Grey's Anatomy: Papa Don't Preach (16x07)

Big yikes... poor Maggie.

Cons:

I think all of the love triangle stuff going on right now is pretty dumb. So we have some really serious drama going on with Richard and Maggie's family, but we also have to deal with Maggie still complaining about Jackson, and then Richard's weird situation with his wife and his friend who kissed him. I think the intent was supposed to be that the tragedy overshadows all the petty stuff, but instead I felt like other things just got in the way.

The stuff with Richard's niece was straight up tragic, of course, but I think it would have worked better if this was a character who had been around at least somewhat. I didn't even realize Richard had a brother. It's totally possible that he's been mentioned in passing before, but the fact that Richard has this whole branch of his family that he's practically estranged from, is really brand new information. Imagine how much more tragic this death would have been if this young woman had been a recurring character, at least in a smattering of episodes before her death?

Pros:

However, that being said, it was super lovely to have a Maggie-centric episode that didn't make me want to strangle this woman. This was a story about her relationship with Richard, with her biological family that she grew up without. It was a story about her medical prowess, and about the way the medical system can still cause problems, no matter how good of a surgeon a person is. Despite one brief mention of Jackson, which did indeed annoy me, this was mostly an extremely good episode to focus on Maggie's character.

And I mean... wow. What a tragedy. Maggie's cousin was so fun. A little over-the-top, but so sweet and forgiving and interesting. I saw the writing on the wall when Maggie kept insisting she be the one to do the surgery. I knew she would die. And I knew it would totally destroy Richard's tenuous relationship with his brother. They really wrung all of tragedy out of this scenario. The dramatic irony was through the roof. We contrast scenes of Maggie failing to save her newly discovered cousin, with scenes of Richard chatting with his brother, finally breaking through the ice to reminisce about their past.

Maggie came to Seattle to find out more about her birth mother. And through that decision she also got to meet her biological father. And then she has this glimpse of other family members, people who look like her. She barely got to know this woman, and she insisted that their family connection didn't create a problem for her in the operating room. Truthfully, it didn't. It was hospital procedure that screwed things up, and cost this woman her life. Maybe she couldn't have been saved anyway. The tragedy is, Maggie is still going to get the blame. How could it be otherwise? There was this glimpse, for Maggie, of a future where she could learn more about her new family. And now it's been obliterated in the worst way.

We also had a subplot with Owen and Amelia that I was prepared to hate, but then actually ended up being okay for me. I'm still not happy with Owen and Teddy as a couple. They're boring and lame. But I was never super invested in Owen/Amelia, either, and at first I was mighty disappointed in the plot thread playing out in front of me.

And then we got to the end, and Owen and Amelia talked out their problem, and expressed their joy about becoming a part of each other's families, in a weird way. Amelia's baby will be a part of Leo's life, and there are a lot of complicated co-parenting relationships emerging from this tangle of babies and pregnancies. I was happy that even though Amelia was awkward and Owen reacted badly, in the end they were okay and moving forward on the same page.

I also liked the strong pro-choice message here. Amelia had always said she didn't want to have kids, but then she changed her mind when she got pregnant accidentally. I think it was lovely to have a story about a mother who is perfectly happy with her kid, but who doesn't want to be pregnant again. Amelia makes sure that this mom knows that there's no judgment, and she can make the choice she's making, for whatever reason she wants. Grey's Anatomy is good at being political without totally detracting from the story and the characters.

This is relatively short for a Grey's Anatomy review, but that's probably because there were only a few plot threads. Sometimes it's nice to have a bit of a tighter focus. This was an incredibly powerful episode that tugged at my heartstrings in a major way.

9/10