Ahead of Grey’s Anatomy‘s Season 21 premiere, Ben Warren (Jason George) was at a career low. Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) had just told him he wasn’t going to continue working in the residency program at Grey Sloan Memorial, which meant his future as a surgeon was uncertain. Everything changed, though, in the aftermath of the explosion when his skills and suggestions became key to saving Atticus “Link” Lincoln’s (Chris Carmack) life. After that, Teddy invited him to finish his term, and his sharp handling of the construction worker case convinced Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) to name him chief resident.
Considering how many times Ben’s act first, think later approach to doctoring has gotten him into trouble before (remember the psych ward clipboard surgery and the C-section by the open elevator snafus), you might think he’d tread lightly in his new promotion. The teaser for next week’s episode (embedded above), though, seems to indicate he’ll be taking another potentially consequential risk.
As the teaser shows, Ben does a dance of celebration when announcing to Bailey that he has assigned himself a transplant surgery. From there, we learn just how dangerous the procedure will be.
Titled “Between Two Lungs,” the episode centers on a pair of dads who decide to do a living donor lung transplant, each giving lobes of their own lungs to their son.
“A high-risk lung transplant pushes the surgical team to their limits. Meanwhile, Bailey juggles a trauma patient whose treatment hangs in the balance,” the logline reads.
We’ve been right to worry about Ben in the past. After all, in Season 21, his defiant decision to keep the emergency department open during a heatwave very nearly cost him his job.
So is Ben about to step in it again? Or will his willingness to push the envelope actually pay off? We’ll have to wait and see when Grey’s Anatomy‘s next episode airs on October 16.
As an additional programming note, the show will take a week off, with no new episode airing on October 23, before returning with Episode 4, “Goodbye Horses,” airs on October 30. The description for that episode tells us, “The interns juggle a bizarre trauma, while a complex breast reconstruction forces Meredith into a tense partnership.”
Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 10/9c, ABC