When Station 19 premiered in 2018 as the second spinoff in the Grey’s Anatomy universe, it was to be expected that the characters would be no strangers to tragedy. The medical drama, as well as the Kate Walsh-led Private Practice, both proved they weren’t afraid to put characters like Meredith Grey in life-or-death situations, and as medical professionals, those characters weren’t even running into burning buildings for a living. In its seven seasons, the firehouse definitely saw its share of trauma, and unfortunately for the fans, that included losing some of Seattle’s bravest along the way.
The Season 6 finale spelled the end for Pat Healy’s Michael Dixon, and Station 19’s final episode killed off Kate Powell (Kiele Sanchez), but given their history with the firefighters, I wouldn’t count their deaths among the most devastating of the series. There definitely were several other times, though, when we were not prepared for the anguish we witnessed. Let’s take a look at Station 19’s most heartbreaking deaths.
Chief Lucas Ripley (Season 2)
The writers of Station 19 proved just how cruel they could be when they took away fire chief Lucas Ripley (Brett Tucker), robbing us of seeing what his relationship — and possible marriage — with Vic Hughes (Barrett Doss) would have been like out in the open. It wasn’t to be, however, as Ripley was exposed to hydrofluoric acid when he jumped in to help during a coffee plant fire. On his way to accept Vic’s marriage proposal in Season 2’s “Always Ready,” he collapsed and was taken to Grey Sloan Memorial.
Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) tried her best, but she was unable to save him, and Vic sat with Ripley until he died. The scene gave Grey’s Anatomy fans flashbacks of Denny Duquette’s death and the unfulfilled potential of what could have been between Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Katherine Heigl’s character, Izzie Stevens. For Vic, the grief of losing Ripley continued to rear its ugly head throughout the series, especially given another tragedy to come later on this list.
Ryan Tanner (Season 3)
Ryan Tanner’s death was the first of several Season 3 heartbreaks endured by the firefighters and fans alike, and it didn’t even have anything to do with a fire. Ryan (Alberto Frezza) had gone to Andy Herrera’s apartment in the episode “Indoor Fireworks” to profess his love. They ended up babysitting one of her neighbor’s kids, a young boy who wanted to play Cops and Robbers. The child found a loaded gun in his apartment, and took aim at “bad guy” Andy (Jaina Lee Ortiz), prompting Ryan to jump in front of the bullet. Despite Andy’s efforts to save him, in the next episode, “Eulogy,” Ryan’s death was confirmed.
Krista Vernoff, who had just taken over as showrunner, told EW at the time that she really wanted to “put Andy through some darkness,” in Season 3, and what better way to do that than killing off her childhood best friend?
