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This week's episode of Grey's Anatomy took us right into the fight to save Maggie's mother's life and right into the hands of first-time director, Ellen Pompeo. Much of the hour's action centered around this very personal medical story and got us some amazing acting as well. This was one singularly focused episode that worked more seamlessly than others we've already seen this season because the action took place in familiar environments and showed us how blurred the lines between professional and personal are for these fictional Seattle surgeons in their homes and home hospital. We saw Maggie pressing forward toward the next surgery and the next one after that in a frenzied effort to cure her mother Diane. Many of her fellow surgeons cycled through to give their expert opinions and to support their coworker / friend / sister and her mother. The emotional dynamic between the two women was challenging to witness after having watched them fuss and fight with each other for a couple of previous episodes. Maggie's rapid-fire responses seemed all about compartmentalizing the daughter in her so as to bring forward the doctor in her so as to find a way to increase her mother's chances for survival. We were also reminded that Meredith is Maggie's sister and Richard is her biological father as we saw both people trying to talk compassionate sense to Maggie about her mother's course of treatment. What started as breast cancer began spiking elsewhere in her body, first in some cells around her original incision which put Nathan in the operating room and in contact with Meredith. The romantic tension continued between them even as both were exhausted by trying the very personal medical case in front of them. When the cancer moved into Diane's liver, Meredith voiced objections to rushing into the next surgery. Soon after Diane, with Maggie's urging her on, fired Meredith, though it was probably for the best given that Meredith and Maggie seemed to learn something about themselves and each other from interacting as strictly sisters for most of this hour. We soon saw Maggie concocting a surgical dream team: Jackson, Diane's original Seattle surgeon, as well as Richard and Miranda. Yep - the trouble twins who have been on the outs since Miranda brought Eliza to the hospital to shape up the surgical residency program which put Richard out of a job. As any viewer would expect, Richard and Miranda had an aversion to working together to get Diane into an aggressive clinical trial even as they shared a similar point of view on her best medical chances. It soon became evident that Maggie was letting her concern for her mother, and her guilt over fighting with her while she was unaware of her mother's condition, shoot her into overdrive as a way to fix this very scary problem going on in her family. She maintained a stiff smile on her face at all times, trying to convince herself, her mother, and everyone else that there was no way to go except forward at 100 miles per hour. Diane tried to keep up, though she looked ever more exhausted as each hurdle presented itself. Miranda kindly and firmly explained all of the possible side effects of the trial to Diane and then we saw them all become reality in a montage which showed the rest of the surgeons, including Owen, taking turns treating Diane, both at home and at the hospital. We got a rare moment of lightness as she insisted Maggie learn how to make her lasagna, including noodles from scratch. The resulting dinner party brought back some of Grey's history as Diane asked if she could pay respects to Ellis - Maggie's biological mother, considering she was staying in her house with her daughter's family. A moment of hilarity ensued as they all laughed at the absurdity of Ellis's final resting place - the scrub sink in OR 2 - which was, as Meredith pointed out, her favorite operating room. The moment turned grey as Diane laughter turned to coughing up blood, which we soon learned was caused by an esophageal tear. As the next surgery loomed we got further scenes of conflict - Meredith urged care in Diane's surgical plan and Maggie blew up at her before running from the room. A rare moment of vulnerability swept across Meredith's face which she carefully brushed aside in the face of Nathan's concern for her well being. We next saw Richard trying to coax Diane to be honest with him about whether she was up to the next round of treatment. In this scene between two of Maggie's parents we learned a bit more about Diane's concerns for her daughter, that she will need to know she did everything she could for her mother before she dies. Inevitably, Diane's health began to deteriorate to the point at which she asked Maggie to let her go. Maggie tried to support her mother, but spun out once she was out of the room. She allowed Nathan to comfort her with a listening ear and a kind hug before she was ready to sit with her sisters - Meredith and Amelia - and accept that she had to make the absolute most of the time that remained for her with her mother. At least Diane got in some good motherly advice about taking a bite out of life rather than living inside the lines before we had to say goodbye to this vibrant character. One win we got out of this tumultuous hour of television was a full circle moment for Richard as Miranda found him sitting quietly in an OR gallery after Diane's death. He'd bowed out after bring Maggie's father to town to help her figure out how to mourn her mother. As Miranda slid into the seat next to Richard we heard him seemingly let go of Ellis, the woman he loved who never forgave him. It did this viewer's heart good to hear him tell Miranda that he didn't want to make the same sort of mistake in his friendship / mentorship with her. Unfortunately, we also got a loss as Meredith put yet another barrier in the way of moving forward with a relationship with Nathan, citing the loss that Maggie had suffered and how she would need to be there for her. It remained unclear whether or not Nathan was indeed as understanding as he seemed to be in assuring Meredith he heard what she was saying. And okay, we got another win as we saw Meredith have a sort of full circle moment with Ellis too. It was very simple and not fussy as we heard Meredith's voice say 'Goodbye mom' over a scene of her and Amelia joining Maggie to eat the last of the pan of her mom's lasagna. text version after the break
Romantic workplace tension filled the first few minutes of Grey's this week, which meant most characters and their shipper groups were in for a bumpy ride. Leading the charge was Meredith who was musing aloud about Nathan's declared interest in her. (She also, by the way, shouldn't talk so loud about how great the sex was with Nathan while her sister Maggie was within earshot.) Next on the scene was Owen, looking intense and brooding in the ambulance bay. Guess who showed up for another neuro consult on one of his patients - yep, Amelia. Who, when he asked how she was, said it was great to be back at work. Ouch and cue another sad face for Owen as he tried unsuccessfully to hide his hurt reaction in front of his coworkers and their patient. In another Kevin McKidd directed episode, we saw more of Owen than we have in weeks. Owen remained decisive about his feelings on the state of his marriage with Amelia, cornering her for a conversation in which his need for answers was obvious, as was her inability to give him any. This Owen has learned to identify his feelings and to verbalize them, as we saw him ask her if she was going to continue running away from home or if she would ever be willing to face him. As Grey's writers do, the medical story of the week was the mirror to their very different approaches to their relationship, as we saw two former surgeons arrive at Grey Sloan Memorial, one of whom had fallen while hiking and turned out to have a risky to repair brain bleed. Aside from some brilliant stunt casting with the inimitable Hal Holbrook, we saw his wife searching for her own path through her tragic injuries while her husband wanted to have some control over what was happening to them. Naturally enough, Owen alternately consoled the husband while castigating Amelia for taking on a risky surgery without much chance of a positive outcome. Amelia stayed rooted in her work, wanting the space to pursue her patient's requested surgical option. Oh, and then there were the anvils about their patient wanting both more time with her husband and also wanting to use that time to help him figure out how to be alone before she died. While Owen received sage words of wisdom from Holbrook's character about there being no secret to a long marriage, Amelia remained certain she was doing right by her patient. Her certainty put her in the hall fighting it out with Owen soon after, where we saw her holding no punches. She even brought up Cristina, Owen's first wife, with whom he also struggled to deal with her not wanting the family he craved. This was the one piece of unexpected conversation we saw between these two characters who rushed into their marriage only to be brought up short by their approaches to whether or not to have a family and how to communicate with each other. (Although yay for invoking Cristina, who remains my favorite former character.) As Owen shared his side of the conversation, we heard his familiar refrain about wanting, what he called, a normal life, while Amelia reminded him that having a child doesn't ensure your life will be what you hope it will be. She reminded him that she was already a mother once and it turned out to be wonderful and heartbreaking, as her son died soon after he was born. Owen remained silent when she asked him if he was ready for that kind of a roll of the dice when it came to the family he envisioned. And if that wasn't enough, of course their patient survived surgery only to die a short while later, leaving her husband fumbling for how to move forward on his own. Viewers were left wondering where Owen and Amelia might go next as both were visibly shattered by their public argument at the hospital and the fractured marriage at the center of their medical story. A weighted look between them in the ER left us with little guidance except leaving it clear much distance remained between them. Elsewhere in the hospital: Maggie's mom received bad news from her oncologist; Maggie and her mom remained in conflict, even once Maggie knew about the cancer diagnosis; Richard froze out both Miranda and Arizona; nosy Jo worked on Jackson's service and got opinionated on Maggie's mom keeping secrets from her daughter about her health; sisterly bonding between Meredith, Maggie, and Amelia was filled with subtext about their romantic relationships; Nathan kept joking his way around Meredith's insistence he step up if he wanted to be with her until he finally ponied up with some sappy reasons that won her heart; Ben and Miranda bonded; Stephanie seemed triggered by their patient's death, though her emotional response got Andrew to admit to being, maybe, in love with Jo; and Richard told Arizona he had to work through his feelings before he'd feel confident in their friendship again. |
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