Batten down the hatches because the riots are about to begin. Station 19’s penultimate episode ended with a terrifying cliffhanger that put two fan-favorite characters in mortal danger.
The firefighters of Station 19 were called out to help with a wildfire encroaching on Seattle city limits and soon found themselves overwhelmed by the flames. The final moments of the episode saw Andy (Jaina Lee Ortiz) and Maya (Danielle Savre) hiking through a burning patch of woods to find a missing civilian they could hear blowing a whistle. Andy paused to call for backup as Maya walked forward, and then a flaming sapling fell between them, boxing Maya into an inferno.
Is Maya going to die on Station 19?
If that wasn’t enough to get your heart rate up, the sequence was spliced with Carina (Stefania Spampinato) officially finding out that she was pregnant. Throughout the episode, there was a lot of ominous foreshadowing between the two. Maya told Carina “I’ll see you at home” when they first saw each other at the medic tent earlier in the episode. Later on, she texted she wanted Carina’s homemade lasagna. In the world of TV dramas, the emphasis on these small talks of home is the equivalent of someone saying “I’ll be right back” in a horror movie.
The stress is amplified by the fact that next week’s episode is the final episode of the series. Killing Maya in the finale would give the last episode of the show significant emotional heft. It would be good drama, but it would also be falling victim to an egregious instance of the “bury your gays” trope. The show has been an ally to the LGBTQ community since its inception, so it’s hard to imagine they would kill Maya just as she and Carina are building the family they’ve been dreaming of for multiple seasons now. We won’t know until next week.
Is Theo going to die on Station 19?
To make matters even worse, Maya isn’t the only one in danger. Shortly before she and Andy walked into the woods to investigate the whistling they heard, Theo (Carlos Miranda) was evacuated from the scene after a tree branch fell on him. He was extinguishing a spot fire when he noticed the branch cracking over Travis (Jay Hayden). Ruiz pushed Travis out of the way so the branch fell on him instead, but it severely broke his femur and fractured his pelvis.
Luckily, Ben (Jason George) was on the scene and was able to set the wounds, but Ruiz had lost a lot of blood before the helicopter arrived to take him to the hospital. Vic (Barrett Doss) was distraught over Theo’s injuries, which is a little surprising considering how quickly she dismissed the idea of them getting back together in last week’s episode. The intensity of Theo’s injuries may have made her realize that she still cares for him more than she thought.
Vic ultimately decided not to go with Theo in the helicopter, so we don’t know if he will survive his injuries or what this means for his and Vic’s future. We do know that Vic is heading to DC after the wildfire to head up the national launch of Crisis One, and she’s already asked Travis if he will go with her. Travis is on the verge of a new and promising relationship in Seattle, though. If Theo survives the injuries but they impact his ability to fight fires, he may be available for a cross-country move.
Again, it would provide emotional weight to the finale for one of our beloved characters to die. Would the show really kill off another romantic interest of Vic’s, especially after the empathy burnout she just experienced? Travis just told her that she “gets to be the baby” for a minute, so it wouldn’t sit right to put her through yet another major trauma. She’s already had to go grieve Ripley (Brett Tucker) and Dean (Okieriete Onaudowan). Adding Theo to the list feels like too much to bear.
Will a Shondaland show actually end a massive wildfire event without any casualties though? We want a happy ending for the Station 19 more than anything, but the penultimate episode has us terrified that more tissues than Champagne will be needed to get through the finale.
