‘Station 19’ Star Barrett Doss Warns Midseason Finale Is ‘Traumatic’

The Station 19 cast has undoubtedly suffered through its fair share of extreme events and while its had some fun this season with RuPaul’s Drag Race star Shangela and wild animals, actress Barrett Doss revealed to E! that the show will take a weighted turn in tonight’s midseason finale. Aside from dealing with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the series will now focus its lense on the rising racial tensions that have taken center stage in the US within the last few months.

Tonight’s episode will follow the team as they encounter a mother in distress, claiming her daughter has been kidnapped and held hostage inside a man’s house. Though they’re not on duty, the firefighters rush to assess the situation but things take a quick turn in an unexpected direction.

“What is going to be the most interesting and potentially most surprising and challenging part of this episode is the understanding that when they’re off duty, our heroes that we know and love, in particular the Black firefighters, are just Black people who walk through the world like Black people,” Doss shared with the outlet. “People don’t know that they’re firefighters.”

Doss, who plays firefighter Vic Hughes, continued into the complicated relationship between Black first responders and the police department.

“When we are on duty we may have a different relationship to the police department, but when we’re off duty, we definitely have a different relationship to the police department,” she said. “Sometimes it’s not enough to be a firefighter.”

Much like its parent series Grey’s Anatomy, the spinoff has followed suit with weaving real-life events into its fictional story; however, the show typically shies away from race conversations — something that former Grey’s star Sandra Oh revealed was a source of tension between her and the writers during her time on the show.

“[On the show], we of course deal with very real trauma that exists in the world and the realities of being a first responder during COVID-19, but what we haven’t gotten into so much on the show is how our characters relate to their identities within the group,” she says. “I think that this particular call and the events of this episode lead us to question some of the relationships that we haven’t explored and the parts of our relationships to each other that make us different and struggle through those differences.”

In other first responder news, the actress could have a potential new love story in the works for her character. Though, it may not be anytime soon. While Dean (Okieriete Onaodowan) may be secretly pining after the firefighter, Doss teases the feelings that may not be reciprocated by Vic.

“I don’t think she thinks of Dean that way,” Doss says. “But sometimes you don’t realize you feel something for someone until you do, until they tell you [how they feel] and then all of a sudden you’re like, ‘Oh, wait.”

After her whirlwind romance with Dr. Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) and her almost engagement with Ripley (Brett Tucker), Doss seems to think now may not be the best time for Vic to consider a new beau. “I think right now though, there’s too much,” she said. “There’s too much on [Vic’s] plate, and I think this particular traumatic experience is going to take everyone’s attention away from their emotional lives, though of course, it might also bring Dean and Vic closer together.”