As the episode begins, we learn it is almost year one. Young Kirsten (Matilda Lawler) finds Jeevan (Himesh Patel) who says they’re not snowed in anymore because someone plowed the road. Once they go back inside, Jeevan says it is crazy about the road. As for Kirsten, she hates that road. He says they’ve seen seven people since they got here including the plow guy and a guy in the cornfields who ran away. They also encountered two bandana meth guys and a woman without eyes. After he mentions the older couple on jet skis, Kirsten argues they’re going to need more protein. They head outside where Kirsten kills a deer by shooting it with a rifle from long range. Jeevan pulls the deer back to the cabin and begins cutting up the meet while Kirsten continues reading Station Eleven. At dinner, Jeevan suggests they should try scavenging again since the road is clear, but Kirsten says she doesn’t want to leave.

She is told it isn’t safe because it is too isolated. As Jeevan steps outside, he looks at the slide in front of him and tells Frank (Nabhaan Rizwan) that Kirsten doesn’t even like him. He believes she’d rather read a book. Later that night, he hears a woman talking on the radio and tries to explain where they’re at. He says they walked across the ice last year so they’re alone in the woods now. The woman reveals she is in trouble and really needs a doctor. Jeevan pretends to be a family doctor and introduces himself before the other person cuts out. Kirsten practices throwing her knife while saying Frank told her Jeevan’s nickname was Leavin’ Jeevan. She asks if he is leaving to which he says no. A quick flashback shows the man who killed Frank with the knife Kirsten has now. Jeevan wishes she hadn’t kept it. As Jeevan walks away for the night, he imagines seeing Frank with Kirsten and curses him.

Next, he walks through a residential area trying to reach Pebble Symbol on the radio while calling himself White Blossom. He eventually gets Kirsten to respond and confirm he is holding up three fingers. Jeevan enters a house, fingers a joint, and lights it. He continues smoking it as he walks into another room and finds a computer and a few smartphones. He sits down and begins playing with an electronic piano which produces words when he presses the keys. He plays the message of a little girl wanting hair down her legs and a crystal someone had today. Then, it says something about a necklace. Jeevan sits there for a minute before getting up and looking for supplies. We continue hearing more recordings like this as we see a flashback of Kirsten having fun with Jeevan and Frank. Jeevan opens the garage door, steps out with a clown wig, and tells Kirsten to check it out. A woman calls him Doctor Chaudhary before shooting him.

The woman checks under his jacket and finds popsicle sticks with Dr. Eleven on them. Jeevan strikes her knocking her to the ground. He gets on the radio and begins asking Kirsten to shoot her, but she is too busy reading Station Eleven to care. When he catches up with Kirsten, Jeevan tells her that her reading is out of control. She apologizes and admits she should’ve been watching, but she doesn’t sound convincing. He found a battery inverter that will turn a car battery into an outlet so she can charge her phone. They can watch a movie once she gets it charged. As they walk back to the cabin, Kirsten says the woman who hit him with the beanbag is the 8th person they saw out here. He says they missed one and we quickly see a picture of Frank’s killer. Kirsten says she set a snare over there. Jeevan says he thinks the dad back there died later because the mom and kid were in bed, but he was on the couch and had more flesh.

He might’ve been a DJ since he made a song out of his kid’s words. Jeevan throws the Station Eleven book into the snow nearby while Kirsten checks the snare. She walks over and says Big Daddy ate their rabbit. Later that night, they watch a movie while Jeevan admits he can’t stay there all winter. He believes she’ll need other kids and he’ll need other adults. He tends to the bump on his head before Kirsten asks about the book. Jeevan pretends not to know what happened to it. When she makes it clear she wants to go outside to look for it, Jeevan curses and says no. He quickly apologizes while explaining he is responsible for her. If anything happens to Kirsten, it will be his fault. She complains he made them leave Frank’s place.

He agrees although he says they stayed too long because of her play. He tells her not to worry since the book was still in the Ziploc bag. In the middle of the night, he goes out in hopes of finding the Station Eleven book. As he walks through the darkness, he talks to Frank and ridicules his decision to tell Kirsten about Leavin’ Jeevan. He turns around and tells Frank he is looking for the book. Once he picks up the book, he is attacked by a wolf. Jeevan manages to shoot the beast. In the morning, we see him on the ground with the book and rifle next to him. It is 18 days before the winter solstice. He looks at his injuries before covering himself with a foil blanket and taking Station Eleven out of its Ziploc bag. He calls it pretentious. After that, he gets up and tries to return to the cabin. As he crawls closer to the cabin, the person on the motorcycle arrives and approaches him.

The person asks what happened to him. He is taken to a building. When he wakes up, a woman finds him and is excited to see he is awake. She goes to get Terry. The woman uses the hospital’s intercom system to page Terry. Soon, he finds himself surrounded by women with one calling him a doctor. When he asks if this is the afterlife, he is told it is life’s comeback. Terry says it is a solstice miracle and Lara delivered him to them. He is asked what he was doing 276 days ago. He begins talking about the little girl, but Terry goes on about the vernal equinox. They needed another doctor. Otherwise, there would be a mass grave out in the parking lot. After he tells her about the 9-year-old girl and says he needs to go, Terry injects medicine into his IV tube. Terry says the women are heroes and they’re going to get 15 or 16 post-pandemic babies back next week. She refuses to believe it when he says he isn’t a doctor.

Once he goes back to sleep, Terry instructs the women to return to work. When he wakes up, Terry tells him about a fictitious baby boom and laughs obnoxiously. Jeevan tells her he doesn’t have a clue what she is talking about. She believes the women will give birth at the same time in four days. As he tries to remove the IV from his hand, Terry apologizes for the amputation. It looks like his foot or toes have been removed. He has a panic attack and remembers Frank struggling to breathe as well. Later, the woman he has been talking to on the HAM radio approaches and says she didn’t know he had a kid. She went back when she heard that but didn’t find anyone. She shows him the pair of socks she made him before we see it is two days before the winter solstice. Jeevan has an Oreo. Then, he gets out of bed and wheels himself around as we hear a woman in labor nearby.

He tries to leave the store but can’t because the front door is locked. One woman asks if he is the one pretending to be a doctor. When he says yes, she unlocks the door for him. She asks him to tell Dave to get here already if he happens to run into him. He wheels himself out into the snowstorm after thanking her. A woman stumbles toward him and asks whether this is the baby place before she collapses to the ground. Jeevan wheels the woman inside and tells the others she needs help. Terry asks if he’d like to assist. He says no although he is going to observe. Terry begins cutting the woman open. Then, we hear music and Jeevan watches the women dance from his wheelchair. He asks Lara if she actually checked the cabin. She says she did and wonders if the girl will circle back. Jeevan goes over to Terry and they begin talking about his foot and the wolf that mauled him.

As for the girl, he says she was just someone he ended up with. As they begin drinking, Terry reveals she was fired by Good Samaritan in Pittsburgh. She goes on to claim she ran a Ponzi scheme with the orderlies and lost her medical license. She tells him about her husband and Terry learns about Jeevan’s sister. When he says his brother died right in front of him, she suggests he already has what it takes to do the job. He admits he doesn’t want anyone else to die or feel pain. When she asks about his Oreo, he says he ate it. She says that was an example of five centimeters, but it is okay since they have more. Then, it is the day before the solstice. He talks to the woman who guards the door about the first person he met before and after.

Later, he walks over to Lara who says she can’t wait until her clothes fit away. Once she asks what he wants, Jeevan says he needs help. She comforts him while she says being pregnant is good and scary. On the winter solstice, he hobbles over to Nancy and helps her get into one of the beds since she is in labor. Many women are in the process of giving birth. Flora gives birth to her baby before Terry (Tara Nicodemo) tells Jeevan to go help someone. He teams up with Lara to help give birth to a second twin. When he finishes with her, he goes over to Gwen and helps her. She tells him he is doing great and he says the same about her. Then, Terry tells Jeevan that she missed Dystocia. He helps with Rose because the baby’s shoulder is stuck. She begins asking if Dave is here so Jeevan says she is going to see him. Rose asks if the baby is going to die. Later, one of the girls tells him he doesn’t have to keep pretending he is a medical doctor.

She tells him he is a healer. When Lara approaches, she confesses she isn’t good at this. She tells Jeevan she is going by his place tomorrow on her way to Delano. She offers to give him a ride. They cover up Rose seconds later. David finally arrived and the baby made it, but Rose didn’t. David wonders whether the baby will die if it stays. Terry believes it’ll die if it goes. When Jeevan offers to help them see Rose before they go, David says there is no before. When he leaves, Jeevan says he must not be the father. Terry agrees that there are so many orphans in the world. Later, Terry tells Jeevan that she fixed his jacket. She noticed the Dr. Eleven nametag on it and says names are funny. She admits her name is actually Deborah. She took her husband’s name to miss him less. She isn’t sure which he preferred so she made him one with Dr. Chaudhary too since she didn’t know which he’d prefer.

He leaves with Lara after that. She drops him off at the cabin and he believes this will be goodbye. Instead, she agrees to wait for him. He goes inside the cabin and finds the compass on the table. Frank says she is gone and everybody is gone. Once Frank says he is exhausted, Jeevan sits down, cries, and admits he is not okay. Frank comforts him and says you got her here so she’ll find someone. She is good at it. We see Kirsten walking alone toward someone in a blue spacesuit. We see her hugging Jeevan several times and Jeevan hugging Frank. Next, we jump forward to year twenty. An older Jeevan is shown looking for his stethoscope that Frank dropped in the water. Key is searching for it as well. He asks Lara about Auddie. She told her he sometimes does house calls but always comes back. He promises he’ll see her face again. He hugs her, tells her he loves her, and encourages her to take care of her older brothers.

She walks over to her brothers. Jeevan walks toward one of the boats as the episode ends.

 

Station Eleven Review

The 9th episode of Station Eleven could’ve been the pinnacle of the series and an outstanding way to set up the final episode. Since it primarily focused on Jeevan and a bit on young Kirsten, I really expected the episode to be as good or better than “Goodbye My Damaged Home”. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy the way things played out in the least.

I wanted more for Jeevan who was one of the few somewhat developed characters in the series. The episode started off well since we got to learn more about Jeevan and Kirsten’s time at the cabin. Before long, Jeevan was nearly killed by a stranger on a motorcycle and Kirsten was too busy reading Station Eleven to notice. Young Kirsten had been impeccable up until that moment which shattered her innocent façade.

Besides that, the things that happened to Jeevan were messy, unrealistic, and anticlimactic. With few people in the world, it is hard to believe he would be attacked by a wolf. The land would become more populated with wolf chow so attacking a human wouldn’t be necessary or wise. I found myself rolling my eyes by the time he reached the makeshift hospital and Terry rambled incoherently.

The episode could’ve been impactful when we saw Kirsten and Jeevan lovingly embrace, but the silliness before that could make anyone emotionless. The pregnancies scenes just went on far too long. Sadly, the episode did nothing to set up the finale so we’ll have to depend on the prior episode for that. It scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Station Eleven are available here.