[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Thursday, Dec. 3 episode of Grey’s Anatomy.]
Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) is still fighting for her life on Grey’s Anatomy while the doctors at Grey Sloan try various treatments to combat her case of COVID-19. Meanwhile, Meredith continues to visit her beach dream purgatory where dead people from her past show up to give her life advice. After a frustrating time with Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) in the season’s first two episodes, Meredith spent Thursday’s hour with George O’Malley (T.R. Knight).
“George O’Malley will always claim my heart,” Knight wrote on Instagram about returning to the beloved character. “Thank you to Ellen, Chandra, Jim, Krista, and all the familiar faces for once again sharing your beautiful light.”
George, who was Meredith’s former BFF and the heart of the Season 1 intern group, spent a little more time with Meredith than Derek did, and the two were able to have conversations that left Grey’s Anatomy fans in tears. Mer asked if they had a choice in living or dying, and George said he didn’t know — he would have stayed if he could but wasn’t given the choice. Later on, the pair talked about grief and how Meredith was able to move on after George and Derek’s deaths. George explained that his mother was never able to get over it, even though he tries to shake her out of it sometimes. “Some grief is heavier than others,” he said solemnly.
When it became clear that Meredith’s staff at the hospital was struggling with whether to get her into an experimental trial with a high mortality rate, George warned that if Meredith stayed on the beach, it could break Richard (James Pickens Jr.). Meredith returned to consciousness enough to convince Richard to put her in the trial, but at the end of the episode, she was still hanging out on the beach with George.
The bad news doesn’t stop there. Next week, even more of the Grey Sloan family will be fighting the coronavirus, including Tom (Greg Germann), who finally became symptomatic and Bailey’s (Chandra Wilson) son, Tuck, who was rolled into the ER at the end of the preview for next week’s episode.
Ellen Pompeo, Grey’s Anatomy Source