BabyBBQKendall

edited

I don't think she evangelises, in the sense of trying to convert others. But she weaponizes her faith in a way that we don't see from the other Christian characters on the show.

I don't think April realises how unbearably patronizing she comes across to someone who doesn't believe in her sky fairies. Her absolute tonedeafness is a fairly consistent trait, at least.

JMO, but I take that Shonda interview with the biggest grain of salt I can find. She says she had the Calzona reconciliation arc planned, but Callie spent the whole of S12 mooning over Penny, surely the least charismatic GA love interest ever...the Calzona breakup just didn't feel like others we've seen (Mer/Der: the early years, Mark/Lexie, Jackson/April, etc) where we knew all along the participants were MFEO and just marking time with other people. Maybe she was being sincere, or maybe it would have moved in a Calzona direction at the very end of the show (when there'd be no need for follow through), but OTOH, Shonda can say anything about anything when she doesn't actually have to make good on it. To me, the way Callie was written in S12 felt like it was always intended to lead up to her departure (brief and perfunctory finale appearance aside); I was really surprised to hear that the decision was apparently a last minute thing.

I don't put much stock in what KMK said about focusing on the originals- if you look at the interviews taken at this point last year, most of what they said about S12 turned out to pertain to the first few episodes only. And the actors don't seem to be told much about much, anyway. Maybe they'll get the spotlight for an episode or two, but I find it hard to believe we're really going to see much more of Alex, Bailey or Richard this year.

My conception of Alex wouldn't be able to put up with Maggie's childish babbling for more than two minutes, but the way he's been written lately...

I think in the past there was more of a balance of humor, which made the whole show seem lighter even when the storylines were tragic. You had Cristina snarking on everything, Alex being a lovable jerk, even with characters like Jackson and April, their storyline was of the romantic angst variety rather than the pained tragedy and anger magnets they've become. Losing Cristina was the probably the biggest shift for the show's tone. They needed to replace her with another character who could also bring the funny. My dream would be for them to cut 5-6 extraneous cast members and use the extra dough to lure SO back. Sigh...

I like that interpretation. I think it makes more sense. But I still think that the writers wanted us to see Jackson as the crappy abandoning husband in the scenario. They could have made it more vague, but "that's what a husband does" feels too pointed and specific to be about April.

I thought we were going to get flashbacks when they introduced the Riggs character, because otherwise his knowing April in Jordan seems kind of random and unnecessary, but IDK, it's probably a bit late for all that now. The Japril story is frustrating because it all comes back to this "calling" that took place offscreen and has now been all but forgotten. I'm not even sure, is April meant to be better now?

She didn't ask him to go the first time, did she? The second time, after she'd already made up her mind to leave him, was a wtf moment for me. Are we meant to have been hoping he'd say yes? But he did try to make the plane anyway. Apparently Jackson is a special kind of masochist. My feeling is they're retconning Jackson as a crappy husband to make the breakup seem more equitable. Their initial split was one-sided and it's hard to imagine how they get a reunion out of that.

I thought the old lady was there to show how Jackson had failed as a husband. Which is bullshit for what we actually saw on the show, but whatever.

Ever since April came back from the ME with a brand-new personality, I thought they were setting up for a PTSD or PPD storyline that would somehow explain everything. Especially when we heard there'd be a flashback episode. But the longer the season went on, the less likely it became. And it seems a bit late now (unless the traumatic delivery triggers something big). Now I think they were just going for some hamfisted "independent woman" storyline, which probably means that Kepner 2.0 is here to stay. Yeah, the Samuel "arc" has been disappointing. (Can I call it an arc? It's been dragging on for two seasons now) I don't think the baby dying was necessarily the part that sunk it, but they pinned all of Jackson and April's current relationship problems on a series of decisions that basically all happened offscreen or during timehops. I can almost give them the first separation, because they had to keep the characters in a holding pattern while Meredith was off having her sabbatical, but after that they just kept compounding the problem. We never had a good read on why April chose to leave the second time, or why she assumed they could just pick up where they left off when she came back. It makes it really difficult to relate.

That line was so jaw-droppingly insensitive that I thought it was going to be revealed that April was suffering some hitherto unknown mental or emotional condition, but I guess we are supposed to take it on her word that she is all healed now. (Even if she still suffers from a transplanted personality.)

Not 100% sure, but I think it was the scene where they fight with the fortune cookies. April was so callous in that fight that it really made no sense, because she was supposed to be fighting for her marriage, so she just came off as really dense at continuing to not understand why Jackson is pissed at her. SD has always been a big April cheerleader, so it does say something that she was having difficulties bringing the motivation in that scene.

I think this scene took place between her being outed as a virgin (7x03) and Jackson punching Alex (7x08). Jackson was one of the ones laughing at her for being a virgin, so they can't have been too close at that point. I agree it wasn't enough, but there was a bridge between them the fooling around and April getting served- Jackson and April arguing by the car after a therapy session. Jackson calls out April for never taking responsibility or apologizing. She continues to be pissed off. It seems that he's had his fill- he knows she's never going to get it, so he's out. As a Japril fan, I was happy to have the screentime, and SD and JW were so enthusiastic about the episode that it seemed kind of ungrateful to complain- but honestly, 12x11 was a bit of a mess. Some of those flashbacks got April totally wrong, they were writing her from the perspective of Season 12 April, as she is now, overly defensive and insensitive, rather than how she was portrayed from Seasons 6-10. April's reasoning for leaving/coming back/etc has never made sense. She was only shown in a handful of scenes after the baby death episode, mostly seeming to be doing OK, then there was a shot of her looking at babies in the hospital nursery and she needed to go off to war for a year. Then she comes back, decides to leave again (it's her "calling"), but then, offscreen, somehow she decides she needs Jackson (or rather, her marriage) so much she's willing to become practically a stalker? Terrible writing. 12x11 would have been a wonderful opportunity to retcon some sense into this storyline, but they missed it.