Surprising revelations and twists made the Grey’s Anatomy season 21 finale full of questions, some more urgent while others less pressing, that the medical drama’s season 22 has to answer. With Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18’s key storylines revolving around Dylan’s surgery forced by Jenna through her taking hostage Amelia and Simone, Nora’s last resort operation and Meredith’s surprise visit that impacted on both the hostage situation and her role in Grey’s Anatomy season 22, the medical drama season 21’s finale had many loose ends to tie up to give the storylines that dominated its run a fitting conclusion.
Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18 did that with the episode’s biggest moments, especially in relation to Simone and Lucas’s relationship, where their being in danger reminded them of their wish to be together, and Owen and Teddy’s marriage, whose personal journeys led them to opposite realizations. It also set up some storylines only briefly tackled in season 21 that can be central in season 22. Finally, Grey’s Anatomy season 21’s very ending introduced a major twist that will heavily impact season 22 with the explosion in the episode’s final moments, making it imperative for some questions to be answered.
8. Is Link Alive?
One of the biggest questions Grey’s Anatomy season 21’s ending generated was about the safety of Atticus Lincoln. After spending the entirety of Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18 secluded with Jo in a supply closet as their reimagination of a honeymoon after all their surgeries and patient appointments were delayed, the solving of the hostage situation brought Link back to his original patient schedule.
The focus of Link’s surgery right after Aaron Gatlin’s revelation that he stored no empty acetylene tanks, which meant his wife Jenna had likely released the flammable gas in OR 2, heavily hinted at Link’s request for a cautery being the trigger for the explosion in Grey’s Anatomy season 21’s ending. This would put Link at the center of the disaster and in grave danger, making an answer about his safety necessary.
7. How Has The Explosion Affected Bailey, Beltran & Millin?
While potentially less in danger of perishing in the explosion than Link, other doctors were shown close to the OR where the hostage situation had developed mere hours before. Its resolution, along with the arrest of Jenna Gatlin, made everyone feel automatically safer and ready to restart the day’s surgeries, but Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18’s last moment quickly proved everybody wrong with the unexpected explosion.
Jenna Gatlin’s actions took everyone by surprise in the Grey’s Anatomy season 21 finale, but her exasperation could already be perceived in the previous episode, after Amelia, Monica, Lucas and Simone all recommended waiting as the best path to follow in Dylan’s situation.
Bailey, Beltran and Millin’s proximity to the ORs put them all in danger of suffering serious consequences from the explosion. Indeed, the attendings and the just-graduated resident were all on the OR floor, ready to go into their OR moments before one part of Grey Sloan Memorial could be seen engulfed by the flames in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18, making Bailey, Beltran and Millin all as likely as to have suffered serious injuries.
6. Does Meredith Returning To Use Catherine’s Labs Open Up To A Fox Foundation Collaboration?
Grey’s Anatomy season 21’s premiere established that Meredith discovering Catherine’s worsening symptoms and treating her helped her detach her Alzheimer’s research from the Fox Foundation, effectively making it easier for her and Amelia to study Alzheimer’s without them blocking their every move. Grey’s Anatomy season 21 also set up Meredith and Amelia’s Alzheimer’s research’s next steps through Meredith’s decision to fund the research herself. However, Meredith and Catherine’s new plan put them in each other’s orbit again.
A major unexplored story was Jackson’s wish to be part of the research in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, something season 22 makes more likely through Meredith and Catherine’s new deal.
While Meredith funding her research meant being free in what she and Amelia chose to study, their deal to return to use the Fox Foundation labs in Boston and Meredith’s part-time collaboration with Grey Sloan Memorial will force Meredith to be closer to the Fox Foundation. A major unexplored story was Jackson’s wish to be part of the research in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, something season 22 makes more likely through Meredith and Catherine’s new deal. This premise makes Grey’s Anatomy season 22 tackling that storyline necessary.
5. What’s The Status Of Ndugu’s Mentorship Of Millin After His Confession?
Winston Ndugu’s mentorship of Jules Millin brought them to spend much time together on cardiothoracic surgery cases, and the insistence with which Winston categorically denied falling for Jules hinted at Grey’s Anatomy season 21 setting them up as a new couple. Winston’s refusal to let Jules spend time on his service nonetheless alerted her to the problem, finally leading her to confront Winston in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18.
Winston’s admission of feeling lines were getting blurred by their spending so much time together enraged Jules, as not only she hadn’t perceived that, but she also felt she was being punished for something that had nothing to do with her. Jules going to ask Beltran to assist on her surgery heavily hinted at her mentorship with Ndugu potentially ending, making it imperative for Grey’s Anatomy season 22 to continue exploring that story and dynamic as a result.
4. Did Simone Tell Lucas About The Intern?
Simone’s reaction to Lucas ending things with her right before Jo and Link’s wedding in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 17 included going to Joe’s and impulsively sleeping with a stranger, something she seemingly regretted doing in Grey’s Anatomy season 21’s finale. However, what made everything more difficult was Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18’s reveal that Simone’s one-night stand was none other than a new Grey Sloan Memorial intern.
With the hostage situation involving both Simone and Lucas and its high stakes pushing them not to discuss their fight too much, except for confessing they wanted to be with one another, it’s unlikely Lucas knows what had transpired between Simone and a new intern the night before. Still, Grey’s Anatomy season 22 must reveal Simone’s handling of the situation and Lucas’s reaction, as it has the potential to explode their relationship again.
3. What’s Ben’s Residency Status After Teddy’s Decision?
At the beginning of Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18, Bailey wanted her husband to learn that Teddy wouldn’t recommend the board to bring him in permanently as a resident from her. The episode saw Ben and Miranda both operate on a patient in the ER who would have died had they not taken care of him, even if doing so in the ER didn’t follow protocol.
While the decision seemed permanent at Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18’s beginning, Ben had yet to meet Teddy or the board about his residency status, meaning the chaotic day at Grey Sloan Memorial briefly stopped Ben from being sacked as a resident. It’s unclear whether by the time Ben met Miranda outside the hospital, his trial had ended negatively already, making it necessary for Grey’s Anatomy season 22 to clear up the status of Ben’s residency by the time the medical drama returns.
2. Did Dylan’s Surgery Work?
Amelia’s impossible cases in Grey’s Anatomy season 21 increased the difficulty of her surgeries, as many of those she treated were patients who were turned down by previous neurosurgeons based on how difficult it would have been to operate on them and keep them alive. This was also Dylan’s case in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 16, but Amelia still operated on her, only for her condition to worsen exponentially in season 21, episode 17.
With the surgery being done only because Jenna threatened Amelia, it could be just as likely that Dylan’s condition didn’t improve despite the successful surgery.
Jenna’s exasperation thinking the doctors weren’t doing anything to save Dylan as she suffered from locked-in syndrome prompted her to force Amelia’s hand by taking Simone hostage in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18. However, while Dylan’s surgery was deemed a success by Amelia, Dylan was still unconscious at the episode’s end. With the surgery being done only because Jenna threatened Amelia, it could be just as likely that Dylan’s condition didn’t improve despite the successful surgery. Grey’s Anatomy season 22 will need to clear up the heartbreaking storyline.
1. How Will Owen React After Teddy Put Herself First?
Teddy successfully operating on Nora let her bask in the realization that “something impossible was failure of imagination,” immediately letting her equate that with her struggles trying to keep her and Owen’s marriage alive. Putting herself first effectively led Teddy to consider leaving Owen in Grey’s Anatomy season 21 at last, with their exchange hinting at their having reached the moment for a separation, something they had yet to try.
While their talk in Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode 18’s ending let Owen propose not talking to Nora anymore and choosing their family and his best friend, Teddy, along with his reaction to her words by asking whether Teddy was giving up on them, the full extent of what Teddy’s choice caused in Owen is unknown. Grey’s Anatomy season 22 will have to explain what Teddy and Owen will try after their exchange, as the only thing season 21’s finale explained for now is Teddy’s realization of how much her relationship with Owen hurt her.
