‘Station 19’: Are Maya and Carina’s Relationship Moments Still a Key Plotline?

Let’s see what happened on our screens this week! Drew interviewed Baby Reindeer’s Nava Mau and it’s gone viral (that’s a hot tip) so you should be one of the cool kids and read it! Valerie says that Dead Boy Detectives has the Big Three: a goth lesbian butcher, gay ghosts, and a Cheryl Dunye-directed episode!! Hacks is back for Season Three, and Kayla says it’s better than ever!

The annual GLAAD media report came out and guess what — LGBT characters are getting cancelled left and right! Unfortunately, that’s not enough for some homophobes who still think there’s just too many queer people on TV. Riese rounded up a few of their comments, just so you can have a good laugh. Velma has returned for its second season, which is less problematic, but somehow that made it even worse? Tonight you can watch the latest teen comedy Prom Dates on Hulu, which tries very hard to be Superbad for queer girls. Queer indie darling I Saw the TV Glow has started its rollout into theaters, so its a great time to revisit Drew’s review. She also interviewed Brigette Lundy-Paine, who stars in the film, on what it means to make their own kind of trans art. Last but not least, did you hear that Kristen Stewart is returning to her roots and making another vampire movie? But what Kayla really needs to know is: WILL THERE BE BASEBALL??

It’s May and that means we have your streaming guide!! Riese has lovingly put together everything that you can find this month on your various platforms. Speaking of Riese, we have some BIG NEWS which is that we’re debuting some brand new newsletters this month for AF+ members including one about TV from me and one about film from Drew and if you wanna get on those lists, you can do so right here.

Notes from the TV Team:

+ Yasuda and Helm are still fighting on Grey’s Anatomy (well, Helm is trying to apologize. Yasuda isn’t yet ready to forgive her for blocking Yasuda from a great case to force her instead to work the pitch. This all happened before the hiatus, you’re forgiven if you don’t remember). But once the show gives them anything significant to do beyond sharing a quick line together at the top and end of the episode, you can bet I’ll be all over it! — Carmen

+ I’m a little dismayed to report that Rasika Venkatesa’s run in the Top Chef competition is officially over, as she lost her first match-up in Last Chance Kitchen. To go from winning all those early challenges to being out entirely after two back-to-back losses… it’s quite the emotional rollercoaster. I hope that this isn’t the last we’ll hear of Rasika…or, at the very least, that I’ll one day get to enjoy her food. — Natalie

+ There was a really cute baby gay storyline on Alert: Missing Persons Unit a few weeks ago, and one of the gay teens is back this week! She was kind of given the advice to put her head down and power through the homophobic school she was sent to, which isn’t ideal, but she did help them solve a case so I’m hoping our little Nancy Drew will stick around for a while. — Valerie Anne

Station 19 Episode 706: “With So Little to Be Sure Of”

Before anyone gets mad at me, please know that I love Station 19. I have been covering the show for its entirety, I was the one that first broke the news to Autostraddle readers that Maya was bisexual way back when. I love Carina DeLuca. Captain Olympian Bisexual and Doctor Orgasm are, as far as I am concerned, an all time GOAT of Shondaland couples. And in terms of queer couples, they are near the front of those history books in my mind — someplace riiiight behind Calzona, but most certainly ahead of every other contender in the pack. I don’t usually lay all that out there, but I felt like I needed to today, because I want anyone reading this to know that my disappointment comes from a place of deep love.

What on earth is going on here??? Last season the Station 19 writers gave Danielle Savre and Stefania Spampinato some of their best work to date, between Maya’s mental health crisis, and Carina’s difficult but necessary boundary setting, and both of them finding their way back to each other through it all. It was gorgeous, brave, unflinching. But this season, Station 19’s last, at a time when I would expect the writing to pull out all the stops… it feels like instead, Maya and Carina have completely stalled.

I’ve had my critiques of how Station 19 has approached its pregnancy storylines for Maya and Carina in the past, so perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that I found myself frustrated that last night, during one of the better episodes of the season, a really painful look at homelessness and veterans care, Maya and Carina found themselves on the sidelines of the action. But believe me, when Season Seven premiered, I was onboard for the addition of Baby Liam into their little family! If this is going to be Station 19’s last season, I want for Maya and Carina to have their happy ending. I had just hoped that babies and family planning wouldn’t be the only thing they talked about.

In last night’s flashback-heavy episode, Vic, Sullivan, and Herrera worked through the intricacies of what support for our unhoused neighbors truly looks like, and the limitations of their roles in the field. Meanwhile, Maya and Carina sat at Joe’s Bar perfectly boring and cute, nuzzling noses and dreaming of their future baby. When it turns out that Ben Warren is on testosterone to help with his strengthening on the job as he gets older and recovers from injury, we are treated to an epic-level Danielle Savre meltdown about the effects of her pre-IVF estrogen shots. It’s not that Savre didn’t do a magnificent job hitting all the drama and humor of Maya’s notes, it’s that I couldn’t shake the feeling that we’ve been here before.

Maya and Carina have been trying to have a baby since Season Five, immediately following their wedding. It’s been two years of going around and around on this. And of course having a baby as a queer couple in real life takes years and years of careful planning and heartbreak and trying again — but on television that level of repetition can become.. well.. stagnant.

All is not lost! Preview’s for next week’s episode indicate that we’re going to be returning to Maya’s brother, Mason, who is also unhoused and has some mental health difficulties (we also seemingly saw Mason earlier this season, during Station 19’s Pride episode, where he had joined a group of white supremacist and homophobic agitators). I’m hopeful that one day we’ll return to the storyline of Carina being sued by her patient. I’m really hopeful that we’re going to get a few more hot sex scenes before the fire soap’s final bow in a few weeks.