Station 19 - S1E2: "Invisible to Me"

 

The episode opens with a couple in bed and a periodically chirping smoke alarm. The lady says she changed the battery only yesterday, but it keeps chirping, and she can’t “get into it.” When it chirps again, her partner knocks it off the ceiling.

Pruitt is giving Andy instructions on how to manage the team from his hospital bed while Andy is ordering him a healthy meal from the cafeteria. Ben is dropping his stepson Tuck off at school, and Tuck is having hard time adjusting to Ben’s new shift schedule and not being there all the time for him. Dean is woken up by Charlie, the dog he rescued in Episode 1. He says the only reason why the dog is there is because his owner’s new place doesn’t allow pets. What kind of anti-pet place does she live in, for Pete’s sake? How can you not like dogs? Back to Pruitt and Andy bickering. He wants to be released today, not tomorrow. Back to Ben and Tuck bickering. Ben suggests Tuck come to the Station after school. Tuck, being a typical kid not being told what he wants to hear, gives Ben a look of disdain as he gets out of the car. Dean realizes Charlie used his alarm clock as a chew toy. Pruitt gives Andy advice on how to handle Battalion Chief Frankel, who seems to be the person who will be making the decision of who will become Captain of Station 19. Andy, in her usual over-confident self, says she knows how to handle Frankel.

Andy and Maya are in the Station, and Maya is giving Andy a pep talk of how to handle Frankel and how to view McSmokey as her opponent, not ex-boyfriend. Frankel walks in and informs them that they are the least exciting thing on her schedule, she wants to get these interviews over quickly. They head into a conference room, and Jack pulls the chair out for her. She says she hope she isn’t trying to win favor with her. He assures her he was just being respectful. She congratulates Andy on her promotion. She talks about how tough it was to earn her rank and had nobody helping her. Andy is knocked down a peg by that, feeling the unseen slap. Frankel informs them that for now, one of them will be supervising the team for each shift and that they will be switching off. It will take months to fill the permanent Captain position. They have to take written exams, their peers need to be interviewed, as well as interviews with all levels of the Fire Department hierarchy. Frankel herself will be evaluating them. She says Andy is up first. McSmokey looks like smoke is coming out of his ears.

Andy, McSmokey and Frankel head downstairs and Andy calls the team to order. The only one who looks up is Maya, hahaha! McSmokey gets the rest of the team’s attention and tells them to listen up. Andy says she wants the team to work on some basics. She instructs them to pair off, but with new partners, not the folks they are used to pairing off with. Ben and Vic are paired up. Vic displays her enthusiasm at this prospect rather unvigorously. She tells Ben not to screw up while the Battalion Chief is watching. McSmokey is timing them on some drills. Ben doesn’t do well.

Frankel takes her leave and assures Andy that she will be popping in and out unscheduled. Just before Frankel hits the door, Dean rushes in late. Andy, feeling the need to assert her authority in front of Frankel, puts Dean on reception duty. Dean laughs, and Andy stares him down. She says that rules are rules. Dean argues that those are Pruitt’s rules, and that Pruitt isn’t even there. Andy tells him to take a seat. She’s going all in since Frankel is watching her. The fire alarms go off and the team heads out, minus Dean.

Maya is pumped that she is driving the fire engine. Maya is giving Andy a pep talk again. Seems to be Maya’s thing. Ben says, from the back, that he’s not that excited – they’ve been called to Tuck’s school. They meet the principal in the parking lot, who says it is probably a false alarm, while scolding some kids around her who are being little hoodlums, doing things they know they shouldn’t be doing. The principal addresses McSmokey, asking if they can disable the alarm and get the kids back inside quickly. Andy bristles at that and brings the principal’s attention on her. Looks like Andy is having difficulty with what they call “presence.”

Andy barks assignments to the team and they all scatter. Right when she says she will check in with law enforcement, her ex shows up. Uncanny timing, Ryan.

Ben and Vic enter the school and disarm the pulled fire alarm. The alarm, when pulled, ejects some sort of colored gel so that they know who will have pulled the alarm. They are continuing to sweep the school and Tuck shows up and says, “Hey, Dad.” He has his back turned to them, his hands shoved in his pockets, and acting super sus. When Ben asks him why he’s not outside, Tuck walks off. Ben follows him, and grabs his arm. Tuck’s hands are blue. Ben asks why Tuck pulled the alarm and Tuck says it was the quickest way he could get him there, no questions asked. Ben’s like, what the whaty-what? And Tuck leads him into a bathroom. There, on the floor, is a student in labor. Tuck asks his father if he can help.

The girl’s name is Ava. Her contractions are two minutes apart and her mother is the school principal. Who somehow hasn’t noticed that her daughter is pregnant. Ava confirms that her mother pays attention to every kid except for her. Ben is having a heart attack, wondering how he’s going to explain to Miranda that her son knocked someone up at their age, which looks to be about 12. Tuck assures him that he’s not the father, he and Ava are just friends. The boyfriend/father isn’t in school today because he is at the orthodontist getting his braces off. Dayum, Shonda! Ava’s contractions seem pretty painful, even for a 12-year-old. Vic tells Ben that Ava is fully dilated, and she pushes him out of the way. Apparently, she has forgotten that he was a surgeon who went through medical school. They prepare for delivery.

Back at the Station, Dean is bored at the reception desk and is sharpening pencils. Lots of pencils. Apparently, the computer in front of him is not equipped with Solitaire or the Internet, or surely he’d be on social media to pass the time. The young lady from the first scene appears with her battered smoke detector. She asks if Dean can fix it. Dean and the girl, J.J., are flirting. She tells Dean that the smoke detector keeps going off, even though she keeps changing the batteries. Hmmm, a smoke detector that goes off, usually indicates, I don’t know, smoke of some sort, right? I have questions. Dean tells her to get a new one, but she says she likes this one. I like many things in my house, but I’ve never had a preference of the smoke detectors. I like any that work. I’m just saying, is all. They continue to flirt.

At the school, Andy confirms it was a false alarm to Ryan. They are awkward. McSmokey comes back and confirms an all-clear to her, and she walks off to double check his work. Ryan tells Jack that he has his work cut out to win the Captain position, because Andy doesn’t lose at anything.

Andy is griping to Maya about how Jack had to get the team’s attention and that the principal assumed Jack was in charge. Maya tells her that she has to take the power. Girl power! Andy wants to get the kids back to class because Frankel will be checking how long they were at a false alarm.

Back in the labor and delivery room – I mean, lavatory, Ben tells Andy that they need some medical supplies from the Aid Car. Andy has already dismissed the Aid Car. Hmm, this looks like it may have been a big no-no.

Back at the Station, Dean is fixing the beaten smoke detector, and continuing to flirt with J.J. Travis walks in on them. He wants to know how long J.J. has been there since she is in her stocking feet. Since Travis is needling him, Dean finishes fixing the smoke detector and sends J.J. on her way. The Aid Car is called out. Travis takes Dean with him.

Back at the school, Andy is trying to get the Aid Car back, and the principal overhears her and demands to know why they need an Aid Car. She knows Andy isn’t telling her everything.

Back in the labor and delivery lavatory, Ava has to start pushing. She is terrified. Vic tries to calm her a bit by getting everyone to sing “I’m A Little Teapot.” The baby is born still in the amniotic sac. Dayum, Shonda! The baby isn’t moving. Andy is requesting a status report. Ben and Vic aren’t sure what to do. The baby moves and they decide to break the amniotic sac instead of waiting for the Aid Car. The baby, of course, is okay.

The principal comes into the lavatory, and tends to her daughter and grandchild. Andy defensively tells Ben that she made the right call by dismissing the Aid Car when she did. He never even brought it up and is taken aback by her reaction. He tells Tuck to scrub his hands, take his sweatshirt off, and not tell Miranda that he was the one who pulled the fire alarm.

Is it just me, or was pulling that alarm a little, I don’t know, extreme, to get his father there? I have questions.

Travis and Dean arrive at a retirement home. Their patient is a Mr. Paige, who can’t get up off his shower stool. Because he is caught in it. If you need me to spell out how, watch the episode. They get him free, help him dress, and talk to him about his family, who don’t visit often. Travis reveals that he is lonely. He lost his husband the year before in a fire. They tell Mr. Paige that some of the women at the retirement home were asking after him. This cheers him up. I am not sure if Shonda is suggesting to us that Mr. Paige purposely caught himself in the shower stool to get some company? If so, extreme. Shonda is certainly extreme.

Back at the Station, Vic asks Andy why she sent the Aid Car away. Andy says it was protocol. Vic says she jumped the gun. Andy doesn’t take that very well. Back in her father’s office, McSmokey comes in to chat. He overheard the Vic comments. At first, he bucks her up a little, but when she gets condescending with him, he tells her that he is a shoo-in for Captain. Andy clearly annoyed.

The team is called out to a motor vehicle accident. There is an overturned tanker, but no fire. They split up to look for and assist victims. Dean, who is supposed to be on desk duty and Andy knows it, and Travis try to help a man, Shawn, out of his car. The truck driver is laying in the middle of the road, and Vic and Ben are helping him. They notice and remark that it is unusually hot. They assume it is from the truck. Vic is spooked. A firefighter who is not with their station starts yelling for them to put him out. He looks like he is battling flames but there are none. Andy orders that all the headlights on the vehicles be shut off, revealing the fire fighter is indeed on fire with pale blue flames. They are able to rescue him and put him out, but there is blue fire all over the road, closing off Vic, Ben and their victim. The tanker is leaking ethanol and the water from the hose will make it spread. They have no more foam and need to have some brought to them. Vic and Ben look for ways to escape but they can’t, and won’t leave the victim. As their options narrow and the flames grow closer, Vic becomes rattled. Without speaking, so as not to burn their lungs, Ben and Vic silently “sing” “I’m A Little Teapot.” He is trying to keep her from panicking.

The team decide to back one of the fire trucks over the flames and pull Vic, Ben and the victim onto the back of the truck. They rescue them and somehow, the truck doesn’t catch on fire.

Back at the Station, Vic and Ben are being cared for by the team. Andy is invigorated. Pruitt has been released and Ryan had picked him up. He had heard about the tanker fire and figured Andy was busy. Pruitt congratulates the group. The team excitedly tells Pruitt about it, but Vic walks away. Ben comes and finds her. Vic says she has never gotten that close to death before. She is still rattled.

Tuck comes into the Station and says he thought he would stop by. But the alarm goes off. However, Tuck has renewed respect for Ben, and encourages him to go, Tuck will be back later. Andy and McSmokey exchange some sexually charged comments. Dean and Ben arrive at an apartment where the landlord says a neighbor heard some screams. They hear a woman in obvious pain, and it is J.J. on the floor. Her smoke detector is chirping again, and she fell off a ladder trying to get to it. Dean says he definitely fixed the smoke detector, but its still chirping. Hmm … smoke detectors usually go off when they detect smoke, right? Or my cooking. Dean is examining the ceiling, and J.J. tells him there is a crawl space up there. He punches through her ceiling with his axe and smoke comes billowing out. Didn’t she smell the smoke? Doesn't smoke smell in Shonda-Land? Would you still smell the smoke even if it was enclosed? How long was the fire smoldering in the crawl space? I have questions, Shonda!