Grey’s Anatomy returns for season 22 but cliffhanger could mean major cast departure

Grey’s Anatomy is returning to screens for season 22 this fall, months after fans were left on a jaw-dropping cliffhanger about the fate of one major character.

*Warning: This article contains Grey’s Anatomy season 21 spoilers*

ABC’s long-running medical drama, which follows a group of surgeons and medical interns at a fictional Seattle-based hospital, ended its latest season on an explosive note — literally.

In the final moments of the May 15 episode, titled “How Do I Live,” Dr. Atticus “Link” Lincoln (Chris Carmack) is performing a late-night procedure. Just as he’s about to saw into a patient’s leg, the hospital is rocked by an explosion. So, though it remains ambiguous whether Link’s operating room was impacted by the blast, it certainly leaves the orthopedic surgeon’s life hanging in the balance.

Link has been a beloved character on Grey’s Anatomy since season 15. In the penultimate episode of season 21, he happily marries his longtime best friend and the mother of his child, Dr. Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington), who recently revealed she’s pregnant with his twins.

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As devastating as it is that Link might die just hours after his happy ending, that was the showrunners’ intention all along.

“That story is such a great story in the finale because you think, they get married and then they have this lovely blissful storyline where they’re completely oblivious to what’s going on,” showrunner Meg Marinis told The Hollywood Reporter in May.

“And so that was all very intentional to just sucker punch the fans, because that’s what we do so well here. But no, nobody wants those two unborn girls to be fatherless,” she acknowledged, reminding viewers that, “everyone’s just going to have to tune in to see if Link was in the part of the hospital that went kaboom.”

“I feel like a lot of people are probably sitting in operating rooms, so unless you saw them and where they were when that explosion went off, I don’t think we can say anyone is necessarily safe,” Marinis teased, adding, “if they weren’t outside the hospital, they’re there. Everybody is up for grabs.”

Cryptically addressing his future on the show in an interview with Woman’s World last month, Carmack said: “We left Season 21 on a precarious note, especially for my character. I don’t know what I can share because I don’t know anything yet.

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“The writers are working on Season 22, and the show has been picked up,” he added. “Wait — now that I think about it, I haven’t gotten the call yet saying, ‘See ya in July.’”

Grey’s Anatomy is infamous for killing off integral characters. The deaths of Dr. George O’Malley (T.R. Knight), Dr. Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), Dr. Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), and Dr. Mark Sloan (Eric Dane) are often regarded by fans as the most heartbreaking.

However, for creator Shonda Rhimes, it wasn’t any of the aforementioned characters whose deaths affected her the most. Instead, she found fan-favorite patient Denny Duquette’s (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) tragic death to be the “hardest” to write.

“We knew a plot point from the beginning of the season would be this man who’s dying young,” the award-winning producer said in May at a Paley Museum event. “And then we met Jeffrey Dean Morgan and the young man actually had to die.”

Season 22 of Grey’s Anatomy premieres Thursday, October 16, on ABC at 10 p.m. ET, followed by weekly episodes after that.