| “ | Flames aren't the deadliest part of a fire. It's the heat. Radiant heat alone can singe paper, melt plastic, blister flesh. I think that's something most people don't realize. If the heat index is high enough, it'll get the job done. You don't even have to touch the fire for it to burn you. You can feel when your temperature is rising. The human body knows when that balance is tipped. It knows when things are getting too hot, when the air around you starts to become too uncomfortable, when there's no relief, no cleansing breath, no escape. Just the heat, building and building and building, until you're on fire. | ” |
Hot Box is the ninth episode of the first season and the 9th overall episode of Station 19.
Short Summary
In the final days before the Station 19 captaincy is announced, Pruitt warns Andy not to be disappointed with the outcome. Meanwhile, Ben gets upset with Pruitt for having told Bailey the dangers of firefighting and the team gets trapped inside the garage of a burning house, putting several lives at risk.
Full Summary
Audrey watches as several things burn in the fireplace. She pulls out the photo album just as Oliver comes in and asks her what she's doing. She says she was having a moment, which is why she was burning their wedding photos. He says it feels like a lifetime ago. Neither of them can believe they're getting divorced. Oliver's upset that she put their unity hands in the fire, too. He's worried she burned other things. They argue and walk away. After they're gone, a spark jumps out of the fireplace onto the carpet.
JJ and Dean have just ended their night out and it's dawn. He says he can't keep doing this. He stays up all night all the time, but to fight fires, not to attend concerts. He has an hour before he has to go to work, but she says it'd be a shame to waste it sleeping. They start having sex.
Andy and Ryan are jogging and she asks if he's talked to her dad lately and if he seems quiet. Ryan says that's how Pruitt always is with him. Andy thinks maybe the chemo is making him quiet. They race to a nearby tree and Andy wins. They stop to kiss before resuming their run.
Grant pulls two jars out of a pot, one for him and one for Travis. He opens Travis's jar and tells him it'll be the best thing he ever tasted. After taking a bite, Travis agrees. Travis tells Grant he needs to go slow if they're going to try this. He has to ease back into dating. Grant says that's fine for him. He knows when something's worth waiting for.
Ben catches Dean sleeping on a couch. Dean claims he's just meditating. Ben says he's about to start washing the barn and asks Dean to help. Dean says he'll be right there, but quickly falls back to sleep.
Andy tells Maya and Vic that she and Jack just approved some new gadgets. Maya says that soon enough, Andy will be approving gadgets on her own. Andy's not so sure she's going to win. They still have to have interviews with Ripley. Maya then tells Andy about Ripley telling her to go for lieutenant. Andy says that's a good idea, but Maya wants to focus on making Andy captain first.
Ben asks Pruitt about his chemo. Pruitt says he's doing fine, so Ben has a bone to pick with him. He's upset that Pruitt told his wife about all the tricky situations he's been in. Pruitt says you shouldn't keep things from family, but Ben points out that he hasn't been honest with his. Pruitt asks about how it went when Ben told his wife he wanted to make a career change. Ben says he knew it was the right thing for him, but he wasn't sure how she'd take it. He had to tell her.
Andy is jumping rope. Pruitt tells her not to wear herself out before the day has begun. She says she's amped up. He says it's the captain's race, because it's almost over. She was like that as a kid, too, before every birthday. He tells her she needs to prepare herself for the possibility she won't win. She says she can handle whatever they decide and goes back to jumping rope.
The team arrives at Audrey and Oliver's house. Audrey's upset that Oliver called the police. Ryan and Karen interview them about the situation. Oliver has claimed that Audrey started the fire to burn all his stuff. She says only some stuff. Ryan then gives Jack information about the fire, which seems to be contained to the back of the house. Oliver and Audrey continue to fight. Audrey goes into the garage to prove she didn't burn his stuff. The firefighters decided to "stuff the turkey," soak the outside of the house and then get it from the middle.
Audrey shows the officers Oliver's stuff, not burned. Jack then asks her to open the door to the inside of the house. She tries to unlock it with her thumb print, but it doesn't work because she has a blister on her thumb. There's an override in the foyer. She gives them the code and Jack sends Dean to put it in.
Dean arrives at the panel, but can't remember the code. He tries to radio to Jack, but gets no response. He puts the code in incorrectly. He takes a breath and tries the code again. The garage door goes down, locking the occupants in.
The firefighters futilely try to break through the door. Audrey's not surprised because she built it to be a fortress. There's no override once it's in lockdown. It'll be a few hours before they can try again. She did it independently, so there's no company to call to open the door.
Outside, Travis says to call for backup and get all the chainsaws they have. Dean comes out of the house, still trying to get Jack on the radio. Vic asks him what happened. He realizes he put his radio on the wrong channel. She tells him that he locked them in the garage. They start trying to cut through the garage door while those on the inside look for any weaknesses in the door.
Ryan asks Jack how much they need to panic about this situation. Jack says it's just a waiting game. Maya and Andy ask for tools. Audrey says she might have a tool kit somewhere. They look through her supplies, but aren't finding anything. Andy tells Maya she needs to tell Jack about Ryan, soon. She doesn't want to tell him after she's captain, but he needs to know.
They get word from the outside that the fire's not out because they have reached some complications. Karen goes to Andy and Maya and says she thinks Jack is into her. She's not sure how to tell him she's not interested. While they consider how to reply, Audrey says she left her keys inside the house or she'd suggest starting the car and cranking the AC to cool down. Andy says that sounds good, but it's not worth the carbon monoxide. She wishes they could open the trunk and asks if she has a jack in there. Audrey suddenly cries out because they've found her tool kit. It's very small. Karen takes the kit and uses them to open the trunk, where they find a jack. They try to use it to lift the door, even a small amount. Despite their best efforts, they're unable to get the door to budge.
They're still trying to cut through the door with chain saws as the fire inside the house has spread.
The garage is an oven. Andy and Ryan talk about it getting hotter and Jack sees them and looks unhappy.
They're not making progress getting through the garage door and the fire inside is getting worse, despite two other teams, plus theirs responding. There's no way to vent the fire. Every window is security glass that won't shatter.
Dean takes a sledgehammer to try to break the windows. Ben tells him they won't break, but Dean starts swinging at the window anyway.
Pruitt answers the phone and it's Vic. She asks him about a fire he worked with a similar situation. When he learns that people are trapped in a garage, he asks who. When pushed, she tells him Andy is among those trapped.
After failing to get through the window, Dean takes the sledgehammer and breaks through the wall under the window. They get through and smoke comes out. They stick a hose in.
They quickly run out of oxygen in their tanks in the garage. It's 110 degrees. Audrey says it's secure on every side, six inches thick. Andy says the coolest place is on the floor, so they all sit down. Audrey says if they get out, she's taking the whole station out for drinks. Jack says something has to be able to get them through the door. Ryan has an idea. He gets in the car and hot wires it. He wants to use it as a battering ram. Jack says it won't work. Ryan wants to try anyway. He starts the car over Jack and Andy's objections. Before he rams the car, Andy is able to convince him it won't work.
Pruitt tells Vic to think outside the box and get them out. She asks him if he got the door open in his case. He did, but by that point, they had already suffocated.
The whole house is reinforced, making fighting the fire harder. Vic tells Travis what Pruitt said. Oliver overhears them saying they could die and starts to panic. Flames on one side of the house are out, but it won't help those in the garage. Travis wants to buy them some time, so he tells everyone to redirect their hoses to the garage, to try to cool it down as much as possible.
Andy keeps going over it in her head, trying to figure out a way out. There has to be a way. She and Jack bicker because he says there's not always a happy ending. Maya's upset that they're arguing and implies that she should be in the running for captain. Jack asks about the motor that opens the door to the house. Audrey opens the panel, but the motor shorts out before they make any progress. They all sit back down. Audrey says when they get out, she wants to tell Oliver it's not his fault they're splitting up. Sometimes, these things just happen.
Oliver tells Ben he hates the garage, but he doesn't want it to kill Audrey. Ben knows it's hard when someone you care about is in trouble and you can't do anything.
Travis is on the phone trying to get a battering ram when a car pulls up.
Pruitt knocks on the garage door. He tells Andy to get up and find a way out. She's never given up before and she can't start now.
Maya tells Andy the two of them can do it together. Andy says the only thing that can get them through the door is what's trapping them there: fire. They look around and Andy sees the water heater. It has a pilot light. They need an accelerant. Ryan suggests gasoline from the car. They make a plan. It's crazy, but the other option is death. They need to do it immediately. Ryan siphons gas from the car while Maya, Jack, and Andy get the water heater down on the ground. They clear the door and then light the fuse. While they wait, Maya sees a loose gauge. She wants to tighten it. She goes for it and is thrown back by the explosion.
The explosion worked. Andy asks Maya why she did it. Maya has ringing in her ears and says it was loose and could have hit her or any of them. Pruitt finds Andy and hugs her tightly as everyone is evacuated.
Ben is treated Audrey when Oliver comes over. He tells her about the panic attack he had. He thinks this is what they needed. They've watched all their stuff go up in flames all at once. She says not all their stuff and shows him a photo from early in their relationship that she saved from the garage. He's glad she made it out okay.
The team is drinking at Emerald City Bar. Ryan asks if Andy and Jack always work well together even when they're mad at each other. Ben says he thinks that's when they work together best. Ben talks about the failure of Audrey and Oliver's relationship, where they stopped trying to get back to each other. He doesn't want that to happen to him, so he leaves to go to his wife. After he's gone, Maya tells Ryan the members of their team see each other at their best and worst. It's intimate.
Jack sits down with Dean and Vic and asks why the alarm code didn't work. Dean is about to confess, but Vic tells him she heard the panel was broken from the start. Jack leaves and Dean thanks Vic for covering. She says they covered for her. That's what friends do. She's not sure what happened, but next time -- He says there won't be one. His phone rings. It's JJ and he doesn't answer.
At the bar, Jack asks Andy how long she and Ryan have been seeing each other. He's upset. Ryan comes up and they bicker over Andy and his relationship. Andy admits it's been since she and Jack broke up and even before. Jack leaves.
Pruitt comes in and says the next round is on him.
Travis goes to Grant and kisses him. Travis says he has a million reasons to take things slowly, but he doesn't want slow, even though he should. He knows it's complicated, but he doesn't want a slow burn. Tomorrow, he could be trapped and crushed. He can't control that, but he can control his relationship with Grant. He wants Grant. Grant tells him that sometimes, slow can be good. They start kissing again.
Andy thanks Pruitt for believing in her. Not just today, but with the whole captain race. He says it's not the end of the world if neither of them gets captain. Could even be better. Could unite the team against an outsider instead of making them pick sides. He then admits to her that he didn't support her or Jack for captain. He tries to explain it to her, but she's upset. She leaves and tells him not to wait up for her because she won't be home.
Cast
Main Cast
- Jaina Lee Ortiz as Lieutenant Andy Herrera
- Jason George as Dr. Ben Warren
- Grey Damon as Lieutenant Jack Gibson
- Barrett Doss as Victoria Hughes
- Alberto Frezza as Ryan Tanner
- Jay Hayden as Travis Montgomery
- Okieriete Onaodowan as Dean Miller
- Danielle Savre as Maya Bishop
- Miguel Sandoval as Captain Pruitt Herrera
Guest Stars
- Brenda Song as JJ
- Sterling Sulieman as Grant
- Sarayu Blue as Audrey
- Alex Désert as Oliver
- Kimia Behpoornia as Officer Karen Reis
Co-Starring
Rescues
Audrey and Oliver
Audrey was burning her old wedding photos and burned her fingers pulling them out of the fire. She then walked away from the still-burning fire in the fireplace, which allowed sparks to fly out and ignite the carpet. The fire was contained in the back of the house, so they planned to go through the garage. Audrey tried to use her thumb to give them access, but it was blistered and wouldn't read her print. They sent Dean to put in the override code, but he entered it incorrectly twice in a row, which locked down the garage. They were unable to penetrate the garage from the outside and the garage rapidly started to heat up the garage. They also had difficulty keeping the fire in the house contained. In the garage, they found a jack, but they were unable to lift the garage door enough to get any access. The windows of the house wouldn't shatter, so they had to break into the wall to vent the fire. Inside the garage, Ryan wanted to use the car to ram the door. Jack and Andy agreed that it wasn't worth the risk and stopped Ryan from doing it. In order to give the trapped people more time before they suffocated, they then turned all their hoses onto the garage to cool it down as much as possible. Inside, they tried to use the motor from the fingerprint pad, but it quickly burned out. They then had the idea to use the pilot light from the water heater to start a fire and induce an explosion that would break through the door. They siphoned gas out of the car as an accelerant. They started the fire and took cover. After it was lit, Maya noticed the release valve on the water heater was loose and tried to go detach it. However, it exploded before she could, throwing her back against a wall. Luckily, she was uninjured and the blast was enough to give them access. They were removed from the garage and treated for overheating.
Music
| Song | Performer | Scene |
|---|---|---|
| "Got the Gold" | Vinyl Pinups |
|
| "I'll Make You Happy" | The Bamboos (feat. Montaigne) |
|
| "Come Back Home" | Yes You Are |
|
Notes and Trivia
Station 19 1x09 Promo "Hot Box" (HD) Season 1 Episode 9 Promo
- This episode scored 4.45 million viewers, a series low.
- The table read for this episode took place on April 3, 2018.
- Jennifer Lauren DiBella filmed scenes for this episodes, but they didn't make the final cut.
- Goof: Ben wears his stethoscope backwards when he's checking on Oliver.
Gallery
Episode Stills
Behind the Scenes
Quotes
See Also
|
A complete overview of this episode's crew can be found here. |
| Station 19 Season 1 | |||
| #01 | "Stuck" | #06 | "Stronger Together" |
| #02 | "Invisible to Me" | #07 | "Let It Burn" |
| #03 | "Contain the Flame" | #08 | "Every Second Counts" |
| #04 | "Reignited" | #09 | "Hot Box" |
| #05 | "Shock to the System" | #10 | "Not Your Hero" |
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