Grey’s Anatomy season 23 kicked off in the most fitting of openings: a steamy montage with some of our favorite couples! As the new season begins, the show drops us in to catch us up on several of the show’s core couples.
Simone and Wes are still going strong, but there remains a third point in their relationship via Lucas, who Simone happens to walk in on while he’s getting out of the shower. Elsewhere, Jules and Winston are enjoying time together, but it quickly becomes clear they’re still adjusting to their new relationship, and Winston hasn’t quite adjusted to dating a resident as he fails to set the alarm for the correct time she needs to get into the hospital.
Things are still icy between Toni and Amelia; while the two are texting, it’s only professional. Elsewhere, Jo and Link are settling into their new place, while Bailey has just been accepted to school or her master's, and she’s been unbenched from surgery.
As the day at Grey Sloan begins, the doctors begin making their way up to the new VIP floor. It’s quite chaotic up on the new VIP floor, and it seems Meredith is unable to make it to the opening due to some issues at the airport; more on that shortly! Catherine takes command of the scene and welcomes those in attendance for the opening of The Olympic Floor, a new VIP wing with help from Olympic Region Health CEO Dr. Seth Norton.
Just as they prepare to cut the ribbon, word comes through that two planes have collided at the airport, and the doctors in the room race out to head downstairs to get ready for the intake.
Down in the ED, Meredith arrives just as the chaos starts, while out at the ambulance bay, Ameilia welcomes Toni back to the hospital to treat the first patient, one of the pilots from the flights. As they evaluate her, Amelia tries to extend an olive branch to Toni and invites her to dinner as Toni makes it clear she’s only been cordial via texts because they’re colleagues and have to work together.
Ironically, their personal drama bleeds into their work life when Toni disregards Amerlia’s instructions to get a CT scan to check for a brain injury. When Amelia confronts Toni about the actions, she lashes out about Neuro always being right before storming out.
Up on the Olympic floor, Catherine helps a VIP get settled into her suite. She’s come to the hospital to get some gallstones removed and makes it clear she wants them removed right away. An ultrasound confirms this diagnosis, and Richard notes he wants to schedule surgery but the VIP patient makes it clear she wants the surgery now, and she wants Meredith Grey to do the surgery.
Speaking of Meredith, she tries to jump right into things as Catherine pulls her aside to introduce Meredith to Seth. He tries to smooze her and set up time for them to grab lunch, but she makes it clear she’s needed in the ED which is when she bumps into a young man who has been waiting in the ED for six hours. Meredith diagnoses the boy with a hernia that needs surgery as we learn he's a ward of the state, hinting he's used to getting overlooked.
Between treating patients, Ben confronts Winston about his relationship with Jules and encourages him to come clean and get ahead of things as Jo arrives to provide some support in the ED just as the air traffic controller behind the crash is brought in. Bailey and Winston work to treat the air traffic control agent, who is having a full panic attack as they run tests to check on him.
Elsewhere, we finally drop in on Blue, who is unemployed and passing his time taking French lessons. During his lessons, Blue notices his instructor acting off, and she admits to experiencing a variety of symptoms, which raise a few red flags for him. He instructs her to get to Grey Sloan, where he’ll meet her. He meets her at the hospital and helps to get her in to be seen with help from Simone.
Following the awkward exchange with Toni, Amelia asks Link if he knows anyone he could set her up with before she notices him messing with his shoulder. She asks him if it’s still bothering him, but before she can get a straight answer, their patient seizes, and they discover she has an internal decapitation and needs immediate surgery. Toni arrives to help stabilize her, but it’s going to be tricky to get the patient to the OR and to save her life.
Meanwhile, Winston performs an ECO that shows the air traffic controller has an aortic aneurysm. As they prepare to move him to take him up to surgery, tensions rise in the ED, and Winston has to take control of the situation. While Winston was able to calm things down in the ED, things take a turn for the worse when transporting their patient up to the OR. He begins to crash, and they have to perform an emergency procedure in the elevator, which proves to be a bit too much for Jo.
Richard comes down to inform Meredith that she is to perform the gallstone removal and has her hernia surgery rescheduled, much to her displeasure. She performs the surgery, but before closing, she gets results from her hernia patient and races out to check on him. His latest scans show his bowel could be incarcerated and he needs immediate surgery, but all of that could have been prevented if he hadn’t been deprioritized as a patient.
Elsewhere, Blue’s hunch proved to be correct, as his French instructor had a serious medical condition, and his quick thinking helped to save her life. After they get her settled, Richard arrives to check on the patient, and Simone walks him through the diagnosis and covers for Blue. Once Richard has left, Simone offers to tell Richard it was Blue who made the diagnoses, but Blue makes it clear she shouldn’t bother, as it won’t change anything.
As the episode nears its end, our cases begin to come to their heads, and not every outcome is a positive one. The air traffic controller begins to crash, and it looks like they’re going to lose him, but he pulls through and survives. Sadly, the pilot was not as lucky, and she dies on the OR table despite Amerlia, Toni, and Lucas’s best efforts.
Meredith was able to repair the boy’s bowel successfully, but he has a long road ahead of him. She informs him that they found an abnormal buildup of mucus and some concerning nodules that could be cancer. If it is, he’ll need more tests and chemo. Meredith assures him she will not let him fall through the cracks, but it’s clear she’s lost his trust.
Following the conversation, Meredith makes her way up to the Olympus floor to find Catherine, Richard, and Seth celebrating the VIP floor’s opening. Meredith makes it clear the hospital has seen a lot of changes, but the one thing that has never changed was their standard of care. Today she gave a patient inducted care, which is not acceptable, though no one else seems to bat an eye as Catherine informs her that Seth is their new chief of surgery. Mererdith excuses herself, and Richard follows after. Rather than understanding and listening to her concerns, Richard makes it clear that if they want to keep the hospital afloat, they need to get on board and give Seth’s plan a try, to which she quips that this will implode as she heads out.
As they get the air traffic controller settled into his recovery room, Bailey realizes that she missed her registration deadline for her master's program in the chaos of everything. Winston suggests she call the school and explain what happened, but she points out that today has shown her maybe she should rethink things, as adding something more to her plate will result in something having to suffer. Bailey notes that they’re working in a broken system as Winston encourages her to delegate and let others support her. She takes his advice and ends up making him the new residency director, something that is sure to create some issues for his relationship with Jules.
Speaking of relationship complications, as their shift ends, Simone finds Lucas in the locker room and makes it clear to him that she needs some space. He agrees to give it to her, but that’s not the big revelation. That moment comes later when she’s at home, where she discovers she’s pregnant—the question becomes, is Wes or Lucas the baby’s father?
While Simone is looking from space from Lucas, Amelia is looking for a way back to Toni after breaking her trust by sleeping with Cass. She shows up at Toni’s doorstep to apologize and ask her whether she’s truly done with their relationship. To Amelia’s surprise, Toni is willing to work through things as she pulls her in for a kiss, giving us hope that the pair might make it after all.
Our final twist of the premiere comes as Jo returns home after the hard day at work and informs Link she’s quit! That’s right, it seems that everything that went down at the hospital throughout the day from witnessing the chaos in the ED to watching Winston, Bailey, and Jules perform an emergency procedure in the elevator was too much and Jo quit her job.
We’re going to have to see where that leads her, but her future isn’t the only concern we have for this couple. Right before Jo burst in the door and revealed she had quit, we watched as Link stashed a bottle of Jo’s old pain meds into his pocket, hinting that his shoulder is much worse than he’s letting on and he might be skirting with addiction to get him through the pain.
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