Grey’s Anatomy 14×21: “Bad Reputation” Review

DeLuca plays guitar and sings in Italian on Meredith’s couch after Sam was sent to Switzerland. Meredith gathers up her Harper Avery and her mother’s Harper Avery awards. She’s returning them after finding out about Harper Avery being a sexual predator. She encourages DeLuca to return to work.

Meredith pulls into work and is approached by reporters asking about her bag of Harper Averys and how she feels working at a Harper Avery hospital. She doesn’t comment on any of it, aside from that she is returning the awards.

Bailey barges into a room that Jackson is in and tells him that she’s pulling the plug on the medical innovation contest. There’s enough bad press, and it wouldn’t be good if people found out that Harper’s grandson secretly funded a contest that he entered himself. When Bailey shuts the door and leaves, Maggie is standing behind the door, unable to process the news she just heard.

Maggie is fuming and asks April if she knew. Maggie isn’t being clear about what she’s talking about, but she’s sure that April knew and was in cahoots with Jackson, since she was in charge of the rules. Maggie finally says it clearly — Jackson put up the money for the contest and asked April to judge. April is shocked at this news and finds Webber, who actually asked her to judge, and yells at him for being slimy.

 

Catherine brings in the Foundation’s press consultant, Erin, to help with this scandal. Webber walks in to confront Jackson about funding the competition, and Erin hopes that news doesn’t get out. She hands him a file on the patient she wants him to operate on as a charitable press distraction. She wants Jackson to partner with Meredith for the surgery, since Meredith is giving her awards back. Erin’s next idea is to attack these women who have come forward, but that’s a hard no for Catherine. Catherine spent so much time and energy into building up the Avery name, and now it’s destroying them all. She considers changing her name back to Catherine Fox, and offers to be the scapegoat for this situation.

Jackson asks Meredith about her returning the awards, and she asks him about rigging his contest. He says that’s not what he was doing, but that he doesn’t feel like explaining himself. He asks her to collaborate on the incoming craniofacial dysplasia excision. She can tell it’s a PR stunt and doesn’t want to be part of it. The patient, Diego, is wheeled up with a massive tumor, and Jackson asks if she’s sure she doesn’t want to help.

Jo and Alex look at venues for their wedding. April overhears them and butts in, giving suggestions at places that might have openings. April offers to plan their wedding for them. She just needs a date and a budget. Jo shows Alex how much she can contribute to the budget, and asks him to check his account. He checks, and goes gloomy and weird and walks off.

Amelia and Owen bring Liam to the hospital for his six month checkup. Owen says that Liam’s mom is going to be here for the appointment, which Owen thinks is weird.

Arizona tells Carina that Sofia is still crying all of the time and refusing to go to school because she hates it. Arizona doesn’t know what to do to make her daughter happier. All she could think to do is bribe her with snuggle time and promise to call off work tomorrow. Carina says “maybe you could bribe me with snuggle time after my consult,” but doesn’t offer any advice or comfort.

Jackson and Meredith disagree on how to resect the tumor. Jackson wants to take out most of it so that cosmetically Diego will be fine. He’s afraid that if they take too much, he’ll lose his ability to speak. If they don’t get it all, he’ll have to return for more surgeries, and Diego is from Venezuela. Jackson’s way is less risky, but Meredith thinks her way is the way to go. While discussing, a man from the charity comes in and says that they won’t be going through with the operation. They are a religious organization, and their donors are concerned about the Avery name and won’t fund the surgery. Meredith offers for the hospital to do it pro bono.

A woman walks into the hospital with her son, who seems to have swallowed a chew toy. It’s Olivia, who used to be a nurse at Seattle Grace back when our attendings were still interns. If you recall, back in the day, Olivia contracted syphilis from Alex and spread it onto George.

Owen gets to the peds wing, and Liam’s mom is waiting there. It’s a teenage girl named Betty. Betty is concerned on the checkup taking place at a hospital, thinking Liam might be really sick, but Owen tells her that he works there and he trusts these doctors.

Olivia comments that she’s not surprised about the Harper Avery scandal, based on the doctors she knew while working at Seattle Grace. Right on cue, Alex walks in to check on Olivia’s son. Olivia laughs when she sees him and asks Jo if Alex is still giving nurses syphilis.

Jo tells Alex that if his bank account is really that bad, they can just give April a smaller budget to work with, but he keeps being weird and doesn’t want to talk about it. Olivia hears them talking about getting married, and Olivia asks Jo if they’re engaged. When Jo confirms, Olivia snarkily wishes Jo luck.

Arizona gives Liam a checkup, and Betty gets emotional watching her baby. Arizona comments on Liam’s strong legs, and Betty says he gets his legs from her. She was the fastest kid on her soccer team. Arizona preps to give Liam a shot, and Betty starts acting a little strangely. Amelia says that she gets squeamish around needles too, and suggests the two of them step out. Betty tells Amelia that she feels stupid because she bought a new dress for this appointment, as if it would matter.

Meredith and Jackson continue to argue about the surgery. Meredith says that every surgery is risky. She reminds him of his risky throat transplant surgery, and asks where that Jackson Avery is. Jackson’s too concerned with the Foundation and the press it receives. Meredith feels he’s diminishing what these women went through by still caring about the foundation, but he reminds her that if the Harper Avery Foundation goes down, the 72 Harper Avery Hospitals go down too, and all of those doctors, nurses, etc are left without jobs.

Alex lets Schmidt control the scope to remove the whistle from Olivia’s son’s throat. He tells Schmidt to be careful because Olivia hates him enough already because he was an idiot back then. He says they used to call him ‘Evil Spawn.’ Schmidt says that he won’t complain about his nickname ‘Glasses’ after hearing Alex’s.

Amelia buys Betty food at a food truck outside of the hospital. She tells Betty that this food tastes way better than the food inside. She asks Betty how long she’s been using. Betty tries to play dumb, but as an addict, Amelia knows the signs. Betty says that she tore her ACL during soccer playoffs, and after her surgery, her doctor prescribed ten days’ worth of painkillers. It’s been two years since that, and now Betty has a baby with a drug dealer and is living on the streets.

Schmidt talks to Jo about being paranoid that Jo may have given him syphilis from Alex. She assures him that he does not have syphilis and tells him to stop talking about it.

Amelia approaches Webber for a spontaneous ‘meeting’ and tells him about Betty. Amelia says that she’s thinking about taking in Betty. Webber says that he wasn’t ready to get sober when he met Ollie, but Ollie stepped in and basically dragged him to a meeting. He reminds Amelia that trying to help Betty might not work the way she is hoping, but if it does work, she’ll have saved this girl’s life.

Arizona asks Carina if she doesn’t like children, because Carina never seems interested when Arizona talks about Sofia. Carina says that she just doesn’t believe in coddling children as much as Arizona does. She draws example from her own life: when her parents separated, she lived with her father while DeLuca went to live with their mother. She had her first job at nine years old. She points out DeLuca crying into the couch today because of Sam’s deportation. She believes their different personalities are due to DeLuca being coddled.

Amelia tells Owen what she has in mind. She’s not sure that Meredith would be on board with her bringing a teenage drug addict into her house. Owen thinks that Betty should be with Liam, because she cares about him. He suggests that both Amelia and Betty move in with Owen.

Jackson compares his mom to Meredith’s. They both had been through obstacles and made sure their children had promising futures. Jackson feels bad that his mom worked so hard and now her name and the foundation she built are going to be tarnished. Meredith admits that it was hard giving back the awards when she spent her entire life working towards winning one. Meredith asks why he funded the new contest, and Jackson says that he just wanted a chance to compete, since he isn’t allowed to compete for a Harper Avery.

Maggie asks April if she really didn’t know about the contest. She didn’t, and says that she’s so mad, she could strangle him. Maggie thinks April means Jackson, but she means Webber. She assures Maggie that Jackson has an explanation for this, even if they don’t know what.

During surgery, Jackson tells Meredith that he thinks they should reach out to the women that come forward, even the ones that didn’t have settlements. Jackson thinks they can rebuild the foundation, but Meredith says they would first have to tear down the foundation. Last minute, Jackson decides that Meredith is right about Diego’s operation, and takes out the entire tumor.

The PR lady gives Catherine the statement she is to make at the press conference. Jackson and Meredith barge in with an alternative. In their new speech, they announce the dissolution of the Harper Avery Foundation. She continues to read that there will be a new foundation built in its place. This new foundation will listen to the silenced women. The women will be repaid, retrained, and rehired. She tears up when she reads that they want the new foundation to be called the Catherine Fox Foundation. Meredith asks if she can get her Harper Avery re-engraved because she worked hard for it.

Maggie invites Jackson over and kisses him. She says she understands why he started the contest, and that his surgery today was impressive and hot. He asks if she’ll still think he’s hot if he goes broke. She asks if it’s for a noble reason, and when he says that it is, she says it’s still hot.

Before going home with Amelia and Owen, Amelia tells Betty that there are ground rules. Betty has to text her family tonight to let them know that she is safe. Betty cannot do drugs at all. Amelia can give a prescription to take the edge off of Betty’s withdrawal, but that is all. Betty has to go to AA with Amelia.

Meredith asks Arizona to talk to DeLuca, since she hasn’t left her couch in a week, and Arizona used to be DeLuca’s roommate. Arizona says she knows someone better for that job. Carina goes to Meredith’s house and bickers with her brother, trying to get him to stop wallowing.

Jo comes home to Alex, and confronts him about his mood swings. She says he’s been treating her like crap all day, and she’s not going to put up with that. She asks if it’s money problems, and reminds him that she’s always been poor so she doesn’t care about that. He tells her that he hadn’t checked his account in over a year, and his balance is much higher than it should be. He sends his mom money for rent and food every month, but she hasn’t been cashing the checks. He feels guilty for just throwing money at his mom instead of paying attention to her.

Bailey is approached outside of the hospital by a lawyer. He’s representing a former employee, Roy, in a wrongful termination suit. Roy had been fired for practicing medicine after consuming a weed cookie accidentally given to him by Arizona.