TV REVIEW: Grey’s Anatomy Gives Us a Happy Ending in “You’re My Home”

This season finale of Grey’s Anatomy was perhaps the most shocking of any in its eleven year history. No one died. There was no unexpected tragedy. And most surprising of all, it offered a rainbow and unicorn happy ending that seemed optimistic and inspirational. I’m still in shock.

“You’re My Home” picks up right where we left our docs last episode. April’s still in her super hero pose, working on Keith, the man trapped in the mangled mess of his car. Amelia’s still mad at Mer, Maggie’s upset about something, and Jo’s not feeling the whole Meredith moving in with her and Alex thing. Our hearts fill with dread as we watch the docs try to save car wreck guy and his pregnant fiancee; we know the path of death and destruction that previous finales have left in their wake. How much more can we deal with? Did we mention that Derek’s still dead? Happy endings and Grey’s don’t mix, right? Wrong.

Everybody Lives

Bailey admits she likes this new, super-hero April, and she never thought that would happen. “Old Kepner was pig tails and bunny rabbits, lots of smiles,” she likes the Kepner reboot and how she’s “womaned up.”

Meredith shows Keith his newborn baby, hoping this gives him the will to survive. April begins surgery on the man outside with the plan being to transport him inside to finish up. It’s a bloody mess, but Kepner is in her element, admitting to Owen that she misses the field, and it’s “all she thinks about.”

Keith makes it inside, the doctors doing their thing. His fiancee is also looking a whole lot better than when we last left her, and not paralyzed now.

The couple face a series of near death moments, carotid pseudoaneurysm just one of their little obstacles, but against all odds, and those pesky Grey’s writers, they survive. They can get married and raise that baby now! Happy ending number one, check.

(ABC/Richard Cartwright)
SARA RAMIREZ, JESSICA CAPSHAW

Three’s a Crowd

Alex and Jo temporarily make up, both admitting they were acting like jerks. He hesitantly asks if Mer can move in with them. You need to rethink that timing, pretty man.

“With the kids?” Jo asks, a definite sour look on her face.

“No, she’s selling her kids with the house,” Alex jokes.

Jo is not thrilled. “Congrats, now you got a house with a family,” she says before storming off. Well, that went well. Can Alex not have one happy relationship ending?

Later, they talk it out with Alex pleading his case, “I don’t want to piss you off … but I don’t want to say no.” He goes on to say he wants it all with Jo, maybe even a dog someday. “I want all of it with you.” She leaves again, saying, “I need to think about what I want.”

Jo eventually drags Alex to a loft space or what he calls “a crime scene.” She says she put in an offer, “this is what I want. Our own place, just for us.” Jo finally says, “I love you” and the look on Karev’s face is priceless. “You’ve never said that,” he admits. They kiss in their new home with an acoustic version of How to Save a Life bringing us to tears.

Happy ending number two, check.

Clash of the Titans

Richard and Catherine fight over everything in this one, both alpha dogs never giving in. The wedding is looking like it’s never gonna happen. Where’s that happy ending number three?

“My husband is dead. Yeah, I’m gonna play that card,” Meredith reprimands the fighting couple. She says they need to quit their bickering and get together already. “There will never be enough time, and you both know it… Figure it out, figure it out!”

They do just that, negotiating the important points of their relationship, both at work and home. He says at the end of their pact that he’ll be her “safe harbor.” Aw, even Catherine can’t argue with that.

We finally get to see that wedding. Could this be more happiness in a Grey’s finale? I’m afraid to even think that. There’s got to be a bomb planted, a tornado about to hit, or a scorned Catherine love about to strike, right?

Nope. The wedding is a light, bright, joyous affair. Happy ending number three, check.

(ABC/Richard Cartwright)
SARA RAMIREZ, CATERINA SCORSONE

April and Jackson Are Kaput

All these happy endings had to be tempered with a sad one or we would think we were exiting the land of Grey’s. April admits to Jackson that she wants to go back to the field, “I feel like I’ve been called, Jackson.”

He seems to encourage her, saying, “You should go back.” They kiss and he adds, “You know I love you so much but I don’t think I can be here when you come back.”

She can’t believe his words insisting that this time she’ll only be away a couple of months, not a year. He says you didn’t even ask how I was doing the whole time you were gone. So if she goes, they’re done.

Happy ending number four, not quite yet.

Amelia and those Derek Feels

In an effort to make it right with Amelia, Meredith gives her the last message from Derek. She listens to it with Owen. We get to listen in, then see it happen. There’s Derek back on our screens saying, “I love you Meredith… I love you, I love our family and we’re gonna keep doing this. I’ll see you when I get home.”

Amelia needed this. We needed this.

The elusive happy ending number four, check.

They Dance It Out

The final scene came straight out of some parallel universe where Grey’s Anatomy offers up a dancing Meredith and friends, everyone letting loose and having fun.

“Derek would have loved this. He came from a big family,” Meredith says as she watches the wedding goers dance. Everybody dances it out, Mer smiling, really smiling.

We end with Meredith’s inspirational words, “People can be broken, sure. But any surgeon knows what’s broken can be mended. What’s hurt can be healed. That no matter how dark it gets the sun’s gonna rise again.”

All in all, it was a satisfying and happy ending with very few surprises. The episode had all the elements of Classic Grey’s, funny lines, friends bonding, gross out moments, and tension filled medical cases. But beyond what it did have, the true star of the show was what it didn’t have. There were no disasters hitting the hospital and not one death!

What did you think of tonight’s eppy? That flashback to Derek on the ferry was heartbreaking, reminding us all that we just loss McDreamy. Is it too soon for all these shiny, happy people dancing it out or is it just what the doctor ordered?

Well, we have plenty of time to meander through those stages of grief this summer. Grey’s has another one under its belt and thankfully it’s an episode that let’s us go to sleep rather than crawl in a fetal position ball and sob uncontrollably.

We’ll see you back here next season for Grey’s 12th season to compare notes and say a little prayer that our originals can all stay in one piece.