Grey's Anatomy: Blood and Water (15x16)

I like it when Grey's Anatomy manages to pull off an episode surrounding a specific theme, and this one did so incredibly well.

Cons:

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, I'm going to complain about Amelia and Owen real quick. This episode sees them formalizing the adoption of Leo, but things are complicated because Amelia and Owen are broken up. They argue around and around about logistics, they fight about their breakup, but then in the end Amelia backs off and lets Owen have full custody. Amelia says that breaking up with Owen was a "moment of clarity" for her. Like... okay. Sure. She has these moments of clarity all the time, where she makes a big speech and totally changes the course of her life. She had one breaking up with Owen, and then she makes a split second decision to run scared away from being Leo's mom. It's typical Amelia behavior, and it honestly doesn't endear me to her character at all. She needs to get a grip.

The theme of this episode is about family - biological, and otherwise. The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb, and all that. Like I said, I enjoy how the theme permeated every story, including Amelia and Owen's, as they contemplate adoption. There's a perfectly lovely story about a gay couple and their kid, and the two dads don't know which one is biologically the father of their daughter. However, due to a medical condition, the daughter has some tests run and finds out which dad is hers by blood. I thought this plot thread was fine, but in terms of the theme, it felt really on the nose. I don't know that we needed this example in order to nail in the thesis of the episode. It felt like overkill, and also a weird catalyst for Levi's confession, which I'll talk about in a moment.

Pros:

We touch base with a lot of characters this week, so I'm going to try to be brief. Famous last words.

Jo and Alex are still hosting Alex's mom Helen. Things seem to be going really well. Jo likes Helen a lot, but she gets a little freaked out when she discovers that her mother-in-law has been knitting hats for her future children. Although Jo and Alex have talked about having kids, the nudging has made Jo really nervous. I like that this couple is strong enough to have a frank conversation about their medical histories and their future as parents. Jo wants to fill in some blanks about her past, for the sake of her children, and I love that we're seeing her embrace the possibility of a happy future.

DeLuca gets swept up in the excitement of his father Vincenzo's cool new idea to build an external womb: a baby in a bag. Carina, however, is worried that their father is in the middle of a spiral of some sort. This is a situation to keep our eye on, obviously, but so far I'm finding it really fascinating. This medical idea is obviously really cool. Alex says that if it weren't for what he finds out about Vincenzo's history, he'd be jumping on the opportunity, no question. There's a moment when DeLuca learns that Alex knows, and he says to Meredith: "you told him?" Meredith says: "Carina did. But I told her to." I loved that this didn't spiral into some big fight. Andrew feels confident about his dad, but Meredith and Carina are both making a lot of sense. Being cautious might be the right move here. I also thought that Vincenzo trying to warn Andrew away from  Meredith was interesting. This might add a unique type of drama to their burgeoning romance.

Speaking of medical breakthroughs, Meredith gets a message from Ellis in a dream, and it gives her a cool new idea about diagnosing patients. There's not much to say about this yet, but I liked how Ellis was able to make an appearance, helping to reinforce this theme about the duality of nature vs. nurture. It was fun to see Ellis with Amelia, Maggie, and the kids. It made for an interesting image.

Maggie accidentally spills the beans about being Ellis and Richard's child while she's talking on a medical podcast. You know, it had never really occurred to me before that Maggie's existence would be quite the scandal in the medical community. Maggie and Richard probably should have had a discussion about how to handle that, but whatever. I like that Meredith wasn't upset, but Richard was. It makes sense - Richard is an adulterer, and Maggie's existence is proof of a time in his life when he and Ellis hurt a lot of people. Again, though, there was a surprising amount of restraint in this plot thread. Sure, Richard got upset, but by the end of the episode, he and Maggie had talked it out, and come to an understanding. Richard may be ashamed of his own behavior, but he could never be anything but proud of Maggie and her accomplishments. She's a product of her birth parents and the parents who raised her, for sure.

Nico and Levi. I've saved them for last. Levi says I love you! I mentioned above that I thought his motivation for doing so was a little bit murky. Seeing one of his patients be overbearing but still ultimately loving made him realize... what, exactly? I mean, he's worried about his mother freaking out over everything changing in Levi's life. I get the sense that she wouldn't be upset that Levi's in love with a man, but just worried about any changes that could hurt her son down the road. All of that is beside the point, though. Nico and Levi are adorable. And they're in love! I want so much more of their relationship to develop. I'm so pleased we got to see this milestone.

That's that! I really enjoyed this episode. I hope Amelia can stick to her decision for once and we can put this long and annoying saga of pain behind us. Yeesh.

8.5/10