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It's midseason time again and Grey's Anatomy fans were dealt a few gut punches that we'll have to wait another two months to get more information about when the show is back on air. In the meantime, a lot of questions were left up in the air as fans saw several storylines collide, or at the very least, take a few left turns.
In typical Grey's fashion, an external disaster underscored the drama in this tense hour of television. An earthquake damaged apartment building collapsed - coincidentally right in front of Meredith, Alex, and Maggie as they drove to work. This put Grey Sloan Memorial on high alert and put Owen Hunt, trauma surgeon, right in the middle of all of it. It was clear from his first appearance that he had a lot on his mind, between the inbound trauma patients as well as the muddled state of his marriage. Owen put aside his personal feelings when it came to the medicine and enlisted the support of Nathan, whom he has relied upon in challenging trauma cases in the past. Surprisingly, over the course of the episode we saw these two men also talk to each other about personal concerns that moved away from their shared history with Owen's sister Megan, and into their current circumstances.
The anvillicious part of this trauma story for Owen and Nathan grew from finding out their patient had both a wife and a girlfriend, whom they took turns updating about his condition. This sledgehammer introduction of the topic of infidelity, the basis for the division in the two men's friendship, eventually got them to more subtle conversations than either has been capable of with each other since Nathan's arrival in Seattle. It also got us discussion of Owen's first wife - Cristina, my favorite missing in action character - and the 'same as it ever was' feeling Owen was having about marriage given his current situation with Amelia.
At the start of the hour, Owen and April - the one-two trauma team - were in full-on patient assessment mode with a side helping of personal crossover as we saw them discussing both medicine and Owen's inability to find Amelia. In the middle of this conversation we saw a woozy patient reach out to them. As this patient's symptoms grew more dire, Owen pulled in Nathan to help him. Next came the comedic sledgehammer as it turned out Owen had updated their patient's wife on his condition, though she wondered why he was injured at an apartment building in which they don't live. Next, Nathan announced the answer as we learned he'd just updated their patient's girlfriend who did live in the damaged building. Next came a conversation for the two doctors, during surgery of course, that was a long overdue confessional, of sorts, for each of them.
As Nathan asked Owen how they should approach their patient's domestic situation, it spurred a conversation which showed us a bit more about the complicated feelings each man held about themselves and their friendship. From Nathan, we heard how much he still carried with him the damage his cheating caused to his relationship with Megan and his friendship with Owen. Surprisingly, this lead Owen to connecting the dots on his side of things between his anger and blame toward Nathan having as much to do with his treatment of Megan, as to his own actions in his marriage with Cristina. While their conversation in the scrub room wasn't long, we heard more here from Owen than he's said in practically any other episode on the topic. Maybe he is remembering that long ago advice from his therapist to name his feelings in order to navigate through them.
While operating on their patient, we saw more fraternal bonding for these two friends over how much history they didn't know about each other since Megan's loss and the resulting rift in their friendship. And slowly, with each word, we saw that rift diminish as their manner grew easier around each other. Nathan's surprise over Owen having been married before and how much he'd missed in their friendship spurred Owen on to share more of his despair at finding himself again married to someone who doesn't want to have children. In this moment of reconvened friendship, Nathan was able to give Owen some good romantic advice - you're only in the same place if you react in the same way you did before.
In typical Shondaland fashion, Owen took Nathan's advice and returned home looking to talk things out with Amelia only to find a goodbye note waiting for him on the counter. In a brief voiceover, we heard Amelia tell Owen not to blame himself for her actions. Here's hoping Owen takes Nathan up on the raincheck offer of a beer sometime soon as he's clearly going to need the support of their friendship as he tries to figure out his future with or without Amelia.
Elsewhere in the hospital: Alex tied up some loose ends on what he envisioned to be his last day as a free man before the beginning of his trial; Meredith continued to back him up; Jo confessed the missing piece of her past to Alex which left their relationship up in the air; Andrew reached out to Jo regarding the start of the trial after finding out she was subpoenaed; Bailey and Ben threw their church and state approach to work and home out the window; Richard found out Eliza, the hospital consultant, was going to be running his residency program; Maggie found out too and took it to Jackson, the board, and their fellow surgeons to rally behind Richard; Arizona found out Eliza was definitely into her but maintained her allegiance to Richard, her favorite wingman; Bailey found herself on shaky ground with Richard; the hour's medical trauma put several patients in jeopardy; Ben acted as confessor to a tortured patient who felt responsible for the building collapse; and his hallway conversation with Stephanie on the topic was overheard by the parents of a pediatric patient with dire results.
In typical Grey's fashion, an external disaster underscored the drama in this tense hour of television. An earthquake damaged apartment building collapsed - coincidentally right in front of Meredith, Alex, and Maggie as they drove to work. This put Grey Sloan Memorial on high alert and put Owen Hunt, trauma surgeon, right in the middle of all of it. It was clear from his first appearance that he had a lot on his mind, between the inbound trauma patients as well as the muddled state of his marriage. Owen put aside his personal feelings when it came to the medicine and enlisted the support of Nathan, whom he has relied upon in challenging trauma cases in the past. Surprisingly, over the course of the episode we saw these two men also talk to each other about personal concerns that moved away from their shared history with Owen's sister Megan, and into their current circumstances.
The anvillicious part of this trauma story for Owen and Nathan grew from finding out their patient had both a wife and a girlfriend, whom they took turns updating about his condition. This sledgehammer introduction of the topic of infidelity, the basis for the division in the two men's friendship, eventually got them to more subtle conversations than either has been capable of with each other since Nathan's arrival in Seattle. It also got us discussion of Owen's first wife - Cristina, my favorite missing in action character - and the 'same as it ever was' feeling Owen was having about marriage given his current situation with Amelia.
At the start of the hour, Owen and April - the one-two trauma team - were in full-on patient assessment mode with a side helping of personal crossover as we saw them discussing both medicine and Owen's inability to find Amelia. In the middle of this conversation we saw a woozy patient reach out to them. As this patient's symptoms grew more dire, Owen pulled in Nathan to help him. Next came the comedic sledgehammer as it turned out Owen had updated their patient's wife on his condition, though she wondered why he was injured at an apartment building in which they don't live. Next, Nathan announced the answer as we learned he'd just updated their patient's girlfriend who did live in the damaged building. Next came a conversation for the two doctors, during surgery of course, that was a long overdue confessional, of sorts, for each of them.
As Nathan asked Owen how they should approach their patient's domestic situation, it spurred a conversation which showed us a bit more about the complicated feelings each man held about themselves and their friendship. From Nathan, we heard how much he still carried with him the damage his cheating caused to his relationship with Megan and his friendship with Owen. Surprisingly, this lead Owen to connecting the dots on his side of things between his anger and blame toward Nathan having as much to do with his treatment of Megan, as to his own actions in his marriage with Cristina. While their conversation in the scrub room wasn't long, we heard more here from Owen than he's said in practically any other episode on the topic. Maybe he is remembering that long ago advice from his therapist to name his feelings in order to navigate through them.
While operating on their patient, we saw more fraternal bonding for these two friends over how much history they didn't know about each other since Megan's loss and the resulting rift in their friendship. And slowly, with each word, we saw that rift diminish as their manner grew easier around each other. Nathan's surprise over Owen having been married before and how much he'd missed in their friendship spurred Owen on to share more of his despair at finding himself again married to someone who doesn't want to have children. In this moment of reconvened friendship, Nathan was able to give Owen some good romantic advice - you're only in the same place if you react in the same way you did before.
In typical Shondaland fashion, Owen took Nathan's advice and returned home looking to talk things out with Amelia only to find a goodbye note waiting for him on the counter. In a brief voiceover, we heard Amelia tell Owen not to blame himself for her actions. Here's hoping Owen takes Nathan up on the raincheck offer of a beer sometime soon as he's clearly going to need the support of their friendship as he tries to figure out his future with or without Amelia.
Elsewhere in the hospital: Alex tied up some loose ends on what he envisioned to be his last day as a free man before the beginning of his trial; Meredith continued to back him up; Jo confessed the missing piece of her past to Alex which left their relationship up in the air; Andrew reached out to Jo regarding the start of the trial after finding out she was subpoenaed; Bailey and Ben threw their church and state approach to work and home out the window; Richard found out Eliza, the hospital consultant, was going to be running his residency program; Maggie found out too and took it to Jackson, the board, and their fellow surgeons to rally behind Richard; Arizona found out Eliza was definitely into her but maintained her allegiance to Richard, her favorite wingman; Bailey found herself on shaky ground with Richard; the hour's medical trauma put several patients in jeopardy; Ben acted as confessor to a tortured patient who felt responsible for the building collapse; and his hallway conversation with Stephanie on the topic was overheard by the parents of a pediatric patient with dire results.
