‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Doctors Struggle With Major Character’s Grim Diagnosis

Grey’s Anatomy saw Catherine Fox’s family and doctors dealing with the aftermath of her cancer diagnosis.

At the start of “Help, I’m Alive,” Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) and Koracick (Greg German) stared in awe at Catherine Fox’s (Debbie Allen) scans due to the gravity of her spinal tumor. Meanwhile, Richard (James Pickens Jr.) talked with an Alcoholics Anonymous acquaintance about the diagnosis.

“My wife… she’s been diagnosed with something frightening,” he tells the man, who asks him if he is still looking for another sponsor since his died. Richard asks him if he would mind doing it. The man suggest he takes some time to pray and meditate.

Then, Richard can be seen struggling to focus while sitting under a tree.

Back at the hospital, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) is surprised to find Catherine who makes it clear she is angry about spilling the beans on her diagnosis to her family.

“You’re fired from my team Dr. Grey, and if you value your job in this hospital, I suggest you stay out of my sight until my fury passes,” Catherine tells Meredith before walking away.

Maggie (Kelly McCreary) later arrives from matchmaker Cece’s funeral and finds Jackson (Jesse Williams). He reveals that he, Catherine and Richard will be scrubbing in together for a surgery, clearly ignoring the big cancer elephant in the room.

Catherine appears to be avoiding her disease by working on groundbreaking surgeries, with the support from her husband and son. As the surgery begins, Maggie and Bailey (Chandra Wilson) discuss the difficult surgery and Bailey sympathizes, agreeing that if she knew one surgery could be her last she would want to go out with a bang too.

“She’s symptomatic. She’s in pain,” Maggie says. “This is not a simple surgery. Do you think this is a good idea?” Bailey says she has a good team around her.

The surgery proceeds well as Maggie worries about Catherine, Richard and Jackson’s stubbornness, knowing that they could be wasting precious time together by not talking about what is going on. Later, a complication forces Catherine to cancel her surgery plans and instead of dealing with it she finishes the surgery and walks away.

That night, Jackson finds his mother in the doctor’s lounge and she lashes out at him for second guessing her in the O.R. He confronts her for not sharing her diagnosis with him. Richard contributes with his own anger about her telling Korackick over him, but Catherine responds saying she couldn’t depend on him given Richard’s recent struggles.

Catherine insists she was not wrong to not tell anyone. However, after the disagreement the family agrees to work together and be there for each other as she deals with her scary disease.

Can Catherine come out of this cancer diagnosis? Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.