The glamorous life isn’t so glamorous when lives are at risk.
It’s been an incredibly gratifying, emotional, dramatic, and action-packed season of Station 19, and they’re about to keep that same momentum and close things out in style with Station 19 Season 6 Episode 18.
And we do mean close things out in style.
The Firefighters Ball is a formal affair with our favorite characters trading in soot for suits and helmets for heels.
Seriously, everyone looks absolutely gorgeous. Why is everyone in this series so impossibly pretty?
You know it will be a good installment when they take everyone out of their usual environment and stick them in a formal affair, prompting different interactions, all kinds of drama, and so much romantic tension you can cut it with a knife.
We know that Ben is getting a commendation for his heroic save at the sober house. However, it’s something that he’s still struggling with since he couldn’t save everyone.
Ben almost died. Ironically, it’s the type of thing he was supposed to be avoiding when he made that deal in exchange for raising Pru, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if that element of things comes back to haunt him in the finale.
Station 19 doesn’t forget, and it’s the type of drama that could be ripe for the picking, especially since Bailey has also been jeopardizing her family because of her work in women’s healthcare, has her getting doxxed and harassed by hundreds of pro-life protestors.
But for now, Ben and Bailey are stable, and she’s come a long way in accepting his job as a firefighter and championing him.
We see she’ll be speaking at the event, honoring the firefighters as heroes, and likely introducing her husband before he receives a high honor.
Despite Ben’s mixed feelings about the whole thing, it’s well-earned, and hopefully, things will end positively for him.
Of course, the hour also teases that the fate of one of their own will be in jeopardy or at least that one of their own will face a shocking end.
Everyone shows up to the event as a team and family, although the stills and promo don’t show Maya donned up for the affair.
What are the odds that she’s still happily canoodling with Carina somewhere? We can only hope that’s what her absence is about and nothing more.
Thus far, the stills also don’t show Beckett. Despite his rough, exhausting, and shockingly emotional season, one would’ve thought he could attend the event. However, Vic was able to talk him through his suicidal ideation and into returning to rehab.
Does that mean it’s the last of Beckett for the remainder of Station 19 Season 6? Perhaps.
But someone who is showing up is Kate Powell, and while she looks beautiful in her gown, we’re still not a fan.
She’s hard to place, doesn’t present herself well, and some of the things she says are downright offputting.
And we still need to understand the extent of her relationship with Theo. It’s bad enough that they have such a vibe that you could see something happening between them, but she’s made a different connection with Gibson.
Jack has had a lowkey season. After finding his way back home after his rough patch of depression, he’s stayed mostly under the radar and been underused.
He’s starting to expand his family with his new connection with his birth sister, and now, she’s reunited him with Lila, the foster sister he’s longed to be with again for most of his life.
Hopefully, we’ll get to see remnants of what that reunion has been like.
With his professional life and his family dynamics falling into place, it wouldn’t be surprising if they’re trying to set him up with something on the romantic front. Unfortunately, Kate Powell is in the front running.
And she may be staying awhile as she continues to get the lay of the land and bonds with some of the other team members.
We’ll likely see her sticking around longer if Theo wins this bid for the captain.
The captain race is still on, but the finale reassures us that we’ll get an answer, and someone will be named captain once and for all.
We can’t wait for this. It’s been too long of a dog race, and it’s time to put this storyline to be for a bit, even if the newly named captain doesn’t stick.
Theo started showing promise as the first to challenge Beckett’s authority, but he fell off once he stepped into the position.
He’s not confident in his abilities, overthinks, and rubs people the wrong way. On more than one occasion, his competitors, both Sullivan and Andy, have either walked him through calls or taken them over in some capacity.
It doesn’t bode well for him in that regard. He’s also been slipping in a few different ways. One of the most offensive is his treatment of Vic.
Can we just say that Vic looks absolutely STUNNING here? Goodness, that woman cleans up nicely!
As the season has progressed, Theo has gone from this loving, supportive boyfriend to this man who cuts down, disregards, and disrespects his girlfriend, and it’s been frustrating to witness.
The worst thing is that we haven’t explored where this personality shift stems from, but maybe they’ll finally give us answers in the finale. They can set us up for a Theo redemption arc and character exploration in the next season.
Theo’s latest mishap completely dismissed Vic’s hunch, knowledge, and work as a crisis one worker when she expressed concern about Beckett.
As we saw, Vic saved Beckett’s life, her gut 100% on point, with Theo none the wiser. And he likely wouldn’t be there to support her when she needed it after the emotional writing out she got from nearly losing one of their own.
One can only hope that in this finale, we can finally address the dissolution of the Vic/Theo ship, and hopefully, they can take a step back from each other.
At this point, Theo needs to get it together, and Vic deserves much better.
On the relationship front, we also should get a clear-cut answer about Sullivan and Ross and where they stand as a couple and professionally.
Ross put up a good fight for her position after the fallout from her affair with Sullivan, but there’s always the chance she could lose her position as chief.
In fact, as the series constantly opts to explore sexism in their field, albeit inconsistently, it wouldn’t be a shock if Ross experienced a fall from grace despite her best efforts. It would be a sucky setback but would open the door to a new, exciting storyline for her next season.
Ross approaches Sullivan about their relationship in the promo, and we even hear her asking him to love her.
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with this relationship, and they’ve certainly been through hell together, but badass, strong Natasha Ross delivering a Meredith-level “Pick me, choose me” speech doesn’t sit well.
Fingers crossed that this doesn’t play out exactly as it looks because while it would be beautiful for Ross to learn that she can have the job and the guy, no one should have to beg someone to love them.
Of course, if things with Sullivan don’t pan out, there’s also the matter of Andy and Sullivan bonding more than usual recently. Would the series revisit their relationship?
They’ve been in their best place since they were together; even overcoming the tension over Ross would ease and maturity. Andy barely got to scratch the surface of a romantic arc with Eli, and she’s probably due for something.
Could Sullivan be it?
Of course, if she gets named captain, a position she’s wanted all her life, she could focus on that instead. She’s spent most of the season showcasing how the position could suit her and that she’s grown in some ways.
At this point, she could be a shoo-in for the position.
It’s interesting to see that she’s getting friendly with the new mayor of Seattle, and one would love to think that she could be the person to foster a great relationship between the office and the firefighter entity.
Travis seems perfectly content despite not being mayor. We know he didn’t want the position so much as he wanted Dixon to lose, and with Roble in the gig, he got everything he wanted.
And that includes Eli. The love triangle between him, Eli, and Andy fizzled before it could really take off. And it seems like he and Eli have made sexy amends and are in a good place, but hopefully, we’ll see them have an actual discussion in the finale.
Out of the season, it feels like Eli and Travis are the only romantic couple that will make it out of this season on solid ground outside of Bailey, Ben, and of course, Marina.
Speaking of Marina, we only have a little to go or speculate about this pairing based on what was provided.
But what an incredibly grueling, emotionally exhaustive road they’ve gone down this season.
And despite that, they somehow managed to end up in a more beautiful space than where they began.
No one would’ve imagined that after where Maya stated that she wouldn’t be the frontrunner in the captain’s race now.
But could they pull a surprise mood and reward her with the position even after she conceded, realized that it’s okay for her not to be ready right now, and put her relationship first?
It would be an interesting twist, that’s for sure.
Maya has spent all season unpacking her trauma after hitting absolute rock bottom, and it’s been some heavy work.
Now that she’s gone through that and seems to be in a better place, it wouldn’t be a surprise for the finale to have Marina end on a happier note.
We haven’t checked in on Carina’s pregnancy state in a while, and they’ve deliberately kept things vague about that. I imagine we would get an update on where they stand in their journey toward parenthood, even if it takes an unexpected turn.
With everything that has happened with Carina and Maya this season, they’re about the only characters who probably will be safe from anything traumatic in the finale.
Assuming that by not showing them in the promo or the stills, it doesn’t suggest otherwise.
It’s been an incredibly strong season of Station 19, and the finale should be no different.
What are you most looking forward to in the finale? What are your theories and speculation?! Hit the comments below!
The season finale of Station 19 airs Thursday at 8/7c on ABC. We’ll provide a full review for you. If you need to catch up, you can watch Station 19 online here via TV Fanatic.
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You’ll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on Twitter.
