'Grey's Anatomy' recap: Two beloved ex-characters visit Meredith's beach

Not only that—Little Grey, we were prepared for because her anticipated return was teased last week—but Dr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane), too? McSteamy himself?! Yeah, it turns out Sloan's promise to Lexie moments before her death in the Season 8 finale that they would live happily ever after was upheld in the afterlife. (Mark died in the Season 9 premiere.)

Lexie asked Meredith if she's going to stay on the beach, understood to be the "in-between space" from life and death as the longest-running medical drama's titular character remains unconscious and on a ventilator with COVID-19. "I don't know," dream-like Meredith says, and that's when McSteamy surprises everyone:

Meredith expresses frustration that her beloved husband Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey, who made his grand return earlier this season on this very beach) isn't giving her any answers as to how to get back to reality. "It's not up to him," Sloan says. "It's up to you."

Back at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital—named posthumously after Lexie and Mark—Dr. Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) is on the mend after last week's deep dive into her past traumas that led to her psychotic break, but Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) is tasked with keeping an eye on her. The doctors are frazzled at how to handle several patients' conditions, including severe COVID cases.Things are especially tense because there is a shortage of ventilators, which prevents them from accepting incoming trauma. Dr. Cormac Hayes' (Richard Flood) sister-in-law is admitted with a kidney stone, though she is considered high-risk for COVID because of her MS. Dr. Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) comes to the rescue because, duh, she's Catherine Fox.

Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) is texting with his ex-wife and Meredith's "person" Dr. Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), who left in Season 10 to head up a hospital in Switzerland. She wants updates on Meredith's condition, even when there isn't much happening. This only made me miss Cristina more. The character has been alluded to since her departure, but Oh has never reprised the role on screen. Tragic.

Anyway, we go back to the beach. Sloan is having a heart-to-heart with Meredith about missing Sofia, his child with Dr. Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez). He says he watches Sofia, Callie and Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw). "I try to warn them sometimes," he says. "I can't let go. When you have a little kid like that, hard to let go. So I hang out, watch her grow up, and sometimes I see something coming. ... I stand beside them and yell in their ears, 'Wake up! Wake up! You're missing it! You're missing the best part of life!'"

Again, the Grey Sloan doctors would vehemently argue that this, right now, is not at all the best part of life. Dr. Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) and Dr. Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) lament how depressing their jobs have become before emergency strikes: a mother and daughter each admitted with COVID are crashing. Dr. Levi Schmitt (Jake Borelli) had no choice but to intubate the mother, but he then realizes there isn't a ventilator to put her on. 

In the hallway, Hunt talks with Dr. Tom Koracick, who is recovered from COVID and back at work, about survivor's guilt. But it isn't all warm and fuzzies. Tom did have an affair with Teddy while she was engaged to Hunt.

We're whisked back to the crashing waves at the beach. Lexie gets one-on-one time with Meredith on a swing set. She asks what her favorite thing about life is right now, but Meredith (in true doctor form, and also just generally being an empathetic human) refutes the premise. "It just feels very shallow to talk about my favorite things when there's people dying in record numbers," she says. 

Little Grey (in typical sister form) doesn't let Meredith get away with that—calling it stupid and reminding Meredith that having a life and body is enough "cause for celebration." Meredith plays along and answers that her son, Bailey, recently face-planted into his birthday cake to make his family laugh. "When I looked at him, and I saw that light in his eyes," she says, "he looked just like his dad."

The hour winds down with things looking up. Maggie, in the middle of a breakdown and considering quitting, comes up with the brilliant idea for the mother and daughter to share a ventilator, buying them time and perhaps saving their lives. 

Lexie and Sloan more or less (it appears, anyway) save Meredith's life, too. Hunt and Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) begin to extubate, and that cues our last transition to the beach. This time, they're laying in the middle of flowers. Meredith is recounting all of the loved ones she has lost, the grief she has endured. 

"Yeah, but what's the thing that caused the pain?" Sloan asks.

"The depth of grief that you felt with all the losses, it's because of the depth of love," Lexie adds, "and as long as you're alive, you get to feel it. And you get to do something about it. Everything changes all the time when you're alive, and all the time, you fight the change. You cling on to what you have and what you know like that's how it should always be."

Lexie and Sloan conclude that fighting change and resisting pain is "such a waste of life" and urge her not to waste a second. Meredith's condition simultaneously begins to improve. The doctors in her ICU room dance in disbelief and joy. 

And there more to celebrate: Dr. Winston Ndugu (Anthony Hill) proposes to Maggie! She says yes! Owen tells Derek and Meredith's eldest of three kids, Zola (Aniela Gumbs), that her mom has been taken off the ventilator, and she's breathing on her own! Owen credits Teddy with Meredith's apparent miraculous recovery as a mini olive branch, but there's still a lot to unpack between these two.

The preview for next Thursday ("Sorry Doesn't Always Make It Right") shows a potential engagement between Amelia and Dr. Atticus "Link" Lincoln, but more importantly, it looks like Meredith is finally going to wake up. That's happy news for obvious reasons, but also slightly bittersweet because that could signal the end of Grey's parade of beloved ex-characters.

Grey's Anatomy airs every Thursday beginning at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.