Grey's Anatomy: Love of My Life (16x19)

Okay... interesting. I think I really liked this episode, although I do have one big unfavorable thing to say, and a few other complaints...

Cons:

So at this point, Teddy is just a serial adulterer, then? The story of Allison, the woman she slept with, who was also dating their other roommate at the time... I felt bad for Allison. I felt bad for Claire. Do I feel bad for Teddy?  Um... that's a little bit harder to square. I will say, knowing that she's bisexual or at least open to dating women, and knowing that Amelia is kind of curious about that too, why didn't the two of them ditch Owen a long time ago and run off together??

No but seriously. I can't exactly feel sympathy for Teddy in this situation, when I find out that the whole Owen and Tom situation isn't the first time she's been involved in cheating. It's scummy and her whole speech about how "you can love more than one person at once" doesn't do much to change my mind. What if Teddy and Claire and Allison had all had a chat about it? They could have been poly. That would have been cool. As is, I'm liking Teddy less and less the more I know her. And while I'm not exactly Owen's biggest fan, I do think it's weird that Teddy never shared this with him... does he even know why his daughter has the name Allison? Jeez.

I'll talk favorably about some parts of the Richard story in a minute, but I did think they should have done better with the Catherine "fake out." I knew it wasn't real from literally the minute she walked in the door and apologized. They should have made it messier. They should have had her be kind of a jerk, until gradually the ice melted. Then maybe the scenario would have been believable. As it was, I pinged her as a hallucination immediately.

Pros:

But I do like the idea of Richard going through this health scare. It sort of back-fills the explanation for his recent behavior. Rational, healthy Richard would maybe have had a hard time accepting his hand tremor and letting go of his career, but he probably wouldn't have thrown a temper tantrum, yelled at Bailey, and been weirdly evasive with everyone about what's been happening with him. It all makes sense now that we know he was deteriorating towards this point. Richard is one of the few remaining originals left - it would be heartbreaking to lose him! Which means the stakes are very high and I'm definitely invested. That final scene in particular, where people back home were watching Richard's presentation devolve into chaos, as Maggie tries to get him off the stage, was really hard to watch.

Meanwhile at the medical conference, Maggie meets up with someone she knew back at her old hospital - a resident named Winston who, it turns out, always had a crush on Maggie but couldn't ask her out because she was his boss. But now, they are equals, and they end up spending this incredible night together, clicking on every imaginable level and becoming very close, very fast. He even asks Maggie to move to be with him, or says he'll move to Seattle. Sometimes, when you know, you know.

You're all aware that my opinion on Maggie vacillates wildly from one episode to the next. Here, I really liked her. I enjoyed this sincere, whirlwind romance, the way it got Maggie out of her head and just felt totally real and totally magical. The best sign for this potential burgeoning romance is that when Winston says they should go for broke and be together, Maggie tells him that she needs time to think things through, make lists, etc. And Winston doesn't seem upset by that at all. He knows he's taking the whole "seize the day" thing to the extreme, and he wants her to be comfortable. Also, they have the same second-favorite movie: Dead Poet's Society. Which is... a very white movie with a lot of questionable messages, but whatever. I kind of love it too.

We also start to fill in more information about Cormac Hayes. We see that he met his wife at a medical conference, working for a drug company to make some extra cash as a starving artist. From there they had a very loving relationship, two wonderful kids, and then Abigail gets cancer from a complication caused by a medical device after a routine procedure. He snaps at someone who is still selling that same technology at the conference years later. I really liked Cormac's wife, and their scenes together packed a real punch, even without the buildup of having known these characters for a long time.

While I kind of hate Teddy for cheating on people left and right, I still did have fun seeing that flashback, centered around the events of September 11, 2001. It was a complex story between these three women, and it was well-acted enough that it did tug on my heartstrings when I found out that Allison's last call on the day in question had been to Teddy.

I think that's all I've got. I'm worried about Richard, and I'm happy for Maggie and her new potential love story. I hope we can get some Levi screen-time in the weeks to come.

I hope everyone's taking care of themselves in this strange new world we're all living in...

8/10