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Whistlin' Past the Graveyard

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“ Researchers have theorized that nightmares are the brain's way of processing unsettling events of the past. Others believe nightmares are how our subconscious mind prepares us to do deal with our real-life fears. Either way, they agree that nightmares are most commonly brought on by one thing: stress. Sometimes, your worst nightmare comes true but you find it's really nothing to worry about. Occasionally, you discover that what you most dread is really a blessing and your life is better because you persevered despite your fears. But sometimes your worst nightmare is truly scary and it feels like it's never going to end. That's when support from friends and family is vital. You wanna surround yourself with people who will wake you up from your nightmare and help you live your wildest dreams. ”

Whistlin' Past the Graveyard is the sixth episode of the sixteenth season and the 348th overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Short Summary[]

Alex is hoping to impress investors at Pac-North Gen, but when he hears disturbing news about skeletons on the construction site grounds, he enlists Richard to help with distraction tactics. Teddy feels the pressure to be super-mom after tasking herself with creating original Halloween costumes for Allison and Leo, while Meredith fears she won't make it home in time for trick-or-treating with her kids. Elsewhere, Jackson tends to a pediatric patient who is upset she is spending her Halloween in a hospital.

Full Summary[]

Meredith wakes up in her cell with her cellmate Paula hovering over her face. Meredith's snoring woke her up. Meredith is getting out today.

Teddy meets Owen in the parking lot. He's dropping off costumes his mom brought over from when he and Megan were little kids. Teddy is impressed that Evelyn found the time to make costumes herself while working full time. He's coming by later for trick-or-treating on the peds floor with their kids.

Alex is picking a tie. Jo tries to scare him with her costume. Nothing is scarier than his real life. Investors are coming by the hospital today and he needs to convince them to give him more funding. Jo has the day off so she's going to stay home and scare off trick-or-treaters. He leaves for work.

Zola asks her aunt Maggie why her mother hasn't called from sleep-over community service. Zola urges her siblings to get their backpacks while Maggie answers the door. Andrew is late. He had to borrow Carina's car. Maggie has killed the auntie game but she forgot to get dressed herself. She leaves to do so while Andrew offers Zola help with her costume wings. She tells him not to as he's not her father. The kids leave with him for school.

Levi tells Taryn his mother asked him not to share pics of his Capitol Hill trip with Nico because a lot of his family follows him. He thinks she's trying to hide his being gay from them. But he won't let her ruin Halloween. He's leaving early. His costume is a paladin from Dungeons & Dragons. Taryn points out it's a nerd suit.

Alex and Richard are leading the investors around the ER. Doug Miller has just removed a piece of candy from a kid's nose. The kid eats it right in front of the group. Alex diverts to Richard's plans for the residency program. Alex wants to take the group to see the construction site of the new research wing, which is on budget and ahead of schedule. A contractor comes up and asks for a word. There's something he should see. Alex has Richard take the group to the ICU first. Richard has to draw attention away from a doctor failing in a trauma room.

Bailey finds Amelia and tells her she's pregnant, too. She's worrying about breastfeeding interfering with her career. And she has cravings for root beer. Tuck texted her a picture of his costume and she burst into tears. She can't cry at work, certainly not in front of Tom. Amelia gives her some tricks to hold back her tears, which makes Bailey emotional.

Link catches up with Amelia and invites her for lunch with his parents. It's his cancer-versary and he has lunch with his parents every year. After 15 minutes, it turns into a competition of whose life is best after the divorce. This year is going to be different because he will tell them about the baby.

Levi, Andrew, and Jackson enter Mary Rose's dark room while her mothers are discussing a UV coating they need to special-order. Mary Rose has xeroderma pigmentosum, making her unable to withstand UV light. She was admitted with burns, presumably due to UV exposure. The mothers don't know how it happened since they follow all the rules. They aren't happy to hear that Alex is no longer working here. Jackson thinks the exposure happened a few days ago as the burns are infected, meaning they'll need to debride in the OR. Mary Rose hates that she'll have to miss Halloween, the one night where all the kids are out at night while she's allowed to go outside without her protective clothing. Andrew says she'll have to stay overnight but Jackson says the Halloween parade is great at the hospital. As they leave, Levi tells Jackson there is no party since Alex always has a resident take care of that. Jackson bestows the task onto Levi.

The contractor has taken Alex outside. They found skeletal remains in the construction site.

Bailey, Teddy, and Tom are waiting for the ambulance. Bailey shares candy with Teddy. The rig brings in Austin Goodrich, who was hit by a car. He has a head trauma. He has an axe in his abdomen but it's fake. A lot of the blood is also part of the costume. Austin's friend Ricky tells the doctors Austin always wins the costume contest. The doctors take Austin to trauma 1.

Richard ditches the investors because Alex needs a word with him. Alex has bad news to share: construction has stopped due to a mass grave. Apparently, the hospital was once a mental hospital and once people died and nobody came for them, they were just buried on the ground. Richard will keep the investors busy so Alex can handle it. A bloodied Jo appears in the hallway. He tells her about the graveyard. He's waiting to hear back from County. Alex receives word from Owen that multiple patients are crashing in the ICU and he asks Jo to help out.

In the trauma room, Bailey has trouble removing the axe. She thinks it's stuck with spirit gum. Teddy doesn't know what it is. Tom thinks that if you do, you're too old for Halloween. He's not a fan of Halloween. Teddy finds abdominal bleeding. Tom has finished his part so they can leave for the OR.

Alex and Jo arrive in the ICU. Two patients crashed and the rest has cardiac arrhythmias. Jo whispers that the hospital is haunted.

Eric and Maureen Lincoln are waiting for their son and Amelia. They have a surprise for him. Link and Amelia arrive and they introduce themselves to Amelia. They are happy to see her but they didn't know Link was seeing someone until today. Amelia talks about how they came to be together, citing her ex-husband, Leo, Betty, and Link's interest in Meredith. Maureen says sometimes things are better the second time around. She's getting remarried to Eric.

In the OR, Jackson finds the burn isn't deeper than the dermis. Jackson asks Andrew how Meredith's doing. Andrew doesn't really know because she's only allowed eight minutes of phone time a day and almost of all of those go to his telling her about her kids. He's helping out but he's not sure it's welcome given Zola's reaction this morning. Jackson says with kids, there's almost always a reason behind that kind of behavior.

Bailey, Tom, and Teddy are operating on Austin. Teddy wonders since when people started to pay so much money for costumes. Allison is just going to be a baby. She talks about Evelyn making other mothers feel inept. Bailey says nobody equates good costumes with good parenting. Teddy thinks Owen might. They went from best friends to a family of four overnight. They skipped so many steps that would have prepared her for this and she doesn't know what they are doing. Neither does Tom. Teddy forgot he was there. Tom tells her she's not inept and she shouldn't let Owen or his mother feel her that way. Tom hates the holiday. Kids are twice as likely to be hit by cars. Luckily, he was here to save Austin. Since he's done, he returns to the ER for more Halloween casualties. Bailey finds that Austin's pancreatic head is severed. It's basically caused half a Whipple. They'll have to finish it.

Paula tells Meredith staring at the clock won't make it go faster. She invites Meredith to help her out with her puzzle. Meredith addresses a prison officer and tells him she's supposed to be let out right now but the paper hasn't arrived from court. It'll show up, it happens all the time. She really wants to go be with her kids for Halloween. She tries to bribe him by offering to help out sick family members but he declines. Paula is surprised that she's a doctor.

Alex hears that the nurses have found out about the graveyard. Owen and Jo have sorted out the charts and all of the patients with problems have received a transfusion. A nurse informs them they have their own blood supply for the ICU. Jo leaves to handle another V-fib while Owen and Alex go to check out the blood supply.

Over lunch, Amelia asks Link's parents how they reconnected since they were living in different cities. Eric moved to Denver for work and signed up for a dating app there. They were matched with one another on three apps so they texted each other about how dumb these apps were but then they got coffee and turns out they weren't so dumb after all. It's going to be a low-key wedding this time. Eric wants Link to be his best man. Link scoffs. Their divorce put him through hell. They used him like a pawn and forced him to chose. He spent Christmas on an airplane in order to see them both and double-majored so they could each have their graduation ceremonies. It took him years to manage lunch with parents who wanted to tear each other apart. He doesn't know what to say but he knows he will never treat his kid like that. After dropping that bomb, he leaves to get some air.

Owen and Alex check the fridge. It's 0°C, which caused the blood to hemolyze. They basically pumped the patients with straight potassium. Owen asks Ruby for labs for any patient who has received this blood. Alex orders every department is to be used Central Blood Supply.

Teddy and Bailey finish up the Whipple. Teddy asks Bailey if she's worried about Tuck trick-or-treating. Tuck and his girlfriend are going to horror night at the park dressed as zombies. Bailey has other things to worry about. She uses Amelia's tricks to hold back tears. She tells Teddy not to worry about the costume. There's never enough time so she should just spend time with her babies.

Meredith tells Paula about her situation. She would miss being a doctor. Paula has two kids and two jobs to make ends meet. One night, her childcare fell through and she couldn't find a babysitter or a sub for her shift. She put her kids to bed and went to work less than a block away. She ran home to check every break but her 8-year-old woke up and called 911 when he saw she wasn't home. The police was in no mood to listen. One of the officers came towards her and she waved him out of instinct. Her hand hit his face, not hard, but they arrested her for assaulting a police officer. She hasn't had her hearing yet because she couldn't post bail. It's probably gonna be another month. So Meredith can whine about her license but Paula's gonna focus on her puzzle. Meredith gets down on the floor to help her out.

Amelia joins Link outside. As a kid, all he wanted was for his parents to get back together. He even tried to Parent Trap them. Amelia thinks he's angry because this day is supposed to be about him. He's their kid and he survived cancer and now they are making their cancer-versary all about them. She understands family dysfunction. They can leave if he wants to or he can give his parents a chance to do better.

Levi is struggling to decorate the peds ward. He lets Nico know he'll meet him in an hour. A kid comes up and asks for help. He can't find a costume. Levi takes him to go find one.

Jackson and Andrew come across Maggie and Zola. Maggie says she was looking for him. Jackson says he is busy but she actually meant Andrew. Zola is refusing to go to daycare because it's for little kids. Maggie has a surgery and Amelia's out so Andrew has to watch her. It'll be easy because she'll just read her book or sit in the gallery. Andrew says he's rounding but concedes. Maggie leaves. Andrew tries to talk to Zola but she's not interested.

Zola is reading outside Mary Rose's room. Jackson and Andrew are checking on her. Her parents have left to get food. Jackson thinks she knows how the burns happened. She wants Alex. Jackson does his best Alex impressions. Mary Rose says her moms finally got her a cat. She ran out a few days ago and Mary Rose ran after her. She left her jacket. They can't tell her mothers or they'll take the cat away. These burns hurt so bad that she swears she's never going out with her protective gear ever again. Jackson says this is her one pass. Jackson uses this to illustrate to Andrew that there's always a reason with kids. Andrew notices Zola is gone.

Levi has brought a whole rack of costumes to the kid's room. He doesn't want superheroes. They have exhausted all the options. The kid wants to be a sunflower.

Amelia, Link and his parents are enjoying dessert. The parents suggest there might be two weddings next year. Link and Amelia are going to focus on the baby. Link admits they have a lot to figure out before next spring. Maureen and Eric ask when Amelia's due because they put a deposit down on a venue the third weekend of April. Link is upset but his parents say they are willing to forfeit.

While working on the puzzle, Meredith asks about Paula's kids. She doesn't understand how Paula is not climbing the walls. All you can do here is think about how screwed up everything is. Paula was angry for the first two days she was in here but she didn't want to let herself go insane with rage. So she's focusing on trivial stuff. The guard comes to let Meredith out. She's sorry she couldn't help Paula more. Paula points out she helped her with the edges. You gotta work with what you got. Meredith wishes her good luck with her hearing. Paula does the same for her license.

Andrew looks for Zola in the skills lab. Levi is in there crafting a costume from trauma gowns.

Andrew finds Zola in the gallery. She wants to wait for her mom for the trick-or-treating. Andrew tells her he wants to get along with her and asks if he did anything wrong this morning. Zola says her dad fixed her wings before he died. She doesn't like it when other people touch them. She's scared she's going to forget him. Andrew says he was a legend so he won't be forgotten. People talk about him all the time. Andrew tells Zola the story of Isaac, which warms her up to him.

One of the nurses really thinks the hospital is haunted. Jo's costume doesn't help. Alex tells the nurse nothing's haunted. It was just a broken fridge and the authorities have been notified about the bodies. She has to stop spreading rumors and focus on her work. He turns around and finds out the investors are there. One of them asks if he said burial ground.

The prison officer tells Meredith to keep fighting the good fight. He hopes not to see her back here. Meredith asks him for a favor.

Austin's surgical team goes to update his mom and Ricky. They are relieved to hear he's doing fine in the ICU. Teddy takes them to go see him. Ricky is thinking about taking pictures to send to the contest. Tom tells Bailey Halloween really brings out the weirdos. Bailey points out he's been complaining all day. He apologizes, which surprises her. He used to like Halloween. His son David loved it. Every year, they'd put together a costume and go trick-or-treating. One year, they made a Skywalker costume but he never got a chance to wear it. He died two weeks before Halloween. That costume hung on his door for months. Tom couldn't bring himself to take it down. Bailey starts sobbing. Tom awkwardly comforts her.

Alex finds Jo in his office at Pac-North. She tells him he's amazing for turning this place around. The investors gave him the funding. They were impressed with his ability to handle chaos. Alex wants to celebrate. He asks her at what time the courthouse closes.

While the kids are sorting their candy, Maggie lights a candle on a plate with candy bars. Amelia takes it to Link and wishes him a happy cancer-versary. Meredith comes in and surprises her kids. They hug her. She tells her kids she's going to come help them in a minute. Andrew takes the kids back to the kitchen. Meredith tells her sisters it was horrible. She had a lot of time to think and she has come to realize she has a lot to work with, even if she loses her license. She goes upstairs to call her lawyer to help her with a puzzle.

Owen meets Teddy in the peds ward. She's dressed as a kick-ass surgeon. Teddy says she won't be like his mother. Owen knows that, which is why he brought the costumes, to see if they fit Allison and Leo. He understands she thought he came by to shame her. It did inspire her, though. She dressed the babies up as zombies. Bailey advises her to buy costumes next year.

The parade has started. Levi high-fives the sunflower boy. He's dressed as a sunflower, too. Taryn joins him and asks about his new costume. He felt more like a sunflower today. Vampire Nico shows up to surprise Levi. Levi snaps a selfie and goes to post it. Happiness should be shared.

Alex and Jo are getting married at the courthouse. During her vows, she says she's pregnant. He's shocked. She laughs and yells she finally got to scare him. She's not pregnant. The minister wants to finish the ceremony so she finishes her vows properly this time.

The guard lets Paula know she can leave. Her bail's been posted. It happened anonymously. As she walks out, Paula salutes the cell, fully aware Meredith is behind it.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Stars[]

Co-Starring[]

Medical Notes[]

ER Kid[]

  • Diagnosis:
    • Inserted object
  • Treatment:
    • Manual extraction

A kid came into the ER with a piece of candy corn in his nose. Doug pulled it out.

Mary Rose Hawkins-Garrett[]

  • Diagnosis:
    • Xeroderma pigmentosum
    • Second degree burns
  • Treatment:
    • Burn debridement

Mary Rose, 11, had xeroderma pigmentosum, which made her much more susceptible to burns from UV radiation, meaning she had to wear a special helmet and jacket to go outside. She came into the hospital with infected burns on her arms and said she didn't know how they happened. They took her to the OR to debride the burns. After her treatment, she confessed that she had run outside after her cat without her jacket.

Austin Goodrich[]

  • Diagnosis:
    • Epidural hematoma
    • Abdominal injuries
  • Treatment:
    • Osteotomy
    • Ventriculostomy
    • Whipple

Austin, 18, was hit by a car while walking to school and had a head injury and abdominal bleeding. They had trouble figuring out where the damage was due to the fake blood and axe of his Halloween costume. They took him into the OR, where Tom treated his head injury while Teddy and Bailey worked on his abdomen. They discovered that his pancreatic head had been severed when the fake axe was pushed into him, forcing them to complete a Whipple. After surgery, his mother was told he'd be okay.

ICU Patients[]

  • Diagnosis:
  • Treatment:

Several patients in the ICU started crashing at the same time. They tracked the source to spoiled blood that had been transfused into the patients.

Music[]

Song Performer Scene
""
  • Meredith's cellmate Paula wakes her up and says she snores like a trucker.
  • Meredith's excited because she gets out that day.
  • Owen gives Teddy costumes from his childhood that his mom made from scratch.
  • Jo jumps out and scares Alex as he gets dressed.
"Bigger Than Us" Hudson Thames
  • Meredith wishes Paula luck and she wishes Meredith luck as well.
  • Meredith walks out of jail.
  • Andrew looks for Zola.
  • Levi is making a sunflower costume.
  • Andrew finds Zola in a gallery and talks to her about her dad.
  • Andrew tells her no one is going to forget her dad and tells her the story of Isaac.
"Castles" Freya Ridings
  • Alex asks Jo when the courthouse closes.
  • Meredith's kids celebrate Halloween with Maggie, Andrew, Link, and Amelia.
  • Meredith gets home and says jail gave her time to think.
  • She leaves to call her lawyer.
"How Do You Like Me Now?" Taki Waki
  • The costume parade starts.
  • Nico comes to see Levi and Levi takes a picture and posts.
  • Alex and Jo get legally married.
  • Jo says she's pregnant, but then laughs.

Notes and Trivia[]

Grey's_Anatomy_16x06_Promo_"Whistlin'_Past_The_Graveyard"_(HD)_Season_16_Episode_6_Promo

Grey's Anatomy 16x06 Promo "Whistlin' Past The Graveyard" (HD) Season 16 Episode 6 Promo

  • This episode's title originated from the song Whistlin' Past the Graveyard, originally sung by Tom Waits.
  • This episode scored 5.66 million viewers.[1]
  • Filming for this episode started on September 24, 2019.[2]
  • Camilla Luddington goes back to having dark brown hair as of this episode. She started out on the show with the same color back in season nine and had it until going for a lighter brown as of the start of season twelve.
  • This episode is set on Halloween, as said by Jo and Meredith.

Gallery[]

Episode Stills[]

Behind the Scenes[]

Quotes[]

Tom: Halloween really brings out the weirdos.
Bailey: Okay, all you've done today is complain the candy, the costumes. Catherine Fox may have made you chief of chiefs, but she did not make you the Halloween Grinch!
Tom: Yeah. You're right. I'm sorry.
Bailey: That's it? No cynical argument? No snarky comeback?
Tom: Yeah. I used to like Halloween. But my son David, he loved it. His mom didn't, so every year, he and I'd put together his costume and go trick-or-treating. It was our thing. One year, he was really excited about being Luke Skywalker. So, we were making a stormtrooper belt, you know, like he wore in the, when he got out of the trash compactor.
Bailey: Episode IV.
Tom: Yeah. It was a good costume. It was. Except he never got a chance to wear it. He died two weeks before Halloween, and I just... That unworn costume hung on the back of his door for months. I couldn't bring myself to take it down.
Link: I don't know why I'm so mad. When I was a kid, all I wanted was for them to get back together. I even tried to Parent Trap them.
Amelia: Seriously?
Link: I separately talked them into taking me to the same showing of Sleepless in Seattle. But my dad hated rom-com and my mom hated my dad, so it didn't work out very well.
Amelia: I don't think you're angry about them getting remarried.
Link: Uh, I'm pretty sure that they're the root of this anger.
Amelia: This day is supposed to be about you. You are their kid. You survived cancer. And they are making your cancer-versary all about them again.
Link: Yeah. For somebody who says they're terrible with parents, you seem to understand mine pretty well.
Amelia: Well, I understand family dysfunction. If you want to just leave, we can. Or you can give them a chance to do better.
Teddy: You know that Owen's mom made all of his and Megan's costumes when they were little?
Bailey: Like, put sheets over their heads and called them ghosts?
Teddy: No. Sewed and glue-gunned and embroidered. She was an amazing Army nurse and a mom who made other moms feel inept.
Bailey: I don't think anyone equates good costumes with good parenting.
Teddy: Well, Owen might. I have no idea. We went from best friends to family of four almost overnight. There were many steps that were skipped, I mean, steps that would have prepared me for what we're doing right now, which is... I have no idea what it is.
Tom: Me neither.
Teddy: Tom, you were you were so quiet that I forgot that... I'm sorry.
Tom: Don't be. And you are not inept, except maybe in your choice of baby daddies. And don't let ginger beer or his mom make you feel any other way.
Teddy: I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up. It's just that those costumes were so terrifying and not in a Halloween way.
Tom: Halloween's a phony holiday, anyway. Dangerous, too. Kids are twice as likely to be hit by a car and die on Halloween as any other day. This kid's lucky we were here to keep him alive or at least I was. The ventriculostomy is draining perfectly. I will be in the ER with the other Halloween casualties.
Bailey: How did you date that man?
Teddy: Well, he has his moments.
Teddy: Do you worry about Tuck trick-or-treating?
Bailey: My son and his girlfriend are going to horror night in the park. They're both zombies because they wanted to do a couple's costume. I have other things to worry about. You know what? Don't worry about the costume. There's never enough time to do everything you want, so spend it with your babies. That's more important than any perfect costume.
Andrew: Can we talk, Zola? Look, I'd really like for us to get along. So, did I do something to upset you this morning when I was helping you with your costume?
Zola: My dad fixed my wings before he died. They ripped, and he sewed them up.
Andrew: So you don't like it when other people touch them?
Zola: I don't want to forget him.
Andrew: Oh, Zola. You're not gonna forget your dad. No one's forgetting your dad. I mean, he was a legend.
Zola: Did you know him?
Andrew: No, I didn't know him. But a lot of people here did. And they talk about him all the time. I've heard the stories so often, sometimes I forget I wasn't even there. You know, one time, there was this lab tech named Isaac, and he had this huge tumor in his spine. And he'd taken it to all these doctors, and they were all too afraid to operate, but not your dad. Your dad said he would try. And when he opened Isaac up, he saw that the tumor was even bigger than it was on the scans. All he could do was stare at it for 10 hours straight.
Zola: Did he take it out?
Andrew: Not that day. He stayed up all night thinking about it. And the next day, he opened up Isaac again. He cut out as much of the tumor as he possibly could...
Jo: You are amazing. You are turning a house of horrors into a legit hospital, and I am sorry if those investors can't see that.
Alex: Well, don't be. I'm getting a new research facility.
Jo: They gave you the funding?
Alex: Yeah, they said they were impressed with my ability to handle chaos.
Jo: They don't even know the half of it. They should visit your childhood.

See Also[]

A complete overview of this episode's crew can be found here.


References[]

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