Station 19 knows how to bring the pain, the laughter, and, yeah, even some frustration.
We got a healthy dose of all of the above with Station 19 Season 7 Episode 7, which was the epitome of a rollercoaster ride because they'd have you chuckling one minute and sniffling the next.
No one will ever accuse this series of not bringing all the emotions.
While they balanced out a couple of different things, Carina and Maya were at the forefront for the most part.
With Carina, they revisited the lawsuit that Wendy filed against her for the health issues her child faced, and with only a couple of installments of the series remaining, we needed that follow-up.
When they introduced that plot during Station 19 Season 7 Episode 2 , I wondered how they could address it again and wrap things up when the season has visibly shown signs of scrambling to land because of this unexpected cancelation.
Considering the circumstances, they managed to wrap things up well enough. The conclusion was as abrupt as the introduction, with Carina being an unapologetic albeit sympathetic badass who genuinely wanted to do right by Wendy.
As frustrating as it was that Wendy sued Carina over something that was out of her control, we're meant to sympathize with the desperation of a single mother with a disabled child and all that financial and emotional strain that places on her regardless of how much she loves and appreciates her daughter.
Even when Wendy commented to Carina, gaslighting her into feeling shame as she misdirected all her ire and frustration toward Carina, one could understand the emotion behind that.
And so could Carina. She felt for Wendy, but she didn't let that ruin her or take up space in her head any longer than it did before. And that's great progress for Carina.
She had no hard feelings toward this woman when she left that room. It felt like that was the end, and Carina was simply content with returning to practicing medicine and being with her family. She's found solace in that.
Congratulations, Dr. DeLuca ... on your excellent care. I just want you to know that if you win today, my daughter loses.
Wendy
And maybe there's some growth in her not taking another second to defend herself or try to parse through the situation.
The woman who spent much of her life as a caretaker to her own family cut right to the heart of what Wendy was dealing with and wanted to address that head-on and give her real help she could use.
She left the ball in Wendy's court and moved on.
Maya had to practice moving on as well.
The Maya and Mason storyline is tricky for me. I have two thoughts regarding it, so I'll have to speak about both of them.
For starters, Danielle Savre did some fantastic work yet again. When she gets those emotional scenes, she knocks them out of the park, holds your attention, and leaves you struck by what's transpiring onscreen.
Maya's scenes with Mason were distressing and emotional. It was difficult to hear this man utter such hateful things and direct them at his own flesh and blood.
It was so uncomfortable and painful, and it evoked many emotions.
Station 19 has always been about representation and telling real and raw stories. It's done that on many levels. It was another instance of them leaning heavily into a not at all unique or uncommon queer experience.
Maya had to face down her bigoted brother and deal with the conflicting feelings of loving someone. She also had to instill boundaries upon recognizing that it's for one's own safety and peace of mind to let that person go and cut ties.
Mason: I matter to these people. No one ever told me that I mattered.
Maya: You matter to me! Just let me get you out of this place, and see how it feels.
Mason: And go where?
Maya: Move in with me. You don't know what real family feels like. Let me show you!
It's been something discussed before -- this quiet epidemic of young white men who are indoctrinated and preyed upon as they're lured into militias and hate groups.
On paper, Mason is a prime candidate for something like that, so it's not an entirely unexpected path for someone like him to have taken.
He's a character woven into the series' fabric but mostly in the shadow, looming over Maya as this subject that needs to be revisited and addressed.
Sadly, Maya's heartbreaking experience with her brother isn't uncommon, and she gave a voice to people who have had similar experiences with their own families.
My heart breaks for anyone who has endured that, just as it does for Maya.
Maya: Oh my God, you're dad. You've become dad.
Mason: Don't pull that crap on me.
Maya: No, actually, you're worse. I came here trying to save you or something, but now I get it. That's not possible. You can never be a part of my life, Mason, not like this. You're not allowed to touch the beautiful life that I created because you would ruin it. I have love that we never knew existed as kids, and I wanted you to have that too, but you don't want it. And I won't risk losing it, so...
Tangentinally, I can understand the angle here with this storyline and what they were showcasing via Maya.
We watched a woman who broke a cycle after years of cultivating her own family via Nineteen, specifically Carina and now Liam. She had to learn how to be loved and know how to show it, and that has been something that's been years in the making.
It took literal years for her to unlearn some of the habits and thought processes instilled in her by her abusive father. It took even longer for her to truly unpack her traumas and get the help she needed to be the best, healthiest version of herself.
When you've done that, you want to extend a hand back and help someone else do the same, especially someone you love who endured similar experiences.
It made perfect sense that a healed Maya Bishop would want to "save" her brother and put him on the right path. She gathered all of these tools and wanted to teach him how life could be on the other side of their crappy childhood.
Mason: Why do you care so much about a gay parade?
Maya: Because they're my people, Mason! You're harassing me and my community!
She wanted to be that beacon of light and sense of hope that she got. And she put up a valiant effort to do that. Through her conversations with Mason, we see how much Maya has evolved over the years.
It was a way of seeing how life has served her well and just how great of a place she's in. It's like a progress check, seeing Mason's brokenness reflecting back to her as she saw where she was compared to where she is now.
She even says how beautiful her life is, so when she desperately offered to have him move in with her and Carina (albeit without thinking about what Carina would've wanted), you know she wanted to be the family to Mason that they didn't have when they were younger.
And maybe, in some way, she was trying to make it up to him that she couldn't save him. Although, how could she rescue her brother when she didn't get out unscathed either?
All of this naturally led to this powerful moment of Maya recognizing that she would not explain to her own brother why she's human and that she can't welcome that type of ignorance, hatred, and bad energy into her life no matter how much she loves him.
It was a powerful moment to have her stand up to him, assert herself, and call him out for being just like their bad father, arguably worse because he's been at the brunt of such hatred and chooses to partake in it.
And again, her story with Mason is something that far too many people can identify with, and it is as upsetting as that is to consider.
I understand what that meant for Maya and how important it was for her to have this moment where her breakthrough in therapy and healing shone so brightly in the face of her past.
It was letting go of the last visages of the things that weighed her down and held her back.
Mason: Maya, what are you doing here?
Maya: I wanted to talk to you.
Mason: I've got nothing to say to you.
Maya: You don't have ten minutes to spare for your own sister?
And that's a powerful message in itself that can inspire and resonate with many.
But I also was frustrated with this arc. Sometimes, it's draining to give any semblance of bigotry and homophobia a platform.
It's not that the reality of homophobia being part of a queer person's story doesn't deserve to be showcased because, obviously, it's a reality.
But on the flip side, sometimes, it's nice not to have characters and viewers subjected to it so frequently. Maya's father was a bigoted nightmare, and we explored that deeply. It was gratifying when she had the moment to stand up to him, and she cut him out of her life.
With everything going so well with Maya, it sucked that we had to revisit this angle again. It's not the only experience worth exploring for queer characters, where they're marred by crappy family members who don't accept them.
Sometimes, it's tiresome to see queer characters having to prove to others why they're human and argue for their rights and their own humanity.
It's something that I touched on during "We Build Than We Break" from a race perspective, something I can immediately identify with as a woman of color.
Sometimes, it's flat-out exhausting when you must be subjected to these emotionally taxing, triggering storylines to prove a point or teach something to an audience that should know and do better.
Sometimes, you don't want the characters that resonate most with you to be constantly used as someone else's lesson.
It was a powerful series of scenes and likely cathartic for some. But in the same breath, it's grating when disenfranchised characters can't just be.
Before her realization and assertion that she was cutting Mason out of her life, we spent a lot of time with her trying to "understand" his perspective and why he turned to a hate group and considers them family.
She spent an extraordinary amount of time trying to reason with her brainwashed brother and prove and defend her own existence.
She invited a brainwashed bigot into her home with her wife and child without even running that offer by Carina first, considering the risks or the emotional damage that could do to her having to share her home, the place she should feel most safe, with a man who has to unlearn his bigotry.
Sympathizing with Mason could only go so far. Yes, we know what his life was like. There is something to be said about the sibling dynamic because their experiences were awful but different.
It was no easier on him, being the child who wasn't destined for the Olympics living in his sister's shadow, than it was for Maya, weighed down and ruined by her father's expectations.
So, like Maya, he found a family of his own with people who accepted him. He just didn't find the right type of people. She had Nineteen, and he had a bunch of bigots.
The idea of searching for a family tracks, especially because of their experiences, but the moral failings are hard to wrap one's head around.
There isn't anything to sympathize with in that regard, and there's nothing to understand. You can't make sense of the senseless.
It's sad that we could've had an avenue where Maya and Mason could have a strong bond. It would feel like a cop-out if they attempted to do it now after all of this.
Hell, if we needed a storyline of Maya moving in a brother she cares about during a time of need, they could've just given us a Jack storyline.
And that's coming from someone who loathed how they inserted Jack into Marina's family planning through Station 19 Season 5. But I'd gladly take a charming dudebro with Golden Retriever energy over trying to deprogram a bigot.
Plus, it would've given Jack a freaking storyline instead of devoting time that could've gone to him to a series of guest stars with storylines that there's little time to evolve properly.
But again, Savre absolutely killed her performance, which carried over to her emotional state as she realized that the time she wasted trying to save her old family set her back from building her new one.
Josh Randall is easily one of the most underrated performers in the series. Beckett's moment with Maya was one of the strongest of the hour.
Beckett is a polarizing character, but they've done rather well delaying this complex character without him necessarily overtaking storylines.
Beckett's redemptive arc is compelling and something they're pulling off well despite it simmering in the background. It's still consistent.
Bishop, for what it's worth, you're already a great mother.
Beckett
It's understandable that Beckett's depression, alcoholism, and suicide ideation drastically shaded him as a character. As he's gotten help, we see more of who he is at his core.
And they slip in little bits to round him out without feeling forced or inauthentic.
With Beckett, it seems his actions account more than his actual words do. The moment he shared with Maya as he gave her the shot was truly something special for a couple of reasons.
The most obvious thing was their history. It was a genuine gesture, an act of care and contrition, and those bits support why he's great at Crisis One and with patients.
But it also felt significant to have him as this gruff, politically incorrect type of guy who, since softened and evolved, showed Maya such kindness and care.
Maybe it gave her hope for her brother, or it was a connection between two trauma survivors who are still coming out from the other side.
Maya: I found my, uh, my brother. He's so hateful! And I thought, I thought a little piece of him was still left, but, he's gone. Oh my God, I cut him off. How could I do that?
Beckett: Maya...
Maya: I'm a horrible person!
Beckett: Maya, you did what you needed to do.
Maya: Why does it feel like somebody died or something?
Beckett: That's actually apparently a real thing. It's called ambiguous loss. It hurts like hell, but you had to make a choice, and it was either him or you.
And something was validating, for lack of a better word, about having that positive male interaction and expression of tenderness and care after rehashing experiences with her father with her bigoted brother.
It was just a layered moment between two broken people piecing things together. And Maya needed to hear, especially from someone she isn't close to, that she'd be a great mom.
It was meaningful from a man she butted heads with, yes, but also someone who knows what it's like not to want to become like his family, someone who has to work every day not to fall into cycles.
The cases of the week got little traction. Paula was hilarious, but that case mainly involved fodder to bring Theo Ruiz back to Station 19, where he could play matchmaker between Travis and sexy, funny Dominic and place himself in the vicinity of Vic.
And Andy barely got to do much. But her interaction with the Native tribe garnered her respect and possible favor. And she now, after brainstorming with the others, may have a solution for their budgeting issues.
It's a shame it took so long for her to realize they could get through this if they came together.
Finally, can we talk about that steamy montage? They finally put that 10 p.m. time slot to use with all that sexy time.
It was so very hot.
That said, the Vic and Theo reunion was frustrating because, unlike Beckett, they haven't done a good job of allowing Theo to evolve or address his issues in the background.
We've just moved on with no real explanation, and now they've put them back together. Their reunion doesn't feel earned.
They could've sold it if they bothered to earn it.
Other Thoughts:
- Nothing was more unexpected than the boob doughnuts-to-boob-touching transition. Whoever did that is a freaking gem. I belly laughed.
- I'm happy for Ben. And he and Bailey are forever goals.
- When will Jack Gibson come back from war? I'm just so distraught with how he got shafted this season for no reason. It's inexcusable what little they've done with and for him, particularly in the FINAL season.
- Ross showing up in the last three minutes to compliment Andy and have sex with Sullivan was so weird.
- I wish there were ever something more to Travis' storyline than him connecting with random guys he can never commit to -- it's the same story. Let's be grateful he didn't appear in the montage, making the same old mistakes.
- I at least hope the sex was great, Vic, because I'm confused.
Vic: Why are you smiling?
Theo: It's just nice to have you back, Hughes?
- Andy looked very connected when they incorporated her into the ceremony. There is something about hearing tribal drums that feels so profoundly spiritual, like connecting to ancestors you don't even know if you have.
- Two A Million Little Things alum in one episode was awesome.
Over to you, Station 19 Fanatics. How do you feel about Maya and Mason's reunion? Sound off below!
Station 19 airs Thursdays on ABC. You can stream the following day on Hulu.