When Mere gets back downstairs she sees Adele being wheeled out to the car and Richard walking with her. She runs after them and Richard, his anger from earlier having passed, says that he checked the CT and it's clean so he's taking Adele home. Mere tells him that she has even more concerns knowing that it's clean, but he assures her it's fine. She either doesn't pick up on the warning tone that has crept back into his voice or she's ignoring it, because she presses that Adele was getting confused, and asks why she was getting Christmas decorations down in February? Or why was she talking about getting home from work when she's retired? Richard keeps trying to shut her down and when Meredith keeps pressing that something isn't right, he finally yells at her to stop. He claims that she's got Alzheimer's on the brain because of the clinical trial but that any number of things could account for Adele's confusion, including Mere's "interrogation." He likens it to when you buy a new car and then start to see the same car everywhere else. He tells her good night with tense finality in his voice, so Mere just turns around and heads back inside.

She runs into Nathan's parents and immediately apologizes for getting pulled into surgery but they are happy because a doctor came and took Nathan to get his cast. She's genuinely happy but it also seems to be the straw that broke the camel's back and she nearly loses the fight against her tears as she tells them that's great. When she gets to Tyler he starts to tell her about a new patient but she stops him and asks first for Oliver's chart. It turns out she doesn't need it, though, when she hears the familiar sound of his ringtone coming from the bag of personal items that is on the counter. She answers the phone and of course it's his son Max, and Mere barely holds it together to ask sweetly if she can speak to his mom. She then goes to sit in an empty exam room to deliver the devastating news. Her VO starts up and comments that an hour can change everything forever.