There was a whole lot of change brewing over at Grey Sloan Memorial during the 19th (!) season of Grey’s Anatomy. Come on — kicking off the season with Meredith Grey giving the new intern class her version of the “welcome to the game” speech in an OR just screams “passing of the baton,” doesn’t it? But as the old saying goes, the more things change, the more things stay the same.
While the season did have several major personnel moves — goodbye, Ellis Grey’s daughters; hello, new batch of baby surgeons! — so much of what you know and love about the long-running medical soap remained intact. There were breakups and declarations of love and weddings interrupted. There were big medical wins and devastating losses. Heck, the season even ended with one of our docs unconscious on the OR floor. See? Grey’s Anatomy might look a little different heading into season 20, but it’s the same old Grey’s. To prepare you for a fresh new season full of Grey’s goodness, we should revisit some of last season’s major developments. A whole lot went down: Here are seven things you should remember.
Meredith Grey left Seattle
THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Our beloved Meredith Grey, whose journey we’ve been following since day one (back in 2005!), packed up her three kids, said goodbye to GSM, and moved east to Boston. Her reasoning was noble and heartfelt: After realizing that Zola’s frequent panic attacks are a result of her being gifted, Meredith knew she needed to get her eldest into a school that challenged her — and that school happens to be in Boston. Meredith will be busy in Beantown for other reasons too: Jackson Avery offered her a job at the Catherine Fox Foundation researching Alzheimer’s, and she eagerly took it on. At the end of the season, we learned that Mer had a major breakthrough, but it’s one that will ruffle a lot of feathers in the medical community, not to mention completely discredit all of Derek’s work in the field. Consequences be damned! Meredith wants to help as many people dealing with this disease as possible.
While securing future funding and keeping her pristine reputation might prove difficult, at least she’ll have her guy by her side, right? It didn’t always seem like it would go that way: Meredith and Nick were already in the middle of a rough patch at the beginning of season 19, and things only grew worse when, after making Nick head of the residency program, Meredith made her big decision to relocate without even mentioning it to him. Meredith then rubs salt in the wound when he calls her to say he loves her, and she pulls the old “I’m sorry, you’re breaking up” trick. The nerve! Meredith just can’t let herself be loved. Time passes, and after a very well-timed plane ride to Boston full of turbulence that might make one reflect on what’s really important in life, Nick tells Mer that he wants “to live a whole life with love and pain and mess and [Meredith].” Her response? “Well, okay then.” Meredith and Nick are back on. Meredith might not be gracing the halls of Grey Sloan anymore, but it’s safe to say we’ll still be checking in on her throughout the new season.
We met and fell for five new interns
It’s hard to match the magic of the original five interns, but the new batch introduced in season 19 surprisingly come pretty close. Remember, we’re coming off the entire residency program at Grey Sloan being shut down, so the group Interim Chief Grey and Chief of Chiefs Webber managed to pull together at the last minute are, shall we say, a little rough around the edges. It gives them a little extra spunk! Let me reintroduce you to each:
There’s Lucas Adams, who provides perhaps the biggest gasp during the season’s premiere when he steps up to the table for his first surgery and utters the iconic phrase “It’s a beautiful day to save lives.” Yup, Lucas Shepherd Adams is Derek Shepherd’s nephew, and he thought his uncle could do no wrong. Out of all the interns, who are well aware they are part of the “losers and rejects” class, Lucas really starts from the bottom and has a tough time adjusting, especially since he’s spent most of his life believing he’s been a disappointment to his entire family. Things don’t really change for him until Nick, who has taken him under his wing, points out that Lucas has all the symptoms of ADHD (Nick has it too), and suddenly, Lucas’ entire life begins to make much more sense.
We also meet Simone Griffith, whose mother died giving birth to her at Grey Sloan Memorial (née Seattle Grace Hospital) and whose grandmother suffers from dementia. She and Meredith bond quickly (for obvious reasons) — so quickly, in fact, that Meredith gives Simone the keys to the kingdom (that’s what I call Meredith’s iconic house) when she moves to Boston, as long as Simone and her two unexpected roommates (Lucas, given a key by his Aunt Amelia, and Mika Yasuda, invited by Maggie) repair the damage from the fire that almost took the place down. (Let’s not talk about it; it was very painful for me personally.) Simone is obviously a talented surgeon but was kicked out of her last residency program when she spoke up about the continual racism and discrimination she experienced and witnessed happening to patients. When asked to leave, she went berserk in an on-call room, and it was all caught on video. She also has a sort of ex-boyfriend from back then who reappears … but we’ll get to that later.
Rounding out the new occupants of the Grey House is Dr. Mika Yasuda. Mika is a fast-talking intern who at one time lives in her van and sells her own plasma. She almost burns out after taking a second job at Joe’s because she needs the money, but her new friend Taryn Helm, who, yes, works at Joe’s after she left the residency program, recognizes what is happening to Mika and won’t stand for it. Taryn lays into newly minted Chief of Surgery Teddy Altman about how broken the residency system is, and Teddy takes it to heart, eventually finding grant money to bestow on Mika, as well as implementing other changes to the program. Mika and Taryn grow closer and eventually go on a date. There’s lots of kissing! It’s very cute! Alas, can it last now that Taryn Helm is returning to Grey Sloan as co-chief resident with Schmitt, which means she’ll be Mika’s boss?
The fourth intern in the bunch is Jules Millin. She’s described as a Disney princess come to life and also slept with Link ahead of her first day. She is definitely not interested in pursuing anything with her attending, which is a real break from Grey Sloan tradition! She had an unconventional childhood — her parents were hippie drug dealers more concerned with fostering Jules’ love life than her career ambitions, and she blames them for her flunking her first year of med school over a boy she likes. Speaking of boys she likes, she falls hard for Dr. Kwan, even if she doesn’t want to admit it fully just yet.
Benson “Blue” Kwan rounds out the bunch. He’s certainly the most arrogant out of the five — the “Blue” is for “Blue Ribbon” — but he’s a softy at heart (does it sound kind of like Alex Karev? Good). His grades took a nosedive when his mother got sick, and he was left to take care of her until she died. He has a soft spot for single mothers, people dealing with medical debt, and really any general injustice he runs into. He and Jules start hooking up but make a “no feelings” policy, which is hilarious because there are definitely going to be feelings. In the finale, he disregards a DNR order when Jules’ 81-year-old roommate Maxine almost dies, and he winds up saving her life. After railing against him for potentially putting her in the awful position of having to “unplug [her] favorite person,” Jules tearfully tells Kwan that because his actions wound up saving Max, she can’t just hate him; she has to love him too. It’s complicated!
A wedding was thwarted!
These new interns are overachievers: One season in, and there’s already a runaway bride? Very into it. The chemistry and connection between Simone and Lucas is obvious almost immediately. Before they’re able to really act on their feelings, however, Simone’s ex from her last residency program, Trey, arrives and apologizes for not supporting her like he should have. He wants her back. She feels like she owes him a chance, and he takes that chance and proposes. She says yes! The harder she feels herself falling for Lucas, the quicker she wants to get married to Trey. Lucas doesn’t make it easy, though: Knowing he could lose her forever, he tells her super-swoony things like how he is the one who really sees her, and he “loves everything [he] sees,” and how he’d do anything for her, and that she is beautiful and perfect. If you can believe it, it takes Simone until she is halfway down the aisle in her wedding gown to realize marrying Trey is a bad idea and that she wants to be with Lucas. She runs to the hospital in her wedding gown, and they have sex in the on-call room. Sure, Simone has a lot of guilt to work through with what she did to Trey (he gets in a car accident following her to the hospital, but he’s fine enough to punch Lucas in the face!), and there’s no way this relationship will be easy, but bring on season 20. Simone and Lucas forever!
Bailey finally won the Catherine Fox Award
After taking a stress-related sabbatical, Miranda Bailey returns to Grey Sloan in order to open the Elena Bailey Memorial Clinic for Reproductive Health, named after her late mother, and it’s her way of fighting the good fight against the war on reproductive health rights. Bailey spends much of the season paired up with the woman and the icon Addison Montgomery in this pursuit. Bailey winds up giving Addison Ben’s old PRT rig to use as a mobile clinic, and Addison sets off to locations in and around states with abortion bans to offer health care services. She soon receives the vitriol and threats that often come with fighting for abortion rights. Those same threats arrive at the steps of Grey Sloan too. When Bailey begins a program training doctors in reproductive health care practices from states that ban such training, things turn chaotic. Bricks are hurled through the clinic windows, someone drives a car into Addison and a pregnant trainee (both are fine in the end), and eventually Bailey gets doxxed and physically threatened by the anti-abortion crowd. She does not ever waver in her resolve, and at the end of the season, she is surprised by Catherine Fox with the year’s Catherine Fox Award. It could not have been more well deserved.
Maggie followed her heart — which happened to be, well, hearts — all the way to Chicago
Things turn sour in Maggie and Winston’s marriage the longer they work together. Maggie treats Winston as an assistant and then actually calls him as much in a major interview about a miracle surgery they perform together, giving a partial heart transplant to a newborn. Winston doesn’t think their marriage can survive it and so offers to switch specialties to vascular surgery. Maggie tells him that’s insane. She would never give up cardio for anything; it’s her passion. “You’re my passion,” he tells her.
If that’s the truth, then Maggie doesn’t respect him. He thinks she’s cold and heartless. It’s an argument they never really get over, and when Maggie gets offered the job of a lifetime in Chicago after the partial heart surgery, she takes it. Winston doesn’t want to leave Seattle; he’s building a name and a career for himself there. They part fairly amicably considering where they start — and they definitely have sex a few more times — but they both realize their marriage just isn’t going to work.
There was one other sad end to a romance and one epic beginning
Speaking of tragic breakups, season 19 also forced us to say goodbye to Amelia and Kai’s romance. Kai, like Maggie, gets a job offer they can’t refuse, only Kai’s is all the way in London. It’s their dream job and a huge break in their career, and all Amelia can do is worry about what it means for her. Kai thinks they’re just in really different places in their lives, and it’s best to say goodbye. If you’re keeping track, that means Meredith, Maggie, and Kai have all left Amelia. No, she does not take it well. Are you surprised? She starts spiraling, but thanks to a get-a-grip talk from Addison, she gets herself to some meetings and recognizes what’s happening before it’s too late. Still, she is very much a woman on the verge when we leave her.
Amelia’s ex has a romance story that follows the exact opposite trajectory. Link is desperately in love with Jo, and everyone can see it. When he finally gathers enough courage to tell her how he feels, he gets a call from Jo — she has just learned that Luna has progressive hearing loss. It’s not the right time for Link to make a grand romantic gesture. Still, he stays by her side as she gets Luna’s diagnosis and begins to figure out their new normal. As things are calming down, however, a patient by the name of Sam Sutton arrives at the hospital. This man is handsome and charming and has also broken 93 bones in a base-jumping wingsuit accident. Still, he has so much game he flirts the pants off Jo. Not, like, literally — all four of this man’s limbs are in traction. The whole thing gets under Link’s skin until finally, out in the rain, he tells Jo that he is madly, insanely in love with her, and he’ll love her forever. Well, wouldn’t you know? Jo feels exactly the same way.
Teddy got a new job, and there was a major cliff-hanger
We should’ve known! Things were going too well for Teddy and Owen in the back half of the season, and things never go well for them. We should’ve known! After the two return to Grey Sloan once they’re done being fugitives from the law and Owen’s not in danger of going to prison, things are a bit bumpy. Owen’s medical license is suspended, and the two of them find anything and everything to bicker over. It’s very unpleasant. Eventually, they remember why they love each other, and there are lots of apologies and forgiveness tossed around. It’s a new day! Owen gets his license back, and in even better news, Teddy gets promoted to chief of surgery. Things are looking up for these two. Then, in the finale, Teddy keeps complaining of a toothache but brushes it off as something to deal with later. When Sam Sutton suffers an aortic transection, she rushes him to the OR, knowing he’ll die if they don’t operate immediately. Just as Teddy is gowned and steps up to the table, she collapses. She’s unconscious on the OR floor. By the time Owen bursts into the room, he finds a chaotic scene. Knowing Sam would die if they waited for an attending to arrive (no one was answering their pages), Lucas and Simone opened him up, but he’s flatlining, and there is a giant pool of blood on the floor — Sam looks like a goner. Then, Owen sees his wife, she’s unconscious with no pulse, and the defibrillator doesn’t seem to be doing anything. They’re losing her. See what I mean? Things were just too good.
That’s a lot of drama heading into season 20, right? And I didn’t even mention Webber being on the brink of falling off the wagon because Catherine’s cancer is progressing. Take a deep breath! It’s all going to work out in the end. I mean, I’m sure there will be lots of tears along the way, and we’ll all be emotionally devastated at some point, but that’s what we signed up for, folks. Prepare yourselves accordingly for the big premiere on Thursday, March 14 — a beautiful day to save lives if there ever was one.
Maggie Fremont is a freelance pop culture writer with a focus on television. You can find more of her writing on Vulture, Entertainment Weekly's EW.com, and TV Guide.
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