Did you guys know that there’s going to be a Grey’s Anatomy spinoff? If you didn’t before, you sure do now. Because it’s not just Ben Warren who shows up outside of Grey Sloan Memorial in an ambo with a pair of young brothers injured in a chemistry experiment gone wrong. His boss, firefighter Andy Herrera, is with him. Meet the newest lady of TGIT!
Andy will be back on Grey’s later this month for a proper lead-in to her pilot with a whole slew of other firefighters, but for now, we get some one-on-one time with her. I’m reserving judgement until after a few episodes of Station 19 (who am I kidding, there are life-and-death situations and also love triangles, I will love it!), but based on her time in “You Really Got a Hold on Me,†things seem promising. I mean, Andy Herrera isn’t a hugger and she sticks her hand into victims’ body cavities in order to keep them alive. Sound like anybody we know?
As it so happens, Andy spends most of her time in Grey Sloan with the bomb-inside-a-body-cavity extraordinaire herself, Meredith Grey. If Andy moves her hand off of 10-year-old Zack’s abdominal aorta, he will bleed out in seconds — so she is headed into the O.R. with the good doctor. She is in awe of what the surgeons do. She is especially in awe after Meredith, unable to get a good angle to clamp the aorta, walks Andy through doing it herself. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again (and again): I love seeing Meredith be a badass in surgery.
Free from that human body cavity thanks to both Meredith Grey and Kyle Chandler’s ghost (#NoYouDidGood), Andy finds her rookie Ben to tell him about the rush she’s feeling, and how tough it is to go from a front-row seat to the waiting room. But she doesn’t need to tell Ben — he already knows this.
Poor Ben Warren is having a tough time being at Grey Sloan in his new role. He may know exactly what needs to be done to save the victim he brought in, but he is repeatedly told that he doesn’t belong in this room, and that he can’t be in that OR because he gave up those rights by choice. Although Ben knows he isn’t a doctor anymore, what that means, and everything he gave up to become a firefighter, is just now hitting him.
Since Ben knows the lay of the land, he sneaks Andy into the surgical gallery so they can watch Meredith finish what Andy started. Andy wants to know why in the world Ben would walk away from being a surgeon — it definitely pays better than being a firefighter. He explains that he needed to be able to do more. To do whatever it takes to save a patient. As it turns out, a surgeon saving a patient by cutting him open with a clipboard clip is severely frowned upon. Andy isn’t used to the big, sweeping speeches people give to express their feelings and teases Ben. Andy, you’re in Shondaland now — get used to it.
It’s a good thing Andy is up in Meredith’s surgical gallery, though, because Meredith needs her assistance one last time.
You may recall that Meredith messed up big time with her Surgical Innovation Contest application and never bought the patent for a polymer that she’ll need for her study. Meredith, along with Jo and my possible favorite new intern Helm (the other possible favorite is Qadri — I really enjoyed her hijab-turned-tourniquet story line with Owen), are waiting for a call from the Spanish doctor who owns the patent while attempting to keep the whole problem a secret from April, the contest judge. Because holding your hand on an aorta can get like, so boring, Meredith fills Andy in on the situation as a way to distract her. When the Spanish doctor calls in the middle of surgery, Andy ends up taking the call. The doctor is headed to the U.S. soon and she convinces him to come and see Meredith in person.
In other words, Andy is making a great first impression on the Queen of Grey Sloan.
Andy Herrera isn’t the only visitor roaming the halls of the hospital: When Amelia and Alex get stuck trying to figure out how to save Kimmy by shattering the tumor in her brain without, you know, shattering her brain, Amelia calls in reinforcements by way of the one, the only, Dr. Tom Koracick. You may remember Koracick from such things as saving Amelia’s life by removing her secret brain tumor, hooking up with Amelia, and also, being an ass.
Although, I am a tiny bit swayed by his musical-theater knowledge. He is right, by the way: At least one Sondheim musical needs to be in Kimmy’s Top Three Musicals of All-Time list.
Koracick spends most of his time at Grey Sloan flirting with Amelia, making inappropriate comments about Bello to DeLuca, and belittling Alex’s existence — all of which are no-nos — but he also might have a solution to Amelia and Alex’s problem. Instead of using one laser to shatter the tumor, they use multiple lasers. I mean, it’s more complicated than that, but I know very little about lasers and pulverizing brain tumors. Multiple lasers it is!
There is one problem: They are still very much in the beginning stages of their research and experimentation. There is no way their method will be ready to use on Kimmy before her tumor gets worse. She has just months to live. Kimmy dying will hit all of us hard because she is an angel child and also Grey’s needs more musical-theater-nerd talk, but it will most assuredly hit Alex the hardest. As he tells Jo, Kimmy’s gotten under his skin … in a good way. In a “let me hold your hand and attempt to harmonize with you at your bedside†kind of way. If Kimmy doesn’t make it, it is going to be rough.
Speaking of rough, let’s talk about April “The Party†Kepner. Remember, we are still in Dark April times, so beware.
April is out getting hammered drunk most nights, tossing on a banana bag to rehydrate at work, and yes, still hooking up with Intern Roy. Jackson starts to notice the change. He brings up April being very un-April-like to Arizona, who tells Jackson to cool his multimillion-dollar jets. April may not have been this way with Jackson, but this is who she is now — or at least, who she is while she’s trying to figure out who she is without Jackson. Arizona advises Jackson not to worry and to let April attempt to find a new way to be happy.
Jackson is ready to accept this … until he hears Roy bragging about their hookups. Jackson won’t stand for it, so he calmly interrupts Roy to inform him that he’ll be draining a groin abscess that afternoon. Jackson also decides to bring it up with April. He is worried about her. “You’re Harriet’s dad, not mine,†she tells him. I am still gasping over the sass.
Later, Arizona walks into the bar to find April pouring shots directly into the interns’ mouths as they cheer her on and she chugs liquor from the bottle. It’s then that Arizona realizes she was very wrong: Jackson definitely has a reason to worry.
Laughter Is the Best Medicine, Except for Real Medicine
• Although I’d really love for Grey’s to just get to the inevitable Jackson-Maggie hookup since drawing it out in an attempt to make us more into this pairing is exhausting and futile, I am happy to hear that Clive is still getting it. You go, Clive!
• The Bailey-Webber relationship never disappoints and it was a hoot to watch Webber hover over Bailey during her first day back, post-heart attack — er, excuse me, vacation. But Bailey doesn’t need a babysitter, she is back and better than ever.
• I love that the real tip-off for Jackson that April has changed isn’t that she’s dropping Harriet off at day care with a banana bag in her arm, but that she uses “party†as a verb. Can these two just get back together?
• Okay, I legitimately laughed when Amelia wanted credit from Alex for her play on the word “tool†when explaining why they need Koracick around. Is post-tumor Amelia going to be tolerable? This is uncharted territory.
Sob Scale: 4/10
Who thought it would be a good idea to have Alex Karev sing “Danny Boy†with a dying patient? That person is evil (and wonderful). No, seriously, we need to save Kimmy.
This recap has been corrected to show that the doctor who owns the patent is Spanish.