The return of Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh), and the departure of Meredith Grey all while the residency program is in danger of being shut down. What could go wrong?
The Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital has certainly seen better days, and nobody points that out quite like Addison Montgomery does. She even goes as far to call it a giant dumpster fire of a hospital, which she’s not really all that wrong. Addison is back with her uterine transplant patient, Tovah. Tovah is now pregnant with the last embryo from her late husband, and she’s having some unusual pain. The resident helping her with this case is Levi, which I found interesting considering it’s his first day back, but I guess there’s no better way to jump back in. However, she needs extra hands when he finds that Tovah is going to need surgery to remove a clot, so she calls in reinforcements from Richard and Meredith.
This is where half of the dumpster fire comes into play. Bailey, Catherine, Richard, and even Maggie to an extent, think that Meredith is being disloyal to the hospital. So, Meredith and Richard aren’t exactly on the best of terms. They all work together to remove the clot with very petty commentary included in that. They think it works, and then when Levi goes to check for a fetal heartbeat, there isn’t one. This was Tovah’s last chance to have her late husband’s baby, and Addison feels like she failed her.
Meanwhile, Miranda Bailey is very obviously suffering from burnout, and Catherine Fox is not helping this issue at all. Catherine is worried about her foundation’s reputation since the Medical Accreditation Council wants to visit other Catherine Fox hospitals. Bailey’s plan is to look for more attendings, but Catherine wants her to focus on keeping the residents. She seems to solve both issues by going to ask Jo to become a general surgeon attending again.
This is obviously an issue for Jo. Her spot in the OB residency program is not guaranteed to stay open if she chooses to go back to being an attending, but she also feels like she needs to do this for the hospital. She had plans to meet Todd at Joe’s, but now she needs a doctor’s opinion as well. So, she invites Link. What could go wrong there? It seems as if they’re a little confused about what to do with Link’s character right now. Todd even catches Jo and Link sharing what could be seen as a romantic stare, so they’re setting up for that to be a potential issue. They do help Jo come to a resolution with the option of her doing both her OB residency and being an attending once again.
Amid all this, Teddy, Owen, and their kids are walking into the hospital with Leo in a cowboy hat and boots. Owen says goodbye to cowboy Leo, but Leo corrects him and says that they’re a girl. Teddy immediately says it’s just a costume and rushes to take the kids to daycare. Teddy wants to be more serious about it all, but Owen just wants to let Leo to be Leo. He mentions that he thinks that they (meaning Teddy and Owen) should see a therapist, but not Leo.
The episode ends with Bailey deciding to take a day off and go home to see her kids. She doesn’t care that the hospital needs her right now, and it’s refreshing to see. Bailey has been a person who lives for her work, so to see her put herself first for once is nice. Back at Meredith’s house, Nick is waiting. He tells her that he’s moving to Seattle in this big speech moment. He doesn’t want her to get out to Minnesota and regret it all. However, Meredith gets upset because she has the right to leave. That should be her choice to make. Nick clarified some, but the resolution stays the same. Meredith is going to stay long enough to try and help save the residency program, and Nick can help out with the surgeon shortage.
In other news, Winston’s brother, Wendell, may have been lying about his job. He was trying to sell new medical tech that actually doesn’t work and put him $10,000 in debt. He’s now asking Winston for help. Owen performs a technique from the military that has not yet been approved for civilian use, and he doesn’t really need the military’s attention right now. I’m sensing a potential issue right there that could come to a head right before the finale maybe? And to finish it all off, Levi and Nico are still not on good terms, and we see this come to light in an elevator. Because nobody does elevator relationship problem scenes quite like Grey’s Anatomy.
It definitely wasn’t Grey’s Anatomy’s best, but it also wasn’t their worst. What do you think will happen next on Grey’s Anatomy? Will the military find out about what Owen did (both with the arm and the assisted suicides)? Will there be a love triangle between Jo, Todd, and Link? Also, will Kai make an appearance at Grey Sloan again?
