Marking 19 years of the show, “Grey’s Anatomy” premiered season 20 on March 14. After watching every season of the perplexing show, this premiere made me feel all sorts of nostalgia, taking me back to its earlier seasons. Though the past seasons have over 20 episodes, season 20 will be capped at 10 due to the writers’ strike; it is the second shortest season, after the pilot.
As season 19 ended on an intense cliffhanger, season 20 picked up right where it left off. Chief of Surgery Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) collapsed in an operating room (OR) in the last moments of the season 19 finale. This season’s premiere opened with a quick recap and followed a straight jump to the OR.
The episode consisted of many twists and turns, including love confessions, patients dying, medical scandals and multiple difficult, plot-altering decisions — a Grey’s classic. Never a dull moment in “Grey’s Anatomy,” this episode took me down memory lane, casting similarities to previous seasons. However, this episode wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, it was more of a classic and rather predictable.
The episode covered various subplots in just 41 minutes. Whether it was Altman being in critical condition, two best friends confessing their love for each other, surgeon Meredith Grey’s (Ellen Pompeo) groundbreaking theory, the interns scandal or the drastic yet reminiscent change in the residency program, this episode kept me intrigued as every second passed by.
My favorite was the chaos ignited by the interns — something that seems to be a recurring and a favorite theme in the show. Interns Lucas Adams (Niko Tehro) and Simone Griffith (Alexis Floyd) are stuck in an ambulance with a crashing patient, along with orders to not practice medicine after an incident that ended with a dead patient. Due to the circumstances, they are forced to do a typical OR procedure that they’ve never done before with both Grey and surgeon Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) guiding them from just outside the ambulance. This took me straight back to season two, where two interns are stuck in an elevator and forced to operate immediately to save their patient.
Intern Benson Kwan (Henry Shum Jr.) finds himself going against a do-not-resuscitate order (DNR) due to his hidden and compressed feelings for a fellow intern. This original set of interns will forever hold a special place in my heart. This season’s interns, M.A.G.Y.K. (Millin, Adams, Griffith, Yasuda and Kwan) are a mirror image of the original set, M.A.G.I.C. (Meredith, Alex, George, Izzie and Christina) due to their quick and impulsive decision making, resulting in endless chaos and entertainment. It simply isn’t a “Grey’s Anatomy” season without evocative drawbacks, especially the scandals.
After 19 seasons of multiple heartbreaking and gut-wrenching plotlines, I find myself always going back for more. Season 20 has not been announced as the final season, giving “Grey’s Anatomy” fans hope and anticipation for more ahead. As crazy as it sounds to have watched 421 episodes, about 11 days worth of nonstop TV, no show has ever had me feel such raw and genuine emotions with each and every unique storyline.
