Grey's Anatomy

Ellen Pompeo recalled some encouraging words from Al Pacino that she still reflects on when it comes to her role on Grey's Anatomy.

If any part of that scene was rooted in Pompeo’s truth, isn’t it just better to let her go? Ellen Pompeo has been acting for over two decades now, and in that time she’s had the opportunity to cross paths with some of Hollywood’s elite. Pompeo’s playing one character for 18 years is not a bad thing in any respect, especially considering how long that’s been a tradition in the theater.

Tonight is the season finale of Grey's Anatomy! What time is Grey's Anatomy on tonight? Is this Grey's Anatomy's final season? Was Grey's Anatomy renewed ...

When will Grey’s Anatomy Season 19 premiere on ABC? Excellent question, streamer. Season 18 of Grey’s Anatomy is just about in the books, but what about the next season? Later tonight, the 400th episode of Grey’s Anatomy will air on ABC. I mean…

Grey's Anatomy Season 18 ends with Bailey (Chandra Wilson) quitting Grey Sloan, the hospital losing its residency program leaves the hospital in jeopardy.

Bailey finally decided she had enough and she quit, leaving the hospital in a state of flux. Jackson offered Meredith ( Ellen Pompeo) the job, but it's still up in the air of whether she's going to take it, and whether she and Nick (Scott Speedman) are going to make it through the indecision. Grey's Anatomy ended Season 18 with a two-part finale, and it was a landmark episode to boot.

Our recap of the 'Grey's Anatomy' Season 18 finale — Episodes 19 and 20 — reveals what happens in 'Out for Blood' and 'You Are the Blood.'

He respected her enough to admit that he might be wrong and knew she didn’t like to be told that she was wrong. Since Kristen needed blood and she and Simon were the same blood type, he insisted that she receive the blood that was earmarked for him. Though Bailey didn’t seem inclined to budge, Owen and Teddy pleaded with her to understand that he’d had to help the dying vets. Xander blabbed to Jamarah that he was glad that Mer had decided to put off leaving — the first the decision-maker had heard that she was leaving! With the time that Bailey had bought them, Hunt and Altman were on their way to grab the kids and flee when the cops arrived at the hospital. As Amelia and Maggie gave blood, the former lamented her breakup with Kai, and the latter stated her objection to the way that Winston had said that she didn’t know what it was like to have siblings… Jackson was reading a eulogy to Catherine. Oh. Phew. He was amusing his mother, alive and well, by doing it in front of her, April and Harriet. When it was Kepner’s turn to sing her ex-mother-in-law’s praises, Jackson excused himself to go try to charm Jamarah into continuing the residency program. As Bailey became more desperate for blood, Levi beseeched her to accept his “sexually active gay blood.” She agreed that the rule was ridiculous but couldn’t accept him as a donor. As she and Richard showed her around to see that her fixes had been made, they happened into the gallery as Mer and Nick were performing the surgery on Cora that Webber had nixed. In the pit, Owen was fretting over the blood shortage when a man named John approached him to help his wife Rosie, a very sick Marine. And by “help,” the man meant help her die. Arriving at work, Jo admitted to Link that she’d had sex with Todd for the first time, and he’d said that he loved her. As “Out for Blood” began, Ellis haunted Mer, telling her that Grey Sloan had really hit the skids and criticizing as only she could.

Ahead of the season 18 finale, EW spoke with Sarah Drew about April's long journey on Grey's Anatomy and her return for the 400th episode.

And April has a kind of a calming energy. Well, the one, two years ago, actually I knew about a couple months ahead of time because they were trying to figure out how to say goodbye to Jesse. And so it was like a whole thing. She'll always be a part of me, so yeah. So, I find her to be a calmer and more grounded and a more grown-up version of April now than she was four years ago. Everybody's a mess, but April and Jackson are not a mess. She went through the ringer and went through a lot of joy as well. You do get to see a bit of her doing her thing, which I really was thrilled to get to do. She's like a calming force in the hospital as the hospital is in major crisis and disarray. So this really felt more like a homecoming and more like I was just returning home. SARAH DREW: This time it felt very different because I actually got to go back to the stages and I got to be with my crew and I got to be with more of my cast than just Jesse [Williams]. Last time I went, we were shooting in a little bubble. She grows and blossoms and goes through so many ups and downs and deals with pain and trauma and comes out fighting on the other side. That was the thing that was really surreal about it, is being in the scene with Kevin [McKidd] and Kim [Raver] and Chandra [Wilson] and then going and sitting down in our chairs and just hanging out.

The season 18 finale included appearances by Drew's and Jesse Williams' beloved characters April Kepner and Jackson Avery, who shared an on-screen kiss, ...

–– return as a regular to their screens, Drew tells PEOPLE that, for now, "There's been no conversation with me officially about returning." Drew says her involvement in the episode "happened very quickly. "You don't get to this many episodes without this level of passion," she said, according to the caption shared on Disney's Instagram story. The only other characters to stay on the show as long are Ellen Pompeo's Meredith Grey and James Pickens Jr.'s Dr. Richard Webber. "It was kind of a surreal experience because when I went back last season, I was on location at April's house and only working with Jesse," says the actress, 41. This time, the Cruel Summer star got to return to the halls of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital in true form.

Will 'Grey's Anatomy' return for Season 19? Or is the series ending? Read for details on what could be the last season of the ABC medical drama.

The network has not given a specific premiere date yet, but Bustle notes that the show usually premieres in mid to late September. Ellen pretty much confirmed that Grey’s Anatomy won’t be coming to an end anytime soon, though Meredith is likely to make her exit in the near future. Ellen is one of the few cast members from Season 1 who is still standing.

Grey's Anatomy” is back with season 18 finale episodes. Here's how you can watch the long-running medical drama.

In episode 19 titled “Out for Blood,” “Due to a blood shortage, Grey Sloan Memorial sets up a voluntary donation center; Nick asks Meredith for help with his patient; Winston is hung up on his relationship with his brother.” In episode 12 titled “The Makings of You,” “Some doctors at a hospital in Seattle -- including several who began their careers at the facility as interns -- try to balance life and work.” In episode 10 titled “Living in a House Divided,” “Schmitt must face the Morbidity and Mortality conference; Meredith convinces Nick to scrub in on a surgery in Seattle; Jo faces her feelings.” In episode eight titled “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” “The doctors celebrate the holidays; Hamilton and Meredith prepare for a milestone on their project; Link wants to spend the holiday with Amelia and Scout as a family; Schmitt is faced with a difficult decision during surgery.” FuboTV’s pricing starts at $64.99 monthly. In episode three titled “Hotter Than Hell,” “Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery returns and graces the Grey Sloan halls with her experience and expertise as she attempts to help Richard teach the newest crop of residents; Meredith has a decision to make; Link confides in Teddy.”

Read EW's recap of the 'Grey's Anatomy' season 18 double episode season finale.

He notes the trauma in her life and accepts the fact that it's hard to leave a place where you've spent your entire adult life. I'm assuming this is when she spies Kai and Amelia making out in the parking lot. She tells Avery that she quits, hands the chief's office keys to Meredith, and walks out. And playing the comedic relief is none other than April, who is hurried to the ER to cover for Owen, who is currently leaving Seattle instead of being arrested. Cue the sad montage of the current residents packing their stuff, intermingled with 2005 Meredith and the gang filling their lockers. This gives Owen and Teddy a few hours to resign and get the heck out of town. Ms. Blake hears about the surgery and berates Bailey for letting Meredith waste all that blood on a procedure that could have waited. Of course, Kris needs blood in the operating room, and the only blood they have available is the blood that keeps Simon alive on his ECMO machine. So a percentage of the population can't rise to the occasion when Bailey orders all employees to "get needles in your arms" and donate. She threatens to involve the police but mercifully gives Owen and Teddy an out by "dealing with the blood issue" before making that phone call. Winston runs the blood to the operating room. There's a shortage, and it causes a perfect storm of chaos at Grey Sloan. There's no blood in the city.

Jackson Avery, Catherine Fox, April Kepner and Harriet on Grey's Anatomy. (Image credit: ABC). This story contains spoilers for the Season ...

In fact, it wasn’t until the end of the episode, which was jam-packed with emotion and drama and hospital shakeups, that Jackson and April met up to leave the hospital, walking away hand in hand, and sharing a kiss when the elevator doors closed. The couple didn’t, however, give much of an indication of if they would try to rekindle their romance — even though fans definitely always thought they were endgame: The second hour of Grey’s Anatomy’s two-part Season 18 finale opened with Jackson Avery giving a eulogy for his mother Catherine. Don’t worry, guys – it was just a fake-out.

The 'Grey's Anatomy' Season 18 finale finally answered the question of whether or not Jackson and April got back together after they moved to Boston.

Bailey yells, and I snap to attention.” After he informed her that she was going to have to close the trauma unit due to the blood shortage, she also chimed in with a perfectly April line: “Bailey’s definitely gonna yell about that.” At least that was the plan before a desperate Bailey recruited April to “cover the pit,” even despite her, “Hi, I don’t work here” objection. “I’ve always said this, that I always wanted them to be endgame. Then Japril headed for the elevator together, both saying, “Hell of a day.” Jackson, as it turns out, was in Seattle “on official business” to save the Grey Sloan residency program, and April and Harriet joined him on the cross-country trip. As promised, Jackson and April returned for the two-part Grey’s Anatomy Season 18 finale, and their homecoming was even better than expected.

Being the landmark 400th episode, 'You Are the Blood' also featured a number of callbacks to earlier episodes, reminding viewers of just how far we've come ...

Granted, we’ve known for a while that Miranda’s job was taking a significant toll on both Miranda’s mental health and her marriage, leading her to take a brief sabbatical earlier in the season, but we never dreamed it would lead to her just quitting on the spot. Throughout, “You Are the Blood” also featured some of Grey’s Anatomy’s most memorable songs, including “How to Save a Life,” “The Story,” and “Chasing Cars,” imbuing the whole episode with a lingering sense of nostalgia. Then as things begin to go wrong with Cora, Meredith’s memories drift to her husband Derek (Patrick Dempsey), recalling him reprimanding her in the O.R. Later, as Cora crashes, Meredith’s memories shift to when Derek was shot at the end of Season 6, and ultimately him dying in Season 11. The result, she believes, is an environment that is not conducive to teaching well, leaving her no choice but to shut down the residency program. Unfortunately, she’s wrong, and her patient dies following a surgery that blows through quite a bit of the hospital’s meager blood supply. April and Jackson don’t have a lot to do in the show’s milestone episode, but they fit right back into the ensemble cast, with April having a brief heart-to-heart with Amelia, and Jackson handing Meredith some tough love as only someone who went through a residency with her can do. Their closing shot—sitting on a plane with their two kids — definitely feels like a cliffhanger, and this storyline is uncharted territory for Grey’s Anatomy (a rare occurrence 18 seasons in), so we wouldn’t be surprised if the show finds a way to bring them back after leaving their fates up in the air for a little while. She wishes them both luck, and the two of them prepare to collect their kids and go on the lam. In doing so, Simon realizes he may be forfeiting his chance to meet his son, but Winston (strong>Anthony Hill) heads into his wife’s operating room to retrieve the baby, and runs to bring him to Simon as quickly as he can. who in this case is Chief Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson). Livid, she goes to confront Owen and Teddy—right as they’re in the middle of packing their bags to run. Being the landmark 400th episode, “You Are the Blood” also featured a number of callbacks to earlier episodes, reminding viewers of just how far we’ve come over the course of 18 seasons. After giving both of them a thorough piece of their mind, Miranda tells them she is obligated to call the police…

Grey's Anatomy season 18's finale aired in the US yesterday (May 26), leaving many characters' futures in question.

In light of Bailey's decision, Meredith accepted Jackson's offer to fill in for her on an interim basis. But instead of enjoying the moment, her attention quickly turned to partner Nick Marsh, urging him to go back to Minnesota. There were plenty of twists and turns – and what a way to celebrate an incredible Grey's Anatomy milestone as the long-running medical drama aired its 400th episode.