Grey's Anatomy: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story (14x07)

Okay, that was undeniably kind of fun. I'll admit I was a little skeptical of the concept, but it all worked out and it made me smile.

Cons:

I will say, the "baby-Izzie" part of this story was a little weird to me. I can understand being sentimental about George, who died, and even Cristina, who left on good terms and is still in contact with Meredith and Alex. But Izzie? It's not like she's trapped in another dimension or something. It's not like she's dead or Alex can never see her again. We get this moment where Alex tells Jo that whenever he thinks of Izzie, he imagines her smiling, and being as happy as he is now with Jo. And I'm thinking: it's great that you've forgiven her for everything, but it's not exactly like she treated you well, and then she just abandoned you. I'm not sure that I like the romanticizing of Izzie Stevens going on here.

So far, I'm profoundly uninterested in DeLuca and his ex-girlfriend, with whom he seems to be starting things up again. It's just that DeLuca is kind of really boring, and I know nothing about this girl, and I don't feel invested. So. There's that.

Pros:

The basic idea here is that patients come in to the emergency room after a roller coaster accident, and they are eerily reminiscent of George, Cristina, and Izzie. This makes for a lot of good quality nostalgia and screen-time for Alex and Meredith, the other two original interns. I liked that the people playing these look-a-likes were not trying to do impressions of these characters, but were just similar enough that the memories could come forward. I've always admired Grey's Anatomy for keeping its past as an integrated part of the story. When a character leaves, their impact on the rest of the characters is still potent.

I particularly liked the moment at the end when Alex and Meredith go down to the hallway where they used to hang out as interns. Cristina calls, and the three of them can bond together in memories of their past. So sweet! Alex and Meredith have long been one of my favorite relationships on this show, so I was glad to get to see some material with them. The joke about roller coasters at the start of the episode was just vintage Alex and Mer. Love it.

The other big plot thing going on is that Meredith is up for the Harper Avery, but she ends up missing the actual ceremony because she's in surgery working on baby-Cristina. The rest of the hospital arranges to have the ceremony live-streamed, and Meredith gets to watch as Catherine Avery announces that Meredith has won. Jackson gives a beautiful speech as he accepts the award in her honor. He talks about all of the loss she has suffered - Lexie, Derek, and her mom - and how she turns that loss into a drive to help save lives. We see a gallery full of her family, including Maggie, Zola, Owen, and Amelia all smiling down at her and clapping, and we see the image of Ellis in that crowd, clapping along with them. It's all made the more potent because Meredith is wearing the famous ferryboat scrub cap, so we know that Derek is with her as well.

In subplot news, Miranda is pissed off with Ben about the firefighter thing, and honestly, I don't blame her! Ben has always been an adrenaline junkie, and I like the fact that this current plot is forcing that aspect of his personality out into the open. Maybe it'll lead to a final confrontation and a realization of who he wants to be. We shall find out.

We've also got Arizona being very nervous about Sofia coming home. This was really sweet, because she ends up reminiscing about Mark, and thinking about what he'd tell her if he were there. He'd tell her to relax, to let Sofia get three different kinds of ice cream, and that everything will work itself out. Indeed, as the episode ends, we see Sofia arrive. She misses her other mama, but she seems excited about the ice cream prospect! I always say that plot threads in this show that feature the kids are a little silly, but for whatever reason, this really worked for me. I liked seeing Arizona anxious about being a full-time mother again. I wonder if this will lead to increased mentions of Callie, and if we'll figure out what happened that made Sofia want to move back home.

Speaking of the kids, Maggie gets a pass from my eternal wrath this week, as her function in the plot was basically to be really excited for Meredith, and hang out with Zola. Zola is adorable, and it was really cute and sad when she talked about missing her father. Zola actually helps Maggie a bit with her own grief over her mother by saying that her mom will always be with her. This is of course echoed when we later see Ellis Grey's image clapping for Meredith. She's standing near Maggie, her other daughter who she never knew. Kind of powerful stuff, if you can stomach the cheesiness!

I managed to keep this review a decent length, so let's not ruin that with a lengthy wrap-up. I thought this was a lot of fun!

8.5/10