The firefights of Seattle’s Station 19 first graced audience’s screens in 2018 on ABC as they balanced their dangerous profession with their sometimes chaotic personal lives, from family drama to romance. The show was the second spin-off of Grey’s Anatomy. Station 19came to an end in the spring of 2024 after seven seasons and over 100 episodes, and fans have been campaigning to save it.
Although Station 19 remained compelling and entertaining all through its run, some episodes still stand out among the others. At its best, the professional and personal lives of the team collided, with their decisions and the dangerous situations they faced having an impact on not just their jobs but their relationships. The best episodes also featured intense emergencies which kept viewers on the edge of their seats, and it’s no surprise that some of the show’s best stories were also among its most heartbreaking.
10 “Invisible to Me”
Season 1, Episode 2
With Pruitt (Miguel Sandoval) gone after having retired in the series premiere, Andy (Jaina Lee Ortiz) and Jack (Grey Damon) struggled to work together in “Invisible to Me” as both were in charge until new leadership could be put in place, and they were competing with each other for the position of Captain. The crew responded to a car accident, as well as to a pulled fire alarm at a middle school, where a pregnant 13-year-old needed help.
One of the strongest episodes of Station 19 came early on with “Invisible to Me.” Although it’s not among the highest-rated episodes, it set the tone for the series moving forward and gave audiences an idea of what to expect. The show’s cast were also impressive in the episode, from their interactions with each other to their handling of the episode’s emergencies, and the situation involving the 13-year-old girl was particularly compelling.
9 “Comfortably Numb”
Season 4, Episode 14
Ben (Jason George) finally addressed the possibility that he had testicular cancer and went into surgery, with Andy and Sullivan (Boris Kodjoe) by his side, while Jack and Inara (Colleen Foy) helped their neighbor after she fell out of a window in Season 4 episode “Comfortably Numb.” Meanwhile, Maya (Danielle Savre) and Carina (Stefania Spampinato) nearly faced splitting up when issues with Carina’s visa threatened to force her back to Italy, but in the end, the couple got engaged, despite Carina having said she’d never get married.
“Comfortably Numb” was a huge episode for Maya and Carina in particular. After plenty of ups and downs, including in this episode alone, they finally decided to tie the knot. Given Carina’s stance on marriage, their engagement came as a bit of a surprise, but it was also proof of why she was willing to go to stay with Maya. The episode was also a major one for Ben, as he finally acknowledged the benefits of surgery and faced his fears.
8 “Crash and Burn”
Season 2, Episode 8
In the mid-season premiere “Crash and Burn,” Andy and Sullivan were trapped in an overturned ambulance in a ravine after a windstorm. Sullivan couldn’t feel his legs, and it was unclear if his paralysis was temporary. To make matters worse, their radios were down, meaning the rest of the team didn’t know where they were and raced to find them. And although Andy and Sullivan survived, unfortunately, their patient did not.
Any episode in which a team member’s life is at stake is an intense one, and “Crash and Burn” was no exception. But on top of being a compelling episode, it put Andy in the spotlight and showcased her skills, as well as some of her best character traits, as the only one in the crash able to act, she pushed through her own injuries, which could’ve been life-threatening, to do everything she could to make sure they were found.
7 “Hot Box”
Season 1, Episode 9
In “Hot Box,” with the station still anxiously awaiting the decision of who would be promoted to captain, Pruitt advised Andy not to be disappointed when it was announced. Meanwhile, the team got trapped inside the garage of a burning house, and the garage’s steel structure made it more difficult for anyone to break through to rescue them, on top of the fact that the heat was not only dangerous but unbearable.
Some of the most intense moments of Station 19 came when multiple members of the team were in danger, the aptly titled “Hot Box” included. It was a stressful situation not only for those trapped but for Pruitt, too, Andy was among them, and he’d worked in a similar situation, only by the time he made it in, everyone in that scenario was dead. The episode also showed the team working together and thinking outside the box to save lives.
6 “I’ll Be Seeing You”
Season 3, Episode 12
Pruitt’s old friends visited the station in “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Meanwhile, the team responded to a fire at a storage facility, caused by a lit cigarette, and the unstable roof made it even more dangerous. The situation ended up being more complicated than it originally seemed when the team learned someone was living and had become trapped in one of the units. After the team became trapped, Pruitt decided to vent the fire and he fell through the roof, leading to his death.
“I’ll Be Seeing You” presented one challenge after another. Ultimately, it was a fitting but devastating sendoff for Pruitt, he died doing what he loved and, most importantly, sacrificed himself to save his team, including his daughter, and his death was made all the more poignant by the fact that his friends had been visiting. His cancer diagnosis meant his death was inevitable, but it ended up happening in an unexpected way.
5 “Little Girl Blue”
Season 5, Episode 6
In “Little Girl Blue,” the team of Station 19 gathered with Station 23 to celebrate Thanksgiving in the aftermath of a neighborhood explosion, which killed Dean (Okieriete Onaodowan) and left his colleagues grieving. His death particularly affected Vic (Barrett Doss), his best friend, who he’d asked to join him in California and who was recovering from her own injuries. Dean’s death also raised the question of who would care for his daughter, Pruitt (Janai Kaylani).
The holiday combined with the fresh loss of Dean meant “Little Girl Blue” was full of emotional moments, even though it glossed over his funeral. Pru was a stark reminder of what happened. On top of asking where her father was, Vic struggled to be around her, while Andy was reminded of her own childhood. The episode also addressed the many ways grief can manifest, sometimes in the same person.
4 “Friendly Fire”
Season 2, Episode 14
Vic and Ripley (Brett Tucker) faced possible disciplinary action over their relationship and try to come up with a solution in “Friendly Fire,” leading them to consider marriage, a loophole in the rules, while Andy finds out about Maya and her ex Jack’s relationship. Elsewhere, Station 19 responded to a fire at a coffee-processing plant, where the flammable coffee beans made the situation particularly dangerous, and Ripley put himself in harm’s way to save another captain on the scene.
“Friendly Fire” was an intense, dramatic episode. Andy and Maya hit a snag in their friendship, one that threatened to end it entirely. But one of the episode’s biggest moments involved Ripley, although he made it out of the fire unscathed, he collapsed the next morning, and his fate was left unknown. The fact that it came just as he and Vic were considering getting married made it all the more terrifying and devastating.
3 “Always Ready”
Season 2, Episode 15
In the aftermath of the fire at the coffee plant in “Friendly Fire,” Ripley checked himself out of Grey Sloan hospital, only to learn his health was at risk after being exposed to hydrofluoric acid in Grey’s Anatomy crossover “Always Ready.” He returned to the hospital for treatment, but it was too late, the acid affected his body quickly and was in his lungs and had affected his already weak heart.
Ripley’s health made “Always Ready” an intense episode, and things became downright devastating when he learned just how bad the situation was. The episode was not only one of the best but also one of the saddest, full of emotional moments, especially for Ripley and Vic. His death came just as the couple were discussing marriage, and he intended to accept her proposal. The flashbacks to earlier in the relationship only served to make the episode even more heartbreaking.
2 “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
Season 2, Episode 16
In “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” the crew gathers for Ripley’s funeral. They were all still struggling in the aftermath of his death. Specifically, Jack struggled with his PTSD, which he had from the skyscraper fire, but leaned on each other for support. Meanwhile, Andy and Ben helped a man who had been impaled by a chandelier, while the team organized supplies to help with a wildfire raging in California.
Station 19 delivered multiple gut-punch episodes in a row with Season 2’s fire at a coffee-processing plant. The last of them, “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” was an emotional sendoff for Ripley, with a sad but poignant funeral for him and a moving eulogy from Sullivan. The episode also continued to explore the team’s grief, from Jack’s PTSD to Vic’s range of emotions, complicated by the fact that she couldn’t exactly define her relationship with Ripley.
1 “Not Your Hero”
Season 1, Episode 10
In “Not Your Hero,” the team respond to a skyscraper fire, where Charlotte (Jee Young Han), a firefighter from another crew, raced in without considering the dangers. Meanwhile, Ripley held final interviews to fill the role of captain, and Andy was convinced she was out of the running. Warren passed the 50-fire milestone, meaning he was no longer considered a rookie and was given the keys to the aid car.
“Not Your Hero” was a great, intense end to Station 19’s inaugural season. Charlotte and Andy’s behavior contrasted the differences in their characters—Charlotte was impulsive and reckless, and although Andy recognized the danger, she couldn’t stand by when someone was possibly hurt or worse. The episode ended on multiple cliffhangers, as well as questions for the following season, with an explosion in its final moments and multiple firefighters left injured or unaccounted for.
