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Seriously. Seriously!? Is that the route we’re taking with this? And we’re all okay with this? Not really. (That’s the catch-phrase of the episode — ‘not really’.)
I mean — nobody forgot Catherine had a tumor in her spine that they failed to remove 100%. So we all knew that was where this was going — with the ‘pot juice’ in the fridge. But at least she said it — outright — at the end of the episode. ‘My cancer has progressed. I need pot juice for the pain.’ (Way more eloquently and Catherine-like than that but at least it was said.)
That’s one thing they’ve all got going for them post-Pandy; they’re all way more direct. Three seasons ago — Link and Jo would have had it out in that — where was that ‘med-supply 2.0’, that closet was all sorts of lit up — but they would have had it out and Link would have walked out and we would have spent a whole quarter-season story-arch brooding over it. Nope. Not with ‘New!Grey’s’ — he goes to the door and BAM ‘I fell in love with you, Link.’
So that happened. Jo and Link are out in the open. Ish. He gave a really amazing rollout in that closet about how he can put up with a lot but even he has his breaking point. And she’s doing double-duty over in the OBGYN/Gen department (cute little montage showing all that at the beginning — but does it really matter if your scrub pants are general and your scrub top is Gynni? Not really.)
Having Richard get stoned (thanks, pot juice) was so deeply two-fold I’m not sure what they were trying to do with it — other than make up for the fact that when the rest of the hospital had ‘Arizona’s accidental lesbian love pot cookies’ Webber was one of the only ones who didn’t. Because one minute he’s making some really profound discoveries about how to save the program, but the next Meredith is telling him that pot these days is so loaded and laced that she’s seen major traumas in the ER because of it. (She should have clarified that she meant street pot and not licensed medical cannabis.) And the discussion about ‘does this high count against your sobriety’ was an interesting one. I think having Amelia make the statement that because he was accidentally dosed and has no intention of doing it again is a valid point but I feel like the sober community is split on that one 100%. (Great conversation starter!)
LOVE LOVE LOVE that Bailey brought Pru to work. Just like she used to bring Tuck to work. Love that she confessed to Meredith that it’s all out of her control and she’s not coping. That is always a part of her reality. She has a mental health disorder and she has a world of job-related and family-home related stress. (Love her dig about ‘string of messy men’ because didn’t they all have disasters? Webber was drunk on the job, Derek got shot and probably wasn’t the best of chiefs, Hunt blindly signed off on that plane crash … MESSY MEN. And who can forget that one whole day while Sloan was chief!?) Her ‘old Bailey’ self was coming out in spades — thankfully Nick Marsh seems to be holding his own.
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Marsh was aces in the OR with Schmidt and getting Bailey to stay in her lane. He’s no Derek … but he grows on you. He’s even got the fishing thing going. (Maybe he will stay. And Mer will too. Seattle may be haunted but you always go back.) And he’s even got a McDreamy smile.
Meredith did a great job picking up straight away on the fact that something was wrong with Richard. (She is the biggest human. And seriously — even four seasons ago — when doctors were furious with each other — you just steered clear!)
Teddy and Owen are in family therapy trying to figure out what to do about Leo. And I think it’s great that they’re attempting to address the gender-identity of raising a toddler who is expressing — (words of the therapist) — ‘being gender creative’ … in such a positive and affirming way. And it’s great that Teddy is struggling with it because she comes from a place of love but also from a place of needing certainty and labels and boundaries. So to see that it’s okay to struggle and struggling doesn’t mean she loves her kid any less is a really great thing to have in front of millions of viewers.
I think the more impressive thing is seeing Teddy and Amelia talking like they’re actually family. (I mean it’s all one big incestuous love ball at Grey-Sloan anyhow …) And Amelia opening up about dating Kai/seeing Kai (whatever Amelia is calling it) and how she feels like she’s never been more herself and never understood the world so clearly — THAT was really beautiful too. All her life she’s had labels saddled on her — and I think that experience — short-lived or otherwise — with Kai — was a life-affirming thing for Amelia too. (LOVE that she and Link — despite all the craziness — can still be respectable, peaceful co-parents. Even if it was for half a minute at the end of the episode.)
Still sketchy on Winston-Maggie. They married too soon. It’s like her and Jackson all over again — who did you marry, Maggie? And his confession — “my brother makes me a liar and makes me snap at patients” that’s not really a cover-all … just like Owen’s ‘I have PTSD’ was not a cover-all. You’ve acknowledged you have a problem, Winston — now address it. And not just by blasting your brother out of the water or paying off his loan.
Next week looks to be a little fluff-n-stuff. If it’s a dinner party for Nick … I’m sure it’s going to be judgment city. Wasn’t the last dinner party in House of Grey when PENNY came to dinner with/without Callie? And it became ‘that’s the doctor who killed my husband.’ (Dinner Parties at House of Grey are just such a bad idea. Nothing good ever comes from them!)
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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