Grey's Anatomy: Heavy On Me (22x08)

I really really don't want them to do this Jules and Winston thing!!

Cons:

She's got little Bambi eyes and I love her and for whatever reason the idea of her and Winston just icks me out. It's not necessarily the age/power dynamic thing, like, I've obviously gotten over that in past relationships on this show, it's not even close to being a deal breaker for me. In fact, exploring romantic relationships along the axis of power differences is really fascinating for me in fiction. I just think their vibe, in specific is kinda weirdly rancid in this unspecified way. I'm bored and grossed out all at the same time. And right now we're in "Jules is jealous/pining" mode and I'm already exhausted by it.

I miss Jo Wilson. By which I mean I miss when I liked her character. She was one of my faves, genuinely! But her and Link always suck all the fun out of any room they're in together. They have like... anti-chemistry. I am so bored and annoyed. A familiar mantra, I think.

Pros:

You know I'm not a Catherine Fox fan, but I'm also not an indiscriminate hater and when I don't hate something about her I'll own up to it. We start off with Catherine's same old meddling bullshit, calling in an expert to give Richard advice about his cancer without his permission. But then Richard actually confronts his worries about becoming disabled or chronically ill from the treatment to the cancer, and then Catherine, unprompted, actually apologizes and says she was scared and just reacted and should have talked to him more. Like, wow, is this what growth looks like? Probably not, but it was nice to see her acknowledge that her behavior had been hurtful for once. I'm not exactly super excited about this Richard cancer story-line, as I've said before, but this subplot here was rather sweet and well done.

Also giving props for the "we're in the healthy post-break-up" stage for some of my least favorite couples. Owen is proud of Teddy for her podcast thing, and while it does motivate him to have some doubts and insecurities about his own accomplishments, he does not throw a fit about anything, he does not make it anybody else's problem, he just confides in Bailey that he's going through a bit of a thing, and then the two of them save a person's life together. Nice! Simone and Lucas, too, have normal friend exchanges where they navigate that they aren't in a place where they can talk about romance stuff with each other, but at least they can be pals. Now, the second either of these ex-relationships starts looping back around for a reconciliation, I'll probably hate it again because these people are so bad for each other and so aggressively un-fun to watch. But for now, I like that there's some gentle, resigned fondness as they pursue other relationships or other aspects of their lives.

While Jo and Link are boring, I did like Jo becoming friends with another NICU mom, and feeling trapped as a patient in the hospital as she recovers from her ordeal. This felt like a realistic story to me, where it's not like Jo is catatonic with grief or so deep into post-partum depression that she can't cope, but instead she's going through a rough time, she's really emotional, she's crying a lot, but this is a rough patch I'm confident she'll get through.

Keeping this one short and sweet, since I'm actually in a position to not despise a lot of what went on in this episode. I liked Bailey getting a big medical win and helping a woman get her life back, I liked Blue being a good friend to Jules and letting her take a procedure instead of fighting her for it. I like the idea of Lucas potentially dating a patient, it's the kind of goofy drama Grey's does so well. I liked Jo's emotional outburst about how everybody loves the nurse that Winston is seeing, that did get a laugh out of me to be honest.

8/10