Greysaddict

there are two types of Nielsen ratings, National and Local. Local ratings are based on the area which you live in (called a DMA) are the only ratings that are still based on paper diaries--and not for much longer. National ratings, the ones which are reported in media, are all based on electronic measurement. Yes, it is based on sample but that sample is scientifically and diligently selected, weighted and analyzed to properly represent the entire US. Is it perfect? No definitely not. Nielsen has tried to make progress to measure all viewing (computers, phones, tablets, etc) but has had a lot of pushback from networks and tv providers, which they need full corporation from in order for a complete overhaul of the measurement system to work. The industry is fully aware the measurement system has flaws and is missing a huge chunk of the audience. But, it is all we have, so for now it is what business decisions are based on. If you have specific questions on how anything is measured let me know!

This episode was ok, but that is just the problem this show has gone from great or pretty good to just ok or insufferable. I was/am a HUGE Merder fan but was rational in realizing this is a fictional drama and Meredith would need to move on an eventually find another love interest. But, I am just not feeling Meredith and Riggs at all. Their chemistry is weak and even when she says she is into him she looks painfully disinterested. The only time I felt a remote connection between them was when she told him about Lexie when they sat on the floor of the plane. Speaking of which, I was into all the flashbacks of Derek and others in seasons 11 and maybe 12 but now I think this show is doing a huge disservice to itself by continuing to show how much better it used to be. I'm curious to why you think there was rewriting done this year? This episode was filmed in November with a seemingly obvious to plan to air in the spring. The writing and continuity the season has been terrible but I personally refuse to give them any more benefit of the doubt. They had these episodes planned and mapped out since the beginning.

I agree...I liked this one, once I got past the total contrivance of April going along with Jackson- um they live together how did they go to the airport separately and neither knew they were going to same place. silly. Also, as others have been saying, they haven't really been consistent with Jackson's backstory but I am willing to hand wave most of that away since if you think too much about the logic or timelines of this show you'll give your self an aneurysm. If they are going to insist on the bottle, small cast episodes I think this was the best approach.

100% spot on, every single one. I thought this was particularly funny.

Actually, Catherine mentoring April is more in line with their history. Before she and Jackson got married, April was actually close to Catherine...emailing her and texting her for work advice/mentoring. She also called Catherine to come do a surgery at GSMH at one point when Richard wouldn't admit they needed her. I'm sure there are other examples that aren't on the top of my mind. I'd actually argue that Catherine manipulating/suing April over custody was the out of character storyline for these two.

I'm barely watching this show any more....but when Jackson and Warren are my two favorite characters of the episode something is wrong. Every storyline they have going is awful and boring. Arizona/Minnick- No; Owen/Amelia- Nope; Meredith/Riggs- who cares anymore? I certainly don't buy that either of them do; Jo's backstory- oh wait, that was a thing? Everything is terrible. Also, why is everyone acting like Meredith is supposed to be young? She was at least 30 when the show started and it's been at least 10 years in the show's timeline, plus she has 3 kids and is a surgeon. I appreciate that she doesn't look 30 anymore.

Bailey gave Meredith Chief of General last season. There was a whole (stupid) storyline of Bailey low-balling her new salary and her "standing up" to her and asking for more money. Maggie was definitely hired as Chief of Cardio, it was mentioned at the end of S10 when she was first hired and they've mentioned a few time that she is Riggs' boss. But, like you said, it's not like it matters since it is only brought up if it fits the storyline, otherwise it's completely ignored.

wow what a boring uninspired ending to Alex's court case. That can't be it, like we definitely find out more about how the case was resolved right? How exactly did Alex get into Meredith's bed without anyone knowing? Did he come home after Meredith and Maggie left for the day? And, why was he is Mer's bed? Isn't he living there now and thus has his own bed? Twitter is going crazy with the MerLex shippers. ughhhhhh I'm so so against any romantic pairing between them. What was with Maggie at the beginning, first messing up the letters in the court case and then pronouncing the word disposition wrong? Are they starting to hint at Alzheimers/dementia or something? I'm so over almost every storyline they have going on except Alex and Alex/Jo. Amelia is at Steph house? zzzz boring. And WTF she is working remotely discharging patients from home? That was bizarre. Was another attending actually reviewing the those cases and discharging the patients? Also, I have zero interest in Minnick whatsoever. It should be a good storyline with all the attendings banding together on Webber's side but I feel like it's being executed so poorly.

this was pretty much the world's worst kept secret since she's already been cast in another show. I'm guessing it was her decision, maybe even with a push from Shonda since she is so under utilized in the show. Considering she was cast in a Shondaland pilot that didn't end up making it, I'd bet she was encouraged to take any offers that came her way. And of course, you are 100% right, we will absolutely have a bunch new regulars that no one gives a crap about, when they can't even be bothered to flesh out the existing characaters. yay

just echoing that these ratings are fantastic. I was definitely not expecting that. I want to credit the return of TGIT and the heavy marketing, but Scandal itself was just ok. Big Bang Theory was a repeat so that definitely helped GA. Unfortunately (for me), this is just going to lead to more bottle, small character centric episodes which I personally don't really love.

I'm torn about this episode, which I'm pretty certain I've said almost every episode this season. On one hand, I thought it was really well shot and acted, I like the different types of shots like the "security" footage. I liked seeing Bailey, Arizona and Jo together (although Bailey was acting kind of strange to me in the beginning), and I admit to tearing up at the end after the baby was born. But, it definitely an odd choice for the mid-season premiere. I follow the spoilers closely so I knew exactly what we were going to see going into it, but still it felt odd and very non like Grey's. They even played around with the episode numbers this year so this was definitely chosen as the premiere. Yes, they did something similar last year but they had Denzel Washington to hype it up, plus while it was a "stand-alone" Meredith episode it still Grey-Sloan focused. Other thoughts, I liked Jo in this episode but was disappointed they didn't use it to reveal something useful and interesting about her history but rather have her tell the patient she robbed a store with an ex-boyfriend? Seemed like they could have used that moment for something far more revealing about Jo. Perhaps I was just getting bored/restless, but I didn't really understand the convo in the car at the end with Jo having to throw up. I was actually just wondering if they wrote in something around Camilla's morning sickness because I didn't really get it. I should probably go back and watch again. In a nutshell, its pretty much what I've to expect from Grey's....a fine, maybe even nice standalone episode but did nothing to advance any of the pending storylines.

This probably goes in the media thread but, Ellen P and her husband had another baby (I assume via surrogate like her second daughter). http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-moms/news/ellen-pompeo-welcomes-third-child-with-husband-chris-ivery-w458280 I think this is probably the reason for all the out of order filming, so that Ellen could have a small maternity leave and a lighter schedule in the fall. There isn't a whole lot of info about the baby yet, but it looks around 2 months old?

Yes, this is exactly what I had in mind. Again, there are still tons of holes and retconning happening but I think its the best they are going do be able to do after pulling the secret marriage/name change out of thin air. I'm pretty sure Bailey knows also. Wasn't there something where she thought there was something romantically happening between Maggie and Webber and then he told her? Also, DeLuca knows for sure. I'd wager that Catherine, Jackson and April know as well. I think we are supposed to assume its well known amongst "our" doctors without coming out and saying it.

I agree, there is really no logical way this all makes sense so I just let the whole thing slide in my mind. I think the only possible way they can salvage Jo's backstory is to have her be in a witness protection program. Meaning she really was homeless and put herself through college, then married the abusive husband at a young age, went into witness protection as "Jo Wilson" and then went to med school. It's a stretch but its the only way any of her backstory makes any sense without a complete retcon. I'm sure they will come up with something way more convoluted and nonsensical since the writer care so little about her character to begin with.

I really liked this episode, I wish the whole season had been told at this pace. I enjoyed both the Jolex scenes and loved that Jo and Alex actually had a full conversation with her telling him everything face to face and no shenanigans. Loved Meredith and Alex's conversation in the scrub room and the voicemail. Loved Bailey and Webber's scene, even though I disagree with Bailey's actions, I am enjoying that this story gives them both interesting material to work with. Loved Maggie, and Jackson to an extent, standing up for Richard. No comment on Omelia because it seems like this story was just made up to write in a maternity leave for Caterina. zzzzz I'm still on the fence about Minick and Arizona but I don't totally hate it. I'll probably get some hate for this but I like Arizona so much better without Callie. I think DeLuca dropping the charges is the easy out. I don't know if I am crazy or not but it looked like Bailey sent Ben over to the courthouse and he was walking in at the end. Not sure what Ben would be able to do so I could be wrong. I really hope we pick up where it left off and don't get a lame time jump. Forgot one more thing I loved---the callback to using the polaroid snapshots to ID patients. Wasn't that Alex's idea after a plane crash? I feel like I just saw that episode on Lifetime a few weeks ago but I forget what season (6 maybe?).

Teddy specifically asked that Cristina do the surgery because she knew that Cristina wouldn't care or notice who she was operating on, which had been an issue for Cristina for the episodes leading up to that surgery (she didn't want anyone to be nervous about operating on her husband). Of course in hindsight the whole issue was to allow Cristina to operate on Henry without knowing it was him, but her way of treating patients wasn't considered the "correct" way to operate.

regarding next week's promo....we finally get to see Jo tell Alex she is already married...stop the presses. Although I wouldn't put it past the promo editors to have cut that and she's actually telling someone else. Either way at least we are guaranteed to see Jo and Alex next week (mid-season finale, just as many of us expected). Kind of a shame they didn't have Jo in tonight's episode considering how much of her past we don't know anything about.

Its too bad the timing of this episode was awful because the episode itself was fantastic. The direction was really great and so was the acting (little Stephanie- so cute!). It really is a shame that they scheduled it one episode before the mid-season break, and at a time where basically all the storylines have already been stalled for several episodes. I’m guessing since they introduced us to Megan Hunt, we’ll be seeing her again real soon. I loved the scene of Meredith telling the kids that Derek had died, but I kept thinking how much happier the general fandom would have been for that or a similar scene was show back in S11. But, regardless I did think it was gut-wrenching and great. I sort of wonder if they stuck in this episode randomly because they had an extra week/episode before the finale this year. Seasons 11 and 12 only had 8 episodes in the first block. It was definitely filmed out of order, like many others this year, because the title was originally thought to be episode 5 or 6 I believe. They clearly couldn't have cared less that Bailey aged 2 years in Meredith's memories. LOL definitely a flashback but I don't remember which episode.

From what I recall she said "my baby lived for 43 minutes" and that was all. I believe it was during the time they were broken up so it wasn't a big confession or anything. It definitely took place in the chapel in the episode where Samuel died and they each went in to light a candle. I don't think the writers have forgotten though, in the last episode Amelia specifically said Owen knew, but didn't know the whole story (the fact that the baby was born without a brain due to her drug usage). It's odd there are so many questions on this (not you specifically BaseOps- I've seen tons of people talking about it on social media) because I don't remember it being vague or ambiguous at all in the episode. *fixed my poor grammar

yes, this is exactly what I think is going to happen. To be honest I thought it would have happened already but I guess it will be the mid-season finale "shocker".

the filming is so weird this year! I think we can no longer excuse poor writing and abandoned storylines on the cast's and their personal changes (for example Jo/Alex being pushed aside for PD's exit, etc) considering they already have the season mapped out to at least 16.

where is everyone? lol Grey's got a 2.2 this week, up from the last two weeks which is pretty impressive considering The Big Bang Theory just moved back to Thursdays last night. It expectedly didn't beat BBT which got a 3.4, but still the 2.2 is pretty good. There is no true last year comparison to last year because Grey's was off for the Charlie Brown Halloween episode last year, but it is down just 4% (and 0.1) from its own episode 6 last year (a week later).

I agree, this is an issue for me as well. I wish the show would have addressed WHY he jumped right into attacking DeLuca to the brink of death. There were really easy ways to tie this into his backstory and make him look remorseful and sympathetic but for some reason the writers chose to ignore that. Maybe it will all come out at the trial but I'm not holding my breath.

I liked this better than the last couple and they seem to be addressing a lot complaints on here, including my own so I was happy about that. I am still not happy about Leah being back but I do like that it's bringing up the lack of teaching in the hospital (a conversation we were just having in the spoiler thread). I love the small detail of Meredith's file being huge and like twice the size of everyone else's. Originally I groaned to myself thinking they were surely laying the groundwork for MerLex with their two scenes especially in conjunction with the patient storyline, but then I realized, these were totally two types of interactions Meredith would have shared with Cristina/her person. Sitting next to each other without talking about anything and then laying on the bed but totally separate. The one thing I noticed was there was no physical touching in either scene (except for Meredith fixing Alex's tie) which makes me think they were trying to make the scene completely platonic. If they were really trying to plant Merlex seeds I feel like they would have been slightly more physical, an arm around one another, holding hands, etc. It could be because I am 100% anti a romantic pairing but I didn't feel any chemistry or sexual tension. Also, what's a Jolex? I don't even have words to describe how much I hate everything they've done to Jo and Jolex. I'm actually happy Alex is Meredith's person so he can be the savior of clinic patients otherwise he'd be thrown to the wolves as well. I actually enjoy the clinic and I hope they keep using it in the the show for other reasons that to hammer into our heads that ALEX IS A GOOD DOCTOR.