As the season 22 finale of Grey’s Anatomy draws nigh, it’s nice to know that people are getting some. Now, whether all of those who are partaking in extracurricular bedtime activities would view their decisions as good ones is debatable, but personally I think the good docs of Grey Sloan need this time between the sheets. Think of it as your recapper’s orders. Jules and Winston, still on the DL at the hospital, finally take their relationship to the next level by letting their freak flags fly — she carries around a crystal to absorb negative energy; he is afraid of yarn — and they still want to have sex with each other. Good for them! They seem quite happy with each other. Less enthused is Simone, Jules’ partner in egg retrieval, who, by the end of the episode, wakes up in bed with Lucas. She was sad about the news that she may not be able to freeze any eggs, and he showed up with wings, fries, and tequila. Honestly, what else is a girl to do? They both promise to never speak of this again, but this is Grey’s Anatomy: You know it will be talked about again … and again and again. Elsewhere at Grey Sloan, things are much less fun, and yes, that does include a visit from an old Station 19 friend. Here’s what else went down on “Through the Fire.”
We’ll always have Paris
You know who isn’t getting any but both surprisingly and quite obviously want to? Teddy and Owen. Their post-divorce co-parenting friendship seems to be going well, but these two are definitely making eyes at each other. And that’s before they embark on a day that forces them to confront their real feelings.
Take Owen, for example. When Morris arrives after a glass sculpture pierces his chest while he’s at an art museum (naturally) and begs Owen not to break the sculpture because it was one of his wife’s favorites, Owen takes the request very seriously. Morris talks about how looking at this sculpture makes him feel like his wife is still with him. Owen is a sucker for a love story, it seems. When they get Morris into the OR, however, the request to keep the sculpture intact becomes impossible. They either break it, or Morris dies. They save their patient, of course. When Morris wakes up in the CCU, Owen explains what happened. Morris explains that his wife isn’t dead — she’s in a memory-care unit at a nearby facility. “Do you know how hard it is to miss someone who’s still here?” he asks his doctor. Owen can relate more than Morris knows. As he hears his patient lament that he wishes he could tell his wife he loves her and have her still understand, Owen realizes he has something to tell Teddy before it’s too late.
Meanwhile, Teddy has a coffee and a chat with an old mentor who is now working in Paris. The mentor is heading up a surgical innovation incubator and wants Teddy to run it. Teddy is flattered, and it sounds like just the type of challenging step forward in her career she’s looking for, but it seems impossible to pick up her life — and her kids — and move to Paris. She doesn’t say no, though.
Later, she runs into Jo studying for her CREOG exam in the attendings lounge. (Her ID card still works.) Jo is stressed about the test, yes, but she admits to Teddy that she’s overwhelmed for a different reason: She’s not sure she wants to be an ob-gyn anymore. Having to deal with pregnant patients who almost die on her is making it impossible to move forward following her own near-death experience. She doesn’t think she can do it, but she also feels embarrassed to return to general surgery after all this time spent in ob-gyn. Teddy doesn’t agree with that assessment: You’re allowed to change your mind, she tells Jo. And even if the job she is returning to is the same one, she will be a different person. She’ll have more conviction about what she wants and why she wants it. Sometimes, it takes trying something else to realize what you don’t want. She’s talking about Jo’s career here, but you know she’s taking her own advice and applying it to her feelings about her ex-husband.
She finds him out in the parking lot waiting for her. He so clearly is preparing himself to tell her that he’s still in love with her. You can see it in his face! But then, she launches into the Paris offer. She understands that she’s made a lot of decisions only considering herself lately. And that this is definitely hypocritical since she reamed him out for considering a new job just down the road. And yet, this opportunity is hard to turn down. “Just do whatever you want, like you always do,” he says before he walks off in a huff. The dude is crushed.
Okay, wait, that might turn out to be a terrible turn of phrase, and I apologize. The next morning, Teddy is frantic in the ER preparing for an incoming trauma case when a bridge collapses nearby. She gets a voicemail from Owen apologizing for his reaction and asking if they can talk when he gets in, which might be a while because he’s stuck in traffic on the bridge — but that voicemail is cut off with honking, cars slamming into one another, and people yelling. Owen was on the bridge when it collapsed.
19 forever
Listen, it’s always nice to see Maya DeLuca-Bishop, but maybe next time she pops by Grey Sloan, it could be less traumatic? Maybe just, like, not on a gurney. Alas, she arrives after falling through the roof at a three-alarm fire to save her probie, and her arms, legs, and torso are covered in burns. This looks bad. Now, before you ask: No, Carina does not rush in to be with her injured wife like some romantic Italian love tornado, okay? We learn that Carina and her and Maya’s kids are off in Italy for a few weeks. She doesn’t want anyone to call just yet either — so no video chat. But perhaps Marina fans can rest easy knowing these two are still very much in love with each other and their cute little family. (Liam is walking now, and baby Andrea, named after her uncle — be still my heart — is as perfect as can be.)
Maya may not have Carina by her side, but she does have Ben Warren. He’s not going anywhere until they fix his friend. And she needs a lot of fixing. Most urgently, Link and Amelia want to get her into the OR to fix a broken leg and repair some nerve damage before it’s too late. Ben practically begs Toni to let him begin debriding Maya’s burns while they have her on the table — the sooner they begin, the better the outcome. Even when Amelia and Link are both done and it’s time to send Maya to the ICU, Ben wants to continue repairing her skin. Wes reminds Ben that if they debride too much right now, she could become acidotic; she could go into organ failure. But Ben knows what he’s doing. She’s stable, and they’re so close to finishing. She’ll have less of a chance of scarring and reconstruction failure this way. He understands how to stay in control here. He explains as much when Toni comes in, livid that Maya isn’t already in the ICU. (In her defense, she doesn’t know Ben that well, and also she is in an extremely weird place with Amelia while still trying to figure what to do with her ex-wife.) But Ben’s arguments are sound. He is confident and clear. Exactly how she wanted him to act when he first ended up on her service. It doesn’t take long for Toni to glove up and assist.
It winds up being the right call. They finish the debriding, and Maya is doing well in recovery, with Ben still at her side, of course. Toni is finally impressed by Ben. So impressed, she offers him a plastics fellowship right there, no application necessary. Get your dark blue scrubs, my man — Ben just got the promotion of his dreams.
Inspired much?
Meanwhile, Ben’s wife is having basically the opposite day her husband is. As part of her punishment for the hydrogel incident while Webber waits to hear from the IRB, he sends Bailey to be a judge in the Fox Foundation Medical Innovation Competition, where med students present their work in the hope of winning seed money. She’ll be joined by someone else paying a penance — Meredith Grey.
In an odd twist, Bailey arrives at the event full of cynicism, and Meredith is the one spouting optimism. I mean, stranger things have happened on this show, but still, it’s wild to see Meredith be the one to remind Bailey to be encouraging and stop crushing dreams. Bailey hates being this way; it’s just so hard to get excited for the future when the current state of, well, everything is so exhausting. She gets why all her teachers seemed jaded to her — because now she’s jaded too. But after a little pep talk, a big drink, and some time listening to some of the med students talk about their passions and desire to make a difference, both Bailey and Meredith walk away feeling inspired and reminded of some of the best parts of their job.
That good feeling doesn’t last long for Bailey. When she gets back to Grey Sloan, she goes to see Webber. He’s heard from the IRB: He knows it was Kwan who injected the hydrogel, and he knows Bailey lied right to his face about it. He doesn’t want to hear any more of her excuses — she’s benched from surgery until further notice, and Kwan has already been fired. So much for inspiration and hope for the future.