The long-awaited season 17 of Grey’s Anatomy has officially begun, Covid-19 style. I’m going to warn you right now, there will be spoilers.

The show starts with a jump to the middle of the pandemic and Greys Sloan Memorial is swamped with Covid-19 patients. Since we missed the months between where the last season ended and the pandemic, the first episode had flashbacks from missed time.

The season premiere aired the first two episodes back-to-back so it felt like one long episode. We see how Dr. Miranda Bailey is running the hospital with the new Covid restrictions when she explains everything to Dr. Richard Webber, who is returning to work.

Right off the bat, the show is dealing with the issues of racism against Asian Americans when a patient who is having a severe allergic reaction asks to not have a Chinese doctor. New resident Dr. Zander Perez responds by saying, “Then you are going to want to follow the green line to the parking lot, put your rude self back in your car and hope you do go into anaphylactic shock.”

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While we haven’t seen much of Perez since then, his sassy commentary has made him a fan favorite. We also see how the doctors like Maggie Pierce, Owen Hunt, Meredith Grey, Jo Wilson (Karev? Has she changed her name back, we don’t actually know.) and the rest of the hospital staff are adjusting to the new way of life as well as how Amelia Shepherd and Atticus Lincoln (Link) are doing with the new baby. Shepard and Link named him Scout Derek Sheperd Lincoln. Did I almost cry? The answer is yes.

The first two episodes catch us up on what happened and show how the hospital has changed since Covid. The real crazy starts at the end of the first two episodes. Grey, heading home from her exhausting shift, passes out in the middle of the parking lot where Dr. Cormac Hayes, who has been coined “McWidow,” finds her and calls for help. I may or may not have originally thought she fell asleep in the middle of the road but no, in true Grey’s Anatomy fashion, she has Covid.

The next few episodes consist of the doctors worried about Grey and treating Covid patients. This was not at all surprising. What was shocking, however, was the return of Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd on a beach in Grey’s Covid dream, followed in later episodes by George O’Malley, who was killed off all the way back in season 6. When I first saw all this I screamed, seriously, I mean jaw on the floor.

The funniest part about the return of McDreamy was that the Grey’s Anatomy social media kept dropping little hints that no one picked up on until after the premiere.

Now, I know it is a medical show so obviously Covid is going to be a big factor this season, but still it is a little annoying because there really is no escape from the pandemic. Obviously, there wasn’t a way around this and they are doing well with it.

The show is trying to show the audience what the people on the front lines are dealing with: being separated from their families, losing patients, full ICUs, racial divides in who is getting the most sick as well as systemic racism in how patients are being treated, racism toward Asian Americans and the frustration of seeing people completely ignore the rules that are there to keep people safe.

Overall the show is doing well with integrating Covid into the storyline while still making it feel like the Grey’s we all know and love.