I really, really liked one plot thread in this episode in particular. The whole thing was pretty good, but there was one part that I just adored above the rest. Let's get started!
Meredith is having trouble on her own. She misses Derek and Cristina, and finds that she cannot sleep well when she's alone. At work, she is getting ready to remove a tumor from a woman's abdomen. When she gets in there, she discovers that the tumor has grown to a truly alarming size, and that her original plan for getting it out won't work. She calls in Maggie and Bailey to help her. Meredith has the idea to use her 3-D printer to print out the tumor and therefore be able to truly understand it in its entirety. That way, she'll know how to get it out. After waiting for hours for the tumor to print, they have a working model. Everybody comes together to try and figure out how to remove the tumor. While Meredith, Maggie, and Bailey are still discussing the right approach, their patient starts bleeding and they have to go in and do the surgery. Although it's hard work, the three of them together are able to work out the puzzle and save the woman's life. That night, Meredith calls Maggie and talks with her, both of them happy to be filling up the loneliness with a friendly presence.
Meanwhile, April and Jackson get a test done to find out how badly their baby is going to be sick. Basically, there are two possible outcomes. If it's Type 3, it'll be hard, but their baby can live. If it's Type 2, the baby likely won't live very long after birth. Jackson admits that he'd want to terminate the pregnancy if it is Type 2, but April wants to keep her son no matter what. April's mother comes into town and takes April to church, saying that she'll find comfort there. As April's mother and Jackson fight about what's best for April, she finally explodes at both of them, telling them that neither of them are helping. At the very end, we see Arizona and Dr. Herman come in to give April and Jackson the results of the test.
Meanwhile, Amelia is working on how to get at the tumor in Dr. Herman's brain. The residents are all really interested in what she's doing, but none of them understand it. Amelia is upset that nobody thinks her idea will work. Richard helps her to understand that people just don't understand, because Amelia is the only person who has the whole picture in her head. In the end, Stephanie has an epiphany about the tumor and goes to talk to Amelia about it. Amelia is happy that somebody else understands her idea, and Stephanie gets to help on the tumor.
Callie and Owen listen to a sales rep talk about products for the robotic limb. The sales representative is a beautiful girl, and Callie thinks that Owen should go for it and ask her out. That night at the bar, they run into her, and Callie goes to talk to her for Owen. She then finds out that the girl had been flirting with her, and not Owen. Callie is flattered by the girl's offer of a one-night-stand, but she realizes that she's not ready for that, since her divorce with Arizona is still so recent.
In a brief subplot, Meredith is mad that Alex didn't stop having sex with Jo to come spend time with her. She tells Alex about a rule she had with Cristina, where if they texted each other, they would say "pause" to their respective husbands, and respond to what was going on. Alex says that he and Jo are not going to "pause" while having sex, but later Jo uses the "pause" tactic to talk to Stephanie, who is texting her to tell her about Amelia and the tumor. Alex is annoyed to hear that Meredith filled Jo in on that little rule.
So, there you have it. I guess I'll start with the things that bothered me, even though there isn't really much to say in that regard. The plot with Callie and Owen annoyed me a little bit, because it was patently obvious from the very beginning that the woman was flirting with Callie, not Owen. I appreciated what this plot thread was trying to do, but I thought the execution was a tiny bit weak.
Also, I must lodge my continued complaint about the overly dramatic and unlikely rare illnesses that people at this hospital seem to suffer. Dr. Herman, and then April's baby, both have these crazy medical things happening to them at the same time, and it hurts my ability to suspend disbelief.
Other than that, this episode was very lovely.
First of all: the woman who has the abdominal tumor is married, and she and her husband met over a copy of The Odyssey. They ask Meredith and Jo (Meredith's resident for the procedure) to "swear on the book" that they will do their very best. Bailey then makes continued references to The Odyssey, right down to calling the tumor "the cyclops." I loved all of these cheesy literary references. They made me smile. I can only hope to have a romance as quirky and fun as those two.
More acting props to hand out... every scene with April was just dripping with tension and anger. She is so upset with Jackson, with her mother, and even with God, for the situation she is in. I believe every second of her indecision. I like that she's torn - her mother is telling her that God has only given her one option, which upsets her. Jackson is telling her to reject God's choice, which upsets her even more. And in the midst of all this chaos, April feels utterly alone. This episode was thematically about loneliness, and it just broke my heart that April could feel that way when surrounded by the people who love her most. I'm going to be really interested to see what she decides to do moving forward. I hope this doesn't tear April and Jackson apart...
Even if I rolled my eyes at the Callie thing, because it was so obvious what was going to happen, I still did like the scene at the bar. Callie was so flustered when she realized that the woman was hitting on her. It was so cute to see her like that. Even if she's not quite ready yet, I think it was important for her to remember that she can be sexy and flirtatious. Also, Owen didn't get a date with a hot girl, but he did get a continued strengthening of his friendship with Callie, which I think is the best thing to come out of the split between Owen and Cristina, as well as Callie and Arizona's divorce. We also saw Owen reminisce about Cristina by going down into the air vents like he used to do with her. Aww!
Stephanie and Amelia! Now, there's a partnership I enjoy. I love the fact that Amelia is miles ahead of everybody else with this tumor thing. Maybe if Derek were around, he'd be able to appreciate what she was up to, but Amelia is on her own (again, loneliness is a key theme here). But then Stephanie swoops in, willing to work and think in new ways in order to help Amelia. I really want to see these two work together moving forward. Stephanie is a great character, and they need to give her more to do.
The "pause" rule is hilarious. Jo and Alex are the cutest. That is all I have to say about that one.
Finally, I want to talk about my favorite thing about this episode. Bailey, Meredith, and Maggie working on the tumor. I don't know why but I just loved this plot thread more than everything else put together. There are so many aspects to enjoy. First of all, you see Meredith back in her element, trying something new and innovative and actually succeeding. Since she's going through such chaos in her personal life, I was really happy to see her have this professional win. Also, there's the teamwork aspect, where Bailey, Maggie, and Meredith all kick some ass, with Jo as their resident helper. The all-female teamwork angle is especially appealing to me. They all had something to contribute, and together they solved the problem!
My favorite scene is when they're all waiting for the 3-D version of the tumor to print. They all get to talking about loneliness and how they sleep. Meredith talks about how she sucks at sleeping alone, and Amelia comments that Meredith probably never had to learn before now, because she always had Derek and/or Cristina. Amelia remembers what it was like to sleep in bed with someone. She misses that. Bailey complains that Ben is too warm and he snores, and so she's lucky that he's always at the hospital as a resident, and he's lucky that she loves him so much. Maggie talks about how she can't sleep in the same bed as someone. Her only serious boyfriend loved to cuddle, but she would sneak out and sleep on the couch. When he proposed, she explained about the sleeping thing, and suggested that they have different bedrooms. He is now married to somebody else. Maggie says that maybe she has gotten too good at being alone.
That scene was just so beautiful - all of these women sitting around talking about their lives, and commiserating on their different problems. They were sharing things with one another and bonding. Meredith and Maggie's relationship is really adorable, too. I want to hear more about that moving forward. Will Meredith ever talk to Maggie about Lexie, her other surprise half-sister? It might be an interesting angle to take... even though Maggie and Lexie are not related.
In any case, this episode was pretty great. I only had a few minor complaints, and the stuff with Meredith, the 3-D tumor, the bonding with the other women, and the theme of loneliness... all of this was done so, so well.
9/10
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