Grey’s Anatomy :: Papa Don’t Preach

ABC

Where is Grey-Sloan Memorial? Have we jumped ship yet again? Or is this part of the sinker-anchor of Station 19 where if you want the full Grey-Sloan experience you have to watch that show? Because we lost half the doctors this week and all the interns on a trip to Pac-North … and it wasn’t great either. Previous episodes that have gone off campus have always had a central pull … this just sort of muddled in the mire of Pac-North.

That confused look that Meredith was wearing (for the two seconds we saw her) when Maggie started blathering on about ‘Richard’s Niece’, that look of vexed perplexing uncertainty? It’s because she was thinking what we were all thinking: ‘Richard only has one niece; her name was Camille and she died before George did back in Season 4.’ But like the rest of us, Mer just nodded her head and went along with it. Because of course Richard has a favorite niece (which apparently was someone other than Camille who was marketed to us by Adele as his only niece and the closest thing he ever had to a child …) who would die on Pierce’s table … while Pierce was scrubbed in on special privileges at Pac-North.

And seriously? Cute that Kelly McCreary got her sister to show up on Grey’s but could they milk that ‘OMG twinsies’ nonsense any further? It was on the level of a grade-A pun to begin with, having her real-life sister play her semi-cousin, but then all that forced, over-the-top ‘OMG we’re the same person’ was just unforgivable. Bad enough we had to go along with this girl like she was the unspoken favorite niece all along (and not created 20 seconds before this season came out so that the McCreary sisters could play on set together.) But ‘Saby’ is dead now … so then there’s that.

Maggie finally gets a chance to have a storyline that isn’t annoying, that gives her guts and isn’t about Jackson or her whining about him – and this is the best Shondaland has got? Seriously? (Though when Saby said ‘no Scandal?’ I went ‘nope – that ended two seasons ago …’) And of course you’ve never seen a cardiac tumor that big, Maggie, you’re not Cristina Yang. Her whole ‘I can operate on family-that-isn’t-family’ … it just felt so … ugh … I don’t know, contrived and not even in the cute recycled plot way that we usually forgive and have grown accustomed to on Grey’s.

ABC

It was majorly impressive to see Major Owen Hunt actually getting his stuff together, even if he did start off (once again) blowing his stack at the patient for his own personal garbage. Glad Amelia stepped in to sort that patient out. HER BODY, HER CHOICE. And that was a two-way blame street (which was maturely acknowledged) between Amelia and Owen about the LinkBaby announcement. Though there were definitely two moments when that ‘oh, God, are they going to make out’ tension was primed. Again, extreme maturity – even last season that still might have happened.

Nice to see Alex for 2.7 seconds and to see him really doing some of those teachable moment things that we’ve seen Bailey and Richard do throughout the years. Catherine made her return, just as deeply insecure but hiding it behind her balls of steel as ever. That very, very passive aggressive sugary venomous ‘we have openings all over the country, but none here in Seattle’ at Gemma … who admittedly does have to go … was very, Catherine Fox. She’ll use her power, wrapped up in a sugary sweet offering, to get what she wants. It’s a little demeaning to have this Gemma-Catherine-Richard thing devolve like this … especially after all Richard has been through – this storyline just seems beneath him. Really wish we could have gotten more with the dramatics of Jackson-Maggie-Richard-Catherine over dinner. THAT would have been hilarious.

No idea what happened with week with Jo, Bailey, Schmidt, Niko, Link, Teddy (though we did see her super briefly at the top), Helm, Parker, or Koracick … guess we just can’t pay the full cast every week. (And this was even an extremely Mer-lite week!) Oooh – I forgot DeLuca. See? Even my subconscious memory thinks he shouldn’t be with Mer. But I guess next week we’ll all sit on pins and needles as we wait to see whether Bailey jumps up and defends Meredith or throws her under the bus … because it’s not like she’s actually going to lose her license. It’s just whether or not Bailey takes back all the heinous behavior she’s been putting out as of late. (Maybe someone went back and reminded her that she too once upon a time committed insurance fraud …) Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8:00 PM on ABC.

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