Dang, doesn’t it feel like Owen Hunt has been hanging out in that ravine for the longest time? I mean, not for real — Grey’s Anatomy picks up right where it left off in December — but doesn’t it feel like it’s been forever? And honestly, by the end of “No Time to Die,†every character on this show has at least one moment when they look like they have been through it. Everyone is a hot mess at Grey Sloan Memorial — except, perhaps for the first time in Grey’s Anatomy history, Meredith Grey — and we are all exhausted.
If you’ve been anxiously awaiting the resolution of that literal cliffhanger of a cliffhanger, we get answers right away. In the winter finale, Owen, Teddy, and Cormac were racing off to get a heart for Megan Hunt’s son, Farouk. It is dire! On the way back from picking up the transplant, their van driver has a stroke, and the car goes tumbling until it ends up teetering on the edge of a 100-foot cliff. Also dire! Teddy gets out with the heart and the two men have a real bro-off about which one of them is going to volunteer to die because there’s no way that car isn’t going down once one more person gets out. It ends up being Owen who will stay behind, but before Cormac crawls out, Owen’s like, NBD, but I did a little bitty euthanasia thing with Nathan and also promised three more vets I’d do the same for them — can you take care of that for me if I die today? Cormac’s like, Cool, cool, cool, I gotta go. And he does. And the car tumbles down the ravine, leaving Owen’s status unknown.
Now if you were tuning in for the big Owen Hunt rescue, I hope you also watched Station 19 because the entire thing happened on that hour of this week’s crossover event. A lot of it has to do with Ben Warren pulling Superman moves because he isn’t processing his emotions, which is something that could trickle over into Grey’s at some point, so I just thought you should know. Anyway, if you want to watch Owen Hunt yelling out in pain for 20 minutes, you should watch Station 19. Maybe you are into that! I don’t know your kink!
So, yes, Owen is rescued. He’s alive and talking when they bring him into Grey Sloan, but he has suffered spinal injuries and some extensive damage to his left leg. You know what that means! Neurosurgeon Amelia Shepherd and orthopedic surgeon Atticus Lincoln have to work together to heal him! And that’s going to be super-awkward because Link, so in love with Amelia even though she keeps crushing his heart, just saw the object of his affection making out with Kai, and he, like so many 12-year-old boys before him, is very, very mad about it. But Owen Hunt has bigger issues to deal with than the two people charged with saving his life arguing about who gaslighted whom — he has to talk to Cormac and make sure he’s cool with that thing he confessed to him while they were dangling off a cliff.
Cormac is not cool with it. Cormac is having a rough time: He was out there just trying to make sure other people knew Megan, Owen’s sister, is not okay and then he ends up almost dying, and as he’s grappling with that mindfuck, he is now burdened with the knowledge of what Owen’s up to. When Owen has him come to his bedside, he tells him to just forget what he told him in the car. Cormac can’t just forget it. Yes, Nathan qualified for physician-assisted death, but the other three vets Owen has promised to help die with dignity don’t legally qualify, which means what Owen is doing is technically a crime, and that means Cormac would be aiding and abetting. He is torn because he understands where Owen is coming from here, but if he doesn’t report him, Cormac could go to prison; he could lose his medical license. He has his sons to think about.
What makes it more confusing for Cormac, surely, is how close he’s become with Megan. He finds her in the chapel, completely wrecked. No one has updated her on Farouk nor told her about the car accident with the heart, which just seems insane. Cormac makes her tell him her plan “for living†before he updates her. He knows what it is like to lose someone and want to die just to be with them, so he wants to make sure Megan has support. It’s actually a very touching scene — and Lordddd, I am so in on a Cormac-Megan romance — but that seems unlikely knowing what is to come.
You see, Farouk’s surgery is successful, and Owen’s surgery is successful, and that just leaves Cormac with his decision regarding whether to report Owen. He goes to see Bailey seemingly to tell her what he knows. But before he can get it out, Bailey starts going on and on about how Owen is a great doctor and great guy and how the Hunt family has been through so much. Who knew Bailey was such an Owen Hunt stan? Not me! In that moment, Cormac can’t bring himself to most likely send Owen to prison or at the very least have him lose his license. Stuck in a terrible position, Cormac resigns. He tells Bailey he’s taking his sons and moving back to Ireland because they just aren’t thriving here. It’s for his family, he says. But we know! Is it possible this is one of the most rational decisions a doctor has ever made on this show? To see the drama and turmoil and insanity that takes place at Grey Sloan Memorial and just be like, You know what? I’m outta here. And thus I guess we’re saying good-bye to a character full of untapped potential, and Owen Hunt’s path of destruction on this show continues!
Speaking of, Teddy informs Owen post-surgery that Cormac has quit, and she is starting to suspect it has something to do with whatever happened between them after she got out of the car. She wants some answers. For now, Owen is in so much pain — we get a close-up of him administering pain meds to himself (Is this the start of a new Owen problem?) — that he isn’t answering, and she isn’t pushing it. FOR NOW.
The other big cliffhanger the winter finale left us to ponder was that whole thing with Schmitt covered in blood in the OR. Remember, he was using the Webber Method to operate on a very nice podcaster, and instead of waiting for an attending to come in and assist with the most difficult part of the surgery, as Webber Method protocol dictates, Schmitt thinks he can handle it on his own, proceeds with the surgery, and cuts his way right into a bloodbath, killing the patient. Bailey immediately shuts down the Webber Method, infuriating Webber, who thinks the whole thing shouldn’t be scrapped because of one surgeon’s “hubris.†He tries to pull rank on her as “chief of chiefs,†but Bailey will hear none of it. The two of them can’t even look at each other by the end of the episode, which is really awkward when they are the only two people riding an elevator together.
Meanwhile, Schmitt is … unwell. He can’t speak, and he can’t tear himself away from the sink where he is scrubbing all the blood off his hands. Then he’s just scrubbing his skin. And then it’s his own blood that is dripping into the sink. You’d think someone would’ve restrained him before he got to this point, but no. It’s not until Bailey sends Jo in to check on Schmitt — it’s been hours, right? — and she sees his bloody hands that she gets reinforcements. He screams in pain as Jo, Helm, and Jordan (we need more of this man!) pull him away from the sink. He doesn’t speak as they bandage his hands. He still can’t when Nico finds him outside sitting on the ground. Nico sits next to him but can’t find any words of comfort to give his boyfriend. This situation is alarming. So, uh, welcome back to Grey’s Anatomy everybody — things are very dark here at the moment!
The OR Board
• Both Amelia and Link are being dopes, and I hope they never interact with each other again save for Scout-related items. That hope is partly because they are infuriating and partly because I’m much more interested in their respective budding relationships than I am in rehashing the complete implosion of their old one. Amelia gives Kai a little sneak peek at the mess that is her life and Kai still seems into her, so that’s cool. Jo comforts the saddest boy Link by telling him he’s good at his job and superhot, and they end up having sex, also cool.
• I do feel for Jo here because she is obviously in love with Link, and he obviously does not think their sex is about that.
• And what of David Hamilton, who was supposed to get the big Alzheimer’s surgery and instead had to go into emergency surgery for a bowel obstruction he was trying to hide? He’s mostly fine except now he’s royally pissed off Meredith, who tells him that if he jeopardizes their work like this again, she’ll quit.
• Hey, this could be fun! Nick Marsh hops on a plane from Minnesota to visit Meredith after he hears about the shenanigans of the day. Meredith is very giggly about it all.
• Does just the mere mention of Cristina and Alex give you butterflies too? As Webber tells Meredith about what happened with Schmitt, she notes that there’s no way she or Cristina or Alex wouldn’t have done the same thing Schmitt did given that kind of power as a resident. She isn’t wrong.
• It’s so fun to see the husband-and-wife cardio dream team working together on a surgery, but if Winston and Maggie are headed toward some big faith (Winston) versus science (Maggie) debate on this show, that’s going to be a hard pass. We already Japril-ed the hell out of this discussion!!