What You Need To Remember From The Grey’s Anatomy Season 16 Finale Before The Premiere

The pandemic may have cut season 16 of Grey's Anatomy short, but even the coronavirus couldn't keep us from our favorite medical drama forever. After a forced hiatus, season 17 is almost upon us. Seven months without Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and the gang might have caused you to forget exactly what went down in the hallowed halls of Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital, and that's understandable — here's a quick recap of what happened to Grey's Anatomy's good doctors last season.

At the beginning of season 16, Meredith's medical license was in jeopardy because of her decision to commit insurance fraud to save a patient's life. Evidently, the Hippocratic Oath isn't more powerful than the bureaucracy of the medical world. Thankfully, her career remained in tact after a term of community service and a brief stint behind bars, and Meredith headed to the hospital only to find that her workplace is utter chaos.

Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) discovered out that they were pregnant around the same time, and the two doctors bonded over their unique experience. Unfortunately, Bailey suffers a miscarriage early on in the pregnancy, but she soldiers through her feelings to support Amelia and overwhelmed baby daddy Atticus "Linc" Lincoln (Chris Carmack) until the baby is born.

We really should have known better than to think that the relationship between Owen and Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) was finally coming together after years of "will they, won't they" — this is Grey's Anatomy we're talking about. The couple's attempt to embark on a new path as a family, complete with toddler Leo and newborn Allison, was thrown off course by Teddy's lingering affections for resident asshole and genius Tom Koracick (Greg Germann). In a moment of passion, Teddy and Tom slept together, and the sordid affair was revealed to Owen by way of voicemail (ouch).

That fairytale wedding we were hoping for? Yeah, that's not happening. Heartbreak 3, Owen 0.

Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) ditched Grey-Sloan to serve as the Chief at Pacific North, trying to recruit Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) and Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) to join him across town. The new gig didn't last long, though. Just a few weeks into his new job, Alex dropped off of the face of the planet, sending his wife Jo (Camilla Luddington) spiraling. Turns out, he's gone for good. Without warning, Alex moved away to be with Izzie Stevens (the long lost character played by Katherine Heigl) and the twins that he had unknowingly fathered. Seven months later, Grey's fans are still pretending he died; it just hurts less.

Even though the tension between lovers turned enemies Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary) and Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) was so thick that you could cut it with a knife, the exes/step-siblings rallied to support their family when Richard started behaving erratically. A shocking episode during a medical conference landed the former chief in the hospital, with each of his mentees scrambling to figure out a solution. We found out that his Alzheimer-like symptoms (including memory loss that had him thinking he and Katherine were still on love) were actually the side effects of cobalt poisoning. So Richard is good — but he and Katherine are not.

It's hard to say. Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) went to his limits to find a probable diagnosis for Richard, and he happened upon a crucial discovery that saved his former boss' life. But in the process, Andrew made an even more important find: he might be dealing with bipolar disorder after all. The realization is a huge blow to Andrew and his sister Carina (Stefania Spampinato) as well as to Meredith's pending romance with fellow surgeon Cormac Hayes (Richard Flood). The love triangle continues.

As the next chapter in Grey's Anatomy opens with the season 17 premiere, keep all of this in mind. Things happen pretty fast at Grey-Sloan Memorial — doctors come, and doctors go. Just remember the one rule of watching any Shonda Rhimes show, but especially this one: don't get too attached to anyone.