The Seattle Fire Department will be back in action soon, but with so much drama going down on Station 19, it’s okay if you need a little refresher as to where we left Andy Herrera and her firefighting family back at the end of season five. Below, relive some of last season’s biggest moments — and greatest losses — so you’ll be primed and ready when Station 19 returns for season six on Thursday, October 6.
It’s so hard to say goodbye
Let’s just rip the Band-Aid off here, friends: The most devastating moment to come out of season five was without a doubt the death of Dean Miller. The whole thing seems brutally unfair since the man had weathered his baby mama abandoning him and sweet Pru, being in the middle of a racial discrimination suit against the SFD, getting his heart stomped on after realizing that Vic didn’t reciprocate his undying love for her, and [checks notes] literally getting lost at sea. Plus, Dean was only getting started on his big Crisis One initiative, training paramedics on how to properly handle mental health emergency situations. Dean deserved better!
But alas, just as he was making plans to take Crisis One (and Pru) around the country (the man is so heartbroken, he can’t even stand to be around Vic and her daily discussions of how many times she and Theo boinked the night before!! He knows no peace!), and right after he saves Vic’s life when she gets electrocuted during a rescue, our dear, sensitive Dean gets killed in a gas-leak explosion. Ben and Jack do everything they can to try and revive him, but he’s gone. It is gut-wrenching.
Dean’s death propels a lot of the season five story forward: Obviously, it hits Vic and Jack the hardest (the two even share an ill-advised make-out that they agree to never discuss again, but I didn’t make that agreement, babe!). Vic had just gotten over Ripley’s death (RIP, sweet man!), and Dean’s death compounds all that grief, but in the end Vic and Theo’s relationship comes out stronger than ever. Those two are very in love! For Jack, the loss of his best friend (brother, really) spurs him to create the Dean Miller Memorial Clinic, a free clinic run by Jack, Ben, and Carina out of Station 19 to help the community.
Dean’s death also greatly affects Ben Warren — and not just because Ben, too, considered Dean his brother, but because Ben promised Dean that if anything ever happened, he and Bailey would raise Pru. Did Ben actually think he’d have to make good on this promise? No, but here we are. It doesn’t take too long for Bailey to get on board, but Dean’s parents are a different story. Ben and Bailey never give up the fight to honor Dean’s wishes, and by the end of the season, Pruitt Miller officially, permanently joins the Bailey-Warren brood. It’s lovely and also makes up for all that time spent on Ben having to deal with that admirer/stalker/sad lady.
Speaking of growing families …
Maya and Carina’s wedding may have ended on a sour note (Maya got demoted in the wake of Sullivan’s power play), but they celebrated some major milestones in season five. After some debate (and convincing Maya), the DeLuca-Bishops decide to have a baby. And they want to use Jack’s sperm to do it. Even though the day they decide to, uh, collect Jack’s deposit and do an at-home insemination is complete chaos, they get the job done. Carina hasn’t been able to take a pregnancy test just yet, but I’ve got to believe a little Carina/Maya/Jack baby is headed our way in season six, right? Right?! We deserve this!
But it’s not like Maya and Carina have only had babies on the brain; the newlyweds were very stressed about Carina’s big green card application. It goes well and — actually, no, it doesn’t. It goes terribly. But so terribly that the immigration officer is like, there’s no way you aren’t a real married couple, and approves Carina’s green card. So, that’s nice!
Now, on the opposite end of the “growing family” spectrum, there’s Jack. His family gets bigger this season, but in a truly devastating way: After signing up for a DNA analyzer app, Jack learns he has a biological brother out there. He’s nervous to meet him, for sure, but also excited that there might be someone who understands what he went through in the foster system. He and Andy head out to meet this guy, and in a real twist (of the mind and the heart!), Jack learns that his brother was never put into the foster system or adopted; his and Jack’s parents raised him — and three sisters — and they had a wonderful childhood. It turns out Jack’s parents were teens when they got pregnant with Jack and so gave him up, believing he’d be adopted by a nice family and provided with all the things they couldn’t give him at that time.
Years later, they ended up getting married — high school sweethearts and all — and having a big, beautiful family. Jack can’t even speak, he’s beside himself with anger and grief. Once Andy gets him out of there (Andy and Jack have a lot of great friendship beats in season five, don’t they?), he finally tells her that he was sexually assaulted while in foster care. He suffered so much while his birth parents were out there starting a family together. In the end, Jack mysteriously drives off, having quit his job and making sure Andy is given his lieutenant position. Where he’s headed or when he’ll be back, that’s something for season six to answer.
The Andy of it all
Getting back her lieutenant position at 19 is a sweet season send-off for Andy Herrera, who went through some pretty dark times throughout. Let’s see: Things kicked off with her deciding to divorce Robert after she learns how he threw Maya under the bus in order to get a promotion. It helped, perhaps, that along with Maya’s demotion, Andy got transferred to Station 23 — did it almost kill her to be pulled away from that station that raised her and became her family? You bet. But it probably made it easier not to see her ex every day. Still, 23 wasn’t exactly a welcoming environment. Andy became good pals with Theo, which we love, but she also had to overcome a real boys’ club atmosphere, which we hate. When Andy inadvertently mentions the frat-boy atmosphere at 23 to Chief Ross and Ross decides to shut down 23, Andy gets a whole ton of hate heaped on her. FURTHERMORE (I told you Andy dealt with a lot in season five), one evening, Andy starts flirting with an out-of-town firefighter, and he sexually assaults her. She fights him off and winds up killing him — and then she is charged with manslaughter. It’s pretty awful to watch, but eventually, thanks to another victim speaking out, the charges get dropped. You see what I mean about Andy deserving that little promotion by season’s end?
Speaking of promotions, the levels of ambition at Station 19 certainly shot up during season five. Let’s start with Travis. Travis goes through yet another round of breakups and makeups with Emmett, but then utterly humiliates the guy when he discusses his feelings (or lack thereof) for his boyfriend during a call and everyone overhears it. Travis has conflicted feelings tied into the revelation that his father has been in the closet his entire life and lied over and over again to Travis’ mother and to Travis (I mean, that’s putting it mildly), and eventually — thankfully!! — Emmett stands up for himself and says, no more of this, my guy! He respects himself too much to let Travis treat him this way. It seems like Travis and Emmett will still be crossing paths in the future, however, thanks to Travis’ big, new life plan. After learning that Emmett’s dad, Chief of Police (and former fire chief) Michael Dixon (boo! hiss!), is running for mayor of Seattle, Travis puts his foot down: This man has gotten away with so much, he’s not letting it happen again on an even greater scale; Travis decides to hop in the race too. That’s right: Travis Montgomery is running for mayor!
There’s less wholesome ambition running through Station 19 too. Everyone wants to be captain at that place. When Robert’s ploy to steal the job from Maya doesn’t work, 19 gets saddled with Sean Beckett, who is … not great. In fact, Robert soon figures out that the guy has an alcohol problem and is drinking on the job, which leads to several incidents during calls. Robert threatens to turn him in if he doesn’t get help, but Beckett soon turns the blackmail tables once he learns that Robert is sleeping around with the new fire chief; Robert and Natasha Ross served together in the military and had some unresolved feelings that definitely get resolved after she lands in Seattle. But wait! More people at Station 19 love blackmail! Maya Bishop, walking ambition, figures out what’s going on between Robert and Chief Ross and threatens to use that information unless she gets her old captain job back.
Suffice it to say, the workplace is going to be very awkward when things pick up again in season six! Find out just how all this drama will play out when Station 19 returns to ABC on Thursday, October 6.
