Grey's Anatomy: What's Inside (13x19)

I'm having a bit of a hard time pinning down my thoughts about this episode. I guess I'll just start typing, and see where it goes...

Cons:

I was angry at Maggie, and angry on Maggie's behalf, throughout a lot of this episode. I have a feeling I was only supposed to be feeling angry for her, but she was behaving poorly, so. There's that. She swoops in on her first day back after her mother's death, steals an important surgery, and then yells everybody's heads off for expressing concerns. But then on the flip side, everybody in the hospital has thrown themselves into their work after experiencing trauma, so isn't it a little hypocritical of them to treat Maggie differently, when they've all done it? But back to the original complaint, Maggie was super duper out of line when she blamed Jackson for her mother's death. I don't know. I'm torn.

Owen and Amelia still piss me off to the nth degree. The patient that Maggie steals from Riggs in this episode is a pregnant woman who, along with her husband, is good friends with Owen and Amelia. This causes further tensions between them, as Amelia refuses to go visit them before or after the surgery, as they're Owen's friends and she doesn't want to intrude. Okay, Amelia. If you're done with Owen, just be done with him. This is annoying.

Pros:

I did enjoy the fact that Maggie's grief was given time to develop. We get a "dance it out" scene with Maggie, Amelia, and Meredith, which gave me all sorts of nostalgia for the early seasons. We see Maggie in denial, we see her break down, we see her laugh through her tears at pictures of her mother traveling the world. Turns out, Diane knew she was dying for quite a while, and she lived life to the fullest. Also, I like the fact that all of the doctors are concerned about Maggie and are gossiping about her. Not because I think they were right, necessarily, but because it feels like the way a family actually would behave. Meredith comments that working through trauma in the OR is normal: "I have operated through a miscarriage!" And Jackson just replies: "that's not normal."

Meredith and Riggs continue their back-and-forth, and for some reason it's not pissing me off. Meredith sees that Maggie is doing well, so she agrees to go out with Riggs. But then when Maggie breaks down, she cancels. The thing is, I really like Riggs. And I really understand why Meredith is having a hard time giving in to this new possibility. It's childish, this whole will-they-won't-they thing, but it's understandable.

One of the best and most unexpected aspects of this episode was the friendship developing between Riggs and Arizona. Riggs sees Arizona and Eliza showing up to the hospital together, and Arizona ends up telling him about their relationship. Riggs confides that he might be starting something with someone too. Arizona eventually discovers that it's Meredith, and she scares Riggs off by talking about the epic love that Meredith shared with Derek. I like these two together. Their interactions make me smile. And Arizona trying to guess who Riggs was going out with was hilarious. She guesses all sorts of people, including Bailey, and Owen, which makes Riggs laugh.

Stephanie, Cross, and DeLuca have a subplot, where in Cross is a patient complaining of stomach pains, and Stephanie is dismissive of him. Later on, April discovers that he's got abdominal TB, and Stephanie despairs at the fact that she dismissed a patient's concerns and nearly missed something serious. I love this mini-arc with Stephanie. She's starting to doubt the process, and doubt her own skill and bravado. I don't want Stephanie to leave, but I'm enjoying the buildup to that eventuality. Also, this plot thread delivered a lot of laughs, especially from Cross. When Stephanie is telling him how expensive his treatment is, he chimes in with: "I have Obama care, I have a year left!" After his surgery, while high, he tells Stephanie she's sexy and smart, and then says not to tell Wilson, since the two of them have a little something going on. That made me laugh.

Bailey and Richard seem to be even closer to putting their differences behind them. Bailey admits that she was wrong in the way she handled things, and admits that she still wants Richard's guidance and wisdom. Richard refuses to take any blame himself, which I actually really liked. If you think about it, this one really was on Bailey and Catherine, not on Richard. I hope he stands up for himself with his wife.

I'll end by saying that I miss Alex. Whatever contract the actor signed that's letting him barely appear in the show, it's pissing me off. I want him back! But that has nothing to do with anything in this episode. I just felt I should lodge a complaint. In all, this episode was... frustrating. I find Maggie really irritating nowadays, but I don't like feeling that way, if that makes sense. Ah, well. Onward to whatever comes next.

7.5/10