Grey’s Anatomy Is Finally Back — Here’s What You Need To Remember

Fans of Grey's Anatomy know that the ABC hospital drama is so involved that it takes an extended break that spans several months every season. We should be used to it at this point, and yet, this year's mid-season recess felt longer than usual because of the many major Grey's storylines left hanging in the balance. After almost three months away, we can't wait to get back to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital and find out what's going to happen to our favorite doctors. But first, here's where season 17 left off.

Love it or hate it, this season of Grey's Anatomy reflects our current reality and is set right in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. The Grey Sloan Memorial staff are completely swamped, and each doctor is dealing with the stress of working overtime to keep COVID patients alive in their own way. Maggie (Kelly McCreary) is barely holding it together via FaceTime dates with her new boyfriend Winston (Anthony Hill), Richard (James Pickens Jr.) is teaching a new class of frazzled interns, and Jackson (Jesse Williams) and Jo (Camilla Luddington) are now having fulfilling platonic sex. (I'm surprisingly okay with this random turn of events — just keep it in the bubble, folks.)

The love triangle between Teddy (Kim Raver), Owen (Kevin McKidd), and Tom (Greg Germann) is also still going on, but we might be finally reaching a resolution. And by "reaching a resolution," I mean that Teddy probably won't end up with either of her beaus. Tom is still heartbroken over her decision to end things with him, and Owen just found out that baby Allison was actually named after the love of Teddy's life, which is understandably devastating to hear. Reeling from the fallout of her breakup and overwhelmed by the perpetual stress of the pandemic, Teddy takes out her frustration on her residents and interns, ultimately bringing bad vibes to the hospital.

Someone else who isn't doing so well in the pandemic? Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), whose positive coronavirus test earlier in the season had led to a very serious extended stay in the ICU. Our protagonist's symptoms are now so severe that she constantly floats in and out of consciousness despite her friends' best efforts to improve her condition. In her subconscious, Meredith is reunited with some of the people she has loved the most in her life; she gets to talk with George (T.R. Knight) and even sees her late husband Derek (Patrick Dempsey) for the first time since his devastating death in season 11.

Of course, these reunions are sweet for the fans, but they also hint at something far darker because both George and Derek have been very dead for several years. If Meredith can communicate with them... doesn't that mean she's on her way to the other side as well? Is this really how it's going to go down, Krista Vernoff?

While closely monitoring Meredith's health, her ex-boyfriend Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) finds himself in yet another complicated situation. After two kidnapped children are rescued and brought to the hospital for treatment, Andrew recognizes a woman lurking nearby and immediately identifies her as the notorious child trafficker that escaped his grasp episodes ago while he was in the middle of an intense manic episode. In typical fashion, Andrew wants to hunt the woman down and bring her to justice, so his ever-watchful older sister Carina (Stefania Spampinato) joins him on the dangerous chase.

Suffice to say, Grey Sloan is in shambles right now, and its staff isn't doing too well either. With a shorter season than normal ahead, we've only got a few more episodes to make sense of all of this chaos, starting with March 11's mid-season premiere. Hope you've got your wine ready.