Sixteen Seasons in and for some strange reason this week’s episode – the Season 16 premiere – has sent the world of film and television technology back to the mid 90s when PowerPoint presentations were all the rage and everyone had just learned how to use the side-swipe fade … WHAT was up with that!? Seriously!? Seriously. That whole – ‘ONE WEEK LATER’ in awkward white font sliding in and out like a bad PowerPoint presentation just made me want to throttle all of them.
We picked up basically where we left off. Mostly. Sort of. I mean – DeLuca’s now not in jail – no surprises. And everyone is still fired. For now (remember when we sent Cristina to the tundra with Mr. Feeney? And then she came back?). And we got two new patients to focus on … because Golden Blood Boy and Extreme Agoraphobe couldn’t make the cut for this episode. (Or the next judging by the Episode 2 trailer.) And their resolve – despite their whole nonsense being a jacked-up metaphor for the end of Jaggie – THANK GOD – was a cute way to draw a teeny little bit of adorableness from Amelia and Link. (But not before Jackson & Kim were serving as The Link Whisperer in the OR … did anyone else notice how absolutely next-to-zero time was spent in the OR? Can only Grey, Karev, and Webber conduct surgery now?)
RE: End-Of-Jaggie. THANK GOD. Repeat: THANK GOD. Maggie has become this petulant and obnoxious intern that nobody recognizes … except wasn’t she always that way (and we’re supposed to accept it because she’s the savant genius super younger sister of Meredith Grey … why couldn’t we have traded her out instead of Arizona Robbins two seasons ago?) and now she’s just steam-rolling all of that petulance at Jackson. I almost feel bad for him. Except, now he’s sprung into Vicson … which is this weird maybe-it-is-maybe-it-isn’t thing with one of the forced-crossover-characters from Station Sinks Itself … I mean … Station 19. (Loved Addison. Didn’t love her enough to follow Private Practice. Loved Ben Warren. If we’re going to have a force-crossover, shouldn’t we AT LEAST start with his return?) So now that Shonda has isolated Jackson and all his future romantic endeavors from those of us who do not want to be force fed her crossover fire-fighting show …
Moving on. Really, really beautiful thing to see that Alex was once again able to man up properly. Looks like he and Jo will make it okay after all. Loved seeing the Webber-Karev minute at his house – because it brought back some of that super old dynamic. And BOOM – want to talk about a hot blow-up dramallama … Pacific North Western? (Why/How has that never been mentioned before? Seattle Pres … yes. Mercy West … absorbed by Grey-Sloan Memorial … but PNW? Surely if they were this basement feeding, bottom-ranked non-existent hospital … they’d have been shut down by now …) But looks like Karev is going to be their new chief and Richard Webber is now going to work for him. (Won’t be the first time – technically Karev was interim chief for a bit.)
And everyone saw Bailey’s ‘demotion’ coming. Of course, nobody actually took away her chiefdom. But that position is cursed. Why does she even want it? Especially if it meant firing three of her best doctors. And who quit in solidarity? Because Hunt & Altman are on baby leave, and Link, Shepherd and the rest are actively working … along with Jackson and Maggie. And DeLuca was rehired. So to whom was that referencing?
POOR TOM!!!! God love him for trying and for taking the high road. Still ruminating on the whole Leo Hunt, Owen-Teddy-Tom plus lil baby Allison. That’s a whole big can of worms that will be stretched out all season long. We’ll have plenty of time to gush and gag over that. Right now we have to gush and gag over the fact that Amelia is apparently pregnant with Link’s baby. (Did she sleep with anyone else? COULD it still be Hunt’s? Pretty sure it’s Link’s.) And who knew Carina was still around!? WOW. (Props to Qadri for still being there! And Schmidt and Kim are cute as ever!! D’awwww.)
Still not buying the MerLuca thing. Again, not because of the age gap, not because we’re all not over McDreamy (we were all hardcore Team MerRiggs) but because he is legitimately fresh off the the ripped-lost love of his life … and no one is buying that just because he was willing to throw himself in jail for her (which was super stupid on his part) that he’s really McDreamy2.0. As for Meredith and her roadside zen vaccay – that’s all well and fine … but they do gut punch us just a bit with that ‘they’re taking action against my medical license’ bit. (Which you know, we have to do because otherwise she gets off completely … which she’ll still do.)
So the total recap & roundup appears to be:
- Jaggie dissolved in bitter acid-tears
- Meredith is not in jail but may or may not get to keep her license
- Webber & wife are on the outs because she let Bailey fire him
- Owen sold his Omelia house and is trying to move on with Teddy & Babygirl
- Tom still loves Teddy and will fight till the end for her
- Jo & Alex are going to be fine. He has in fact not reached his quota of crazy
- Niko & Levi are going strong
- Amelia is preggo with Link’s baby
- Carina is somehow still on this show
Let’s see how next week treats our favorite Grey-Sloan Memorialists. Maybe Golden Blood Boy and Extreme Agoraphobe will resurface (along with Parker and Hellmouth …) And probably half of it (or a third) will take place at Pacific North Western … a bit like when Callie went to Mercy West or when Cristina went to the Tundra … or really whenever any of them have gone anywhere … fingers crossed that the 90s side-swipe-shifty PowerPoint block lettering goes the way of Jaggie.
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8:00 PM on ABC.
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