Grey's Anatomy: Caught Somewhere in Time (14x16)

Pretty good stuff. A couple of annoying elements, some things I wish could have been addressed differently... but all in all, a good episode.

Cons:

I recall being slightly annoyed that Meredith's plot thread with her mother's past had been cut a bit short. This week, we do see the ramifications play out, as Jo convinces Meredith that she shouldn't let her mother's legacy hold her back from her own progress and innovation. I'm more than okay with this argument, and I'm glad that it got brought up. But at the same time, I feel like Jo is missing the big point, which is that with or without Meredith, the new technique will exist. Really it's just a matter of who gets credit for what, and I think there's something to be said for Meredith's selfless decision to let somebody else take the credit. But nobody else on the show seems to agree with me. Maybe I'm just frustrated by a perceived lack of nuance?

Yo, Amelia and Owen - your marriage was pretty darn boring to me when you were actually married. Now that you're not, can we stop harping on it? The two of them have casual sex, because that always works super great, and they come to the conclusion that Owen has always been in love with Teddy or something. So he rushes off to go tell her how he feels. This just feels like an enormously clumsy way to introduce Teddy back into Owen's life. Come on.

Forever ago, I used to write a lot about how much I disliked Catherine Avery as a character. This episode, unfortunately, reminded me of why. She's upset about Jackson and Maggie, which doesn't really make sense even when she explains it, but even worse than that, she acts completely irrational and bickers with Jackson about it in front of their vagina patient, and it sucks. I mean I know the doctors on this show aren't exactly shining beacons of professionalism, but Catherine is enormously selfish in this plot thread. Even Richard thinks so.

For the most part, I enjoyed April's continuing breakdown in this episode. But there was one moment, when she breaks down and starts giving chest compressions to the trauma dummy, that I felt went too far. I liked seeing her break down, and the actress did an excellent job, but if you push it too far, you lose the full effect of the moment.

Pros:

On the plus side, I will say that I am enjoying Jackson and Maggie a little bit. When they're not being childish and awkward, it's a bit amusing to watch them flirt and make plans for "dinner" together. I'm not feeling the intensity with them like I have with some other Grey's Anatomy pairings in the past, but maybe that's okay. I think it's going to take me a while to jump on board with this one, but for the first time I'm thinking that it is possible.

And like I said, April's descent into madness is pretty darn fascinating. Her torture of the interns during trauma certification was just the right mix of hilarious and heartbreaking. I love how Owen, who in past seasons is shown as a very strict task-master when it comes to the harsh reality of trauma surgery, is actually the good cop in this scenario. When April leaves, Owen talks the traumatized interns through their suffering. That was just so fantastic.

Bailey's patient is a trailblazing astronaut who is trying to make a time machine. This plot thread provided a lot of laughs, a lot of silliness, but unfortunately ended with the death of the patient. Grey's plays around with a lot of silly ideas and concepts, so it wasn't really much of a stretch to have them working on a woman who thought she could invent a time machine. And despite being an uber-skeptic about things like this, I did like the attitude this woman has. She realizes that cracking time travel is improbable, but if she stops trying, innovation stops. So true! Science for the win! Also, everybody trying to name Bailey's rectal tube thing was pretty funny. Lots of distasteful puns.

Arizona's patient is just the saddest thing ever. She's a pregnant mother who has some problems with her pregnancy, which Arizona manages to help her with, despite the risks. But meanwhile, Arizona notices that her eight-year-old son has a strange, persistent laugh, and Amelia and Alex discover that unfortunately this kid has been having repetitive seizures each time he laughs. The tumor is too risky to remove, so the only choice for the kid is a highly experimental treatment. I mean... this poor woman cannot catch a break. I like how Sofia got to be a meaningful part of this episode, and we even had a moment where Arizona could reflect on the fact that she's often too busy to be there for her daughter. I don't expect them to actually keep up with this, but I liked the moment of reflection. I'm still trying to figure out how Arizona exits the show - does she move with Sofia to be closer to Callie and Penny? Who knows!

I'm sure I'm missing a plot thread or two - that's what happens when an ensemble show decides to dive in to so many different story beats in the same week. I'm always impressed that Grey's Anatomy can do this without the episode feeling overcrowded or unbalanced. However, the sheer amount of story-lines going on means that usually there are one or two things that I'm less excited about.

7.5/10