| “ | No one ever imagined we would make it this far. Incisionless surgeries, 4D imaging, mechanical organs, stem cell therapy. Every medical innovation seemed impossible, unimaginable, until it was achieved. And luckily, we haven't stopped making advancements. Because the other side of the unimaginable is death and the pain that comes with loss. And that side never stops coming. At all costs, we avoid negative experiences. We ignore pain. We steer clear of the unfamiliar. We lie when asked about how we feel. We shouldn't do that. 'Cause I've learned something from these last several months. The body can only take so much. | ” |
It's All Too Much is the eighth episode of the seventeenth season and the 371st overall episode of Grey's Anatomy.
Short Summary[]
As traumas and pressure mount, Grey Sloan doctors try to find a path forward, and Richard questions his faith. Meanwhile, Maggie gives Winston hospital privileges and they work together to treat an uneasy patient. Jo, Link, and Jackson play an unconventional drinking game.
Full Summary[]
Richard sends out invites for Andrew's memorial service from his bedroom. Catherine comforts him.
Bailey is staring out the window of her office as she receives the invite.
Owen is clearing out Andrew's personal stuff from the attendings' lounge. He, too, receives the invite.
Teddy tells a comatose Meredith that her recent COVID test came back negative and her status appears to be improving, judging by her numbers. If it stays that way, they can try weaning her off the vent later today. As Teddy reads the invite, she is shocked when Andrew walks in. It's actually Cormac, who came to offer help since they lost Andrew. Teddy thanks him and then tells Meredith they need some good news.
On her beach, Meredith smiles as she finds Derek fishing.
In the loft, Jo tells a naked Jackson that she has a day off. She then shares with him that she is switching to OB in order to find joy in her life. He understands her. He throws a pillow at her from the couch, in lieu of confetti.
Meredith's kids are dancing it out in the yard. Maggie is having a tough time. The kids loved Andrew. Zola tells Maggie it's her time to dance, but Winston takes her place to show the kids some East Coast moves. Meanwhile, Amelia comforts a crying Maggie.
Taryn is recording Levi's message for Andrew's video tribute. He offers to record hers but she declines and leaves.
Bailey finishes a phone call to arrange a transfer of PPE to County. Richard questions when Bailey was home for the last time, but Owen and Teddy walk in before she can answer. Teddy informs them about Meredith's status. Owen adds morale has been low since Andrew. Bailey says she is expecting Andrew's autopsy results. She thinks something went wrong and she wants to know what that was. Bailey then dismisses everyone from her office. Richard stays behind and tells her he told her everything happened. She replies that wasn't until well after she could have done something. She takes another call.
Winston is with Maggie at work. She gave him privileges. They meet Taryn in the trauma room where she has been working on Byron Gibbis, who was found passed out on his porch. Maggie introduces Winston, who orders an additional cardiac CT after seeing Osler's nodes on Byron's hands. Byron wakes up and he yells at everyone to back off. He is afraid he might contract COVID. Maggie assures him they have all been tested and stresses the importance of him staying.
Levi and Nico sit down outside. Levi feels sad and guilty over Andrew's death. He feels scared and enraged over what happened to him. Nico says his go-to is feeling numb. Nico can't wrap his head around what happened.
Amelia confronts Link with a bottle of whiskey she found hidden on the top shelf behind the fancy candlesticks. He gets defensive and admits he has a drink in the garage at night sometimes to unwind. Amelia says hiding alcohol is an objectively bad sign, but he thinks it's just respectful to her. Amelia thinks he has a problem and says she is the best person he can talk to. Link is stressed out all the time and keeping Andrew's death and the horrible circumstances around it from the kids isn't helping. Amelia says that goes for everyone but they don't all have to drink to cope. Link says he gets to drink because he is not an alcoholic. He loves her but he is going to leave before he says something he might regret. He grabs the bottle and announces he is definitely coming back. He then leaves.
Cormac is sitting by Meredith's bedside. He tells her to plug through because this place can't take another loss. Teddy comes in and lightens Meredith's sedation, then gradually lightens the ventilator settings. Cormac offers to handle this with the respiratory therapist so she can get some rest. Teddy firmly says Andrew's death has nothing to do with getting Meredith off the vent. Cormac encourages Meredith.
Derek tells Meredith her face resembled little Ellis' face just now, with her worried little brow. Meredith says having to stay away from Derek is torture. He says it's of her own devising. She was always good at torturing herself. She claims she doesn't do that as much anymore. She regrets he never got to meet Ellis. He says she breaks the rules like Meredith, and she's also quick to anger and laugh. She's smart, pensive, and stubborn, just like Meredith. He lists some more facts about her to prove that he does, in fact, know his daughter.
Byron is worried that the CT is not clean. Maggie assures him they thoroughly disinfect the room after every patient. As he gets settled, Winston and Maggie think about the underlying cause for his endocarditis. Winston asks if Byron has had any trouble with his teeth. Byron did pick a popcorn kernel out of his teeth with a paperclip since he wasn't going to risk going to a dentist. The CT images then pop up, revealing an aortic valve abscess. Maggie has Taryn order an OR.
Catherine meets Richard in the conference room. Richard buit his life, his sanity, and sobriety around the surrender to a higher power. His faith is rooted in the trust that there is a meaning and a wisdom that he is not elevated enough to see or understand. Today, he is struggling with his faith. He cannot see any wisdom in this. Catherine says she lives with stage IV cancer. Her most recent scan shows no further growth. It makes no sense. In these dark times, you can look for the pain and the loss, or you can look for the beauty and grace.
Jo asks Jackson about the stock market. They are startled by loud knocking. It's Link, who claims to be Jackson looking for a quick bang. Jo and Jackson get dressed quickly as Jo lets Link in. Link is embarrassed to see Jackson there. Jo brings out shot glasses. Jackson declines for he is on call. They drink to the fact that all of their friends are dying.
Winston, Maggie, and Taryn get scrubbed. Taryn wonders why he would clean his teeth with a paperclip. Winston says the pandemic makes people do crazy things. People are not meant to physically be alone. As the OR staff is prepping Byron, he suddenly panics and jumps off the table. He flees from the room, naked.
Zander points Maggie and Winston to the direction that Byron ran off in. They soon find him hiding in the stairwell. Byron says his friend Rory, healthy as a horse, died within a week of contracting the virus. Maggie tells Byron that his heart will only get worse if he walks out now. Maggie talks about losing someone herself recently. She knows how unfair it is. She thinks they owe it to the people they lost to live the lives that they can't, even when it's heart. Byron's problem can be fixed. He just has to let them.
While drinking, Jo talks about switching specialties. OB is happy speciality and since she is not having any children of her own any time soon, she feels like hanging out with other children. Link has enough children at home. Link points out she doesn't have much to complain about. She's young and she can still work. Last time his life sucked this bad, he moved to Venice Beach. Jackson feels like escaping to the woods, where there is no responsibility or people politicizing a pandemic.
Richard finds Bailey, who reads him the results of Andrew's autopsy. All the surgical repairs were intact. Andrew ultimately died from coagulopathy. Bailey says this will make the M&M go smoothly. Bailey thinks they owe Andrew due diligence. Richard points out she also owes her doctors who are sacrificing their lives to fight this pandemic. By doing the M&M, Bailey would be subjecting those doctors to being grilled about whether or not it was their fault that one of their own died. She should let them grieve but she is causing harm. No mistakes were made. Suggesting that they didn't do everything possible to save his life is a pain he wouldn't put on anyone.
Teddy examines Meredith.
Meredith tells Derek she wants him closer. He recalls her trying to teach Zola how to ride a bike. Zola got frustrated and threw down the bike and Meredith had to do her very best not to laugh. Derek is doing his best not to laugh now. He can't get closer to her, she has to do that herself. It's her beach. Derek says Zola is brilliant. She writes him letters in her journal. Meredith makes a concentrated face. Derek tells her the key is to relax. She does, which makes him move a little bit closer. She laughs.
Teddy decides to turn the ventilator settings back up. It's not happening today.
Amelia finds Zola daydreaming as she's working on her homework. She is supposed to write a whole page about living forever but Meredith always says it's impossible. Zola wonders if Amelia would take a medicine that would allow her to live forever. Link would, but Amelia says that impermanence is what makes life special. Zola would give the medicine to her mom right now. Amelia agrees. She decides to call Meredith.
Cormac answers the call and points the tablet towards Meredith. Zola starts talking to her mother about her life.
Outside the room, Cormac tells Richard that Teddy wants to try again in a day. When Cormac's wife died, his therapist told him that there is no wrong way to process the loss. He thinks there is. Doing it over a computer screen is wrong.
Link and Jo find that there is only one more shot left in the bottle. They decide to play their "make it sadder" game, which means they each tell their sob stories and whosever is the saddest wins the shot. Jackson will judge. Link talks about raising four children in a hellish world where people don't listen to science and his parents are going through with their second wedding. Also, his last pathetic shred of me time is now ruined. Jo says the weekend that everything shut down, she was all set to start dating again. She even bought outfits. She shows the men her outfits, which she now gets to use for memorial services. Jackson thinks Jo wins, but Link disagrees. She has an entire loft all to herself. He empties the bottle. They all receive a reminder for the memorial. They get ready.
Teddy sees Andrew in the ICU again, but it's Owen, who came to move up a patient. He asks about Meredith. Teddy says it didn't work. Owen says they did everything right with DeLuca. Teddy knows that, yet he still is dead. Cormac enters Meredith's room. He tells her her kids call every day, although he's not sure she can hear that.
On her beach, Meredith appears to have some notion of what he's telling her. Derek tells her she looks perfect. Meredith hears Cormac asking her to fight. Derek tells Meredith the decision is up to her, but he thinks she should hear him out.
Cormac is now on the beach with Meredith. He tells her Ellis looks like her. Her smile lights up the whole room and it gets bigger until she bursts out laughing. Bailey then gets annoyed with Ellis for laughing in his ear. Finally, Zola gets mad at them for hogging the tablet and takes it from them. She then retreats to a dark space, which Meredith says is her closet. Zola then apologizes for things getting violent with her siblings. Cormac says these kids need her to fight. They all do. Meredith is not sure that she can. It's so warm and comfortable here. There is no pain on her beach. Cormac saw what the loss of their mother did to his kids. She can't do that to hers. People get better every day and she could be one of those people. He has heard stories of other fights she's won. He begs her to fight.
Derek tells Meredith he will be right here. She then turns around and walks away from him.
Cormac is pleasantly surprised to see Meredith move her head.
Levi finds Bailey in an empty OR gallery. He brings up the memorial service. Levi says he is a bad Jew. He cheated at his bar mitzvah. He skips half the High Holy Days and repents for it on Yom Kippur. He's also not sure he believes in God. However, he finds the traditions helpful. There are protocols for how to grieve. They force you to sit in the pain. It starts the healing. Levi's mother drives him crazy but her death would make him fall apart. Bailey has people she can be with, people who need to grieve with her. She shouldn't let the pandemic take that from her, too.
On their way to the memorial, Maggie and Winston come across Taryn sitting by herself. Maggie stays behind and asks her to come to the memorial. Taryn admits she selfishly thought about getting to do more surgeries when Andrew was sick. And now he's dead. She hasn't physically touched anyone in over two months. Another week of this and she'll be running through the hospital naked. Maggie tells her to stand up and turn around. Maggie then turns around, too, and leans against her. Taryn breaks down and thanks her.
Zander reminds everyone to keep their distance. Ben arrives with Carina and Maya Bishop. As he goes to park the car, Bailey tells Richard she needs to take some time off. He grants her however long she needs. Bailey then goes to finally hug Ben. Teddy is sitting on the curb by herself.
Richard starts his speech. Andrew was a member of the Grey Sloan family. However brave his death was, it is still heartbreaking. They can't honor his life like they might have in the past, but they can still honor him. Zander then starts a series of clips of Andrew's colleagues, which are projected onto the side of a hospital building. Maya comforts Carina as Andrew's application video for the residency program starts playing.
Andrew introduces himself. He talks about his youth and his big sister being a doctor. He wants to train at Grey Sloan to learn from surgical legends, among them Meredith Grey. He wants to become a surgeon due to his insatiable desire to help people. He got that from his mother, who passed away too soon and had a huge giving heart. She pushed him to do as much good as possible. He warns that he can be relentless and stubborn at times, but the promises to give the program his very best if he matches with them.
Cormac turns off the stream to the memorial service in Meredith's room.
Meredith and Derek are talking on the beach, only a few feet apart.
Link comes home and finds Amelia sitting on the porch. He says he went to the hospital for the memorial. She watched it from home. He won't keep booze at the house anymore, but that is not what she needs from him. She needs for him not to keep secrets. He agrees to that. They hug it out.
On his way to the car, Owen finds Teddy sitting motionlessly in the same spot from which she watched the memorial service. She doesn't react to him at all. He picks her up and carries her to his car to take her home.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey
- Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey
- James Pickens, Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber
- Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt
- Jesse Williams as Dr. Jackson Avery
- Caterina Scorsone as Dr. Amelia Shepherd
- Camilla Luddington as Dr. Jo Wilson
- Kelly McCreary as Dr. Maggie Pierce
- Giacomo Gianniotti as Dr. Andrew DeLuca
- Kim Raver as Dr. Teddy Altman
- Greg Germann as Dr. Tom Koracick
- Jake Borelli as Dr. Levi Schmitt
- Chris Carmack as Dr. Atticus Lincoln
- Richard Flood as Dr. Cormac Hayes
- Anthony Hill as Dr. Winston Ndugu
Guest Stars[]
- Debbie Allen as Dr. Catherine Fox
- Jason George as Dr. Ben Warren
- Danielle Savre as Captain Maya Bishop
- Stefania Spampinato as Dr. Carina DeLuca
- Jaicy Elliot as Dr. Taryn Helm
- Alex Landi as Dr. Nico Kim
- Lex Medlin as Byron Gibbis
- Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd
Co-Starring[]
- Aniela Gumbs as Zola
- Zaiver Sinnett as Dr. Zander Perez
- Payton Silver as Dr. Knox
- BokHee An as Nurse BokHee
- Ella Faris & Gracie Faris as Little Ellis
- Brody Goodstadt & Ryder Nolan Goodstadt as Bailey
Medical Notes[]
Meredith Grey[]
- Diagnosis:
- Doctors:
- Teddy Altman (cardiothoracic surgeon)
- Cormac Hayes (pediatric surgeon, acting as a general surgeon)
- Treatment:
- Mechanical ventilation
Meredith tested negative for COVID, but was still on a ventilator. Teddy also reported that her numbers were improving, so she tried to wean Meredith off the ventilator. When Meredith didn't compensate for the lowered settings, Teddy turned them back up and said she'd have to stay on the ventilator.
Byron Gibbis[]
- Diagnosis:
- Bacterial endocarditis
- Aortic valve abscess
- Doctors:
- Maggie Pierce (cardiothoracic surgeon)
- Winston Ndugu (cardiothoracic surgeon)
- Taryn Helm (surgical resident)
- Treatment:
- Antibiotics
- Surgery
Byron, 52, was in the ER after being found passed out on his front porch. He had a fever and tachycardia and had a murmur, but was negative for COVID. Taryn ordered a PAN scan and Winston added a cardiac CT to that, because Byron had Osler's nodes. When Byron woke up, he tried to leave, because he feared he would get COVID in the hospital. Winston diagnosed endocarditis, but they couldn't figure out the underlying cause. Winston asked him if he'd had trouble with his teeth. He said he'd picked a popcorn kernel out of his teeth with a paper clip and had sore gums, but refused to leave his house to go to the dentist. The dental infection had caused the endocarditis. The cardiac CT showed an aortic valve abscess, so they started antibiotics and booked an OR for his surgery. His surgery was delayed when he got scared in the OR and ran away, but eventually went on as planned.
Mr. Cabrera[]
- Diagnosis:
- COVID-19
- Doctors:
- Owen Hunt (trauma surgeon)
- Treatment:
Mr. Cabrera was moved to the COVID ICU.
Music[]
| Song | Performer | Scene |
|---|---|---|
| "Walked Through Hell" | Anson Seabra |
|
| "" |
| |
| "" |
| |
| "Anchor" | AG feat. Lindsey Ray |
|
| "To Love Somebody" | Beyries |
|
| "Hymn" | Bjéar |
|
| "Satellite" | Maggie Rogers |
|
Notes and Trivia[]
- This episode's title originated from the song It's All Too Much, originally sung by The Beatles.
- This episode scored 4.97 million viewers.[1]
- The song used in the trailer is an a capella version of "Lean On Me" by Joy Williams.
- This marks Stefania Spampinato's 50th appearance as Carina DeLuca.
- A deleted scene was uploaded by the official Grey's Anatomy Twitter account. It shows Catherine visiting Tom in his room, where they discuss his miraculous recovery and impending discharge. After some banter about her firing him, she mentions being there to show gratitude to the staff for giving their all. In the end, she tells Tom she will always be grateful for him.[source?]
- The official Grey's Anatomy Instagram account also posted an extended cut of the memorial scene where the recorded messages of the speakers could be heard. After Andrew's own interview video is over, the crowd disperses with some of them (among them Richard, Catherine, Owen, and even Tom) consoling Carina. Maya, Carina, and Ben linger for a moment and watch Andrew's photo.[2]
- Link says he's not sure what to say, so he will play a song instead.
- Jackson thanks DeLuca for risking his life to save his by pushing him out of the way of a speeding car. Thanks to Andrew, his daughter still has a father.
- Maggie talks about the compassion he has shown people while most others build walls around that part of themselves out of self-preservation. Doing that did not make him any less of a doctor than the rest of them, and in fact it made him better.
- Levi remembers how Andrew had him carry around a guide wire for months in order to turn him into the best doctor he could be.
- Owen says Andrew was one of those people who could keep on going in the face of long odds. It was an honor for Owen to have witnessed that.
- Nurse Linda says the nurses talk about who's good and who's not. He was one of the good ones.
- Amelia says Andrew brought her her tumor in a jar to show her that the thing that had threatened to kill her for so long was gone.
- BokHee says that he wasn't very good at first but he became excellent.
- Jo says he was brave and noble. They'll all miss him.
- Richard says he went up against doctors with decades of experiences, all the while weathering a personal crisis. Andrew diagnosed his cobalt poisoning and saved his life. He represented the best of what their job could be.
Gallery[]
Episode Stills[]
Behind the Scenes[]
Quotes[]
See Also[]
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A complete overview of this episode's crew can be found here. |
References[]
| Grey's Anatomy Season 17 | ||||||
| #01 | "All Tomorrow's Parties" | #07 | "Helplessly Hoping" | #13 | "Good as Hell" | |
| #02 | "The Center Won't Hold" | #08 | "It's All Too Much" | #14 | "Look Up Child" | |
| #03 | "My Happy Ending" | #09 | "In My Life" | #15 | "Tradition" | |
| #04 | "You'll Never Walk Alone" | #10 | "Breathe" | #16 | "I'm Still Standing" | |
| #05 | "Fight the Power" | #11 | "Sorry Doesn't Always Make It Right" | #17 | "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" | |
| #06 | "No Time for Despair" | #12 | "Sign O' the Times" | |||
| << Season 16 | Season 18 >> | |||||