Below is a list of all of the major plot points - and my thoughts - that happened during the finale.
- Oh my God! They killed off Lexie! I'm sorry but I just had to start off with that. I'm still a little teary-eyed just thinking about that scene where Mark is with her saying everything is going to be alright. So powerful!
- I will surely miss Lexie but I also trust that her death will open up some very compelling plot points for several characters - Mark, Meredith, Derek.
- I was mostly taken aback by the fact that Lexie died within the first 20 minutes of the episode. It did lack a little bit of the emotional buildup but it also made the episode unique and kept our attentions.
- The drama in the woods was immensely more fascinating to watch but we needed some of those hospital scenes so that the hour wouldn't be particularly more grim.
- I was fully expecting something big to happen with Arizona, with the bone sticking out of her and coughing up blood, and Jerry, the pilot who can't feel his legs. But after they were introduce, they weren't really used.
- This was one of the goriest episode this series has ever produced - Arizona's bone, Meredith "stitching" Derek's open wound, Cristina's surgery on Mark.
- Near the end, I was so worried that we might be losing Mark as well but thankfully he survived this finale. However, I'm calling it right now, Mark and Arizona will be the ones in the most life-or-death peril during the ninth season premiere.
- The use of Richard's first speech in the pilot episodes was so wonderfully used in this episode at the beginning and at the end in Meredith's voiceover. Oh, nostalgia!
- In the lightest moment of the finale, Ben and Bailey got engaged - which I'm happy for them and I just wish I could be more excited when I see them on the screen.
- The resident's dinner with Richard was also sweet but again a tad too boring given what was happening elsewhere.
- Also at Seattle Grace, Owen fired Teddy because she wouldn't take a job with a big military hospital due to loyalty. At first she was upset but then she accepted it.
Does this mean that Kim Raver is leaving the series as well? I'm not quite sure on that.Okay it's now been confirmed that Kim Raver is indeed leaving the series. - I was eagerly awaiting to see how the staff at the hospital would react to the crash but that moment was heavily delayed and it wasn't until the end that Owen learned that something was wrong. Hopefully, their reactions are real and genuine during next season's premiere.
- The episode concluded with Meredith, Cristina, Derek, Mark and Arizona still lost in the forest with no more matches and no rescue team yet. It's a satisfying closing moment and will keep me interest over the summer months but I was hoping for just a little more resolution to several things.
