Grey's Anatomy fans theorize on Meredith's exit after emotional episode

NOTE: this post contains spoilers for Grey's Anatomy season 19 episode 4, "Haunted."

It’s Halloween night on Grey’s Anatomy season 19 episode 4, which means a very busy time for the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial. Levi (Jake Borelli) is being extremely overworked, especially because Winston (Anthony Hill) and Owen (Kevin McKidd) have all of the interns practicing trauma training on a real cadaver. Outside of the hospital, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Nick (Scott Speedman) are trying to be alone, but things don’t go as planned. 

This is definitely not the first Halloween episode of the ABC medical drama. It’s also not the first time we’ve seen interns do trauma training, which is a fun throwback for OG fans. But the storylines that got most of the reactions were more emotional ones and has some fans thinking they may have figured out how Meredith is going to bow out of this season (she’s only confirmed for eight episodes).

To start, we saw Zola (Aniela Gumbs) call her mom while having a panic attack at a sleepover. Meredith, of course, rushed to pick her daughter up with Nick before comforting her at the end of the episode.

"She had the worst mother in the world and she became a great mom, it helps that Zola is the best kid and the best big sister ever," one fan expressed.

A tweet shared, "Zola, I’ll pick you up from anywhere, anytime. Always.’ And now I’m a sobbing mess." 

"Zola is really struggling and I love that they are giving visibility to anxiety and mental health in general," noted one viewer. 

Some fans voiced the theory that this is how they will have Pompeo exit for this season:

"I called it at the beginning. They’re writing Mer out because of Zola needing special education and more challenges than what she is getting. It’s actually a good way to write her out," said another tweet.

Someone else wrote, "Mer is SUCH a great mom. Not looking forward to her leaving Seattle, but for the good of Zola…"

The other storyline that stood out was Simone opening up to Maggie about the racism she faced at her last hospital. 

"I feel for Simone, I’m glad Maggie talked to her. Like she said, she knows Simone is the intern to watch. I am so glad the show highlighted the fact we are hold to higher standpoint, no matter how hard we work," a fan explained.

"Maggie being there for Simone is all the Black Girl Magic we need! Maggie PERSONALLY understanding what Simone told her. Loving the Maggie & Simone moments," an audience member concluded.  

New episodes of Grey’s Anatomy air Thursdays at 9 pm ET/PT on ABC. Catch up with the most recent episodes on Hulu.