Spoiler alert! This story contains spoilers for the Season 5 episode of Station 19 on March 24, “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire.”
Ever since Dean Miller died in a gas line explosion, viewers have wondered what’s going to happen to his daughter Pru. Named after the former Station 19 fire captain Pruitt Herrera, Pru legally belongs to Ben Warren and Miranda Bailey. Dean made sure of that by filing legal paperwork before his death. Dean’s parents, however, wanted to fight for custody. In “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire,” the two couples seemed to come to an agreement, but they made a request of Ben that will require him to make a big decision about his future as a firefighter.
When the Millers showed up to Ben’s house for a meeting with an attorney, the Millers revealed that raising a toddler had become too difficult for them. They wanted Ben and Miranda to have full custody. The couples argued a little bit over holidays but ended up reaching a compromise, until the Millers asked for one last thing. “Anything,” Ben agreed, which seemed mighty risky, given how much trouble they’d already been through with the Millers. They then said they didn’t want Pru to run the risk of having another parent die in the line of duty and asked Ben to quit the fire station. That's a big ask, and as I see it, Station 19 has three directions it can go with this story:
Ben Could Quit The Fire Station
With Station 23 closing and some of those firefighters being distributed to other fire stations, there are plenty of people to fill Ben’s position, should he choose to honor the Millers’ request that he quit the fire station. However, Ben feels passionately about his job; he left a position with the hospital to change careers, so it’s unlikely that he’s going to give it up already.
Ben Could Ignore The Millers’ Request And Continue Fighting Fires
Ben and Miranda have the upper hand in the custody situation. Dean Miller legally left Pru to them, and caring for a toddler has already proved to be too much for the Millers. Ben could technically call their bluff and ignore their wishes. With the Millers willing to negotiate with them, however, I don’t think Ben will test their good will. Despite legally having custody, it would be a huge risk to engage in a custody battle if it could be avoided, since the court likes to side with blood relatives.
Ben Could Focus On Station 19’s Other Initiatives
What makes the most sense to me would be some kind of compromise, where Ben would continue working at the fire station, but change his focus to Crisis One — the program Dean started — or getting his PRT running again. Jack also started the Dean Miller Memorial Clinic, which seems like an obvious fit for Ben.
There are probably other ways that Station 19 could go with this big decision that Ben needs to make, but I don’t think it’s an issue that’s going away. We’ll have to wait and see how complicated Ben makes this issue; he hasn’t exactly been dealing with everything going on in the healthiest way.
Station 19 returns next week at 8 p.m. ET Thursday, March 31, on ABC. In the meantime check out our 2022 TV Schedule to see what new and returning shows are premiering soon.
