Hey, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. So in Thursday’s Grey’s Anatomy, it shouldn’t have come as any surprise to Simone that Lucas took someone else to bed. She did, after all, accept jerky ex-fiancé Trey’s marriage re-proposal last week. (Read that recap here.)
In other twists of plot, Lucas and Blue volunteered to pull what just might be the ultimate d–k move, Owen managed to stun Teddy anew (did they even like each other anymore?), and alas, things were looking bleak for Natalia, the patient whose divorce ceremony was the most romantic on record. But those are just the bullet points; read on, and we’ll get into the nitty gritty.
‘HOW IS THAT A FRIEND?’ | As “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves” began — sans the Eurythmics song, sadly — Simone was being kept up by the noisy sex that Lucas was having with Kara, an annoying rando from internal medicine, in the next room. At Amelia’s, Maggie was proving to be the most irksome roommate ever. At Richard and Catherine’s, she was undergoing Reiki ahead of the surgery she’d be performing that day. Jo and Levi were bickering over which of them worked harder when in front of them appeared hot nurse Carlos from the residents’ party. Hilariously, Schmitt didn’t want to see him just then because the traveling nurse was under the impression that the erstwhile Glasses was cool. In the chief’s office, Owen revealed to Teddy that he had taken steps to be assessed that very day in hopes of being granted permission to practice medicine again. Since Link’s surgery was cancelled, his interns — Lucas and Blue — were reassigned to Catherine. Natalia seemed to be doing well following last week’s procedure — at least at first. And Amelia, Simone and Mika treated a woman named Barbara whose sisters were almost gleefully sure that she was next in line to get cancer.
After buttering up Bailey with compliments about her pie, Teddy asked her former boss to supervise Owen. If he didn’t get OK’d, he couldn’t be evaluated again for another six months. Nope, said Bailey. Busy. Link agreed to babysit Altman’s husband, but Hunt’s first patient didn’t want to have the doctor who’d killed Tank working on him with a doctor who was on probation. In other words, the assessment was off to a rocky start. Owen’s next patient was in too big a hurry to wait to get treatment — so from rocky to rockier. Luckily (?), into the ER next came a patient in seriously bad shape. Link advised caution, but Owen insisted that there wasn’t time. As the patient was wheeled into surgery following Hunt’s handiwork, it was impossible to tell whether his assessor was impressed or distressed. Later, after telling Bailey that his judge and jury had seen enough and left, Owen defended his actions. How about instead of yell about everything that he did right, she suggested, he apologize to his wife already? Jeez, Owen!
‘HOW DOES HE PEE… SIDEWAYS?’ | Treating Gerald, a patient suffering from Peyronie’s disease, Catherine, Lucas, Blue and Levi learned that he had told his wife Gloria that he was at a conference. Lucas and Blue were horrified to learn that Gerald had “bone in his bone.” In fact, they were so horrified — and amused — that Levi wisely encouraged them to get all of their penis jokes out of the way before they hit the O.R. Alone with Schmitt, Gerald worried aloud that his condition would be permanent. Levi doubted that that would be the case. But based on what the patient had said, the chief resident was sure that his marriage to Gloria could withstand even that turn of events. In the O.R., the surgery proved to be too much for Blue, who fainted. Catherine would’ve bet Lucas would pass out, not Blue, she laughed. (Same, honestly.) Post-surgery, Gloria showed up to make sure he was OK. She handled all their insurance payments, so he hadn’t covered his tracks as well as he’d thought. She didn’t want Catherine to tell him she’d been there, though; she just wanted to make sure he’d be OK — and he would. The surgery had been a success.
‘WE’LL SEE SUNSETS EVERY DAY’ | Before Natalia’s next surgery, she began coughing up blood. Things turned out to be so dire that Maggie actually called in Winston for a consult. She didn’t like what he had to say, though. There was nothing to be done for the patient but try to alleviate her pain on her way out. Instead of inform Elliot, Natalia pleaded with her doctors to keep him in the dark and let them plan their dream trip. Nonetheless, he quickly figured out that something was up. Something bad. “Is she dying?” he asked when he had a moment alone with Jules. Millin didn’t disregard Natalia’s wishes, but by the time Elliot was done talking to Jules, he knew that this would be his ex-wife’s last day. Later, Jules told Richard that she couldn’t believe that they weren’t doing everything they could to save Natalia. Wouldn’t Webber want them to do more if it was his wife? (Foreshadowing?) Living with the fact that sometimes there is nothing you can do, Richard told Jules, is one of the hardest parts of the job. As Natalia’s hours dwindled down to minutes, then seconds, Elliot described for her the trip they’d never get to take.
‘HOW DO YOU GET COFFEE FOR A DEAD PERSON?’ | Understandably, Simone and Mika were bewildered by Barbara’s sisters, who brought yet another sibling’s ashes with them. She’d had cancer, too, but died after a fall from a ladder. That didn’t mean that Mika shouldn’t also get her coffee, though. Umm… what? Amusingly, Amelia lied that Barbara had a thready pulse to get rid of her sisters. In case the surgery went south, the patient made Amelia promise not to let her family carry her around in a box. Once they were finished in the O.R., Amelia revealed to Barbara and her sibs that she didn’t have cancer. Weird as they were, the sisters “reassured” Barbara that she’d get it eventually. But she didn’t want it, she said. Well, duh. At last, Barbara’s sisters admitted that yeah, cancer sucks. Also, that wasn’t their sister in the box — it had been cat litter since the real ashes got lost in Reno!
As the episode drew to a close, Owen apologized to Teddy for his many (many!) failings. In turn, Teddy apologized for being angry and tipsy rather than loving and supportive. And by the way, he had passed his evaluation and was cleared to reclaim his post as chief of trauma. While Simone took a call from Trey, Lucas took off with Kara. Levi, high off his surgery with Catherine, realized that he wasn’t Glasses anymore, he was cool, so he walked right over to where Carlos was working and asked him out. In a hospital lounge, Richard shared with Catherine his suspicion that something was wrong and she was trying to protect him. “Whatever it is,” he said, “I’m ready to hear it.” At last, his wife revealed that her cancer was progressing. Maggie asked Amelia to stay at her place one more night; after that, she’d move into a hotel. (Should we call time of death on her and Winston’s marriage?) “Just because Meredith moved doesn’t mean anything has changed between us,” Amelia reassured her. “But get your own cereal.” And at the interns’ house, the kids played dress-up and painted — kinda just what Jules needed after Natalia’s passing.
Your thoughts on the episode? If you don’t compare the show today to the show of yesterday, is there any arguing that it isn’t, um, pretty damn engaging? Or is it just me who still loves it?
