Grey's Anatomy: Put on a Happy Face (16x21)

Teddy is the worst!

Cons:

Okay, obviously this was not initially intended to be the finale, so I shouldn't be too harsh on some of the dropped plot threads. Things were more or less wrapped up, but this doesn't feel like the kind of episode you bow out on, you know? You would think we'd have a bit more information on what's going on with DeLuca. You'd think we'd see Amelia and Link name the baby. You'd think Richard and Catherine would have it out. You'd think Owen and Teddy would confront each other. As it stands, so many things are one step away from the climactic moment of the plot thread.

Also, I'm glad Richard is okay, but I'll admit I was surprised by how quickly this whole thing with him losing his mind got resolved. I figured that once they'd figured out what was wrong, maybe after the surgery there would be some time where they had to wait for the poison to get out of his system or something. But no, he wakes up and he's his old self again. I also feel like this kind of erases some of the compelling story beats where he was trying to get ready to say goodbye to his time as a surgeon due to his tremor. Is he just going to be back to surgery in no time?

I just want to go on the record to say that I don't care for Catherine, and I don't care for Owen, so this episode trying to make me feel sympathy for both of them didn't really do much for me. I agree that Teddy is the worst for behaving the way she is, but I still don't give much of a shit about the man she's hurting, so... there you have it. Also, how stupid is it that there's an accidental voicemail of Teddy and Tom having sex, and that's how Owen finds out? Why do so many TV shows use this as a means of revealing affairs? Does this happen to people in real life? That's quite the inconvenient butt dial.

Pros:

I do give a shit about Tom, though. As much as I despise Teddy's behavior here, to me it's just clear as day that Tom is the better choice for her. Frankly, she super duper does not deserve him at this point. You can just see the chemistry with the two of them, the longing. With Owen, everything is tepid, and I just can't really root for them as a couple. So in one sense, I'm glad that this is all coming to a head, because it means that next season, we'll get some... closure? Hopefully? Maybe this will force Teddy to choose Tom and we can all just shut up about it.

The Richard story-line, despite being truncated in a way that was a little baffling to me, was still really intense and ultimately enjoyable in how it tied up so many character's journeys.

First of all, you've got DeLuca, who is clearly acting in unstable ways but is also clearly not wrong about things. He's the one who figures out what's going on with Richard, and stops Bailey just before she cuts into him to run an unnecessary biopsy. But the way he behaves is still extremely erratic, knocking tools off of the tray and screaming in the OR. Then, he helps out with the surgery, and he's right, and it works, but the episode ends with Meredith finding him, shaking and shaken in equal measure, confused and scared about what's happening with him. I like that even though Meredith and DeLuca's romance is... on hold, to say the very least, she is still there for him as a support system, and still very clearly worried about him.

Then there's Richard's family. It's sweet how Jackson, Meredith, and Maggie are all kept apprised of Richard's condition throughout the episode, even as they all have their own shit going on. It's stuff like this that really makes the show feel like an ensemble, where all of these lives are truly interconnected and the relationships have a real history built in to them.

And then Catherine. I actually felt some measure of satisfaction when Richard was back to his old self and immediately pushed Catherine away. Like I said, it's going to be a hard sell for me to feel sympathy for her at this point. I like that Catherine was repentant and had decided she was going to stay by Richard's side and be his support system, because while Richard was sick, he seemed to tolerate her presence just fine. And then instead, once he's in his right mind again, he wants her to get the hell away from him! That's appropriate, and it's complicated. I love it.

Yay Amelia and Link! A healthy baby boy! I think this was the least traumatic birth we've seen on Grey's Anatomy. I love that for her. She deserves some simple happiness; they both do. I love that Link got pulled away for a surgery so Bailey stayed to help Amelia through it. It was a lovely parallel to George being there for Bailey when she gave birth, back in the early days of the show!

We have brief check-ins on the drama of our lovelorn roomies, as Jo wonders if she's going to be subjected to the horrors of online dating, and Levi grumbles about Nico abandoning him to follow his dreams, even as he deals with a patient whose injury ended his own dreams of playing professional baseball. These are just little snippets, and I'm sure that were we given the opportunity to see the rest of the season they had planned, we might have checked in a bit more with them. But as it stands, I'm sure we'll see these characters again before too terribly long!

So there you have it. I'm sad to be saying goodbye to this show a little early this year, but it's more important for everyone to stay safe out there!

7.5/10