‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Tweet-cap: Fight for What’s Right

Warning: This recap of the “You Haven’t Done Nothin’” episode of Grey’s Anatomy contains spoilers.

It’s the end of the world as Alex Karev knows it.

He’s not the only one whose life is crashing down around him. In this episode, dozens of people literally have their apartment building collapse around them. They’re all rushed to Grey Sloan, where the doctors juggle the injured with their own personal dramas. Alex believes he’ll be in prison after his trial the next day. Jo might have to reveal her whereabouts to her husband. Richard learns that he’s being replaced by Minnick. Owen’s very new marriage is still on the rocks. And Meredith grapples with the possibility that yet another loved one will be ripped away from her.

The questions that they all must answer are: What is worth fighting for? And how long do you keep fighting? As usual on Grey’s Anatomy, there is no easy answer.

Here’s a rundown of the fall finale, including our live tweets:

Rubble trouble
Meredith, Alex, and Maggie are heading to work. Alex wants to drink his face off that evening, believing it’s his last night as a free man since his trial is the next day. Meredith insists that the world isn’t ending — just as they witness an entire building collapse into rubble right before their eyes.

At the hospital, Bailey prepares for the onslaught of victims. Minnick arrives, ready to help, even though her start date isn’t for a few days. A clueless Richard wants to take her out for coffee, not realizing that she’s there to replace him.

Jo is freaking out on DeLuca because she’s been called to testify in the trial. If a lawyer asks about her past, she’ll have to tell the truth about her real name and her marital status — which means her abusive husband could track her down. And if that happens, well, her life as she knows it is over.

The doctors work on the patients from the collapsed building. There’s Charlie, who vomits all over April’s shoes. There’s a 12-year-old girl named Winnie whose parents are distraught over her injuries. And then there’s the landlord, who asks for a priest. Stephanie brings him Ben, instead, and the landlord ends up confessing that he ignored earthquake damage in the foundation and the collapse is entirely his fault.

When Ben and Stephanie dish about this later, Winnie’s parents overhear — not good. The parents and other tenants start yelling at the doctors to let them yell some more at the landlord.

Meanwhile, a woman finds Charlie’s photo on the victims’ board and introduces herself to Owen as Charlie’s wife. A minute later, a different woman introduces herself as his girlfriend. Yikes!

Arizona is treating a teen boy when Minnick steps in to help. She’s clearly flirting with Arizona, who pretends like she doesn’t even remember Minnick. Oh, Arizona’s working it.

Richard gets his first clue that his job might be in jeopardy when he and Maggie run into Minnick again. She alludes to her first day and sidesteps when he says something about working as a team. Talk to Bailey, she urges. Jo is gathering supplies in the storage closet when Alex seeks her out. Before he’s possibly imprisoned, he wants her to know that he’s sorry for calling her trash. “You’re not trash, Jo.” With tears in her eyes, she flees.

Do the right thing
As Owen and Riggs treat Charlie, Riggs wonders if they should rat the guy out. When Owen brushes that idea off, noting that Riggs himself is no angel, Riggs points out that he and Megan had problems before the cheating. Of course, Owen would never do such a thing — except, wait, he did! He confesses that he cheated on his first wife, Cristina.

Meanwhile, Winnie is crashing on the OR table as Richard and Stephanie frantically work on her. But they aren’t able to save her, and a despondent Richard steps outside the OR. Later, they tell her devastated parents in a heartbreaking, wordless scene.

Jo gets onto an elevator to find Alex there too. She stops the elevator and finally blurts out the truth: She’s married, and her name isn’t really Jo Wilson. He’s shocked and asks why she never told him. She was worried that he would go nuts and do something that would land him in jail. Well, that happened anyway. Before getting off the elevator, Jo sadly tells him that if she’s gone after the trial, it isn’t his fault. She just can’t let her husband find her. Alex is even more stunned and begs her not to let the SOB ruin her life.

Minnick finds Arizona again and lays her cards on the table: She likes girls and she usually has game. But maybe Arizona isn’t into her? Oh, Arizona is totally into her and they are going on a date!

Alex catches Meredith as she comes out of surgery and tells her the basic details of what Jo revealed. And now he has some “figuring out to do.” Uh-oh…

Winnie’s distraught mom is wandering the halls of the hospital when Ben finds her. She gives him a photo of the landlord and lies that he’s her husband. Winnie’s mom is clearly looking for revenge. Ben leads her straight to the landlord; this cannot be good. Winnie’s dad and the other tenants are also demanding to know where the landlord is. Security gets called, and they catch Winnie’s mom trying to kill the landlord. She gets carted off by the police.

A sad Richard watches them take her when Bailey finds him. He asks her, straight up, if he’s losing his job as head of the residency program. She admits that Minnick is taking over and feeds him some drivel about being the chairman. He knows exactly what she’s doing — he’s the one who taught her how to fire people, after all! Teary-eyed, Bailey says she tried to make the best decision she could without involving her personal feelings.

But, Richard notes, if she doesn’t let her personal feelings guide her judgment, she has no business being chief.

Fight club
Alex visits Bailey to ask her to sign over his pension to his mother. She realizes he’s up to something. Well, he explains all to Meredith in the next scene. As she scrubs for surgery, he says that he’s going to take a plea deal for two years in prison, and he’s doing it so that Jo doesn’t have to testify. Meredith is pissed. “You think this is noble, what you’re doing? It’s giving up,” she says.

He tells her she’ll be fine. This makes Mer even angrier. “Stop making this about me,” she yells. This is about him — and if he takes this deal, his life and career will be over.

Maggie, angry on Richard’s behalf, talks to Jackson since he’s an Avery and a member of the board. Jackson is mad too. He and April note that they received far better training under Richard than they got at Mercy West. And all the doctors plan to protest Richard’s demotion.

Riggs and Owen update Charlie’s significant others, separately, about his condition. When Riggs asks Owen out for a beer, Owen declines, wanting to go home and patch things up with Amelia. But at home, Amelia has left him what seems to be a “Dear John” note. “Don’t make this all your fault,” she writes.

Meanwhile, Meredith leaves a voicemail for Alex, who’s waiting for the district attorney at the courthouse. She pleads with him not to give up. It used to be five of them — Mer, Alex, Cristina, Izzy, and George. Now, it’s just the two of them. And he can’t leave her alone.

Alex hangs up as the DA’s assistant finds him. Is he going to fight? We’ll find out in January.

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC. Watch clips and full episodes of Grey’s for free on Yahoo View.