Grey’s Anatomy blew up Grey Sloan in Season 21, literally. Flammable gas from an earlier hostage situation led to an explosion on the OR floor and put multiple doctors’ lives in jeopardy. Season 22 of the ABC medical drama will pick up immediately where Season 21 left off, with Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) watching the blast from outside the hospital and Ben (Jason George) running into the burning building to help.
Several doctors were definitely or potentially in the operating room where the explosion took place. Some of the missing doctors are confirmed to be alive, thanks to the Season 22 trailer. Obviously, Ben and Meredith are okay. The other doctors that appear healthy in the first footage from the new season are: Amelia (Caterina Scorsone), Jo (Camilla Luddington), Teddy (Kim Raver), Owen (Kevin McKidd), Catherine Fox (Debby Allen), Simone (Alexis Floyd), Kwan (Harry Shum Jr.) and Winston (Anthony Hill). That’s a good chunk of the surgical team, but there’s also some key names missing.
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We are mostly worried about Link (Chris Carmack) because he was the doctor seen using a bone fuser that potentially ignited the gas for the explosion. But he is not the only person missing from the trailer. Here’s who we think could be the next Grey Sloan doctor to not survive working at this hospital.
Who will die on Grey’s Anatomy?
Link (Chris Carmack)
As we said earlier, Link is at the top of the worry list. He’s the closest to the explosion if his bone fuser is what caused the gas to ignite. His absences from the trailer and the footage of Jo freaking out confirm he’s probably not okay. To make matters worse, Ludding warned us earlier in the summer that we should be “stressed” going into the premiere. Link and Jo got married 36 hours before the explosion took place. You might think that entitles them to a honeymoon before tragedy strikes, but Grey’s Anatomy doesn’t work like that. You need to be on watch the second you feel like your character is too happy. If Grey’s Anatomy kills Link and leaves Jo to be a single mother of three (and still stepmother to Scout), it may usurp Mark (Eric Dane) and Lexy (Chyler Leigh) as the harshest death of the show so far. Hopefully, the creative team will have more mercy on our hearts than they did back in Season 8.
Bailey (Chandra Wilson)
Ben is a former firefighter, but he didn’t run back into the building like that for just anyone. He’s looking for Bailey (Chandra Wilson), who is also suspiciously missing from the trailer. She was looking at the surgical board outside the ORs when Lucas (Niko Terho) came to warn everyone about the gas, which put her in proximity of the gas. It’s been a hot minute since Bailey has had a life-endangering crisis, so by Grey’s Anatomy logic, it could be time for her and Ben to be thrown a curveball. However, this is Bailey we are talking about. Wilson is one of the three remaining original characters. Can this hospital even function without her? We don’t want to think about it.
Related: ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Camilla Luddington Says Fans Should Be ‘Stressed’ for Season 22 Premiere (Exclusive)
Richard (James Pickens Jr.)
Speaking of original Grey’s characters, Richard (James Pickens Jr.) is also missing from the trailer. He’s as much of a Grey Sloan institution as Bailey and Meredith, but his role at the hospital has gotten more ambiguous over the past few seasons. He’s not chief anymore. Bailey is in charge of the residents, though Richard still has a heavy hand in teaching the new doctors. His wife, Catherine, has certainly gone through it with her cancer coming out of remission last season, but, like Bailey, Richard hasn’t faced any life-threatening situations directly in a minute either. That unfortunately puts him near the top of the list of people to be worried about as well.
Lucas (Niko Terho)
Lucas wasn’t in the operating rooms when Link lit the bone fuser, but he was running towards them to warn the staff about the gas. That potentially puts him close to the center of the blast. Killing or maiming Lucas would emotionally gut multiple characters. He just got back together with Simone, and Amelia is crying over someone in the trailer. Could it be her favorite nephew? He’s a good choice for emotional devastation, but he has a few things working in his favor.
Simone slept with one of the new interns before she and Lucas got back together, and he doesn’t know yet. Grey’s Anatomy wouldn’t set up that kind of awkward tension and not use it. Lucas is also the Shepherd of the new generation of doctors. We’re a few years away from any of Meredith’s kids being ready to join the residency program, so Lucas is the strongest link between this class of residents and the original crew. The show wouldn’t destroy that kind of connectivity when it’s been trying so hard to set up the show for a whole new era.
Related: Jesse Williams Reveals Whether He’d Return to ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ (Exclusive)
Millin (Adelaide Kane)
Lucas isn’t the only resident missing in the trailer, though. Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane) is also nowhere to be found in the first footage from the season. She was heading into surgery with Dr. Beltran (Natalie Morales) before the explosion, which puts her on the OR floor and potentially in the blast radius. While Millin doesn’t have as strong ties to other doctors in the hospital as Lucas, she does have some lingering drama. She scolded Winston in the Season 21 finale for kicking her off his service because he felt they were getting too flirtatious. That’s messy, and again, Grey’s isn’t going to set something like that up and then drop it because of a tragedy — or they shouldn’t, at least. She and Winston still need to work through that, and that makes it doubtful that Millin is the one to die. Still, we can never say never.
Beltran (Natalie Morales)
If Millin is on the danger list, then so is Dr. Beltran. They were going into surgery together before the blast. I’m optimistic about Beltran’s chances of survival because Grey Sloan loves intense medical cases featuring children, and she is the pediatric attending. You can’t perform dramatic surgeries on kids, thus elevating the emotional stakes, without a peds attending! Beltran has also endeared herself to multiple members at Grey Sloan, including both Winston and Amelia outside of the hospital.
Okay, so that also means Beltran could be why Amelia looks so upset in the trailer. But wouldn’t it be so rude of Grey’s to kill Beltran off when she literally just got here? It’s terrible luck if she doesn’t survive her first Grey Sloan Memorial disaster when others on this list have survived so many. This place is truly a hellscape to work in. Fingers crossed that Beltran can make it onto the surviving team.