Mika Exits, Did Lucas Get Shot?

SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Season 21 Episode 8 of Grey’s Anatomy, Drop It Like It’s Hot.

Grey’s Anatomy is known for its jam-packed endings but even by those standards, this year’s fall closer was a doozy. Set against the backdrop of a deadly heat wave, it featured the Gray Sloan exit of Mika (Midori Francis) who struggled to move on from her sister’s death. There was a risky surgery that may have killed a patient, a store robbery gone wrong that may have killed one or more people, more marriage woes for Owen and Teddy and rekindled love for Benson.

Taking place more than six months after the events in the previous episode when Mika woke up after her surgery to find out that her sister Chloe had died, the finale chronicles Mika’s first day back at Gray Sloan after a recovery time off.

She keeps saying that she was OK but she clearly isn’t. Things boil over when a patient with a heat stroke crashes and she freezes before going into a meltdown and screaming at Bailey.

Mika eventually realizes that she can’t stay at Gray Sloan where everything reminds her of Chloe. Bailey tries to convince her to take some time off instead, but in the end, she supports Mika’s decision to leave.

Having just taken their budding relationship to the next level with a hookup earlier in the episode, Jules is left devastated by Mika’s exit. (You can read Francis’ exit interview about her Grey’s departure and possible return here.)

The big medical case of the week involves a teenage girl with multiple aneurisms taken on by Amelia after she had been turned away by several other doctors because of the perils of her condition. Amelia teams with Winston — who had ghosted the girl’s mom after a date — for a complex and very risky surgery. They seem to have pulled it off until it’s time for the girl’s heart to restart and it doesn’t. Multiple resuscitation attempts are unsuccessful, with the girl’s fate among two major cliffhangers in the finale.

The other came out of a somewhat bizarre subplot involving Jo and Lucas running to a nearby convenience store to buy ice needed to cool off patients suffering from heat-related illnesses.

They get pulled into the slowest, clumsiest robbery where a masked guy stands with his gun drawn for 10 minutes by the glass door and somehow no one walks in or notices him from the outside. Then there is a second awkward, drawn-out standoff as the store clerk tries to open the safe in the back of the store. She eventually attacks the robber with a baseball bat. Lucas then jumps the perpetrator. As the two wrestle for the gun, in a classic TV cliffhanger, a gunshot is heard as the screen fades to black.

Being in close proximity to Adams and the criminal as the gun went off, Jo and her unborn twins could also potentially be in danger. She already found herself in a different, pregnancy-related emergency earlier in the robbery when she had vaginal bleeding.

In other developments, Ben is still struggling to fit in at Gray Sloan. Teddy asks him to tap into his first respond skills as the heat wave bring an influx of patients to the hospital. He does but — having been on the other side, riding in an ambulance with nowhere to go — later defends Teddy’s order to start amusing patients until she finds out and shuts him down.

Speaking of Teddy, her marriage with Owen continues to deteriorate. Grey’s is working hard on pushing them apart this season. Sophia Bush’s Cass is back in the picture after that surprise kiss with Teddy, making Owen jealous by casually caressing Teddy’s arm in the elevator. He responds by giving childhood friend Nora a ride to her hotel.

Amid all the chaos at Gray Sloan, Benson’s ex-fiancée Molly shows up. Her boyfriend had proposed but she couldn’t shake off her meeting with Kwan from earlier in the season and wants to see him before she makes her decision. It turns out Benson had not been able to get Molly out of his head either, and the couple signals the restart of their relationship with a kiss.