What's Going On with 'Grey's Anatomy' After Its 21st Season Premiere?

By Dustin Rowles | TV | September 27, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | September 27, 2024 |

At the end of its 20th season, I checked in on Grey’s Anatomy for the first time in fourteen years. The weirdest thing happened: I got interested in these storylines, some of which I was picking up in the middle or near the end. This is also the show’s 21st season. It started around the same time this site did, and I’m sure there are plenty of people who occasionally stumble upon Pajiba for the first time in 15 years and think, “Huh. This site is still around?” So, I feel a kinship with Grey’s, aside from its massive success and continued stellar ratings (we’re holding up well, too, thanks for asking)!

All of which is to say: If and when I continue to cover Grey’s, don’t expect expertise. This is pure vanity. I just want to see how long it takes to reengage with the series.

It may take a while. I still don’t have a handle on the new generation of doctors. It feels a little like jumping into the ninth season of Scrubs after quitting in the fifth season. The new characters far outnumber the old. I don’t know these people.

That said, the show feels like it belongs to Dr. Bailey now, even though she was fired at the end of last season by Dr. Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) after standing up for an intern. Now, she’s running the clinic next door with her husband, and she’s not happy about it. When she sneaks into Grey Sloan’s supply closet to steal some supplies, she gets pulled into a case after a woman (Mad About You’s Anne Ramsay!) trying to escape through the air ducts falls into the walls. The show feels slightly more sitcom-y than it once did. That’s not a complaint. The point is: The experience convinces Dr. Bailey that she has to get her job back, which will come as a relief to the interns, who do not care for the new resident director, Dr. Sydney Herron (Kali Rocha), whom I actually remembered from seasons two through four. She’s a lot.

It probably won’t be too hard for Dr. Bailey to get her job back, as Dr. Fox, the hospital director, is dying. Meredith Grey — who feels like an emeritus character now — figures that out when she walks into Fox’s office and the latter collapses. Dr. Fox wants to keep it from her son (Jesse Williams) and husband, but it sounds like her time on the series is limited. I don’t know enough about the status of the series to say for certain, but I am guessing that Dr. Grey may take over her role. Grey, after all, gets her co-worker her job back, and the Alzheimer’s research she is doing now seems up in the air.

There was some question at the end of last season about whether Dr. Webber would continue. The answer is apparently: For now. He can still advise, but he doesn’t seem up to the task of operating in the OR.

There is also the generic white guy, whom we barely saw in last season’s finale. We barely see him again in the premiere. Basically, Chris Carmack’s Dr. Lincoln, a generic white guy who is dating a generic white woman, Dr. Wilson, played by Camilla Luddington, who has been on the series for the last 12 years. At the end of last season, she found out she was pregnant from her annoying best friend, Schmidt, a T.R. Knight type played by Jake Borelli. This season, Dr. Lincoln finds out too, but he doesn’t yet know that she doesn’t want to raise the baby with him.

In the most intriguing storyline, Harry Shum Jr.’s Dr. Kwan encounters his fiancée, who didn’t recognize him when he treated her last season. Now, she remembers who he is. How did she not recognize her fiancé? And why did her fiancé not tell her who he is? I don’t know, but readers who also don’t watch the show guessed that it’s an arranged marriage situation.

At the end of last season, an intern played by Midori Francis (The Sex Lives of College Girls) nearly kisses another intern (Adelaide Kane) in what is apparently a tense moment before they are interrupted. This season, they try to blow it off before ultimately making out behind the lockers.

Oh, and one intern, Dr. Lucas Adams, decided not to go to Chicago because he’s in love with another intern, Dr. Simone Griffith. These interns aren’t given much to work with, at least in the season finale and premiere. I suspect they’ll do a lot of heavy lifting in the episodes to come.

Meanwhile, Natalie Morales hasn’t returned, and while Kevin McKidd and Kim Raver are still in the cast, they made no appearances. Also, one of the reasons I decided to check back in was because Scott Speedman is supposed to return — he plays Meredith’s boyfriend. He wasn’t in the episode, either.

And that, folks, is the state of Grey’s Anatomy after its 21st season premiere.