Grey's Anatomy: All of Me (14x24)

A lot of this was very cute, but on the whole this finale was just okay for me.

Cons:

I think TV shows are overly saturated with "disaster wedding" episodes, and I guess I was just looking for something a little different. There's a moment early on where everyone is sitting at the church and the wedding music starts, and I was pleasantly surprised by the idea that the wedding ceremony was going to happen early on, and that the rest of the episode could be focused on the reception. But, instead, it turns out that most of the guests were at the wrong ceremony. There are tons of disasters, both medical and otherwise - Jo and Alex get stuck in a shed with a skeleton, the wedding planner goes into anaphylactic shock, the pastor is super late, etc. etc. Wouldn't it be nice to just have a normal, easy ceremony for once? I'm not saying it would make the best TV, but still.

There was some clumsy writing with the way both Arizona and April got written off this week. My little shipper heart was thrilled with the suggestion that Arizona and Callie might be able to find their way back to each other, but to find out in an offhand comment that Callie and Penny broke up feels very odd to me. Callie moved away from her whole life because of Penny. If the two of them aren't together anymore, then why is Callie still in New York? What was the whole point of Sofia bouncing back and forth? It was all just handled so very poorly. And April gets a very clunky line of exposition where she tells us that she's helping the homeless now, and that's why she quit her job at Grey Sloan. This feels like a good ending for April hypothetically, but it's a bit of a sudden and flimsy excuse for her being written off the show. As far as I can tell, she and Matthew are still living in Seattle, right? Maybe she'll be able to pop back in and make guest appearances?

Teddy is pregnant with Owen's child. The Owen and Amelia stuff is already feeling more soap-opera-y than I prefer from my medical soap operas, thank you very much. Ugh. This makes no sense and makes me so very angry.

Pros:

Alex and Jo were adorable, and happy, and totally chill about the wedding being a disaster. April cared about how the ceremony was going so much more than they did, and I thought that was a lot of fun. It was nice that even though the wedding was a disaster, the bride and groom were not worried at all. They were just happy and having a good time. I love Jo's slightly hysterical laughter, especially when they find a skeleton in the shed and she tries to put a positive spin on the situation. She's pretty great. I haven't heard any news about Alex and Jo leaving the show if Jo goes to Boston to pursue this new career opportunity, but I really, really hope they stick around. Losing Alex would be an extremely tough pill to swallow.

Meredith doesn't want to lose Alex either, which prompts her to offer Jo an attending position at Grey Sloan. She later apologizes for doing that and tells Jo that the opportunity in Boston is great and she's happy for her. Throughout the episode we see Amelia hounding Meredith to try and figure out what's wrong, convinced that Meredith is secretly in love with Alex, or then secretly in love with Jo... it was all pretty funny, and I found myself enjoying Amelia more than I have been lately.

So... April and Matthew get married, with Jackson in attendance, and it's honestly pretty sweet. I'm going to miss April, and I still maintain that I would have liked to actually see a bit of their romance play out, but at the same time, I'm happy that she gets exactly what she always wanted. She gets to marry a man who loves God as much as she does, and the two of them will raise their two children together, and it's all just so sweet and full-circle. Both of these people have been hurt so badly by life, and now they get the reward they deserve. It's sickly sweet, but I'm all for it, at the end of the day. Jackson being happy for April, knowing that the two of them are going to be in each other's lives, loving and supporting each other, makes April's departure feel a little less sad.

Since the whole wedding goes to crap, most of the party are back on the ferry to the mainland, and Jo and Alex still haven't tied the knot. Meredith gets ordained online, and performs a brief ceremony for the two of them. We cut their ceremony in with April and Matthew's, and also with the random couple whose wedding got interrupted earlier when the mother of the bride collapsed. It was kind of cool to see these three ceremonies being performed at the same time. I especially like the fact that Meredith doesn't say the traditional words, but says things like "do you want to be married to Jo?" instead of "do you take Jo?" and that kind of thing. Even if Alex and Jo do leave the show (please no!) I know that Alex and Meredith will be friends for life. I love the fact that Meredith and Jo have gotten closer this season, so you can see that Meredith means it when she remarks that Jo and Alex really bring out the best in each other.

Bailey decides she wants to take a sabbatical from being chief, and focus on research and surgery more. She might be offering an interim position to Teddy Altman, which seems a little sudden. But even with the silliness of the whole pregnancy thing, I think I'm on board for this one. Teddy could be a fun way to bring back a familiar face, since we're losing a couple of our key players. I liked the little story about this other random stranger's wedding, and I liked that it ended up being a happy story, even with all the complications along the way. That was sort of the theme of the episode - complications will happen, but we'll all get through it and get to our happily ever after!

I'm really going to miss April and Arizona. Especially Arizona. And while I'm not 100% thrilled with either exit, I do love the fact that Calzona is implied endgame. I never really got over those two breaking up. I'll see y'all in the fall for Season Fifteen!

7.5/10