Station 19 EPs Break Down the Series Finale’s Unhappy Ending, Spinoff-Worthy New Beginning and That Bittersweet Cameo

When things looked bleakest for Bishop, she dreamt of the day that not only her wife but she herself went into labor. Given that in the flash-forward, Maya was also captain, was this our sign to exhale, because she’d really, truly figured out her work/life balance? “It was this beautiful full-circle thing for her,” says Clack. “Their relationship was really on the rocks, and we brought them back together to push through this year. And she had that little mention in Episode 9, where she was like, ‘You know, if [Carina’s IVF treatment] doesn’t work, maybe I’ll get pregnant.’ But it did work, and she still decided to get pregnant!”

In Theo’s vision of the future, he was celebrating a promotion with his firehouse family — and his wife and child. Why was it important to give him a happy ending? Was it sort of an apology for the way Season 6 did him so dirty? “I refuse to believe that he was done so dirty,” Paige insists with a laugh. “He made choices. He made mistakes. Technically, they were ethical choices. He had broken up with Vic before he got dipped into the ‘chaos pool.’ But we all make mistakes. It’s part of being human and certainly part of being a Shondaland character!”

When Travis imagined the future, his current boyfriend was in it — but so, of course, was Vic. Was there any way to interpret that other than, “Guys may come and go, but my person is forever”? Rhetorical question; there was not. “We wanted very much one of our great love stories to be platonic,” says Paige. “A ‘platoncom.’” When all was said and done, the stage seemed to be perfectly set for a spinoff that would follow the besties to DC. “There’s actually a meme of a Crisis One poster,” Paige says. “‘Crisis One on ABC Thursday nights at 8 o’clock.’” It’s a total no-brainer. “Unfortunately,” Clack admits, “ABC hasn’t” said bupkis about a potential offshoot.

While Robert saw himself at a ribbon-cutting for a program designed to help military veterans become firefighters, Ross envisioned a gorgeous wedding for the two of them. But if she was no longer chief in that flash-forward, what became of her career? “If you watch Sullivan’s flash-forward carefully, he says, ‘Thank you to the mayor’s office for being here,’” Paige notes. “And Ross is not wearing a uniform, she’s dressed quite politically. So in my mind, she becomes mayor of Seattle in the not-too-distant future.”

Imagining the day that Crisis One went national, Vic was visited by a vision of Dean. “That flash-forward was a last-minute revision,” Paige admits. “When we finally landed on the Dean of it all, it felt like (a) bringing back a beloved part of the station’s past, and (b) he’s been her North Star. He’s her guardian angel at this point. Giving her that affirmation from him that she has carried the torch and done the good thing, that felt really powerful and beautiful.”

Maya’s better half pictured the two of them with three kids. Was that the EPs’ way of telling us that “Marina” were on the same page about their future? Absolutely. “Their dreams mirror one another’s,” says Paige. “They’ve both done the work to heal from the traumas of their childhoods and have found their way to each other, happy and whole.” In fact, adds Clack, “the thing that pushes them through the tragedy that they’re in is imagining their future together.”

In Sean’s vision, he was happily canoodling with Natasha’s sister. Was a relationship between those two one of the storylines Paige and Clack had to chuck when the series was unexpectedly cancelled? Yup. “We loved the idea of the hijinks of Beckett dating his way into the Sullivan/Ross family and all the hilarity that that would entail. At least we got a little nod to it.” Adds Clack: “There were a lot of things that were a little rushed, should I say, in the last half of the season that we would’ve loved to have played out for longer.”

Herrera’s peek at the future included a glimpse of the past — and her discovering Gibson’s engagement ring back in Season 1. An outta-nowhere twist? “If you sniff around in Season 7, there are little seeds throughout” that maybe the exes were endgame, says Paige, adding that Jaina Lee Ortiz was the first one to suggest Jack as Andy’s endgame. “Some of our writers were very pro-Jack, some were not. Both Zoanne and I required a little convincing.” And hey, if fans aren’t keen on that scenario for the characters, “it’s not written in stone,” Paige notes. “Her flash-forward could have been that she was chief,” Clack observes. “But we really wanted to save that for the last moment.”

Conjuring up his future, Ben saw himself and Bailey at their sons’ graduations — and daughter Pru becoming a firefighter. How hard was it for Paige and Clack to set that twist in motion knowing we’d never get to see Miranda tell her husband, “Now you see what it’s like worrying about someone you love day in and day out?” Pretty damn hard. But at the same time, “we thought it was [implied by Bailey] in that moment,” says Clack, with that “What have we done?” expression. Though Ben was going back to finish his residency, Clack and Paige couldn’t confirm that he will be back on Grey’s Anatomy next season. “I don’t think even Grey’s Anatomy can confirm that right now,” Clack chuckles. (Fun fact: Grownup Pru was played by the daughter of Station 19’s key hairstylist.)

Given all that he’d been through, didn’t Gibson deserve to see a future in which he was raising a family or at least being the parent figure that he never had? Yes, and at one point, he had one. “I really loved Jack’s endgame being him heading a foster home for kids,” Clack says, “but we couldn’t fit that in as a separate moment.” Plus, unlike his 19 family, “he didn’t have that moment of terror that was causing him to flash-forward to thoughts of what he was living for.” So he wound up sharing his happy ending with Andy.

It was a thrill to see Okieriete Onaodowan as Dean, however briefly. Was there an attempt to get Miguel Sandoval to make a cameo as Andy’s late father? “We approached him earlier in the season,” Paige says, “and he made it clear that he was on to other things.”

One last question: Was making Powell the one casualty of the finale a way of acknowledging that “Yeah, nobody liked her”? “No, it was not!” Paige exclaims playfully. A lot of characters’ demises were suggested for the series finale, Clack says. Even the idea of everybody going up in flames was floated. “I personally was against killing a major regular character. I didn’t want to live with that grief as the end of the series. But we really needed to show how big and apocalyptic this fire was, how at-risk everyone was. So Kate was very helpful in raising the stakes” without breaking anyone’s heart