Seconds later though, it became clear Meredith wasn't back on the mend. She was merely on a "COVID high." After taking a few steps toward her room, Meredith collapsed in the doorway of the patient's room, and as her friends revealed later, her lungs are shot and the only way for her to have a chance to live is to get on a ventilator, something Meredith was adamant against. But without the ventilator meant her chances of survival decreased exponentially. As her appointed medical proxy, Webber (James Pickens Jr.) made the painful and difficult decision to go against her wishes and give them the go-ahead. The episode ends with Meredith being put on the ventilator, as the scenery changes to the beach, where she's contently looking out toward the ocean -- the sounds of the ventilator overtaking the voiceover.