Grey's Anatomy Season 16 Review

Major Spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.

I rewatched most of season 16 with my siblings during the Memorial Day 2020 weekend, and decided that I had some things to say about it. In my professional medical opinion, the latest season of Grey’s Anatomy was a mess. I wish I could blame the coronavirus pandemic for what happened to the season, but the story arcs and character development already went astray before their episode count was cut.

This particular season review will mainly focus on the following main characters: Meredith Grey, Richard Webber, Alex Karev, Jo Karev, Miranda Bailey, Owen Hunt, Amelia Shepherd, Teddy Altman, Jackson Avery, and Maggie Pierce. I will also briefly discuss Station 19—the spin-off series—and those pesky crossover episodes.

At the end of season 15, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) had lost her job at Grey-Sloan Memorial for insurance fraud. She had her medical license suspended, and she was sentenced to do community service while awaiting trial. This storyline was spinning its wheels until the mid-season finale—the 350th episode of the series—as there wasn’t much tension regarding Meredith’s fate as a surgeon. However, the emotional impact of seeing all her former patients—from the previous seasons—stand up for her at the trial was an emotional punch in the gut. Meredith’s storyline after the trial ended wasn’t the most interesting as she had to deal with her love interest Andrew DeLuca.

Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) and his rocky marriage with Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) was hard to swallow throughout the shortened 21-episode season. As Richard helped Meredith cover the insurance fraud, Miranda Bailey fired him alongside Alex Karev. Then Richard and Alex went to work at a low-level hospital called Pac-North, building a storyline together about making the worst-ranked hospital their new home. They even recruited other characters like Owen Hunt and Maggie Pierce to join this fascinating—outside the box—crusade. It was a refreshing story that fell apart when Justin Chambers—actor for Alex Karev—announced his departure from the show.

Alex Karev was written out of the series offscreen in season 16 episode 16 titled, “Leave a Light On”, as Justin Chambers wasn’t able to return for his character’s goodbye episode. There was a steady build to his departure throughout the second half of the season, and unfortunately Jo Karev (Camilla Luddington) suffered the consequences.

Alex Karev had left everyone and everything—including his wife, Jo—behind to reunite with IZZIE STEVENS, the ex-wife last seen in season 6. This was a controversial decision that disrespected Alex’s sixteen years of well-earned character development, and the sudden backlash caused unimaginable pain on Jo.

I was personally attacked watching Alex Karev’s goodbye episode because Alex and Jo were my favorite ship in the whole series. I was devastated. Watching the episode twice now hadn’t helped much with the recovery process. After this season review and going forward into season 17 next year (2021), Jo is just Jo. New Year, new Jo. She will rise from this heartbreak and become stronger. I’m actually really curious of the creative direction Jo will undergo next season.

Let’s move onto Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson). As chief of surgery, she had to deal with a lot of hospital politics following what Meredith Grey did with the insurance fraud. The relationships she had with the original characters were severed after she fired them all from Grey-Sloan Memorial, and she still had to run the hospital without them. In addition, Bailey discovered she was pregnant during the first half of the season. As a result, she had a lot on her plate going into Meredith Grey’s trial.

Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone), and Teddy Altman (Kim Raver)’s love triangle drama wasn’t over yet. I thought their messy love triangle was over at this point, but the writers managed to squeeze more nonsense into their stories. Amelia Shepherd discovered she was pregnant at the start of the season with newcomer Link’s (Chris Carmack) baby, but the second half of the season dealt with Amelia thinking the baby might be Owen’s based on how far along she was. This caused Teddy to wrongfully doubt Owen’s loyalty to her, and she began a love affair with her ex-boyfriend, Tom Koracick (Greg Germann).

I was so disappointed in Teddy Altman’s actions this season. She was a fan-favorite of mine during the golden years—season 6 through season 8—of Grey’s Anatomy. Having this character actually return during season 14—and staying on the show—was an amazing gift, but the creative direction the writers took with Teddy regarding her love story with Owen was not the most ideal. In addition, Teddy had Owen’s child last season, but the show rarely talked about their child Allison. I’m seriously praying the writers take a recourse with Teddy Altman during season 17. With the coronavirus pandemic happening right now, the writers have plenty of time to figure the stories out.

The writers also need to figure out—or drop—Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) and Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary). At the start of season 16, Jackson and Maggie had broken up horribly and went straight to hating each other for most of the season. It wasn’t entertaining to watch them. There was no chemistry between them whatsoever. Plus, Jackson started dating Victoria Hughes (Barrett Doss) from Station 19. Without watching the spin-off, the relationship between them came off as awkward and random.

The crossover episodes between the two shows—Grey’s Anatomy and Station 19—hadn’t really worked in my honest opinion. Nobody I knew really tried to watch Station 19, which made crossover episodes difficult to understand without the needed context. Hopefully, the crossover storylines get dropped next year.

Overall, the last few episodes seemed to have gotten the storylines back on track per usual Grey’s Anatomy fashion. The last-minute season finale—episode 21 out of a planned 25-episode season—also worked effectively like it was planned to be the season finale all-along. The “finale” brought closure to Richard Webber’s illness storyline and Andrew DeLuca’s mental instability; Amelia Shepherd gave birth to a healthy baby boy, and Owen found out the truth about Teddy and Koracick. I was pretty satisfied with the cliffhanger they left us on, considering the coronavirus pandemic. I’m excited to see how the writers will rearrange next season based on how they had to end abruptly. Thanks for reading!