separated shortly after the fire. In Season 6, Episode 16, “All These Things That I’ve Done,” Jack and Lila were reunited thanks to Jack’s biological sister, Brooke.
By the time “Good Grief” aired, the news that season seven would be Station 19’s last had already been released, so the episode seemed very much like a goodbye to the character of Jack Gibson. Fans had anticipated being able to say goodbye to Jack throughout the final season, like the other characters, and getting a goodbye episode so early in the final season was unexpected and heart-wrenching. It set fans on edge and left them wondering who else they might say premature goodbyes to when the rest of the episodes aired.
Some fans were also upset because they felt that the end of Jack’s story did a disservice to the character. Gibson was always one of the strongest firefighters at Station 19. He was a longtime lieutenant and was nearly captain, so his departure due to an injury felt sad, frustrating, and disappointing. Grey Damon did an incredible job portraying Jack throughout the previous six seasons, and his performance in “Good Grief” was a beautiful look at how someone might react to the end of their career. As a fan favorite, many viewers were sad to see Jack go, no matter how he went.
Is Jack Gibson Really Gone from Station 19?
- Though there are plenty of fans still hoping that Station 19 will get picked up by a streaming service, the show is currently slated to end with the Season 7 finale. Station 19’s final episode, Season 7, Episode 10, “One Last Time,” will air on May 30, 2024.
While Season Seven is the final season for Station 19, “Good Grief” doesn’t appear to actually be Jack’s final episode. While he has not played a prominent role in the episodes since “Good Grief” aired, he has been seen in several of them. In Season 7, Episode 5, “My Way,” the team learns that Jack has begun working for 9-1-1 dispatch, which is a perfect job for someone who used to be a firefighter and cares so deeply about the community. He was also present at Andy’s pinning ceremony in that same episode.
In Season 7, Episode 6, “With So Little to Be Sure of,” Jack was present for multiple scenes in the episode. “With So Little to Be Sure of” included present-day scenes as well as flashbacks, so viewers saw Jack interacting with two of the central characters in the episode, Morris Hapgood (George Wyner) and his friend Arlo (Scotty Tovar), and talking about what it was like when he lived on the street. Jack also attends the funeral at the end of the episode. While “With So Little to Be Sure of” was focused on Victoria Hughes (Barrett Doss), it’s clear that the writers of Station 19 aren’t done with Jack completely. Station 19 has three remaining episodes in the final season, and if the rest of the season is any indication, they will be some of Station 19’s best episodes ever. While his time at Station 19 as a firefighter is done, it looks as if fans can look forward to seeing Jack occasionally interact with the team in at least some of the final episodes of the show.
