‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Recap: Lexie Grey & Mark Sloan Appear In The Afterlife

This week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy saw the return of two powerhouse characters, Lexie Grey, played by Chyler Leigh, and Mark Sloan, played by Eric Dane. Both characters died following the season 8 plane crash, only to reappear for the first time since then on Meredith’s beach dream sequence.

At the beginning of the episode, Meredith and Lexi spend quality time together as sisters before Mark appears, telling Meredith that she’s here too soon. The trio eventually move to a meadow overlooking the beach where Mark and Lexi remind Meredith of all the grief she’s felt in life, but also the great love she’s had for the people she lost.

“The depth of grief that you felt with all the losses, it’s because of the depth of love. As long as you’re alive, you get to feel it and you get to do something about it,” she said.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the doctors of Grey Sloan Memorial are faced with a shortage of ventilators. A mother and daughter, Marcella and Veronica, come into the hospital and both end up needing ventilators. Maggie Pierce is torn, because she doesn’t know how to choose between one or the other.

While taking a break, she shares headphones with Winston Ndugu and gets an idea for Marcella and Veronica to share a ventilator, saving both patients for the time being.

Cormac Hayes’ sister-in-law, Irene, comes into the hospital with a kidney stone and undergoes surgery with Catharine Fox. The surgery seems to be running smoothly, but when she tries to remove her medical tool, the tube connecting Irene’s kidney and bladder comes with it. After a moment of panic, Catharine saves the surgery, the kidney and Irene’s life.

At the end of the episode, Winston proposed to Maggie, telling her that he needs to wrap things up in Boston, but that he doesn’t want to live without her.

“I can’t imagine life without you anymore and I don’t ever wanna try,” he said while down on one knee.

Maggie said yes to the proposal as medical staff cheered and clapped around the newly engaged couple.

The final exciting moment of this jam-packed episode was was when Owen Hunt and Richard Webber extubated Meredith, allowing her to breathe on her own. The final scene in the episode showed Owen telling Meredith’s daughter, Zola, and Amelia Shepard the good news, while giving Teddy Altman credit for being so diligent and consistent while caring for Meredith.

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.