‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star Ellen Pompeo Warns Fans They’ll Need a Lot of Tissues for Show’s Winter Finale

Ellen Pompeo is telling fans to keep the tissues at hand during Grey’s Anatomy‘s big fall finale on Thursday.

Grey Sloan Memorial will see its latest natural catastrophe during this week’s new episode, the fall finale which will be the long-running medical drama’s last episode of 2018.

ABC released an official synopsis for the upcoming hour, titled “Blowin’ In The Wind,” which reads: “Seattle is hit by a huge wind storm and Grey Sloan becomes inundated with patients. Alex and Jo are stuck at home and decide to make the best of it by having a second honeymoon, while Meredith confronts Richard about getting his life back on track.”

Pompeo, who leads the cast as Meredith Grey, warned fans of the emotional hour while responding to a fan who wondered how many boxes of Kleenex fans would need while watching the episode.

“Ummmm not gonna lie.. a few boxes,” Pompeo wrote on the tweet without providing any more details.

The series set up an especially emotional fall finale, even without the massive storm that’s supposed to hit the city, after Richard’s (James Pickens Jr.) struggles landed him in jail, and even before he found out the devastating news about his wife, Catherine (Debbie Allen).

The previous episode of the ABC series saw Meredith and Koracik (Gregg Henry) fly to Los Angeles to meet up with Catherine and work with her on a VIP patient, who turned out to be Catherine herself.

The doctors performed a biopsy on a large mass pressing against Catherine’s spine and found out later that the doctor has a severe form of cancer, which they are now tasked to found how to treat and remove so she can survive.

This all happened as Richard struggled with treating one of his most beloved nurses, who dies on the surgical table later in the episode. The death of his friend sends him into a spiral that leads him to a bar where AA members can donate their chips in exchange for free shots of alcohol. Rather than drinking his years of sobriety away, Richard picks up a baseball bat and smashes the bottles from the establishment.

When Catherine calls to tell him about her diagnosis, he does not answer. At the same time he calls Meredith to tell her that she needs to pick him up from jail. Another person who will find out about Catherine’s diagnosis soon enough is Jackson (Jesse Williams), who was seen basically breaking up his relationship with Maggie (Kelly McCreary) after a huge fight.

All that, plus we might finally see Teddy (Kim Raver) tell Owen (Kevin McKidd) she’s pregnant with his baby.

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.