Season 11 went out with a sizzle rather than a bang, but it certainly made us consider the future of the show and the stories we want most in season 12.

Grey’s Anatomy‘s season 11 finale felt more like a series finale in some regards. Everyone danced around in harmony, coming to terms with what the future holds. While the room seemed filled with hope, it also seemed a bit crowded by recycled story lines and all too familiar characters. It is high time for a Grey’s Anatomy renaissance.

There are a few story lines that need a bit more wrapping up, and quite a few that need to begin in season 12. Here are the frontrunners on our list.

Give me interns and give me death

With the older gang pretty much settled in at Grey Sloan Memorial, it’s high time for a new batch of interns to start making mistakes. And luckily, they already have! Two casting announcements late in season 11 gives us some confirmation that the interns will take a larger role as season 12 develops. Dr. Andrew Deluca is due for his “Mc” name, while Intern #2 still needs to find his name tag on the writer’s room wall of characters. We hope to see them make mistakes, learn from them, and become better doctors for it.

Chief Miranda Bailey

As Miranda Bailey would say, “It’s about damn time.” Since Miranda Bailey surveyed her scrawny looking batch of interns way back in 2005, she kept her eyes on obtaining the Chief’s office. We watched her rise only to fall season after season. Member of the board, Chief Resident, her genome study, Bailey’s story of exceptional triumphs were consistently overshadowed by waves of bureaucratic rulings and poor timing. But Miranda Bailey has had enough. If the season 11 finale was any indication, it is Miranda Bailey’s year and people better start getting used to the sound of Chief Bailey.

Jo continues to have a storyline apart from Alex

Jolex is great. In fact, it is one of the better, healthier relationships on the show. They fight, they talk, they get their fears right out in the open. Jo Wilson has much more to offer to the series than building a home for her and Alex. It is our hope that she continues to be a badass doctor pulling leeches out of people’s noses, and training a new group of interns to do the same. Speaking of interns, we know that the residents were swamped with work in the ER over the finale, but Jo gets a few ducklings of her own, right?

Callie and Owen get those legs moving

If this research did not spark something in both Owen and Callie, we’d let it go and stop writing about it week after week. Prior to the season finale, Callie gave the trial another onscreen go to complete her rehabilitative work with her cop friend and recurring patient, Dan. Her excitement at the end of a successful walk was not only a fitting way for her character to say goodbye to Derek, but reminded viewers that Callie is not solely in the hospital to fix femurs and align hips.

After another tour with the army, Owen may need something to keep him grounded in Seattle now that his relationship with Amelia took a promising first step. What better way than to start working with veterans again?

Meredith Grey focuses on an Alzheimer’s study

Derek is gone. Ellis is gone. Richard is hitched and happy. Maggie and Amelia are both on her side. Besides adapting to her new life in her old home, Meredith is inching closer to the age that her mother developed symptoms of Alzheimer’s whether she likes it or not. The research Derek began back in 2007 may be something that will keep his spirit alive and her thoughts lucid for as long as possible. We know she tested positive for several genetic markers that red flagged her for the disease. After a season weighed down by call backs to Meredith’s relationship with her mother, this research could be her chance to jump off the spinning carousel.

April and Jackson find themselves

Is April Kepner really leaving? That is one of the only cliffhangers from season 11 presented to us for speculation. Faced with the choice to either serve as a surgeon on a battlefield in Jordan, or fight for her marriage on the battlefield in Seattle, April seems to prefer the former. Jackson favors the latter, but he knows that the woman he is fighting for is long gone. There’s been too much trauma, not enough healing and it is time for them to either grow together as a couple, or grow apart as new people. Which side would you prefer?

Grey’s Anatomy returns fall 2015.