Who's ready for Grey's Anatomy season 22? We're only a couple of weeks away from the show's highly anticipated return on ABC, and all that's been on everyone's mind is who made it through the jaw-dropping season 21 finale cliffhanger.
At the very end of last season, a hostage situation takes place at Grey Sloan Memorial. Thankfully, Meredith and the rest of the medical staff are able to handle it. However, it doesn't take long before things go wrong again. A highly flammable acetylene tank topples over in the hospital, sparking a massive explosion that leaves the OR floor in flames and fans holding their breath. That's how Grey's Anatomy season 21 ends.
While the show's creative team has been pretty hush-hush about who survived the blast, newly released photos give fans their first glimpse of the upcoming season and confirm that seven beloved characters are safe. A new promo for season 22 also dropped, teasing the return of three more familiar faces.
These Grey’s Anatomy characters are safe for season 22
The new Grey's Anatomy season 22 photos feature characters such as Owen, Teddy, Benson, Winston, Amelia, Simone, and Meredith. Out of all seven of these characters, we already knew that Meredith survived the explosive season 21 finale because Grey's Anatomy showrunner Meg Marinis previously confirmed this in an interview. Meredith was outside the hospital when the explosion happened anyway.
The last time we saw Owen and Teddy in the season 21 finale, they were somewhere in Grey Sloan having an intense conversation about their relationship before Teddy walked away. Later in the episode, Monica tells Miranda that she hadn't seen Teddy for hours. So it looks like she might have left the hospital before the explosion happened.
Owen could've still been in Grey Sloan at the time of the blast, but he doesn't look injured in the photos. Benson, Winston, Amelia, and Simone were also last seen in the hospital, but like Owen, they show no visible signs of harm in the newly released images. The first-year intern Simone hooked up with is also featured in one of the photos, so he's safe too.
Now, let's talk about the Grey's Anatomy season 22 promo. Besides Meredith, Winston, and Amelia, the promo shows Ben, Jo, and Catherine alive and well. Ben being safe isn't surprising because he was the only other character that Marinis confirmed would be okay heading into the twenty-second season. However, he's shown running back into the hospital at the end of the season 21 finale and in the promo to find his wife. Could he end up injured? Possibly!
It's not surprising that Jo is safe either because she was outside the hospital when the blast happened. The last time we saw Catherine in the season 21 finale, she was talking to Meredith and Webber in the hospital. But she probably left before everything happened.
So, who does that leave as potential question marks heading into season 22? Link, Monica, Miranda, and Jules were on the OR floor where the explosion took place, so they're the ones whose fates are most uncertain. Lucas and Richard were also last seen in the hospital. None of these characters appeared in the promo or any season 22 photos. That said, the absence of these characters from the promo material worries us about their survival.
Grey's Anatomy season 22 is slated to premiere on ABC on Oct. 9.