A big ol’ windstorm rolls through Seattle and for that I’m grateful — the howling winds will muffle my screams of REALLY, TEDDY, REALLY? The wind might as well carry me off into the night what with Teddy’s ridiculousness in this mid-season finale.
It’s a very confusing time, because news of Teddy’s return to Grey Sloan was cause for celebration. She’s a great character who could inject the right amount of drama into things, especially for Owen, a … how shall I put this … sad sack. But her entire return so far has been wasted and honestly, she’s getting on my nerves. It’s taken eight episodes for her to finally tell Owen! She’s been hemming and she’s been hawing and she’s been hiding out in swanky hotel rooms because she doesn’t want to rain on Owen’s “I finally made myself a family” parade. Then, just before they’re going into the OR to remove a giant candy cane decoration that’s impaled an elderly man, she says that she needs to tell him something … but later. They need to concentrate on this surgery first.
Are you even serious, Teddy? Like any human being is going to be able to concentrate when his oldest friend and possible soul mate, who has mysteriously returned to Seattle for no apparent reason, says that they really need to talk. Obviously, Owen starts spiraling during surgery thinking about what Teddy will tell him, so Teddy just blurts it out! Right there in the OR with Jackson and a bunch of nurses watching! I mean, praise Shonda for Jackson’s reaction face, but, “I’m pregnant. With your baby,” in the middle of the OR? I’m not even mad, Teddy, I’m just disappointed. Just kidding — I’m definitely mad!
Not everyone is as infuriating in this windy Grey’s installment. Can we talk about Meredith? At one point she admits she’s been “having such a week,” and the lady isn’t lying. The moment she’s back from the most depressing trip to Los Angeles, she has to pick Richard up from the police station. She’s worried about him. She’s extra worried since she knows what she knows. She tells him he needs to get his head on straight so he can take care of his people. Remember how great James Pickens Jr. was last week? I have a feeling we’re going to have a few more of those moments this season. Like, can you even imagine him first seeing Catherine after finding out about her tumor? Gah!
After that, Meredith is back in an OR where she has to listen to her sister Maggie go on and on about her giant fight and possible breakup with Jackson, the whole time knowing that Jackson is really going to need Maggie. Meredith gets very testy and it is awesome, as usual: Maggie explains that Jackson thinks she needs to talk more, to share her feelings more, and Meredith’s response is: “He should do more surgeries with you.”
Meredith can’t hold back for too long: Post-surgery, she breaks and tells Maggie about Catherine’s diagnosis. It’s really bad — and Maggie needs to figure out a way to be there for Jackson. I guess the sisters who break HIPAA together, stay together.
Eventually, when Maggie comes across Jackson again — thanks to a patient, he’s realized that he and Maggie had a fight, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end for them — she can barely speak. She kisses him and tells him about his mother. Maybe Catherine should be the one to tell her son, but no, sure, this works, too.
The day’s only just started for Meredith! A storm victim named Phoebe has been impaled in the brain with a selfie stick (because they’re the devil’s toys), and after a very tearful phone call with her mother in which she tries not to let on that anything’s amiss, she goes into surgery and ends up brain-dead. It’s all very sad, but there’s a silver lining: Phoebe is a donor, and she’s a match for Cece. Finally!
They tell Cece the news, but DeLuca has some grave words of warning: Cece isn’t doing well. Normally she wouldn’t be getting these organs, but because of the storm, no transplant teams can come get them. This might not work, and she could die. But Cece doesn’t care. She tells Meredith she’s not going out without a fight, and neither should Meredith. You see, Miss Cece has recently become acquainted with Link, a man she calls “perfection.” Cece is tired of Meredith making excuses and reminds her that you need to “squeeze all the love and joy out of this life.” That’s what Cece’s doing by getting these transplants, and that’s what Meredith decides to do when she tells Link that she’ll take him up on his offer to have drinks.
But Andrew DeLuca also listens to Cece’s speech and he sees Meredith set up a date with Link. The guy is inspired. He finds Mer alone and she tells him that he’s brave for telling Cece the truth, that she’s impressed with him. He responds by telling her that she’s amazing and he hasn’t stopped thinking about her since he drunkenly kissed her at Alex and Jo’s wedding. He thinks they could be something. He knows she has options, but he needs her to know that he’s one of them. Meredith pulls out all the excuses — she’s his attending (oh, that’s rich, Meredith “the Girl at the Bar” Grey), he dated Maggie (Mags already said she doesn’t care) — but finally she says she’ll think about it. So there is hope! You guys, I am all aboard this train. These are two people who really deserve to have nice things.
Not too long after, something so Grey’s Anatomy happens. Meredith and DeLuca end up on an elevator alone headed to the OR for Cece’s transplant surgery. Bailey hops in a different elevator with Phoebe, as they go to harvest her organs — Cece doesn’t have much time. In some other elevator bay, Owen catches Teddy on an elevator with a patient and wants to talk, AS IS HIS RIGHT. Before they can, Amelia hops onto the elevator — she wants to become Betty’s foster mom! Isn’t that great? she asks, before sensing the general mood.
At this point in my notes I wrote, “Too many people on elevators — something’s up.” And then the power went out and all those people on elevators full of sexual tension and surprise pregnancy tension and lives-hanging-in-the-balance tension are stuck.
Come on, guys. You know Grey’s loves some good elevator drama.
Laughter Is the Best Medicine, Apart From Real Medicine
• No one is more pumped for the insane impalements a wind storm brings than Miranda Bailey. Through the brain, through the torso, she doesn’t care! She is downright giddy (in a professional way). She acts as chief again since Alex is stuck at home, and man, does she seem back in her element. Within minutes she’s up on the ER desk yelling about how Grey Sloan is a brick house. Is her sabbatical coming to an end?
• When Bailey tells Webber that she asked Ben to leave because she is too stressed worrying about him dying, Webber says what we’ve all been thinking: That’s the stupidest thing he’s ever heard. You don’t take marriage sabbaticals and ALSO kicking him out won’t stop her from worrying. Bailey needs some professional help.
• Webber is temporarily suspended because of his arrest, and while he’s taking time with charts and paperwork, he finally calls Catherine back — but Koracick answers. It motivates Webber to get back on the AA train, serenity and all, because he’ll need it if he finds out that Catherine is sleeping with Koracick. The misunderstanding is funny until you remember why Tom is answering Catherine’s phone. Then you want to cry. Super fun!
• Alex and Jo’s storyline, in which they’re stuck at home, opening wedding gifts in a blackout, is supposed to be, I guess, showing us how in love they are? Once Alex admits he knows what ramekins are because of Izzie and her baking, I couldn’t stop thinking about Alex and Izzie. So, that’s probably the opposite effect of what the show was going for.
• Oh, okay, Glasses. Schmitt is angry at Nico and not afraid to say so. The two end up hunkering down in an empty ambulance after being stuck in the clinic during the storm, and Schmitt lets Nico have it. For the record, he’s not hiding in the closet or ashamed of being gay — he’s just a nerd who never felt so alive as he did when Nico kissed him. “You kissed me and I felt the opposite of shame. I felt like I existed.” That ambo starts shaking and it’s not from the wind.
Sob Scale: 4/10
Anyone else burst into tears when they saw “Mom” show up on the caller ID of poor brain-dead Phoebe’s phone? Just me? Cool, cool, cool.