Grey's Anatomy: Should I Stay or Should I Go (18x16)

Oh man, lots of sadness in this episode! Jeez.

Cons:

I love me some good angst, but honestly I feel like Levi is being a tad unreasonable? He did in fact break up with Nico. Yes, he was going through trauma, and yes, I'm sure Nico realizes that the circumstances are extreme. But I'm sorry, if someone says "we're over, leave me alone," is Nico really such a monster for listening to him? I hope we get some satisfactory resolution for these two. I like the drama, but I don't know that Nico really did anything wrong! I feel so bad for him.

I felt like the unifying theme of this episode, this idea of burnout, was sort of weakly used... it was basically just Bailey being worn out, and then taking vacation days, and Catherine being grumpy about it. Considering how much Catherine annoys me as a character, there just wasn't all that much to grab onto here.

Richard and Bailey are both acting like little whiny baby schoolchildren about Meredith. Especially Richard, like, what the fuck. If someone you care about gets a job opportunity that they're excited about, you're allowed to be sad that they're leaving, you're allowed to express that sadness, even, but to act all entitled like you're owed their career or something? No! Gross! I was glad Meredith stuck to her guns. It's odd, because now I sort of want Meredith to go to Minnesota, just because Richard is being so unreasonable about it. 

But also... Nick is still as boring as drying paint, and I don't care about his plan to stay in Seattle to get to know Meredith better. He can run away now, please.

Oh, goodness, Link being all weird about Jo's new boyfriend... and we're being told that this nice guy is too nice for Jo and that she's trying really hard to like him... ugh, put me out of my misery with this whole Jo and Link thing. A best friends to lovers story can be great, but this one is super not compelling to me.

Pros:

That was a lot of cons, but I actually felt pretty positively about this episode overall.

For all that Richard is being a childish baby in my opinion, I did like the way Meredith behaved herself for the majority of the episode, then had her outburst at the end. She really did take the high road here, which I appreciate. She's grown up a lot, and her teachers still see her as a young screwup sometimes. Addison didn't have a ton to do in this episode, but I liked that she was the voice of reason who cut through Richard and Meredith's squabbling in a time of serious loss.

And the woman who lost her pregnancy, that she'd fought so hard for... that was so rough! I'm used to feeling more of an impending sense of dread when a patient is going to suffer or die on this show, and I wasn't prepared for Addison's arrival to have such a sad conclusion. Levi sitting with the grieving woman in prayer was a lovely touch, though. You can see how Levi is handling his own recovery with care. He's such a lovely character.

Once again, I'm in the strange position of putting an Owen and Teddy subplot in the "pros" section of my reviews... it seems that it's quite possible that Leo is trans, given that this little child is continually dressing as and even referring to themself as a girl. Owen and Teddy continue to use he/him pronouns when discussing this, which makes a certain amount of sense. Owen seems a lot more ready to just roll with it, listen to what Leo is saying and treat this young child accordingly. Teddy is worried about getting something wrong, which also seems highly relatable! In the moment she shuts Leo down and says "no, you're a boy", but later she expresses her regret for this. She just doesn't want to make a mistake in handling things, and worries about the potential confusion and pain. I like that we're getting to see this play out, and I'm proud of Owen for his way of handling the situation.

I also liked the story with Winston and his troublesome little brother. Some good tension there, some good awkwardness as Maggie and Winston both try and put a good face on it and make things work, but it turns out that Winston's brother is in some hot water, and it sounds like not for the first time. I like opportunities to delve more into Winton's character. He seems like a really good person, but I still don't feel like I know him all that well, compared to some other characters who might be more recent, but feel a bit more developed.

Looks like Jo is going to stay in her residency program and work as a general surgeon to help Bailey out, with Link's help looking after Luna while that's happening. It remains to be seen what this will do to her, seems like a crazy workload to me!

The big looming threat of the season is still there, that of the residency program being on probation. I loved Addison speaking her truth to Richard: of course she didn't complain about her own residency back in the day. Complaining wasn't presented as a real option. But it is unreasonable, and it does cause a lot of harm to people, the way doctors are forced to train.

So there you have it. There are enough plot threads that I feel invested in, mostly the fate of the hospital, little Leo's gender journey (lol), and Levi and Nico's fractured romance! We'll see where it all goes.

8/10