Twelve seasons in and “Grey’s Anatomy” continues to leave fans in tears on Thursday nights.

After the writers decided to kill off the beloved Dr. McDreamy, played by Patrick Dempsey (who is 50, but still so hot), fans were skeptical of the new season going on without him.

Fortunately for fans, season 12 has been full of surprises and plot twists without Meredith’s husband.

Season 12 has kept to the show’s original theme, showing that even beautiful doctors have sucky lives.

Right from the start, Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) has not been cut any breaks. After a short hiatus, season 12 is back and hates Meredith more than ever.

Only two episodes into the second half of the season and it is already intense.

The first episode was a shocker to fans. Only two minutes into the episode, Meredith was attacked by a patient. The patient had a reaction from coming out of a seizure and had a mental “glitch.” Instead of waking up as a kind, funny dad, he woke up in a fit.

The patient turned on Meredith, who was the only one in the room with him, hitting her and slamming her into walls.

The next 20 minutes of the episode were completely silent, showing the many weeks of Meredith going deaf from the accident. Through the silence, viewers saw a montage of clips showing all Meredith’s closest friends at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital working day and night to get her well.

Sound finally came back during a scene where Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), Meredith’s closest friend, is sitting on the bed, talking to her.

The episode goes through the rest of Meredith’s recovery and ends with an emotional scene between Meredith and Alex.

At the end, Meredith comes to the realization that you do not just have “one person”; you can have many people who are there for you through it all. Meredith convinces Alex to go back to his girlfriend and that she will be okay because she has a “whole damn village.”

The episode was not lacking drama and anticipation, but was an overall disappointment to fans.

The fall finale left fans with many questions, none of which were answered in the first episode back. Instead, the episode was kind of boring, just showing again how much Meredith’s life sucks.

“It was boring, honestly. I was expecting much more. Like I care about Meredith and I honestly was scared she was going to die, but that lasted like 10 minutes. After I knew she was fine, I wanted to hear about the other relationships,” says sophomore Ryann Goldberg.

Fans took to twitter to voice their opinions by live tweeting under #greysanatomy. Tweets were filled with anticipation until Meredith got her hearing back. After the first 20 minutes, all the anticipation subsided and fans were bored.

Senior Allie Heizer was not a fan of how the episode treated Meredith, saying, “[‘Grey’s Anatomy’] would have no more viewers if [it] would have killed off Meredith, because you can’t have ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ without the Grey. Meredith never gets a break and everyone dies on her, and that’s not nice and the show needs to stop playing with my emotions.”

The second episode took a difference approach. It started with Meredith attending mandated therapy.

Meredith was annoyed with the therapist for making a huge deal out of the attack, saying it was nothing big. Shocked by this, the therapist asks her to explain and she asks him if he has even read her file.

Meredith goes on to say she is happy even, and that “any day where nobody dies is a good day.”

The episode switches to show Dr. Alex Karev being met with a persistent patient. The patient, a 15-year-old girl with a rare cancer, says she came to the hospital specifically to meet Dr. Karev so he can find a way to treat her cancer, which has already taken her leg.

The episode follows the girl, Maya, through her treatment plans, which eventually involve the head of the cardio and head of orthopedic surgery printing her a new rib cage that they will implant after they take out her tumor.

Alex greatly opposes the surgery, which is very unlike him, but he ends up holding her hand and talking her through the whole thing. He connects with Maya, who is taking care of her single mom just as much as herself.

The episode also finally gives insight as to why two doctors, Riggs and Hunt, hate each other. It is revealed that Riggs was dating Owen’s sister and used to be as close as family. The reason Hunt hates him is because he blames Riggs for the death of his little sister, since he was with her when she died.

The two end up completing a difficult surgery together, leaving everyone hopeful that they will make amends. After the surgery, however, the two get into a screaming match in the scrub room.

The rest of the episode is relatively dry and boring, switching between Meredith’s therapeutic breakthroughs and the emotional and incredibly hot side of Karev we all know and love.

The last two minutes were the best and most action filled. It shows the therapist telling Meredith that she can do anything she wants, and convincing her to go out and get anything she wants. It switches to Meredith, her sister, Alex and his girlfriend, Jo, in the car on their way home from work.

Jo leans over and kisses Alex, symbolizing them making up from their long fight. Similarly, the screen pans out showing Meredith looking back at them in the mirror, a subtle scowl on her face. The episode ends with Meredith’s sister asking her, “What do you want to do?”

“I feel like the last two minutes were the only interesting parts. The show has been hinting at a relationship between Mer and Alex for a while, and this just brought it further. Although I don’t ship them as a couple, I definitely think the show will go in that direction for a while,” says Goldberg.

Fans have mixed reactions about the brewing romance, some saying it would be cute, and others saying it would be gross because they are such close friends.

Either way, “Grey’s Anatomy” continues to bring in fans on Thursday nights.

The next episode promises an inside look into the dying romance between colleagues April and Jackson who have been through literal hell together.

No matter which direction the show takes, it is sure to cause serious crying, screaming, and may end with a trip to an actual hospital.

Check out the trailer for next week here: