There were no literal fires this episode, but things still got pretty intense.

Picking up in the immediate aftermath of Rigo's death, Station 19 Season 3 Episode 10 wasted no time in getting our favorite firefighters the help they needed.

No one was particularly excited about the prospect of seeing a trauma specialist, but in the end, they were all the better off for it.

While breakthroughs rarely happen in an hour -- let alone in a person's first therapy session -- these characters lucked out, thanks to the magic of television, and a pretty kickass therapist.

Dr. Diane Lewis is a character I've rarely encountered on television before.

Whenever therapists get introduced, they usually fall into two camps: Either they end up engaging in some sort of inappropriate behavior with their patients or their approach to therapy is very Freudian.

The character of Diane couldn't have been farther from those archetypes.

For one, Diane wasn't afraid to share intimate details of her life.

From explaining how she was injured and became a therapist to Jack to recounting her rape to Travis, Diane was a veritable open book.

Sullivan: Team, this is Dr. Diane Lewis. She’s a psychologist and a trauma specialist.
Dean: Dr. Lewis, is it legal for our employers to hold us hostage in the gym and force us to talk about our feelings?
Vic: No, we don’t use the f-word here when we’re at work.
Sullivan: Miller, Hughes don’t push it.
Travis: And if it is legal, is it psychologically sound?

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Something was refreshing about that, as Diane understood she didn't have time to waste.

With only an hour, Diane knew it could be difficult to make progress, especially with firefighters, who by nature, aren't very open about talking about their feelings in the first place.

So she what she had to do to get her patients to open up, and it worked to varying degrees.

Though Rigo's death was the reason for the brass bringing in a therapist, very few of the characters talked about Rigo.

Jack, of course, was on the exceptions.

Though still reeling Rigo's death and his guilt over the role he played in it, Jack initially tried to shift the blame of the incident wholly onto Rigo, before finally confronting that he was, in part, responsible.

After all, if Jack had never slept with Eva, then Rigo may very well be alive.

Along with his guilt, one of the things Jack has been struggling with is why he slept with Eva in the first place.

Sure, he didn't know she was Rigo's wife the first time, but he kept seeing her afterward, even though it was against the firefighter code.

No one has been able to give Jack a satisfactory answer, but his therapy session did provide some clues.

During his time with Diane, Jack recounted some of his childhood trauma, which viewers saw firsthand during flashbacks on Station 19 Season 3 Episode 4.

He also revealed the worst call he ever responded to, which was a fire around Christmas last year.

A woman had gone out and bought a Christmas tree, and when that tree caught on fire, she was hysterical.

It was the worse call ‘cuz she was all alone. She was just all alone in that crappy little apartment. And somehow, through the whiskey and the loneliness, she got herself up off the couch and she got herself a tree. And she decorated it with whatever she could find. But she was all alone. She didn’t have any family photos or anyone to call; just that tree. And her tree burned down.

Jack

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For Jack, it was the worse call because the woman was all alone and that Christmas tree was the only sort of comfort she had during the holiday season.

With that information in hand, it doesn't take a licensed professional to put the pieces together in this case: Jack continued his affair with Eva because he was scared of ending up alone.

He saw his firefighter family moving on with their lives -- Maya got promoted to captain; Dean was going to be a father -- and could no longer see how he fit into it.

So instead of waiting for the other shoe to drop and for him to lose his entire firefighter family, just like how he lost his other family as a child, Jack decided to self-sabotage.

He decided he would do something that would get him booted from his family -- such as breaking a cardinal rule among firefighters -- before his family decided to kick him out.

While this may not make sense from a rational perspective, Jack has been through a lot more trauma than most of us can imagine.

When faced with the fear of losing what we love most, we don't always think rationally.

We just react and do whatever we can to protect ourselves.

And after enduring a lifetime of hardship and disappointment, it's natural that Jack would expect the worse.

However, hopefully, this mess has shown him that the people in his life aren't going to leave just because things get hard.

They may not be happy with Jack's decisions, but they still are his family.

Meanwhile, Andy spent her time with Diane discussing her relationship with Sullivan, which maybe wasn't the best move since she and Sullivan are trying to keep things on the down-low for now.

But since she brought it up, Andy should have used the time to talk about being in a relationship with a recovering addict, but she somehow found herself discussing the patriarchy, which didn't quite make sense.

Andy: I feel electric. I feel awake. I feel awake all the time. This man undoes me. He… I love him. I’m in love with him.
Diane: You know, love all by itself is not electric. By itself, it’s calming. It gets electric when you combine it with stuff that isn’t love -- rule breaking, intrigue, danger.
Andy: So you are judging me?
Diane: I’m not. I’m just trying to understand you. You’re angry with Jack for breaking the code, but you’re breaking it yourself. You coin phrases like “blight on the plight” but you keep doing it, and you don’t feel guilty. You feel electrified. I’m just trying to figure out why.

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While Andy doesn't feel guilty about being with Sullivan, she somewhat has reservations that her relationship with the battalion chief somehow undermines the plight of female firefighters.

In reality, female firefighters face a lot of challenges, including assumptions of incompetency, inferior treatment, and discrimination and harassment.

However, it's weird for the series to acknowledge this disparity at this juncture as Station 19 has painted the Seattle Fire Department has a mostly tolerant place.

Sure, Chief Dixon is a little misogynistic, but otherwise, things are pretty fine for Andy, Maya, and Vic.

So it feels out of place for Andy being with Sullivan to suddenly put the entirety of female firefighting in jeopardy, or at the very least, set it back a few paces.

It seems as though the series has been wanting to tackle this issue for a while and decided now would be the best time to throw it in.

The timing of it didn't work at all, and it was just a bizarre turn of events.

And then, randomly, the series decided to introduce the concept of Andy's mother wanting to be a firefighter before she became pregnant and settled down, and it just became too much.

It's such a shame too because Andy is dealing with a lot right now and could have used someone to talk to, especially when it comes to her father.

Can we just acknowledge how huge of a waste it was for the series to bring in a therapist and not have Andy talk about Pruitt's cancer and impending death?

It seems like that would have been a perfect segway given Rigo's death, but no, the series decided to do something completely out of left field.

And speaking out of left field, Ben's crisis of faith was just that.

Viewers have seen Ben deal with the pain of Bailey's miscarriage this season, and it has been well-established that Ben blames himself for the miscarriage.

Diane: Do you believe in a punishing god?
Ben: No.
Diane: Sounds like you do.
Ben: Yeah, look, I don’t… I don’t know what I believe. I did Sunday school when I was a kid, and they always taught us that god rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked. But the stuff that I’ve seen since I’ve been working here, I mean, what is everyone wicked? Does everyone deserve to be punished? Did Rigo? Did I?

• Permalink: Does everyone deserve to be punished? Did Rigo? Did I?

However, it always seemed as though Ben blames himself for the miscarriage due to the undue stress that his job puts on Bailey.

Now, though, Ben is suddenly struggling with the idea that Bailey miscarried because she's being punished by God.

That makes no sense.

And did viewers even know that Ben was religious?

It just seems like the series tried to come at grief and trauma from another angle, and it failed miserably.

The sad thing is the Grey's Anatomy universe has had success in handling crises of faith in the past, most specifically Grey's Anatomy's April, who went through her fair share of questioning over her stint on the medical drama.

Though Maya didn't have an actual session, she did score some face time with Diane toward the end of the episode. 

Unlike Jack, Maya was willing to admit her guilt to Diane about placing Jack and Rigo together on that call, though the therapist didn't fault Maya for believing two grown men when they toward her they could do their jobs.

Maya then let it slip that she's jealous of Rigo in a way, as he is finally at peace.

Though Maya isn't having suicidal thoughts, she did admit to Diane just how exhausting it can always be to be looking forward.

Since her inception, Maya has always been an intense character.

She's always given 110 percent to anything she's done, and while her commitment has won her accolades, including an Olympic medal, it's also cost her a lot.

Diane: Who taught you eyes forward?
Maya: My father.
Diane: Have you considered the possibility that he was wrong? Maya isn’t it possible, with everything else you’ve accomplished, that you could learn to let yourself rest and sleep and love in this life instead of waiting for death to set you free?

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That ambition has been in overdrive since being appointed captain, as she's felt the pressure to prove to Station 19 that Sullivan made the right choice.

And as flashbacks on Station 19 Season 3 Episode 5 revealed, Maya also had a downright abusive father growing up, who only seemed to offer her love and affection when she won races or got good grades.

That upbringing shaped who she is today, which is someone who feels the need always to keep moving forward, never stopping to take a break, even for a moment.

However, Diane reminded her that death isn't the only release from life.

The only thing stopping Maya from taking some time for herself and living in the moment is her.

And if Maya does do that, the world around her isn't going to crumple. 

She is allowed to put herself first and think about her own needs for a change, and everything will still be standing when she gets back.

Some stray thoughts:

• Dean and Vic had a weird non-couples therapy session together, where they essentially rehashed their issues. Dean talked about being a disappointment to his parents and his disappointment over them not wanting to meet his daughter.

  Vic, on the other hand, got validation that she didn't need to feel guilty about moving on from Ripley so quickly after he died.

  The one newish tidbit was that Diane seemed to confirm that there's something more than platonic going on between Dean and Vic, as she told Dean not to wait too long before telling Vic that he's in love with her.

• Travis spent most of his time talking about Emmett, which was a little weird, considering they just met. However, it was one of the better sessions as Diane wondered why Travis had such a hard time accepting that he was brave just for being himself.

So what did you think Station 19 Fanatics?

Who made the biggest breakthrough?

Whose therapy session made no sense?

Who will take Diane's advice to heart?

Hit the comments below to let me know your thoughts. If you happened to miss the latest episode, remember you can watch Station 19 online at TV Fanatic.

Jessica Lerner was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in October 2021.