Warning! SPOILERS for Grey’s Anatomy season 18 ahead.
Grey’s Anatomy season 18 episode 14 highlighted a potential ending that might be worse for Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital than Meredith leaving. Although ABC’s long-running medical drama was renewed for season 19 in January, with Ellen Pompeo confirmed to return as Meredith Grey, Grey’s Anatomy’s end has long been debated. Pompeo even revealed in an interview that she’s been trying to convince everybody that Grey’s Anatomy should end, making viewers wonder if, in the future, there will be a version of Grey’s Anatomy without protagonist Meredith Grey. While that won’t be the case for Grey’s Anatomy season 19, what awaits Grey Sloan Memorial might be even worse.
Even though Pompeo’s Meredith has been central to the show in Grey’s Anatomy seasons 17 and 18, she also became less involved with the happenings inside Grey Sloan Memorial. As season 17 saw her getting Covid and then trying to recuperate, Meredith was often less seen interacting with the rest of the doctors. The same became true even in Grey’s Anatomy season 18, as Meredith decided to split her working hours between Seattle and Rochester, Minnesota, to be involved in the study to cure Parkinson’s. While Pompeo is confirmed to return, Meredith was not as central to the life inside the hospital as other characters were, such as Maggie (Kelly McCreary) or Jo (Camilla Luddington).
Being a show that lost all its central characters through the years except for Meredith, Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), and Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.), many have speculated that the worst possible outcome would be Meredith Grey leaving before the end of the show. Still, Grey’s Anatomy season 18 episode 14 outlined a possibility that would be even worse than Meredith leaving, as it would mine the very essence of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. As the episode’s end showed, Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital received an official notification from the Medical Accreditation Council of its intention to shut down Grey Sloan’s residency program.
Grey Sloan’s residency program’s suffering in the post-Covid world Grey’s Anatomy season 18 is set in was a storyline built throughout the season, starting from season 18’s premiere when Bailey could be seen struggling with both all the attendings either resigning or retiring, and the necessity to create a program that could be appealing to residents. The residency program seemed to get better when Richard introduced the Webber Method, which would leave residents to operate alone until the trickiest part of it was reached, and they had to wait for the attendings to be present to complete it. However, the Webber Method failed miserably when resident Levi Schmitt (Jake Borelli) didn’t stop and lost a patient, which put a stop to the method and Levi’s career. The council’s notification is just the last straw, as Grey Sloan’s residency program had suffered throughout Grey’s Anatomy season 18.
If Grey Sloan were to lose the residency program, the show would lose a core element, as it was always emphasized how it had always been a teaching hospital. Grey’s Anatomy’s whole premise was to follow the members of MAGIC as they practiced to become attendings, and residents had always reached the hospital, providing various interesting storylines and character arcs. Losing its residents and the program would cause Grey Sloan to turn into just another hospital for the characters, but also for how the show differentiated itself from other medical dramas.
It's unknown whether the notification will bring the end of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. The notification from the council might just be the big crisis the protagonists will have to face in season 18, not causing the program to shut down in the end. If it did, though, Grey’s Anatomy would lose one of the very things that had always been a constant and which made it unique.