After 23 seasons, Grey’s Anatomy has returned to ABC and the network decided against avoiding a big disaster to cap its opening episode. The first episode aired Thursday, October 15, and focuses on a plane crash that brings many patients flooding into Grey Sloan Memorial. The doctors deal with the emergency as they would normally do, with their lives falling apart around them, as they always do.
A premiere called “Collide”
The first episode of season 23 is called Collide and will premiere on ABC on Oct. 15. The episode guide for ABC says the crisis has the medical staff faced difficult choices, with the competing demands competing for time and skills.
Two planes collide at Sea-Tac
Emergency starts with the occurrence of a plane-to-plane collision at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. In one recap, they refer to them as “seaplanes”. In either case, there are multiple severely injured patients in the scene and it details what happens afterwards as the hospital treats them.
Grey Sloan faces a flood of patients
Preparations must be made at the hospital in short order before the injured begin to arrive. Doctors are rushed into surgery, and the doctors and nurses are dealing with multiple, serious cases concurrently. The majority of the episode is set in the OR, the standard turf of the show.
A VIP wing opens on the worst possible day
The crisis hits on the day Grey Sloan unveils a new privately funded wing for VIP patients, called the “Olympic floor.” The addition was already controversial, and the timing puts the hospital’s priorities in the spotlight.
Picking up after the bridge collapse
The show continues immediately after the Season 22 finale, where a bridge had collapsed. That is, the series goes from one major Seattle emergency to another and on that episode it switches gears to see where the characters are at after the previous catastrophe.
Familiar faces return
Longtime cast members Ellen Pompeo as Meredith Grey, Chandra Wilson as Miranda Bailey and James Pickens Jr. as Richard Webber are back for the new season. In addition to the newer characters they also share the screen with some of the veteran characters in the show, which keep the show’s balance and continuity.
Amelia and Toni in the operating room
Both Amelia Shepherd and Toni Wright start to operate on one of the plane’s pilots and the relationship issues they have with the other create an issue during the surgery. They joust about the patient as both of their situations are at stake. At episode’s end, they reunite.
Jo quits and Simone faces a pregnancy scare
Outside the OR, Jo Wilson discusses with Link that she has resigned from her position at Grey Sloan and doesn’t know what her career path in medicine will be. Simone Griffith discovers she’s expectant. Meanwhile, Bailey gets so wrapped up in the chaos, she doesn’t get herself registered for classes.
Plane crashes have happened here before
This is not the first time the show has used a plane disaster. The Season 8 finale, “Flight,” ended with a crash that killed Mark Sloan and Lexie Grey. Season 11’s “One Flight Down” also featured a plane crash in Seattle that brought patients to the hospital.
How critics responded
TV Fanatic called the episode action-packed and enjoyed the time spent in the operating rooms. Screen Rant argued that following a bridge collapse with another disaster risks lowering the stakes, and said the plane collision seemed to exist mostly to put the doctors in danger.
