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Richard Webber is the current Chief Medical Officer of the Catherine Fox Foundation as well as attending general surgeon at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. He is also the former Chief of Surgery at both Seattle Grace Hospital and Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital. During his residency, he had an affair with Ellis Grey, but he left her because he was jealous of her career. He was married to Adele Webber until her death and is now married to Catherine Fox. He is also the biological father of Maggie Pierce and stepfather of Jackson Avery.
Richard Webber and Ellis Grey, both residents at the time, engaged in an affair while both of them were married. Ellis wanted them to leave their spouses to be together, but while Ellis left Thatcher, Richard couldn't leave Adele, so they ended things and Ellis moved to Boston, where she gave birth to a baby, whom she placed for adoption without Richard's knowledge.
Provided by: Community Who is Richard Webber's biological daughter in Grey's Anatomy?Maggie Pierce is the biological daughter of Richard Webber with Ellis Grey. After she was born, she was adopted by Diane and Bill Pierce.
Provided by: Community How does Richard Webber's first wife, Adele, die in the series?Richard Webber's first wife, Adele, had surgery on an aortic aneurysm, which had gone undetected for a long time due to Alzheimer's. She had surgery to correct it, but later that day, she had a heart attack and died.
Provided by: CommunityNot much is known about Richard's childhood. His mother, Gail, died of pancreatic cancer when he was ten. He has a brother named Chris Webber and a sister.
During residency, he grew close with Ellis Grey. They started having an affair together, planning to leave their spouses to have a life together. Ellis told her husband, but Richard overheard that she was on the shortlist for the Harper Avery Award, and decided to stay with his wife, Adele. He was jealous of her career and he didn't want to feel that way for the rest of his life.
Richard started having trouble seeing, and not completing simple surgeries. It turned out that he had developed a tumor, pressing against his optic nerve, and let Derek operate to remove it, under the radar of all the surgical floor. Later, he fought with Derek to write him out for surgery.
Richard was later found to be off the wagon and drinking again. This caused him to lose his job as Chief of Surgery for a period of time to Derek Shepherd, who told the board about his problem even though Meredith had attempted to stop him. He eventually sobered up again and after Derek stepped down following the shooting, he was able to regain the position.
His wife, Adele, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. When Adele was accepted on to Derek's Alzheimer's trial, Meredith tampered with the trial by ensuring Adele received the active drug, rather than a placebo. Once news of the tampering came to light, Richard took the fall for Meredith, leading to his resignation as Chief of Surgery, whilst remaining an attending general surgeon. Throughout the next year, Richard dealt with her Alzheimer's becoming worse. She eventually asked Richard to place her in the Roseridge Home for Extended Care. Richard visited her a lot as he wanted to assure her that he was still there for her, but soon after she stopped recognizing him and started a romantic relationship with Allan, a fellow resident in the care facility. At first, Richard resisted, thinking Allan was taking advantage, but he soon realized Allan had Alzheimer's too and that his anger wasn't helping Adele. He then allowed Allan to take his place.
Richard and Catherine were both examiners at the boards exam. The night before the Boards, Catherine and Richard ended up sleeping together. That is when their relationship started.
Not long after that, Adele died of a heart attack after coming out of surgery. [5]
After his electrocution, Richard briefly opened his eyes to see how Heather, the first one to find him in the basement, got electrocuted herself and severely bumped her head. Both she and Richard were later found by Shane, who alarmed other doctors. Together with Cristina, Bailey started taking care of Richard. While his labs showed that his lactate was two, Richard started coding but they managed to revive him, after which Cristina successfully pulled off the difficult procedure to place a balloon pump without rupturing Richard's aorta. This stabilized Richard's heart and he was sent to the ICU. When his labs came back again, Richard's lactate was six, and Bailey felt he had an acute abdomen. She was worried and wanted to operate on him to look for and repair possible intra-abdominal tissue damage, but Cristina insisted his heart couldn't handle the surgery. They kept bickering until Owen reminded them to look into his medical directive. Meredith turned out to be his medical proxy, and she decided to run his labs again, and if the lactate was above six, they could operate. A little later, his labs showed that his lactate was nine, so he was wheeled into the OR with some of the doctors watching him. [6]
However, the surgery was interrupted by Catherine Avery, who yelled at Owen and Bailey to close him up. As they hadn't found anything on the bowels yet and Richard's heart started to get unstable again, they listened to her and closed him up. Richard stabilized again after he was closed up. Catherine demanded access to Richard's chart and labs, and started to plan to move him to another hospital once he was stable enough. However, behind her back, Meredith was convinced by Bailey's feeling that something's wrong inside his abdomen, and doing nothing about it is worse than operating. She took her phone and booked an OR for Bailey to explore Richard's abdomen again. They did find necrotic tissue around the pancreas, and Bailey was extremely happy. "When you know, you know!" she said, just as Richard always taught them. After surgery, Richard was taken back to the ICU. As Catherine started bickering with Bailey and Meredith over how he still hadn't regained consciousness, Richard opened his eyes just as Meredith told Catherine that Richard chose her to be his family and to make his decisions for him. [7]
His recovery didn't start out well as he continued to lose weight. Meredith was on maternity leave, so Bailey was now in charge of his case. When presenting the case, Shane recommended a feeding tube, but Richard refused this with Bailey supporting him in this. Behind Bailey and Richard's backs, Shane called Meredith to inform her of Richard's condition and she advised him to already order a feeding tube so it would be ready whenever Richard was ready to have it. Shane did so, but Bailey and Richard found out. They were not going to change their course of treatment, and Shane was ordered to bring Richard some soup. From outside the room, Shane noticed how much difficulties Richard was having to swallow it. When Cristina informed her over the phone that Richard still didn't have a feeding tube, Meredith felt like she abandoned Richard and failed to be a good family member, so she came to the hospital to read his labs herself. She and Shane tried to convince Bailey, who supported Richard in his decision not to have a feeding tube because it completely takes away one's dignity. Meredith pointed out that dying does too, and that would happen if they wouldn't place a feeding tube. Bailey then agreed to have another look at Richard's swallow studies with her. While they were doing so, Shane entered Richard's room and listed the consequences of not allowing a feeding tube. He told Richard that he was offering to place the tube now that they were alone, or they could wait for Meredith to do it. Richard realized that a feeding tube was necessary and allowed Shane to place it. That evening, Meredith sat by his bedside, apologizing for being such a bad family. He aggressively told her that she wasn't his family and that he had made the wrong decision to make her his medical proxy as she was too weak and sentimental. He said that she shouldn't have brought him back to life, meaning he would rather be dead right now. Meredith then let go of his hand as he turned his head away from her. [8]
He continued down the path of self-destruction. Meredith told Bailey, who kept on worrying, that forcing treatment wouldn't help, he just needed to hit rock bottom. Bailey then instructed a nurse to start Richard on CPAP, which the nurse said he wouldn't like. Bailey said he didn't have to like it, he just had to do it. However, when the nurse came to his room, he started fighting her and said he didn't want breathing treatments. Bailey came into the room and told him about her other patient, who wouldn't stop fighting despite having no options. This was contrasted with Richard, who had many options but refused to try. She stated she wasn't okay with letting him die like Meredith was, so she was giving a choice. He then reached for the breathing apparatus, but only to throw it across the room. Bailey then wrestled with him to get him to wear the oxygen mask until he aggressively pushed her away into a chair. However, Bailey put her patient in Richard's room, where the patient pointed out that Richard didn't look like he would be around much longer. Bailey gave them brochures for facilities that do end-of-life care, figuring that they could go through them together as they were in the same boat. While talking with Gene, Richard realized he didn't want to die in the hospital and took the breathing apparatus to start working on his lungs, with Bailey watching and smiling from outside the room. [9]
Together, they continued working on his recovery until he was able to stand up and walk to the chair in his room. They called Catherine to show her the progress they made. When he showed her what he could do, he refused to accept help from Bailey, who smilingly pointed out he was now acting all too cool for school because Catherine was in the room. Leah and Shane felt a little awkward when they had to strip his JP drain and they helped him get back in bed, while Bailey and Catherine talked outside about his recovery. She expected more of the recovery, but Bailey says all he needs is support. Noticing how awkward the interns were acting when they needed to examine Richard, Catherine wanted him to come home with her. She pointed out he wasn't progressing in this hospital, as they were all coddling him because they love and fear him. Ultimately, it was a disservice to him and Catherine added he needed to be pushed and not coddled. Keeping this in mind, he told Leah that coddling makes her a bad doctor and he ordered her to give him a proper hands-on examination. Catherine overheard how Leah correctly diagnosed a pancreatic leak and complimented the bossy Richard as she came into the room. As Leah left, Richard said that the interns would have to learn to look him in the eye and answer his questions. He then answered her question to come home with her, saying that he needed to stay in the hospital as they needed him there. [10]
Determined to teach the interns, Richard used his physical condition as a teaching tool. He had constant shoulder pain and he wanted Jo to come up with the correct diagnosis. Meredith interrupted to ask Bailey something about portal vein graft research, and Richard replied that it was her mother's research. She has written about it in one of the journals gave him. Back to his case, Richard told Jo that she would be kicked off the case if she couldn't find a solid answer about his pain. Her first attempt was to attach him to a scanner. While she was trying to get a clear read, Richard pulled off the sensors. He told her the pain wasn't caused by his heart or something he did, and he advised her to look deeper. She then came up with doing X-rays. He asked her what she thought she would find. Something clicked in her head and she suddenly realized he needed an ultrasound instead. Doing the ultrasound, she enthusiastically diagnosed him with a pancreatic pseudocyst. She started cheering because she found the answer, and explained how she got to it. He told her to work on her bedside manner and she apologized. He smiled and said he finally felt like he was in good hands. [11]
After Jo diagnosed him with the pancreatic pseudocyst, Richard revealed he would allow one of the second-year residents to perform the surgery to fix it. Stephanie was already out, as she walked into a wall after her eye surgery. Bailey doubted they were capable of doing the surgery, but they were able to walk her through the procedure. Richard then tasked Bailey to observe the residents in the ER and decide which one was going to operate. In the ER, Leah and Shane dropped out too. Bailey started ranting about how incompetent the residents were, but Richard came to their defense and said that she was the problem. Teaching the residents is the only thing that kept him going when it was still unsure he'd ever operate again, and she was standing in the way of that as she wouldn't let them learn. He said he'd have someone else supervise them and fired her from his case. He then asked Meredith to observe the residents and choose one to perform the cystogastrostomy. She told him she didn't have time as she had a Halloween party to get to, but when he said he would have never gotten where he was now if it weren't for her and begged her to help him teach the residents, she agreed. She chose Jo, who pulled off the surgery with success. After the surgery, Richard asked Meredith to talk to him through the whole surgery from the beginning, but Meredith allows Jo to do this in the interest of education. [12]
Whenever he wasn't teaching, Richard filled his days by telling old surgical stories over and over again to anyone who would listen. One of his many stories taught Stephanie the two-challenge rule. His next-door neighbor, CJ, got tired of it when he asked the residents to come back for the end of a story and yelled from her room that everyone knows the end because he'd told it so many times. He held off on exercise, which Meredith noticed. She asked if he was planning to leave the hospital because his room didn't look like he was. CJ walked by and asked him to join her on her walk, so he could hear some new stories, which she told him he needed. He said he'd catch up with her later, again refusing to get out of bed. Later that day, she was talking him through a recipe when she suddenly stopped talking as Richard heard a clattering. Richard then rushed out of bed and saw CJ collapsed on the floor. He called for help and asked for a crash cart as he started performing CPR on CJ. After he saved CJ, Richard felt exhausted in a good way. He told April that it was time for him to start working to get out of bed and be himself again. At the end of the day, Richard checked on CJ and took a walk with Callie, while telling her the story of what happened that day. [13]
In a wheelchair, Richard left the hospital for the first time in months when April drove him to the courthouse to support Callie during her malpractice lawsuit. [14]
To get out of the hospital, Richard had to pass a treadmill stress test. He failed every time but pushed Jo and Meredith to allow another one. In his room, he tried to convince Meredith he was a waste of a bed, but she replied his stress test was a disaster. He claimed he had been practicing and was thereby another man than he was last week. Meredith proposed to get him into a rehab facility as he couldn't go home on his own, but Richard refused and said he'd get a home health aid. This convinced Meredith to allow another test, which he said he'd pass, flying colors. She then invited him to the Thanksgiving Dinner at her house, and he accepted the invitation when he found out she wasn't cooking the dinner. While preparing for the treadmill test, he and Jo started talking about preparing a Thanksgiving turkey. During the treadmill test, Jo wanted to stop because his heart rate was pretty high. He wanted her to take up the treadmill, but when she refused, he did it himself. He had to start running, but couldn't keep up and fell off the treadmill. Jo called for help, and Derek and Callie came in, confirming his own diagnosis of broken ribs. Because she felt sorry about what happened, Jo and the other interns decided to hang out with Richard at the hospital at Thanksgiving. As none of them could cook a turkey, they decided to settle on fried chicken and biscuits. [15]
After he healed up, Richard passed the stress test and he was allowed to leave the hospital with a box filled with his personal stuff. He was wheeled to the elevator with several doctors seeing him off. He didn't understand why they were making such a big deal out of it and said he wanted a break from all of them. Bailey said he got himself better, but he said she was the one who did that. Not long after, Richard came back to the hospital. He met Bailey in the surgical skills lab, as he wanted to practice his skills for his return to surgery and didn't want to just sit around at home. Unknown to him, Bailey was trying to do 5 stitches without showing OCD behavior. He rearranged the surgical instruments on her tray. Later, Bailey yelled at Dr. Alma that she wasn't going to take the pills. Richard offered to join her to April's bridal shower to take a break, but she declined. After having yelled compliments and eaten a lot of finger food at the shower, Richard returned to the skills lab. He said that she called him a drunk before the accident. She started apologizing for that, but he said she was right: he is an alcoholic, which is why he was at the hospital instead of home because he was afraid he'd start drinking at home out of loneliness and boredom. He said he always wants a drink because he has a disease that can't be cured, only managed, but not alone. He told Bailey that she had to accept that she has a disease and needs help, after which she picked up the pill bottle and took one out of it. [16]
Richard scheduled his first little surgery back on the day of April's wedding. Almost everyone would be at the wedding, so there wouldn't be anyone around to make a big fuss about it. On the same day, Bailey started operating again and he told her he was proud of her. However, his plans had to change. While he was preparing for the surgery, Leah came running over and begged him for help. He accompanied her to the OR, where he found Shane staring at Jimmy Evans's chest. While ordering Leah to get rescrubbed, he asks Shane what they got. Shane kept on saying how he did this and that it's his fault while blocking Jimmy's chest with his hands. Richard took a look and concludes they needed bypass. He tried to convince Shane to take some rest, but Shane said that she would be dead when he'd come back. He added that it's his fault because he sent her to the basement. Richard then realized he was talking about Heather and what happened to her, remembering how he saw her get electrocuted. Richard assured Shane that she would be fine and that he needed to take some rest. As Shane left the OR, Richard got inside Jimmy's thorax and yelled to page someone from cardio. Jimmy deteriorated, leaving Richard performing heart massage on Alex's father. [17]
After some time being together, Catherine proposed to Richard in front of the entire hospital, and he agreed. They argued before the wedding and called it off briefly. However, they reconciled when Meredith helped them realize that life is too short to not be happy and together. They were married in the hospital chapel. [18]
When Bailey became Chief of Surgery, she hired Eliza Minnick to help re-shape the resident teaching program. While the residents enjoyed Minnick's program, the attendings, including Richard, felt they were being pushed out of their own surgeries. Eventually, Richard spoke up, and Bailey chose Minnick over Richard's position as director of the resident program. Most of the attendings sided with Richard, which led to Meredith being temporarily suspended for refusing to work with Minnick. Eventually, Bailey realized that Minnick's program was not as helpful as she thought, and she gave Richard back his old job title.
One day, Richard's sponsor, Olive Warner, was admitted to the hospital and she asked for him. She told him she had reached her expiration date as her liver had already lasted longer than it should have and it also caused cardiomyopathy, which is why she was admitted. Eight months prior, she had signed a DNR and also drafted an advance directive for no intervention. Richard hated that she hadn't told him, but she said she took her personal problems to her own sponsor. Also, she didn't know how to sponsor him through her death. Richard then said he wouldn't let her die and brought in Maggie and Meredith. Ollie threatened to tell his secret to every doctor he brought in, but he had her blessing to tell them everything since they already knew. They had less trouble accepting that Ollie had reached the end of the road. She asked them to work on getting Richard to accept it and make sure he'd get through it without reaching for the bottle. They pretended that they were going to do more tests the next day and reached out to Catherine. Later, Bailey came to see him. He told her that Ollie was the keeper of his secrets and that she was how he felt God's presence. Bailey made sure he had a village of people who loved him.
The next day, Maggie and Meredith informed him that all possible options had a poor prognosis. He thought a small chance at survival was better than guaranteed death, but Ollie once again said she had made peace with it. He still thought keeping her alive was his job. Maggie later sat down with Richard and reminded her of everything she put her mother through against her wishes, which she had come to realize she only did for herself. He realized that he needed to give Ollie the ending that she wanted instead of repeating Maggie's mistake. Richard then brought Amelia to Ollie's room and they held a meeting, where he stated he had accepted the things he couldn't change. [19] Catherine arrived and made sure Richard was comfortable as he sat by Ollie's bed until she passed away. He cried over her body and later sought out Catherine. He told her he was doing fine and asked about her. She then revealed Jackson had unearthed a scandal relating to the Foundation that could ruin them all. She filled Richard in on all the details. [20]
Shortly before Ollie's funeral, Richard gave a presentation on his Path Pen for the Grey Sloan Surgical Innovation Contest. Upon his return to the hospital, he found out that several doctors had accidentally eaten weed cookies. Richard then got occupied with taking care of Vikram Roy, who had neglected to tell his superiors that he, too, had eaten a contaminated cookie. He freaked out because of it while treating a patient and backed into a cart and fell, which ended with his arm being stabbed by a scalpel. Richard managed to stop the bleeding but later fired Vik for not coming clean about the cookie. [21]
When news got out about Harper Avery's sexual harassment scandal, Richard sat down with Jackson and Catherine in several meetings with a crisis manager Catherine had hired to protect the Foundation. They shut down the woman's plan to go after the assaulted women to make the scandal go away. In between meetings, Amelia found Richard and told her about Betty and her plan to take her in and help her get sober. He liked the idea and advised her to really drag Betty if she saw something in her, as Ollie had done with him. If it worked, Amelia would be saving a life. Richard, Catherine, and the crisis manager drafted a press statement, but Jackson and Meredith came in with a plan to create a new foundation in Catherine's name that would pledge itself to re-hire and re-train all the women affected by the scandal. [22]
When Bailey was met with a lawsuit for wrongful termination by Vik, she asked Richard to come to her meeting with him. Richard later admitted he may have overreacted in firing Vik, because, unlike himself, Vik never operated under the influence. He suggested Bailey could make the case go away by apologizing. Bailey didn't want to apologize if she didn't mean it, but after Levi Schmitt pointed out that she had begun a surgery while high, she deemed it fit to re-hire Vik for a one-year probationary period. That worked and Vik dropped the lawsuit. [23]
Soon after, Richard found out that Arizona was looking for a job in New York as she was planning to move there with Sofia. Unhappy with his close friend moving away, he confronted her about keeping it from him. Later, Richard treated Matthew Taylor while his colleagues worked on bringing April back. He was the one to inform Arizona of their accident. They all sat by April's bed in the ICU. When she showed no signs of recovery, Richard offered to be the one to call her parents. However, she eventually woke up without deficits. [24]
At Alex and Jo's wedding, Richard confronted Meredith with her offering Jo an attending job. He thought she was only doing it to keep Alex in Seattle and said it was unfair to Jo as she deserved the extra training fellowship in Boston. He later overheard Arizona tell April that she was falling for Callie again and that that was a catastrophe. Together with April, he convinced her that it was actually a good thing. Arizona told the two of them that she was going to miss them and they hugged. When the wedding was called off due to several things going wrong, Richard and the other guests took the ferry back to the city, where he witnessed an impromptu wedding between Alex and Jo officiated by Meredith. [25]
Ever since Ollie's death, Richard had stopped going to meetings but he also didn't start drinking again. Catherine stuck around to look after him. At work, Richard and Andrew treated a man who inserted one of his wife's hair products into his rectum. In surgery, Vik cauterized a bleed against Richard's advice, which ignited the hair spray and caused a fire in the man's abdomen. Vik was wounded by the can that was propelled across the room and taken away, while Richard and Andrew attempted to save Barry, to no avail. [26] Upon hearing that Bailey was looking for an interim Chief, Richard threw his name in the mix, but Bailey told him it wouldn't be him because she wanted the job back one day. She inquired if he had a new sponsor, but he stated he was just talking to Catherine. He thought the two of them had been talking behind his back, but they hadn't. Bailey said she just remembered what happened the last time he was Chief. With Ollie's death, she didn't want to add extra stress to his plate, which is why she chose not to appoint him interim Chief. He claimed he left for a meeting, but at the exit, he came across Andrew on his newly acquired motorcycle. He offered Richard to take a ride. Reluctantly, Richard got on, and, much to his surprise, he liked the feeling and asked for the helmet so he could take the ride. [27]
Alex was chosen as interim Chief instead. On Alex's first day, Richard treated Dave Buckley, a teacher who collapsed at work while he was helping a kid lead a block into a table saw. His labs showed extremely high alcohol levels, which triggered Richard and made him determined to follow the case all the way through. In surgery, while Link was working on Dave's fingers with local anesthetics, Richard told Dave that this was what rock bottom looked like and that he needed to take responsibility. Dave maintained it was an accident and that he didn't drink. Richard berated Dave to get him to confess until Alex threw him off the case.
After a mom of one of Dave's students insisted that she knew alcoholics and that Mr. Buckley wasn't one, Richard went to his room and challenged him by placing a bottle of vodka in front of Dave. However, he refused to drink, which Richard had never known an alcoholic to do. He ran labs again, which still showed that Dave was drunk. Richard then diagnosed auto-brewery syndrome. At the end of the day, Richard told Andrew he was missing his wife. Link and Andrew then invited Richard to come with them to Joe's, where they could also do other things beside drink alcohol. [28]
As Chief, Alex asked Richard for advice when his patient refused surgery because his insurance didn't cover it. Richard only told him to be creative, refusing to do the job for him. Alex then stabbed the patient with a scalpel so the surgery would qualify as trauma surgery. Richard found out and yelled at him, saying he had opened himself up to serious consequences, but the patient was happy to have had the surgery and didn't press charges. [29]
Richard found out that his new friend Link and Jo went all the way back to undergrad. While Jo assured him their history wasn't romantic, Richard understood Alex's dismay over it as he felt the same about finding out that Catherine had a history with Tom. Throughout the day, Richard supervised Andrew as he took charge of the ER. He urged Andrew to take initiative while handling the interns and to remember that they were working at a teaching hospital. At the end of the day, he told Andrew he saw potential in him, so he wanted to push him to be the best he could be and also help Andrew to teach the interns to be their best selves. After work, Link, Andrew, and Richard went to Joe's, where Link and Andrew played their guitars while Richard sang "The Thrill Is Gone." [30]
Richard found out through an AA friend that Thatcher Grey had AML and that he only had a few weeks to live. He found Meredith and told her. The news about Thatcher made Richard visit Ollie's grave. He told her that it had been hard since she passed away and that he had avoided meetings because they only reminded him that she was gone. [31]
With Catherine away to Los Angeles for Foundation business, Richard spent a few days by himself. At work, he treated Frankie Shavelson, a pregnant, beloved nurse he was close with. She had a wandering spleen, which began to untwist by itself. While he was checking up on her, she expressed worries over him. He admitted it had been hard since Ollie's death and due to Catherine's frequent travels. He maintained that he was fine, though. However, the spleen problem played up again and Richard had to operate. Alex delivered the baby while Richard had trouble controlling the bleeding. Richard did his best, but Frankie passed away. He couldn't bring himself to call time of death, so Alex did that for him. He delivered the news to the other nurses.
Equally distraught as the nurses, Richard finally found the motivation to go to a meeting again. The person speaking there mentioned a bar exchanging shots for AA chips. Richard then got up and left. Richard found the bar and showed the bartender his 8-year chip. The bartender poured him eight vodka shots per his order. Richard looked at the shots and grabbed his chip back. He then went behind the bar and grabbed a baseball bat, smashing the shots and all bottles on the shelves. The bartender threatened the call the police. Richard invited him to do so so that he could tell them how the man was taking advantage of vulnerable people who were struggling to hang onto everything they've got. Eventually, the police arrived and Richard was arrested. He called Meredith, who was out in Los Angeles with Catherine and had just helped diagnose Catherine's spinal tumor, and told her that he had been arrested. He made her promise not to tell Catherine. [32]
Meredith flew back to Seattle and bailed him out. She then brought up the fact that he hadn't found a new sponsor yet. He admitted he lost control. Knowing Catherine would soon need help, she told him to get his head in a place where he could take care of the people who depend on him. Richard went to the hospital and told Bailey, who was stepping in for Alex due to his being trapped at home by the windstorm, about his arrest. He agreed to her plan to inform the board and bench him for the day. He went to check on Frankie's baby, who was surrounded by nurses. He then noticed he had three missed calls from Catherine and called her back. Much to his surprise, Tom answered the call. Richard thought Catherine was having an affair with him, so he decided to read the Bible to find serenity and then find himself a new sponsor. Bailey scoffed at the idea of Catherine having an affair. She then told him about her marriage sabbatical. He pointed out she was trying to fix the inside from the outside, which wouldn't work, so he advised her to get real help. [33]
Richard took charge when the storm caused a power outage at the hospital, trapping three elevators between floors. He had an altercation with the head of maintenance while urging him to get the doors open. In between, he tried to reach Catherine, but she still didn't answer his calls. He then came across Betty, who was looking for Amelia, and decided they would occupy their minds by being useful. They bonded a bit and she told him that she felt that if she could get clean for a few months, she could put her life back together and get Leo back. He advised her to take it one day at a time.
He was paged away and sent her back to the ER, but he later found her looking for drugs in a cabinet. She begged him not to tell Amelia, but he couldn't call himself a doctor if he complied with that request. After he watched Amelia convince Betty to accept a place in rehab, Richard was approached by Jackson, who asked if he had talked to his mother. Since he hadn't, Jackson took him to a private room so they could talk. Jackson then told him that Catherine had a grade 3 chondrosarcoma on her spine. [34]
In light of Catherine's diagnosis, Richard resumed going to meetings regularly, where another attendee offered to be his new sponsor. At work, Richard, Catherine, and Jackson performed a pelvic exenteration together. Catherine struggled in surgery, so Jackson offered to take over for her. Furious over his confronting her with her cancer in public, she finished her part and left. Jackson and Richard found her cooling down in a lounge and confronted her about hiding her cancer from them. She told Richard she couldn't exactly lean on him with his going around demolishing bars. After Catherine dismissed Richard's jealousy of Tom, Jackson and Richard convinced her that they could handle bad news, so there was no need to lie to them. She then said telling them about the cancer made it real for her, after which she broke down and they comforted her. [35]
On the day of Catherine's surgery, Richard went to a meeting in the morning. At work, he convinced Meredith to go see her father before it was too late and then joined Catherine in her room. Tom and Amelia came in to explain their approach. Richard took Catherine to the OR. She told him he didn't need to sit in the gallery the entire time and told him she'd see him on the other side. After a kiss and hug, they danced with the staff and Jackson to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough," the song that had kept Catherine calm through all the scans. The surgery started. Jackson couldn't handle sitting there so he left with Maggie, but Richard knew that Catherine secretly wanted him there because showing up for one another when they really needed it is how they made their long-distance relationship work. Bailey came to with him. When things got dire, Richard closed the gallery. He couldn't bring himself to watch the team flip Catherine on the table, so Bailey held his hand and informed him once it was over. When Tom and Amelia's approach had to be changed to removing the tumor piecemeal, Richard convinced them to use his Path Pen. They removed as much tumor as they could, but they to leave a small part behind in order to leave her brachial plexus unscathed and thus save her career. Catherine thanked them for saving her life and made peace with the fact that she would have to live with cancer for the rest of her life. Richard went outside to took a moment to gather himself and then joined Amelia to a meeting, where she talked about giving him his wife back and being grateful for being sober to experience every terrifying, exhilarating, imperfect moment of the surgery. [36]
Catherine had a hard time recovering over the holidays. She shut Richard out and refused any help. She went to bed early on Christmas Eve, leaving Richard to finish dinner with Maggie and Jackson. She also lashed out at her physical therapist, because she dismissed Catherine's request for exercises to get her sensual self back. Richard brought up average recovery time to convince her not to wear herself out, but she said she wasn't average and left the room. Jackson and Maggie regularly visited to check on them. During one particular visit, Catherine fell off the treadmill. She broke down in Richard's arms and told him she couldn't do this. However, over time, things went better. On Valentine's Day, Catherine apologized to him for having been impossible. He didn't want to hear her apologize as he couldn't imagine what she was going through, but he promised to be there for her for every step of it. He told her she couldn't be average if she tried. She then found her sexual appetite back and asked him to take her the bedroom, which he did. [37]
At work, Bailey grew increasingly frustrated with Alex occupying her job. With two weeks left, she raged that Alex was given credit in an article about the hospital's innovation. Richard said that's just how it goes sometimes and shared a story of how she performed emergency surgery on a patient he had been treating for years, which is why the patient now sent her a basket of pears every year instead of him. [38]
While Meredith was breaking the hospital's longest surgery record, the ER was flooded with victims from a mass overdose. Richard fetched all residents from the gallery and later found Owen working on Betty. Owen had Richard call Amelia. Richard watched over Betty while the doctors diagnosed an aortic dissection caused by the mixture of opioids and meth. Richard scrubbed in with Teddy to place a stent. That went well, but they found they had to also reconstruct the entire distal aorta. They managed to pull it off and Betty made it through surgery. At the end of the day, Richard, Teddy, and Link took a moment to rest in a quiet ER. [39]
Richard was amongst the first guests to arrive for Catherine's party at Jackson's penthouse. Alex shared an article from Kimberly Thompson about her experience with Maggie, which focused on she advocated for herself to convince Maggie to operate. While Richard found the article moving, Maggie hated Kiki for telling her story and making it seem like she healed herself with her magical narcissism. Later, Richard overheard Owen complaining about Tom taking advantage of Teddy and told him that Tom had been after Catherine, too. Richard later caught Meredith and Andrew making out in the guest room and quickly left. Maggie later heard him talking about the article and told him to stop because it made her feel small and insignificant and it pissed her off. Richard talked about being bullied as the only black resident in his class and how it made him realize there's no point in being pissed off unless you do something with it. He then advised Maggie to take back her story and tell it louder. When the party had to be evacuated because of a supposed fire, Richard, Catherine, Jackson, and Maggie got in the limo and celebrated with burgers, champagne, and cider for Richard. Maggie had decided to follow Richard's advice. Catherine liked them being together and said they'd celebrate every scan together like this, no matter the outcome. [40]
When Maggie guested on a medical podcast, she accidentally let slip that Ellis Grey was her mother. The news of her biological parents spread in the medical community and Richard was asked for a comment. He lashed out at Maggie for not thinking about the consequences when she revealed his affair to the world. She later found him and he told her it was her story to tell, but he just hated that Catherine had to deal with it on top of everything else. He said he was not particularly proud of that story. She was hurt and told him that the story culminated in her existence. He later found her and said he was proud of her despite the shame about the circumstances of how she was conceived. She knew she was a scandal. Richard told her she was the best of him, Ellis, and her parents who raised her beautifully and that he was proud to be any part of her. That was what he would tell the press if they reached out for any more comment. [41]
When Richard found out that Jackson had the interns de-scale tilapia for his spray-on skin project, he gathered the fish and hosted a fish fry on the hospital roof. [42] Catherine decided not to go back to work any time soon, but she wouldn't elaborate as to why only telling Richard "cancer card." When Jackson and Richard treated Toby Donnelly together, Richard had troubles using the right pronouns since they were gender non-binary. He admitted it was hard to keep up with the world, but he just needed some guidance and patience to adjust. With the help from Taryn and Jackson, he got the hang of the pronouns. [43]
On the heels of Andrew and Meredith making their relationship public, Richard scheduled a lap appy for Andrew. Andrew examined the patient, who complimented him on his looks in front of Richard. She then asked Andrew to check out her Instagram. Richard told him it was part of the job so Andrew complied and listened to the patient talk about Crossfit. In surgery, Richard asked about the long-term plan. Andrew thought he was talking about his relationship with Meredith and said they hadn't discussed it yet. He said he respected where Meredith came from and that she was amazing to him. Richard then said he meant Andrew's career. Andrew said he was attracted to general surgery. The surgery had to be converted to an open procedure when they came across dead bowel. Richard wanted to take over, but Andrew knew the steps of an ileocecectomy and pulled it off. Once Andrew was done, Richard complimented Andrew and said he'd put in a good word with the head of general surgery. He ran into Meredith after and told her that Andrew did well and that he was a good man, subtly giving her his blessing. He later went by Bailey's office because she had found out that Alex had been handing off paperwork to interns. They agreed it was a genius move but that he could never found out that they thought that. That night, Richard took Catherine for a stroll in the park to de-stress after she completed a complicated transplant surgery as her first surgery back. [44]
When an AA acquaintance of Richard's was admitted to the hospital with a heel impaling her chest, Richard kept showing up to provide support against Gemma's wishes. Ollie was Gemma's sponsor, too, but unlike Richard, she didn't have a family to fall back on after Ollie's death. She started drinking again and fell down the stairs while carrying her heels after a night out. While she didn't want him on the case and even had Maggie throw him out of the room, he showed up in the scrub room to talk to Maggie. He told her that while maybe he didn't resort to drinking, Ollie's death made him an angry dry drunk and if he hadn't had a lot of money to settle with that bar, he would have been in prison by now. Maggie was then paged 911, so Richard had to take over from her. The surgery went well and Richard admitted to Gemma that he was the one who had operated on her. She let it slide and they laughed about what had happened to her. She wanted her 17 years back. He told her to focus on today instead of the number of years and shared the story of how he almost lost his 8 years not too long ago. [45]
One day at work, Richard noticed that "Ellis Shepherd" was scheduled for an ex lap. Richard rushed to the scrub room and found out that Meredith had put her daughter's name down so an immigrant's daughter could benefit from her insurance since the man earned too much to qualify for the state coverage but too little to pay for the surgery himself. Meredith refused to ship the kid off to County because she needed Alex Karev-level care after being separated from her parents for months at the border. Richard acknowledged the system was wrong but that she had chosen the wrong way to attempt to fix it. In surgery, they found out that the girl's obstruction was caused by lymphoma, meaning her case would drag on after this surgery. After the surgery, Richard yelled at her because his AA program required rigorous honesty in all his affairs, so keeping this secret was threatening his sobriety. He pointed out she could lose her license or her kids if she were sent to jail as well as the fact that implicating Luis Rivera in insurance fraud wouldn't help with his asylum. Richard then come up with a plan to make Gabriella Rivera sicker on paper so they could keep her there for 30 days, which would automatically activate a new state policy regardless of income. [46]
Soon after, Catherine surprised Richard when she showed up at the hospital. She had to come down there for Foundation business. She and Bailey locked themselves in a conference room with people in suits would divulging the reason behind the meetings. Richard grew increasingly worried while wild rumors about the meeting started to spread. Richard scrubbed in to repair a punctured rectum. In surgery, he taught Nico Kim that you need to find humor in the job in order to be able to survive in it. [47]
After surgery, Richard saw Andrew being escorted away in handcuffs by the police. Andrew told him he had committed fraud and Bailey filled him in on the details. She asked Richard to come to the ER with her for incoming casualties, but he wandered off. He found Meredith stuck in the hyperbaric chamber with Alex and Gus Carter. She asked him to go set the record straight, but he didn't want to land her in jail and leave her kids without their mother. As Gus started coding, Richard ordered the techs to decompress the chamber.
Richard and Bailey operated together and she told Richard she was suspecting that Andrew did not do it alone and that he was just covering for Meredith. She asked if he knew anything about that, but Richard dodged the question. After surgery, Richard found Alex asked him to come. They interrupted Meredith's meeting with Catherine and Bailey and defended her actions, stating that they knew but had failed to report it. They just couldn't put that father through more misery. Bailey then decided to fire all three of them. [48]
Richard took to an AA meeting to vent his anger over his mentee firing him while his wife sat back and did nothing, predicting he wouldn't be able to forgive them any time soon. He got a job working for a health app, which required him to make house calls for minor illnesses, providing him with excuses to avoid Catherine at home. He soon quit and interviewed for the Chief of Surgery position at Pacific Northwest General Hospital, the lowest-ranked hospital in Seattle. He was offended when the interviewer bluntly asked if he wasn't planning on retiring any time soon since the job was enormous and they were looking for somebody in the long run, as they wanted to overturn the facility to improve its ranking. After a week, he went to check if they had called Alex, whom he had put down as a reference. Alex didn't know since he never answers calls of unknown numbers. Noticing Alex had let his life fall apart, Richard suggested he interview for the job and then hire him as an attending. While initially hesitant, Alex was convinced when Richard pointed out he needed to get his life back in order to give Jo a reason to come back. Alex was hired and he hired Richard. Catherine found out and angrily confronted him, saying his working there humiliated her and her Foundation. He shot back that she just let him be fired and went to sleep on the couch. [49]
On his first day at Pac-North, Richard discovered the hospital only had two residents, both of whom were terrible doctors because they were too swamped with scut to hone their mediocre skills. He went to complain to Alex about it and to demand an office. Alex reminded him of the hospital's terrible ranking and that they were supposed to turn it around. Throughout the day, Richard was confronted with how terrible the hospital was compared to Grey Sloan, like a malfunctioning CT and a crowded ER with personnel that paged him for non-surgical cases. During an emergency surgery with Alex, Richard told him he didn't want to work there after having worked at Grey Sloan for 35 years. He figured he'd drop dead one day in OR 2, a thought that made him happy. They managed to save the patient, which was about the only thing that went right that day. Afterward, Alex admitted he also had had his doubts about Pac-North but he had become invested to change things around so that failure was no longer the culture there. He made Richard see he could help him do that and find a new legacy for himself in doing so, which would also prove Bailey wrong. Alex had also arranged for a janitorial closet to be turned into Richard's office. [50]
Alex and Richard started changing things for the better with baby steps, like a new MRI machine. While Catherine was away for Foundation business, Richard found out that his calls had landed Gemma Larson a job in the billing department of Pac-North. Richard had a brain dead patient whose sisters needed to decide if they wanted him to pull the plug. Since the sisters had drifted apart, they kept arguing, which prevented them from making a decision. Richard broke up the fighting and told them to come together for the decision so that their sister's death would mean something for their sisterhood. They decided to pull the plug. However, after Richard did that, the patient's phone rang and they discovered that the woman they had just unplugged had stolen her bag, meaning Richard had unplugged a random woman. Richard informed Alex and told the sisters to use this opportunity to forgive one another and reconnect with each other and their third sister. He informed Alex and then left him to clean up the mess. He tried calling Catherine but she didn't answer. He then ran into Gemma, who had heard about what had happened and asked him for details over dinner. He agreed and they left together. [51]
With the basics at the hospital set straight, Richard and Alex started to have time to teach the two residents. Richard was upset when he discovered the article that had come out in Meredith's name trashing Grey Sloan, a sentiment not shared by Alex. Richard let Cecil Taylor scrub in with him to operate on Yan Huang, who had refused to be treated at Grey Sloan because of Meredith's trending article. [52]
While on his way out after an all-night surgery, Richard ran into Gemma, who insisted on buying him breakfast with her paycheck. He conceded and they left together. Over breakfast, they briefly talked about her unsuccessful search for a new sponsor and work until she steered the conversation towards his marriage. He talked about their recent fight, how the passionate light in Catherine seemed to have gone out, and how he didn't know how to get it back. He talked about how, as a 10-year-old boy, he feared his father wouldn't have his love sitting next to him on his porch for the rest of his life when his mother died. Gemma told him she was the opposite and always wanted a rotation of men rather than marriage. Richard said he had never been that. She proceeded to touch his hand meaningfully. He pulled back and she questioned why he pulled away from the first little bit of comfort he'd had in weeks. He cited his marriage as the reason. She said she was thinking that because he and Catherine had hit the "worse" part of their vows, he may be looking around. She had no intention of competing with Catherine but she didn't think he should be miserable until they found their way back to one another. She explicitly stated she was here and that life was too short to deprive themselves of what they had been feeling for so many years. Richard told her she had mistaken her friendship for something else. He apologized if he had done anything to mislead her but stated there was nothing between them, nor would there ever be. She reminded him that when hard times hit, he had a habit of burying himself in either another woman or a bottle of vodka, only one of which he could properly handle. He went to grab his coat and she surprised him with a kiss. He pushed her off of him and left. She followed him, thinking he was just lying about not being attracted to her. He told her he was in love with his wife. Gemma threw his tumultuous love life in his face. Richard refused to let her use his history to make herself less lonely and pointed out she was in dire need of a sponsor. [53]
On Halloween, Richard helped Alex to lead a group of investors around the hospital. They tried to distract them from a chaotic ER and failing residents. Richard learned from Alex that the construction workers had discovered a mass grave on the construction site of the new research wing. They decided not to tell the investors and Richard continued the tour by himself to let Alex handle the administrative side. He managed to keep the investors busy the entire day only to walk in and have them overhear Alex while he was loudly announcing his handling of the mass grave to keep gossiping nurses in check. [54]
At work, Richard began ignoring Gemma. When she confronted him about it, he turned down her offer to let her make up for her behavior over coffee. He was surprised when Maggie showed up at Pac-North with his brother Chris Webber and niece Sabi Webber, whom he hadn't seen in five years. Sabi then revealed to Richard and Maggie that she had a large cardiac tumor. While Sabi had a new scan taken, Richard explained to Maggie that he had left his family behind because they thought he deemed himself better than them, and he wanted to protect Maggie from their hostile behavior. The scan then revealed that the tumor had grown considerably and invade its surroundings. Maggie wanted to operate but Sabi did not want to be operated on by family. While Maggie didn't see how that applied as they had only known each other for a few hours, Richard sided with Sabi and paged the on-call cardiac surgeon from Pac-North, which angered Maggie. She did agree to consult with the surgeon, though. However, as Sabi's condition grew dire quickly, Richard honestly said he wanted Maggie to operate, which convinced Sabi to consent. When Chris left the waiting room to go call family, Gemma came to sit with Richard. He told her part of the conflict with his family consisted of his brother blaming his alcoholism on his ambition, which bothered him. As Gemma put a reassuring hand on Richard's shoulder, Catherine arrived. Gemma quickly left. Richard was surprised to see Catherine, who said she had to come as it was a family matter. He and Chris then reminisced about Sabi as a child. Privately, Richard explained Gemma's presence to Catherine, who took it as an admission of guilt. Soon after, Alex and Maggie delivered the bad news that Sabi had died on the table. Chris exploded in rage and yelled at Maggie. Catherine tried to defuse the situation and took Richard and his brother to go say goodbye to Sabi. [55]
Richard isolated himself from his loved ones. He attended Sabi's funeral without Catherine, Maggie, and Jackson as his family wasn't ready to see them. He arrived back in town the night before Meredith's trial with the medical board. At the hotel, he apologized to Jackson for not having reached out while in Boston and he snapped at Bailey, who commented on the amount of people that had taken time off work to come support Meredith. Richard followed the entire hearing and was called to the stand. The tampered-with Alzheimer's trial was brought up and Richard again took all the blame, frustrating Bailey. Patricia Murphy revealed in her testimony that Richard made a call to the NRMP to get Meredith a spot at Seattle Grace, displaying his habit of bending the rules in her favor. During the break, Bailey confronted him with his lying for Meredith, enabling her in her behavior rather than setting her straight. He said his taking the fall for her was his choice and that he only wrote a recommendation for her. Bailey pointed out he always went around the system for Meredith, regardless of the consequences, which Richard pointed out was her being jealous. He admitted to giving her special treatment due to his history with Ellis, which made him think of Meredith as family, which had made him willing to do the things he did. Bailey then vented her frustrations over the consequences she had faced because of their insurance fraud. She felt betrayed by someone she raised. He said he recognized that feeling from when she had torpedoed Meredith's character with her cold testimony. He thought Bailey would stick out her neck for Meredith like he had done. The trial then resumed and ended with Meredith getting to keep her license. [56]
Gemma continued to look after Richard at work. Owen witnessed their close interaction but Richard assured him Gemma was just a friend. Gemma came by his office later where they talked about Sabi and Richard's fight with Catherine. Gemma brought up her husband's death, which made her start drinking. As they went to say a prayer together, Zander Perez briefly came in to complain about a procedure, believing Gemma to be Richard's wife, but Richard sent him away to go do his job. After Richard witnessed some flirty interactions between Owen and Daphne Lopez, a prospective ER doctor, he warned Owen that he was going down a slippery slope. When Owen said he was taken, Richard pointed out he hadn't yet proposed to Teddy and wondered what he was waiting for. That evening, as he was leaving with Gemma, Richard received a text from Catherine saying that she had left town for business. However, he didn't even know she had been in Seattle. He then told Gemma that Catherine was thinking that there was something going on between him and Gemma. [57]
After a car crashed into Joe's bar, Meredith called in Richard and Owen to help out at Grey Sloan as multiple residents had been injured. Bailey granted them privileges and Richard took on the case of Taryn Helm. Privately, Ben asked Richard to keep an eye out on Bailey as she wasn't giving herself time to process her recent miscarriage. Richard cautiously tried to let Bailey know that Ben had told him what was going on but she kept the conversation about work. However, during surgery, she couldn't bring herself to crack open Taryn's chest. Richard took over and they managed to save her life. Afterward, the two of them lingered in the OR and he told her all the residents had been saved. Finally having the time to let herself feel the grief, she broke down in Richard's arms. Richard later went to fetch Meredith and they dropped by Bailey's office with tissues and doughnuts to comfort her. [58]
Upon hearing Maggie had quit her job after Sabi's death and that Chris was suing her, he took a day off and went to see her at home. He wanted to take her out to go eat something but given her appearance, he thought it was better to eat in. As he was looking for food to make her breakfast, she told him she didn't deserve compassion from him. Since there was no food at the house, he said they would start with coffee while she insisted that she wanted to be alone. Over coffee, Richard told Maggie that she was Sabi's only shot. He told Maggie he hadn't been able to look at her because he sent her into that OR knowing Sabi was unlikely to survive. Maggie said it was all her fault as she had forgotten to ask about Sabi's clotting time, which she was used to being told by the OR staff at Grey Sloan. It had made her question her aptitude. She then begged Richard to leave. He left but soon returned with food. Maggie asked Richard to yell at her, knowing he had lost way more than her. Richard remained calm and shared with her the lesson that his mother had taught him: talk about your problems over pancakes. He made pancakes and as they were eating, he went over Sabi's case to find what he could have done better. Maggie insisted it was not his fault. Richard then told her she was just imperfect and human, which nobody had ever had to tell her before. Richard then advised her to let insurance settle with Chris to give him the sense that something came of Sabi's death. He stressed that Maggie was too skilled to quit and that Sabi wouldn't want that. Maggie wished she had gotten to know Sabi better so Richard invited her to ask him everything she wanted to know about her. That night at home, he found Catherine waiting for him. She had found out he hadn't shown up for work all day. He said he was trying to convince Maggie to go back to work but she questioned how that could take all day. Richard pointed out things wouldn't work if she didn't trust him. She agreed and said she wasn't sure if things were working. [59]
Richard and Catherine talked it over and agreed to get a divorce. They planned on telling their children over dinner, which Richard found too much, but Catherine insisted. Maggie arrived first, figuring it was a dinner party for their anniversary. As soon as Jackson arrived, Richard wanted to get to the point but Catherine interrupted by handing out wine as she wanted to wait until after dinner. Unbeknownst to the hosts, Jackson had invited Vic, who brought Dean to set him up with Maggie. Catherine took Richard to the kitchen and said she didn't want to tell their children with all the extra people. They agreed to get through the night without letting Jackson and Maggie know. Over dinner, Catherine dissed Pac-North to hurt Richard. To defuse the tension, Dean asked Catherine and Richard how they met. Jackson and Maggie told their story, including their proposal. Jackson then made a toast to their perfect marriage. While preparing dessert, Catherine admitted she had forgotten about the proposal story and it had made her realize that they always managed to find a way through the bad times. She asked him not to give up yet. He asked her to apologize first for not showing him loyalty and turning her back on him when he had to rebuild his entire life. She couldn't bring herself to truly apologize, causing Richard to declare that it was too late for their marriage to be saved.
Over dessert, Richard started texting. Catherine openly accused him of cheating on her with Gemma. Richard revealed he had actually been in touch with Alex to approve an offer to hire Maggie at Pac-North. Jackson made a snide comment. Having had enough with all the tension, Catherine finally blurted out that she and Richard were getting a divorce. Richard apologized to the children for them having to find out this way. He went out to get some air, where Maggie came to sit with him. He told her it was truly over with Catherine. She comforted him and accepted the job offer. Once the guests were gone, he went inside to pack for a hotel but Catherine already called her driver. He told Catherine that Maggie had accepted his offer, which only infuriated Catherine more. She said that she was embarrassed for him throwing his career away and now dragging Maggie down with him. He knew that she hated how Maggie would put their hospital on the map and it would be out of Catherine's control. As he stressed that he was now free to do as he pleased, she pulled out his phone and made a call to her finance guy to look into buying Pac-North. She casually said she could shut it down. She told him she wasn't sorry about a damn thing and headed out the door. [60]
On Monday, Richard told Owen that Catherine had bought the hospital after a fight. She made them go over to Grey Sloan and interview with Tom, who would decide if they would be hired at Grey Sloan. Tom called in Richard first and told him his job was safe, as Catherine requested. Richard was angry about Catherine playing him like a piece of chess and turned the offer down. Richard left to go to a meeting but couldn't bring himself to go the empty house afterward. Jackson found Richard on a bench outside the hospital in the evening. Jackson thought it would all blow over soon but Richard wasn't too sure about that. Jackson then gathered Bailey, Meredith, and Owen and the five of them met with Tom. They told him they were prepared to quit en masse, which would piss Catherine off, unless he agreed to their terms. Part of the deal was that Richard would be re-hired. Tom was forced to agree to their ultimatum. [61]
To distract Richard from his marriage falling apart, Bailey had him train the new residents who had been hired from Pac-North. She also invited him to dinner but he didn't appreciate her fussing over him. All day, Richard was distracted while the residents practiced in the skills lab. After Bailey heard that Richard had dismissed the residents before 5 P.M., she found him sitting outside. He told her he didn't want her checking up on him. He added that having those subpar residents at Grey Sloan felt like a punishment, like Catherine had won. Bailey expressed worry after he told her he was bone tired, cautiously suggesting he was suffering from depression. He told her he would be okay and left. [62]
During a skills lab, a resident named Tess Desmond asked Richard why he was still practicing despite his immense amount of experience. He replied that practice was the key to experience. After Tess said she didn't understand why the other residents weren't taking their job more seriously after everything they had been through to get there, Richard invited her to practice her laparoscopic skills with him. After Tess calmly reassured a patient during rounds, Richard invited her to scrub in with him. As they were scrubbing in, she listed all the steps to the procedure and Richard said he would allow her to perform the procedure, much to her astonishment. However, before she made the first cut, Levi came barging in and announced that Tess was actually his patient, Tess Anderson. She was taken back to her room, where she explained that she had had to let go of her dream of becoming a surgeon after going through four types of cancer in eight years drained her college funds. She just wanted to live her dream for one day. Richard then performed the procedure with Taryn after all. He visited Tess afterward and said his dream of becoming a surgeon was harder than it was for others, too, but he stuck with it. He then revealed he had developed a tremor in his hands, preventing him from operating again, as would any treatment for it. In an attempt to inspire her not to give up on chasing the most beautiful job in the world, he gave her his stethoscope, saying he wouldn't need it anymore. [63]
One morning, Richard received a letter from Alex, which he took with him to an AA meeting. He quickly read it and angrily threw it away. During the meeting, he spoke about the rush of being a surgeon and training young minds. He said a student he wouldn't have put money on at first stepped up and became a stellar surgeon and a fine teacher. Said student informed him through a letter that he would abandoned his entire life to be a father to the two children he apparently had with his ex-wife, whom he now loved again. Richard wanted to yell at him for making that mistake but having fallen in love with two women at the same time before and having missed his own child growing up, he knew Alex had to follow his heart and gut. Richard admitted he mostly felt robbed of the chance to say goodbye, even more so after they had begun to turn Pac-North around. He concluded that lately, all his loved ones were disappearing and he couldn't find a way to make it stop. As he finished his talk, his hand was shaking again. [64]
At work, Richard handed off his entire service, only teaching skills lab anymore. Soon after, Richard found movers moving his furniture from Pac-North into his office at Grey Sloan. He demanded they take the furniture back, much to Bailey's surprise. Richard left to teach a skills lab. Afterward, Bailey took him back to his office and showed him she arranged for his old furniture from before his firing to be moved into place. However, he got angry again for her assuming that that is what he wanted. In a hissy fit, he declined her offer to call building services and started throwing things onto the floor. At the end of the day, Bailey found Richard sitting in his empty office and brought up his handing off his service. He admitted the smallest thing set him off these days and apologized for his outburst. He told her he was stepping back from surgery, which is why he didn't want to use this office anymore. It reminded him of another time, another him, and it cluttered his mind. He held his hand to stop it from shaking while he said he wanted to look ahead. Bailey said the hospital needed him. He simply said he wanted to step away while at the top of his game. [65]
On pro bono surgery day, Maggie let Richard know that she had settled with Chris like Richard had advised her to. Richard then shared that Catherine had sent over divorce papers. She let him keep his own house. Meredith then came up and tried to talk him into joining the pro bono surgical team but he turned her down. Jackson later ran into him and asked about his day. Richard just said he had nothing and walked off. At night, Jackson invited Richard to the game that night to show him that he wasn't picking sides in the divorce. Richard happily accepted. [66]
Richard traveled to Los Angeles to present his PathPen at the LA Surgical Innovation Conference. He called Maggie "Meredith" upon meeting her in the lobby but blamed it on the flight. He had rewritten his talk 20 times and was eager to share his Pen with the world. As he was working on his speech by himself in his room, he was surprised when Catherine showed up at his door with an apology for her behavior. He then admitted Gemma had kissed him. They then laughed about their expensive fight and lied down on the bed. The next morning, he ordered breakfast for her. He was vigorously working on his speech by the time she woke up, rambling on about a luminous insight into cancer. He kept going on as she encouraged him. Unaware that he had been talking to a hallucination the entire time, he declared he was finished and recited his talk to her, working in a joke per her advice. Later that day, he took the stage with many of his colleagues watching the livestream from home. After a charming introduction, he announced that he wasn't going to talk about his Pen and declared that with his brilliant wife's help, he had found a way to cure cancer, alarming his loved ones, including Catherine back in Seattle, who assumed he was drunk. He then started his chaotic, nonsensical talk about cells and cancer and went through slides of hand-drawn pictures of organs and atomic explosions, stating that cells need apologies. A slide showed Catherine's name written in a heart. As he went on, Teddy called for help while Maggie and Cormac got on the stage and told him that he wasn't feeling well. Not recognizing her, he tried to keep going and got a little aggressive. Maggie and Cormac escorted him off the stage and got him on a gurney. As he was taken away, he suddenly recognized Maggie again and asked her what was happening, while it dawned on him he had been hallucinating the entire night. [67]
Catherine boarded her private plane to Los Angeles to go pick up Richard and Maggie. While flying back to Seattle, Maggie found memes online mocking Richard. Catherine's publicist got to work trying to minimize the damage. While the attendings gathered in a war room to find the diagnosis, Richard got settled in a room, again not realizing something was wrong. Catherine played along with her being at the conference and claimed he got sick after his presentation, which is why they were running the test. While they performed a PET scan, Richard cited all steps of a Whipple procedure to prove that he wasn't losing his mind. The scan showed no signs of Alzheimer's or Lewy Body dementia. Andrew paid Richard a visit in his room, pretending it was a social visit, even though he was in contact with Lauren Riley. Maggie and Meredith later performed some cognitive testing, which he failed miserably. They brushed it off as his being tired to keep him calm. Later, Richard disappeared from his room. His loved ones spread out to find him. Meredith found him in a dark OR about to cut himself open for an ex-lap, stating he was the only one who could fix this. Meredith cautiously approached and assured him that she could fix him, too, as he was the one who had taught her everything she knows. She wanted her children to grow up and know him. She wasn't ready to let him go yet, and neither were other people. He handed over the scalpel. He called her Ellis and said something was wrong with him. She guided him back to his room. He thought he was at Seattle Grace and asked for his interns so they could start rounding. He also said Adele would kill him if he was late for dinner again. Unable to bear watching his decline, Catherine left the room while Meredith and Maggie got Richard comfortable. [68]
Catherine continued to watch over him even though he did not recognize her, his cognitive function rapidly declining even further to the point of him being minimally responsive. After a few weeks, Catherine wanted to take Richard home despite his doctors' protest. As they tried to get him in a wheelchair, which angered him, he revealed he had numb extremities. The EMG showed impaired nerve function, which wasn't consistent with the tentative diagnosis of dementia. They then went to do a nerve biopsy but Andrew interrupted the procedure, thinking he had found he diagnosis: cobalt poisoning from his hip replacement three years ago. As cobalt wasn't included in the standard heavy metal panel, Meredith drew another blood sample, which confirmed the diagnosis. Link operated and replaced the hip, removing the toxic sludge from his body. Richard woke up in the ICU after a while with Maggie by his side. He recognized her and answered some questions correctly. His tremor was also gone. Catherine then came in and said she was having nurses bring her a bed so she could spend the night. However, he didn't want her there as he perfectly remembered her not standing by him as he got fired and her buying his hospital just to spite him. He ordered her to get out. [69]
Richard is a determined teacher and boss who cares a lot for his personnel and the hospital itself.
His private life is devoted to his professional one. Without his job, he doesn't have a real reason to live, especially after his wife, Adele Webber, died. He was a loving husband towards her, despite the fact that he cheated on her and put his duties in the hospital above everything.
He has always cared for Meredith Grey as if he was her father. He decided to mentor her personally to make sure she became a great general surgeon.
Richard met Ellis Grey when Meredith was three. During their residency at Seattle Grace, he had an affair with her, although both were married. Although Ellis left her husband, Richard could not bring himself to leave his wife, Adele. He would learn decades later, however, that Adele had known about the affair all along and stayed with him anyway. He later confessed that he ended the affair because he believed that Ellis deserved better and that he had too much baggage.
When Dr. Maggie Pierce began to work at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, she told Richard that she was adopted and Ellis Grey was her birth mom, leaving Richard to suspect that he is her biological father.
Richard proposed to Adele on New Year's and got married the Valentine's Day after. They got married when Adele was 25.
Adele asked him to retire, forcing him to choose between his career or their marriage. He tried to skirt around it, but Adele, tired of waiting, made her choice and left him. He moved out and was sleeping in his office for a short time, but later had a room at the same hotel as Callie. After learning of Ellis's illness, Richard had been visiting her regularly, but upon deciding to attempt a reconciliation with Adele realized that he could no longer continue his emotional affair with Ellis. He attempted to patch things up with his wife but was stunned to find out that she had apparently moved on to someone else.
Adele was admitted to the hospital and was discovered, first by Addison and later by Richard, to be pregnant (at 52 years old). Though he believed the father to be the man Adele insinuated to be seeing months earlier, Richard stayed by Adele's side as she was treated, though complications later arose and she lost the baby. Adele later admitted to Richard that the baby, which was a boy, was actually his. After this tragedy, Richard and Adele decided to give their marriage another try.
Richard and Adele declared that his work was the reason that their marriage had failed. He started living on Derek's property in his own trailer and began to repair his life as a divorcé.
After months living apart, Richard decided to move back home. He admitted to Adele that he made a mistake 20 years ago but he's a good man, and he doesn't treat her as she deserves, putting his foot down. Adele commented, "It's about time" and allowed Richard to return home. [70]
After Adele was placed in Roseridge Home for Extended Care after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's and finding a new love, Allan, Richard began to date Catherine Avery.
Adele later passed away of a heart attack on the day of Bailey's wedding. [71]
Richard and Catherine maintained a flirtatious relationship throughout her first two visits to Seattle Grace Mercy West. He almost accompanied her to a medical ball, but he realized he needed to be with his wife in her time of need. By the time of the medical boards, Adele's condition had deteriorated to the point she did not recognize Richard anymore and had begun "dating" another man. This was when Catherine and Richard began their sexual relationship. When Adele died, Richard pushed away Catherine and her efforts at a relationship. They have since reconciled and see each other on an irregular basis, but are serious. Richard was planning on proposing to Catherine, but a huge argument about Cristina losing the Harper Avery Award changed his mind. After some time apart, Richard professed his feelings for Catherine and subsequently, they reconciled. Richard and Catherine later showed differing views on marriage just as he was about to propose to her again. Some time later, Catherine proposed to Richard in front of the whole hospital, to which he agreed.
They faced difficulties in their marriage after Richard was fired, as he said that she had just sat there and let him be fired. He began to work at Pac-North, which upset Catherine. They eventually decided to separate, and at a dinner where they were supposed to break the news to Jackson and Maggie, they had another argument. This ended in Catherine purchasing Pac-North. Richard first refused to be hired back to Grey Sloan because of what happened with Catherine, but he eventually came back.
During his cobalt poisoning, Catherine stayed by his side, as he didn't remember what she had done. After Richard was cured, he demanded that she leave. They later reconciled after Catherine fired Tom Koracick as Chief Medical Officer of the Fox Foundation and replaced him with Richard.
Richard attended both of Bailey's weddings. In 2003, Miranda became an intern at Seattle Grace Hospital. Richard discovered her talent when she correctly diagnosed a patient after 3 months of unnecessary surgeries.
When he was a drunk, she was the only one that managed to make him admit it and sign the papers to go into rehab instead of signing the papers for early retirement.
He was the one who recommended that she be the new board member after Cristina's departure, and he also recommended her to be chief when Owen stepped down.
Richard and Derek were good friends. They first met during Derek's residency when Richard was one of his teachers. When Richard separated from his wife, Derek allowed Richard to park his trailer on his land and live there.
Richard and Meredith share a father-daughter-esque relationship. He met her during his residency when Meredith was a little girl. In the recent past, after Meredith started her surgical residency, the relationship between the two of them was a rocky one. For quite some time, Meredith couldn't forgive Richard that he had forced her parents apart and acted unprofessionally and disrespectfully towards him. Also, Richard couldn't forgive himself for not standing up for her and never doing anything about the fact that Ellis was neglecting her. Also, he couldn't detach the feelings he had for Meredith's mother, Ellis Grey, from the feelings he had for her. After an intervention by Derek, they forgave each other.
After a gunman, by the name of Gary Clark entered the hospital and started shooting people, Meredith offered herself to him, stating that she was the closest thing to a daughter Richard had.
After the shooting, they maintained a good relationship until his accident during the super storm. In the aftermath of this accident, Meredith learned that she was Richard's healthcare proxy and that his life depended on her decisions. Meredith made the decision to have them operate and he woke up from his coma. After waking up, Richard told Meredith that he had only made her his medical proxy because he thought she had the guts to let him die. This revelation estranged them for a while, but subsequently, Richard apologized and they both returned to a close relationship.
He was the Chief of Surgery at Seattle Grace and was formerly a mentor to Derek Shepherd and Addison Forbes Montgomery during their residency.
There are continuity errors regarding where exactly Richard built his career; at one point, he states that with the exception of his fellowship, he spent his entire career at Seattle Grace. However, it is also established that he both taught and befriended Addison and Derek, presumably in New York (the majority of references within the show, as well as additional sources, indicate that a good portion of Richard's career was spent in Manhattan, rather than Seattle). He also has a diploma from Northwestern University.
A board member regards Richard as the best surgeon in the hospital and is demonstrated on the occasion in the robotics lab where he takes the course as a "refresher", and he pits himself against Cristina Yang, losing in the first few tasks. In the last task, performing a minor operation, Richard manages to complete the surgery with his eyes closed, while Cristina struggles to get ahead. When asked how he managed to do so, he claims muscle memory - he is so used to these procedures knows how to perform the surgery with his eyes closed.
Richard had planned to retire and recommended Preston Burke as his successor, but after the secret of Burke's tremor and cover-up came out, that plan was put to a stand-still. Nevertheless, he has told the hospital board of his retirement and has yet to name his successor; Derek, Preston, Addison, and Mark all eagerly clamoring for the post. Richard eventually chose Derek, but Derek tells him that Richard should remain chief.
In an attempt to move back home, Richard begins to delegate some of his work to other staff with responsibilities, such as the chief resident, at the time being Callie Torres, but as she was slightly unaware of what to do exactly, Miranda Bailey eventually replaces her, reducing Richard's burden. To assist with this further, he enlists George O'Malley to become the chief's intern to assist with some of his day to day duties, such as passing messages, phone calls, charting, pre-op and post-op patients amongst other things, until George finally had enough after learning he failed his intern exam by 1 point.
After the death of O'Malley and throughout the merger with Mercy West, Richard comes under a massive amount of stress. He makes a mistake on a patient that brings to the attention of Bailey that something is wrong. Eventually, he takes Meredith under his tutelage where she finally figures out that he had started to drink again. Meredith eventually tells Derek and Derek brings it to the attention of the board who force Richard to resign as chief and his responsibilities as a doctor; Derek takes over his position as chief of surgery.
After a numerous number of days sober, Richard finally returns to being a general surgery attending under Shepherd. He is the doctor that was on the case of Gary Clark's wife and did her surgery. She did not recover however and died leaving Clark with a vendetta against him. Clark later returns and begins to shoot people, mainly surgeons, in the hospital. Webber was not present at the time but once he hears what is going on he finds a way into the hospital and confronts Clark, who ultimately commits suicide.
Derek resigns as chief surgeon, leaving Richard as interim chief until the board agrees to let him come back full-time as the chief of surgery. After a day of recalling his old procedures with Ellis Grey, he began going through her journals again. When he found the trick he was looking for, Richard was encouraged to try to expand her findings on islet cell transplantation, which was stopped because of her Alzheimer's. He initiated a clinical trial to cure type 1 diabetes through a device that contains insulin-producing islet cells. He even tried to get Meredith to participate, which she ultimately turned down because she was dedicated to Derek's Alzheimer's trial.
Before he could get the approval or a waiver from the FDA, Richard tried the device and procedure on Clara Greene, who was in a hypoglycemic coma. Eventually, it was approved. Richard, with Jackson Avery as his assistant, began trying out the "artificial pancreas" on humans, as well as mice.
Richard took the fall for Meredith's tampering of a clinical trial for Alzheimer's which could help Adele. He resigned as Chief and helped Owen Hunt obtain the job as his successor. He has since been a senior general surgery attending. Richard passed the clinical trial onto Dr. Bailey.
Richard invested money to buy Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital, which was later renamed Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. As Richard is a part-owner of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, he has a seat on the board as a member.
After he had recovered from his accident, Owen Hunt made him director of the residency program.
After Owen quit, Richard was named interim chief of surgery until they could replace him.
Because he didn't want to be the Chief anymore, he recommended Miranda Bailey for the job. She was judged up against a candidate chosen by Catherine Avery, Tracy McConnell, and was ultimately named Chief of Surgery.
After reviewing the residency records and finding several questionable calls, Catherine Avery made Bailey hire a new Director of the residency program, Dr. Eliza Minnick. This upset Richard, who believed Bailey had betrayed him. Eventually, he started to work alongside Minnick with the residents. This ended when after the hospital fire, Bailey fired Minnick, reinstating Richard in his function.
Bailey fired him upon discovering the role he played in covering up Meredith's insurance fraud. He initially got a job working for the health app Pronto Health Pro, but quit soon. He interviewed for the Chief of Surgery job at Pacific Northwest General Hospital, the last ranked hospital of Seattle since its new investors were looking for someone with vision and experience to turn the place around. However, he wasn't hired because of his approaching retirement. He then made Alex interview and when he got the job, made him hire him as an attending general surgeon there. Later on, he and Catherine fought and Catherine bought Pac North, which led to Richard working as an attending at Grey Sloan again. Later, he got Tom Koracick's job as Chief Medical Officer. [source?]
