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Grey's held the 1.8, making it again ABC's highest-rated series of the week, beating Modern Family. It's also tied for the highest-rated drama on broadcast this week with Empire and the 2nd highest-rated scripted series overall after The Big Bang Theory.

Shonda isn't really involved at all with How To Get Away With Murder. She's just a name on the series because she's a producer. She isn't part of the writers' room at all. Ditto for The Catch.

As it stands, there is no group of fans that can be particularly happy. April / Jackson - Slept together in 13x16 and then never spoke about it again. They were both involved in the 'civil war' storyline but basically as pawns in Richard and Bailey's fight. Had a baby last year that is never discussed. Meredith / Riggs - Were ignored nearly all season, given awful stunted 'development', and then suddenly got together without the audience ever even seeing them go on a date. They have sex on the plane, stay in a hotel offscreen, and suddenly she's hiding every memory of Derek and it's 'serious'. A few good, fun scenes aren't enough to carry a storyline this important for an entire season. Alex / Jo - This explains itself. Instead of wasting her few scenes on the yawn-worthy side plot with DeLuca, they should have given us at least one real scene between 13x09 and now where Alex and Jo just talk. Amelia / Owen - Again, this is fairly obvious. Their 'issue' could have been resolved with one honest conversation, and while I get that they had to write Amelia out for a bit (just like with Jo and Meredith), they should have fixed this right after that. Having them go in circles or just go weeks without talking is insane and ridiculous. Arizona - I get the feeling that most people don't like Minnick. She's a one-note character who, like Penny, came in more as a wrench for another storyline than as a character. There's been no real development here, basically just 'Hey, you're a lesbian and I'm a lesbian, lets flirt for a week or two and then fuck.' Like, okay. This is Arizona's follow-up to Callie? I guess it's fitting since Callie left with Penny. Maggie - There's a big group of very vocal Maggie / DeLuca fans online. Maggie had a nice storyline with her mom, but otherwise, she's been even more childish and annoying than before. Her crush on Riggs was very 'season 2 of 90210'. I could go on and on. Basically, no storyline is getting enough consistent attention to make it great or enjoyable. Every single story moves at a snail pace while we get bits and pieces of other storylines.

Totally, but that's always seemed like a glaring issue to me. Granted, I don't exactly know how all that would work (changing your name, I mean) but I figured that if Jo's husband really wanted to find her, he could. I do think that Camilla's pregnancy affected how much she could be involved in the storyline. I believe she was absent more than they planned - she's been gone from 6 episodes so far. Only DeLuca has been absent from as many. Alex looking him up now feels strange because he hasn't even shared a scene with Jo in weeks. Overall this season has been a total mess in terms of the storytelling. I said it over and over and over, but if they ever want to regain focus they need to cut a few characters. I'd love it if season 14 is the year we actually see a solidifying of Alex / Jo as a couple but I have my doubts.

I suppose Alex could start by looking into Jo - there has to be a record of a name change, no? So If he digs into Jo Wilson, finds out her real name, he could get the name of her husband. Far-fetched, but we're talking about a primetime soap here... people get banged by ghosts, survive horrific plane crashes and go back to work after cutting LVADs. If it moves the Jo / Alex plot along, I'm happy. Perhaps we'll even get Jo and Alex in a scene together in the finale.

I got the impression that he felt like the wife was being abused (when the husband told her to be quiet or something). When he was outside, I got the feeling that he was looking up Jo's husband. I could be wrong, but given the logline for next week I think my hunch is right. Honestly I think Grey's has largely treated religion with more respect than many other shows. April is religious, so was Burke. In this case, it's sort of a ripped from the headlines thing: dealing with parents who don't believe in medical intervention is a very contentious thing. In this case, the mom obviously wanted what was best for her child, ie. driving him to the hospital after without the dad knowing.

Yea, Bailey has been Chief since last season. Remember, Owen's sister was never found. The helicopter that she was on disappeared. So while they assume she's dead they've never had it confirmed either way.

He hasn't been chief for years.

I think the Owen storyline is totally separate. He gets a knock on his door with some bad news. My guess is that his sister has been found dead. Here's the promo for those who didn't see it:

It was a good episode that suffered from the same issues most of the season has. Meredith and Riggs are talked about more than seen; they barely shared any screentime the last two weeks, and even then it all seems rushed (despite being dragged out for moooonths). The pacing has thrown the storylines way off. Ditto for Arizona and Minnick who haven't shared any real interesting moments. Weeks ago they were having sleepovers which I assumed meant they were already sleeping together, but tonight seemed to imply that it was their first time. Minnick is such a half-baked characters with no real personality or convictions, and the actress is flat. I assume she'll be a regular by next season. The Jo and DeLuca scene was super random (as was Steph being surprised even though he told her like 3 weeks ago that he loved Jo). It's so strange to me that April and Jackson haven't even crossed paths since 13x16. April has had nothing but random supporting parts in episodes since. Alex presumably looking up Jo's husband was a nice little cliffhanger. I'm hoping the last two episodes really do shoot some adrenaline into the series going into next year.

From TV Guide: Though it's not officially billed as a two-parter, the Grey's season finale goes hand in hand with the penultimate episode. "There are two events that happen," star Debbie Allen, who directed the season-ender, tells TVGuide.com. The back-to-back events occur outside the hospital and then within the walls of Grey Sloan, and given that the finale is described as being "on fire," we're guessing Season 13 will include a Shondaland catastrophe for the ages.

So Grey's held the 1.8 last week, as well, but this week should be interesting. Everything is falling to drastic lows - Modern Family was down to a 1.6 and Empire down to 1.8 last night. That means Empire is down a full 50% in the demo from last season. It usually happens around this time of year (weather is nicer, etc.) but this season has been particularly brutal for broadcast. With Designated Survivor falling to an 0.9, Grey's and Scandal remain the only dramas on ABC above a 1.0. This is interesting. Number of broadcast shows at or above a 2.0 A18-49 on the 1st Wednesday of May sweeps... In 2015: 6 In 2016: 3 In 2017: 0 Number of broadcast originals at or BELOW at 1.5 rating first Wed. of sweeps... In 2015: 2 In 2016: 6 In 2017: 10 Number of broadcast originals below a 1.0 rating first Wed. of sweeps... In 2015: 0 In 2016: 2 In 2017: 4

I agree about the sisters thing, that just wasn't what my post was about. Maggie falls into the same lane as Penny in that she was one of the new characters that was immediately shoved down our throats, which makes her different from Jo / Steph / Ben / DeLuca (I'd classify Amelia with Penny / Maggie as well). In a short time, they've forged relationships for Maggie with Meredith, Amelia, Richard, Alex, and Jackson... my point is that most new characters don't get that. Jo has only ever gotten developed with Alex and a bit with Steph and she's been here much longer than Maggie. They, sadly, never followed through on her working with Callie or any other attending. I also agree that Jo / Alex and Bailey / Ben are 'earned' relationships, that also wasn't really what I was talking about... my point was that beyond those, they didn't bother to integrate them with other characters. I feel like Jo has a lot of untapped potential both in her relationship with Alex and as a character on her own who should also have been given material with other characters. I think a great example is how well she worked in the prison episode this year alongside Arizona and Bailey. But we don't get much of that with Jo. Like I said, I don't dislike the 4 characters I pointed out, I wouldn't say that they're necessarily dead weight, just that the writers dropped the ball with them in terms of development and story potential. That carries into literally every storyline these days, though; I feel like Meredith and Riggs could be great, but the development has been awful. Alex's legal storyline had a good start then quickly fizzled. April and Jackson had sex and then haven't spoken for weeks. With such a large cast, even the characters that the writers apparently love don't get the material that they should. Every storyline suffers, but especially the characters who seem to often been in their own bubble.

Has Maggie even had a scene with DeLuca this season?

I really don't think that's true. Maggie didn't even have a real storyline this year until her mom showed up.

I think one of the biggest issues at the moment is that there are so many characters that are just there. Like, I'd rather hate a TV character than be indifferent to them, especially on a drama. As much as I detest Amelia most of the time, at least she elicits some form of emotion from me - and from the other characters. Then we have DeLuca, Steph, Ben, Jo, who could (and often do) disappear for weeks at a time without anyone on the show noticing. I don't dislike any of those four characters, but I also don't care deeply about them like I should. They have minimal connections to the cast, usually only forging major connections with one character or being confined to that small group of four. Most unfortunate of all is that these characters all had a lot of potential for greatness; most notably Jo. She came in as a love interest for one of the main (and most interesting) characters, but they were never treated like one of the 'core' couples (Mer/Der, Callie/Arizona, April/Jackson, etc.). She's never been given a specialty or been portrayed as an exceptional surgeon, and despite having a rich backstory to explore we don't know that much about her. DeLuca came in as much-needed younger blood, and they actually had a good thing going with him and Maggie, which had potential to give him more interesting dynamics with Richard, Meredith, Amelia, and even Alex (as they're all close to Maggie). Instead, he has randomly fallen in love with Jo. He also lives with Arizona but that's never touched on. The best thing about a series lasting this long is the rich backstory to draw on - moments between Meredith and Richard, Bailey and Alex, Owen and Meredith, April and Owen, even April and Meredith have more weight to them because the characters share so much history. Instead of integrating DeLuca or Steph with these characters, they have a tendency of keeping the newbies together. Remember last year when we were suddenly supposed to believe that Steph, Jo, Ben and Penny were all BFFs? The bloated cast makes it tough to give adequate screentime to developing new characters (unless they're being shoved down our throats like Penny was), so I can't see the issue going away until they shed a few characters. Think of it this way - by the end of this season, DeLuca will have been a series regular for two years with additional guest starring credit in S11. Think of how well we knew George, Alex, Izzie, Cristina and Meredith by the end of season 2.

I don't mind Ben, I just don't think the writers have any idea how to write for him and he's been poorly integrated with the cast. I think if they keep trying to give him storylines it's going to go two ways; hurting his marriage with Bailey or doing more reckless shit like last season. I want him and Bailey to just stay happy / content.

My dream for the end of this season; Steph moves away to some other hospital, Ben goes back into anesthesiology and will be a recurring guest star next year (demoted from regular), Amelia burns to death in a fire, Minnick survives but then gets run over by a firetruck, DeLuca disappears and no one notices. Intern Cross is promoted to series regular. I'll leave the rest up to the writers.

Well the DeLuca / Jo thing comes up again this week. I really have no clue where they're going with it.

Just to have it all in one place, here are the upcoming episode synopsis for the remainder of the season. 13x22 - “Leave It Inside” – April and Andrew consult with a fiery patient who has a giant, inoperable heart tumor. Meanwhile, Alex and Eliza are at odds over the treatment of a young patient, and Stephanie and Ben make decisions that could affect their careers. 13x23 - “True Colors” – The doctors of Grey Sloan encounter a difficult case involving a dangerous patient. Meanwhile, Owen receives life-changing news that pushes Amelia to step up to support him, and Alex attends a medical conference after making a shocking discovery. 13x24 - “Ring of Fire” [Season Finale] – The doctors’ lives are at risk after a dangerous patient escapes the hospital room. Alex must make a hard choice in his relationship with Jo while Meredith has some big news for Nathan that brings things to a turning point. Promo photos for the finale, including Meredith, Alex, Arizona, Bailey, and Ben.

No clue, sorry! I haven't seen ahead, though I know Minnick is definitely in the next episode. 13x24 - Ring of Fire (Season Finale) - A dangerous patient escapes the hospital room, putting the doctor's lives at risk; Alex faces a difficult decision in his relationship with Jo; Meredith has big news for Nathan.

Camilla herself said that she didn't have the easiest pregnancy. I believe she was written even lighter than intended (hence literally disappearing for weeks), so once the final scripts were ready they had her pre-shooting right away. I still wouldn't expect to see a ton of her again until next year, but that part is just a guess.

Yea, I guess I should have phrased that better - I mean they want to introduce stories that will actually shake up the dynamics. Last year nothing from the finale had much real impact aside from the Alex / Jo story. April had a baby that has been forgotten and she and Jackson have made 0 progress this season, Meredith and Riggs had sex in 12x23 and then didn't make any real movement until 12x20, etc. This season has felt basically just like treading water, and I'm told the intention is to really throw some big wrenches into the storylines. It wasn't really specified but I'm told both are very Alex-heavy.

I've spoken to someone who's seen the next two episodes (though I was told that episode 13x23 wasn't totally done editing) and apparently they're both very strong and bring about a lot of change, particularly 12x23. I believe the producers know that this season has been perceived as a bit stagnant, and the mission for the finale is basically to turn things on their head and launch new stories for next year. Camilla was absent from the last several episodes because she was filming a bunch of scenes ahead for the final 2 episodes.

Interesting that Eliza continues to pursue Arizona was cut from the episode. Their 'relationship' is moving at such an odd pace... like every other story this year. I like that the Meredith / Maggie story won't drag beyond this episode. It was dealt with well here and I'm ready to move on to actually seeing them try things out as a couple. Alex's returning patient story was heartbreaking. I've been feeling for weeks like something is going to come up between Ben and Bailey and this episode gave me more of the same feelings.