'Grey's Anatomy 'season 21 ending explained: Is Meredith returning to Grey Sloan for good?
Grey's Anatomy's season 21 finale saw Meredith Grey return to Grey Sloan just in time for a hostage situation.
The finale also shook up several core romances, including Owen and Teddy's marriage.
It ends with a shocking event that's sure to carry over into season 22.Warning: This article contains spoilers for season 21, episode 18, "How Do I Live?"
Grey's Anatomy can't stop, won't stop.
Shonda Rhimes' spicy medical soap wrapped its 21st season tonight with the requisite drama we've come to expect from a Grey's finale, pairing steamy backroom trysts with surgical breakthroughs, a hostage situation, and Chekhov's tank of acetylene.
The episode sets the stage with Bailey (Chandra Wilson) congratulating the season's interns, including Simone (Alexis Floyd), Adams (Niko Terho), Kwan (Harry Shum Jr.), and Jules (Adelaide Kane), for finishing their first year. Soon, they'll be sporting their own white coats and bossing around a new batch of interns.
We're also quickly swept up in a trio of life-and-death cases, each with their own accompanying baggage.
One involves Nora (Floriana Lima), who recently told Owen (Kevin McKidd) she loves him, much to the dismay of Owen's wife, Teddy (Kim Raver). Saving Nora requires building her a new aorta and a stapling procedure that goes against everything Teddy knows about heart surgery. Also not easy? Operating on the woman having an affair with your husband.
Another involves Ben (Jason George), who finds his attempts to save a patient with a severe liver injury thwarted, resulting in him breaking the rules. Yes, again.
But the finale's most dramatic case brings back Dylan Gatlin, the 9-year-old with a brain condition we met a few episodes ago, along with her mother, Jenna (Piper Perabo). Dylan's first surgery didn't go as planned, and Jenna grows so desperate that she wheels in a tank of acetylene and threatens to blow up the hospital if Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) doesn't immediately operate on her daughter.
How does it all play out? Do we see Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) in the flesh? And does that tank of acetylene go boom? We unpack it all in our Grey's Anatomy season 21 ending explainer.
While Pompeo's Meredith has narrated the entirety of season 21, she's only made a handful of in-person appearances at Grey Sloan. She returns in the finale, however, to meet with Catherine (Debbie Allen) about selling her shares in the hospital to help fund her Alzheimer's research.
Her presence rankles Webber (James Pickens Jr.), who resents Meredith for the business and talent she cost the hospital by leaving.
Yes. With the help of Winston (Anthony Hill), Teddy successfully performs the risky stapling procedure and saves Nora's life.
It's an emotional procedure for Teddy, who witnessed the intimacy her husband, Owen, shares with Nora. She knows Nora told Owen she loves him, and Teddy wants to know if Owen feels the same. But he won't give her a straight answer.
Related: 16 stars you forgot were on Grey's Anatomy before their big break (including future Oscar nominees)
Before she goes into the OR, Nora tearfully tells Owen that, should she survive the procedure, she understands if he can't be with her. In case she doesn't make it, she asks him to look after her mother, who she says doesn't have anyone else. Owen assures her she'll make it out alive.
When the "moment of truth" arrives during the surgery, Teddy is hesitant. "The moment that we staple her aorta, the pressure from her heart could blow the staple line and she'll die," she says to Winston, who tells her that they can't stop now.
A compromise is reached when they decide to lower Nora's blood pressure to help relieve pressure. The gamble pays off, and Nora survives.
"You changed what was possible today," Owen tells Teddy in the aftermath. "You changed medicine."
"And yet I still lose," replies Teddy, heartbroken by his betrayal.
By episode's end, Owen and Teddy appear to have broken up.
This is despite Owen telling Teddy in the aftermath of Nora's surgery that, while he has feelings for Nora, he still wants to be with her. "You are the mother of our children, and you are my best friend." But it's too late for Teddy, who says she can no longer be with him.
"You're giving up on us?" he asks. "I'm choosing me," she replies.
Jenna grows hysterical and desperate after being told that Dylan's first surgery didn't go as planned and that the doctors want to wait and see if she recovers before attempting another procedure. She wheels a tank of acetylene, stolen from the truck of her contractor husband, into the OR and orders Amelia and Adams to operate on Dylan again immediately. "If you don't save her," she warns, "I'm taking everyone down with me."
They begin the operation, and Beltran (Natalie Morales) is able to glimpse the threat through the observation window. She lets Catherine, Webber, and Meredith know, and they immediately call in law enforcement.
The cops want to send in a SWAT team ASAP, but Meredith advises against it, saying they could imperil Dylan's life and they should allow Amelia to complete the surgery. "It's Amelia, she can do it," Meredith assures them.
Yes, Amelia successfully reduces the swelling and stops the bleeding in Dylan's brain. It's not easy, though, what with Jenna refusing to allow any neuromonitoring or imaging teams in the room.
Things begin to look dicey once Dylan starts bleeding again and they can't stop it. That's when Meredith bursts in with a bag of fresh frozen plasma (FFP) that will help alleviate clotting. With the plasma, Amelia is able to stop the bleeding and save Dylan.
Jenna, who's been beating herself up for not keeping her daughter safe, is grateful. Before being arrested, she reveals that the tank had been empty the whole time.
Ben returned to Grey's in season 21 after previously leaving his surgical residency to become a firefighter (and Station 19 member). Unfortunately, it hasn't gone very well for him.
Earlier this season, he defied Teddy by keeping the emergency department open during a heatwave, and now that decision is coming back to bite him. Bailey, his wife and coworker, tells him that Teddy wants him gone, and that this could very well be his last day.
His penchant for rule-breaking continues in this episode. Since the hostage situation keeps him and his patient out of an OR, he decides to operate on him in the ICU. Bailey is furious, but, knowing that he's got nothing to lose, decides to lend him a hand.
After successfully completing the operation, the pair commiserates outside the hospital. "I should've stood up for you more and protected you," she says. Ben tells her it's not her fault. "I stand by my choices to save lives, every time," he replies.
Bailey tells him they'll find "somewhere better for him."
Jo (Camilla Luddington) and Link (Chris Carmack) spend most of the episode unaware there's a hostage situation, as the newlyweds embark on a romantic hook-up in a storage room. They treat this pocket of bliss as if it's their honeymoon.
They seem very happy together.
Allen must've gotten through to Pompeo, because it sure looks like it.
After helping Amelia with the plasma, Meredith is reminded of how much she misses the OR. So she makes a deal with Catherine — she'll continue her Alzheimer's research during the year, but return to Grey Sloan during the summers to work as a general surgeon.
Catherine agrees, and Webber is pleased. He tells her he's always envisioned her and Bailey "at the helm" of the hospital once he retires. "You and your work will always have a home here," he says.
Still, time will tell how much on-screen action Pompeo gets going forward.
A few.
Jules confronts Winston about why she hasn't been on his service. He admits it's due to the romantic tension between them. "We're spending a lot of time together, and lines were getting blurry, right? Did you not feel that?"
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She replies that the lines were very clear to her, and feels he's denying her opportunities. When he encourages her to work with another cardiac surgeon, she retorts, "But you're the best one."
Simone and Adams, meanwhile, reconnect with a passionate kiss after drifting apart. Being at the center of the hostage situation together made him realize that he never wants to be without her. Very lovely, but there is a complication. In the final scenes, we briefly catch a glimpse of the new interns — and one is a guy she just hooked up with.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Jenna said the tank of acetylene was empty. The cops, too, said it was empty upon finding it. But Jenna's husband says he never keeps empty tanks in his truck. "Did Jenna ever open the valve?" he asks. Looking back, she sure did.
Uh-oh.
Adams sprints to the OR to warn that the (very flammable) gas is in the air. But he's too late. From outside the hospital, we see an explosion of flames and lots of shattered glass.
How bad was the explosion? Who was hurt? That's a question for next season.
Grey's Anatomy airs on ABC and streams on Hulu.
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