(Warning: This post contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy Season 20, Episode 1).
Grey’s fans: We are so back, baby!
Over the years, ABC’s beloved medical drama has seen more than its fair share of ups, downs, and literal plane crashes. We’ve laughed at improbable medical emergencies, we’ve cried over far too many dearly departed characters, and we’ve even survived Meredith Grey’s (Ellen Pompeo) bizarre, beautifully nostalgic COVID beach. Now, after 20 seasons, the show has adopted a “back to basics” approach under newly installed showrunner Meg Marinis, and based on the premiere, we might be in for its best era in years.
At the very least, we can be sure of one thing. Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) is back at the job she does best—striking righteous fear into the souls of Grey Sloan’s unruly interns.
Last season’s two-hour finale left us with some huge unanswered questions. Chief among them: 1. What the hell is wrong with Teddy Altman (Kim Raver), who collapsed in the operating room ahead of a procedure? 2. What’s going to happen to interns Simone Griffith (Alexis Floyd) and Lucas Adams (Niko Terho), who operated on said patient without supervision even though they are definitely not allowed to do that? And 3. What consequences will Benson “Blue” Kwan (Harry Shum, Jr.) face for ignoring a patient’s DNR order, which is also a pretty huge and obvious no-no?
On the Teddy front, the answer is as left-field as one might expect, although fans who’ve been around long enough probably already knew what took her out. It turns out that the toothache Altman had been powering through was actually a dental infection, and she collapsed due to bacterial endocarditis. (Loyal viewers might recall that a patient presented with the same thing back in Season 17, after ignoring a toothache to avoid seeing a doctor during a pandemic.) Barring any freak accidents, Altman should be okay. But given what show this is, that’s far from a guarantee. During the premiere, Dr. Winston Ndugu (Anthony Hill)—whom Altman herself recommended for head of cardio—had to perform an emergency surgery to save her leg from a blood clot. For now, however, it looks like everything’s going to be fine.
But, more importantly, what the hell are we going to do about these interns? Grey Sloan’s newbies are often prone to rule-breaking and mischief, but this group is almost as bad as, well… Meredith and her old pals Alex Karev, George O’Malley (RIP), Izzie Stevens, and Cristina Yang. These kids are already looking like the second coming of team M.A.G.I.C., as Meredith’s crew was originally known, but they need to actually make it through their internships first if they’re ever going to achieve surgical greatness. Their supervisor, Dr. Nick Mash—a.k.a. Meredith’s latest flame, played by Scott Speedman—does not mince words when he first sees them during the premiere. “So,” he asks, “which one of you am I firing?”
Once again, loyal viewers probably knew the answer would be no one. I mean, this is the hospital where Izzie Stevens cut an LVAD wire and still didn’t get fired. Unfortunately for Nick, the interns completely disregard his instructions to sit tight and not practice medicine. This decision turns out terribly for Adams and Griffith—who wind up stuck in an ambulance with a coding patient after a self-driving SUV starts repeatedly driving into the back door, effectively sealing it shut. Meredith and Bailey talk them through an emergency procedure, but they must stop every 30 seconds or so while the car rams into them again.
To make matters more annoying, an employee who works for the company behind this monstrous automaton is also stuck inside it. Even while trapped inside his own creation with a broken arm, this guy cannot give up on the idea that self-driving cars are going to save the world. Woof. Eventually, Kwan stabs one of the car’s tires, triggering a low-pressure alert and halting the vehicle in its tracks.
Finally, Adams, Griffith, and their patient are free. But that doesn’t stop the awkward vibes between these two interns, who—on top of their shared trauma from operating on a soon-to-be-dead patient without supervision—also still need to work out the whole “hooking up on her wedding day” thing. Griffith blames Adams for their patient’s death at the end of last season, and given how quickly everything in their love triangle with her fiancé, Trey, has unfolded, she wants to take a beat. Probably a good idea, honestly!
Meanwhile, Griffith and Adams’ fellow interns—Kwan and Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane)—still need to sort out their own situationship. During the Season 19 finale, Kwan intubated Jules’ 80-year-old roommate, Maxine, against her will. He’s normally a rule-follower, but he couldn’t stand the idea of Jules losing the one maternal figure she’s ever had because, really, he’s in love with her. The feeling is mutual, but Grey’s being Grey’s, they spent the premiere talking in a hallway about how they both think it’s best to keep things platonic. Sure, Jan.
We’ll check back in a week or two. The good news is, Maxine is looking like she’ll be fine and is only “annoyed” by the whole unauthorized intubation thing. Sometimes, violating a DNR can work out, I guess!
One person who has not moved on from the mess that was last season’s finale, however, is our final intern, Dr. Mika Yasuda (Midori Francis), who was among the interns who tried to operate on Sam Sutton (Sam Page) without supervision before he died. First, she spaced out while Winston operated on Teddy’s leg, chanting “please don’t die” to herself. Then, when her crush Taryn Helm (Jaicy Elliot) came to comfort her in the waiting room, she got up and walked away because she couldn’t stand to sit still. And then, when she ran into Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington) in the hallway, she unloaded on her for failing to show up when she paged her about Sam.
Jo had been having a great time during this premiere, which she mostly spent making out with Link (Chris Carmack). (At the end of last season, he finally confessed at the end of last season that he’s been in love with her basically since they were kids, so they have a lot of kissing to catch up on.) Yasuda’s words definitely rain on that parade, but only for a second.
“Sam didn’t die because of something we did or didn’t do,” Link assures Jo. “He had a terrible complication that some of the most talented cardiothoracic surgeons can’t fix.” Jo might feel bad being happy right now, but as he puts it, “We’ve been through too much, together and apart. We deserve this.” And with that, it’s back to making out!
The other person going through it this week would be Richard Webber (James Pickens, Jr.), who has been struggling not to drink ever since he and a bunch of Grey Sloan surgeons thought they were about to die in a plane crash. Bailey had to slap a drink out of his hand as the plane shook from turbulence, and we know he at least ordered one drink before the season cut to black. Still, Bailey refuses to let her mentor backslide. He’s back in AA, starting from Day One all over again. Knowing Webber, he’ll get through this, but as always, it’ll take a lot of work.
And speaking of work, does Meredith still have a job in Boston? She’s definitely on thin ice with Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) after telling a bunch of donors that she believes all Alzheimer’s research conducted until now could be obsolete. Quoth Dr. Fox herself, “I haven’t had to dance like that since the ’80s!” Catherine also blames Meredith for hiring the interns who are now running amok. As far as she’s concerned, Meredith has two options: Shut up about her Alzheimer’s theories or lose her lab on the East Coast.
Meredith has never been one to roll over that easily, so she comes up with a secret third option: Hand all her research off to her sister-in-law Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) and let her quietly finish it. “Nobody can know,” Meredith insists, which basically guarantees that, by the end of this season, at least a handful of people will know.
If we know our girl Mer, she’s probably not thrilled to be missing out on the final stages of her cutting-edge research effort. Her consolation prize, however, is a pretty decent one: Nick is following her out to Boston! And as for who will look after the interns while he’s gone? Well… let’s just say she’s got five rules.
Personally, I’m still salty that we never got to watch Bailey give her speech after winning the coveted Catherine Fox Award (formerly known as the Harper Avery) last season, but at least now we’ll get to see her back in the role that first made us fall in love with her as a character. These disobedient kiddos won’t know what hit ’em.
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