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Settling into what feels more and more normal, this week is focusing on the patients, the struggles, and the on-going fight against real-life issues at Seattle Grace. And we get three (or four depending on if you count the 30-second clip of Mer greeting Dr. Marsh at the end of the episode) revivals of blasts from the past this week.
Catherine Fox turns up (first time this season?) to support Richard Webber’s reinstatement as residency director. (How her tune has changed … since she was the entire reason he lost that title in the first place.) But she’s all in for this new teaching approach — ‘The Webber Method’ — which throws the residents head-long into solo surgery — this week Lap-Coli’s. Bailey is not amused, doesn’t like it, and really isn’t on board. (But she comes around.) And for the most part, it’s successful. Mer even points this out as Helm has a complication arise (and calls for help, and the patient lives).
We’re back to only having 75% of doctors on set at any one time. This week it’s Link and Teddy who have the week off — and of course Maggie … who may never be coming back (actress Kelly McCreary did announce back in August that she was pregnant with her first child, and it is possible that she’s in pregnancy-maternity leave and will eventually return to the show), though they’re referenced frequently throughout the episode (well, Maggie not at all, but Link is discussed a fair bit and Teddy at least referenced).
Schmidt is really coming into his own as a rock star, continuing down the path started last week when he was having a solo surgery — this week he’s so successful with his Lap-Coli, he gets two. It was nice to see Nico back in the saddle/on-set. We opened with the typical ‘sexy time in the on-call room’ being interrupted. Nico and Schmidt, interrupted by Helm, pointing out that they were really late for skills lab. But he’s totally finding his stride — go TeamSchmidt!
The surprise returns this week continue with both Carina DeLuca (who is never really out of the realm of possibility since she shares the universe with Station 19) and Megan Hunt — AND … her son Farouk. We briefly saw him for the wedding of Teddy & Owen earlier this season … and I guess when she dropped that bombshell that she and Riggs split (Martin Henderson is apparently still busy with Virgin River} that was her way of signalling to the world that she now lives and works permanently at Grey-Sloan.
Except we’re not seeing Farouk for good reasons. Megan gives us a cute and oh-so-Grey’s style pitch at Hayes, asking for a quick consult for a 14-year-old near their apartment playing soccer, getting extra winded with swollen ankles. He tells her he’d need to examine the kid (and she basically says she was afraid of that) and POOF, a scene or so later, ‘Hey — I have that kid I was telling you about’, which Hayes finds drastically suspicious … she did basically make ‘just some kid’ materialize very quickly. And then it’s revealed that it is her son. It doesn’t look drastically grim, but it doesn’t look good. And of course Megan is doing herself zero favors by not telling Owen. (She will, of course, but everyone is so all about secrets around Grey-Sloan!)
Hayes got some Jo time in the parking lot trying to help Jo deal with a teething Luna (before he was sent to take the baby to daycare as a car with a pregnant woman appeared and Jo was thrown into action.) Jo is really bonding with this ‘my past does not define me’ arc — bonding immediately with the pregnant patient, whose one-month boyfriend didn’t notice she was pregnant, and then quickly leaves her after that. (Might there be some sparks between Jo and Hayes? Since Mer pulled back when his youngest started having issues? Or is he just a really great guy despite not having McDreamy hair?)
The ultimate win for this week wasn’t even that Hunt is still graciously handling his temper (and after losing that VA patient — and that harrowing confession from said patient, it honestly is impressive) but the ‘sisterly’ bonding between Amelia and Addison.
It’s unclear if Addison has once again waltzed off into the parking lot of no return now that this patient has been sorted (and she made multiple mentions of ‘I live in LA and much as they drive me crazy I do love my son and my husband and want to go home to them’). But the whole ‘I am Dr. Montgomery and you are Dr. Shepherd’ trying to get her through dealing with her trial-patient making a turn for the worst was really striking. Juxtapose that against all of the actual bonding they did — where Addison tried to hear her side of the story about why she left Link, (and pointing out that perhaps though Amelia perceives it as ‘gaslighting’ and ‘manipulative’, the way he proposed at Maggie’s wedding with Mer’s kids … that because that’s not his MO that maybe it was just stupid romantic) and then confessed her own struggles during the pandemic — it was really beautiful.
Getting to hear that Addison had these heinous thoughts of ‘going to sleep and never waking up again’ and that those thoughts during the pandemic gave her comfort — how relatable that is for so many millions of people out there — was really life affirming. That we’re still in the middle of it out here, but this truly does reflect the season’s mission of ‘Hope and Healing’ because ‘it does get better.’ And comparing herself to a swollen tick because she’d drank so much red wine was also pretty hilarious.
All around a solid episode. (Even if we had no Teddy, no Link, and no Maggie … which is actually giving Winston a chance to grow as a character we can learn to like and appreciate, because right now he’s just ‘that doctor Maggie married’.) But now we’ve got — and for no good reason — a two-week hiatus (after only four episodes …) and it looks like a potentially genuine-crossover event will be happening on Thursday, November 11. Guess we’ll just have to sit tight until then!
What did you think of this episode? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9:00 PM on ABC.
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