When Sophia Bush swooped into last week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy and the episode ended with Teddy giving Dr. Cass Beckman a smooch, I worried it was a fluke. A one-time thing Teddy would regret and back away from, a cliffhanger to tease us. After all, they’ve been dispatching queer characters left and right lately — Helm seemed to have vanished into the parking lot of no return, Beltran died in Jules’ arms, Amelia went on sabbatical — so I thought poor Teddy would be trapped in her marriage to Owen and we’d never hear about her bisexuality again.
I’ve never been so happy to be wrong.
That sure is one way to get my attention at the top of the episode.
This week’s episode opens with Teddy and Cass ankle rubbing and shoulder kissing and being late on purpose. Apparently, they’ve been having sexytimes in Teddy’s hotel for a week now, but today they’re going to be late for work if they don’t leave soon.
Don’t ask me what Meredith was saying in the voiceover, because I sure wasn’t paying attention. Something about cold hearts beating again. :side-eyes Teddy:
Cass convinces Teddy to stay in bed a little longer by saying they can carpool, and while Teddy is worried about how that will look, Cass assures her that people carpool for plenty of reasons, not just sexy reasons. Teddy convinces herself that it’s a good idea because it’s better for the environment…and pretends it has nothing to do with the sexy doctor in her bed.
Cass could have said to me “Let’s go eat dirt instead of work today” and I would have said yes.
One thing I want to note here is that far too often, on television shows, sexy sapphic kissing is either part of a montage or it cuts directly to straight people kissing. I don’t know why this happens, I’m sure sometimes it’s like “ah yes kissing to kissing, great transition idea” but I always notice it, and I never love it, and I really appreciated that it doesn’t happen in this episode.
Anyway, when Cass and Teddy get to the hospital, of course Owen is lurking outside like the nightmare creature that he is (okay fine he’s just helping Link leave the hospital) which of course makes Teddy start acting weird even though she could have just followed Cass’s lead, who is cool as a cucumber.
Cass is almost TOO cool and chill and emotionally competent for this show. She’s makes everyone else look like a cartoon character.
To make matters worse, Teddy’s patient today is none other than Nora. I, for one, am never sad to see Floriana Lima’s face, but all she does for Teddy is remind her of Owen and how their marriage is falling apart. While she’s scanning Nora, Cass finds her and offers to help and is being so gentle and kind and Teddy brushes her off and pulls away from her hand on her arm.
Teddy has never had a work wife and it shows. When someone you like (even if you’re not sleeping with them) offers to hang out at work, you say yes!
Cass is smart and knows Teddy isn’t saying what she means, so she asks if Teddy is acting like this because they ran into Owen, and Teddy snaps at her and says they’re at work not a hotel and she needs to leave her alone. Cass leaves, annoyed, strutting her sleeveless blazer out into the hospital with her head held high.
Teddy, to her credit, is very kind to Nora; she knows her problems with Owen aren’t Nora’s fault, and she’s patient with her when she explains that there’s nothing wrong, but that it wasn’t a bother at all for her to come in. In fact, she even tells Nora that her and Owen are getting a divorce, in a way that very specifically does not lay blame on Nora, but instead opens a door. Because Teddy knows that Nora and Owen would make each other happy, and she does want that for them.
Teddy finds Cass to apologize, and Cass hilariously retorts with “apparently I’m only capable of pillow talk.” Teddy admits she was right, running into Owen rattled her, and she wants to explain why. She’s a soldier-doctor, she likes tight hospital corners (and, in fact, once won a competition about it) and sterile rooms and right now her life is a mess all around her, and she really liked being in the hotel room bubble with Cass where things didn’t feel quite so messy. They just felt happy. And she’s afraid of that bubble bursting. Cass says that maybe letting their relationship leave the bubble wouldn’t make it go away, but just make it bigger. Give Teddy more places where she can feel happy.
Do you think the unnamed doctors in this hospital prioritize crossing this walkway for the juiciest gossip?
Teddy says it might take her some time to adjust and would understand if Cass doesn’t want to wait for her, but Cass says she wants to see those tight bedsheet corners. It’s the most boring three words in the English language and yet Sophia Bush manages to make them sound sexy as hell. Witchcraft.
Teddy suggests they find an empty patient room, but with the clarity of someone who does not permanently reside in the weird heightened reality dimension that is Seattle Grace Mercy West Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital for the Disaster Prone, this sounds very silly to her…they have a hotel room not too far away.
The episode ends with Nora and Owen going on a date, which leaves me delusionally hopeful that we’ll see more Cass in the future. And as someone who is in a toxic relationship with this show, this might have been the only thing that could have kept me watching after Beltran died so suddenly and horribly. And I know they know! But between the sunk cost fallacy (I’ve been watching this show for literally HALF MY LIFE) and the promise of more gays, you sonovabitch, I’m in.
I don’t know how long the go-with-the-flow, down-to-earth Cass is going to want to be sucked into the drama that tightly-wound Teddy is sure to drag her into, and I have a feeling that we could end up in a place where Teddy catches real feelings and Cass is just down for a good time not a long time, but no matter where it goes or how it ends, if it means we get more Sophia Bush being cute and queer on our screen, swaggering around in looks that would make Brooke Davis swoon, I’m 100% here for it.
