On September 30, Grey’s Anatomy returned for its 18th season. The premiere episode featured all the things Grey’s Anatomy fans have come to expect: romance, over-the-top medical cases, and, of course, lot’s of drama. Warning: this article contains spoilers from the episode!
While last season focused primarily on COVID-19, with Meredith revisiting past characters while in a coma battling the disease, this season, the show decided to move on from the pandemic, offering a message of support for real frontline workers at the beginning of the episode.
At the end of Season 17, Meredith became head of the residency program at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, a new role that connected back to the very first episode of the series. However, the premiere did not focus on this role at all. Meredith’s storyline was primarily focused on her journey to Minnesota, where she is offered a prestigious new job and seems to rekindle a spark with a former love interest played by Scott Speedman.
I thought this was an interesting choice for her character, and it was definitely unexpected. The show had been promising the return of past characters, but this is not who I would have guessed would make an appearance, especially after all of the shocking scenes on the beach last season with former leads. It will be interesting to see where this storyline goes, especially because it was implied that Meredith and Dr. Hayes, also known as McWidow, had a relationship back in Seattle.
Aside from Meredith’s new love interest, this episode also featured the wedding of Dr. Owen Hunt and Dr. Teddy Altman. However, their wedding ended up being interrupted by a bicycle accident that became the main medical focus of the episode. Overall, their wedding was very sweet, and I’m glad the characters finally got married after such a long friendship and all of the drama last season. I do think the medical cases in this episode could have been a bit more dramatic for the premiere, but I think the focus of seeing where everyone ended up after last season was good.
The other prominent storylines were Dr. Jo Wilson’s new role as a mother to baby Luna, Dr. Webber and Dr. Bailey trying to find replacements for the doctors that left in Season 17, and Amelia and Link’s relationship issues that started after she rejected his proposal in the Season 17 finale. I’m curious to learn more about how Jo is handling motherhood. I think it could be a really captivating storyline if it is featured more prominently than it was in this episode.
A new chief of plastic surgery was hired at the end of the show, which is exciting. As far as Amelia and Link go, I hope they are able to work it out, because I really like them as a couple, but right now things are not looking good. We’ll have to wait and see!
Overall, I don’t think it was my favorite Grey’s Anatomy premiere ever, but I’m very excited to see where Season 18 will take all of the doctors. I can’t wait to see what happens next!
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