Great episode! Yes! This show has been on a roll lately. As much as I enjoyed the story arc with Amelia and Dr. Herman, this week we got to get back to some of our other players, and I really appreciated that. Let's get started.
There's an earthquake in Seattle. It's not a big quake, but it does cause some injuries and complications that our doctors have got to deal with.
An eleven-year-old girl calls the hospital, and Owen answers. She can't get through to 911, and her mom is lying on the floor not breathing. Throughout the episode, Owen talks the girl through keeping her mother alive, with the help of Richard and Amelia. It's a long and arduous process, but eventually April gets the professionals to triangulate the signal and track where the call is coming from. The paramedics are able to rescue the mother. Owen and the girl hug, bonded over the experience. The mother lives. Owen and Amelia hook up in an on-call room.
Meanwhile, Callie and Maggie are working together on an elderly woman who hurt her hip during the earthquake. She fell out of bed while she was having sex. She continually regales Callie and Maggie with stories about her active sex life, and she insists on her hip being repaired enough to continue on with her strenuous activity. Callie encourages Maggie to go out with a man she met in the elevator. Maggie turns the man down, and later confides to Callie that she doesn't date people because there's a distance between her and everybody else. Callie tells her she needs to be brave and go for it, and Maggie tells the radiologist that she will have a drink with him after all.
Ben works with Jackson on a plastics case. Ben wants to know how his sister can be sure that she's transgender. Jackson cannot talk about the case with him, but using another patient as an example, Jackson talks about how he's just helping Ben's sister to be who she always knew she was inside. Ben, who had earlier told Bailey to butt out of the situation, apologizes to her and assures her that he called his sister to ask her how she was after the earthquake. Bailey forgives Ben, pleased to hear him using correct gender pronouns for his sister.
Jo and Stephanie realize that Meredith has been on a streak for months now. She's had almost 90 surgeries, all with good outcomes. Alex tells Jo not to tell Meredith about the streak, because it will psych her out. However, Jo lets it slip accidentally when Meredith performs yet another miracle and saves a patient on the table. Meredith does have a bit of a crisis about it - but not for the reasons Alex thinks. Meredith tells Alex that her successful streak started the day that Derek left. She realizes that she's been better off without him. Later, however, she tells Alex that even if her life is better separate from Derek for right now, she still wants him in her life. She wants to share her successes with him. She calls Derek's cell, and a strange woman answers. Meredith wonders if Derek is having an affair.
So. There you have it. Complaints? Well... I'm pretty sure that little girl would have killed her mother. Some of the instructions they were giving her were really hard to follow. I'm not sure I could have found the right spot to stick the knife into the chest... and what are the odds that she was able to get everything exactly right and keep her mother alive? I'm glad it worked out, but it felt a tad unrealistic, to say the least.
I also, once again, have to lodge a complaint about the lack of Derek. We keep on having these plot lines that have a lot to do with him, with Amelia, with Meredith... and it just feels strange not to have him there. It takes away a lot of the possibilities, I think.
However, this was a really solid episode. I was happy to see Meredith get a spotlight, and I'm so happy for Amelia and Owen, and for Maggie, and for Ben... let's talk about a few of my favorite things.
Alex and Meredith's friendship. It's got nothing on the old dynamic duo of Meredith and Cristina, but I love that these two, the last interns remaining from their first year together, are so close. Alex wants to protect Meredith from everything, and Meredith turns to Alex when she needs someone to talk to.
We got a brief mention of Dr. Herman! It seems that she's in a facility learning how to live her life now that she's blind. Arizona read off a sassy text from her, so it seems that for the time being she's in high spirits. It's not much, but I'm glad we got to hear from her.
April is back at work. There wasn't much of an exploration of her this week, but I like the way we're easing back in to things. She's still obviously in deep mourning, but she's back amid the bustle of the hospital, so hopefully she's moving in the right direction.
I loved what Maggie said about the distance between her and other people. I think it's so perfect, because she feels like she's different, and therefore must remain alone... but I think everybody feels like this sometimes. I know I sure do. It's like - what's the point of trying? I'm not miserable on my own, and it seems too scary. Maggie seems like a wonderful person who hesitates in letting people close to her. Maybe this radiologist will be the one to crack the shell?
I liked that Callie was the one to knock some sense into her. She seems to be doing pretty well, but we haven't had many stories focusing on her lately. I wonder if Callie and Arizona will ever patch things up? It seems like they might be well and truly done, which would bum me out.
Callie and Maggie's patient was hilarious, and oddly inspiring too. She wants to get the most out of life that she can, and if that means a lot of casual sex, then so be it!
Yay! More about Ben's sister! God bless this show for not pulling any punches with this. I adore Bailey's insistent reinforcement of the correct pronouns, and the way that Jackson tries to help Ben accept it. And then Ben does - I mean, it might be difficult for him, but he's calling her his sister now, so that's a start! I want more Ben and Bailey, please!
Lastly - I know I complained that the little girl probably would have killed her mom, but I still thought this whole plot thread was super adorable. Owen clearly needs to be a father. He is so good with kids. Even if it was unrealistic, I was just so happy that the kid's mother lived in the end. Can you imagine the trauma for that little girl if her mom had died?! I'm also happy for Owen and Amelia. I could really see these two making it work.
I think that's all I've got! A very solid installment. Now, what's going on with Derek?
8.5/10
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