The carousel never stops spinning. See how far a year on the ride takes the doctors of Grey’s Anatomy in our recap.
Blink and you might have missed Derek’s funeral and the initial outpouring of emotions from the doctors on tonight’s Grey’s Anatomy season 11, episode 22. Where the show did not waste time on the shock of the trauma, it focused on the slow, painful recovery. The case of the week may seem minor, two women recovering from major burn wounds, waiting out the long process of recovery. But as each layer of their skin is painfully pulled away, the further they move towards their wounds becoming scars, the harder it gets to keep peeling.
Easter
There was a reason for having the focus on Derek’s car radio screen before his death. To provide a date in March. This way, when weeks have passed since the funeral, Easter is not as far fetched in the time line as it seems. As the funeral comes and goes no memorable faces appear in the crowd including Addison, Cristina, Derek’s sisters or mother. Rather than dwell in the clean up process from the day, Meredith wakes up Zola and lives out her mother’s disappearance play by play after the love of her life left her for good.
Death sparks some interesting conversations for Miranda and Ben. When the time comes for Miranda to go she wants no extraordinary means to be taken. Ben, on the other hand, wants all the tubes, machines, and science to take the drivers seat. Others across the hospital are finding their own way to trick themselves into feeling comfort. Owen decides to enlist in another active tour to reignite his passion for life. He is taking an unexpected partner, April Kepner. She refuses to admit that it is running away, but with nothing tying her down in Seattle, she needs the three months to shake up her life. We’re not exactly sure how her mother let her go off to war for that long, but Jackson reluctantly lets her take some time to find herself.
Another patient whose recovery will coincide with the unfolding timeline is Callie’s one-date cop, Dan. After falling from a rooftop, Dan finds himself faced with losing a leg.
July 4
Alex is taking Meredith’s disappearance the hardest, calling her over and over and over again hoping that one time she will pick up and let them know she is alright. As he and Maggie sit on Ellis’ porch watching the fireworks, Maggie imagines that the loss she is feeling from Meredith’s disappearance is not exactly what she was looking for when she came to Seattle.
Across Seattle another conversation is taking place as April and Jackson spill two major pieces of news. Jackson stained the couch and April is extending her tour. Jackson may be looking ahead towards a lonely future, but his mother is getting a bit more than dessert with her dinner. She pushes Richard back into his chair turning his already toned down romantic gesture into a business negotiation.
Halloween
Instead of peeling back the layers of dead skin that remain from Derek’s death, Amelia continues to pick at them reminding herself what it will feel like if she pulls too hard. Instead she makes everyone around her stand on edge as she makes snide remarks about what Derek would think about while looking at a CT scan and if it is possible for him to shimmy in his grave. You know, because he is dead.
Bailey and Ben settle in with a horror film, but more horrific is the underlying conversation about their post life plans.
Thanksgiving
Jo tries her best to make a home cooked meal for Maggie and Alex, but four hours in the oven is four hours too long. Alex shows up with some burgers and fries, but instead of a happy meal toy, he gets a call from Meredith that simply states, “I’m fine, the kids are fine, please stop calling.”
Christmas Eve
Time for family, friends, and divorced parent guilt. Tuck may be getting everything he wants under the Christmas tree, but will Miranda get permission to sleep with a shirtless Idris Elba if he enters the ER shirtless carrying a child he just saved? Not if Ben is on life support in another wing of the hospital and she still has a ring on her finger.
Callie takes Sophia for Christmas Eve, but before her plans with her daughter play out for the evening, she takes time to hang out with Dan. She tries to draw a hard line between romantic feelings and feelings of appreciation, Dan is slowly becoming a good friend and candidate for her bionic leg study. The sad half decorated tree reflects the mood of the Ellis Grey house. Alex’s person is in a far off place, Arizona is without her daughter, Jackson watches April on the other end of the phone, and Webber arriving alone.
But the biggest Christmas surprise is a few states away tucking in Zola. As Meredith backs away from Zola’s bed, the reason she left becomes incredibly obvious. She is eight months pregnant.
New Year’s Eve
New year, new you. Or so the doctors of Grey’s Anatomy try to figure out what that means for them. Jackson finds himself in a relationship with his cell phone, Catherine Avery and Miranda are trying hard to change the men in their lives, but by doing so they are taking away something that makes them special.
If the episode up until this point made it seem as if the show was not paying proper tribute to Derek Shepherd, this is the moment where everything changed. Meredith sits on the beach watching her children play and the story of their life plays out in her mind. Derek wanted a lifetime of happiness, tumors, Post Its, Zola, Bailey, and Meredith. He got what he wanted, but that lifetime was too short. But there is no more time, it is time to choose whether to keep running, fall apart, or get up and move forward.
Dan chooses to move forward, walking on his new bionic leg and giving Callie the break she needs to affirm that Derek’s work is living on in the successes of her patients. April stopped running and returned home to Jackson. Amelia finally fell apart. First in the middle of the hospital when Richard asks if she is doing alright and finally into Owen’s arms when she confronts him with a bag of oxy. With all eyes on her waiting to fall apart, maybe actually getting it over with is exactly what she needs to do. But Owen takes the drugs and Amelia into his arms. Her journey is only harder from this step forward.
As Meredith prepares a snack for Zola it is time for another Grey to enter the world. But her labor quickly turns to distress as Zola watches her mother begin to bleed and has to call 911. A healthy baby girl by the name of Ellis arrives and Meredith’s emergency contact makes his way through the hospital doors. Reunited at last, Alex takes Meredith’s hand and helps her come back home.
Valentine’s Day
Almost one year later, Miranda and Catherine take steps to correct the damage they began to reap over time. Ben caves and gives Miranda his living will with full rights to pull the plug if she meets Idris Elba. But as it turns out, Miranda just wants Ben to be Ben for as long as possible to which he answers that he promises she can die first so that she will never have to deal with any of this.
Catherine Avery takes a page from Richard’s play book and makes a grand proposal in front of the entire hospital with roses, a band, and witnesses to it all.
With Meredith arriving home and Alex, Maggie, and Jo helping her settle back in, a few layers are still left to peel back. Derek’s presence is all over the apartment, his scrub caps become her new uniform, and his family still remains entangled in his life. Including the lack of conference with Amelia before pulling the plug on Derek’s life.
Watch Grey’s Anatomy season 11, episode 23, “Time Stops,” Thursday, May 7 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.