What time will Grey's Anatomy Season 19 finale air? Release date, plot details and more explored

The season 19 finale of Grey's Anatomy is upon us, which will be a two-hour episode and has a combined title of Wedding Bell Blues and Happily Ever After. Like all the recent episodes of the medical drama, the season 19 two-part finale will also be a Thursday outing as it's slated to hit ABC on Thursady, May 18, at 9/8c.

Reports stated that the finale will see the glorious return of the OG star Meredith Grey, aka Ellen Pompeo. For the unversed, earlier this year in February, Pompeo apparently hung her white coat and parted ways with the longest-running project of her career. Now that she’s returning to Grey's Anatomy, it seems the departure was anything but a farewell.

To note, the ongoing installment of Grey's Anatomy was released on October 6, 2022, and has aired 18 episodes till now. On November 10, 2022, after airing the 6th episode, the show took a break for four months.

Season 19 returned with its episode 7, I'll Follow the Sun, on February 23, 2023, and has been maintaining the weekly release pattern since then climaxing with Wedding Bell Blues/ Happily Ever After.

---

What will Grey's Anatomy Season 19 finale deal with and other details

While addressing the same, co-executive producer and writer Krista Vernoff said:

“It wasn’t a farewell episode, it was a leaving-Seattle episode, because we knew we were going to see Meredith again this season and more next season as well. So it was a different kind of farewell than some that we’ve done where it’s like, ‘That’s the last you’re ever going to see that person.’ We didn’t want to do that. We wanted a sweet ‘See you later’ kind of thing for Ellen.”

Wedding Bell Blues/Happily Ever After, apart from Pompeo’s return to Grey's Anatomy, will deal with an upcoming wedding of a confused Simone Griffith (Alexis Floyd) and Dr. Jo Wilson (Camilla Luddington) and Atticus "Link" Lincoln’s (Chris Carmack) relationship facing an important turning point, as per TV Insider.

The portal then added that a forced reunion between attending transplant surgeon Nick Marsh (Scott Speedman) and Meredith will happen when the attending surgeons visit Boston. Another storyline will be about attending General Surgeon Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) receiving a big surprise.

Next up is Nick, attending cardiothoracic surgeon Winston Ndugu (Anthony Hill), and his wife and fellow surgeon Margaret "Maggie" Pierce (Kelly McCreary) taking part in the Catherine Fox Awards. So, over all, it seems the episode will be emotional as well as a fitting goodbye to the current season.

Apart from the ones mentioned, Grey's Anatomy season 19 finale will also feature Marla Gibbs as Joyce Ward, Simone Griffith's grandmother, Jonathan Adams, Debbie Allen is Dr. Catherine Fox, Jaicy Elliot, and William Martinez as guest stars.

While Wedding Bell Blues, the first part, has been directed by Kevin McKidd, the second part has Debbie Allen as the helmer. Notably, McKidd plays the role of Owen Hunt, the Chief of Trauma Surgery in Grey's Anatomy. McKidd has directed the episode based on Vernoff-Meg Marinis' script, while Allen’s episode has been written by Marinis. Terming the episode as a “big one,” McKidd said:

“There are going to be some things in it that people are going to be kind of surprised and shocked at.”

He added that Pompeo’s comeback as Meredith Grey is “celebratory” and “also quite shocking.”

---

Grey's Anatomy season 19 finale, Wedding Bell Blues and Happily Ever After, hits ABC on May 18, Thursday, at 9/8c.