Grey's Anatomy: Old Time Rock and Roll (12x04)

A great episode. I mean there really aren't any episodes of this show that suck - they're all pretty much great. But I really liked this one. Lots of focus on Maggie, and on Stephanie, two of my faves! Let's jump right in.

Cons:

The main "catastrophe" of the episode is a bus crash with a bunch of senior citizens on it. The older doctors keep calling this a "silver flood," and the interns don't know what that means. I didn't like this little plot device. Rather silly way of trying to make a joke out of it.

In Stephanie and Amelia's plot, a controversial medical method causes the tension. I wish we could have had a bit more explanation as to why Amelia was so convinced that the method would work. I sort of agreed with Stephanie - it seemed too brutal to me!

Pros:

Amelia, Maggie and Meredith are throwing a dinner party, but they are all busy and distracted with their own stuff, so they almost forget about it. Jo isn't sure if she should come or not, because she feels like an outsider with Alex's friends. Eventually, though, she decides to come. Stephanie comes too, but I'll get there in a second. The big surprise of the evening is that Callie comes and brings Penny, her new girlfriend. Turns out, it's the doctor that told Meredith that Derek had died! I love this. I knew that Callie's new girlfriend was going to be somebody we already knew. What other reason would they have for keeping her a secret? But I wasn't expecting that specifically!

The reason this is so intense is because during this episode, a lot of the old patients die, and Owen has the interns be the one to tell the families. He wants them to practice giving this terrible news. Meredith is angry with Owen for throwing them in without proper preparation, and she makes a speech to the interns, talking about how the bereaved family members are going to remember the face of the person who told them the news for the rest of their lives. When you tell somebody that their family member is dead, you become a part of their tragedy. This is a serious responsibility. I loved this speech, and I loved the fact that Meredith is now confronted with such a harsh reminder of Derek's death.

Maggie and Andrew, after their hookup, both decide it's a bad idea to have sex again. Maggie continually talks about the sex, and how amazing it was, and Meredith realizes that she is genuinely done with that part of her life. She's happy to listen to the love and sex lives of her friends, but she's content the way she is. I like this perspective. Meredith is actually happy in this stage of her life - but maybe now with Penny around to remind her of Derek, things are going to change.

I loved Maggie and Andrew - their little steamy romance is really interesting to me. Despite their better judgment, they do end up having sex again. I'd love to see these two develop real feelings for each other. I think Maggie deserves to find somebody she can be close to in this way. Maggie was absolutely hilarious with all of her speeches about how she can't figure out who she is, and how sleeping with interns is a bad idea. She certainly seems to put her foot in her mouth a lot.

Arizona had one of the saddest plot threads. She's still sort of uncertain about Callie and her new great relationship. She's feeling like she might not be able to have that happiness again. Then she meets Abe, a ninety-year-old man about to propose to his girlfriend. They were both on the bus. Unfortunately, after Abe tells Arizona the story of how he met his girlfriend on a cruise five years earlier, he dies in his sleep. Arizona is really shaken by the death. April catches her crying in the supply closet. When Arizona says that Abe gave her hope that she could find love again, even if it's not until she's ninety, April bursts into tears, saying that she doesn't want to wait that long to find another soul mate. She already found hers, and he wants a divorce! Arizona then says "Oh sweetie... this is about me! This isn't about you!" That was hilarious, and exactly in keeping with the great mix of drama and comedy that this show provides. I love Arizona, and it was touching to see how connected she felt to Abe. It's such a tragedy that he didn't get the chance to propose!

I think the winning plot thread of the evening goes to Stephanie and Amelia, though. Stephanie is deeply disturbed by a new method of post-operative care. Amelia is forcing a patient who just underwent brain surgery to get up and move around, far before she's ready. Stephanie feels as if she's torturing this poor woman. Amelia yells at Stephanie for passing off the patient to Jo, and so Stephanie tells her the reason: when she was a kid, she was in a clinical trial that caused her significant pain. She felt like she was being punished. She refuses to do that to her patient. Jo thinks that Stephanie is lying, and Stephanie doesn't deny it. However, when Jo tells Amelia that Stephanie lied, Amelia brings Stephanie to Webber to talk about it. Richard confirms that Stephanie's story is indeed true. Amelia and Stephanie hug, as Amelia apologizes for not believing her, and then invites her to come to the dinner party.

This was just so heartbreaking! Stephanie is sort of a callous person, and so in a way it makes sense that Jo would think Stephanie was lying. But the look on Stephanie's face when Jo accused her of that! Oh man! Jo is going to feel so terrible when she realizes the truth. And Amelia and Stephanie's relationship took a big step forward. The fact that they hugged makes me so very happy.

This episode is bookended by scenes of Richard teaching one of Meredith's anatomy classes. In the first scene, he slices into a brain, and one of the interns runs off, horrified. In the end, the same intern slices into a brain himself, with Richard helping him out. I liked this device as a frame for the episode. I'll be curious to see more of the interns learning as this season continues.

In all, a very solid episode! I'm excited by what Penny will bring to the table, and I'm anxious to see where things go between Jo and Stephanie, and between Maggie and Andrew.

8.5/10