Station 19 delivered some big twists for both Sullivan and Andy in “The Ghosts That Haunt Me,” and the episode as a whole leaves me confused about their relationship. Andy has been trying to keep news of their marriage quiet while she deals with her grief and returning to work, while Sullivan has been trying to keep the secret of their marriage and his drug overdose. If Station 19 wants me to be rooting for their love story, then it’s pretty unfortunate that I am firmly Team Andy.
Andy and Sullivan were actually apart for most of the episode, with Andy on the scene of a fire and facing the complications of telling Jack about her marriage. In fact, in light of Jack’s skepticism, she admitted that she might have made a mistake and had really been thinking about her father and getting him to walk her down the aisle. She loves Sullivan, but Andy isn’t 100% sure the secret (and very fast) wedding was the right call. Plus, he’s her boss.
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While all this was happening, Sullivan was arguing with Ben in his office at the firehouse, with Ben pressuring him to come clean about his drug habit and overdose, and finally yelling at him for not going up onto the roof where Pruitt died. Sullivan finally exploded that he couldn’t go up on the roof because he had to be there for his wife, who was going to lose her father soon anyway.
Ben and I had the same response to the implication that Sullivan let Pruitt die in the fire because Pruitt was going to die soon anyway, but Ben’s indignation faded, even if he was still determined Sullivan had to come clean about his on-the-job overdose to Dixon. So, Andy told somebody about the marriage and Sullivan told somebody about the marriage. All things were more or less equal.
Then the mess hit the fan. Sullivan came clean to Dixon about the marriage before his drug issue, and the whole matter was ultimately resolved (for now, anyway), with Dixon basically sweeping both of Sullivan’s secrets under the rug and saying that Sullivan owes him a favor. Something along these lines was always going to happen, in my book, so I wasn’t surprised or too upset. What did upset me on Andy’s behalf is what Sullivan did after the exchange with Dixon.
Sullivan told Andy that he’d told Dixon and got the all-clear, then decided that a spaghetti dinner attended by all their coworkers and guests was the right time to announce their marriage. Andy was clearly uncomfortable and tried to stop him, but Sullivan just went right ahead and did it. He even went for some PDA while Andy was basically squirming under the scrutiny.
Sullivan probably should have given Andy the heads up that he was going to drop the news on Dixon, definitely should have consulted her when he felt like announcing their marriage, and 100% shouldn’t have done it when she tried to stop him. It’s not the most messed up thing during Station 19 Season 3, but I’d say it’s toward the top of the list.
Andy’s reputation is the one that could suffer when the news starts to spread of her relationship with her battalion chief, and honestly, should Sullivan really be a battalion chief if he can so completely and utterly fail to read the room about his announcement? In all seriousness, the previous episode left me thinking that Station 19 is failing Andy and Sullivan in their relationship. Now I think Station 19 is failing if I’m supposed to be rooting for them as a couple or on Team Sullivan.
Facing no consequences for his actions and then ignoring Andy to announce their marriage without even having a private conversation? I’m not saying that I’m rooting for Dixon, because of course I’m not. I just wouldn’t mind if Sullivan has to deal with some repercussions. Hey, if Station 19‘s goal is for me to be firmly Team Andy, then Station 19 is nailing it!
Only a couple episodes of Station 19 are left before the final credits roll on Season 3, so any big developments on the Sullivan and Andy/Sullivan front will have to happen sooner than later if they go down before hiatus. The season finale is seemingly going to be largely preoccupied with setting up a Grey’s Anatomy event that won’t actually get to air, so perhaps next week’s penultimate episode will have the most character-heavy content. For now, you can catch new episodes of Station 19 on ABC Thursdays at 9
