S19.E07: I’ll Follow the Sun

[Bort]

It’s Meredith’s last day at Grey Sloan Memorial and the doctors plan a goodbye surprise, while Nick confronts her about the future of their relationship. Elsewhere, the interns compete to scrub in on Maggie and Winston’s groundbreaking partial heart transplant procedure, and Richard asks Teddy an important question.

Airdate: February 23, 2023

[ams1001]

Yet another groundbreaking, first of its kind surgery at Grey Sloan. What are the odds?

 

[DEL901]

2 minutes ago, ams1001 said:

Yet another groundbreaking, first of its kind surgery at Grey Sloan. What are the odds?

 

Well, they do have to keep busy with something now that Mere is off to Boston to cure Alzheimer’s.  

[shantown]

They are making TEDDY the Chief?!?! Oh come on.

And did Meredith totally fake not being able to hear Nick on the phone?

[DEL901]

Just now, shantown said:

They are making TEDDY the Chief?!?! Oh come on.

And did Meredith totally fake not being able to hear Nick on the phone?

I think so and I think so.  I really thought Ben was going to be killed on the way to the airport.  

And who reads a whole book out loud for hours on a flight?   It would be one thing reading quietly to one child on her lap, but she had to speak loud enough for 3 kids spread out. 

I guess Helms will be back on staff soon.  She’ll be the Bailey for the new set of interns…show is seeming almost like a complete reboot now.   Grey’s 2.0.    The regulars like Link, Jo, Owen, Teddie, Bailey and Richard are reduced to little more than cameos or comic relief. 

[Lilac2000]

I haven't watched since the Covid episodes started and had recorded tonight's episode but I hear they didn't give much actual attention to Meredith, no flashbacks, not a whole heck of a lot...all I can think is that they (and Ellen Pompeo) know that this isn't truly her final episode and have bigger and better plans for the actual finale. I hope. 

[ams1001]

I guess the new crew is all gonna be living together... how long before they get some furniture?

[KaveDweller]

8 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

I think so and I think so.  I really thought Ben was going to be killed on the way to the airport.  

And who reads a whole book out loud for hours on a flight?   It would be one thing reading quietly to one child on her lap, but she had to speak loud enough for 3 kids spread out. 

And it was an unpublished book that a famous author had written just before she died. Wouldn't that let spoilers leak?

[funnygirl]

That that was the best they could do for the Grey in Grey's Anatomy's "farewell" is more evidence that the show's creativity has run dry. 

Sure, they're probably saving all of the real good/nostalgic stuff for when Grey's finally ends, but by that point is any of it really going to matter? Is anyone going to care beyond being relieved? 

This is a case study in how all good things must come to an end. 

Tptb may never say it, but season 19 - and especially moving forward - is a hard reboot. 

 

Edited February 24, 2023 by funnygirl

[Lady Calypso]

So...this was supposed to be Meredith's big exit as a series regular? Because it sure didn't feel like it. Maybe the whole "I don't need this big goodbye" was a hint that we'll see her come back this season, but oh boy, it was a bad supposed farewell episode for THE LEAD. At least, at one time, she was the lead.

I did have a real good laugh at Nick telling her he loved her over the phone and her response was "I can't hear you". I didn't expect them to pull that, though glad they did.

So, Maggie/Winston are potentially about to divorce because Winston is, rightfully, upset at Maggie for not taking his career change seriously, although maybe a little cruel with calling her cold and unfeeling. Which means I guess we're about to have another Surprise! Pregnancy, right? 

The cases this episode were sad, I guess. I just was too concerned with this being Meredith's Big Goodbye when it didn't feel like a goodbye.

Yawn at Simone and Lucas. I don't hate either character, but my god, are they boring together. For how intense Blue and Jules can be, at least they're kind of fun to watch. Then again, I don't think I expected Adelaide Kane to be playing a character like this. 

I do like Mika, though. She's been great to watch. I'm guessing they're gonna shove her at Helm because they've done shit all with Helm for six seasons but keep her around.

For a Goodbye episode, it was an ultimate fail. It also wasn't a very good episode in general.

[KaveDweller]

12 minutes ago, Lady Calypso said:

I did have a real good laugh at Nick telling her he loved her over the phone and her response was "I can't hear you". I didn't expect them to pull that, though glad they did.

I didn't expect it either, but it seemed weird. Like if it was a farewell they should have done definitive closure either way. It played out like the storyline is going to continue.

[BoogieBurns]

They hyped this lame episode way too much. We watched Maggie and Winston trim some chicken tenderloin, and the mom from Home Improvement die.

[ams1001]

Just now, BoogieBurns said:

They hyped this lame episode way too much. We watched Maggie and Winston trim some chicken tenderloin, and the mom from Home Improvement die.

I see I'm not the only one who said, "that looks like chicken!"

[statsgirl]

I missed the first half and tuned in to see Teddy telling Richard how wonderful she is so that she can get the Chief job, Maggie telling Winston now amazing the ground-breaking surgery that they just did is, and Helm telling Nick how wonderful and awesome Meredith is so it's okay that she's selfish and rude sometimes because she's earned it.

And I thought "I did not miss you at all."  I am so tired of the wonder that is Meredith, the be-all and end-all of amazing surgeries, and Teddy along with most of the remaining cast. (They have so ruined Linc putting him with Jo as a clueess comic relief.)

1 hour ago, shantown said:

And did Meredith totally fake not being able to hear Nick on the phone?

Yes. Incredibly rude but it's totes okay because it's Meredith.

59 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

And who reads a whole book out loud for hours on a flight?   It would be one thing reading quietly to one child on her lap, but she had to speak loud enough for 3 kids spread out.

And again, totes okay because it is Meredith and she is allowed to do everything.

[choclatechip45]

For Meredith's big goodbye episode that was a letdown. 

I do like the new group living in the house together. I do like Simone/Adams together. 

[JeanJean]

I really like that the interns  are moving into the house.

Helm is looking beeee-oo-ti-ful.

But yea, sometimes the constant fawning about Meredith gets to be too much. We get it - she's the sun. But it gets to feel like sunburn.

Did anyone else catch her saying "I'm not going to beg you" to Nick? I thought it might be a callback to when she did beg Derek with her "choose me" speech waaaay back.

Edited February 24, 2023 by JeanJean

[txhorns79]

I will say this episode shows the problem of going nearly four months between new episodes in the middle of a season.  All the momentum from the fall is long gone.  I barely recalled what everyone's deal was, much less why I should care if Patricia Richardson's earlier surgery was compromised by a potentially murderous grocery bag.

I also will say how surprising it was that for all the fuss the promos made about Meredith's farewell, it was treated as almost an afterthought by the show.  Was there even anything meaningful said between Meredith and Richard, two characters with such a deep and intimate history that the show often treated him as practically a surrogate father for Meredith?  It was all just so disappointing. 

1 hour ago, shantown said:

And did Meredith totally fake not being able to hear Nick on the phone?

She totally did.     

[LexieLily]

How is Nick the bad person in this situation, exactly? Nick moved to Seattle for her to help her save the resident program and then she up and decides to move to Boston without so much as talking to him about it first, somehow it's his fault that he's miffed about it and Meredith speechifies at him about how she's not going to beg him to love her, he gets yelled at by Helm at a bar, and goes to the airport to talk to Meredith and she ignores his phone call. And she was angry at him all episode for sending mixed signals??

[CarpeFelis]

5 hours ago, JeanJean said:

Did anyone else catch her saying "I'm not going to beg you" to Nick? I thought it might be a callback to when she did beg Derek with her "choose me" speech waaaay back.

Yes, I assumed that’s what that was.

I wondered whether Mika’s winning anastomosis was actually hers or if she turned in what Helm did to demonstrate it to her.

That airport looked absolutely nothing like Sea-Tac.

[DEL901]

Technically Ellen Pompeo has already left and was just a “special guest star”.  And I guess with Meredith gone, Maggie has taken over the mantle of brilliant but selfish.  She wants her husband to work for her so she can pick his brain for ideas and inspiration.  She doesn’t care a bit about his happiness or fulfillment.  

And I wonder if they are foreshadowing a religious clash after 1) he prayed before the surgery and 2) when he called it a miracle, Maggie felt the need to correct him and state is was a miracle of science.  

PS. I just read EP contractually has one more episode this year…will be the reason finale.  

[Anela]

49 minutes ago, DEL901 said:

Technically Ellen Pompeo has already left and was just a “special guest star”.  And I guess with Meredith gone, Maggie has taken over the mantle of brilliant but selfish.  She wants her husband to work for her so she can pick his brain for ideas and inspiration.  She doesn’t care a bit about his happiness or fulfillment.  

And I wonder if they are foreshadowing a religious clash after 1) he prayed before the surgery and 2) when he called it a miracle, Maggie felt the need to correct him and state is was a miracle of science.  

PS. I just read EP contractually has one more episode this year…will be the reason finale.  

I haven't watched, but I wouldn't have bought this about Maggie, at all, when she was introduced. Unfortunately, I also thought the same about Meredith. She could be a bit off, but she wasn't cold for long. They started that with Lexi, where she was continuously awful to her, until she let her in. It seems like they're trying to turn them all into Cristina. The prayer thing is similar to Cristina mocking Burke for his beliefs, and his throwing her out of his OR. 

I also wish that they could keep most of the drama to the hospital, and actually have some solid couples, or really happy singles. No major personal drama. 

Edited February 24, 2023 by Anela

[transitfan]

3 hours ago, CarpeFelis said:

That airport looked absolutely nothing like Sea-Tac.

Unless they built an airport set, maybe one of the L. A.-area airports.  Probably not LAX, I'm thinking Ontario (which "played" LAX in the short-lived series of the same name)

On that subject, nice wide-body plane they were in.  That brief shot of the plane flying (no airline markings of course) looked to me like a Boeing 777.  Because I am an aviation buff, I checked real-life Seattle-Boston flights (on Delta, as SEA and BOS are both focus cities for that airline). Apparently, all the non-stop flights  for DL are on (narrow body) Airbus A-321 NEOs.  Oh well, Hollywood 😂

[Good Queen Jane]

3 hours ago, DEL901 said:

And I wonder if they are foreshadowing a religious clash after 1) he prayed before the surgery and 2) when he called it a miracle, Maggie felt the need to correct him and state is was a miracle of science.  

Didn't we already do this with Japril? Or is it different because the genders of the believer/cynic switched?

[iMonrey]

11 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

I will say this episode shows the problem of going nearly four months between new episodes in the middle of a season.  All the momentum from the fall is long gone.  I barely recalled what everyone's deal was, much less why I should care if Patricia Richardson's earlier surgery was compromised by a potentially murderous grocery bag.

I also will say how surprising it was that for all the fuss the promos made about Meredith's farewell, it was treated as almost an afterthought by the show.  Was there even anything meaningful said between Meredith and Richard, two characters with such a deep and intimate history that the show often treated him as practically a surrogate father for Meredith?  It was all just so disappointing. 

Me too. I still have trouble remembering the new interns' names. The show hasn't done a good job of introducing them or making me give a damn about them and the four month hiatus did not help matters any. 

 Does anyone know if Scott Speedman is sticking around, or are they going to write him off too?

If Ellen Pompeo is gone for good they really need to end the show. It's called Greys Anatomy for a reason. And clearly they have run out of ideas.

[statsgirl]

While I like the new interns, more or less, they really have run out of new ideas. And with other shows like The Good Doctor glorifying surgeons as god above other doctors, the emphasis on surgery as a cure-all seems very tired.

13 hours ago, JeanJean said:

Did anyone else catch her saying "I'm not going to beg you" to Nick? I thought it might be a callback to when she did beg Derek with her "choose me" speech waaaay back.

I suspect it was the emphasize that Derek is the love of her life and none of the others (Deluca, Nick, etc.) will never measure up, to me it just shows that Meredith has stopped growing and developing, the original premise of the show.

[marceline]

Maggie and Winston have now displaced Teddy and Owen as the show's most toxic couple. Long live the new King and Queen of Misery.

[shantown]

15 hours ago, DEL901 said:

I guess Helms will be back on staff soon.  She’ll be the Bailey for the new set of interns…

I actually wouldn't mind this. Now that Meredith is gone they can give her some sort personality outside of sun-worshipping. It would be nice to see her having some confidence and being in charge. I also wouldn't mind her staying at Joe's. I miss that as a social gathering place outside the hospital. It was a good way to build connections between characters.
 

15 hours ago, Lilac2000 said:

they didn't give much actual attention to Meredith, no flashbacks, not a whole heck of a lot...

As they were doing the slow pan around the crowd all I could think was "I don't even know half these people."
 

14 hours ago, JeanJean said:

Did anyone else catch her saying "I'm not going to beg you" to Nick? I thought it might be a callback to when she did beg Derek with her "choose me" speech waaaay back.

It was a nice little callback that showed some actual growth. From "Pick me. Choose me. Love me." to "I'm not going to beg you." I don't mind Nick all that much, and I kinda hope he sticks around SGMW. It would be nice for all these characters to find some of their own growth and personality outside of Meredith.

[BoogieBurns]

4 hours ago, Good Queen Jane said:

Didn't we already do this with Japril? Or is it different because the genders of the believer/cynic switched?

We actually already did this with Maggie/Jackson as well! 

[madpsych78]

This is Episode 7. Wasn't Ellen Pompeo slated to be on eight episodes this season?

[DEL901]

3 minutes ago, madpsych78 said:

This is Episode 7. Wasn't Ellen Pompeo slated to be on eight episodes this season?

She’s going to be in the finale.  I believe that is posted earlier in this thread. 

[renatae]

Seriously, what a snooze!

[marceline]

I continue to be amazed at how easily Meredith flies given that a plane crash killed her sister and Mark. You know, the people that the hospital is named after. Of course that makes as much sense as Meredith being allowed anywhere near an Alzheimer's trial after the way she tanked Derek's.

Whatever. She's the sun. The perfect, brilliant sun. The Capri Sun.

Edited February 25, 2023 by marceline

[transitfan]

1 hour ago, marceline said:

I continue to be amazed at how easily Meredith flies given that a plane crash killed her sister and Mark. You know, the people that the hospital is named after. Of course that makes as much sense as Meredith being allowed anywhere near an Alzheimer's trial after the way she tanked Derek's.

Whatever. She's the sun. The perfect, brilliant sun. The Capri Sun.

Not to mention that she was on that exact plane.  I guess it's that the crashed plane was a crappy private one run by a crappy private charter outfit, while she and the kids appeared to be on a nice widebody plane run by one of the major airlines (unidentified of course, I speculated Delta, since they fly between Seattle and Boston non-stop, albeit not with widebodies in real life).

21 hours ago, marceline said:

Maggie and Winston have now displaced Teddy and Owen as the show's most toxic couple. Long live the new King and Queen of Misery.

Speaking of Owen, was he in this epsiode?  If he was, I missed it (I did miss a few minutes of it).

[Marley]

I can’t watch this shit anymore. All the storylines are stupid and most ppl annoy me.

Why would Teddi ever be chief. She is the worst.

Everyone just staying at Meredith’s is stupid. I’m sure it’ll be forever too. Get your own places. 

I would be so annoyed if I was on Meredith’s flight and she was just loudly reading some book for hours.

I have barely been hanging on still watching. I am only still watching because I started watching this show when it began and I was a teenager but now with Meredith gone what is even the point? It’s not even the sane show in any way. 

Edited February 26, 2023 by Marley

[ams1001]

31 minutes ago, Marley said:

I would be so annoyed if I was on Meredith’s flight and she was just loudly reading some book for hours.

I'm sure the publisher wouldn't be happy to find out she (presumably) took it upon herself to print out a personal copy.

[candall]

I watched from the beginning, too--right up to when they generated the new "MAGYK." 

Tuned in to help usher out The Sun in a ball of glory, but instead she just dissolved in a swirl of raspy vocal fry.

[Milaxx]

On 2/23/2023 at 10:17 PM, funnygirl said:

That that was the best they could do for the Grey in Grey's Anatomy's "farewell" is more evidence that the show's creativity has run dry. 

Sure, they're probably saving all of the real good/nostalgic stuff for when Grey's finally ends, but by that point is any of it really going to matter? Is anyone going to care beyond being relieved? 

This is a case study in how all good things must come to an end. 

Tptb may never say it, but season 19 - and especially moving forward - is a hard reboot. 

 

I hope it helps. Otherwise end it a season 20.

 

Eh' it was a boring episode. However I truly hope they find a way to move forward and focus on the new interns since they are clearly trying to reboot the show.  I don't like Teddy and especially dislike Teddy/Owen, but if making her chef means we don't have to see them bickering, I'll take it.

Speaking of bickering couples, I HATE what they are doing to Maggie/Winston. Why are the only options for female doctors on this show flighty or so dedicated they are selfish?  

HATED the attempt to revise Meredith's pickme speech. It's like in retrospect the writers realized how pathetic it was and wanted to change it. Meredith was the insecure person who would say that back then. We didn't need her to say she's not gonna beg a man now. To make matters worse, she was absolutely awful to Nick. It was just plain rude to not sit down and have a conversation with the man who moved to not only be with you, but help save your hospital. Pretending not to hear on the plane? Incredibly rude and immature. I may be in the minority, but I won't miss Meredith. It felt like Pompeo has been checked out since the Covid on the beach season. Let's move on.

I really hope they give the new interns true story lines. Let's get Helm's back and *finally* give her a backstory. I think she and Schmitt will be attendings next year.  Let's see them dating like fully functioning adults. If memory serves they are missing plastics, and peds attendings so hopefully there are interesting new hires on the horizon. 

If they can't turn the ship around, lets end the show at season 20.

Edited February 26, 2023 by Milaxx

[PWHCHCH]

How many bloody alternative entry points does this hospital have? At this point i feel like they've shown 5. Plus i swear with this episode that one of the areas that was previously shown to be on the ground floor with its own exit is now on an upper floor.

Edited February 26, 2023 by PWHCHCH

[PepSinger]

I don’t understand why Maggie, Amelia, and Meredith invited three broke interns to stay at an unfurnished house. Like, they are broke! They cannot furnish an entire house! What in the actual fuck? If I were the interns, I would be livid. Who does that??

Edited February 26, 2023 by PepSinger
The word is “unfurnished”

[DEL901]

34 minutes ago, PepSinger said:

I don’t understand why Maggie, Amelia, and Meredith invited three broke interns to stay at a furniture-less house. Like, they are broke! They cannot furnish an entire house! What in the actual fuck? If I were the interns, I would be livid. Who does that??

An unfurnished home with a big hole in the roof…but they should be okay right, it isn’t like Seattle gets much rain. 

[LexieLily]

2 hours ago, ItsThatGirl said:

The hospital always seem to have magical mystery rooms quite a lot doesn’t it? For all this talk about how they have enough space and/or beds for patients, there’s always some new medical invention happening in some random room we’ve never seen before.

Speaking of, do they still have that blue-light room with all the plants that was supposed to be for alternative healing or whatever? I think Maggie was the one that made it up. Or maybe Amelia. Amelia and Link had their conversations in there when Amelia was deciding whether or not to keep her pregnancy with Scout. 

[ams1001]

2 hours ago, DEL901 said:

An unfurnished home with a big hole in the roof…but they should be okay right, it isn’t like Seattle gets much rain. 

Weren't they each told they could stay if they oversaw the repairs? Which...why are two people who don't even own the house each inviting someone (who presumably knows little to nothing about roof repairs) to do that and did they even ask Meredith before giving out keys to her house?

[izabella]

Didn't Karev live there without any furniture for a while? 

[ams1001]

34 minutes ago, ItsThatGirl said:

I’ll be honest I don’t even know these new interns one iota but isn’t one of them homeless and that’s why this was such a perfect deal for them?

Yeah, she was living in her van which was towed (while she was in it) and she's too broke to get it back. Her name? I could not begin to tell you. I think she's the one who went to beg Helm for help at the bar.

[funnygirl]

13 hours ago, ItsThatGirl said:

Yes I was wondering that too- are they only there to see that the house gets fixed and then are they expected to leave the house? I’ll be honest I don’t even know these new interns one iota but isn’t one of them homeless and that’s why this was such a perfect deal for them? Also yes what does Meredith know about any of this? 
 

I get that we were supposed to suspend everything thought wise and just be nostalgic with the new interns and the whole it’s like Meredith George and Izzy but I’ll be honest I think I’m sort of out of this show now. I’ll probably turn it on and it’ll play in the background but we’ve had new interns more than once, we’ve already done this “new interns, new blood”, with Lexies class of bad interns who started surgeries in themselves and then with Jos class. And then with glasses and Helm. We need another version?

In my opinion, the house fire should've made Meredith's house unlivable. The house goes when she goes and the show can get creative to start anew. But that's their problem and has been the problem for a long time, now... creativity. Or else why even have the house fire in the first place? For what purpose? Meredith was still moving to Boston. And if it's still livable, why aren't Amelia, Maggie and Winston still living there and overseeing repairs? It's all so stupid and sloppy. I don't feel nostalgic, it makes me roll my eyes.

Having said that, the only intern that makes sense to get an invite and key is the nephew, Lucas. Then he could've invited his little intern friends to live there. Other than that, it makes no sense that Meredith would randomly give Simone a key and Maggie the homeless one. They don't even know these people. 

[PepSinger]

1 hour ago, funnygirl said:

In my opinion, the house fire should've made Meredith's house unlivable. The house goes when she goes and the show can get creative to start anew. But that's their problem and has been the problem for a long time, now... creativity. Or else why even have the house fire in the first place? For what purpose? Meredith was still moving to Boston. And if it's still livable, why aren't Amelia, Maggie and Winston still living there and overseeing repairs? It's all so stupid and sloppy. I don't feel nostalgic, it makes me roll my eyes.

Exactly. My grandparents house caught fire six years ago. I remember their house was unlivable. Granted, the fire affected the main part of the house and not "just an attic," but I remember walking through and the straight up smoky smell throughout the place. I refuse to believe that Meredith's house is actually livable, mainly because of that smell.

[DEL901]

1 hour ago, PepSinger said:

Exactly. My grandparents house caught fire six years ago. I remember their house was unlivable. Granted, the fire affected the main part of the house and not "just an attic," but I remember walking through and the straight up smoky smell throughout the place. I refuse to believe that Meredith's house is actually livable, mainly because of that smell.

I would think there would be water damage to lower level too, not just the Smokey smell…of course, the hole in the roof might have let the smell air out. 

[PepSinger]

@DEL901Heh, I completely forgot about the water damage! Yes, that's even worse. No way is that house livable. 

[Shellie]

4 hours ago, PepSinger said:

Exactly. My grandparents house caught fire six years ago. I remember their house was unlivable. Granted, the fire affected the main part of the house and not "just an attic," but I remember walking through and the straight up smoky smell throughout the place. I refuse to believe that Meredith's house is actually livable, mainly because of that smell.

That fire sure looked like it would do a lot more than leave a hole in the roof. From what I've seen, repair work can take forever too. There's a duplex on this street in which the renters sort of blew up the garage with fireworks on July 4.  Repair work didn't begin for a few months, although that might have been issues with insurance considering the circumstances. It's still not done and nobody lives there yet, so the home must have been substantially affected.

[KaveDweller]

8 hours ago, funnygirl said:

Or else why even have the house fire in the first place? For what purpose? Meredith was still moving to Boston. And if it's still livable, why aren't Amelia, Maggie and Winston

The house fire was so they could have a dramatic crossover with Station 19. And the house is still standing because of what awesome firefighters the Station 19 crew is.

I think Maggie and Winston had actually moved out, but I think Amelia was still living there. When Maggie asked Amelia if she could stay at her place that night, I was like, "wait, Amelia has a place? Since when?"