Grey’s Anatomy 13x07: “Why Try to Change Me Now” Recap

Catherine asks Bailey what she told the staff about the woman visiting the hospital. Bailey sent out an email about someone coming to evaluate and assess Grey-Sloan as a teaching hospital.

Amelia and Owen keep bickering. This time, they’re walking into work late because Amelia didn’t put gas in the car. When Owen walks away, Alex’s attitude make Amelia feel like Alex is pushing her to talk to her husband.

Meredith reads the email aloud to Alex: “An education consultant is making a visit to observe and assess the program.” Meredith looks up this consultant: Eliza Minnick. Eliza is an education consultant who is double boards-certified and a sports-medicine specialist. She’s had 52 papers published in the Journal of Surgical Education. Basically, she’s really impressive. Alex believes that the plan is to overhaul the program because Alex assaulted DeLuca, and DeLuca was technically his student.

Cut to the residents changing into their scrubs, discussing the email. Stephanie asks Ben if he knows anything about it, but he and Bailey have been keeping work life separate from their marriage, so he doesn’t know anything more than any other resident would. Stephanie reminds Ben of his unauthorized c-section in the psych ward last season, where he used the metal from a clipboard. She thinks it’s his fault that this woman is coming.

Ben walks up to Webber and asks if this is happening because of him. Webber says he shouldn’t worry and that no one is getting fired.

Arizona, Riggs, Jackson, and Maggie are looking at scans. They ask Jackson if his mother had told him anything about this, but he says she called him a ‘Nosy Rosie’ when he asked about it. Arizona thinks she’ll be safe and that being a fetal surgeon makes her practically irreplaceable. She (jokingly? Seems kind of rude to me, even between friends.) says to Maggie and Riggs that good cardio surgeons are much easier to find.

Webber is upset that Bailey didn’t keep him in the loop on booking this consultant. As the director of the residency program, this is something of concern to him, and yet he knows nothing about it. Bailey assures him that there is no reason to worry. Eliza is just seeing if there is anything they can be doing better. Webber calms down and accepts it. He says he wants to meet with her when she gets to Grey-Sloan, but she’s already there, holding a meeting with the residents.

Eliza tells the residents that she wants to know everything, like what the hours are like and which of the doctors are great teachers and which ones aren’t. At first, they don’t want to open up, but she promises nothing will leave that room. She is here to help them and wants to get them into the OR performing solo surgeries, which raises everyone’s interest.

Some of the doctors stand outside of the room, keeping an eye on the residents and Eliza. April’s phone dings, and Arizona recognizes the notification sound as the dating app, Tinder. Embarrassed by it, April leaves, but later she bumps into Stephanie, and she asks Stephanie to put the app’s notifications on silent. Before handing the phone back, Stephanie notices that a cute guy asked April to meet for drinks. After Stephanie says that she would agree to a date with the guy, April says yes.

An old woman is in the hospital, getting checked by Webber, Her friend, Lulu, asks how soon Enid will be able to get back on the lanes. They’re in a bowling league, and their team name is Gutter Girlz. Webber tells Enid that her gallbladder is inflamed and that surgery may be her best option, but they need to do a cardiac assessment first. Lulu is thrilled that Enid will be able to rejoin the team. Webber tries to ask DeLuca, who is on his service today, about the meeting with Eliza, but it gets awkward and DeLuca leaves.

A married couple, Brenda and Emmett Lawson, bicker while Owen assesses the husband in the ER. He fell through the ceiling of their house because he had done the insulation himself, incorrectly. Between the wife’s comments, Owen and Amelia bicker too, trying to decide which course of action to do first.

Eliza observes one of Meredith’s procedures. When Eliza suggests that Ben step in and do part of it. Meredith says he’s never done one like this before, which is why he’s just observing while she does it. Eliza says, “Ahh, see one, do one, teach one. The old standard.” When Meredith says that it’s still pretty current, Eliza points out that 72 hour shifts used to be current too, but now there’s an 80 hour work week, which has saved more lives. After the surgery, Meredith gets snappy at Webber because he’s the residency director and she doesn’t appreciate this woman coming into her OR and telling her what to do. Webber doesn’t want Eliza there either, but he has no say in it.

Maggie pages Arizona, Jackson and Amelia to the clinic to meet secretly about a list she found that was written by Eliza. She assumes it’s a ranked list of the doctors. Alex comes in and tells them that they need to leave because he doesn’t want to get in trouble for them being there. Maggie is upset that she is at the bottom of the list. She’s always been a top of the list person. Jackson smiles that he’s toward the top of the list. Arizona isn’t on the list at all, and she wonders what that means. Alex isn’t on the list either, since he works in the clinic. Amelia’s name is written down as Emilio.

Murphy monitors Enid walking on a treadmill. Her friend walks on one too so that Enid doesn’t get her 10,000 steps in first. Maggie complains to Webber about being lower down the list than Riggs, when she’s Riggs’s boss. Webber is upset that Eliza made a list after being here for such a short amount of time, but tells Maggie that she shouldn’t dwell on it. He asks if he’s on the list. Something goes wrong with Enid, and Webber says to get a crash cart. Enid had a small heart attack, and Maggie tells her the options. Webber makes sure that they understand that, with her age, surgery has more risks. Lulu pushes Enid to do the surgery so she can get back on her feet. Enid says that the team doesn’t need her, and that one of the other teammates told her about how their score has actually gone up since Enid has been out. Lulu still tells her that they need her, and Enid agrees to the surgery.

Maggie excuses herself to talk to Eliza. Eliza is glad to be able to put a face to the name. She knows that Maggie is a cardio prodigy. When Maggie says that being a prodigy isn’t always that great, Eliza jokes about Maggie not being a good teacher, which hurts Maggie’s feelings. I think it makes sense for Maggie to not be a great teacher. She’s so intelligent and doesn’t realize that other people’s brains don’t work the same way that hers does. Her residents likely need the information broken down more than she thinks to do.

Webber tells Bailey that everyone is complaining about Eliza being there and interfering with their surgeries and telling them how to do things. He says he is going to tell Eliza that her role is only to observe. Bailey has told her that she may interact how she sees fit. Webber realizes that they may be hiring Eliza, and asks Bailey if she’s giving Eliza her job. She says she wants Eliza to work with Webber. He doesn’t see why Bailey is trying to mess with the teaching system that they spent so long building up. She responds that medicine is always changing, and that Webber is the one who taught her that. When Bailey says that she is chief now and it’s her decision, Webber points out that he fought hard to get Bailey that position.

April gets ready for her date. Since she lives with Jackson, and Jackson is on the couch in the living room, April has to walk by him to leave. Jackson is a little weirded out that April is dating. He asks her where she met the guy, and April tells him tinder. She gets defensive and says that she knows that he’s on tinder too because he’s shown up on the app for her and she swiped left. The next day at work, Jackson asks April how her date went. He heard her come home kind of early and didn’t know if something went wrong. April tells him that it went amazing.

Getting ready for bed, Ben can tell that there’s something upsetting going off with Bailey. She’s out of it and just seems so glum. He tries to push through to not add to the mood, and tells her about how much the residents like Eliza, even if the attendings hate her. He tries to get Bailey to talk, buy she’s seriously dark mood-y. He walks up and hugs her from behind and asks her what she needs. She tells him to tell her that she’s doing the right thing. “You’re doing the right thing.”

Amelia and Owen still bicker over this patient. It’s Amelia’s surgery and Owen is the assistant. Stephanie is the resident on it. To make sure the patient is safe, Stephanie will be under the table to make sure that his guts don’t bust out while Amelia is operating on his spine. Owen thinks that’s a really smart idea. Overhearing this, Eliza steps in and says that Stephanie should be the assist and Owen should be under the table, since he’s seen this procedure before, and it would be a great learning opportunity for Stephanie. Owen cooperates and stays under the operating table to keep an eye out for leaks.

Maggie asks Murphy how it’s been learning under her, since it’s been implied that people think she isn’t a good teacher. Murphy tells her that she’s a great surgeon, but Maggie is so fast and it’s hard to keep up with her and her brain is melting. While Murphy is talking, Maggie spots a problem with her patient and Murphy rushes to book an OR. Enid will need a coronary bypass.

Scrubbing in, Webber tries to keep Eliza from turning this risky procedure into a skills lab. He threatens to go talk to Bailey about it, and Eliza says that he should because Bailey approved it already. In surgery, Eliza suggests that Maggie, head cardio surgeon, switch places with Murphy, resident. Webber disagrees with this idea. Eliza explains that this will make the resident and the attending function as one surgeon. Maggie will tell Murphy how to do it, and Murphy can learn that way. It’s taking ‘see one, do one, teach one’ and ‘putting it on steroids,’ so that you accomplish all three of those steps in a single surgery.

Alex walks into the gallery and joins all of the other doctors who are watching Enid’s operation. He sits in the nearest empty seat, next to Stephanie. Stephanie, with dislike for Alex, asks him if he’s allowed to be there. He says that with everything going on, he might not work here soon enough. This may be the closest he ever gets to an OR again.

Jackson suggests to April that maybe they shouldn’t talk to each other about their love lives. He wants her to be happy, but it’s weird. After saying that, April tells him the truth about her date – she faked a page as soon as he walked in. She’s never actually dated before, so the entire thing is weird to her. She’s only had friends who turned into boyfriends. Jackson tells her that she just has to dip her toe

Emmett’s wife asks Amelia if she can stay the night in Emmett’s ICU room. Amelia seems unsure if that’s a good idea, and his wife tells her that they have been married for 20 years, and not one night of their marriage have they spent apart. Last night, he wasn’t home, and she couldn’t sleep.

Eliza asks Maggie to explain what needs to come next for Murphy. When Murphy doesn’t understand, Eliza says that Maggie needs to break it down more. Webber, defending Maggie, says that Maggie’s brain thinks a step ahead. Murphy offers to step down and let Maggie do it, if she’s more comfortable. Eliza says that Maggie would be more comfortable stepping in, but that Murphy will be more comfortable after she does this. Maggie breaks it down, and Murphy doesn’t feel comfortable and asks if she can stop. Everyone agrees that it’s okay for her to tag out. Eliza says that it shows how much Murphy knows and how much is left to learn. With Maggie back in the head surgeon spot, she learns to explain things more broken down, and backs up when she gets ahead of herself. Then Eliza suggests that DeLuca switch spots with Webber, which Webber refuses to do. Still urging DeLuca on and hoping to make her point, Eliza nicks a vessel and DeLuca clips it, proving how much he knows. Webber takes Eliza into a separate room to yell at her. He says he wants her out of this hospital. She says that allowing DeLuca to participate in operations like this, he will become a better doctor more quickly. The patient was never in any danger because there were four doctors right there who could step in at any moment. She says that as a result of getting DeLuca involved, they now know that there were five doctors there who could fix it. Her argument makes Webber stop and think.

Maggie mentions to Webber that what happened in the OR was humiliating. Webber called it ‘inexcusable.’ Maggie agrees with Eliza, though. Maggie wasn’t a good teacher, and she thinks that Eliza’s system works.

Lulu asks Webber if Enid will be okay. He says she should be ready to compete by regionals. She asks him if he believes that she would push her to get surgery for some silly tournament. She pushes Enid to stay on the team so that she doesn’t just sit around the common room at the nursing home all day every day.

Amelia thanks Owen for taking Stephanie’s place under the table for the spinal fusion so that Stephanie could observe and learn. He confronts her about her not coming home. When she tries to blame it on her patient needing her, he points out that it has been every night the past week. Amelia blurts out ‘I DON’T WANT TO HAVE A BABY,’ which shocks and hurts Owen.

Arizona confronts Eliza about the list. She goes on about how she is a great surgeon and she raises great surgeons, and with there being few fetal surgeons out there, she has to teach or else the field will die. Eliza said that that list was just to help her remember names. Eliza says that Arizona’s name coupled with her face will make her easy to remember

April wants to cancel her rescheduled date with the guy from last night. Jackson urges her to go and give the guy more than five minutes

Amelia shows up at Meredith’s, asking if she can stay there. Meredith agrees, but then Alex walks up and tells her that she can’t, that she has a sword hanging over her head, and that she needs to go home and face the execution. She says that she talked to him and the sword already fell. Meredith is out of the loop on all of this, but she’s thankful to have a break from listening to Amelia.

Eliza says that if she comes to Grey-Sloan, she’ll be shaking things up. She has a few other options, but she is interested. She warns Bailey that the staff will hate her, because people always hate the person in charge when change happens. She also says that she works alone, so Webber wouldn’t be in charge of the residency program anymore.