‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 17 Finale: Two Proposals and a Wedding (RECAP)
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Grey’s Anatomy’s Season 17 finale—June 3’s “Someone Saved My Life Tonight”—saw Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) return to a sun-drenched beach for the umpteenth time this season. But the seashore isn’t a dream beach this time: It’s April 2021 in Grey’s time, and Mer is out of the COVID-19 woods and fully conscious. But more on Mer’s moment in the sun later—we’ve got months of storyline to cover, first this episode almost catches up to the present. And along the way, we see two proposals, a wedding, and the return of two docs!
[Warning: The below contains major spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy Season 17, Episode 17, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.”]
In August 2020, for example, Mer is starting her new job as residency director… and decided not using Richard’s (James Pickens Jr.) famous speech with the residents, much to Bailey’s (Chandra Wilson) surprise.
Richard Cartwright/ABC
Mer feels comfortable in the new job, but she’s also missing the operating room. Cormac (Richard Flood) tells her that her name will be on the OR board soon… and he also jokes that he could have turned down his date offer instead of falling unconscious for two months. (Later, on Christmas Eve, he makes good on his promise of drinks and brings Mer some liquor in the attendings lounge. “Unless you’d rather pass out again and get out of this,” he says.)
Meanwhile, Luna is improving, and a foster family is actually all lined up. So Jo (Camilla Luddington), panicking about losing her chance to adopt Luna, asks Link (Chris Carmack) to adopt the newborn until she can take over. Link says yes—quipping that he’ll rename the baby Hildegard—but he does so without consulting Amelia (Caterina Scorsone).
Amelia is surprised by his decision, but she says she’s fine with it. We can see the worry etched all over her face, however.
The following month, Link gets approved to foster Luna, and he dives right into father mode, telling Amelia that all the baby supplies he’s buying are supplies they’ll need when they have a baby of their own.
Richard Cartwright/ABC
Amelia isn’t on board with the second kid idea, though, and Richard tells Amelia she’s allowed to want what she wants. Richard gives Amelia advice he wishes he got earlier in his life: “Giving yourself permission for it not to work might give you peace of mind to stay.”
And in January 2021, Jo finds out she’s getting full custody of Luna. Turns out, she raised money for motherhood by selling the Grey Sloan shares she got from Alex to… Koracick! And yes, we see Koracick on a video chat, gloating about his new stake in the hospital to Bailey. (Hello again, Greg Germann!) Bailey feels betrayed by Jo, saying, “I offered you a character reference!”
Jo uses the profit to buy Jackson’s old apartment, and we get one more glimpse of Jackson, too, as he video-chats with Jo to congratulate her on her new residence. (Hello again, Jesse Williams!)
By the way, the patient of the week is Gurlie, a nurse who contracted COVID-19 in the long-term care facility where she works. After two weeks on a vent, she recovers well enough to check herself out—and to chat with Mer about COVID after-effects. But then she collapses in the ambulance bay, and Mer diagnoses her with multifocal pneumonia. Mer also cancels rounds and assigns all the residents to Gurlie’s case. She also decides to do the bronchoscopy herself, but she starts feeling dizzy during the operation and asks for a wheelchair.
Richard Cartwright/ABC
So Mer might not be ready for the rigors of surgery again, but she’s still fighting like hell for her patients. Bailey is reluctant to put Gurlie on the list for a double lung transplant list, wanting Mer to try other treatments first. But Mer tells Bailey that they need to start advocating for the people who recover from COVID-19, too, and Bailey finally relents.
And at Chez Grey, Maggie (Kelly McCreary) and Winston (Anthony Hill) are tying the knot in a tiny backyard ceremony. But her dad and his mom object to the ceremony, telling the startled couple that they should really have a proper wedding sometime when all their loved ones can attend. The would-be spouses agree, with Maggie asking for and then chugging champagne.
Teddy (Kim Raver) tests positive for COVID, but after two weeks in quarantine without symptoms, she and Owen (Kevin McKidd) resume their romance. And on Christmas morning, Owen turns Meredith’s backyard into a winter wonderland with the help of a snow machine, knowing how much Teddy loves snow. And then Owen gets down on bended knee to propose to Teddy—again—just as Link was getting ready to pop the question to Amelia.
“We’ve hurt each other, I know, but we’ve also forgiven each other,” Owen tells Teddy, brandishing an engagement ring. “We may not make sense to the rest of the world, but we make sense to us.”
And, of course, Teddy says yes!
Speaking of lovebirds, Maggie and Winston get their full-fledged wedding at the end of the episode, jumping the broom in a beautiful oceanside ceremony, with Meredith and her kids spreading the flower petals and Richard officiating.
Link takes his shot at that wedding and proposes to Amelia. And because he couldn’t decide between four engagement ring options, he has Mer’s three kids join him in brandishing all four rings. But Amelia, still not feeling on the same page as Link, doesn’t say yes, and Link’s grin fades as he realizes they’re not headed for the altar any time soon. Later, a glum Link shows up on Jo’s new doorstep and asks if he can crash there.
But the finale doesn’t end on gloom and doom: It actually ends on a jubilant note. At Maggie and Winston’s wedding, Mer finds out that donor lungs have arrived for Gurlie, so she and Teddy rush to Grey Sloan and scrub in. Mer and Teddy nail the operation—we even see Gurlie’s new lungs inflate in her chest cavity! (Gory and cool!)
And at the very end of the episode, all the docs—still in their wedding finery—head to the hospital to give the two docs a round of applause. And that’s it for Season 17, folks!
Grey’s Anatomy will return for Season 18 next season on ABC
