Grey's Anatomy: Beautiful Dreamer (14x19)

This show is always getting me to be emotional about stuff that I don't want to be emotional about!

Cons:

Ugh Catherine you are just the worst. Apparently there's some big secret about the Harper Avery foundation and Jackson didn't know about it, so he may have just ruined them all. Catherine is so entitled and she really needs to get off of her high horse and communicate with the people around her. I guess I should just wait and see what the deal is before I make too many judgments...

So, the ICE plot was bold, and daring, and mostly effective. I do question the lack of a certain perspective, though. I wish we could have had at least one person in the hospital tell Bello to just talk to the ICE Agent and go from there. I'm not saying that's the right thing to do, but having everybody immediately jump into crisis mode felt unrealistic, because I think a lot of people are pretty naive about how bad things can get. I also question the decision to send her to Switzerland to work with Cristina. Is that actually legal? They forged documents and just shipped her out of the country. How is that any better than fleeing up to Canada like Andrew wanted to do? Ah, well. Maybe we'll get more of this story moving forward. If so, then I rescind these complaints. But if this is really the end of Bello, then I'm a little disappointed in how that shook out.

Matthew and his baby Ruby are in the hospital, since Ruby has been having some problems. April hovers but doesn't go talk to him. She does, however, give a suggestion to Owen that helps him discover what's wrong with Ruby. Thankfully it's a small fix, and Ruby will be fine. We then see Matthew and April sitting together in the hospital chapel. I didn't hate this plot line at all, and I see how it was important to get this closure between them before April leaves the show. But it felt kind of lackluster after the power of April's cathartic moment with her dying patient, and it wasn't as charming as her endless apologies to everybody. It was just kind of... standard.

Pros:

I can't believe I'm actually going to admit to this, but one of the moments that made me tear up in this episode (and there were multiple) was Bello and DeLuca saying goodbye to each other. This was literally the first time I had ever cared about them, and it came during their big, dramatic, in the rain as the girl gets into the car to go to the airport scene. So cheesy, so predictable... so effective. When she tried to create distance by calling herself a crazy stalker, and his face scrunches up and he cups her face in his hands... just... ouch. That was some great acting, and I felt more pathos for Andrew DeLuca as a character in that moment than I have the entire run he's been on this show thus far. I'm suddenly really rooting for him to be happy.

The ICE plot line had so much going for it, and oddly one of those things was some excellent one-liners. Owen's reaction to the suggestion that they send Bello to Megan is incredulous: "You want to send her to Southern California, where she will be far away from immigration problems?" The ICE agent ends up having heart problems, and what starts as just Bailey stalling for time ends up with him needing immediate surgery. When Maggie tells him this, his reaction is: "I thought you guys were just stalling me!" and Maggie replies: "Right?! But... no." Great line delivery there.

Also, serious props to how much I could feel the fear and horror of the situation for Sam. Bello is immediately terrified, and everybody else wants to jump in and help as much as they can. Jo has a contact that can get Bello a new identity, DeLuca wants to drive her across the border, Meredith gets her in to a great hospital in Switzerland through Cristina, and Maggie forges her application essay. I like that the stakes felt very high, and nobody tried to belittle the seriousness of the situation. (That being said, see my note above. I think one skeptic might have been a nice addition, so we could see the full scope of reaction to this).

There were also lots of smaller plot threads and moments going on throughout the episode, and several of them made me quite weepy. For example, Ollie dies. Richard is devastated. Catherine spends most of the episode actually being a good wife and comforting him. When Richard puts his head down on Ollie's bed and just starts weeping, I teared up again. Such a tragic story.

Kimmie decides to leave the hospital to spend her remaining time seeing shows on Broadway and living her best life. Obviously Alex is completely unwilling to let her go, so Kimmie finally has to leave without saying goodbye, although she does pass a "thank you" on through Jo. Jo comes to Alex, and tells him that she wants to have kids with him. Watching him care about Kimmie makes her want to have kids with him. And... she wants to take his last name. Why? Because she's never had the last name of anybody who's loved her. And... I cried. Seriously I think I'm hormonal or something because everything has been setting me off today. But I did. That's just the cutest, sweetest thing in the world. And I am SO bummed about Kimmie. I don't know if we'll see her again, but I sure hope we do...

The DeLuca siblings had some good moments - I'd love to learn more about them. I can't believe how much I'm interested in Andrew these days. And Arizona and Carina are really sweet as well. It's looking more and more likely that these two will get to ride off in the sunset as they depart the show, and as much as I'm going to miss Arizona, I'm happy that she'll have someone with her.

Maggie and Jackson finally hook up and get past the weirdness with April. I'm putting this in the "pros" section because their fight ended up being mercifully short, and now they're on the path to actually cutting out the bullshit. I'm still annoyed a little bit, but I'm willing to give these two a chance!

Finally, we see Owen sign up to try and foster a kid - leading to adoption eventually. This has been a long time coming, and I'm happy for Owen trying to go after what he wants after so long. He's always wanted to be a father, and I think he'll be really good at it. This show kills me with the giant ensemble sometimes, but the plus side is that there's usually a good mix of characters to enjoy, and I'm never bored!

8.5/10