Okay. This week we get a disaster-centric episode, and it looks like it's sort of the first part of a two-parter. It's weird to be back in sort of a normal-ish episode after last week's strange two-parter. But I liked being back on more solid footing. Let's jump right in.
A tunnel collapse means mass causalities are coming in to the hospital, and everybody has to work hard to save the lives of multiple trauma victims. April, Maggie, Meredith and Amelia go out to the scene to try and save the life of a man trapped inside of his car. They do everything they can for him, but he is so entirely trapped in the car that there's not much they can do. April eventually declares that this patient doesn't have much of a chance - she sends the other three women back to the hospital to help people that have a chance. She stays with the man in the car. Jackson, meanwhile, confides in Owen that April has been different ever since she got back from her tour of duty. It's like they aren't on the same page anymore. April certainly seems to have grown tougher given her time away - at the end of the episode, she shows up with the car with the patient still inside, having decided that moving him closer to the hospital might give him a better chance.
This whole situation causes conflict between Meredith and Amelia. Meredith insists that it was the right call to walk away from the patient in the car and go back to helping people that can more realistically be saved. Amelia asks Meredith how she knows when to give up - she thinks maybe she could have saved Derek's life if she had been given a chance. Even as Meredith insists that there was nothing Amelia could have done, Amelia yells at Meredith for not giving her a chance to say goodbye, for not even calling her while Derek was still alive.
The pregnant fiancee of the man in the car has been brought to the hospital. She is under Stephanie's care. Stephanie is having to put up with new interns, who just started their first day. A man who came in with the pregnant woman claims to be a surgeon, and he jumps in and tries to help. However, when Stephanie asks him to help save the woman from paralysis, his cool demeanor cracks, and he reveals that he's just an intern. It's his first day, and he was running late, but he stopped to help when the bridge collapsed. Stephanie and the others are still able to save the pregnant woman. It's left to be seen what will happen to her fiance in the car, though...
Owen has stepped down as Chief, claiming it's time for something new. Richard steps in as interim chief, meaning he gets to give his famous speech to the interns on their first day. Richard and Catherine are supposed to get married that day, but the disaster forces them to postpone. Catherine comes in to the hospital to help out. Another victim of the bridge collapse is a young man who was traveling with two of his friends on a college tour road trip. Owen has a radical idea about how to save the patient. Jackson and Catherine both think it's a bad idea, but Alex and Richard both agree to go along with it. Luckily, the procedure doesn't kill the young man, but it's left to be seen if there's any permanent damage. However, this does cause strife between Catherine and Richard, who disagreed about the procedure. Catherine says that she gets to pick the new permanent chief, while Richard thinks that Catherine shouldn't act like she has all the answers. Richard tells Bailey that he's recommending her as the next chief, and he also reveals that he's not so sure about getting married to Catherine. He always puts his work before his relationships, and he feels doomed to repeat the same mistakes.
Jo is enamored with the stories that April and Owen tell of working as an army doctor. She talks about how she and Alex should go, but Alex doesn't like the idea. He says that he's happy where he's at - he's put down roots here, and he knows his place is here, working for this hospital. He tells Jo she should go if she wants to. Meredith is having trouble adjusting to being back home. She tells Alex that she doesn't feel like her house is a home anymore, since it was the home she shared with Derek. She asks Alex if she and the kids can come stay with Alex for a while. Alex says yes, and doesn't bother checking with Jo about it.
Towards the end of the episode, Maggie receives an upsetting phone call from her mother, but as yet we do not know what her mother said to her.
So. Lots of stuff happening in this episode. I think I'll start with the few little things that I didn't enjoy.
Jo and Alex strife! No! Leave them alone! I feel like throwing a wrench into their relationship at this point is just a cheap way to create new conflict. Jo and Alex's relationship has been on a back burner for such a long time that it might have been nice to show them established and happy for a while, before throwing conflict at them.
Richard and Catherine doing a 180 on the wedding. This also doesn't make any sense. They both knew who they were when they got engaged, right? Of course they'd postpone their wedding to help with a disaster at the hospital. I don't think that's unreasonable at all. And as for their disagreement about running the hospital, I feel like it came out of nowhere. Can we just have one reasonably happy couple on this show? I guess Ben and Bailey are still doing alright, but that's about it at this point.
And now for the stuff I did enjoy.
First of all, April is a total bad ass. When she showed up at the end with the car with the guy still trapped inside, she looked like a superhero. This new version of April is a little colder, a little more austere, but she's also seriously impressive. I can't wait to see how her relationship with Jackson progresses, and how her new mentality plays in to her professional career.
New interns! Now, obviously we don't know enough about them yet to make a judgment, but I tend to be happy with new characters on this show. I especially like the guy who didn't tell anybody he was an intern until he was in a critical situation, and it ended up screwing things up. He tried to show up on his first day as a superhero, but it didn't work out so well. I think something might end up going on between him and Stephanie. I think that could be an interesting dynamic. Joe Adler, aka Wylie from The Mentalist, is one of the new interns! I'm happy to see him, since I really loved Wylie, and I miss that show.
I felt really happy and nostalgic about the flashbacks to the pilot of this show. We got the speech that Richard gave our original interns echoed back to us, pretty much word for word. And Stephanie took on the role of Bailey, being the bad ass boss of the new baby interns. I loved it.
The best moment in the entire episode was definitely the scene between Amelia and Meredith. The actress playing Amelia, Caterina Scorsone, killed it. I totally understand why Meredith wouldn't call Amelia, and why she let Derek go. But at the same time, I also totally understand Amelia's anger and grief. I was really impressed by the intensity and tragedy of that exchange.
Although I'm annoyed with the Jo/Alex conflict, I love the fact that Meredith and the kids are moving back into the house with Alex. I especially loved the fact that Alex didn't even think twice about letting Meredith and her three young children take over the house. Their friendship is just the best.
How cute is it that Jackson is Catherine's maid of honor, and Bailey is Richard's best man? Hell yeah! Also, Richard is recommending Bailey for the chief! Bailey would be great at the job. I'm so excited to see her achieve this goal. Hopefully it really happens, and she doesn't get caught in the crossfire from the messy Richard/Catherine situation.
Next week, it looks like we'll get to see everybody try to save the guy who's caught in the car. Will he and his pregnant fiancee both make it out alive? Will their baby? I'm not really sure what to expect out of this finale, but I'm excited about it!
8/10
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