Spoilers ahead for the penultimate episode of Station 19 Season 3, called "Bad Guy."
Station 19 managed to set up an intriguing Season 3 finale next week with "Bad Guy," although the finale will likely be as preoccupied with Grey's Anatomy stories as with its own. Still, despite Sullivan proving that he's not a totally bad guy by outing Dixon's corruption, Jackson getting shot during a PRT run, and Emmett Dixon quitting as a firefighter, the event that really stuck with me was yet another hookup between the heroes of Station 19, and it was enough that I'm ready for the hookups to stop.
Upset that Carina kept pressing her about her abusive father, Maya had a blowout with Jack over their respective issues, and they resolved it by hooking up in Maya's bunk. As one does! Afterward, Maya admitted that maybe she is a little broken, prompting Jack to admit that he might be as well. If their hookup had been the only instance of hookups between coworkers recently, I might have be thrilled by a crazy twist. Instead, I was exasperated that Station 19 characters were hitting the sheets together again.
Season 3 has delivered Andy and Jack, Sullivan and Andy, Emmett and Travis, and now Maya and Jack. Honestly, considering how much time Jackson has spent on Station 19 in the third season, I may as well add Vic and Jackson to the list from before their breakup.
Now, I love a good ill-advised TV romance as much as the next person, and I really want to root for Dean and Vic to figure themselves out. As it stands, however, I'm more nervous that Station 19 will skip the classic will-they/won't-they stage of TV romance and just hook them up right away or unceremoniously nix it altogether. By this point, I more or less expect two characters to be having sex by the end of the episode if they have a heated exchange or even loaded glance.
Admittedly, part of this is due to my ongoing bitterness about how Station 19 rushed Andy and Sullivan's relationship when there was so much potential in a courtship that lasted long than half a season before tying the knot in a courthouse ceremony in a flashback, and I was loving the Carina/Maya dynamic, so the Maya/Jack hookup might just have been the straw that broke me.
Still, did we really need to see Maya cheat on Carina to have sex with Jack, of all people? I know it was to demonstrate that she's broken, but there are nuanced ways to show character development without characters hooking up with each other, and fewer spontaneous hookups could make potential romances much more exciting. The bear attack remains the lowlight of the third season so far for me, and even that episode wasn't without a hookup that shouldn't have happened! (Admittedly, at least Jack knew that one was a bad idea.)
If Station 19 really is going to pursue a potential serious romance between Vic and Dean, for example, I want the show to make me wait for it and root for it and work for it. Andy and Sullivan seem bound to face some serious issues, if not fall apart, and Maya's hookup with Jack (and subsequent throwing it in Carina's face) is pretty messy. Honestly, I'm just glad Ben is in a happy, stable relationship with Bailey from Grey's Anatomy.
Station 19 doesn't have much time left to hook its characters up with each other in Season 3, though. The May 14 episode will be the Season 3 finale (and half of what was meant to be an epic Station 19/Grey's Anatomy crossover), so be sure to tune in to ABC on Thursday, May 14 at 9 p.m. ET for the final episode of Station 19 before Season 4.
