Grey’s Anatomy season 16 episode 18 preview: DeLuca crosses a forbidden line

When Meredith’s effort to do good starts to go terribly wrong, DeLuca finds himself in an even worse situation on the next Grey’s Anatomy.

Alex Karev is no more (at least not on-screen). Link and Amelia are happily reunited (for now). Many of Grey’s Anatomy‘s long-standing loose ends are finally tying up. But per usual, that has left plenty of room for all remaining drama (Owen/Tom/Teddy, DeLuca) to escalate.

Fans are always begging for more outlandish events to rain down on Grey Sloan, as long as we haven’t seen them before. Fire? Done it. Bomb? Survived that. Power outages, active shooters, blizzards — check, check, and definitely check.

Rioting? That’s a new one.

We all make fun of how ridiculous it gets, but secretly, we love it. And there’s plenty of drama to come.

Last week Tom asked Meredith what she would do if she had as much money as the wealthy patient he was currently treating upstairs. Her response? She would use it to help people, something that’s been her mission even before almost losing her medical license.

Now it seems she’s actually taking a big step toward making that hypothetical response a reality. This week’s episode will feature a “marathon” of pro bono surgeries — one that could very well end in disaster.

This week’s promo’s shock factor hits when we see DeLuca looking like he’s about to do something that could cost him his job, his license, and his future — if he hasn’t done something unspeakable already.

He’s been on a downward spiral for a while now, possibly longer than most of us realized. At first, his attachment to Meredith and child-like behavior seemed annoying and unappealing. We’re now being led to believe all this is a collection of bipolar symptoms. He has yet to acknowledge that he may be dealing with the same mental health issues as his father.

Sometimes it unfortunately takes a tragedy (hopefully a near-miss) for someone to admit they need to get help or to accept the help those around them have been offering. We might finally see DeLuca take a major step toward getting the help he needs this week.

Or not. These weekly promos can sometimes be deceiving, and DeLuca might not be in any real danger or at risk of doing something he’ll regret.

Would he really do something that might threaten his job, though … again? Haven’t we seen that storyline before? In a very recent season?

We’ll just have to wait and find out how all this really ends.

A new episode of Grey’s Anatomy airs this Thursday, March 19 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.