SPOILER ALERT: The following reveals main plot factors from ABC‘s Station 19 collection finale.
It’s the tip of an period for followers of ABC’s Station 19 and collection showrunners Zoanne Clack and Peter Paige spoke to Deadline about all the choices that had been made and the surprises that had been revealed in “One Last Time.”
If you haven’t watched the episode but, please come again to this later. You have been warned.
DEADLINE: We have a lot to debate however I need to know, was that actually Okieriete Onaodowan within the finale? I debated very briefly if he was AI Dean?
PETER PAIGE: The disrespect of [using AI], we’d by no means. He was actually there.
DEADLINE: How did you get him to return again?
ZOANNE CLACK: It was beautiful. We known as him up and instructed him we had this concept. It’s not gonna be like a giant factor, but it surely’s actually vital. And he was like, “Stop talking. Yes.” So, he flew in from New York and he did it for us. He simply realized the significance of [the scene] and the way deep that went.
DEADLINE: I’m leaning into the surprising moments proper now. Andy and Jack? Are they endgame?
ZC: They’re endgame for her at that second. So every character was in a life-threatening scenario after they had their flash ahead they usually noticed what they wanted at that second. They noticed what they wanted to push on and transfer ahead. He’s at all times been her rock and somebody for her to lean on. I feel in that second, she was realizing, “Oh my God, it’s always been you.”
PP: In the current, you see he takes her hand and says, “You’ll never be alone.” And then at Vic’s going away celebration, you see these little moments of informal intimacy between them. I imply, she says his chili is best than Dean’s. If you’re not sleeping with somebody, why would you say that? In my head, do we all know what it appears to be like like? I don’t know. Are they one another’s particular person? Probably.
DEADLINE: This is a firefighter drama however at its coronary heart, this can be a present about love and household. Vic and Travis ended up with a love story for the ages. Why did you go the route you went with Travis leaving along with her?
PP: That is strictly proper. It is a love story for the ages. I like that there are 4 love tales that the finale highlights. Andy and Jack, which is the traditional began initially of the collection and completed on the finish, the heteronormative romance. Then you have got [Sullivan (Boris Kodjoe) and Ross (Merle Dandridge)] a Black energy couple who discover their softness and their pleasure and their sweetness in one another. We have a queer couple [Maya (Danielle Savre) and Carina (Stefania Spampinato)] who’ve overcome generations of fucking injury to have the ability to select one another and create a life collectively. And then now we have what I’ve been referring to because the platon-com, which is, that friendships are a number of the biggest loves of our lives and they aren’t celebrated sufficient. Vic and Travis are one another’s particular person they usually can construct lives that assist that and respect that and heart that. It’s completely each bit as legitimate of a life selection as getting married and placing a hoop on it. Look, rom-com is part of the Shondaland vocabulary and we wished to verify we had been honoring that in a means that felt recent and distinctive. This is my favourite second in the entire finale.
ZC: At one level, there was a number of clarification about what occurs when greatest mates transfer aside like after they develop aside. But we realized that we didn’t must say all of that as a result of it was of their moments, of their eyes and their actions. But that’s the truth; your greatest mates change as you undergo totally different levels. But this was such a robust bond and such an vital friendship that they didn’t need that to occur. And the best way that they determined to not have that occur is to journey collectively.
DEADLINE: By that time, I understood why Theo and Vic weren’t endgame. Not due to Theo or her, but it surely felt like they completed what they had been purported to collectively they usually launched each other to be joyful.
ZC: We love that that was a bit of your thought course of as a result of we tried to put in that maybe they may get collectively. Perhaps there is perhaps one thing together with his damage that attracts her again or the time that they slept collectively and he or she pushed him away. But he was so unhappy. As they are saying, folks come for a cause, a season, or a lifetime.
DEADLINE: Ben (Jason George) makes an enormous and never sudden resolution to return to his surgical residency. Can we count on to see him on Grey’s Anatomy?
PP: As you mentioned, I don’t suppose the rest would’ve made sense for him. That’s all I’m saying.
ZC: For Ben, it felt like a pure development to what was going to be the tip of the collection. It wouldn’t have occurred had we not needed to go. But everybody needed to transfer on and do various things. Push ahead. And that felt like the place he was going to push.
DEADLINE: We see Ben pleased with his daughter Pruitt on many events. Similar to his future, she was destined to be a part of Station 19. What are you able to share about that call?
ZC: When we determined that the flash-forward could be [Ben and Miranda (Chandra Wilson)] wanting on the totally different graduations for all their kids, it simply appeared like this stunning second that Pruitt was going to comply with within the footsteps of each her father’s. Bailey was not going to be that joyful about it, but in addition understood.
DEADLINE: With Maya and Carina it was at all times them two towards the world, besides in all these moments they had been battling one another. What are you able to share about ending their story as you probably did? They have each been via a lot collectively and individually.
ZC: You know, we initially had two flash-forwards for every character that, as a consequence of time, we needed to [cut], however we had a private and an expert. One of the flash-forwards we had was about Maya along with her daughter and having her performing some form of sport and simply being tremendous supportive, regardless that like she was the final particular person to cross the end line. So yeah, all the things is all about full circle. They’ve gone via their traumas, they work via issues, they’re in remedy and they’re working in the direction of a future collectively. We’ve already seen them undergo adversities that may proceed to occur, however we all know that they will push via it. So this was honoring that.
DEADLINE: One of the largest tragedies of the collection is that we didn’t have extra time with Johnny Sibilly who was good for Travis and vice versa. Is it okay if I think about their fortunately ever after collectively?
PP: There are airplanes and he says he needs to journey. Travis has a imaginative and prescient of the three of them touring collectively so it’s positively within the playing cards. We simply thought that Travis wanted to prioritize that love (for Vic) for now. It’s very it’s very, very doable that there’s extra to that story. Travis’s arc was conceived as he’s making a large number of issues. He blows all of it up with Emmett and Eli. He will get to take care of his father and finds himself all of a sudden prepared and open for the true factor. And within the door walks Dominic Amaya and the remainder will likely be left to to the tides of historical past.
DEADLINE: We gives you about 10 years earlier than we begin begging for a reunion. We wish to see what all performs out for them.
PP: Great.
ZC: OoOooOh.
DEADLINE: Was the fireplace burning meant to be symbolic like, everybody is prepared for a recent begin?
ZC: The wildfire was conceived from the start earlier than we knew we had been canceled. I imply, clearly there would have been much more cliffhangers than a season finale. [Laughs] But we’d at all times conceived of that and it did grow to be form of this stunning metaphor as we proceeded to be canceled. But there was a lot about displaying our firefighters doing the job that they’d been educated to do and displaying it within the final two episodes. Thematically there have been a number of full-circle moments like, there have been voiceovers within the first two seasons, so we introduced these again for the final two episodes. The flash forwards are both bringing the previous ahead to push them on or displaying how their progress has pushed them ahead. So it was all very thematic, as you say, that you simply needed to burn all of it all the way down to push them to their quick forwards. It actually simply helped propel all the things.
DEADLINE: Did you have got the rest in thoughts for storylines earlier than the present was canceled?
PP: There had been tales. Would now we have beloved to do a complete story the place Beckett begins courting Ginny and the way they get folded into the Sullivan/Ross relationship in an attention-grabbing means? Yes!
ZC: There was additionally a Carina arc. Remember when she grabbed her issues and went out into the sector? Part of the explanation we had been doing the lawsuit within the first place was that we actually wished to include her extra into the firefighting. She was possibly just a bit bit trepidatious about drugs and training drugs and wished to be out within the subject extra and do an EMS fellowship. She was going to swimsuit up like most likely episode 8 after which we had been going to comply with her out within the subject and extra built-in into the present for Season 8. But what we acquired was the second of the finale, which was nice, however not precisely the place we had been gonna take it.
DEADLINE: What do you hope viewers take with them from the collection?
PP: It’s proper there in Andy’s final speech. The present could also be over however 19 shouldn’t be a present, 19 is an concept, a assemble, a means of seeing the world. Carry it ahead. Carry it into your communities, carry it into your friendships, your relationships. Be the the values, the ethos that you simply beloved right here, be that on the earth. That is the best way to honor what you have got beloved about this expertise.
ZC: That final shot that Peter so excellently framed of the 19 after which the music saying, “and it never ends,” coupled with Andy’s final speech is the place we wish that to go. Keep the nice going and have that sense of group. Keep going.