Grey’s Anatomy Recap: Stayin’ Alive
I’m not gonna lie to you: The title of this week’s episode might’ve bumped a whole star off my rating. Grey’s Anatomy might’ve built its puckishly earnest legacy one tenuously deployed title song at a time, but calling an episode about a heat wave “Drop It Like It’s Hot” has bravely charted a whole new level of audacity. That said, I do think that every surgeon at Grey Sloan should be rolling a blunt with Seattle’s best weed after what we just witnessed because there was a lot going on.
You know we’re in for a doozy when Meredith Grey kicks off our intro narration by referencing Greek mythology. Oh, we’re talking about hubris? Cool, cool, cool — everyone’s gonna die.
But what indomitable force of nature will cause this week’s devastating tragedy? Could it be the heat wave that’s piling up ER patients and making everyone sweatier than John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever? Or maybe it’s the impossible surgery that Dr. Shepherd and Ndugu have decided to take on — a teenager named Jackie whose heart and brain are full of aneurysms. Or, perhaps it’s Jo, who’s at risk of early labor in this extreme heat and can’t seem to find some damn ice cubes anywhere to cool herself off. The catastrophic possibilities are endless! I’m stressed as hell! Somebody grab me some Xanax, stat! I love this show!
The weird thing about this episode is that you can divide everyone into two camps: the steely-nerved doctors who understand that there’s a genuine emergency afoot and the weirdos who seem to be living in their own world, completely oblivious to the (probably) climate-change-induced disaster that’s unfolding around them. For instance: Why the hell does Kwan’s ex, Molly, pick today of all days to visit him at work?
Yes, I understand that Molly’s fiancé just proposed, and sure, I understand that these matters of the heart are kind of time-sensitive. But babe, look around! The hospital is so full that the chief is considering diverting trauma patients to other, even more direly under-resourced hospitals. It’s bad enough that all elective procedures are on hold indefinitely, which only happens when shit is bad-bad. The nurses are this close to stashing patients in stairwells, the ice delivery is late, and the paramedics are passing out in the driveway. But sure! Go ahead! Go find Kwan and tell him you can’t stop thinking about him after that kiss he planted on you a few weeks ago. I’m sure his patients won’t mind waiting while you two make out and try to figure out what’s next for your fractured relationship.
Somehow, Molly isn’t the most absurdly out-of-pocket character of the week. To no one’s surprise, I’d say that’s Owen. He might claim that he totally forgives Teddy for that kiss from Sophia Bush’s incoming character, Cass Beckman, that was completely not Teddy’s fault, but based on that look he shoots when he sees them in the elevator and — gasp! — Beckman has her hand on Teddy’s shoulder to comfort her after a stressful day, I’m thinking he might not be over it yet.
This grumpiness is richly ironic, given that Owen seems totally starry-eyed when he sees his childhood friend Nora has returned to Grey Sloan for a follow-up appointment after she showed up with a surgical complication a few weeks ago. Here’s the best part: After shooting Teddy that Judge Judy look in the elevator, Owen immediately storms off and decides [checks notes] to give Nora a ride back to her hotel. Does nobody at this hospital realize that we are in the middle of a crisis?!
One person who definitely feels the pressure of this dark occasion? That would be Mika Yasuda, who’s back at work for the first time since her sister’s tragic death. Her hair is greasy, her eyes are blank, and she’s doing weird shit like walking into the morgue and saying, “It’s nice in here. Quiet. Peaceful.” Predictably, she freaks out the minute she sees a heat stroke patient start to crash and yells at Bailey for “letting” him die. (For the record, Bailey actually saves him, but it’s clear that Yasuda is in a bit of a crisis and not thinking straight.) You hate to see this promising surgeon go out on such a bummer note, but alas, it looks like that’s exactly what’s happening.
Yasuda’s friends, and especially Millin, try everything they can to get her to stick around, but ultimately, staying at Grey Sloan, the place where her sister died, is just too much for her to bear. Ultimately, she tells Bailey that she doesn’t think she can come back — not in a few weeks, not ever. Millin finds her as she’s packing up her locker and seems devastated to see her go, but I don’t totally get that. Are we supposed to assume that she and Yasuda can’t just … work in different places and continue to date? Does this relationship also feel too close to Yasuda’s personal tragedy? Unclear. Hopefully, we get more answers on that in the next couple of weeks because right now, I’m struggling to make it make sense.
Also not computing: Where the hell does Ben get off disobeying Chief Altman’s orders? He’s stoked to be on her service until he finds out that she wants him to use his first responder experience and take over admin duties instead of scrubbing in. You can easily see the look of disappointment on his face from a mile away, even if you’re passing out from heat stroke. Is that why he defies her instruction to divert traumas to other hospitals?
I get that Ben’s just being the first responder that Teddy asked him to be, and I actually agree with his point that the other hospitals were even less equipped. At the same time, if he really believes that, he should put on his big-boy scrubs and stand up to Altman to her face — not make his point once, agree to do what she said, then do the opposite behind her back. What can we say? The doctors of Grey Sloan love insubordination, so there’s a zero-percent chance that this comes back to bite him in any way. But it’s easy to understand why Teddy needs that shoulder pat from Beckman — it’s not like Owen was doing anything to help with her stress. That’d be way too useful of him.
If there’s one rule I’ve learned over many years of watching Grey’s, it’s that you never really want to date any of these doctors; they’re all dark and twisty and suck at communicating. Case in point: Dr. Ndugu might be even worse at using his words than Owen. It turns out, he ghosted his impossible-surgery patient’s mother on a dating app. Whoops! Also, he apparently hooked up with a nurse who stole the coffee Dr. Shepherd gave him just as she was letting him in on this goldmine surgical opportunity. Whoops!!! And lest we forget, he’s also seeing Dr. Beltran. WHOOPS!!!! The divorced-guy energy is strong with this one. He might as well call his bedroom “The Trauma Center” because it, too, seems to be receiving more action than anyone has time to process. Perhaps he can start diverting some of the overflow traffic to another hot cardio god at Seattle Presbyterian?
In graver news, it appears that Meredith’s introductory words have a lot to do with this impossible surgical case. Shepherd tries to remove Jackie’s brain aneurysms endoscopically but can’t get at the worst one — which means she and Ndugu will have to stop her weakened heart in order to clip the last one in less than 50 minutes. Shepherd succeeds, but when Jackie’s heart refuses to restart, she flatlines.
This week’s other big act of hubris has nothing to do with surgery. When Adams and a very pregnant Wilson drive to a convenience store to pick up ice, they find themselves stranded in the middle of an armed robbery. Rather than wait for the robber to empty the register and leave, Adams tries to sneak around and look for another door (!?!??!) and immediately gets caught. This is, of course, when that premature labor thing comes into play. Wilson starts bleeding on the floor where the robber is holding them captive, but the robber won’t let her and Adams leave. Instead, he’s pointing the gun at the poor cashier, Gladys, who can’t seem to get the safe open. It’s around this point when Adams reveals to Wilson that his grandfather owned a convenience store and died in an armed robbery. Great! I’m sure he’s gonna keep his cool.
Hahahahaha nope! Eventually, Gladys and Adams see a moment of opportunity and attack the robber. Gladys swings at him with a baseball bat and misses (great job, Gladys), and Adams tries to wrestle the gun away. Unfortunately, it goes off while seemingly pointed at both of their abdomens. Aaaaaand, cut to black! Now, where’s that blunt…
The OR Board
• I know this is a moot point for Grey’s Anatomy, but can we just get one week — one week! — where someone’s life isn’t hanging in the balance? My fingernails are almost completely gone, and I’m starting to worry they’re never going to grow back.
• Did anyone else feel a little meh about Jackie’s death and the buildup leading up to it? For some reason, this tragedy didn’t hit me in that tender, vulnerable spot that this show’s roughest surgeries manage to access. Maybe there was too much going on, or maybe we didn’t get to know Jackie quite as well as we needed. Whatever the reason, it fell a little flat.
• Okay, really, though, what’s the over/under on Owen sleeping with Nora? I hadn’t even clocked the possibility before this week, but now, I’m convinced this is going down before Christmas. Maybe then Teddy and Cass can get together? Maybe? I just want to see her paired with a character who truly deserves her!