Station 19 (3×05) Into the Woods Review

For our review of last episode, click here.

Sullivan finds himself experiencing post-injury pain while the station is dealing with their own pain and punishment through Maya’s insane new training regiment. Flashback to her athletics career and it starts to show why she is the way that she is. While she hasn’t quite settled into her new leadership position, she manages to get some advice from Pruitt. His advice: take the team on a camping trip for morale. This sounds like a great idea. Here’s what happened in “Into the Woods.”

This morale building trip is less about the team bonding and more about Maya facing the inner demons that she has experienced her whole life. Through her past, we see a competition family dynamic that showed affection was earned. This pushed her to succeed as an Olympian while also pushing her brother into his downward spiral and eventual homelessness. Her parents may be supporting, but not in a conventional way. Unfortunately, Maya’s limited knowledge of support hasn’t translated well into a leadership role as she uses the same tactics to command her team. She expects 110% rather than small rewards causes the team to become increasingly tense.

Beyond this situation, the episode finds itself full of forced relationships. For starters, Dean decides the best option is to propose to JJ and become an upstanding parent. This abrupt return of a heavily pregnant JJ starts up a character arc for Dean that was missing after his family tried to set him up with arranged marriages. While it makes sense to throw an impromptu baby and wedding at his conservative family, it felt a bit random and contrived. The other situation involves Jack as he cannot seem to choose one bad scenario to put himself into. Not only does he sleep with Vasquez’ wife a tent away from him, but he also hooks up with Andy at the first opportunity he gets. Maybe they both aren’t in the best place, but the on-again-off-again hook up culture of this show gets a bit overdone. Where is the romance that other Shonda shows have had? Station 19 has intense characters, but there needs to be couples to root for too!

The final issue that arises is Sullivan’s increased pain which causes him to look for means to fix it. This includes taking more pain medicine and eventually shooting up seriously hard stuff at work (which I doubt is great for his reflexes and abilities). Sullivan has been an interesting character since he was brought into the station. From unlikable outsider, he grew to become a broken soul with a dead wife and eventual dead best friend. He didn’t even get much time to mourn the latter after he got injured and that event has led him into his current predicament. It’s just issue after issue for him so hopefully Sullivan can find some help for this situation and finally find the silver lining.

Don’t even get me started on the terrible CGI bear in this episode. That monstrosity manages to distract from an otherwise contrived and rather forgetful episode that finds itself sluggishly walking in place.

Captain’s Log

• When will Vasquez find out?
• Will Jack and Andy end this will-they-wont-they?
• How will Sullivan’s secret come out?
• What will Dean’s family say about his situation?
• Who will leave Station 19 next?

What did you think of “Into the Woods“? Let me know in the comments below!

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Dylan Phillips