Did the chief of surgery just die?
Love is in the air on the season finale of Grey’s Anatomy! Everyone who is currently on — or used to be on — the Grey Sloan Memorial roster is hooking up, and I’m here for it. With all these happy endorphins rushing through the hospital hallways, I will choose to believe that Teddy (Kim Raver) doesn’t die and will be returning next season to deal with a medical condition that has to be more significant than a toothache.
Cupid’s arrow first lands on Griffith (Alexis Floyd). Even though it’s her wedding day and all the residents make the odd decision to go to work in their fancy clothes, one might assume Griffith would excuse herself from squishing in a few hours in the ER. Wrong. Griffith must lock eyes with Adams (Niko Terho) and allow him to channel his Aunt Meredith, desperately calling for her to pick him, choose him, love him. He does not.
Helm (Jaicy Elliot) and Yasuda (Midori Francis), another love match, join Millin (Adelaide Kane) to help Griffith prepare for the charming backyard wedding. Unfortunately, several signs point to Griffith not marrying Trey (William Martinez). Her dress zipper breaks. A robin, her mom’s favorite bird, slams into a window and dies. Finally, there are no flowers for the ceremony.
But the biggest kicker is Griffith’s grandmother gives her permission not to marry Kenneth if she’s in love with Dewayne. Who are these people? I’m glad you asked. Griffith’s grandmother has Alzheimer’s and thinks she’s talking to her daughter. Griffith’s father’s name is Dewayne. This means once upon a time, Griffith’s mom was engaged to another man and left him for Dewayne.
Griffith hops into Yasuda’s van and burns rubber on the way to the hospital, where she marches straight up to Adams to tell him she did not get married. Sure, she’s in her wedding dress, and it’s not at all awkward when he escorts her to the on-call room so Adams can pretend he’s on his own honeymoon.
A sudden page keeps the pair from canoodling all day long, and Adams’ post-coital high is short-lived when the trauma patient turns out to be Griffith’s fiancé Trey. He got into a car accident on his way to the hospital to get Griffith back. When he sees her and Adams together, he immediately knows something is there and punches Adams in the face.
Kwan (Harry Shum Jr.) misses all this fun, as he tends to a young boy who has clearly overdosed on something. His quick actions save the boy’s life, but protocol dictates that CPS has to be called in these situations. Kwan is irritated that the CPS employee dismisses him when he offers to translate for the Spanish-speaking mother. His frustration grows when the guy doesn’t wait for a translator.
While looking in on Maxine, Kwan learns that the mother is going to be taken to the police station as the toxicology report shows fentanyl in the boy’s system. Maxine encourages Kwan to follow his gut and fight for the family. He soon figures out that the boy ate what he thought were regular gummies at the rental property where he was staying, which belonged to the previous renters. Problem solved.
As Maxine celebrates her part in this victory, she suddenly can’t breathe and quickly codes. Kwan calls for a chest tube but is quickly reminded that Maxine signed a DNR. He doesn’t care and intubates her anyway. Millin is livid when she returns from the wedding and battles with the idea of both hating Kwan for putting Maxine in a situation she didn’t want to be in and loving him for saving Maxine’s life.
Do you know what’s the opposite of saving lives? Going down in a plane crash. There was a moment when I thought half our cast were goners. Luckily, the writers just needed a moment where everyone on this particular commuter realized what was important in life.
Everyone involved with the Catherine Fox Award takes the company jet to Boston. When severe turbulence causes everyone’s lives to flash before their eyes, Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) and Winston (Anthony Hill) hold hands, Catherine (Debbie Allen) screams, Bailey (Chandra Wilson) knocks Catherine’s martini out of Richard’s (James Pickens Jr.) hand, and Nick (Scott Speedman) thinks solely of Meredith (Ellen Pompeo).
He actually goes to her house in Boston to profess his love, but hot Michael answers the door and relays the news that Meredith is at work. WHO IS HOT MICHAEL, AND WHY IS HE ANSWERING MEREDITH’S DOOR?
Nick gets a text from Meredith to meet her at her lab. He’s greeted by Richard, Bailey, and Amelia, who all find Meredith on the floor muttering to herself about how everything is wrong. Has Meredith cracked? Is she showing signs of Alzheimer’s herself?
Heaven’s no. This is Meredith Grey. She’s just discovered that every bit of Alzheimer’s research is wrong, and we must start over from the basics. This means that all of Derek’s work and anyone else who ever thought about curing the disease is obsolete. Richard tells her to keep her mouth shut for five years until she has legitimate proof. Nick encourages her to blow it up and make some noise. She didn’t come to Boston to follow the rules.
What does Meredith do? She tells the truth to a table full of donors. While Catherine looks on in horror, the rest of the professionals at the Grey Sloan table wait for the coveted award to be bestowed on the lucky winner. Who will it be? Nick or our third pair of love birds, also known as Maggie and Winston?
Are they still married? Yes. Are they getting a divorce? No. Are they going to make it work living in two separate cities doing groundbreaking work in their own fields? Why not?
Catherine finally stands behind the podium, and instead of inviting Bailey to announce the nominees, she invites Meredith to do the honors. For a hot second, Bailey is confused but quickly realizes that instead of the fine medical professionals around her, she will receive the Catherine Fox Award for her work in reproductive healthcare. Surprise!
It’s all too much for Amelia. She invites Richard to join her at an AA meeting. He insists on waiting for Catherine, and when Amelia leaves, a waitress brings him the gin and tonic he ordered. We never saw alcohol touch his lips, but now it makes sense why he had Catherine’s martini in his hand when he thought the plane was going down. It’s all he wanted in his last minutes.
All Meredith wants is to explain to Nick why she didn’t say she loved him back. She was scared, tired, and overwhelmed — and thought it would be best to focus on the kids. As it turns out, she’s still scared, tired, and overwhelmed. But she does miss Nick!
Cool. Nick casually lets her know that he met Michael. Meredith is overjoyed. Isn’t Michael the greatest? Uh, NO.
Meredith buys a clue and shares that Michael, Lola’s tutor, exclusively dates men. A smile creeps across Nick’s handsome face, and he tells Meredith that he never should have let her walk away. He wants to share his life, love, and pain with her, and she agrees as they make out in a hotel hallway. Love connection number four!
Speaking of love connections, poor Sam, the squirrel diver, has done everything in his power to woo the pants off of Jo (Camilla Luddington). And let me tell you, he got pretty far, considering all he had were his words and good looks at his disposal. Unfortunately, the only thing this flirt fest stirred up was every jealous bone in Link’s (Chris Carmack) body. He finally tells Jo in the pouring rain that he is in love with her and has been since they were kids.
Guess what? Jo loves him too! (That’s five hookups, people!) And if I wasn’t shipping Jink all these episodes, I might be slightly irritated that their confession came at the expense of Sam, who I believe is dead on an operating table. There’s way too much blood on the floor for Sam to still be alive after this is over.
You’d think between Owen, Schmidt, Kwan, and Jink, someone besides the newbie interns would have been in that OR to help out with both Sam and Teddy, who currently isn’t breathing. But as I said, unless some news comes out that Kim Raver is no longer on the show, I will focus on all the love pheromones swimming around this season finale and assume Teddy will be fine come season 20.
