SPOILER ALERT: This interview accommodates spoilers for “One Final Time,” the collection finale of ABC’s“Station 19,”streaming on Hulu as of Could 31.
For a present that spent most of its time placing its characters in mortal hazard, it’s exceptional that “Station 19” accomplished its collection finale with almost everybody alive and nicely — besides, in fact, for Kate (Kiele Sanchez), the most recent addition to 19 who by no means did fairly handle to turn out to be part of the household. Kate acquired sucked up into a hearth twister — a firenado, maybe — changing into the finale’s solely casualty. Regardless of accidents and burns and smoke inhalation, everybody else lived on to firefight one other day, with visions of their vivid futures dancing forward of them. After years of coping with the cruel realities of firefighting, all of them acquired their completely happy ending.
The episode, which was directed by showrunner Peter Paige, spent most of its time persevering with to take care of the large wildfire that was hurtling towards Seattle. Theo (Carlos Miranda) was injured by a falling tree, however rapidly patched up by medical doctors at Gray Sloan Memorial Hospital. Maya (Danielle Savre) was saved from an enormous wall of fireside by her coworkers, which was nice information for her newly pregnant spouse Carina (Stefania Spampinato). Andy (Jaina Lee Ortiz) endangered herself by defending her workforce on her personal, touchdown herself within the hospital with burns however no main injury.
As all of them confronted the likelihood that this hearth may very well be their final, the members of Station 19 every envisioned the long run they had been preventing for. Maya noticed a giant household with Carina, that includes at the least 4 children and a few basic mother haircuts, whereas Theo pictured a spouse and son. Ben (Jason George) noticed himself and Miranda (Chandra Wilson) sitting in auditoriums watching their children — Tuck, Joey, and Prue — graduate with honors. Travis (Jay Hayden) imagined touring museums in D.C. with Vic and Dom (Johnny Sibilly) by his facet, whereas Vic hoped for enormous success for Disaster One with Dean (Okieriete Onaodowan, in a visitor look) cheering her on from the afterlife. Sullivan (Boris Kodjoe) and Ross (Merle Dandridge) acquired married and performed tennis with Beckett (Josh Randall) and Ross’ sister Jinny (Yunjin Kim).
Andy, as she lay unconscious in her hospital mattress after having her burns debrided, watched the second her relationship with Jack (Gray Damon) fell aside again in Season 1 — just for current day Jack to indicate up and take her in his arms. And positive, it was a dream, however that doesn’t imply it wasn’t additionally actual.
Whereas the thought is that these visions are simply hopes visualized in moments of nice concern, Paige and co-showrunner Zoanne Clack aren’t saying they didn’t occur. Additionally they gained’t say they did occur, however viewers can take from that what they are going to.
Right here’s what positively did occur, ultimately: Vic moved to D.C., and Travis shocked everybody by becoming a member of her. Ben, the eternally job hopper, determined to return to complete his surgical residency (hiya, Season 21 of “Gray’s Anatomy”?). A number of years later, Maya grew to become captain of Station 19, the place Prue was ultimately a brand new probie — and Andy had been promoted to fireside chief.
Under, Paige and Clack get into the main points of the ultimate episode ever of “Station 19.”
So Andy and Jack. They made out in Andy’s hallucination, however then are you able to say in the event that they’re again collectively in actual life?
Zoanne Clack: I really feel just like the flash forwards are potentialities. They’re a future that would occur, given a sure path. So we selected the trail that [Andy and Jack] discover their means again to one another. However who is aware of what would have occurred in Season 8?
So these flash forwards are all what might have occurred sooner or later, not what really did occur essentially?
Clack: We had been making an attempt to say that after they’re of their stress interval — what they need in that second to occur of their futures. It’s a risk that they really feel like is one thing that they’re striving for.
Peter Paige: It’s what they’re preventing for, what’s retaining them alive.
What was your general imaginative and prescient for the finale? How did you resolve how you can steadiness wanting towards the long run with preventing this wildfire within the current?
Paige: We talked about it so much.
Clack: We beloved the idea of the wildfire, and them actually preventing onerous and exhibiting them doing their jobs in these closing episodes. The wildfire that Peter pitched initially of the season appeared to be the right method to present them really fire-fighting. Then after we heard we weren’t coming again, we tried to think about what we’d wish to see, and the place we’d need them to land in a fantastic world.
That is the attractive world that we wished to arrange, to go additional than simply “Station 19,” to take out into the world. What will we wish to put on the market? I watched a variety of collection finales, and took issues that I actually beloved, and I actually didn’t need the whole lot to be on the finish. I actually wished it to be all through [the episode], after which we got here up with this concept that after they’re tremendous careworn or about to lose their lives, what are they hoping for? What are they envisioning? That’s the way it all happened.
Paige: I feel when the present acquired canceled, we talked so much about its impression and its legacy and what it meant, and one of many issues that I feel we at the least thematically wished to bolster is the concept Station 19 doesn’t finish. It’s a philosophy. It’s a means of wanting on the world. It’s a means of exhibiting up for folks, being of service. We would like our followers to take that into their lives. We would like our followers to hold these themes and messages which are so vital to them, that make the present resonate for them, into the true world and activate them. That was, I feel, a giant a part of how we structured the top of the present.
Clack: After which there’s that final tune, with Peter’s devastating final shot over [new Ingrid Michaelson song] “It By no means Ends.”
The wildfire was the plan whatever the present ending, proper?
Paige: Appropriate.
So then are you able to speak about what different moments you felt such as you needed to hit in a collection finale? I personally was very excited to see Carina go well with up.
Clack: That was one of many ones we wished to hit! Had we gotten a Season 8, we had been going to attempt to combine her extra into the hearth time, in order that second was going to occur in Episode 7 or 8. However then after we knew it was the top, we simply wished to ensure we acquired her on the market preventing with the remainder of the firefighters. In order that was a giant second. We simply actually wished to hit each character, and the place they had been going to land. We introduced the entire common actors in to speak with them about the place they felt their character would go, since they’ve been residing with them for seven seasons. Amazingly, we had already considered a variety of the issues that they had been speaking about, however there have been some gems we took. We simply actually wished to go full circle.
Are you able to speak in regards to the closing moments with Andy as Battalion Chief, strolling out of the station — at what level did that turn out to be your ending?
Clack: We went backwards and forwards so much [on the final moment], and I suppose we ended up compromising. I had this sense that I actually wished to see the firehouse empty with the lights turned off, sort of like Norman Lear. Peter was actually preventing for [something that showed] that they reside on and so they transfer on. We each wished her to be Chief, as a result of it felt just like the end result of her journey. She’s taken this captain journey all via this season, and she or he’s gonna preserve going. She’s gonna preserve preventing each fires and for this profession longevity, so we merged all these collectively and we’re capable of have that lovely stroll out into the daylight second.
And he or she will get along with Jack? I do know folks had been just a little unhappy that Jack was gone most of this season after having his goals ripped away.
Paige: That was one of many causes we did that. That’s a narrative we wished to discover, that isn’t talked about on these exhibits fairly often. It’s not a eternally profession, and it’s a profession of ardour. Individuals speak about it with ballerinas on a regular basis, however firefighters have it too. There’s a brief shelf life for a lot of firefighters, and I assumed it was actually vital to have a look at: How does that occur? What occurs to them, how do they emotionally get via that? That was what we had been making an attempt to do with Jack this season.
And when Jaina got here to us, we had been speaking about her skilled endings, after which we began speaking about private ones. She was like, “I imply…Jack?” And we had been like, “Jack!” And after we figured that out, we had been like “Oh, that’s fairly satisfying.” And after we discovered how to return in time, that is without doubt one of the most creatively fulfilling moments of my profession. Zo and I had been bouncing concepts backwards and forwards, and one individual will go, “Oh, this!” And the opposite one will say, “Oh, this!” I used to be like, OK, let me go watch the footage and see if we are able to really shoot this, and we broke it down. I simply assume it’s so thrilling and satisfying and I imagine that second is Andy determining it’s all the time been Jack, after which them holding arms and him saying she’ll by no means be alone. Even her simply saying Jack’s chili is healthier than Dean’s. You solely say that should you’re in love.
That was a courageous remark, particularly to Vic.
Clack: Half the writers actually wished it, and at first, we had been like, “Are we positive?” We actually went via a variety of [ideas], and Andy’s [story] was just a little bit tougher as a result of we knew we wished her to be Chief, and that was gonna be the final second. So we didn’t need that to be in her flashforward, and we additionally wished to have one thing for Jack.
We tried to place in another issues for Jack, like we actually wished him to have a foster care middle. However we felt prefer it was so fulfilling for him to have his flashforward with Andy.
Every other moments you had been notably keen on, apart from two totally different Andy and Jack makeout scenes?
Clack: Yeah, it’s humorous as a result of two of the issues that I feel had been essentially the most inventive we considered late within the sport, as a result of we simply wished [the finale] to be richer, fuller. Just like the Dean scene.
Paige: We went backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards about Vic’s flashforward, like what’s worthy of her journey? Was it a Ripley factor? That, to me, would have felt like she was caught and searching backwards, not wanting forwards, whereas Dean nonetheless had this wealthy emotional life and it felt like shifting her towards her targets.
I additionally wish to say Travis exhibiting up on the airport might be my favourite cinematic romcom second in my entire profession, and I’ve executed fairly just a few of them.
You set lots of people in peril in these closing episodes however nobody died.
Paige: Kate died!
OK, apart from Kate, nobody died. Was there ever a dialogue of shedding somebody? It is a Shondaland present, in spite of everything.
Paige: Oh my God, yeah. 1,000,000. My God, the conversations, the arguments, the backwards and forwards. There have been lots of people in jeopardy for varied intervals of time — simply not the gays. Did anyone ever actually assume we had been gonna bury our gays? Have they ever learn an interview with Peter Paige or watched a Peter Paige manufacturing?
Hear, you bought that pressure in there. As quickly as Carina came upon she was pregnant, I used to be like, oh no, Maya is in peril.
Paige: After we discovered that cowl of “Oh What a Great World,” it was like oh yeah, that is growing the strain tenfold as a result of the tune is so stunning and easy. Maya’s gonna die in that fireplace for positive!
Clack: I simply couldn’t [kill anyone], in my coronary heart and my soul. I couldn’t let it finish like that. I imply, we toyed with it. I put it in for a short time, however I simply couldn’t. I didn’t need all of the grief that comes with shedding a comrade, and we’ve been via it a variety of occasions on this present. Finally, I simply wished them to have an ending with out the grief.
You each solely acquired to run the present for a season, but it surely was a heck of a season. What is going to you are taking away from this present?
Paige: Look, this has been a unprecedented privilege. Am I bummed that it was solely 10 episodes? Yeah, in fact I’m. However I’m extremely pleased with what the workforce has executed creatively. I feel we landed the airplane rather well, and there’s a privilege with attending to do what you recognize is the final season, as a result of in tv, folks must evolve incrementally, proper? You may’t repair them as a result of it’s a must to do one other episode subsequent week and so they nonetheless gotta have stuff to be taught and challenges to beat.
However once you’re within the final season, you can begin to reap the fruits of these labors, in order that was actually satisfying and actually enjoyable. We acquired to do all this stuff that had been the end result of [the series]. I’m additionally deeply, deeply proud. Zoanne and I set a pair targets for ourselves after we took over the present, and a giant one was tradition, and and we now have gotten such extraordinary suggestions from the solid and crew in regards to the tradition of the present this 12 months and about how seen and heard and validated and the way a lot possession folks felt to the present, and the way you understand how a lot part of the workforce that they felt like they had been. To me, that’s each bit as vital a win as telling actually nice tales, which I’m additionally proud to say — not a stinker within the bunch, both.
Clack: Creatively, I assumed it was fantastically executed with the very small episodes linked with the massive episodes, which actually helped to delve into these characters and their journeys and actually get to know them as folks, which I assumed was sort of a fantastic, inventive factor that Peter and I each wished to do, and one thing that I wish to take ahead. I really feel like having these bottle episodes is, like, economically cautious, but in addition simply stunning.
They are often fantastic storytelling, And such as you stated, the tradition that was created was so stunning. We had a “no yelling” coverage. It was not poisonous in any means. Everybody felt a chunk of it, felt possession, felt like they had been heard and that was tremendous, tremendous vital. I simply was so so pleased with having this non poisonous, stunning working setting that I’ll actually, actually miss.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
