Saying goodbye to Andrew DeLuca is not going to be easy.
ABC has released plot details and a trailer for Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 Episode 8, and it’s going to be a tough one.
“As traumas and pressure mount, Grey Sloan doctors try to find a path forward, and Richard questions his faith,” reads the logline.
“Meanwhile, Maggie gives Winston hospital privileges and they work together to treat an uneasy patient. Jo, Link and Jackson play an unconventional drinking game on an all-new episode.”
The clip shows the characters trying to make sense of the tragedy, and it’s as heartbreaking as you’d expect.
Grey Sloan is still being ravaged by COVID-19, and Meredith is still very much intubated on the next episode, so it seems like the characters will be feeling hopeless.
The good news is that Meredith will, once again, be reunited with McDreamy on her COVID-induced beach.
But what about DeLuca?
If you watch Grey’s Anatomy online, you know DeLuca was one of the most popular staff members at the hospital, and his death will be remembered for some time.
How will everyone come together to celebrate Andrew DeLuca’s life while Meredith remains out for the count?
The trailer is tragic, using music to convey that all of these characters are struggling not only with the pandemic but the insurmountable loss they’ve experienced.
It’s unclear whether Meredith will address DeLuca’s passing to McDreamy on the beach, but it’s going to be tragic when she inevitably wakes up to learn what’s happened.
DeLuca died a hero, taking down a sex trafficker, but his life was cut short when he was stabbed.
“I don’t regret it,” DeLuca told Meredith.
“We walk through our lives and we witness atrocities, see homeless people in the street asking for help and we just walk right past them. We see people who can’t pay for medicine for their children.
“We see people beating their kids and say, ‘It’s none of our business.’ We see atrocities on the news every day.
“Crimes and cruelties committed by our government, paid for nonetheless by our tax dollars. And what do we do? We just change the channel.”
“We tune it out.
“Then we go back to work, and we pretend that what we just saw or that article we just read is somehow normal or acceptable.
“The people who take to the streets screaming out for change, they’re written off as crazy, they’re written off as extreme. It doesn’t make any sense. It makes no sense.
“What you did, Meredith, risking your medical license to save that little girl, that makes sense. And what I did — following that women and not letting her get away with it, not letting her get away, not letting her harm another single human being.
“Yeah, it was dangerous, but it made sense. It’s the only thing that made sense. So I don’t regret it.”
Are you still reeling from the tragic twist?
Have a look at the trailer below.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.