Why Next Season Is The Perfect Time For "Grey’s Anatomy" To End!

All good things must come to an end – including your favorite television shows.

It’s hard to say goodbye, though, especially when you’ve created such a weirdly deep, visceral bond with characters who are entirely fictional. Still, it has to happen at some point.

For "Grey’s Anatomy", that point should probably be next season.

Now, mind you, I say this out of a place of love for the show. We’ve had 15 good years – well, mostly good – with our favorite Seattle doctors. They were basically children when we first met them.

We’ve watched them grow, we’ve watched them backslide. We’ve gone through highs and some very deep lows with them. We’ve even watched them die.

After 16 seasons, only three members of the original "Grey’s" cast are still on the show: Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.), Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), and Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo).

We were down to four, until Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) decided it was time to go, a move that shocked fans everywhere.

But here’s what we know. Though COVID-19 forced "Grey’s Anatomy" to shut down Season 16 early, the show has been renewed for a 17th season. If the show embraces that as its final season, it gives the writers plenty of time to formulate a cohesive ending, rather than finding out mid-season that it will be their last.

It gives them plenty of time to put a clean bow on the Teddy/Owen/Tom triangle that’s imploded. It means DeLuca’s latest character shift can be addressed and clarified.

It would give us time to see Amelia as a mom, and Jo figure out who she is again now that Alex is gone. We’d even be able to come to terms with the idea of Jackson Avery leaving Grey-Sloan to join the Station 19 team (because it’s looking awful likely right now).

And fortunately, one of the defining traits about the doctors at Grey-Sloan Memorial is that they can pull a diagnosis out of thin air. After the Season 16 finale, we now know that Richard is going to be just fine. Season 17 would be the time to see how he chooses to move forward after his latest health scare.

It was a huge sigh of relief to learn that Richard will live to see next season. After 15 years, it’d either be too hard to lose another character to an untimely death, or it wouldn’t land quite as impactfully.

At this point, another exit of a long-time regular would likely only anger fans.

The way things stand right now, "Grey’s Anatomy" can have a satisfying ending that actually reunites our OG favs.

Cristina can return from Switzerland for a visit, Alex and Izzie can bring their kids by, Callie and Arizona can return from New York, even Kepner could be part of things.

It doesn’t even necessarily need to happen all at once! It could happen over the course of the entire season. (Though, let’s be real, a huge series finale reunion would be incredible and land square in the feels).

Too many shows have overstayed their welcome over the years, not knowing or not wanting to accept when it’s time to end. But with "Grey’s Anatomy", it’s been 15 years of fans consistently coming back. And what’s that they say about leaving people wanting more?