Grey's Anatomy: Civil War (13x15)

This is an emotionally exhausting show sometimes. I don't know if I mean that in a bad or a good way at the moment... suffice it to say, this episode was kind of tough to watch, in that it was pretty relentlessly negative.

Cons:

Like I said - pretty relentlessly negative. We've got tons of different stories going on, all of them focusing on the idea of friends fighting friends, family fighting family. You've got Alex and Riggs fighting, with Meredith and Andrew stuck in the middle. Jackson, April, Catherine, and Richard are in a big fight. Owen v. Amelia, with Maggie and Stephanie interfering, or rather, trying not to. And then there's Arizona basically betraying Richard by getting closer to Minnick, and all sorts of other nonsense. When it's all piled together in one episode, you're left with such a feeling of despair at the end of it all.

The one character who I found particularly frustrating this week was Jackson. He's defending Richard, but he's doing it against Richard's own stated wishes. I mean, Meredith came back because Richard told her to, but here's Jackson, being told to back down by Richard himself, and he keeps saying: nope! I'm defending you! It's annoying because I don't necessarily think he's all the way wrong, but he's so righteous about it, and so unwilling to even contemplate the other side of this. I like Jackson, but I found myself frustrated by his behavior this week.

Amelia comes back for a quick surgery at Maggie's request, and gets roped in on another patient, working alongside Owen. I just don't think this story-line works very well. Amelia says she does want to be married to Owen, but she's scared about the fight they're going to have over whether or not to have kids. I just hate this because it's such a re-tread of Owen's whole struggle with Cristina. For them not to have talked about the kid issue before marriage seems utterly ludicrous to me. Also, Amelia is a damaged person, sure, but I thought she was doing better. Her taking off and hiding with Stephanie and now with Meredith and Maggie makes no sense to me. It's a lazy attempt at drama, and it feels contrived partially because it is contrived - Amelia had to absent for a while to give the actress her maternity leave. Ironic, no?

I also thought some of the patient stuff was a little overwrought and cliche. For example, a man is in the hospital because he was severely burned by a deep-frier. This was because the man's son's fiance accidentally messed up. The daughter is furious at the guy, and the son tells his fiance to leave because he'll never be able to look at him without thinking about what he's done to his father. We don't really get to spend any time with the injured man, and the family drama of it all felt like a really clumsy attempt to mirror all the little "civil wars" going on in the hospital. I could have done without it.

Pros:

This is one of those episodes where I liked the individual elements more than I liked the whole.

Richard, Catherine, Jackson, and April all arguing over a patient's treatment allowed for some great moments, and I particularly liked how Ben kept stepping in to play referee. He's so above all of the drama. I just love him. The tension comes to a head in the OR, when Catherine talks about taking April to see one of the other Avery hospitals in Chicago. Richard is pissed that Catherine is going to see Hamilton with April instead of with him, which, I admit, would infuriate me too. April's reaction to hearing that she gets to say Hamilton was a very squeal-y "yay!!!" which is also understandable to me. I still have to wait a year. Sigh. But in any case, things get abruptly very serious when Catherine yells at Jackson. She tells him that he's not an Avery in the sense that he wants to be. He can't be a powerhouse. He can't be her. She tells him: "you? You are an outstanding surgeon." It's a brilliant line, because it ends up sounding like a brutal insult.

We end the episode with Jackson and April, who are still definitely on the outs over this whole thing. I find this argument to be a little frustrating, as I mentioned above, because Jackson is behaving too harshly. However, I like that April is standing up for herself, and I like that I still understand both sides of this debate.

Karev v. Riggs worked very well. Poor DeLuca, already stuck working with Alex, is now being forced to contend with two doctors who are giving him contradicting instructions. In the end, Maggie as head of cardio puts a stop to the bickering, and the infant child's life is saved. Still, lots of meaty tension to explore here. Riggs still wants to be with Meredith, but she's pushing him away and making him angry by siding with Alex. Alex doesn't like Riggs trying to cut in on his authority as a pediatric surgeon, and meanwhile Andrew is just trying not to step on anybody's toes. Are we going to continue with this squabbling in the future? It almost seems like these two are fighting over Meredith, although of course Alex's side of the fight wouldn't be romantic.

Arizona and Minnick make plans for a date, but they're both so tired after a long day that they fall asleep on a couch in the hospital and sleep until morning. Richard walks in just as they're leaning in for a kiss. I don't feel the passion between Arizona and Minnick the way I did for Arizona and Callie, but I like them. I like them the way I liked Callie and Penny. It's a softer, less intense kind of connection. I also like the way the show is playing with cliched tropes in a new way. In a standard romantic drama, we'd have a love triangle going on. Instead, there's nobody else who wants to claim Arizona or Minnicks' romantic affection. But Arizona is still betraying Richard, in a way, by being with Minnick. She's especially hurting him by lying about it, and affirming that she's on his side all the way. I'm not mad at Arizona for this behavior, but I totally understand why Richard would feel hurt. I can't wait to see how this plays out.

I guess that's really all I've got for this one. It's frustrating sometimes to slough through such a negative hour of television. Everybody is arguing, nobody is happy, disagreements are getting blown way out of proportion. I know that melodrama is par for the course with this show, but gosh. Can nobody get along?

6.5/10