Grey's Anatomy: All I Want Is You (12x10)

I don't know... this episode wasn't quite as strong as last week's, and in fact there were some rather hokey moments in it. But there were other moments that I thought were great, and I think it all balanced out pretty well.

Cons:

This episode centered around Meredith going to hospital-mandated therapy because of the attack. She starts off all chipper, but eventually her and the therapist get to the root of some serious problems. Meredith realizes by the end of the episode that she's not alone, even though she's a widow. And maybe the word "widow" isn't right, anyway. She can be whatever she wants to be now. Maybe it was just me, but the method of getting across this story just seemed too cheesy. We kept cutting back and forth from Meredith talking about her friends, to what was actually going on in said friends' lives, and it reminded me of every other therapy scene from every other show I've seen. At first, Meredith doesn't want to talk about herself and so instead talks about her friends. Eventually, she learns something new. I don't know... maybe it was just a tad too cliché for me.

Another problem with this episode is that the plot threads seemed unusually disconnected from one another. At one point, an ambulance explodes, and while a few people talk about it briefly, the fact of the exploding ambulance gets totally left behind. The injuries that resulted could have been caused by something more mundane, and still served the same function. Each of the medical cases being worked on here were unrelated to one another, and there was little crossover with the doctors being consulted. Grey's Anatomy is at its strongest, in my opinion, when it finds a way to unify the messages of the episode. Here, there was some unity through Meredith's therapy, but it didn't all quite click together.

Pros:

The good thing is, despite the fact that the pieces weren't clicking, I thought the individual pieces themselves were all very interesting, or at least had good potential to be interesting.

We finally get some answers about Owen's rivalry with Nathan Riggs. Amelia, frustrated with Owen's back-and-forth attitude about their relationship, finally puts her foot down, basically saying that the way things are isn't good for her sobriety. She wishes that Owen would trust her and open up, but if that's not going to happen, she's done wasting her time. As a consequence, Owen finally admits the truth: Owen had a sister. In college, Owen and Nathan were best friends. Owen's sister and Nathan fell in love, and Nathan was there when Owen's sister died. Owen blames him for not being able to save her. Amelia points out that if his sister loved him, there must be some good in him. Maybe that's enough to give him a second chance. Later, we see that Owen and Nathan work seamlessly together in the OR, moving as one. April and Bailey are stunned by this display of teamwork, but it's short lived. As they clean up afterwards, they start arguing once more, with Owen saying that Nathan only succeeded in this surgery because Owen was there to stop him from screwing up.

I liked how this plot thread managed to incorporate Owen's distress about Nathan, Owen and Amelia's relationship, and Nathan's own feelings into a tapestry that showed the multiple complications of such a fraught past. I understand Owen's anger. I understand Amelia's frustration with Owen, and I also loved her advice about giving Nathan a second chance. And I feel so bad for Nathan, who probably did everything that could be done for Owen's sister, no matter what Owen believes. I really loved the scene where they worked together in the OR, finishing each other's sentences and working in complete harmony. It was effective in that it really showed the tragedy of such a powerful friendship falling to pieces.

Alex's story this week centered on a teenaged patient named Maya, who has a rare form of cancer and wants a daring and bold solution to it. Alex tries to go the safe route, and Maya fires him, turning instead to Callie and Maggie for a more bold solution. Alex decides to support Maya, holding her hand and comforting her as she goes in for surgery. Although there are complications, Maya lives, and with a better chance of a more normal life going forward. Jo is also assigned to work on the same patient. Things between her and Alex are strained. Alex has moved back in with Jo, but the two of them are barely on speaking terms. After seeing how Alex handled the patient, and realizing how much she loves him, though, Jo decides to welcome Alex back properly.

Any episode that deals with Alex and how amazing he is with kids is going to be a good episode in my book. My love for Alex Karev is frankly a little bit out of hand. And Maya, the patient, was a really amazing character as well. I've seen lots of stoic kid patients with their emotionally wrecked parents on this show before, but Maya was a whole new level. When she finally broke down and admitted that she was scared to die, I teared up a little bit. Powerful performances and powerful writing.

And Jo and Alex are patching things up! Yay! I loved the scene where Jo had her friends over to talk through her problems. It ended up being a girl's night (Jo, Stephanie, Penny) and then Ben. He was a little disgruntled at being asked by the girls to explain what it was that men really wanted. He ducked out early to go be with Bailey, leaving the others to complain about the relationships they wished they were having. At the end of the day, Jo has her moments of immaturity and selfishness, but she cares deeply for Alex. This isn't going to break them apart. Hopefully moving forward, Jo can be integrated a bit more into Alex's life and vice versa, so we don't cover the same old problems of their vastly different friend groups.

Callie and Penny also get a reunion in this episode. Both of them separately mentioned how much they missed each other, Penny talking to her resident friends and Callie talking to Maggie, Meredith, and Alex. When they reunite, it's simple. Callie tells Penny she misses her, and then suddenly they're kissing. I guess I must finally be over my broken Callie/Arizona heart, because I really do root for Penny and Callie to be happy.

Maggie, Andrew, and Richard had my favorite plot thread of the evening. Andrew is quickly becoming my favorite of the newbies. He's so adorable! Basically, he and Maggie are still keeping things quiet between them, but real feelings appear to be developing. After the ambulance blew up, Maggie kept paging Andrew to ask if he was okay. She was worried about him! Aww! Andrew and Arizona are still living together (what an odd setup), so when Richard goes to pick Arizona up for a trivia night, (adorable!) Andrew and Richard get to talking. Andrew talks about his new secret relationship, and Richard has no idea he's talking about his own daughter. Later, when he puts the pieces together, he is stunned and a tad uncomfortable. I loved that, seeing Richard feel the pangs of a father whose daughter is dating. And I'm actually really rooting for Maggie and Andrew! I love them both.

One final note: This episode did something very smart in isolating Meredith but also surrounding her with other people. Her trouble is that when she's with people she wants to be alone, and when she's alone she wants company. I can understand that so much, and I feel like other people can sympathize as well. And yet in her isolation, she is free. Around her are all of the couples of the evening: Owen and Amelia, Callie and Penny, Alex and Jo, Stephanie and Andrew. Even Jackson and April's impending divorce gets a mention. And yet Meredith is not tragically single - she's surrounded by the people who care about her. Very effective!

8/10