'Grey's Anatomy' : Meredith Gets a Romantic Thanksgiving Surprise While Stuck in Minnesota

Meredith's budding romance with Nick Marsh heated up during Thursday's episode of Grey's Anatomy

Photo: Ron Batzdorff via Getty

This post contains spoilers from Thursday's episode of Grey's Anatomy.

Thanksgiving has come to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital — but one doctor was notably absent from Seattle for the holiday.

During Thursday's episode of Grey's Anatomy, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) got stuck in a snowy Minnesota, where she has been splitting her time while working on groundbreaking research to help cure Parkinson's disease.

Luckily though, she had fellow doctor and new flame Nick Marsh (Scott Speedman) on the phone to keep her company and tell her scary Thanksgiving emergency room stories as he drove up to his remote cabin — or so Meredith thought.

When she got a knock on her hotel room door, she told Nick that it was the room service and that he should "stay right there," as in, remain on the line. When she opened the door, she was shocked to find her new beau standing in front of her.

"You turned around?" she asked.

"Yeah, I turned around," he replied.

Scott Speedman as Dr. Nick Marsh. Eric McCandless via Getty

They then enjoyed a romantic meal together in her hotel room, where Meredith shared that she's trying to get better at "being in the moment," citing her experience with COVID-19 last season as a reason for the change.

"I think it was all those months in the hospital," she told Nick, who of course has his own experience with extended hospital stays, having first met Meredith when he collapsed in front of her and needed kidney surgery.

"It's strange isn't it? How laying in bed staring up at the fluorescent lights can just completely change your thinking?" he asked.

When he then questioned Meredith about what she's grateful for, she quipped, "I'm grateful that you're here — and this wine of course, I'm grateful for the wine."

What later ensued was a steamy sex scene and some romantic pillow talk. "I'm sorry about Seattle," he told her, not seeming sorry at all.

"I'm sorry about the cabin," she replied, kissing his hand.

John Fleenor/ABC

Back at Grey Sloan, Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) and Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.) were on the lookout for emergency surgeries.

"It's a tradition Bailey, I cut on Thanksgiving — just not a turkey," he told her.

Webber's wish was granted when a pregnant woman pulled up to the ER in her own car, asking to be checked out before her family noticed that she and her pecan pie were gone. Bailey later hopped on the case of a veteran with a collapsed lung who Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) previously treated.

Tragedy struck, though, when Megan Hunt's (Abigail Spencer) son Farouk suddenly crashed, despite having been recovering well from his recent heart surgery. While his aunt Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) tried to resuscitate him, peds surgeon Cormac Hayes (Richard Flood) insisted she stop.

"His heart is too damaged, we're not going to get it back. You've been running this code for half an hour," Hayes said. "I think our only chance is to go on ECMO."

When Teddy protested, he told her, "Excuse me, you are his aunt. Megan, you are his mother. I am his doctor. I'm telling you this is where we are now."

"Do it," Megan instructed him, later learning that Farouk would have to be put on the heart transplant list.

John Fleenor/ABC

Meanwhile, exes Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) and Link (Chris Carmack) began to figure out co-parenting while they unexpectedly prepared a Thanksgiving dinner together for their son Scout and Meredith's kids.

Things didn't go as planned — Amelia forgot to turn the oven on for the turkey, and Link improvised with frozen mac and cheese and bagel bites — but the duo seemed to have warmed up to each other after their breakup had previously left things icy.

So warm, in fact, that they ended up kissing on the couch at the end of the night, even after Amelia warned him that her stance on marriage (that is, not wanting it) hadn't changed.

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In the true Thanksgiving spirit, the episode concluded on a heartwarming note after Richard caught Bailey crying and decided she needed some cheering up with pecan pie (home baked by his patient) and the company of some of the other doctors.

"Even if we're working, even if we're not in the mood to celebrate, even if traditions are not your thing, it's important that we're together," he told the group.

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays (9 p.m. ET) on ABC.