ABC
The only thing that might have possibly made this week’s episode more perfect was a freak-surprise appearance by Cristina during the ‘dance it out’ because we’ve successfully weaned Meredith off the vent. Oh, yeah, so that happened. At the end of the episode. But not before we had a double-dose of dead characters on COVID Beach.
This episode was actually the closest we’ve had to normal since the Pandemic, and even though the world of Grey-Sloan Memorial is still in the early-thick of it (with no vaccine in sight and major shortages of all the things) it feels almost like a ‘normal’ episode. Ish. There was so much deep mortal peril, redeeming moments of joy, a little bit of silliness, and even a ‘stupid simple real-life thing inspiring a medical miracle solution’.
Looks like Winston Ndugu is sticking around – if for no other reason but because he’s constantly sharing his earbuds with Maggie so they can co-listen to his playlists suddenly sparked Maggie to realize that patients could share ventilators to circumnavigate the vent shortage. (This only comes after an ugly-cry event with a mother-daughter combo who both end up hospitalized with COVID and whose oxygen stats are crashing, and Schmidt bags the mom but protocol says to vent the patient with the higher chance of survival and Grey-Sloan is down to its final vent. It’s truly a heart wrenching emotional arch with those patients – and nicely paralleled in the two Ortiz interns, who are also mother and daughter.) Oh, and also he proposed to Maggie. And she said yes.
Hayes’ sister-n-law turns up with a kidney stone, dragging Catherine Fox in on the case, because the sister has MS, and he relives his terrors of losing his boys’ only other living family member. Fortunately Catherine, with an assist from Jo, manage to keep her alive, well, and with both kidneys – since there was a complication (everyone had a complication this week except Meredith, because complications happen.) The sister-in-law is the first real official confirmation that Hayes (called ‘Mac’ by said sis-in-law) is totally into Meredith. She asks to meet her; he has to tell her she’s in the ICU on the vent. And then she asks to get set up with Jo (who awkwardly and for no good reason is still having sex with Jackson at the end of the episode – but we get a funny moment out of that when she arbitrarily brings up Catherine while they’re cuddling naked together).
ABC
The real awkward-but-touchy moments this week weren’t even the ghosts on COVID Beach – it was the ‘survivors guilt and acceptance’ shared between Owen and Koracick outside of Meredith’s room – and hey, Owen being any kind of decent to Koracick is an improvement. And ironically enough, Amelia on her path of ‘two things can be true’ with – of all people – Teddy as they play ‘backyard babysitter’ to all the children still on the show (Zola, Bailey, Ellis, Scout, Leo, and Allison) because Owen went to work, Link got called into surgery and Owen doesn’t want Teddy left alone. They actually get on pretty well, and Amelia points out valuable things like ‘your first therapist was a wash, but that doesn’t mean all therapy will be. Try again.’
Richard and his ridiculous, albeit well-deserved, dancing takes us back to every time he’s had a little victory dance before. And since we were getting every blast from the past this week (including a double-feature on COVID Beach) even Cristina started texting Owen – giving everyone that intoxicating false hope that she might somehow pop up. Seriously – given the way Grey’s has been lately – I half expected while Richard, Owen, Winston, and Maggie were dancing it out – outside of Mer’s ICU room – that Cristina was going to text and say ‘you’re dancing it out without me?’ and Owen would spin and POOF there she’d be. But we’ll just be waiting for Cristina.
Schmidt got his saving grace funnies with his outrageous not-rap, trying to lift a patient’s spirits, and we literally saw everyone, except Bailey (who’s taking time off to cope with the loss of DeLuca) and – Helm? Who has – I don’t know – disappeared again.
The trailer showed us Lexi was coming. We were all prepared for it. And most of us – okay maybe just me – were so convinced that Lil Grey does not come without Mark. And we – me – WERE RIGHT!!! A little sad when Meredith asked, ‘So you two are together?’ and Mark said, ‘On your beach? Sure!’ and Lexi just looked longingly like that isn’t how death really is. They had these lovely moments on swing sets and a spinny-go-round and lying in the flowers – all very reminiscent of how childish Lexi and Mark were all throughout their existence and how silly and childlike it was to waste their time together. That’s their big take-away to Meredith, don’t waste a single moment loving and living. That and Mark screams in the ears of Sophia, Arizona, and Callie all the time because he can’t let them go. Lexi even reminds Meredith that they’re always with her. Really, very touching.
Everyone lives this episode, which is such a relief. And there was just unmitigated joy happening this week – Lexi and Mark were easy and not bittersweet, Hayes’ sister-in-law pulled through (maybe Catherine will court Jo to urology, she failed with April and with Stephanie, third time’s a charm?) Meredith was weaned successfully off the vent, the mother-daughter patient combo were both intubated and ventilated successfully; it looks like a win-win, and there’s even hope for next week as Meredith finally wakes up – but good god – she’ll be waking up to an engaged Maggie (and possibly an engaged Amelia as it looks like Link plans to propose next week) and a dead DeLuca, but like when she drowned and Ellis died, she’ll probably already know that. And now with DeLuca gone, maybe her and Hayes might finally start off somewhere. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see – and hold out hope that Cristina will come back to us!
What did you think of this episode? Start a conversation in the comments section below.
Share this post
