SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about the Season 22 finale of Grey’s Anatomy.
Grey’s Anatomy may have not ended its 22nd season with the typical jaw-dropping cliffhanger in order to send off veteran cast members Kim Raver and Kevin McKidd, but the finale did offer some big twists, leaving most characters’ futures uncertain.
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In a classic Grey’s bait and switch, while the focus early on was on Owen (McKidd) possibly being hurt (or worse) in the bridge collapse, it was Nick (Scott Speedman) who was in fact badly injured. He required a difficult emergency surgery, performed by suspended Bailey (Chandra Wilson) upon Meredith’s (Ellen Pompeo) request.
Shaken up by the experience, Meredith proposed to Nick while he was lying in his hospital bed, a throwback to their first meeting when Nick was admitted to Grey Sloan with a failing kidney in Season 14. He said yes, an answer he apparently had had ready since that fateful first encounter.
Watch on Deadline
In another Grey’s tradition, the finale also included a jaw-dropping WTF moment. Toni (Jen Landon), after some soul-searching over her ex-wife’s appeal to get back together, went to Amelia’s (Caterina Scorsone) apartment to tell her that she had broken it off with her ex and was falling in love with her only to find out that Amelia had hooked up with Cass (Sophia Bush). (Cass had popped in at Grey Sloan earlier in the day to help with the influx of patients from the bridge collapse.)
In other developments, Kwan (Harry Shum Jr.) is still fired. He tried to get back on Richard’s (James Pickens Jr.) good graces by helping with injured patients but that didn’t work.
New couple Winston and Jules’ secret relationship is no more (secret) after they were intercepted sneaking out of an on-call room by Ben (Jason George), a newly minted plastics fellow. New mom Jo (Camilla Luddington) is facing an existential crisis and may not be a doctor anymore while her supportive husband Link’s (Chris Carmack) dependance on painkillers is becoming worrisome.
Bailey, defying her suspension to help save Nick, is considering a career change of her own as she plans to go for a Masters in public health. And the Simone (Alexis Floyd)-Lucas (Nike Terho)-Wes (Trevor Jackson) love triangle, which had been dormant for most of the season, came back in full force after Simone and Lucas slept together and Wes asked her to go steady.
Below, Grey’s Anatomy executive producer/showrunner Meg Marinis is breaking down all non-Owen & Teddy developments in the finale and how they would carry over to Season 23, including potential other cast departures and Speedman’s status as his ABC series R.J. Decker is yet to be renewed (but is looking good). For her explanation of McKidd and Kim Raver’s exit and the reasons behind it, read Part 1 of Deadline’s interview.
Meredith & Nick: Meet Cute Redo
DEADLINE: Meredith and Nick recreated their first encounter for the surprise proposal. How did you settle on that and why did she pop the question?
MARINIS: Well, Meredith has always been pretty clear that she didn’t want to get married again after Derek. In truth, she didn’t really want to get married to Derek, they did that in the end because of trying to make sure that they could have the best chances at adopting Zola.
And so I think marriage is not something that is ingrained in her, but clearly, when she heard the story of how he wanted to get married in the middle of the season, when his sister came to visit, and how his sister had taken away this happy life from him, I think that got put in the back of her mind that that is something that he’d always wanted, but he’s such a nice guy, he loves her so much that he’s never going to force her to do anything, especially since she had such a painful ending to her first marriage.
I think she’s also scared that if she ever got married again, what if she lost him like it happened with Derek? And I think when she realized that you’re going to have that fear no matter what, why not do it? I told Ellen at the beginning of this season, I was like, I want to end with a proposal. And she was like, ‘Agh’. I was like, I do, I do.
So it was something that I’ve been planning since the beginning of the season, and it was very seeded with that middle episode between the two of them. I obviously don’t know the fate of R.J. Decker. I haven’t heard anything. And so it was a very small window that we got Scott to come and film in L.A. and so it worked out that, okay, if we can get him in a hospital bed and put him on the table, then we can utilize as much time with Scott that we had. It was kind of a perfect scenario.
DEADLINE: You took a leap of fate with the proposal not knowing whether the actor playing the groom-to-be would be available next season. Will it depend on R.J. Decker’s fate how much we will see of Scott on Grey’s next year?
MARINIS: For sure, it will depend on if R.J. Decker goes, and I hope it does for Scott. But he was so game, he flew in on a Friday, we filmed on a Saturday, and we worked it out. He was being part of the Grey’s family. And so we’ll just have to figure out if we can plan in advance with the other show and work it out again.
DEADLINE: Are you planning a big wedding? We know Meredith is not keen on the idea but a wedding would bring people back. We haven’t seen many Grey’s alumni for awhile; I feel this season was one of the lightest in terms of cast returns.
MARINIS: You know, I don’t, it all really kind of depends on Scott’s schedule and what we decide creatively. I do not think Meredith is a big wedding person, but we’ll just have to see.
DEADLINE: And in terms of returns, was it intentional that you had fewer people coming back vs previous seasons?
MARINIS: No. When we realized that we needed to exit two characters we wanted to spend the most time on the characters that we have currently.
Ben & Kwan: One Rising & One Leaving?
DEADLINE: We know about Kim Raver and Kevin McKidd but are other cast members leaving too? For example, Harry Shum Jr. wh