Grey's Anatomy' Season 20 Episodes/Release Date/Spoilers/Cast ... - TVLine

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In Krista Vernoff's final season as showrunner of Grey's Anatomy — at least for now — she infused the long-running ABC drama with fresh blood, a new class of medical residents that is, if not as immediately appealing as the show's OGs, damn close to it. The EP also tackled head-on the far-reaching repercussions of SCOTUS' roll-back of women's reproductive rights (in the process, bringing home MVP Kate Walsh as Addison), installed Teddy as Grey Sloan's latest chief, transplanted Helm from Joe's Bar to the O.R., ordered a drink for recovering alcoholic Richard and teed up guest-star turns by Dream Emmy nominee Marla Gibbs and Juliet Mills.

But not every twist of plot was a turn for the better. Maggie and Winston's once-charming relationship deteriorated to the point that we were less sorry that they split up — owing to Kelly McCreary's exit as a series regular — than that they hooked up again in the Season 19 finale. Amelia's romance with Kai, the series' first nonbinary character, was back-burnered and then nudged right off the stove. And Ellen Pompeo's sendoff as Meredith left (at least some of) us not caring too terribly much whether or how often she returned.

So, before executive producer Meg Marinis starts her stint as showrunner with Season 20's premiere, let's take a closer look, why don't we, at our 5 WANTS in the episodes to come… and the 1 thing we most definitely DO NOT WANT.

• WANT: Teddy not only living but living large

  

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  Given that Kim Raver has already inked a contract to return for Season 20, nobody really thinks that her character is going to succumb to the "toothache" that felled her in the last seconds of Season 19's finale. (Read that recap here.) But when Owen's better half eventually recovers, we don't just want her back in action, we want to see her giving us all a reason to sing "Hail to the Chief." A lot of reasons, even.

  Teddy has the passion and compassion to capitalize on her reevaluation of the residency program and chart a course for Grey Sloan that will take it once and for all in the direction opposite Disasterville. Not only would her success save the hospital from being the next Pac-North, it would be all kinds of delightful to watch Owen have to admit that his wife is way better at the job than he ever was.

• WANT: Winston, less redefined than simply defined

  

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  We've liked Anthony Hill's alter ego since he first locked eyes with his former teacher and future wife Maggie back in Season 16. But who, exactly, is Dr. Ndugu? Going on four seasons later, we still have only inklings of ideas. 

  We know that the easy-on-the-eyes doctor has enough family baggage to fill a luggage rack. And we know that Grey Sloan's new head of cardio leads with his heart, not his head.

  Beyond that, however? Blank slate. Let's get it filled and, fingers crossed, move him into a relationship that has longer legs than his and Maggie's. As a matter of fact, something in Jules' admiration of Winston makes us suspect that his next arc might cast him as the teacher in a teacher/student flirtation…

• WANT: Bailey stepping up for Richard

  

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  If Dr. Webber tumbles off the wagon, as Season 19's finale strongly suggested that he would, it should be Miranda who prescribes the tough love that he needs to swear off the sauce again. Amelia understands addiction better than Bailey does. Catherine is Richard's wife. But after all Bailey and Richard have been through together — and done to as well as for one another — it ought to be her in her mentor's corner as he fights what may well be the defining battle of his life.

• WANT: A real romance for Helm

  

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  For most of her going-on-five-season run, Jaicy Elliot's endearing Hellmouth has had only one (unrequited) love interest: Meredith. Finally, Season 19 hooked up Grey Sloan's new co-chief resident with Midori Francis' Mika Yasuda, and the results were… freakin' adorable. In Season 20, let's see their relationship deepen as they are faced with a challenge to which so many of the hospital's doctors have had to rise: how to remain boo'd up while dating someone who is technically your boss.

• WANT: More, more, more Addison

  

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  The saying "less is more" definitely doesn't apply to Kate Walsh's much-missed fan favorite. So here's hoping that she brings Dr. Montgomery back to Seattle often enough in Season 20 that it puts her marriage to Jake — you remember, her Private Practice husband — on life support. Maybe the couple could even separate, thereby giving Addison the perfect opportunity to move with son Henry to Seattle for the kind of "temporarily" that turns out to be "permanently." What? Do we ask for too much?

• DON'T WANT: Grown-ass adults behaving like middle-schoolers

  

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  Look, Simone is young, so we'll give her a pass for being idiotic enough to think that she should sidestep her feelings for Lucas to even consider marrying jerky Trey. But we're done giving passes to mature characters who act like adolescents. How many seasons did Jo and Link stay apart for no reason other than that they refused to be honest with one another at the same time? How lunkheaded did it make Maggie and Winston seem that they couldn't find a way to work together? And why on earth was Nick still even vaguely interested in Meredith after neither of them exhibited the emotional wherewithal to contact the other during their months of estrangement? That's not drama, that's nonsense!