Grey's Anatomy: Walking Tall (12x02)

Another solid episode! Not as strong as the first one, but still... a lot of good stuff is going on here. Let's start with some cons.

Cons:

The main plot centers around Bailey's first day as chief, and the remarkable patient she wishes to save. This woman is over seven feet tall, and they discover that this rapid growth is caused by a tumor on her pituitary gland. I've got to say, the woman who played the patient was not a very good actor. I hate to be mean to the guest stars, but there you have it.

This plot thread was meant to showcase Bailey's struggle to be a good chief. She ends up yelling at everybody a lot, and not treating them with respect. While I liked this in theory, I felt that maybe some of it came across as a bit extreme. There was no subtlety to Bailey's behavior. She acted horribly the whole time, then apologized. I wish we could have seen more layers.

Then there's the main subplot about April and Jackson. I'll talk more about it in the "Pros" section, but there was a speech from April at the end about how she'll always keep fighting for Jackson, because she vowed to do so... I don't know what it was, because usually I like Grey's Anatomy speeches. But this one didn't really hit the spot. It was a bit hokey.

But enough complaining. On to the good stuff!

Pros:

Even if the Bailey stuff was a little too simplistic, I did love what Bailey's first day as chief meant for her relationship with Richard. Richard was disappointed that Bailey seemed not to need him, and felt like she could take on the burden by herself. By the end of the episode, Richard gives her the good advice that she needs to earn respect from her people, and that can't happen all at once. I loved the moment when Bailey apologized to the doctors she had been yelling at earlier, telling them that they did extraordinary work in saving the giant girl's life, and also promising to do better the next day as their chief. Ben also got some interesting moments. He's in an enormously difficult position, as Bailey's husband. I like the way he tried to balance all of this - he had to support his colleagues in their annoyance of Bailey's actions, but he had to support his wife on her first day as chief.

Meredith, meanwhile, has been working her ass off all day to cover Bailey's patients, which were unceremoniously thrust upon her by Bailey. At the end of the episode, Bailey tells Meredith that she wants her to be a "Bailey" for her, the same way she was for Richard and Owen. She needs somebody to be her second in command. Meredith gladly accepts the job. This was really sweet, and I think it's a good way to cement the fact that Meredith, despite all of her terrible tragedies and struggles, is very good at her job. She's the calm at the center of the storm.

Stephanie was Meredith's intern during all of this chaos, and she kept getting things done and pushing people out of the way by saying that she was doing it "for the chief." This makes Jo angry, because Stephanie keeps getting what she wants. Alex tells her that it's a brilliant idea, and that Jo is just angry she didn't think of it first. Meanwhile, one of the new interns (Wylie from The Mentalist) has a crush on Jo, but Jo doesn't even notice him. I loved all the stuff here about Stephanie. She's still one of my all-time favorites on this show. The baby intern crushing on Jo could be interesting, and since I really like the actor, I'm going to hold off and wait and see what becomes of it before I judge.

I'm seeing the way the "lighter tone" of this show is manifesting itself already. April gets quarantined because of a mysterious rash. But instead of there being real panic and concern that she might be dying, this plot thread is used for comic relief, as everybody keeps coming to April to talk through their own problems. April, stuck in a bubble, is unable to chase down Jackson and force him to talk to her. I loved the fact that first Richard, and then Owen, talked to April as if she was their therapist. Too funny! And in the end, the expected drama didn't really happen - Jackson gets paged 911 to April, but it turns out she's fine - the rash was nothing. She paged him 911 to force him to talk about their marriage. While there is of course a good deal of angst associated with their failing relationship, I still appreciated that we didn't go down a dark and medically unlikely path.

One of the strongest parts of this episode was the growing relationship between Owen and Amelia. As Owen goes to the trapped April for advice, Amelia goes to Callie. She asks her if she's ever had a good friend that she just wanted to make out with all the time. Callie says yes, and Amelia asks what happened. Callie's answer? "Sophia." So funny! And we hardly ever get a mention of Mark any more, so that was nice. Owen and Amelia end up making out in an elevator, which was a nice nod to earlier seasons of this show. I hope these two can go the distance.

Callie is apparently seeing somebody. A girl that she's really, really into. She keeps talking about her, and Arizona hears. Arizona says she's totally fine with Callie talking about it, but she might not be - not all the way. My heart is still a little bit broken over Calzona, but I do want Callie to be happy. I hope we get to meet the new lady in her life!

Music shout out - Grey's always has cool music covers, but I was really intrigued by this week's slow covers of "All About that Bass" and "Shake it Off." Really good stuff!

I think that's where we'll stop. This was a solid episode, although I will admit there were some shaky moments in terms of the speeches. Still, I'm really enjoying the direction this season is taking so far! It looks like next week will be a Jo and Alex episode, which delights me to no end!

8/10