Meredith Grey isn’t the only one trying to revolutionize medicine these days. Richard Webber is officially back as director of the residency program at Grey Sloan, and the man has some notes. The pandemic exposed and exacerbated the physician-shortage issue going on, and knowing it is only going to worsen with time, Webber wants them to find ways to adapt. He has Catherine come to the hospital to observe, he calls in his two gal pals Bailey and Meredith to the skills lab where the residents await, and he introduces the Webber Method. He’s going to have the residents perform 12 lap choles (removal of the gallbladder) on their own while three attendings — him, Bailey, and Meredith — rotate in and out of the ORs to be there for the most intricate parts of the surgery, and then once that part is cleared, move on to the next OR and the next lap chole. It’s not as exciting as that domino kidney-transplant surgery Bailey orchestrated, but what is, honestly?
Obviously, it’s risky to toss all the residents into the OR without constant supervision, but Webber thinks the need to “work smarter, not harder†is necessary to survival (albeit terrifying to think about from the patient perspective — I’d like my surgeons to work both smarter and harder, okay?). Meredith is very pro–getting the residents out of the lab and into the OR, but Bailey is the one that needs convincing. She finds it hard to trust “children with scalpels,†which is a great instinct to have in life, generally, but Meredith reminds her that they were all children with scalpels once and these baby birds have got to fly at some point.
The Webber Method ends up working pretty well! Schmitt excels in the OR, and Webber ends up adding on a 13th surgery just for funsies (and learning purposes, I suppose). There is one small snag: Helm ends up nicking an artery because that woman cannot get any sort of win on this show, and Bailey comes in, makes Helm step aside, and saves the day. The patient ends up being just fine, and Helm did what she was supposed to do, which was call for help, so really, the whole thing was a success. Plus, Bailey got to give Helm a little heart-to-heart teaching moment later about feeling that fear and awfulness of making a mistake because she’ll remember it and it will make her a better surgeon. Webber’s really killing it these days; may he and Catherine celebrate with more hot, hot sex.
Speaking of revolutionizing medicine, Addison is still around! Unfortunately, things aren’t going as smoothly for her as they are with the Webber Method. Her uterine-transplant patient Tovah started having seizures and Addison doesn’t know why. She is panicking and has enlisted the help of Amelia Shepherd. This story line is less about Tovah and more about Addison and Amelia being there for each other, which, fine. You see, Addison needs Tovah to be a success, not just so that she can pull off this transplant and get published and win awards, although that will be nice, but this is also personal to Addison. Things got dark for her during the pandemic. She thought about leaving her husband; she couldn’t stand her kid after a while; she hated being home; and, she tells Amelia, there were times when the thought of going to sleep and not waking up was comforting to her. Helping Tovah achieve her dream of having her late husband’s child is what saved her. So she can’t lose her now, and if possible, she wants to save Tovah without removing the uterus she just transplanted.
All of Addison’s junk comes up because she needs a distraction from Tovah’s condition — she ends up being okay; they figure out her anti-rejection meds are causing the seizures, and she’ll need to be closely monitored — and Addison chooses to get to the bottom of Amelia and Link breaking up. Amelia explains several things that we already sort of knew: that living through the pandemic as both a new mom and an addict was awful and that she doesn’t want to be married or have more kids. She sums up her feelings about the breakup succinctly: “I hated the life that he loved,†she tells Addison. While that might crush Link’s already broken heart to hear, maybe she should have this conversation WITH LINK. Explain her feelings and decision to him the same way she did to Addison. Then maybe we can all move on from this mess forever and ever, amen.
Meanwhile, Owen’s making a mess of his veteran/burn-pit situation. Noah introduces him to Roy, another vet who is like a father to him. Roy is leading the charge on taking on the VA regarding the health and safety of soldiers when it comes to exposing them to burn pits. He, like Noah, has pulmonary fibrosis from an exposure, but it is much more advanced. It doesn’t take long for Roy to end up at Grey Sloan. It turns out he has lung cancer, and paired with his pulmonary fibrosis, it makes it tricky to treat. They opt for a risky surgery to remove the mass on his lung. I mean, this is Grey’s Anatomy, so around the time his fellow vets are seeing him off to surgery and telling them they have his six, you know Roy is a goner. The saddest part of this entire story line, though, is right before he goes under, Roy admits that he was the one who gave the order to start the burn pit on his base. It’s his fault so many of his soldiers are sick, and that’s what fuels his desire to take this fight to D.C. But Roy ends up dying post-surgery, and Noah blames it all on Owen for getting involved.
Owen decides to wash off that terrible day by asking Cormac to grab a beer with him at Joe’s so he can get his head straight before heading home to his family. This wouldn’t be notable at all, except for the fact that Cormac just spent all day with Megan Hunt, diagnosing her son Farouk with a heart condition that will require surgery. Megan wants to keep it between them for now until she’s ready to tell Owen. So, that might be an awkward bar hang! And, like, I know I’m supposed to be concerned for Farouk, but I have to believe he’ll end up being just fine, and at the moment all I really care about here is when in the hell are Megan and Cormac going to make out already?
The OR Board
• Between Grey’s and You, are we currently living in the Scott Speedman–aissance? Because as a die-hard Felicity fan, even though I am #TeamNoel forever and always, I feel like I’ve been preparing for this day for a very long time and I. Am. Ready. Nick Marsh pops up at the end of the episode as Meredith arrives in Minnesota and begins her VERY long commute, and even in those few moments, he is very cute and very flirty and they’re going to have dinner again. Get it, Grey!
• Jo is dealing with single-mother problems but then realizes she’s doing just fine when she delivers a baby for another single mother who is having anxiety about doing it all alone. This woman is not alone, and Jo is not alone, and it’s all fine, I guess. Jo needs something much more interesting to get involved in ASAP.
• Bailey’s reactions to Catherine and Webber’s sexual innuendos never get old.
• Dang, Nico and his “rock-star boyfriend†Schmitt keep the Grey’s Anatomy on-call room and supply-closet hookups right and tight.
• Can we get Maggie Pierce back?