Grey's Anatomy: Save the Last Dance for Me (16x13)

So then... was this whole detour with the other hospital really just a time-waster, since all our core doctors are back at Grey Sloan memorial? Ugh.

Cons:

Catherine wasn't here this week, and I still got really frustrated with her. She bought PacWest hospital and then had Koracick interview all of the old Grey Sloan physicians to get their job back. Koracick predictably used it as a chance to mess with Owen, giving Maggie and Richard their jobs back as a matter of course, but leaving him hanging. In the end, all of the board members gang up to basically tell Koracick to knock it off, or else they will quit en masse.

I really hated the framing of this, like Koracick was some sort of recurring villain and the good guys had finally gotten together to defeat the beast. I really feel like Tom has been done dirty this season, in terms of inconsistent writing, and that's a bummer.

Also, Amelia chickens out and doesn't get the paternity test, so we're left still not sure if Owen or Link is the baby's biological father. Can we... not, with this? It makes logical sense that Link would care about this, and that Amelia would freak out, but this is a situation where I'm just so entirely over it, and I have been from the second it started.

Pros:

We've finally started to get some mentions of Alex being weird, as apparently he's not getting back to Jo and is being vague, saying that he's "going through something." It's hard to imagine the exit of such an important character happening entirely off-screen, but I guess that's what has to happen at this point. I like that we're getting to center our understanding entirely on Jo's experience, as I love her and definitely want her to stick around.

Meredith and DeLuca are... back together? Jury's still out on the specifics. I mostly liked this development because of the Meredith moment we got later in the episode. Schmitt does an elaborate thing to help out a dying patient, and Meredith laments that she's changed - she used to be the kind of person who would have done something like that. And her problems with DeLuca would once have sent her into a total spiral. But now? Now she's focused on practicing medicine and on being there for her family. I like that this more stable and mature Meredith isn't presented as a bad thing, just proof that people grow and mature over the years.

I also like how we have the contrast of DeLuca, who is young and eager and focused on work, and then this new guy Dr. Hayes, who talks about his kids with Meredith, cementing a bond of being hard-working doctors with kids who have lost their spouses. There's certainly an interesting tension between these two potential options, and I'm still here for it!

I really like the continuing story of Suzanne, the sick mother, who DeLuca is trying to save. We still don't have answers about her condition, but Maggie regains her confidence and operates on the patient, and we also get a new character, Dr. Lauren Riley, who comes in as a special consultant to help diagnose Suzanne. She's got strong opinions and tries to take charge, but DeLuca actually wants help and is willing to listen to her counsel. I love Shoshannah Stern from her role in Supernatural, so it was really fun to see her here. We need more Deaf representation in media!

Schmitt gets the honor of being the highlight of this episode for me, just like he was last week. He ends up helping an old woman who has cancer and is close to death. She and her husband were competitive ballroom dancers, and Schmitt turns the cafeteria into a dance floor so they can have one last dance together. Doing this makes him think more about his future, and what he wants from a relationship. He makes a start at explaining this to Nico, but Nico mostly seems confused. It appears that they might not be on the same page.

I'll admit that it was the relationship between Levi and Nico that drew me to Levi's character initially, but now I really like him on his own merits too. I've enjoyed the romance, but it's true that Nico seems a bit reserved and not as openly loving as I think Levi maybe wants from a partner. I will be a bit sad if they don't stick it out, but I also like the idea of exploring some more mundane troubles in a relationship. Not everything has to be "who's the father of my child!" or deaths or love triangles, etc. etc. Sometimes it's just a young man starting to learn more about what he wants, and exploring whether his current partner can give him that. Also, the old couple was very sweet and their lasting love is one of those things that gets me right in the feels.

There are a few other things going on in this episode. Bailey trying to help a seventeen-year-old who was caring for his foster siblings. Jo being there as support due to her own experiences. The other interns still resting from their injuries. Richard being resentful of Catherine for trying to force him back to the job he never wanted to leave in the first place. These elements are adding texture and teasing future plot elements as well.

As is always the case with Grey's Anatomy, even when I'm annoyed with some story-lines, there are always other parts to enjoy. Schmitt being MVP two weeks in a row bodes well for this show's future, although Alex's absence will leave quite the void!

8/10