Why 'Grey's Anatomy' Fans Should Start Preparing For A Painful Finale

The elevator at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital is about to lose another couple of passengers… but how soon will viewers have to say goodbye? When is the Grey's Anatomy Season 14 finale? With the recent news that longtime series mainstays Jessica Capshaw and Sarah Drew would be leaving Grey's, fans of Arizona Robbins and April Kepner would probably like to know how many more episodes they have to enjoy those characters, and how soon they'll have to prepare themselves to say goodbye.

UPDATE: According to TV Line, the Grey's Anatomy finale will air Thursday, May 17. That's the date this post guessed. Woo!

EARLIER: While ABC has yet to announce an official date for the final episode of the current 14th season, it's fairly easy to make an educated guess. The upcoming March 15 episode, "Old Scars, Future Hearts" will be the season's 15th; and it was previously confirmed that the season will consist of 24 episodes, as is typical for Grey's. That means, assuming the series runs uninterrupted for the rest of the season, it will arrive at its finale on Thursday, May 17. Given that Seasons 12 and 13 ended on May 19 and May 18, respectively, that seems like a fairly reasonable assumption to make. So viewers have another nine weeks to emotionally steel themselves for what's sure to be a tearful farewell.

But 10 more episodes (including the March 15 hour) is still a lot of time for the show to fit in some juicy storylines for April and Arizona on their way out the door. So what will those two awesome ladies get up to in the almost half-season they have left? It looks like April is heading towards a reckoning after her gnarly ear-severing mishap, and the press release for "Old Scars, New Hearts" indicates that help will come from a surprising source: "Tom Koracick helps April acknowledge her crisis of faith," it teases of the hour directed by star Ellen Pompeo.

This storyline will once again get focus in the March 29 episode, "One Day Like This," directed by Kevin McKidd. "April's crisis of faith is challenged by a patient she treats who is a rabbit," the press release reads, also promising the return of Kim Raver's Dr. Altman. Unfortunately, none of the three press releases currently available for upcoming episodes make specific mention of Arizona, but I'm sure she'll get her own chance to shine before the season wraps.

Fans still upset about the impending departures of April and Arizona can find solace in the fact that the cast and crew are as distraught as they are. After the news broke that Capshaw and Drew had been let go, series creator Shonda Rhimes posted a statement on Instagram calling out the reasons why both characters are so important for representation, and how sorry she is to see them go. "Both Arizona Robbins and April Kepner are not only beloved but iconic — both the LGBTQ and Christian communities are underrepresented on TV," she wrote. "I will be forever grateful to both Jessica and Sarah for bringing these characters to life with such vibrant performance and for inspiring women around the globe."

Their co-star Jesse Williams was a bit more blunt in his sentiments, posting on Twitter that the news "f*ckin sucks." The man who has played April's on-again-off-again love interest for nine years wrote that he was "privileged to have worked with and learned from" both Drew and Capshaw, and that "to say they'll be missed is an understatement" — a sentiment most viewers can probably get behind.

While some shows are already preparing to wrap their current seasons in March, at least Grey's fans have two more solid months to spend with Capshaw and Drew before they scrub out of Grey Sloan and continue their adventures elsewhere.