How ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Said Farewell to Midori Francis’ Intern
[This story contains spoilers from Grey’s Anatomy season 21, episode eight, “Drop It Like It’s Hot.”]
Grey’s Anatomy had said farewell to another series regular.
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Midori Francis’ surgical intern Mika Yasuda scrubbed in to Seattle’s Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital for the last time on Thursday, after joining the show at the start of season 19.
The eighth episode of season 21 — also the fall finale of the hit ABC medical drama, which returns March 6, 2025 — picked up after Jake Borelli’s Dr. Levi Schmitt also departed Grey’s Anatomy. Yasuda’s younger sister, Chloe (Julia Rose Gruenberg), tragically died after a horrible car accident when Yasuda fell asleep at the wheel after pulling an all-nighter at the hospital. The combination of Chloe’s wounds from the accident and the impact of chemo on her body from treating her cancer proved to be fatal, and Chloe died from her injuries.
At the start of this week’s episode, “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” Yasuda is seemingly ready to get back to work after taking some time off. Seattle is experiencing a heat wave, and Grey Sloan is about to be inundated with patients. When one of those patients starts coding and Bailey (Chandra Wilson) is trying to revive him, Yasuda breaks down and starts yelling at her boss.
“It’s not working. You’re losing him. You’re letting him die. Dr. Bailey, he’s dyinggggg,” Yasuda tells Bailey, who responds, “Hey! Don’t you think I know that?!” The intern continues, “He’s dying. Aren’t you supposed to be a doctor?! He is dying! You are letting him die. You just can’t let him die like that. You can’t just let him die. You have to save her. Save her. Just please save her. Just save her please. You have to save her please. Just take me! Dr. Bailey, just take me. Just take me.”
After her breakdown, Yasuda asks fellow intern Simone (Alexis Floyd) if she’s going to feel this way forever, and Simone, whose mother died during childbirth, tells her that she will but that every passing day will help her feel a little bit more comfortable with the loss.
In an effort to feel “normal,” Mika starts kissing intern Jules (Adelaide Kane), and the two have sex for the first time in an on-call room, in true Grey’s Anatomy fashion. When Mika starts crying after, she tells Jules that everything at the hospital reminds her of her sister.
Yasuda approaches Bailey to seemingly ask for more time off, which the residency director is ready to give her. The two talk about how Bailey still thinks about her mom every single day, even though she died three years prior. But Yasuda ultimately decides that she can’t move forward with her life if she’s working at the place where she sees her sister everywhere, so she makes the call to leave.
In the final moments of the episode, Jules sees Yasuda packing up her stuff from the locker and begs her to stay, but the intern says she can’t. They kiss, and Yasuda leaves the hospital. When Jules approaches Bailey to see what she told Mika, Bailey says she told her to do what she needed to do for herself.
After joining the series with the introduction of the new class of interns in season 19, this episode marks the exit of Midori from Grey’s. When speaking about the goodbye storyline at the start of season 21, showrunner Meg Marinis told THR, “We really honor how we introduced her character and how far she’s come. Mika is such a fun character to write. She really delivers this season, and I think people will be really, really invested in her storyline.” Adding, “I’m really, really happy with how it’s turned out.”
Borelli, in his exit interview with THR, acknowledged the hole left behind with both his and Francis’ queer characters leaving the show (Borelli had the first gay male kiss on the series in season 15). “These are two incredibly well-rounded queer characters played by incredible queer people, and that’s going to be hard to fill,” he said. “I don’t know what their plan is. I’m excited to see. I hope they continue putting their shoulders behind queer storylines. It was an interesting summer to go through with Midori, and we’ve talked about it a bunch. But the show has always really put their shoulder behind representation and I can’t wait to see what they come up with next.”
Elsewhere in the hospital’s ensemble during “Drop It Like It’s Hot” — and in Grey’s fall finale fashion — the episode ends with a major cliff-hanger. After Sophia Bush’s Dr. Cass Beckman returned, Adams (Niko Terho) and Jo (Camilla Luddington), who is pregnant, are caught in an armed robbery at a convenience store. Jo begins bleeding from somewhere in her body while the robbery takes place. Toward the end of the episode, Adams is able to fight the robber to try to take his gun from him, but the final scene sees the gun go off and seemingly strike Adams in the gut.
Grey’s Anatomy viewers will have to wait to find out what happens until the beloved series returns in the spring, on March 6, 2025.
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Grey’s Anatomy is streaming season 21 on Hulu.
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