Grey's Anatomy: Readiness Is All (9x23)

Let's go thread by thread!

The big one for me, of course, was Jo and Alex. I really adore what they are doing with these two characters, in that our expectations are being subverted. When we see Jo at the beginning with a black eye, we assume that her boyfriend, Jason, is just a complete ass who hit her all because she didn't tell him she was a foster child. Later, we find out that he did grab her, but she did a number on him before he ever hit her. It doesn't change how wrong it was for Jason to hit Jo, but it does add this whole new level to what happened: Jo is not a hapless victim, but rather an active participant in a mutually abusive moment.

The best moments here were obviously seeing Alex's concern for Jo, especially the scene at the end when she asks him why he would do that for her (killing Jason) and he says "shut up, why wouldn't I?" I also liked seeing Meredith and Christina being concerned for him, and Meredith's lecture to Jo: "I like you, but I love Alex." In all, it was stressful to watch Jo and Alex under that much pressure, but there was a happy-ish ending and I can't wait to see the two of them in the finale.

Then we have Arizona and Lauren... there's not really much to say about this one other than that they had sex. They flirted a lot the whole episode, and then at the end they had sex. Poor Callie was innocently setting up cots for her and her wife, and Arizona was nowhere to be found. I'm seriously pissed at Arizona right now, and I think the only way this will be justified to me is if Arizona and Callie have a real talk about the problems in their relationship.

I briefly want to mention Brooks, because she is seriously adorable, and so weird. Derek tells her that it's his job to make her more confident, and less weird. They have quite the cute little relationship growing, and I love how Derek is such a confident and smooth teacher. My favorite quote in the whole episode was this exchange between them: Brooks, hands in the air, says "Give it up! Slamma-Jamma!" Derek, bemused, accepts the double-high-five, saying "stay weird, Brooks."

Then there's Christina and Owen. Ethan is freaked out about foster care, because he's worried that the people he'll stay with will be "like the people from Harry Potter - gross, mean and scary!" Owen is quite enchanted by Ethan, and assures him that things will be alright. This prompts him to ask Meredith about Zola, and how she knew that adoption was the right thing to do. Owen seems to be thinking pretty seriously about adopting Ethan, but of course Meredith tells Christina this, so we'll have to see how that goes.

Christina finds a clot in Ethan's dad's brain, and Derek agrees to take him in for surgery. Christina is really beating herself up over this patient, because her relationship to Owen has been so affected by Ethan and his family. It was hard to see Christina struggle like this, since she knows she doesn't want kids, but she definitely sees now that Owen does. Paul (Ethan's dad) actually does wake up, but Owen isn't exactly thrilled. Instead, he orders to have them transferred as soon as possible, ostensibly because of the storm, but more obviously because of Owen's connection with Ethan.

Bailey, the poor thing, is now only doing administrative work rather than getting back into the OR. With a huge storm coming, she offers to do vital but non-surgical work such as switching the electronic records onto paper. Webber thinks that he needs to "rip the bandaid," and yells at her to get into an OR or get out. By the end of the episode, she has signed herself up with Shane to do a surgery. 

Then there's Meredith, who had a fall down the stairs, which gave her a brief pregnancy scare. It seems that everything is alright, and Meredith quickly goes back to being angry that she was kicked out of a "dangerous" surgery. I love her quote to Derek: ""You know how we could have avoided this? If I had been safely in that exploding OR, where I should have been!" It was also so adorable to see Alex and Christina's concern for her. They were hovering like mother hens, asking her why she fell. "I fell because I have the same center of gravity as a Jersey Cow! I'm fine, guys." 

The exploding OR bit was actually one of my favorite parts of this episode. A patient named Leon comes in with bars sticking out of him - he hurt himself due to the strong winds. They need to use a power tool to cut the bars, but because of high levels of oxygen in the room, they are very worried about starting a fire and going up in flames. Meredith is sent out of the room, but the others all agree to try. There are sparks and a small fire actually starts, but they get out okay. My favorite thing here was that Leon, the patient, was giving them advice about what type of power tool to use and being generally an amiable guy. He was really funny and I'm glad they saved him!

And then there's April... she's complaining because Owen keeps taking her away from surgeries, but in the end it turns out it was all so that Matthew could surprise her with a flash-mob proposal. April's reaction to the surprise were adorable. She was very giddy and very happy with it. It was also priceless to see the way everyone else reacted, from Christina's look of horror at all the cheesiness to Meredith and Derek's smiles. That being said, however, it's just so painfully obvious to me that April and Jackson will be endgame. Why are they dragging out this Matthew thing any longer? He's not at all interesting to me!

Of course, hovering over the entire episode was the threat of the oncoming storm. As a premise, I find this particularly absurd. Seattle is too protected by the Puget Sound to get any sort of super-storm like this. However, for the sake of the show, it works out alright. I liked the mounting tension provided by this inevitable disaster, and I like how we end this episode on a note of hope mixed with a note of fear. The power goes out - the storm has arrived. But, Meredith's water just broke, and we're about to get a new little baby in the world! Although, knowing Meredith Grey, she's not going to have a straightforward birth.

So, what's my final impression of this episode? It was good! There were a few missteps, particularly in the April department, and I'm still not seeing the point of the Arizona/Lauren thing. However, it was a compelling setup for what I already know is going to be an epic finale.

8/10