Station 19 may be over now, but we’re not done obsessing over the smart characters and the mind-blowing situations they found themselves in. While an array of wild things occurred in the Station 19 season 7 finale — the series’ last following its cancellation — Kate Powell (Kiele Sanchez) had a particularly memorable storyline.
The character joined Station 19 in episode 15 of season 6, titled “What Are You Willing to Lose”, at which time she helped fight fire after Ben Warren (Jason George) was hit with a debilitating injury. How did her Station 19 arc end, you ask?
What was Kate Powell’s fate in the Station 19 season 7 finale?
To put it bluntly, Kate Powell died in the Station 19 series finale, “One Last Time.” The episode is about a fire tornado (two terrifying words that should never go together) and Kate was one of the firefighters hard at work trying to save people. In one of the most tragic scenes in the entire series, the tornado comes right at Kate and that’s it for her.
The Station 19 characters are no strangers to danger — just think back to the wildfire in season 2 — but nothing hit quite as hard as this fire tornado. Given the line of work the firefighters are in, and the fact that this was the series finale, one could even say we expected more characters to die.
Showrunners Peter Paige and Zoanne Clack discussed Kate’s death with TV Line, with Clack saying they actually pondered killing off all the characters in the series finale. (That would have made for an especially grim finale.) Clack said, “I personally was against killing a major regular character. I didn’t want to live with that grief as the end of the series. But we really needed to show how big and apocalyptic this fire was, how at-risk everyone was.”
Even though Kate Powell wasn’t the most beloved character on Station 19, she definitely had an impact on the super intense Grey’s Anatomy spinoff. From her romance with Theo Ruiz (Carlos Miranda) to her unique sense of humor, she’s not a character you easily forget.
Kate Powell’s Station 19 death worked particularly well since it was unexpected but also fit into the overall storyline of the two-part series finale. It would’ve been nearly impossible for everyone to survive a fire tornado unscathed, and given that fans assumed a series regular might meet their end, Kate’s storyline was a genuine surprise. While it didn’t seem possible for a fan-favorite like Andy Herrera (Jaina Lee Ortiz) to die, it always feels like anything can happen in a season or series finale.
Since Kate and Theo shared a dramatic history, it made sense for Theo to also get injured in the fire tornado. We’re just grateful he didn’t die… especially since we’ll be haunted by the scene of the fire tornado killing Kate forever.
