Recap of Grey’s Anatomy’s Season 19 Opening: The New Class Scrubs In and a Surprising Derek Tie is Uncovered

Full of “Aww!”-some throwbacks to the past and tantalizing harbingers of the future, Thursday’s ultra-zippy Grey’s Anatomy got the long-running ABC drama’s Season 19 off to a pretty fantastic start. Two cliffhangers (the status of Meredith and Nick’s relationship and the legal issues facing Owen and Teddy) were at least partially resolved, if not completely. The five brand-new surgical residents who are infusing new life into Grey Sloan were introduced to us. (Read more here.) And two surprises, one of which was deliciously Derek-based, were dropped on our heads. We’ll go over almost everything that happened in the premiere if you continue reading (which, by the way, was written by showrunner Krista Vernoff and directed by executive producer Debbie Allen).

“I’ll Be the Vigina” The events of the Season 18 finale were recapped here, and six months later, in “Everything Has Changed,” Grey Sloan was resuming its residency programme with a bunch of newbies that Bailey, who was still on vacation, thought had come from “the bottom of the barrel.” One of them, Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane), had recently engaged in a one-night fling with an unaware Link, and she laughed in his face when he apprehensively suggested that they tell HR about their fictitious relationship. (Reminds you of Meredith and Derek’s beginnings, no?) Mika Yasuda (Midori Francis), another freshman, quickly learned that “organpalooza” is not an acceptable phrase for a tornado-based bus disaster that left a number of individuals about to donate their hearts, livers, and other organs that they no longer needed. No. 3 resident Due to a panic attack spurred on by the realisation that she would be working at the same hospital where her mother had passed away giving birth to her, Simone Griffith (Alexis Floyd) arrived late on the first day of work. The fourth of our newcomers, Harry Shum Jr.’s Benson Kwan, said that everyone called him Blue because he “always wins,” “as in the ribbon.” Is it just me, or did he and Simone seem to click? We also met Lucas Adams (Niko Terho), who was Derek’s favourite nephew and has abs worthy of Nico, a talent for [bleeping] up. But Meredith informed Amelia that wasn’t the reason she had hired him. Grey was reminded of Amelia by Lucas rather than her late husband!

Levi took advantage of the residency programme being back in operation to leave his hated OB residency with Jo and beg Richard to become him head resident. Not only was Schmitt what Webber needed — a senior resident, not a first-year — but “if I’m ever tempted to go soft,” the doctor formerly known as Glasses promised, “I will picture a return to OB, and I will get stronger like a vagina, which I’ve been forced to learn can stretch to 200 times its natural size and lift a 30-lb. weight just by flexing.” Chief Grey was so in favour of it that she even offered it to Levi; all he had to do was get her approval. In other staffing news, Meredith asked her (ex?) boyfriend to take over as the residency director while Nick was at Grey Sloan to pick up an organ for transplant. This was the first time they had seen each other in six months. She had hired people that other hospitals might have labelled “rejects” because of his past, but he would also spend less time travelling because of it. She wanted to make their relationship work even though she had injured him by not doing more than calling his name after ordering him to return to Minnesota. In more staffing news, Teddy and Owen paid Mer a visit and informed her that they had received permission to resume their jobs. Altman had, in fact. Hunt was only permitted to return to work for the following six months under supervision after paying a considerable amount in legal fees to get him out of his sticky situation. (His licence as a physician had been revoked.)

I DESIRE TO BE A TREE The female body “has become a war zone in this country, and pink is a peacetime hue,” Jo said Link later in the show, explaining why she was replacing the OB department’s scrubs from pink to black. Maggie was able to inform a patient by the name of Howard that he would be receiving a new heart because of the abundance of organs that were suddenly accessible for harvesting. The task of telling Howard and his husband the news after it became clear treatment wouldn’t work went to… Jules, the Pierce aficionado who gushed that the accompanying image “wasn’t a terrific photo,” was preoccupied with an article she had written. A kind word—probably? When Lucas informed the incorrect mother, Jane, that her son was brain dead, he was given the First Big Screwup Award. Because Sara desired to be planted in a different way if she passed away, this temporarily jeopardised Mer’s plans to transplant all of Sara’s organs. Eventually, Jane was informed that her kid was brain dead once more, and Blue, who had claimed to always consider the lives his late brother’s organs had spared, had encouraged Jane to donate her son’s organs to Sara. (He later acknowledged that he didn’t even have a brother!) Nick encouraged Lucas to observe Sara’s surgery despite his nearly fatal error. Marsh advised, “End your day better than it began.” Lucas really quoted Uncle Derek in the O.R. to do this. “This day is perfect for saving lives.”