Grey's Anatomy: Walk on the Ocean (20x03)

Man, lotsa juicy drama in this one.

Cons:

I thought Winston having a subplot about giving up on his marriage with Maggie was a little weird and unnecessary. I legit hadn't realized we were supposed to think they were still trying to work on their relationship. Maggie left him and Winston seemed pretty firm on what that meant. Or am I misremembering?

The main catastrophe of this episode features a man who gets extravagantly injured trying to imitate the jet-setting adventurous behavior of his wife's ex-husband, in order to prove to himself and to her that he's cool enough. I felt like thematically this was kind of basic and didn't really connect to the characters as much as I wanted, and then the poor wife at the end when she shows up and learns that her husband is dead... she wasn't the strongest actor, unfortunately. The crying needed some work.

Pros:

I kind of love the Teddy and Meredith scenes because Teddy and Meredith aren't like... good close best friend family forever? They're just two people who have known each other and have people in common, and I felt like the actors brought that energy in a way that was refreshing. They're colleagues, and yet there's also that deeper level of camaraderie there. When Catherine shows up, Teddy covers for Meredith and then gets brought into the secret of the research Meredith and Amelia are doing. Looks like Teddy is going to be able to move some discretionary funds their way, so that's exciting stuff!

I'm loving Levi getting some screentime, especially because it also highlighted his friendship with Jo! That really is one of my favorite relationships on the show these days, and we truly don't see enough of it. I gotta say, Nico really behaves like a jerk for not telling his partner that Levi is his ex, but at the same time, I think Jo is right: Levi's hurt feelings aren't about having feelings for Nico, it's about seeing his ex move on and take these big steps in his life. Their conversation at the end was great, it had that difficult bittersweet intimacy of exes who used to know each other really well. Nico is able to tell the story of how they're having a kid, and they can joke around a bit, showing how well they still know each other. Two moments I really loved was Levi knowing how big a deal it would be for Nico to leave the pizza behind, and Nico's soft reaction of delight in learning that Schmitt is Chief Resident. Also... the "Levon" thing made me laugh. We need more Levi subplots please! Find him some love!

And then let's turn to the various intern plots.

I really liked Blue's story again this week, he's still shaping up to be a fave. This new surgeon lady looks like she might be a great mentor for him, and also maybe an enemies-to-lovers situation for Amelia? Jury's out on that, but I would not be mad about it, tbh. But I love that Blue needs to keep getting that lesson reinforced about his demeanor with the patients. He knows his stuff medically, but he also needs to listen. Working in pediatrics really makes the case for how these things all blend together. It was the young patient's mother who noticed something off and decided to take her daughter in, thus saving her life!

And then, Yasuda vs. Lucas... dang, Adams, I was rooting for you! Just last week, I was saying that his anger with Simone was totally justified and I got why he was being such a grump, but this week, he really crossed a line for me. I thought the moment when he failed to say something to Bailey was interesting, that felt like the kind of believable dick move that someone makes in the moment and then it's too late to change it, but for him to dig his heels in later with Yasuda, after being an asshole and leaving her on her own all day? Wow, seriously not the thing. I was totally on Yasuda's side and was annoyed at Simone for daring to accuse Yasuda of not trying to move on. She's the one who has been playing nice and trying to be everyone's friend! Yeesh!!

And then we see that Lucas has moved out of the house. I have a feeling we're going to have to deal with a certain threshold of moping Adams as we work out the issues going on here. I hope Yasuda just lives her best life and crushes it and doesn't let Lucas's nonsense slow her down. Or Simone's either, honestly. (As a side note, loving Simone's hair in this ep, she looked fantastic.)

I think I'll stop there - lots of moving pieces, most of them compelling enough to keep my interest. Loving the opportunity for more Levi, more of the interns, less Owen/Teddy, less Jo/Link... for those reasons, this episode is a win for me!

9/10