Oh, Fire Friends, we’ve had to say goodbye to an awful lot as Station 19 has come to a close, haven’t we? The end of our beloved series about the wildly attractive group of firefighters tasked with keeping Seattle safe has been quite the bittersweet experience. From happy endings (Carina and Maya’s growing family!) to gutting reveals (Jack’s firefighting career coming to an end!), the end of Station 19 has reminded us just how hard farewells can be.
But it’s not like we didn’t have practice: Station 19 has made us say some truly heart-wrenching goodbyes over the course of seven seasons — a few of which I’ve vowed to never forgive them for! They haunt me! While the end of the series gives our current cast of characters sweet send-offs, we thought it would be a good time to remember and pay homage to those we lost along the way. Below, find a tribute to some of the toughest, most traumatic losses on Station 19, because we are gluttons for punishment, and we won’t apologize for it.
Lucas Ripley (Brett Tucker)
Remember when I said the thing about never forgiving Station 19 and being haunted forever? I was definitely talking about this guy. Lucas! Ripley! The hunky chief of the Seattle Fire Department arrives on the scene in season one but gets closer to Vic Hughes in season two after she attends a group therapy session he runs for firefighters following the big season one finale skyscraper incident. And of course, by “gets closer to,” I mean the two fall into bed together. Their romance over the course of season two is fast and furious and wildly swoony. He takes care of her when she’s sick! They have a secret diner where they meet! They have sex in the Station 19 equipment room, and it is not hygienic, but it is so, so hot! Lucas is also an old friend of Sullivan, and they have a falling-out when Sully’s wife dies while Ripley tries to save her after a car accident. That will do it!
Just as he and Sully begin to make amends and just as Vic tells him that she wants to spend the rest of her life with him, the guy pulls some hero crap on a call and winds up inhaling hydrofluoric acid. He collapses in the street on his way to tell Vic he wants to marry her, and she, thinking he’s rejected her, only arrives at the hospital as things take a turn for the worst. She is beside herself, but he tells her he’s happy that he gets to spend the rest of his life with her. She kisses him. He dies in her arms. We were all unwell then; we are all still unwell now. No one, including Vic, ever really got over Ripley’s death.
Ryan Tanner (Alberto Frezza)
Oof! This one was a shocker. Officer Ryan Tanner, Andy’s childhood love and best friend, had only just left Seattle for San Diego at the end of season two for a job opportunity and to put an end to his and Andy’s on again/off again/on again/off … well, you get it. And then suddenly, there he is, knocking on Andy’s door in the second episode of season three!
He tells her his return isn’t about her, but come on, it totally is — on so many levels. We learn that Pruitt went to see Ryan in San Diego to tell him that he was dying of cancer and wanted Ryan to return to be in Andy’s life when it happens. Ryan tells Pruitt he loves her. “Always tell the girl,” Pruitt advises his pseudo son. And so, Ryan returns to Seattle. But almost as soon as Andy opens the door, they hear a neighbor screaming. She’s cut herself with glass. They help her and have her sent to the hospital, promising to watch her young son for the rest of the day.
Hours pass, and eventually Ryan professes his love to a stunned Andy. But there’s no time to process it: The little boy has found his mother’s gun and shoots Ryan, who jumps in front of Andy. His death is sudden and senseless, and it completely levels both the Herreras. In short: It was very, very uncool, Station 19.
Pruitt Herrera (Miguel Sandoval)
Listen, Station 19 was hanging Pruitt’s cancer over us from the very beginning, so it always felt like losing him was something the show might deploy at any time; that didn’t make the loss any easier when the time came. In season three, Pruitt is diagnosed with scrotal cancer, and refusing treatment, he is given six months to live.
One day, Pruitt invites his old firefighter buddies to 19 for a poker game, and when 19 goes out on a call to a storage unit facility, they put on the radio to listen to how it goes down. Things go really bad really fast, and Pruitt can’t just listen to his people, his daughter, die over the radio without trying to help her. Not only does he go to the scene, but he also suits up and demands to be put on the very unstable roof so he can ventilate it and give all of 19 still trapped inside a fighting chance, sacrificing himself in the process. His last act is to save his daughter’s life.
Dean Miller (Okieriete Onaodowan)
Dean dies in season five’s “Things We Lost in the Fire,” but it still feels fresh, doesn’t it? Oh, sweet Dean. He’s been in love with Vic, his Hughie, for so long, but she sees him as a brother. Watching her romance with Theo is breaking his heart, so when he gets an offer to bring Crisis One to Oakland, a potential first step to taking it national, he decides to go for it. When Vic begs him not to go, he basically tells her that he’s in love with her and asks her to come with him and Pru. She can’t. He reads her loud and clear. Of course, all of this is happening while out on a call where a gas line has exploded and leveled a bunch of houses. Vic gets electrocuted, and it is Dean who saves her life. As he brings her over to triage, she thanks him for saving her life; he’s her brother, and she loves him. “I love you too, Hughie,” he tells her before running off.
But there’s a second explosion. And it’s Jack who finds his best friend down. Jack and Ben work on Dean as they rush him to the hospital, but they can’t bring him back. The team is completely gutted by the loss, but none more than Vic and Jack. Is there a sadder image than Jack breaking down into tears while cooking Thanksgiving dinner at the fire station? The loss of his best friend changes him. But Dean’s memory has lived on since his death: Jack is instrumental in starting the Dean Miller Medical Clinic at 19, a free clinic for people in need in the community, and Vic takes over Crisis One. In this last season, we’ve watched her take Dean’s program national, which was everything he dreamed and hoped Crisis One could be. In the finale episode, we learn that his daughter goes on to become a firefighter at 19, just like her dad — which is perhaps even greater than what he dreamed for her. So, Dean is gone, but he remains woven into the fabric of 19.
