[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 Episode 1, “Only the Strong Survive.”]
Despite the title of the Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 premiere, one very, very strong person did not survive the aftermath of the explosion in the surgical wing.
On Thursday’s (October 9) long-(long-long-long-)awaited return, the story picked up right where it left off, with Grey Sloan Memorial in chaos after a gas leak ignited in the OR where several fan-favorite doctors had returned to work.
The characters fans were most worried about were Atticus “Link” Lincoln (Chris Carmack), Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), Monica Beltran (Natalie Morales), Jules Millen (Adelaide Kane), and Lucas Adams (Niko Terho). As it turned out, those fears were founded.
While Miranda managed to escape the blast unscathed, after Ben Warren (Jason George) raced to the scene in an understandable panic, and Lucas was quickly revealed to also be completely OK, the rest were definitely affected.
As it turned out, Link wasn’t the only doctor to make it into an operating room by the time of the explosion; Beltran and Millen had also already begun working on a little boy when the explosion commenced, and they were trapped inside by rubble as a result, with Beltran half crushed beneath a fallen machine and their anesthesiologist dead. Meanwhile, Link’s OR was catastrophically affected, killing his patient and a scrub nurse and leaving him also wedged beneath a fallen beam, with injuries untold.
Miranda, Ben, Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), and Winston Ndugu (Anthony Hill) worked to free Link, with Ben rightly insisting over Teddy Altman’s (Kim Raver) objections they needed to treat him on site instead of trying to send him to Seattle Presbyterian like other patients. After an emotional pre-goodbye call with Jo (Camilla Luddington), Link narrowly survived thanks to an impromptu surgery. Thanks to Ben’s tenacity in the rescue, Teddy was willing to give him another chance to finish his residency at Grey Sloan.
Meanwhile, Millen had to perform solo surgery with waning anesthetic on the child while Monica talked her through it from a distance. Though the procedure was successfully completed, unfortunately, Monica succumbed to her injuries and quietly died on the floor before rescuers could gain entry to the room.
It’s the first major Grey’s Anatomy death in years and sets the tone for a somber start to the season. So what does that death mean for Season 22, and what else can we expect from the show’s return? TV Insider caught up with showrunner Meg Marinis to find out!
Before this episode, we had not seen a major character death since DeLuca. What do you think made this season the right time to dig into that again?
Meg Marinis: Well, I was certainly aware that it had been a while, and also it just felt the way that we ended the finale and the size of that explosion, in particular, when I saw how it came out on VFX, I thought we had to play the reality of the tragedy that lives would be lost and very, very severe injuries as well.
And what went into the decision to land on Monica? I know there were a few characters — Link, Bailey, and others — that we were worried about, but what made Monica the right choice?
Well, we were kind of thinking about the impact on our other characters as well… We don’t just kill characters off to kill characters off. We obviously want it to lead to interesting storytelling for other characters. And when we put Jules with her, and we kind of thought this would be a major event in Jules’ career, this death, and leading up to the death, having to save this child by herself, which she had never done before. She’s one of the people intentionally leading up to that finale who had been begging for that solo surgery, right? And she’d never gotten it. And so we were looking at impacts on other characters, in particular, also Amelia. I didn’t want to kill anyone off… As much as I kind of resisted killing anyone off, it just is where the story organically led.
In her final moments, Monica doesn’t complain. She doesn’t talk about her own condition. She just calmly guides Millen through that surgery. What does it say about the character that she’s able to do that in that last scene?
That she puts other people first, that in particular she wants children [to thrive] because that was her calling, to be a pediatric surgeon. And there’s a moment where there’s a shift where she realizes she’s not getting out of here. And it’s kind of in the middle of the episode when she tries to move that bar, and she realizes, “Oh, this is a foregone conclusion.” And so rather than put Jules through more stress and anxiety, she kind of just hides it and guides her and is a teacher. She’s always been really passionate about teaching, really passionate about sharing her love for treating children, and I think it just shows how selfless she is.
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You mentioned the impact on Amelia. There’s that speech where she’s ready to take blame if something happened to Link. Is she going to feel the same way about what happens to Monica?
Absolutely. This will have a drastic impact on Amelia.
What about for Millen? She also seems to be taking the news hard. What can we expect from her going forward?
I think that you know what we can expect going forward is, at the next episode, which is the 45o, we are not just moving right on to into new storytelling. We are really dealing with the emotional trauma of what happened, and Jules and Amelia are two of the most affected. And we see that in Episode 2.
Over the summer after the cliffhanger, a lot of people were scared for Link, and the fan commentary was pretty much united, like, “Save Link at all costs!” Did that have any impact or did it just work out the way it did?
You know, it’s funny. I didn’t expect that. I mean, obviously, I love character, I love Chris Carmack, but it was a huge response, like, “You were the worst person ever if you even go down this road.” I try not to look at that stuff and have that have any kind of sway in my in my storytelling. I knew I wanted to take it as far as I could, and I think we did.
The pediatric surgery unit now has an opening. Any chance we’re going to get a character come back, like Robbins or Karev, someone new for that position?
She’s not someone that we can easily just have someone take her place, that character. We always are looking to have people kind of come back from the past because it’s just a fun way to shake up storytelling. But no, right now, no one’s going to kind of just immediately replace her.
Are we going to have any character comebacks this season?
Yes, yes. Some visits for sure.
We also see in the premiere that tensions are still there between Teddy and Owen. Are they going to continue to separate this season, or fans look forward to them reuniting again?
For the first part of the season, we’re going to see these two characters kind of try to navigate and follow through on what Teddy said. She had such a beautiful speech in the finale last season. So we’re interested in seeing where Teddy goes solo, as well as Owen. And I mean, you’re still going to see those characters together. Obviously, they’re co-parents, and obviously, it’s going to be very painful to navigate with one another in the hospital, so they’ll absolutely still be in stories together, but it’s we’re going to kind of follow through with Teddy’s decision.
In the premiere, we get our first taste of the new interns. How would you describe this fresh crop of what they bring to the season?
I think they’re all very different. I think we’ve got this confident character, Wes [Trevor Jackson‘s newcomer] that Simone slept with… And then we [have met] one in the premiere who is very excited to be there. And you’re going to see some fumbling interns. They’re a mix of confident, and, really, they have no idea what they’re doing.
What will it mean for the show in Season 22 to have Meredith back more often now that she has her deal with Catherine?
Well, we’ll see her in Seattle more. We’re going to see her in Seattle North in particular, at the beginning of the season, but we are not going to abandon her research storyline, so we’ll also still be playing out with Meredith as well. And she will also be there for Amelia in Episode 2.
We learned that Scott Speedman has his own show. Now, should we be worried about Nick, or are we OK?
We will still see Nick. Luckily, it’s the same [network] family, but I think that’s just gonna be about scheduling.
In this premiere episode. We also see that Ben gets another chance. How’s that gonna go for him? He’s always been a rule breaker, but Teddy seems to maybe be okay with that.
I think she’s not OK with all rules being broken, but I think she sees a little bit of herself — or her old self — in Ben. I mean, Teddy was someone who, she was a doctor in the military. She’s used to kind of thinking on her feet. And I think it just takes a minute for her to kind of remember that and know that his intent is never to impulsively do anything that’s going to endanger anyone, or impulsively anger anyone. And I also think the role that he played in the aftermath of the explosion is huge. He ran back into that building, and he helped save Link. We’re really interested in seeing Ben come into his own this season and tell fewer stories of him being behind, and more stories of him being empowered and coming into himself as a leader.
Are Millen and Ndugu finally gonna go there this season?
We’ll have to see.
You’ve teased before the after this premiere episode, it’s a recovery season, in a way. What else would you say to describe what we can expect after we’ve gotten through the explosion aftermath?
I would say recovery. And I would also kind of talk about kind of the community of the hospital: who you lean on, who helps you recover, who inspires you. Because this is obviously a huge event that has hit our hospital and has impacts on our characters. And they’re going to have to lean on each other to kind of move forward. And also more teaching. We’re going to now have to see our residents, who were interns last season, teach, and our attendees are going to have to let them teach, which is sometimes harder. So that’s going to be a big part it.
Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC
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