When I saw that this episode was going to focus on Ben and Miranda, I wasn't really looking forward to it. A two-parter about this weird forced Ben drama? Ugh. However, I'm happy to say that for the most part I was kept really entertained and drawn in to this messy and heartbreaking situation. While this might not have been the strongest episode in the world, it was nevertheless a very solid contribution to the season.
Cons:
I'm going to start with a nitpick: last week, we saw that Penny's decision to apply for the grant caused a rift between her and Jo and Stephanie. This week? That rift is totally ignored and they don't even bring up any resentments or weirdness. That was an uncharacteristically sloppy piece of writing for this show.
On a larger scale, the plot with Penny pissed me off for other reasons. I liked some things, and I'll talk about that in a moment, but here we go: this week, the second half of the two-parter brought in a lot of subplot material regarding Penny and Callie, and how their relationship will survive with Penny moving to New York. After a pep talk from Arizona about making things work, Callie decides that she should move to New York with Penny. Arizona, frightened that Callie will take Sofia with her, goes to a lawyer and prepares to sue for custody. Since there's also an ongoing custody subplot with Jackson and April, they do a fake-out where you think it's April deciding to sue Jackson, but instead it's Arizona deciding to sue Callie.
Okay. To me, this is stupid for one key reason: Callie and Arizona have gotten really good at communicating since their divorce. They seem to have a system in place, and they work really well together. But here, Arizona doesn't even bother trying to have a conversation with Callie. Couldn't she just say: "um, Callie, I don't think I'm okay with you taking Sofia away for a year." And Callie would probably respond with all due reasonableness. Arizona's decision seems totally brash and illogical. It was like we missed a scene somewhere. So Arizona sees Callie, Penny, and Sofia together, and suddenly she's sure that Callie will monstrously take Sofia away without even talking about it? That's some pretty sloppy writing.
The main plot was very good for the most part, so we'll be discussing it more fully in a moment... but I do have to admit, the lead-up to this plot was very sloppy. A few weeks back, when Ben cut open a patient with a clipboard, I thought the entire plot thread was handled very poorly. Here, we get a continuation of that: Ben making another risky decision that Bailey and the others think was out of line. We're supposed to see Ben as some sort of reckless physician deserving of Bailey's stern condemnation. But... I'm just not buying this for his character. Ben is steady and reliable and kind. Suddenly he's reckless and dangerous? It doesn't feel earned to me.
We briefly checked in with the ongoing Owen/Riggs drama, which continues to irritate me. This week, Meredith tells Maggie what Owen told her about Riggs cheating on Megan. Riggs later tells Maggie that he really did try and stop Megan from getting on the helicopter, and whatever else was going on between them is no one's business but his and Megan's. I'm getting whiplash with all these different versions of the story. Can Megan just please show up and set the record straight? I really want to like Riggs. I do like him, in fact. But all of this boring and repetitive storytelling is starting to make me cringe whenever he shows up onscreen.
Pros:
Let's start with the good stuff in the subplots.
Penny and Callie were so cute. Last week I complained about them because I didn't like the idea of forcing conflict, what with Penny's impending move. But they were just so adorable here. I'm really enjoying them as a couple more and more. Callie is insecure because Penny didn't ask her to move to New York, and Penny is insecure because Callie didn't ask her to stay in Seattle. Each of them just wants what's best for the other, but they really love each other and don't want to break up. There's something so sweet and gentle about their relationship. Penny brings out this really kind and soft side of Callie that I love to see.
April and Jackson, surprisingly, had a lovely subplot as well. April is horrified about the restraining order, because she now realizes that Jackson was going to play nice. And Jackson is understandably furious that April would take such drastic action. But as the episode progresses, each have an experience that changes their perspective. April has a freak-out because she thinks she feels something wrong with the baby. She rushes to Arizona, who takes her to the hospital. They discover that this was just the baby kicking - April never felt that with Samuel. Jackson, meanwhile, works with his mother and a lawyer to create a timeline of events with April, putting together a paper trail. This causes him to realize that he and April really wanted to take care of each other when they were getting married and combining their assets. As the episode ends, he tells April that he wants to treat her the way he used to, when they were best friends. Maybe they can't fix what they had, but they should at least stop trying to hurt each other. April has Jackson feel the baby kicking, and the two seem to have reached an equilibrium.
I've been so annoyed with Catherine Avery's seemingly totally evil behavior. I knew the only way I was going to enjoy this plot thread was if Jackson and April rose above the conflict and came together as one. This episode seemed to affirm that this is where it's going, and I'm suddenly much more on board than I was before. I can't wait for these two to band together and put Catherine in her place. Even if they never get back together, I think they will make great co-parents.
So, finally, it's time to deal more with the main plot. In short, here's what happened: the hospital briefly went on lockdown due to a missing child, and Ben got stuck in a hallway with DeLuca and a pregnant patient. When the patient started to code, Ben performed a C-section. The lockdown ended just after he delivered the baby. Despite the best efforts of all our doctors, both mother and child die, leaving behind a father and three other children. Bailey has to determine the punishment for Ben's actions. She finds security footage showing that the elevator door opened before Ben had cut into the mother, showing that he could have gone up to the OR instead of operating alone. Ben says that he didn't see the elevator open, since he was so focused on the patient. Bailey recruits Meredith, Maggie, and Owen to examine the facts of the case. They believe in Ben's story, but Bailey still suspends Ben for six months from the residency program, causing immense strain in their relationship.
There were a lot of elements that I really enjoyed about this main plot, although as I mentioned above I did have some complaints. Let's go through the good stuff really quickly:
The episode starts with Alex freaking out that a boy has gone missing. Bailey calls a Code Pink, which locks the hospital down. This is what traps Ben in the room with the patient and causes him to make the tough call. I liked the misdirection with the Code Pink. I thought that was what the episode was going to focus on, but the lockdown was lifted after only a few minutes. Good fake-out!
The family in the car accident, including the pregnant woman that Ben tries to save, was very interesting. There was a subplot that focused on the oldest child, a little girl who gravely declares to Bailey that she's in charge now that her mom is dead and her dad is in recovery from surgery. She gets money from Bailey to pretend to be the Tooth Fairy for her little brother, and when it looks like her father won't be waking up, she helps her grandma decide to sign the DNR, since she knows her father wouldn't want to live as a vegetable. The remarkable strength shown by this little girl was really moving to see.
Richard and Bailey had a few great moments, as Bailey tries to pass off some of her responsibility onto him, and Richard shuts it down. He helps her to understand that she has to be Ben's boss here, instead of just Ben's wife. But Bailey, resourceful as always, finds a middle ground, electing a committee made up of Maggie, Owen, and Meredith to help her with her decision. As she tells Richard, she is using her leadership qualities to recognize her own inability to be objective in this case.
DeLuca got a plot thread here that had nothing to do with Maggie. He was the one in the hallway with Ben when all of this went down. Nobody tries to blame him for any of it, but the episode still continues to check in with his emotional state. He's really wrecked over what happened, feeling partially responsible as a member of the woman's surgical team. I hope we can see more of DeLuca separate from his rather lackluster and truncated romance with Maggie.
Finally, there's Bailey and Ben. I wasn't thrilled with the buildup of previous plot threads between the two of them, like when Ben got upset over taxes because Bailey makes more money, or when Bailey overreacted to his earlier life-saving stunt. But here, I see what they've been trying to do with them all season. Bailey and Ben constantly switch back and forth from being husband and wife to being boss and employee. They call this a separation between "Church and State," and Ben gets more and more aggravated as Bailey stays in "State" mode when she should be in "Church" mode, by his side as his wife. It's easy to tell that Bailey is really torn up by all of this, but the interesting reveal here is that while she can't be objective about the situation, it's in the opposite direction from what we would assume. Instead of wanting to be lenient towards Ben, she calls the committee together because if she made up her mind by herself, Ben would be fired outright. To see Bailey this angry at Ben is interesting, because it's obviously tied up in her own disappointment in him as her husband. At the same time, I think back to the way Bailey has always treated residents who got out of hand, and I know for a fact that Ben was in serious danger of getting fired. With that in mind, six months seems like a fair punishment. But as Ben points out, six months out of the residency program will make him fall terribly behind. He'll never catch up with his peers.
As you can see by that monstrously large paragraph, there are a lot of different things to consider with this plot thread. For the first time, I understand the complexities that we're trying to explore between these two. Will they be able to make it work? After all, Ben broke the rules and two patients died. Bailey broke the rules in this episode too, disregarding the husband's DNR and miraculously saving his life. What if her patient had never woken up? What if Ben's patient had lived?
I'll leave it there. This episode didn't really feel like a typical Grey's Anatomy two-parter. There wasn't any terrible natural disaster or gunman or ferryboat crash. None of our main characters' lives was in danger. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the drama provided by the struggle between head and heart, family and the job. Those things have always become blurred with these characters, and here we got to see just how messy that can get.
8/10
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