Of the many ways Grey's Anatomy has evolved as a show over its 20-plus-year run, some of its core strengths still remain. The series has always, for example, made an effort to highlight the individual characters that make up a romantic relationship. Among its primary and even secondary characters -- such as Ben Warren -- it's rare for one member of a couple to fade into obscurity once they're an established link.
Ben Warren (Jason George) first stumbled into the Grey's Anatomy fray in Season 6, first appearing in the episode "State of Love and Trust." Back then, Warren was an attending anesthesiologist, which is how he and Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) first met. This man more than likely has undiagnosed ADHD, a storyline I'd love the show to explore in the near future. He's been described, as a teenager, as a bit of an adrenaline seeker. And even now as an adult, he continues to bounce from career to career, never seeming to feel satisfied wherever he lands -- at least not for long.
He started out as an anesthesiologist and then decided to venture down the path to become a surgical attending instead. He got pretty far into that journey before pivoting to firefighting -- a career that uses many of the same skills and fulfills a similar need for a career that keeps one constantly on their toes. Whether or not that pivot was a natural move for his character or an excuse to ease fans into a new spinoff with a familiar face -- or both -- is up for debate. But he's back pursuing surgery again, and now that his future at Grey Sloan Memorial is once again up in the air, it has become frustratingly clear that shifting him over to Station 19 was a massive mistake.
To be fair, I loved what I saw of the second Grey's spinoff series, and it did end up lasting seven seasons and 105 total episodes -- almost as many episodes as the first spinoff, Private Practice (112 episodes). Its greatest error, in the end, was pulling both Warren and Bailey's personal and shared storylines out of Grey's and into Station 19. Could the show have lasted as long as Grey's has? Maybe. But it wasn't likely. And now Grey's doesn't seem to know what to do with Warren or his relationship with Bailey.
At the end of the Season 21 finale, Bailey has to be the one to tell Warren that he didn't get chosen to continue his surgical residency at Grey Sloan. She promises him that they'll find him another program so that he can continue to pursue his path to becoming a surgeon, which is allegedly still what he wants after all this time. On his last day as a resident, he saves a patient by operating on them in the ICU. A very on-brand move for him, although he didn't get in trouble this time. What were they going to do, fire him?
I really don't know what could possibly be next for Warren. Anyone who didn't watch Station 19 completely missed out on most of the backstory of his and Bailey's youngest daughter and a lot of the evolution of their family dynamics -- an interesting and arguably vital part of their relationship that they either have to re-establish on Grey's or somehow ignore completely moving forward. Bailey as her own character hasn't suffered much since they kept her on this show (rightfully so). But I often worry that their relationship is heading toward its end, and not because it should -- largely because it might have to.
There are, of course, plenty of ways Warren's fate could play out. We saw him running back inside right after that explosion. Maybe some good old-fashioned heroics will earn him another job at the hospital, even if a surgical residency is out of the question. That's the most likely, admiddetly the most boring, outcome. He could embark on another career path. He could mostly if not entirely disappear from the show, although I've missed him on Grey's and really would hate to see him go for good.
Can this mistake be corrected? Is there room for it, with all the other storylines the show has going at the moment? I'm not going to pretend like I know more than I do. I suppose there's one more possibility I haven't yet explored: the possibility of another spinoff, featuring Ben Warren in some yet to be declared medicine-adjacent career. But I have a feeling Grey's might be wary of spinoffs at this point, though I've been very wrong about these things before.