Major spoilers for Thursday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy follow.
We don’t have to ask. No one in the world is emotionally prepared enough for what happened on last night’s midseason premiere of Grey’s Anatomy. Meredith Grey, now on a ventilator due to her progressing COVID-19, chats with someone new on Purgatory Beach and it end with them staying there permanently. For most of season 17, as Grey grapples with the virus, she’s been having heart-to-hearts with old friends who died earlier in the series, like George O’Malley (T.R. Knight). But this person wasn’t here to support Grey, he was there to say good-bye. In a crossover with ABC’s Station 19, Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) was stabbed while in pursuit of a child sex trafficker. Throughout the Grey’s episode, there’s hope as the talented surgeons rush him to the operating room. But on the beach, DeLuca is frantically building a sandcastle before the tide comes in. “I had plans,” he says, in case we didn’t get the metaphor. As his closest friends and colleagues struggle to bring him back to life, DeLuca sees his late mother down the beach and Mer knows it’s time to say good-bye. Instead of being stuck on an endless coastline, like Meredith when Derek came to visit her, DeLuca runs straight to his mother and embraces her.
So, another one of Meredith Grey’s great loves ends up dead. Queen of grieving, if Meredith survives the virus, she’ll probably be fine, reunited with her kids. But what’s going to happen to queen of pleasure, Carina DeLuca (Stefania Spampinato)? His strong-willed big sister is not going to take this kindly. And if Meredith does die, is she going to introduce beach Derek to beach DeLuca? The Grey’s Anatomy writers are going to keep us guessing all season. With renewal talks still underway, season 17 could mean the end for all of the show’s beloved characters. Mentally prepare yourself now.