ABC
For as milquetoast as the 300th episode was, this episode of Grey’s Anatomy was so properly charged that it almost redeems the level of lousy to which the show sank last week. Major Spoilers herein, hope you’re caught up! As the previews showed, the “Winter Finale” (just eight episodes into Season 14 because we like to cram the remaining 18 episodes down our gullets from late January to early May) sank its teeth in hard with the cyber terrorist attack sweeping through Grey-Sloan. Maybe don’t announce that you’re funding a multi-million-dollar research/surgery contest after recently having your hospital upgraded and digitally streamlined. The anachronisms and consistency issues aside — like the cyber-hackers demanding 4,239 (or was it 4,329) in BitCoin, which was later referred to as 5,000 in BitCoin and equating out to be 20 million dollars, when in actuality the BitCoin transfer rate puts that money at a much higher 39 million dollars (maybe Jackson Avery and The Foundation can only afford 20 so we had to incorrectly guess?) — this is actually a thrilling premise that is far more believable than any of the other mega-disasters to strike “Seattle-Grey-Mercy-Death”, as our dearly departed Cristina used to call it. (Excepting maybe the shooter. That seems to happen everywhere so why not inside a hospital.)
The terror of not being able to access medical records, medicines, scans, and vital information and equipment to keep patients alive is an actual living nightmare and I thought they handled that extremely well. The panic rose gradually (except of course in the “chicks & ducks” who were freaked from the onset because this bunch of interns are ACTUAL IDIOTS) and got to that heightened peak just as the episode concluded. Well done, Shonda. I feel like I say that far too little as of late when it comes to what you’ve turned out this season. Taking it a step further, seeing the way Emeritus Chief Webber got to showcase his “tricks of the Stone Age” was the humorous edge the episode needed to keep us emotionally unbalanced and totally blind-sided by the last few minutes. Reading the newspaper through the IV bag, “flip-n-dip” on the patient, these were all wonderful little moments that brought me back to that race in the skills lab between Cristina and Webber when he did his little “That’s why I’m the chief” dance and song routine after besting her.
Jaggie was actually moving okay. They were almost functioning like normal colleagues who don’t totally have awkward unresolved sexual tension, and then they got skybound. Maggie, chill out, only planes crash and burn at Seattle-Grey-Mercy-Death. Their interactions were actually really earnest for the first time ever and for a split second if Jaggie becomes an actuality, I think I’m okay with it. Sometimes some of the things that come of out Jackson’s mouth, though … like the whole “so glad we’re from different families,” which we all know is his no-filter way of saying “it’s great we’re not actually related because I really want to get in your pants” but somehow saying what he said is actually less tactful than saying what he’s thinking. Was it Teddy back in season six who put him through his paces for being pretty? I think it was. Clearly somebody needs to put him through his paces again.
Lady DeLuca and Arizona … Delzona. Still up in the air on that one — just like apparently they are. Arizona seems completely nonplussed by her bisexuality, which is curious because she made such a fuss about Callie’s initially, but I guess she got over that. Guess we’ll be dragging that out all season long. Did Ben’s spin-off premiere tonight? Or does that premiere during winter season so that when it tanks we can pretend it didn’t happen? At least we got to see him flexing the guns one last time in the opening credit. Love Meredith’s sasspot attitude about “the toughest thing about winning a Harper Avery.” And I seriously love how calm and level-headed she stayed during surgery. That shows tremendous growth on her part as a character.
What I’m not loving is that basically that little kid is going to die. (Maybe miraculously not because we seem to have all sorts of medical miracles all the damn time all around Grey-Sloan Memorial, and perhaps we’ll manage one for poor RandoKid — but we saw Alex inject the Heprin … so…) What’s even more disturbing is that this is the reality if the electronic system goes down. If the computers we desperately depend upon in a hospital setting … terrifying. Of course the biggest shocker of the episode … and BAM there it was — as she gets out of the elevator. “Oh, Hi, Brooke, or wait, it’s Jo now …” THE EX HUSBAND! And the terrifying dizzying effect it had on Jo was priceless. NO ONE saw that coming. And not that she would have gotten to Alex in time to prevent the Heprin shot but she definitely wasn’t going to get there after encountering him. Now THAT is a plot we care about!! (Anyone else remember Heather Brooks dying back at the end of season eight? Did anyone else think of that just now when he called her Brooke?)
Also, glasses nerd reminds me ever so slightly of George. Just slightly. Very cool that Meredith thinks fast enough on her feet to hook him up to the patient when they get shut out of the blood bank. Still don’t care about DeLuca and his little intern girlfriend, and major props to Jo for making Chief Resident (though she still sounds nothing like Bailey.) Hunt and Kepner were hardly featured and I’m finding I’m not minding this so much. Perhaps the two of them will ride off into the parking lot of no return. He serves no purpose now that Amelia’s free, especially if his morning-fling with She-DeLuca is going to revert away so she can be with Arizona. And April is just obnoxious. (Still wondering if Hunt and Meredith will grow together, since she’s the other half twice over of both his ex-wives, has all the kids he wants, and they are close friends.) Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Grey’s Anatomy will return on January 18, 2018. Nine weeks for us to stew over things…
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