Deanie87

And that's fine, but then he will have to deal with his mother's issues. I mean given the people that she knows in the hospital, I can't say that I blame her. If anyone ever acted like an adult the show would have ended years ago. I still think that dating a step-sibling, even one found later in life, will cause problems that dating someone outside of "the family" won't. I don't think that Jackson should stop pursuing things just because his mother is a pain in the ass about it, but I also won't feel bad if Catherine has a "told ya so" party if/when things go south. And you know that she will. Damn it! I knew that, but I had all the Arquette's running through my head and was picturing Roseanna but calling her Patricia. Why is it that the men in this show always have to be told by their ex-wives that they are in love with/attracted to someone else? (Derek, Jackson and now Owen). Good lord, get it together you emotionally-challenged idiots!

But I think that IS a real issue. Not so much on the "poor Catherine" front, but that is where them being a family complicates things. Say they do date for a couple of years and then break up, it will be very awkward for Richard and Catherine and anyone else in the "family." I have never, ever been one to get hung up on any kind of incest between Jackson and Maggie, because there isn't any, but there are complications in them getting together that there aren't for say, Jackson and April or Maggie and DeLuca. Now, of course, the hospital is so ridiculously incestuous that these kinds of conflicts of interest are everywhere, but I get Catherine's point to a certain degree. There are hundreds of people Jackson could date, in that hospital alone, and he has to pick the only kid of her husband. Same with Maggie. I actually really enjoyed the Jackson/Richard/Catherine dynamic and Jackson's asides and mumbling snark was funny. If they have to explore the family side of things, I really wish that they would do it via Jackson/Richard and Maggie/Ellis/Richard (and I loved the scene of Meredith telling Maggie about Ellis - more of that please), rather than as an obstacle or talking point to romance between Jackson and Maggie. Because....it really, really ain't working. I am not a virulent Jaggie hater, but they are certainly not doing that pairing (or Maggie) any favors. The dialogue is reaching Mark/Lexie cringe levels and that is extremely bad. Did Maggie really say something about them being hungry in relation to sex? Did I hear right? Ay, yi, yi. Kelly M. is a beautiful woman, and her body is ridiculous, but what the hell are they doing putting her in that Golden Girl BLOUSE at the end? She looked 55 years old and not someone ready to get sexed up by her step-brother! And then Catherine singing Maggie's praises to the patient, its all just too, too much. April did a great job, but I found Drew's performance at the very end with just the silent breakdown to be more affecting than her screaming at the interns. It was kind of funny at first but then just went way over the top. But I did like DeLuca's moaning and thought he and the dancer were kind of funny. I sure did enjoy a lot of things in this episode that I usually don't. I couldn't care less about Owen and Teddy, but it is starting to get on my nerves how no one, including Owen, is noticing April going off the deep end. It's reminding me a bit of Izzie in season 5 when she was having her crazy Denny experience and everyone just chalked it up to her being spirited. I don't know if its to lay on the guilt later or what, but its unsettling. I agree that AZ bringing her daughter into work and then chatting with her about her friend's condition was certainly something. Also, not to be mean, but both of those kids were creepy. Between the laughing and the vacant stares, I was hoping someone would ship them off to the 24 hour daycare for awhile. Along those lines, I wonder what Justin Chambers thinks when he comes into read his script and every other one reads "Alex comes in, gives a high-five, tousles hair, tells a dad joke and leaves for the rest of the episode." I guess he smirks and cashes his paycheck. Finally, when was the last time the show had a bratty kid or a really obnoxious patient? I probably skim more episodes than not at this point, but I feel like every single recent patient has been lovable or noble and there to Teach a Lesson or Expand a Horizon and that is much different than the earlier seasons. Remember the lady that screamed at George because they kept putting off her daughter's surgery, or the Doris Roberts lady that Alex conned into giving her money to the orphans or the Patricia Arquette serial killer? I remember them because they were interesting, but now I can't remember anything except a revolving line of noble dullards and precocious kids.

Laura San Giacomo from Sex, Lies and Videotape.

Yeah, Patrick's version was that he was willing to stay under his terms and I guess Shonda's version was that it wasn't good enough. Who knows? I always say that in situations like these, its usually a combination of both versions. I guess I"m "lucky" to watch primarily for Alex. Nobody would ever be jealous of his screentime or media attention and I would never presume that his departure would do anything to the ratings. I want him to get his happy ending, but he has never been a priority as a character in his own right, so I would be totally fine with him leaving, under any circumstance. I agree that if the show's ratings drop it is simply because the show has run its course. I don't think it is the departure of any specific character, but rather, the culmination of so many of them. But, with streaming services, Grey's seems to get new fans all the time.

I think that they are pretty similar considering that Patrick was the one that wanted to leave (although many still think he was forced to go), but I remember his departure being a much bigger deal in the media, etc. The differences are the reason for the dismissal and the way it is done (which we have yet to see for April and AZ). But you get the same calls for a boycott, the same petitions and the same calls for the show to end because of course, the ratings are going to plummet now. You even get the same conspiracies surrounding Ellen secretly bumping off any and all competition.

OMG - Taye Diggs does follow EVERYONE on Twitter! Sometimes I'll see some MAGA response to a Trump tweet, and sure enough when I check their profile, Taye Diggs is right there! I have always wondered about that and how funny that the show mentioned it. Boy, I was feeling Bow tonight. I had my first and only child at 40, and as horrible as it is, sometimes that phrase "Mom, will you play with me?" sends dread into very soul. If I was Bow, I would have been like "I didn't carry the two of you for 10 months in my belly for you not to entertain each other!!" And I know, I know, my friends often tell me to cherish this time because one day my son won't want to do anything with me, but phew, they had their kids in their energetic twenties and popped out a couple of spares for entertainment :) Is it me, or has the whole family started dressing from the 80s? I noticed Dre, Jr. and Diane all wearing something that would not have been out of place at any party during my high school years. Junior continues to be one of my favorite characters on tv right now.

While I love to speculate on the backstage drama, I am very, very skeptical of these "insider" posts, especially when they seem to match fan theory so closely, like this one seems to. But this is where they lose me a little. I just don't get the feeling that Sarah Drew would be someone that would threaten Ellen or cause her much jealousy. I know that Japril is a popular couple, but is April on her own all that popular? Her recent arc is very interesting, but she really took a hit when she left Jackson and all of their back and forth, and that was after much of ill-advised Jesus stuff and after she left Matthew at the altar (which I don't think went over all that well if you weren't a Japril fan). Besides that, Ellen had been one half of a huge couple and was clearly fine about it ending, and then made it plain that she wanted Meredith to be on her own for awhile without a man. So I guess if she really felt like she had to "compete" with Japril then she would push for a new love interest, or god help us all try to get Merlex going. I just don't think that whatever popularity April had, it was near enough to threaten to eclipse what Ellen had, and the amount of storyline and screentime didn't either. I could see that being an issue with Cristina or Callie (and maybe even Maggie as far as screentime) but not April. I think in the end it comes down to money, and then the creative aspect can be revolved around that. They were looking to cut costs and iJessica and Sarah were likely on the second tier of salaries after the originals and also didn't have much connection to Meredith, so they hit two birds with one stone and now they can go into the final (hopefully/probably) season with a truly Meredith-centered cast and saving money to boot and don't have as many big stories to wrap up. I still think the way that it seems to have gone down is pretty crappy and the producers deserve the (sane) criticism that they are getting, but I am not sure how deep the conspiracy goes. ETA - Given the various ridiculous storylines and character missteps this show has made over the years, I can't believe that they actually hold focus groups, much less listen to what they say, especially this late in the game. Other than Gizzie and Hahn, I am having trouble remembering any storyline that was changed to appease fans.

I definitely there is something to that, but I also remember how Rose and Penny were treated. Their looks, acting, they way they talked, etc., all of that was criticized just like Maggie is getting criticized now. Lots of charges about lack of chemistry as well. For whatever reason, fans seem to hate whatever woman comes between a popular couple. Even if the couple isn’t together and even it’s the man’s fault. Penny was even accused of taking over the show and being the writer’s pet (and I think there was some truth to that as well.)

That makes sense. I was looking at it more for the end result rather than just telling stories about their first loves, possibly because I tried to mute the tv every time the angsty teenagers were on screen. I think that it would have made more sense seeing Jackson's point of view as well, just to compare/contrast childhoods like they did with Jo and Alex (for once it was show not tell with Jo). Then again, I'm still vaguely bitter that what I initially thought was going to be an Alex-centric episode wasn't anything like that at all, so not having Jackson share the flashbacks was probably a good thing.

First and foremost, Sarah Drew is absolutely gorgeous. When she was sitting on the couch (bed?) with all of the sunlight streaming in and her hair was all red and shiny and she had very little makeup on...wow. I couldn't take my eyes off of her and it occurred to me that, at least for me, its Jackson that is devoid of chemistry. Obviously, Jesse Williams is a ridiculously hot individual, but he just doesn't have IT, he is just utterly bland to me. Sarah Drew has IT, whatever that is, and she brought the fire to that relationship. I think that Kelly had chemistry with DeLuca and Riggs, but I just don't see much there with Jackson. I think that there are some actors who have chemistry (sexual and non-sexual) with almost anyone, and then there are those who need the other actor to bring it out in them, and I think that Jesse is that kind of actor. I was never a big Japril fan, simply because I don't understand what they liked about one another beyond the physical, and they did so much damage to all of those around them just to be together, but I never thought they lacked chemistry. I was just never clear on Jackson's personality, and now they seem to be creating it around the character of Maggie, which doesn't bode well for this couple. Grey's is famous for using one member of a couple to completely prop the other and that's what I see happening here, right from the beginning. I agree with nearly everything you said. What the hell are they doing with Owen and Amelia? Its just so stupid. Why did we waste an entire arc on a brain tumor if Amelia was just going to go back to acting the way she did before with Owen? If anyone on this show has run their course, it seems to be these two. I wish they would bring Ben back and give Owen his walking papers. I knew enough to temper my excitement for this episode when I read that there would be Alex flashbacks. I thought that they picked a good actor for them, he didn't look exactly like Justin Chambers, but his voice and mannerisms were very similar. I've always wanted to see his mother (Hey New Christine!), but I thought that having her talk to things that weren't there was a bit much, and some of the information goes against what we've already been told, but whatever. Nice to see that his taste in bitchy blondes started young. Jo's was meh, but I understood it in relation to the end of this episode, but I am with everyone else, why the hell did Maggie have one? Yes, we know that she was a precocious nerd and since Jackson didn't have one, I really and truly have NO idea what it had to do with the rest of the story, since it didn't really play into the end scenes with Jackson. And THIS is why I dislike Maggie, she is everywhere all the time whether she fits organically into the story or not. Jo and Alex have had, what ONE conversation about their relationship since last season? And rather than give them a bit more depth, which certainly wouldn't be overkill, we have to shoehorn scenes of Maggie's childhood. If you have to try that hard to a make a character work, then they aren't working. I don't HATE Maggie, but a little really, really goes along way for me. Having said that, I love every scene of her with Richard (a perfect example of someone who has chemistry with everyone), and I wish that if we have to explore Maggie's past to learn about a character, it would be Richard, he needs more to do. As for Jo and Alex, it was cute, but this development seems both drawn out past the point of boredom, but also completely rushed if that makes sense. My favorite part was Alex being pissy, because I miss Alex's assholery and I like that as much as he has grown up, the thought of being "abandoned" yet again by a woman he loves, makes him lash out. He realizes he is being unreasonable and I don't think that he would ever really stand in the way of Jo's career, but he just can't help himself sometimes and I"m glad of that. He is boring otherwise. I"m also glad that Jo got it, and that she was the one to finally propose. I loved her telling him that he was so messed up that he made her look normal, and as toxic as it probably would be in real life, I root for these two garbage pail kids, I really do! I do wonder, though, if that means she isn't going to apply for any fellowships and, in fact, if she will ever take her boards and declare a specialty. It looks like she is going into general, but we already have so many of those. Boy did those drama kids make me cringe. God bless that mother for having to deal with all of that!

I’ll see your Scott Foley and raise you Jeffrey Morgan. Let us never, ever forget that Shonda brought Denny back from the dead and gave him sex scenes. And yet, nothing for Kyle Chandler. *shakes head*

I know what you're trying to do, show. Break my heart by killing Quinn and then bring in 4 guys to replace him. It won't work, no matter how much I love James D'Arcy! Well, it might work a little bit. I thought the same thing. And it might explain the complete loyalty of all of these guys willing to work on a fly by night project, seemingly for free. The loyalty can't come from them believing that Carrie is some kind of super agent, good at her job, because I mean...

I would have been completely fine with Jo and Alex going off into a happy ending rather than April and Arizona, but I think that you're right and they will stay together, relatively happy and backburnered until the end of the series. My guess is that in the next episode, Jo is going to research fellowships across the country, Alex will feel suprised/sad/abandoned but not say anything, and in the end, Jo's project with Meredith will be the reason she stays. So a couple of seasons ago, Alex wouldn't leave to travel with Jo because of Meredith and now Jo will stay because of Meredith. Full circle. How long until Alex feels like the third wheel?

Anyone know what the contract status of the actresses was? If their contracts simply didn't get renewed then its not like they got fired outright, though the way it was done was still shitty. I agree that it was most likely a combination of money and creative. I'm sure that it wasn't a case of the network or producers going to Ellen and saying, "We'll give you the $20 million but that means that some of your co-stars have to be let go," but she probably also understood that it was a possibility. I don't think its fair to blame her, and if they didn't give her the money, she may very well have walked away, thus most likely ending the show and putting all of those people out of work anyway. As for the creative angle, I don't believe it has to do with the specific characters of Arizona or April, because there are plenty of characters who have absolutely nothing going on (mostly the men: Alex, Owen, Richard) but they all somehow have a connection to Meredith, however tenuous. They have clearly been trying for a more Meredith-centric show since Derek and Cristina left, but they failed to have Mer make any connections with the majority of the existing cast so they had to bring in Amelia and Maggie, both of whom I would gladly substitute for April and Arizona. Add to that the fact that Drew and Capshaw are likely second-tier salaries, and the choice becomes obvious, at least to the producers/executives. I am kind of bummed because this is the most interesting I have found April in years and because I always liked Arizona's friendship with Alex and Richard. I hope that they both get happy endings, and that April doesn't get killed off, not only because it has been done 1,000 times on this show, but because its unnecessary. I would rather have her decide to do a tour in the military or something, even if it would be out of character for her to leave Harriet. Mothers in the military do it all the time. Whatever happens, Grey's will be fine. I simply don't believe that any single character or couple is that important to the show, no matter how big the backlash, and the majority of viewers are not online and take it as it comes out of habit or because they are newer viewers who recently caught up through Netflix. It’s kind of a win/win. If the show improves, great and if not and the ratings drop then it gets wrapped up quicker before it can devolve further.

Derek's reaction is the only thing that I would like about this pairing. I don't think that there was any love lost between Derek and Alex (which I have always appreciated because they are such different people). Of course, Derek didn't seem to think much of Amelia either so maybe he would have thought they deserved each other. I think that Amelia is funny and sarcastic enough for Alex and could handle his rougher edges, but I don't know that he would be interested in getting involved with someone with addiction issues given his past with his father. I like Jo and Alex together and I really hope that they get their happy ending, but if he HAD to be with one of the sisters, I would be way, way more comfortable with Amelia than Meredith or Maggie.

Oh my god, same here. While I don't mind the show tackling societal problems and issues, I always, always have a problem with the speechifying. I don't like the dumb childish dialog that usually makes up a Grey's speech, and I really don't like the amount of explication that we got in this episode. Arizona may as well have been reading off a clipboard while she was sternly rattling off the stats about maternal mortality TO ANOTHER DOCTOR! Same with Catherine and the woman that she brought in (I forget her name). I get that they need to give the non-medical audience some background, but it just.doesn't.work as natural dialogue. Save it for the PSA afterward. This episode seemed more like a film strip that you would see in school than a supposedly character-based drama. Surprisingly, I also agree about April. I am all for the doctors getting to be doctors, but let's also remember that most of these characters have recently been through a thing or two and I'd like to see them deal with the aftermath beyond just a passing remark. I want to see April freak out on someone and I want anyone to actually care. I'm bothered that once again, Alex seems to just be there to hold someone's hand. Other than the fact that the patient is a kid, I'm really not sure what his role is. If its all about the brain, I guess he will just stand there, furrow his brow and wink at the kid. Per usual. I realize that the show is really only about Girl Power now, and I don't begrudge them that because there are certainly plenty of tv shows about brooding white men, but it sucks that I find the men on this show to be so much more interesting than the women, and really the only reason I keep subjecting myself to this show. Speaking of which, long live the Chief Richard, the suave, sophisticated, smooth operator. Finally, I like the interns and while I will never, ever be as attached to them as I was to the original 5, I really like the scenes of the interns as a group, complaining, competing and forging friendships. I like that no matter what the intern group is, albeit with diminishing returns each time. I miss lunch scenes and I miss casual scenes at Joe's so I hope that we can get a little more of it.

Did none of these doctors learn anything from Dorothy Zbornak?? Her situation wasn’t life threatening but the Golden Girls was highlighting this shit 30 years ago.

I am one who had a problem with Meredith in a few of the most recent seasons, not only for her treatment of Jo but because I think she was written as completely selfish and self-absorbed, and unnecessarily bitchy to nearly everyone. She was always the least judgmental and most sincerely compassionate of the five interns (as opposed to the situational compassion of George and Izzie), and while she wasn't my favorite, I always liked her. But all of that started changing around season 10 (so before Cristina or Derek left). She fought nastily with Cristina, told Jo that she didn't have the time deal with Alex when his dad showed up and then died, kept Alex from preparing for his board seat then voted against him, ran roughshod over him in his relationship with Jo while totally calling her names and out and out being rude to her constantly, interrupted Bailey praying for April and Jackson's baby so that she could go have sex with Derek, and then actually lied about that. Those are just some examples of problems that I have had with her, or at least the writing for her. And to be fair, I think that she was written horribly out of character in most of those instances. So I don't get why Meredith's approval of anything matters so much, but it appears that it does (see also, Maggie, Penny, Lexie). We all have our favorites, and you're right, that perspective matters. I never liked Derek, so I didn't care what Meredith thought of him or how she treated him. But I love Alex and I like Jo, so it matters how she treats them, especially if that is going to be the bar for other people's opinions. Bringing it back to this episode, as much as Meredith's treatment of Jo in past seasons has been bizarre and unwarranted for me, it finally worked in this situation. Having Alex, DeLuca or Bailey be unconditionally supportive of Jo and believe that she wasn't unstable or a drunk, etc. would be expected. But having unwavering support from someone who called her a hoodlum, a hooker, pretended not to know her name, and generally disrespected her for seasons at a time is a much bigger deal. And it made sense to me that Jo would care SO much that Meredith, of all people, not believe what Paul was saying about her and that's why she got so emotional when Meredith hugged her and told her that she knew who she was. Krista didn't have anything to do with how Meredith was written back then, and she may not have intentionally meant for the scene to be taken the way I took it, but it really, really worked on a lot of levels for me, which I wasn't expecting at all.

I think that having it be the fiancee is too easy. I'm wondering if Paul was somehow involved and either they concocted the story together (which would really put the fiancee in a bad light) or Paul somehow hurt himself on his own, told the fiancee that Jo did it and is trying to frame Jo somehow, both for revenge and to discredit her. The actors keep emphasizing twists and turns and having Paul die at the hands of the fiancee just seems too predictable and easy. Paul is a doctor so maybe he would know how to hurt himself just enough to look like he got hit by a car, and then gets arrested for whatever that crime is, LOL! If he doesn't die, I just wonder how they get him out of the picture. Pretty far fetched, I know, but I'm sticking by it for now.

I agree, I would have liked a little bit more, but in the end, I think that Krista had to play the hand she was dealt and that hand is full of inconsistencies and retcons, so the more in detail it gets, the more muddled. I guess Jo was his student and then once they got married she was able to get access to some of his money somehow and flee. What I wanted more of was their dynamic. It was implied that Jo was a bit of an easy mark as she was homeless and in need of some kind of support, so I can see why she was drawn to him and I can see why he thought she would be easy to manipulate, but I would have loved to get at least one scene of them alone with no barriers. Paul seemed to drop the facade at the end, but I still felt so much of this story was told not shown. I thought that everyone involved in the storyline did a great job and the little touches were great, like when Paul when to grab the pen and Jo quickly clasped her hands in her lap and looked down. I would have liked more of that I guess, since I've been waiting for over a season for it and now its getting wrapped up in two episodes. I really liked the hugging scene between Jo and Meredith, which surprised me. While it did sort of seem to come out of nowhere given Meredith's shitty remarks and generally poor opinion of Jo just a couple of seasons ago, it also worked because of that. Outside of Jo, Meredith is the most important person in Alex's life and has also been a big part of Jo's insecurity, so to have that person validate you and believe you about the most awful and secret thing in your life, and to believe you over a well known and respected peer must have meant everything. Along those lines, I found this quote from Krista Vernoff, which seems to be playing out in the responses I have seen to this episode. I don't necessarily agree with the deification of Meredith, especially given her recent personality transplants, but it does seem to be the case that the more Meredith likes Jo, the more the audience does as well, for whatever reason. Of course, that just increases my frustration with the writing for seasons 11-13 and I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when Krista was watching those seasons. If nothing else, Krista does seem to understand the characters better and the effect those characters have on the audience. As far as Maggie and Jackson, meh. My problem with them is that both of them are completely generic in personality, so together they just exude blandness to me. I have always thought of Jackson as a good-looking Grey's "nice guy" but with no standout traits, good or bad, to differentiate him from anyone else. Yes, he has nice eyes and a great body, but what else? He's not really funny, he's not extremely arrogant, not overly charming, his backstory is that he is rich and good looking but not a huge amount of obstacles to be overcome, so just...fine. And Maggie is some weird combination of Lexie/Yang/April, but again, nothing really original. So without a strong character to work off of, they are both just kind of there going through the motions with no spark. Which I don't mean as a criticism of the actors, just a flaw in the writing of the characters. Having said all of that, the image of them in the towels was beautiful. Someone mentioned it above, but the sight of their beautiful skin in contrast to the white towels at least LOOKED very sexy.

I feel like it’s necessary to actually see why Jo left and changed her name and kept it all secret for all this time. If Paul comes across as only slightly jerky with an edge, then Jo is still open to accusations of being a liar and a drama queen. They have built him up to be a monster, albeit a manipulative and charming one, so that’s what I want to see. Not to mention that Jo’s entire persona is built on this ever conflicting and poorly written backstory, so I don’t want more inconsistencies now. My guess is that he seems like he has changed, wants a divorce and Jo tries to warn the new girlfriend but she doesn’t listen. Jo gets her divorce and then maybe the girlfriend shows up battered sometime later this season. While I'm happy to have the melodrama over, I don’t want something that has been dragged on for years to be swept under the rug or tied up with happy bow in two crowded episodes. And no matter what, I’m sure I’ll be irritated when the hospital rallies around to give “You Go Girl” speeches to someone they have alternately ignored and treated like shit for the past three years.

And I'm not even sure that foster care vs. adoption really works that well anyway because while they had to throw foster care into Alex's already sad and tragedy filled backstory, I always considered the druggie father/mentally ill mother to be his main past trauma and just threw his foster care stuff in there on a whim. It wouldn't surprise me if this isn't really as story that Vernoff wanted to tell but felt she had to since it has been dragged on for years now and because we know that the husband is alive. But the husband backing down because Jo has become a "Warrior Princess" out of nowhere doesn't seem very realistic to me (nor does the whole hospital rallying around Jo but whatever), and I think that they need to be very careful in how they tell this story. So it having a "happy ending" where the husband just gives up or sees the error of his ways seems kind of irresponsible to me.

That would make sense, but good lord there are 50 other characters who I would like to see that happen with. This will be Maggie's 3rd centric/semi-centric episode in less than 4 years (as opposed to Alex's 1/2) and I have met both sets of her parents. Enough. THIS is my problem with Maggie. She gets shoehorned into things (Japril, Mer/Nathan) that don't come about naturally, because she apparently needs to be front and center more than most of the characters. If they have to contrast Alex's childhood/teen years with anyone, they could do that with April. Or Jackson. Or probably Arizona, but we don't really know because we have never seen her family or heard much about her life. Or, god forbid, they could actually center an episode on Alex's life all by himself. In the end, I assume this won't really be a centric episode at all, but just funny flashbacks. If we're lucky, maybe we can watch Maggie and Fat Alex get bullied, and if the Jaggie thing continues to be unpopular maybe we'll be lucky enough to have Alex wax poetic about her again. As far as the upcoming episodes, I'm not sure that 2 non-centric episodes are going to be enough to wrap up Jo's past and relationship with her husband, but maybe he will come back later.

Yay! I hope this ends up being a semi-centric, even though they aren't my favorites. Alex is the only character (other than DeLuca, I believe) who has never been part of one and I have been waiting YEARS to (hopefully) meet his mother and sister. So I hope it doesn't get shoehorned into whatever else is going on in that episode. I wonder if they will get James Remar back?

Yeah, at first I thought he meant that if he called her, it would bring unhappiness to her life, which makes sense to me given his long-standing inferiority complex when it comes to Izzie. But then I realized that he doesn't really want to know, for exactly the reason you said. Either way, the scene was really well done.