Grey's Anatomy: Be Still, My Soul (13x18)

Okay, well, that was sad.

Cons:

My first complaint is that this episode feels a bit out of place in the season. For whatever reason I feel like Grey's has been having trouble following a cogent narrative lately. What's this season supposed to be about? The Minnick vs. Richard feud and all of its many complexities? Or are we supposed to deal with the various romances in their states of flux, like Jackson and April, or Owen and Amelia, or Meredith and Riggs? Suddenly, inserted a bit out of nowhere, Maggie's mother shows up, gets sick, and... spoiler alert... dies. I guess it's a pacing issue for me. Why even add this in at this point? The show is coming back for another season... couldn't we have waited to do this?

For the most part, I didn't mind Maggie in this episode, since it's understandable that a person would become a bit manic when contemplating the death of a parent. But there were still a few moments when I felt like my sympathy for Maggie was straining a bit. She cut through everybody else's advice, and refused to be professional in the slightest about this whole situation. A daughter shouldn't be allowed to treat her mother in the first place. It feels like Maggie would know this, and would register it eventually.

One other small thing - we got hints of the Meredith/Riggs relationship here, but as Meredith says, she needs to be there for Maggie right now. The timing is just bad. I mean, fair enough. It would have felt really out of place to have the two of them going on a date in the middle of all this tragedy. But Maggie's mother's death is now just another stalling tactic to keep the will-they-won't-they vibe going. I feel like I've had enough of that with these two already.

Pros:

Basically, this episode is just the story of Diane's death. We go from Maggie being really optimistic, to things getting worse and worse. Diane is put into a clinical trial at Maggie's insistence, despite the fact that Bailey, Richard, and Jackson all think it's a terrible idea. This trial just makes Diane even sicker. Eventually, Maggie accepts the truth of her mother's impending death, allowing Diane the chance to impart some wisdom to her daughter before she dies. Maggie's father flies in on a helicopter, arranged by Richard, to comfort his daughter.

Even if I have my complaints about the pacing of this plot arc, I still felt that this episode was very effective. I actually got choked up a few times, thanks to Kelly McCreary's acting as Maggie. The first time was when Riggs goes to comfort her, and Maggie has this breakdown about how she could have fixed this situation if only she'd known about it sooner. Riggs offers her a hug, and she just says "thank you" in this really broken tone of voice, as she's finally able to accept some comfort. And then the moment when Maggie's dad shows up, and she just runs up to give him a hug... ouch. That hurt.

The best scene in the episode is the dinner party scene. Diane, having what ended up being her last good day, teaches Maggie how to make her famous lasagna, and then invites her friends over for dinner. We get a scene with Diane, Maggie, Richard, Alex, Arizona, Amelia, and Meredith all sitting around the table. Diane says she wants to pay her respects to Ellis, and Meredith and Richard are forced to confess that they washed her ashes down the drain of the OR. This leads to shocked silence and then a lot of laughter, which I loved. It's such a pure moment. It references something that happened a long time ago. Something that has been unspoken between Richard and Meredith for seasons and seasons.

I don't usually mention the voice-overs on this show. They don't bother me, exactly, but they never seem to add all that much. I actually really liked the one from this episode, though. Meredith talks about how, when her mother was still alive but had very little lucidity left, Meredith found a notebook with the words "Important: tell Meredith not to..." written on them. She never got to know what her mother wanted to tell her not to do. She imagined all sorts of scenarios, from the mundane: not to leave the sprinklers on, to the profound: not to be afraid. It haunts her that she won't ever know what her mom was going to say, but she has found peace in deciding that her mom wants her to be brave. The episode ends with Meredith saying "goodbye, Mom," which was really touching.

All of this contrasts quite nicely with the fact that Maggie does get time with her mom. She gets to hear her mom's advice, from the profound part about not making herself small for anybody, to the icky part about orgasms being a right instead of a gift. Maggie and her mother are on good terms when Diane dies, and although it's a devastating loss for Maggie, you know that she's going to be okay.

There's this brief moment that I want to mention, where Riggs walks in just after Maggie and Meredith have been yelling at each other about Diane's treatment. He looks at Meredith and says "what do you need? What can I do?" It's a small thing, but it emphasized for me that Riggs is actually a really good guy. Somehow, he sneaked up on me. I really like him lately.

It seems we have a respite in the feud between Bailey and Richard as well. The two of them spend the episode at odds, as Bailey keeps trying to be helpful during this difficult time, and Richard keeps pushing her away. In the end, however, Bailey goes to sit by Richard, staunchly insisting on being there to support him. Richard says he doesn't want any lingering problems to stand between them when their time comes. It looks like these two dear friends might be on the mend, something I'm very grateful about. The Minnick thing ended up being a bit of a slough to get through. I want to keep exploring the complexities, but for now I'm glad that there's something of a truce.

That's all I've got. RIP, Diane. She wasn't a character that we spent a ton of time with, but her death was very emotionally affecting. I hope we can delve a bit deeper into Maggie's character as we explore how she deals with this loss.

8.5/10