Season 9 (Grey's Anatomy)

The ninth season of Grey's Anatomy premiered September 27, 2012 and ended May 16, 2013. It was broadcast on Thursday nights at 9 PM on ABC. The season consisted of 24 episodes, ending with a two-hour finale.

Summary
It's a year of bold new beginnings as your favorite doctors return to Seattle Grace for the biggest challenge of their lives. The plane crash that took the life of Lexie Grey sends shockwaves throughout the hospital. But from the ashes, romance will rise, with each surgeon handling the loss in their own personal way. Meredith finds her groove in the operating room while Derek's hand injury forces him to focus on something other than surgery. And as Mark prepares to say goodbye, Alex falls for someone new, Cristina tries to rekindle the flame with Owen, and Bailey and Ben discover the perils of a long-distance relationship.

Plots

 * Mark Sloan dies after he's taken off of life support.
 * Meredith mourns Lexie and is supportive to Derek, who may never operate again.
 * Cristina flees from Seattle and takes a job in Minnesota.
 * Callie is supportive to her wife, who had to have her leg amputated, while trying to come up with a plan to guarantee a full recovery for Derek's hand.
 * Cristina comes back to Seattle when her mentor in Minnesota dies.
 * April and Jackson are figuring out their relationship, but eventually break up.
 * Bailey and Ben's wedding gets postponed when Bailey has to save Adele Webber, though Adele later dies.
 * Jackson starts a relationship with Stephanie Edwards, a surgical intern.
 * Alex and intern Jo Wilson befriend over their pasts.
 * The plane crash survivors and Callie (as Mark's proxy) are awarded 15 million dollar each. As the insurance company refuses to pay because of a loophole in the contract, the hospital has to pay.
 * As there isn't enough money to pay, the hospital would go bankrupt. Therefor, a physician advisor is hired to find way to save the hospital money. The ER closes as a saving measure.
 * Seeing the hospital can't be saved by saving money, the only way for it to be saved is to be bought. Pegasus, a company interested in buying the hospital, turns out to completely ruin the hospital it has bought. Callie convinces the other doctors from the plane crash to try to buy the hospital themselves.
 * Much to Alex's chagrin, Jo starts dating Jason Myers, on OB/GYN resident. April starts dating paramedic Matthew.
 * Meredith, Derek, Cristina, Arizona and Callie quit in order to ruin the hospital's deal with Pegasus.
 * When the plane crash survivors realize they don't have enough money to buy the hospital, they call in Richard and race against the clock to convince a billionaire to fund them before Pegasus, who's back in, closes in. Cristina tells Owen about their plan and he convinces the board not to make a deal with Pegasus. However, the billionaire decides not to go with their plan, and the interns and other doctors at SGMW plan for what they believe will be their imminent departure.
 * Catherine Avery surprises the doctors when she reveals the Harper Avey Foundation will fund the plane crash doctors to buy the hospital, but only if Jackson can sit on the board of directors as their representative.
 * Jackson, doing everything the Harper Avery Foundation wants him to, and Meredith, Derek, Cristina, Callie and Arizona adjust to their new roles as members of the board of directors, while Owen quits when rumour spreads the Harper Avery Foundation would like to replace him.
 * Jackson decides the Foundation has to listen to the board and not vice versa. He reinstitutes Owen as Chief of Surgery and the board decides to rename the hospital to "Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital".
 * The brand new ER with modern equipment opens its doors.
 * Meredith and Derek find out they are pregnant with a boy.
 * Owen bonds with Ethan, a boy whose parents were injued in a car crash. His father is in a coma, and his mother dies because of a brain blead shortly after Derek fixes the brain damage from the car crash.
 * Three of Bailey's patients come to the hospital with a post-op infection that ultimately kills all of them. The CDC is called in to investigate. Bailey gets angry when she overhaers Richard saying to one of the patient's parents that she was responsible for the infection (he was actually trying to ease them).
 * Ethan's grandmother comes to Seattle for her grandson, only for her to confess that she can't take Ethan, worrying Owen.
 * Bailey refuses to operate anymore and shuts everyone out, except for her husband. Lauren Boswell, a craniofacial specialist, arrives at the hospital to help out with a case and starts flirting with Arizona.
 * Jason hits Jo during a fight.
 * A super storm comes to Seattle, forcing the doctors to be creative in the dark when there's a power outage and the back-up generators don't work.
 * As Owen confesses to himself he'd like to take Ethan, Cristina manages to wake Ethan's father up from his coma.
 * Matthew proposes to April and she says yes.
 * Meredith takes a fall on the stairs.
 * Arizona gives in to Lauren's flirting and cheats on Callie. Callie later finds out about this and it turns out Arizona still hasn't forgiven Callie for making the call to cut off her leg.
 * Cristina breaks up with Owen because she knows she won't be enough for him as Owen really wants a child.
 * April confesses to Jackson that she loves him and that she won't get married if he tells her not to.
 * Baby Bailey Grey Shepherd is delivered through a C-section in the dark and Bailey is forced to operate again when Meredith's spleen has to be taken out.
 * In the basement of the hospital, Richard got electrocuted, ending the season with his life being in jeopardy.

Main Cast

 * Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey
 * Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang
 * Justin Chambers as Dr. Alex Karev
 * Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey
 * James Pickens Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber
 * Sara Ramirez as Dr. Callie Torres
 * Eric Dane as Dr. Mark Sloan (only for 9.01 and 9.02)
 * Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt
 * Jessica Capshaw as Dr. Arizona Robbins
 * Sarah Drew as Dr. April Kepner
 * Jesse Williams as Dr. Jackson Avery
 * Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Recurring Co-Stars

 * Payton Silver as Dr. Knox
 * Nicole Cummins as Paramedic Nicole
 * Kyle Red Silverstein as Ethan Dawson
 * Kate Mines as Nurse Gloria
 * Tom Costello as Seth Lepik
 * Sarah Lilly as Joyce Basche

Notes and Trivia

 * Grey's Anatomy was officially renewed for a ninth season on May 11, 2012.
 * This is first season of either Private Practice or Grey's Anatomy in which Shonda Rhimes wasn't the credited writer for a single episode. She revealed in a blog post that this was because all of the writers have worked together since the first seasons, so they all write the episodes like Shonda would do it herself.
 * It's the first season of Grey's Anatomy in which Kate Walsh doesn't appear as Addison Montgomery.
 * This is the first season since the premiere of Private Practice in which no characters from one have crossed over to the other, as Private Practice ended its final season with only 13 episodes.
 * The filming for this season was wrapped up at May 1, 2013.

DVD Release
It has been announced that Grey's Anatomy - The Complete Ninth Season boxset will be released on August 27, 2013 in region 1. The release dates in regions 2 and 4 are yet to be released.

Set Details
The boxset contains the 24 episodes of the seasons, with one extended. The DVD box contains 6 discs. Other set details are:
 * English (Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround)
 * Audio Commentaries

Special Features
Like the DVD sets of the previous seasons, this season's DVD set also contains a couple of special features:
 * Finale Extended Episode: "The drama continues to unfold with unseen footage that completes the dramatic ninth season."
 * Spotlight Cast Piece: "James Pickens, Jr." – Tag along with James Pickens, Jr (Dr. Richard Webber) and learn more about the man behind the surgical gloves.
 * Spotlight Character Piece: "Arizona Robbins" – From zipping down the halls in her roller shoes to learning how to walk again, viewers will receive a closer look at the hospital's bubbly pediatric surgeon Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) as she begins to cope with her new life.
 * Deleted Scenes
 * In Stitches: Season 9 Outtakes