Have you been holding your breath for the last two months while waiting to find out if Owen survived the treacherous 100-foot fall down a ravine in a beat up car without a seatbelt on? That tense midseason finale (literal) cliffhanger lends to more drama in Grey’s Anatomy’s return. The action started on Station 19, where firefighters Ben Warren and Robert Sullivan led an extraction team to save Owen from the wreck. Did Owen survive, and what other fallout awaited the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital? Keep reading to find out.
A LOT ALL AT ONCE
The midseason premiere begins with a flashback to three weeks prior to the crash to show Owen giving Noah the drugs he needs to die peacefully on his own terms. Before handing over the drugs, Owen wants to know if Noah’s wife, Heather, knows about his plan. Noah states that both he and Heather are fine with the decision, and he feels he will be able to help his young son more from the other side. Noah asks Owen to help the three other soldiers from his unit do the same thing, leading us full circle on why Owen asked Hayes to carry on with that plan if he didn’t make it. Physician-assisted death becomes a major topic of this episode and will surely be a larger talking point for the series going forward.
Then, for anyone who didn’t remember the accident or watch Station 19 to see that Owen did in fact survive the initial fall down the ravine, a quick montage recaps those perilous events before picking up right after the car rolls down the cliff. After jumping out of the car right as it starts to fall, Hayes gets up and runs down the nearby road to get help. He catches a vehicle, which turns out to be the same one that Teddy got in a few minutes prior. Teddy is understandably shocked to see him, and the doctors make their way back to Grey Sloan Memorial with the donor heart for Farouk.
Meanwhile, lots of turmoil is happening within the hospital’s operating rooms. Winston is patiently awaiting the donor heart to transplant into Farouk and has the poor boy already open on the OR table. Nearby, Schmitt and Helm try to deal with the fallout of Schmitt losing his first patient. In case you don’t remember the Carrie-like moment from the previous episode, Schmitt’s hubris got the better of him when he decided to continue a procedure at its risky part instead of waiting for an attending to arrive to assist. Schmitt nicked a blood vessel, causing his patient to bleed out. We see Richard yelling at Helm, but Schmitt is in shock and doesn’t even hear his boss. In a third OR, Meredith is frantically trying to save Hamilton, who also made a stupid mistake by not speaking up about pain in his abdomen in order to have a potentially life-saving Parkinson’s treatment.
Everyone’s day fully goes backward when a dazed Hayes walks into Grey Sloan Memorial with the donor heart and goes straight to the OR. Hayes tells Winston that there was an accident and hopes that the heart is still viable. Winston examines the donor hearts and sees that it is bruised, which isn’t a good sign based on his sigh. He takes a moment to think before paging Maggie for a second opinion.
Owen has arrived at the hospital via ambulance and is in and out of consciousness. Amelia and Link are there to bring him into a trauma room and examine the damage. His leg was severely crushed in the car and required a tourniquet. The good news is that he can move his toes and has feeling in the leg. Owen asks how Teddy and Hayes are while also requesting that they don’t tell Megan about the accident until after Farouk’s surgery is successful. Teddy anxiously waits outside the trauma room, and Amelia and Link come out to update her on their initial findings. They tell Teddy that they need a scan to have a better idea of if Owen will walk again and give her the clear to see her husband. Teddy says she needs a minute and visibly starts to panic while she processes the information. Amelia wants Teddy to get checked out too, but Teddy refuses help. Teddy thought Owen was dead and needs a moment before seeing him. Teddy eventually musters the strength to go into Owen’s room, and he is relieved to see her. Teddy tells Owen that she thought he was dead, and Owen replies that he thought so too. He asks her to come closer, which makes Teddy cry. Owen comforts her, they kiss, and Teddy tells him that she loves him very much.
Amelia goes to find Link to talk about which kind of scan they need to order for Owen, and Link makes a snide remark about how he doesn’t like to be blindsided, which prompts Amelia to ask if he’s okay. She tells her ex that whatever is going on, he needs to get his head in the game because Owen means a lot to her and everyone else at the hospital. I do give Amelia major props for taking her ex-husband’s major accident in stride unlike how like old Amelia would have. She handles herself incredibly well in this episode.
Back in the OR, Richard and Bailey continue to argue about whether the Webber Method should continue. Bailey suspends the program indefinitely, so Richard tries to pull rank with the chief of chiefs card. Schmitt overhears the conversation, but he doesn’t process it because he has yet to stop washing his hands post-surgery. Next door, Maggie and Winston are trying to determine whether they can still transplant the bruised donor heart. Maggie isn’t sure the heart is viable and doesn’t believe it is worth the risk to find out. She would rather wait for another heart. Winston knows the risks and wants to do the surgery anyway. He reminds Maggie that Farouk needs this miracle and is trusting his gut to take the miracle they were given. Maggie begrudgingly agrees to go along with Winston, so they start the transplant.
WHAT'S THE PLAN?
Outside, Mer calls Nick to complain about the Hamilton situation. She almost lost him on the table, but Hamilton did survive the procedure. Nick calls Hamilton an idiot, which Mer agrees with, and asks if she would like him to hitch a ride to Seattle on a transplant transfer helicopter to help her out. Mer loves the idea and it’s truly about time that Nick shows up in Seattle. Mer walks into Hayes as heads back inside and sees that he has a large cut on his forehead. She had yet to hear about the accident, and Hayes is clearly still stunned. He tells Mer that his whole life flashed before his eyes and he saw his wife and boys, which was a lot for him. Hayes insists that he is fine, but Mer wants to check him out anyway.
Mer checks Hayes for a head injury. His pupils are good, he didn’t lose consciousness, and his head doesn’t hurt. Mer wants to take his blood pressure before they agree that he is okay. Out of nowhere, Hayes asks Mer for her opinion on “mercy killings.” Mer believes in death with dignity. Hayes wants to know what her specific thoughts are on a doctor taking that decision into their own hands. Mer simply responds: “First, do no harm.” She smartly asks if there’s something he wants to tell her, but Hayes deflects by saying that Owen was hurt in the accident and might need a general surgeon.
Mer and Webber show up in the imaging room where Link, Nico, and Amelia are looking over Owen’s scans. They will definitely need to operate on his leg and do a spinal decompression. Owen also has a lacerated spleen, which may or may not need to be surgically fixed. As they discuss their surgical plan, Link asks if they can get Schmitt to assist since he is the top resident. Richard put the kibosh on that idea by sternly stating that Schmitt is not available. Mer tells the group to call her if they need her and leaves.
The scene changes to show Schmitt still obsessively washing his hands. He is starting to rub the skin off. Bailey finds him and says he needs to go complete his surgical report, but he doesn’t respond. Bailey explains that losing a patient happens to even the best of surgeons. She suggests he take a walk, feel his feelings, then write his report. She leaves him without getting any sort of response or acknowledgement, which seems a little neglectful on Bailey’s part.
Amy, Link, and Nico go to discuss surgical options with Owen and Teddy, but Amelia and Link are having trouble agreeing on the course of action. Link believes that the leg injury takes priority, while Amelia argues that the spine should always come first. Nico suggests that they do the repairs simultaneously, since both are equally important and Amelia agrees. Owen would like to see Hayes before his surgery and tells the doctors it can’t wait. They leave to go find Hayes, who is back in the OR to get an update on Farouk. Winston has a good feeling about the surgery, but they aren’t done with the transplant yet. Hayes then makes his way to visit Owen in pre-op. Owen says things could have been much worse, and Hayes doesn’t know what else to say other than “thank you.” Owen would like Hayes to thank him by forgetting about what he said about the drugs earlier. Hayes can’t simply forget and is worried about being an accessory to a crime, losing his license, and/or going to jail because the soldiers don’t qualify for physician-assisted death. Owen promised Noah he would go through with it and will bend the rules to fulfill his word. Hayes wants Owen to think through it and feels that Owen should tell Bailey before he gets in any deeper. On his way out, Hayes is stopped by Teddy, who wants to know how Farouk is doing. He brusquely says that he doesn’t know and walks away quickly.
Elsewhere in the hospital, Mer goes to check on Hamilton and finds him still sleeping. Kai is sitting next to him, and Mer decides to noisily wake Hamilton up. He instantly apologizes but Mer cuts him off immediately because she doesn’t want an apology. Mer goes on a rant about how Hamilton wasted the whole team’s time and reiterates that he is their only chance at finding out if their Parkinson’s treatment works or not, and that they won’t get a second chance with the FDA. Mer tells Hamilton that if he pulls another stunt like that, she will quit. Kai is just as mad since they have been working for two years on the project. Hamilton understands the conditions, so Mer storms out.
Schmitt is still scrubbing his hands raw and is found by Jo. Bailey told Jo what happened, so she came to take her friend home. Schmitt won’t stop and Jo clearly sees that he is in distress, yet decides to leave the room. At this point, what is wrong with all these doctors leaving someone who is clearly in mental distress all by themselves?
Hayes finds Megan in the hospital’s chapel after checking in with Mrs. Hunt. Megan is lighting a candle and tells Hayes that she came to the chapel to pray since no one has given her an update in hours. She wants to know how bad the situation is. Hayes counters by saying he wants to know what her plan is for not killing herself if things go south and what her potential treatment options are to stay alive before he tells her anything. He talks about how his wife died, which Megan didn’t know, and how he still hasn’t moved on. He’s not sure if he will ever be over her and understands what Megan is currently feeling. Hayes has had the same thoughts because he’s desperate to see his wife again, but he won’t leave his boys. He knows the depth of that grief, which is comforting to Megan. Hayes wants to know that, if he gives her more bad news, she will be okay. Megan states she took a sedative to help and will call her psychologist with Hayes watching. She will also email her psychiatrist for help. Hayes accepts that Megan won’t do anything rash, so he tells her about the accident, Owen’s injuries and current surgery, Farouk’s surgical status, and that the donor heart was bruised in the accident, but Winston and Maggie are doing what they can. Megan dryly says: “Wow, when it rains, it pours.” Hayes makes her pull out her phone and call her psychologist as she promised, demonstrating that he is an incredibly good friend.
POINTS OF VIEW
Now that she got the frustration out of her system, Mer goes to the OR gallery to sit with Richard and watch Owen’s surgery. Richard asks Mer if she heard about Schmitt. He tells her everything that happened and is still upset that Schmitt didn’t wait for an attending. Mer calmly says that she wouldn’t have waited either if she had the Webber Method as a resident and feels that Cristina and Alex would also have acted the same. She feels sorry for Schmitt, which doesn’t help Richard. Below, the surgery is going well. The repair of Owen’s leg is successful, and Amelia continues to operate on his spine. Kai shows up in the gallery, which Amelia and Link both notice immediately. Link asks for the gallery to be cleared because he needs to focus. Everyone leaves, and Amelia is confused by his actions but starts putting the pieces together.
Jo finds Helm and new Grey Sloan Memorial resident Wright and asks for help with Schmitt. They arrive to find Schmitt’s hands profusely bleeding as he continues to wash away. He’s been scrubbing for hours and hasn’t stopped. Wright gives Schmitt some encouraging words about how he didn’t handle his first loss well either and tries to pull Schmitt away from the sink. Schmitt fights, but ultimately collapses on the floor. Wright carries him out of the scrub room, and it’s nice to see the fellow residents helping out one of their own.
Down the hall, Owen’s surgery is finished and he is ready to be transported to the ICU. The doctors want regular neuro and vascular checks done to make sure there aren’t any post-op complications. Amelia stops Link on his way out and yells at him for punishing her all day for seeing her kiss someone else. It didn’t take long for her to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Link is equally angry about how he has pined for her for so long because she kept telling him that she loves him. He’s been torturing himself and realized that he just needs her, not marriage. When he went to tell Amelia his revelation, he saw her kissing Kai. Link feels that Amelia moved on as if the last year and half didn’t matter. Amelia counters that she has been processing her own feelings and what she needed for a long time. She reminds Link that he refused to hear about that, leading to the end of their relationship. She knows they didn’t want the same things and feels he was trying to gaslight her into marriage. Link takes great offense to that last part and fiercely defends how he never gaslit her. He sarcastically congratulates her on her newfound happiness and walks away.
Winston and Maggie have also nearly finished Farouk’s heart transplant. They are at the most stressful part: taking off the heart clamp to see if the new heart will beat on its own. Winston takes a second to pray before they remove it, and his prayers are answered. Meanwhile in the ER, Jo, Helm, and Wright bandage up Schmitt’s hands. They don’t want to leave Schmitt alone while he is in such a delicate state, but what none of these doctors realize is that they should get their friend a psych consult. Nico shows up and asks what happened, but Schmitt won’t even talk to him. He’s still in shock, so Helm asks Nico if they can go talk to fill him in. Jo has to take a call, so Wright stays with Schmitt.
Upstairs, Winston and Maggie go tell Megan the good news. Hayes sees them coming and joins the conversation. Farouk’s heart is beating well, which makes Megan burst into tears. She hugs and thanks Winston. Maggie says that Farouk will wake up soon so Megan can go see him. Megan asks how Owen is, and the surgeons say they will get her an update when they can. Winston tells Megan that it’s okay to take in the miracle, and Megan hugs Hayes.
The surprise twist of the episode follows the happy moment. Hayes goes to talk to Bailey later that evening in her office. She asks how the Hunt family is doing, so he tells her that Farouk’s transplant was a success and he hasn’t heard about Owen. Bailey needs Owen to be okay and talks about how the whole family has been through so much. Owen is one of the best men she knows because he cares and fights for what he thinks is right. She decides that he will be okay, and the look on Hayes’ face says that he is starting to understand why Owen agreed to be part of physician-assisted deaths whether they are legal or not. Hayes shockingly gives Bailey his notice and says he will be moving his family back to Ireland. Just like the audience, Bailey is incredibly surprised and wants to convince him to say. Hayes says that he has made his decision and she won’t change his mind. Bailey asks if he will stay until Owen is well, since she is hemorrhaging surgeons. Hayes says he can’t and is sorry because he has loved his time at Grey Sloan Memorial. He needs to do what’s best for his family (a.k.a., not be an accomplice or know anything about Owen’s illegal activities) and that this will be his last shift. Hayes apologizes again and walks out. It is pretty stunning that Hayes quit, but this also is a testament to what a good man he is. He doesn’t know how he feels personally about Owen’s mission, but he does know that he wants no part of it if it’s illegal. I will personally miss Hayes greatly, but this surely won’t be the first or last major reaction to the physician-assisted death topic this season.
Maggie and Winston are ready to leave for the night, and Winston wants to know how they will celebrate Farouk’s successful heart transplant. Maggie states that she didn’t know Winston was the type of person who takes in miracles, and it’s a little surprising that she doesn’t know that her husband has great faith. She doesn’t believe in miracles because she is scientific. Winston is thrilled that they both showed up and were a team regardless of their differing beliefs. He says that either way, whether it was a miracle or skill, they still saved a boy’s life. They kiss and leave to go home and cuddle in bed.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Mer is about to leave Grey Sloan Memorial for the night, and Nick walks up with the most perfect timing as usual. They kiss and he asks how she is. Mer explains that her friend got into a car accident, her other friend quit, and her favorite resident flamed out all in the same day. Nick knows his girlfriend is going to need some relaxation time, so he made a reservation at a restaurant for them to get dinner. He also booked a room at a hotel that has great room service, and Mer picks the second option.
Amelia meets Kai at Joe’s Bar and decides to explain some of the day’s events. She quickly tells Kai that Owen, who is her ex-husband, is not paralyzed and the surgeon she operated with is her son’s father. Kai now understands why Link cleared the gallery, and Amelia confirms that he saw them kiss. Amelia also understands if Kai wants nothing to do with her messy life. Before Kai can say anything, Amelia gets a text with a photo of Scout from Link. She explains that he sends a goodnight photo of Scout every night he has him even if they are fighting. Kai simply says that Link is a good man. Amelia hates that she broke his heart and that he made her break it all over again. She also reveals that she doesn’t drink, and Kai gives Amelia some of their fries, which they say is a big step for them. Seems like a blossoming relationship to me.
Over at the loft, Jo gets her and Link shots. He doesn’t want to feel all the pain and emotions over losing Amelia again. Jo doesn’t want him to suffer since they both know that Amelia doesn’t want what he wants. She says Link is the best person that she knows, that he is hot, and that there are other women who would love to love him. Link sarcastically jokes that he is a catch before there’s a slightly awkward pause. Jo then says, “You already mourned her. You already suffered, so maybe don’t suffer anymore.” Cue the score, and Jo and Link kiss. Link pulls back and says, “This is a bad idea.” Jo responds, “Is it?” They kiss more, which leads to them of course hooking up. Link is correct: this is a bad idea because it will more than likely be a rebound for him while Jo wants more than that. It’s going to get messy quickly for these best friends, but it will make for some interesting drama.
Back at the hospital, Bailey goes to get into an elevator to leave for the night and sees Richard staring at her when the doors open. He gives her an intense stare, and there is an incredibly awkward silence for the whole elevator ride. Nico finds Schmitt all alone outside the hospital sitting on the ground against the building. Not sure why anyone let Schmitt go out on his own, but at least Nico found him. Nico doesn’t know what to say so they just sit together. Teddy is sitting next to Owen’s bedside, and he wakes up in a lot of pain. Owen asks how the surgery went, and Teddy replies that he will walk again but it will take time. She also tells him that Amelia stopped by to check on him and told her that Hayes quit to move his family back to Ireland. Teddy asks what happened in that car and what is he not telling her because she knows that whatever happened has forced Hayes to leave. The episode ends before Owen says anything, leaving us to wonder how long it will be before the truth eventually comes out.