[Warning: The following contains spoilers for Thursday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Read at your own risk!]
Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) is still fighting for her life on Grey’s Anatomy, and as the doctors at Grey Sloan continue to try treatments to get her back on her feet. Meanwhile, Meredith continues to visit her beach dream purgatory where dead figures from her pass show up to give her life advice. After a frustrating time with Derek (Patrick Dempsey) in the season’s first two episodes, Meredith spent Thursday’s hour with George (T.R. Knight).
“George O’Malley will always claim my heart,” Knight wrote on Instagram about returning to the iconic character. “Thank you to Ellen, Chandra, Jim, Krista, and all the familiar faces for once again sharing your beautiful light.”
Meredith’s former BFF and the heart of the Season 1 intern group spent a little more time with Meredith than Derek did, and the two were able to have actual conversations that left Grey’s Anatomy fans in tears. Mer asked if they had a choice in living or dying, and George said he didn’t know — he would have stayed if he could but wasn’t given the choice. Later on, the pair talk about grief and how Meredith was able to move on after George died, and after Derek. George explains that his mother was never able to get over it, even though he tries to shake her out of it sometimes. “Some grief is heavier than others,” he said solemnly.
When it became clear that Meredith’s staff at the hospital was struggling with whether to get her into an experimental trial with a high mortality rate, George warned that if Meredith stayed on the beach it could break Richard (James Pickens Jr.). Meredith returned to consciousness just enough to convince Richard to put her in the trial, but at the end of the episode she was still hanging out on the beach with George.
The bad news doesn’t stop there. Next week even more of the Grey Sloan family will be fighting the virus, including Tom (Greg Germann), who finally became symptomatic and Bailey’s (Chandra Wilson) son Tucker, who was rolled into the ER at the end of the preview for next week’s episode. The COVID rollerocaster is going to keep going on the show
Ellen Pompeo, Grey’s Anatomy