Who wouldn’t give everything there is for more time with Victoria Hughes?
While initially, Station 19 Season 7 Episode 6 didn’t have the feel of a Vic-centric installment, and it had some unique formatting that frankly made for a rather underwhelming hour, by the end, things aren’t always what they seem.
It was deceptively good, so much so that it took me until the 40-minute mark to truly appreciate what they were laying out.
Once the installment clicked, it truly clicked, with a turnaround, yes, but also a realization that the writers were taking us on an understated journey.
But I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that the first 40 minutes of this installment were confusing and underwhelming.
We have precious little time to spend with this series and these characters. Every episode counts.
Presumably, there’s an end goal in mind as we tread kicking and screaming to the series finale.
With a truncated final season, there isn’t much room for experimentation, and viewers rarely want a series to try new things.
The flashback formatting of this hour was far too confusing. We not only had to follow along with the timeline within the episode, but there was also the added layer of figuring out where the flashbacks fell from Station 19 Season 5 until the present.
It compelled viewers to do too much work, and it was tough enough for diehard fans of the series. One can’t imagine it was easy to piece together for the casual watcher.
The flashbacks also felt eerily reminiscent of the clip format episodes of a series where the entirety of it is simply cobbling together scenes and moments.
I once knew a soldier named Morris, who did the unthinkable for us. Legacy fit for a plaque, from a life that gave back, and a heart that beat love so enormous.
In some ways, it felt like we witnessed unaired footage from the last two seasons strung together by the Morris plot.
Morris was the common thread in revealing how much Crisis One has impacted the community and how running the program and helping the community via it has positively affected the main characters.
And Morris was a genuinely great character. It was easy to become attached to him, which made his death all the more tragic and emotional.
But sadly, the flashback format was a disservice more often than not when you couldn’t keep track of everything that transpired. Undoubtedly, it was a creative risk, and the attempt was admirable. It just didn’t work well.
We could pick up on the timeline switches through Vic’s hairstyles. And that is one of those instances where things were deceptively good and more profound than one may initially presume.
The versatility of a Black woman’s hair is profound; utilizing it in such a way was clever, but it also ties into Vic’s character beautifully.
That said, it would have been nice if they opted for color grading changes or something else to distinguish the different times in the past and the past from the present.
Even though the themes were significant, it was easy for one’s mind to wander during much of that.
Morris’ arc was heartrending. It once again sheds light on society’s abysmal treatment of veterans and the unhoused, especially when they’re the same.
Morris’ relationship with Arlo was sweet, which made the younger man’s subsequent death so gutwrenching.
Sometimes, Station 19 has a way of throwing too many topical issues out there at once as talking points without organically touching upon them, but this wasn’t the case here.
Not only was Arlos’s situation devastating as an unhoused veteran who needed services and didn’t get them, but it was also upsetting that he died because of complications from his rationing his diabetic medication.
The price of insulin has skyrocketed, and many people with diabetes, from the poor to the middle class, have felt the effects. So many have resorted to what Arlo did, rationing insulin to make it stretch.
