If there is one thing Grey’s Anatomy knows how to do, it’s a cliffhanger, and the show’s Fall Finale is no exception. Season 21, Episode 8, “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” had new beginnings and emotional endings and wrapped with a jaw-dropping moment fans aren’t likely to soon forget.
“Drop It Like It’s Hot” opens at the home most of the interns share — the same home Meredith Grey shared first with her fellow interns and later with her sisters — about six weeks after the events of Season 21, Episode 7, “If You Leave.” Mika Yasuda, who woke up at the end of “If You Leave” after major surgery to discover that her sister, Chloe, had died in the car accident they were in, has been at home recovering and is getting ready to get back to work at Grey-Sloan Memorial. If her friends can get her to come inside from the backyard, where she has been spending most of her time.
The four other interns — Lucas Adams, Simone Griffith, Jules Millin, and Benson “Blue” Kwan — want to help Yasuda, but, as Adams points out, the only thing that would make things better is if they could bring her sister back from the dead. Millin worries that Yasuda isn’t ready to return to work yet, but it doesn’t matter much. Yasuda has come back inside from the 100-degree heat and would like to leave for the hospital, so off they go.
At Grey-Sloan, Owen Hunt is waiting in line at the coffee cart when the barista tells the line that only hot drinks are available, so he disperses with the rest of the line, only to (literally) run into his childhood friend, Nora Young, who first came to Grey-Sloan to see Teddy Altman in Season 21, Episode 2, “Take Me to Church.” Nora is there for a follow-up with Altman that just got canceled, likely due to the heat wave taking Altman’s attention as the Chief, but can’t leave because her car won’t start. She and Owen talk for a while, and when he hears sirens and says he should head back inside, she refers to the sirens as his “bat-signal,” and he asks if she’s calling him a superhero. He encourages her to visit the cooling center while she’s figuring out what is going on with her car, and the look she gives him as he walks away is definitely of the “checking you out” variety. If it feels untoward, especially given Owen’s behavior towards Teddy at the end of Season 21, Episode 6, “Night Moves,” because Cass Beckman kissed her, don’t worry, it gets worse.
Inside the hospital, Amelia Shepherd approaches Winston Ndugu with the last two iced coffees on the planet in the hopes that he’ll help her with a particular case, but before they can get too into it, their conversation is interrupted by a nurse who is telling Ndugu that she had a great time with him the night before. She even takes one of the coffees Shepherd brought, assuming that it’s for her. Shepherd, amused, takes the other one and leaves, only for Ndugu to take off after her.
The interns are at the hospital now, and Yasuda runs into Miranda Bailey, who wants to know how she’s doing — both physically and mentally. Bailey tells her to be patient with herself, but Yasuda insists that what she needs is to return to a routine, so Bailey welcomes her back, but she’s obviously a little skeptical. Together, they enter the ER, where most of the doctors listen to Hunt and Altman brief them about what to expect for the day. The high is expected to be 101 degrees, they’re sure to see a lot of heat-related illnesses, and there are guest doctors who are there to help, so be nice.
Altman has Ben Warren on her service for the day, and she tells him that she needs him to be “first responder Ben Warren,” given the circumstances of the day. He’s disappointed, as he wants to be in surgery, but Altman needs someone who is good in a crisis. If that’s anyone, it’s Warren.
Upstairs, Jo Wilson is concerned about pre-term labor for patients because of the heat and is walking with Atticus “Link” Lincoln to get more ice when he tells her that their air conditioning isn’t going to be fixed today, and she reminds him that neither she nor the kids can sleep in 90-degree heat. Link starts suggesting either a hotel or a home they can rent, but Wilson discovers that they’re out of ice and, frustrated, asks him to just figure it out himself.
Altman said that all elective surgeries are canceled, but Shepherd wanted to make sure Ndugu got a chance to meet her patient before she had to leave. When they arrive in the room, Ndugu recognizes Sky, the mother of Shepherd’s patient, Jackie, as someone he went on a date with once. Jackie calls him out for “ghosting” her mother, much to the amusement of Shepherd, Griffith, and Kwan, and he offers to have another doctor put on the case, but Sky’s primary concern is that Jackie be well taken care of, which he promises he’ll do. Jackie has Marfan syndrome, which is a connective tissue disorder that weakens her blood vessels, and she has several aneurysms — three in her brain and one in her aorta. Sky is concerned about pushing the surgery because Jackie’s father died at 27 from a brain aneurysm, which they now think was probably from Marfan surgery, so Ndugu says that they’ll sneak her into CT to take a look and see if it’s safe to push the surgery. On the way out of the room, Shepherd gives Ndugu a hard time about seeing several people. It’s a great moment that shows off the brother-sister relationship they’re building, one that Shepherd desperately needs.
In the ambulance bay, EMTs are unloading Carl Holcomb, a 52-year-old man who was operating a crane that collapsed on an apartment building. His temperature was 109 in the field, and they’ve only been able to get it down to 106, so cooling him down is a high priority. The other ambulance unloads his nephew, David, who is 20 and was partially crushed by the crane. As Link and Hunt begin to take the gurney inside, one of the EMTs collapses, clearly overheated. While they’re waiting for a gurney, Bailey and Hunt look up to see that at least five more ambulances are coming into the bay. Things are about to get rough for Grey-Sloan Memorial.
As Blue and Griffith take Jackie up for a CT scan, Blue is surprised by the appearance of Molly, his ex-fiancé. She tells him that she’s there because her boyfriend, Dave, proposed, but she can’t stop thinking about Blue. He has to go, but he does seem like he doesn’t want her to leave.
Elsewhere, Ndugu finds Sky to tell her that Jackie is on her way up to CT. He also wants to apologize — while his divorce was amicable, sort of, he isn’t ready for anything serious and should have told her that after they went out. Sky makes it clear that she’s fine but that her priority is Jackie’s care, and Winston reassures her that if she wants the very best care for Jackie, Grey-Sloan is the place to be.
Down in the ER, Yasuda and Millin are trying to get Carl’s temperature down, but it’s not working, and Adams takes the last ice bath. Bailey sends Millin to the morgue for a body bag that they can put ice in, and Yasuda follows, wanting to help, just as Carl stops breathing and needs to be intubated. His nephew is in the trauma room, where Hunt and Link are working on him. Some of the guest doctors show up to help, including Cass Beckman (guest star Sophia Bush). Cass steps in and takes over just as it becomes clear that David needs to be taken to an OR immediately.
Aren’t you supposed to be a doctor? He’s dying. You are letting him die. You just can’t let him die like that. You can’t just let him die. You have to save her. Save her. Just please save her.
In another part of the hospital, both Adams and Wilson are looking for ice, but Warren beats them to the last of it. The three of them determine that the hospital is likely out, and Warren tells him to go to the convenience store on Pine. Wilson doesn’t love that he’s bossing her around, but he tells her that he’s helping out Altman with overflow, and they need ice. Wilson caves, and she and Adams head for the convenience store.
Down in the morgue, Millin is grabbing body bags when Yasuda begins to talk about Chloe, first wondering which of the body storage drawers was Chloe’s and then saying that Chloe probably liked it down there because she liked cold weather. Millin gets her attention, and Yasuda realizes they need to head back upstairs. “We keep this guy waiting any longer, we’ll kill him, too,” she says.
During Jackie’s CT scan, Shepherd discovers that a new aneurysm has appeared that is much larger than the others. They’ll have to take Jackie into surgery, and though they’re going to try and do it endovascularly, it’s in a spot where they might have to open her brain and put her on bypass. Winston is concerned that if they do that, her aortic aneurysm might rupture, but Shepherd knows they have to take the chance and just pray they don’t have to open her up.
Back in Jackie’s room, Shepherd and Ndugu explain that Jackie’s case is now emergent, so her surgery won’t be canceled. Sky begins to worry about how dangerous it is, and Jackie reminds her that Shepherd is the only doctor who said yes — and that she was going to need the surgery one way or another. Kwan encourages them to think about it, which Shepherd finds irritating, but Ndugu steps in and tells them that the surgery is important and that they want Shepherd to be the one to do it, so they agree. Jackie will be getting the surgery done.
Up in the scrub room, Cass and Owen clear the air, with Cass assuring him that she was the one who misunderstood. Owen tells her that no apology is necessary because Teddy already told him, and he trusts her. Does he, though?
At the convenience store, Wilson and Adams discover that there is one bag of ice left, but before they can grab it and head back to the hospital, a young man with a gun comes in to rob the store. The cashier struggles to open the register and get him the money, and Wilson and Adams crouch down in the back, sharing a terrified look. This can’t possibly end well.
Back in the ER, Yasuda is talking about death as she and Millin try to cool Carl down. Bailey sends Millin to help Altman with incoming traumas just as Carl’s BP begins to fall. Yasuda backs away from the gurney as Bailey realizes that Carl is having a heart attack, and Yasuda begins to have a grief-fueled panic attack. As others jump in to help Bailey, Yasuda starts to spiral and begins yelling that he’s dying. “It’s not working. You’re losing him.” She says, pain written all over her face. “You’re letting him die.” When Bailey responds that she knows he’s dying, Yasuda loses it. “Aren’t you supposed to be a doctor?” She yells. “He’s dying. You are letting him die. You just can’t let him die like that. You can’t just let him die. You have to save her. Save her. Just please save her. Just-just-just save her. Please. You have to save her. Please. Just take me. Dr. Bailey, just take me. Just take me.” Yasuda realizes what she’s been saying right around the same time Bailey gets Carl’s pulse back, and Yasuda walks out of the ER.
The hospital is beginning to run out of space, so Altman has to make a decision about whether they close to trauma. Warren tries to talk her out of it — he knows what it’s like to be a first responder with nowhere to take a patient — but Altman isn’t so sure. She tells him that they’re closed to trauma, but he tells the nurse who brought the issue to Altman that she should leave them open to trauma. He’ll figure out where all the patients will go.
Back at the convenience store, Adams and Wilson move down an aisle that brings them closer to the front of the store, but they’re still trying to stay out of sight. The cashier doesn’t have very much money to give the robber, which pisses him off, and she can’t stop looking towards Adams and Wilson, which brings them to his attention. He makes them come up to the front and, put their phones on the counter and continue to yell about the money. Adams tries to offer what is in his wallet, but it isn’t much, which is when the robber demands that the cashier take him to the safe.
In the OR, Shepherd is able to get all of Jackie’s aneurysms except the most dangerous one. Now that she’s looking at it more closely, she’s concerned she won’t be able to cauterize that one without it rupturing, which means that they are going to have to open Jackie and put her on bypass.
In the other OR, Cass, Hunt, and Webber seem to be working together well. As they’re getting ready to close and let Link set David’s arm, Webber asks Cass how she’s liking being at Grey-Sloan. She tells him that she likes it a lot and that she has applied before, but the head of the department never called her back. Cass is a trauma surgeon, so that would be Owen Hunt, who never called her back. He tells her to send over her resume, and then David starts bleeding from somewhere, and they have to open him back up to figure out what is going on.
Up in the ICU, Yasuda is standing outside the room Chloe had been in when she died. Griffith joins her, and Yasuda starts to talk about Chloe. “My parents let me name her,” she says. “I already had two younger sisters and was not excited about a third. They figured I’d be more into her if I had a bigger stake.” Griffith asks her if it worked, and Yasuda assures her it did. “Too well,” she says, moving closer to the room. “I love all my sisters. But Chloe… she was my heart. And now I’ve lost it.”
“I’ve grieved my mom every day of my life, and I never met her. I can’t imagine how you’re feeling,” Griffith says. Yasuda asks if she’ll ever feel normal again, and Griffith offers advice only someone who has lost a loved one can offer. “I think this is your normal now. And every day, you’ll get a little more comfortable with it.”
In the waiting room, Ndugu brings Sky coffee and sits with her while they wait for news about Jackie. Shepherd comes out to tell Sky that she got all but the final aneurysm, meaning they will have to open Jackie up. Sky tells them to save her daughter, and Ndugu heads back to the OR with Shepherd.
Yasuda is pacing an on-call room when Millin bursts in, having received her text. Yasuda kisses her, which startles Millin, who wants to know if she’s okay. “I just want to feel normal,” Yasuda says. “Please help me feel normal.” It looks like she might not for a moment, but Millin locks the on-call room door, and they begin to undress, getting on the tiny twin bed together. After, there is a moment of bliss before Yasuda bursts into tears, telling Millin that she sees Chloe’s face in every room in the hospital. Millin promises her that they’ll get through it together and holds her as she weeps.
In the OR, Kwan and Griffith are preparing Jackie for Shepherd, and Kwan is oozing negativity. Then, as Shepherd walks through the process, both Kwan and Griffith start to ask questions that obviously stress her out. Ndugu pulls her aside to make sure she’s okay. He reminds her that no one will fault her if she can’t do it. “I have been Sky and Jackie, desperately searching for a shred of hope,” Shepherd says. “My dad, my brother. I have seen loss. I thought that I could keep Sky from losing Jackie, but — but what if there’s no — what if I can’t give her that?”
“It’s too late for that,” Ndugu says. “You’ve come too far now, okay? You have to see it through. Can you do this? Because I think you can.” Shepherd nods, and they start the clock. She has 45 minutes. In the other OR, Cass, Webber, and Hunt are able to find and stop the bleeding and begin to close David, paging ortho.
In the waiting room, Millin walks with Yasuda to find Bailey, who also wanted to talk to Yasuda. Altman tells Bailey to give Yasuda whatever extra time she needs, which Bailey tells her, and then she offers advice from when she lost her mother. She encourages Yasuda to take as much time as she needs at home, but Yasuda has come to a different conclusion. “I don’t think I can come back,” she says, and though Bailey tries to tell her that she’ll feel differently in a few weeks, Yasuda knows she won’t. “I am either all in or I am all… I need to find a way forward. I can’t do that if everything around… me reminds me of her.” Bailey doesn’t want her to leave, but she knows that Yasuda knows what she needs. She tells her that great surgeons have great respect for how fragile life is and that, when she is ready, this experience will make her better. Yasuda tells Bailey that she hopes she is right.
At the convenience store, the robber has put Wilson and Adams on the floor against the freezers while the cashier struggles to open the safe. While they are waiting, Adams tells Wilson that his grandfather owned a convenience store. “Did he ever tell you what to do if you’re robbed at gunpoint?” she asks, and every viewer who knows Shepherd family lore knows that Wilson is about to hate this conversation. “He died before I was born,” Adams tells her, and when she asks how he says the last thing she wants to hear. “Robbed at gunpoint. My Uncle Derek and Aunt Amelia — Dr. Shepherd — were there.” Wilson says just about the only thing anyone can say at that moment. “Maybe we don’t talk.” Then, Wilson sucks in a sharp breath. There is suddenly pain in her belly, and she’s bleeding, which is when she finally admits to Adams that she is pregnant.
Adams tries to get up and get them out of the convenience store, but the robber catches them and forces him to sit back down. He tells the guy that Wilson is pregnant, but that doesn’t change anything. The cashier is still struggling to get the safe open, and the guy is so frustrated that he tears his mask off his face.
Shepherd has used nearly every second of the 45 minutes she had while Jackie was on bypass, but with about 30 seconds remaining, she finishes cauterizing the aneurysm, which was nearly an impossible task. Kwan leaves the OR to tell Sky, and then he sends a text to Molly and meets up with her to tell her that he hasn’t stopped thinking about her either. He pulls her into a closet and kisses her, a joyful moment for him that juxtaposes interestingly with the OR, where Jackie’s heart is not restarting.
Altman comes down into the ER and, sees how many people are there and, yells at Warren for not closing to trauma, then announces to the room that they are closed to trauma. He tries to remind her that she wanted him to behave like a first responder, but she’s not interested. She storms onto the elevator, where she is joined by Cass. They lament momentarily about how screwed Altman is, and then Cass asks how she can help. Altman asks if she can stay, and Cass says that she can and puts her hand on Altman’s upper arm — just in time for the elevator doors to open and Hunt to see them standing together. Teddy tells Hunt she’s heading up to the ICU as Cass exits the elevator and starts to ask him a question, but Hunt tells her that he’s going to take the break Teddy wanted him to take earlier in the episode and walks out of the ER. He runs right into Nora, who is still waiting for her car to be fixed, and he offers to take her back to her hotel. When she asks about if he can leave work, he makes a comment about them sending out the bat-signal if they really need him. Dude.
Up in the intern locker room, Millin finds Yasuda packing up her locker. Millin is devastated, but there’s nothing she can do to stop her. They kiss one final time, and then Millin watches Mika Yasuda leave Grey-Sloan Memorial. When Millin next sees Bailey, she accuses her of letting Yasuda go like she meant nothing to Bailey.
In the final moments of “Drop it Like It’s Hot,” the episode returns to the convenience store. While the robber is distracted asking Wilson about her pregnancy, the cashier reaches for a bat that is hiding next to the safe and then threatens the robber with it. Adams stands, and when the cashier swings and misses, Adams lunges for the other man, and they begin to struggle for his gun. Both men fold their arms back, and the gun is somewhere between Adams’ side and back and the stomach of the robber. The screen goes black. Someone shrieks. And then, a gunshot.
