mdw

So far, I've enjoyed all of the April and Jackson scenes. I was disappointed in the first episode that we didn't see a scene between the two of them alone with the baby but, otherwise, have been happy. I really loved the scene where he tells her he doesn't want her to move out. It was full of emotion. It seemed that the next emotionally logical step would have been for either or both of them to consider whether or not they wanted to get back together. I also thought the scene of the two of them in the car checking on Harriet's car scene was very cute. They seemed to be a happy little family unit. While I enjoyed watching the April and Jackson parts of the episode, it doesn't really make sense for them to keep living together and not to be a couple. He is unhappy about her dating despite his encouragement. She gave him a couple of covert looks that seemed to indicate that she felt a little sad that he seemed ok with her dating. Jackson's feelings of jealousy and pain are only going to get worse if she becomes involved with someone else. It also seems unlikely for someone to want to get involved with either of them given that they are exes living together. It seems that living together would prevent both of them from finding someone else. April's point about needing boundaries was right. (That said, I want them to get back together this season and want to continue to see them edge their way back to each other.) I feel like Jackson is going to tell April that the two of them living together may not be a good idea if they are starting to think about dating. I don't know. It could go either way.

I agree with the above. I feel that this sister trio is forced. Their relationships with each other are shallow. Amelia has actual sisters she grew up with. Exploring complications and emotions in her relationships with one of them would seem more interesting dramatically for her character development. Maggie's relationship with her adopted parents, Webber, or someone she connects to more deeply than Meredith would be more interesting to me. Her problem with Meredith not telling her about Alex beating up DeLuca right away seemed silly.

I do not like Leah's character at all, especially as a love interest for any of the characters that I like. I thought she was a good obstacle for Callie and Arizona, but I don't really see myself cheering for her. She seemed delusional in season 10 with regards to Arizona and in season 9 with Alex. I didn't buy her as a lesbian or as someone who is bisexual. I felt like she was a character who was written and portrayed to be disliked. I remember at the beginning of season 10 thinking that Grey's should have killed off Leah instead of Brooks. I hope that her character isn't featured a lot but is there to round out the background characters, much like LaCross was last season. I'm not really interested in watching storylines that center around her.

This is a good article. CL has a good perspective on her character and Jo' relationships with Meredith and Alex and their relationship with each other. I found it interesting that the actress didn't know her character's backstory until the table read. I don't like it when serial tv shows do this to the actors. I'm sure knowing Jo's secret past would have influenced CL's portrayal of her.

I think the Maggie and Meredith issue with Riggs will resolve itself in the next couple of episodes. One of the upcoming episode descriptions said something about Amelia getting involved with a problem with the sisters, I think. I don't know what will happen with Meredith and Riggs. Hopefully, he won't continue to go after Meredith unless she is also flirtatious with him. His character seems to have been created to be her post-Derek romantic partner, but I would like to see Meredith date a little bit more and get to know Riggs better before getting into a relationship with him. I liked Meredith and Riggs' scenes together in the finale and prefer the notion that they edge together slowly and in fits and starts. I don't want Alex to get sidetracked into a supportive role in Meredith's life either, although I'd like one conversation between the two of them about Maggie and Riggs to get insight into what Meredith is thinking/feeling. Mostly, I want to see Meredith continue to be there for Alex and for his focus to be on his life.

I think that Meredith likes Riggs, but not enough to pursue a relationship with him, especially given that Maggie has a crush on him. I think that she is still testing the waters of dating again and isn't ready to be in a relationship yet. Stepping aside for Maggie's sake allows her to give herself a pretense for rejecting him. She might not want to tell Maggie now and may not have wanted to tell her even before Maggie revealed that she had a crush on Riggs because Maggie makes such a big deal over things. As much as Meredith wants a familial relationship with Maggie and cares for her, Maggie doesn't really get Meredith. Maggie's reactions to developments in Meredith's romantic life, given that Meredith has conflicting and painful feelings to contend with, probably set Meredith on edge. I think that Meredith knows that Riggs is really into her (Meredith), but she doesn't want Maggie to get hurt, given that Maggie is very immature emotionally, so she told Riggs to let Maggie down kindly. This way, in what I think is Meredith's logic, Maggie doesn't get too hurt and turns her romantic feelings away from Riggs, Meredith still has a viable reason for not yet dating, and she can evade an overly personal conversation with Maggie. We'll probably get insight into Meredith's thoughts and feelings now that Meredith has told Alex. At this point, given that Maggie is not giving up in the face of rejection, Meredith and Alex need to use all of their powers of persuasion to convince Maggie that Riggs saying no really means that he doesn't want to date her and the reason that he gave her was him trying to spare her feelings. Meredith should really just come clean with Maggie and deal with the emotional fallout. It's only going to get worse.

I've been rewatching past episodes on Lifetime recently. I have a bunch that I dvr'd. I'm now in season 6 right after George has died. Seattle Grace is about to merge with Mercy West. These are some of my thoughts. Alex had the best chemistry with Izzie. They were one of my favorite couples from early Grey's. Whatever issues Katherine Heigl had as an employee and coworker, she is a very talented actress and it's a shame that she left on such bad terms that she can't come back. Izzie was one of my favorite characters in seasons 1 and 2, although I really couldn't stand her in season 3. It would have been better had Izzie died from cancer and George just left for the army. It made me sad that after Alex and Izzie finally get back together and she survives cancer that she leaves Alex a few episodes later. George was very under utilized in seasons 4 and 5. He practically didn't have a storyline. He went from being one of the five central characters to being cast adrift, as the show focused more heavily on other secondary characters. Given that T.R. Knight didn't burn so many bridges and Katherine Heigl did, George could have left for the army or another hospital without a lot of fanfare and come back again later. Were Izzy to have died and George just to have changed jobs, the emotional fallout for the other characters would have been the same in terms of mourning one of their own but it wouldn't have been so depressing. The end of season 5 is when the show began to get so dark, because previously the really tragic events generally happened to patients and not to core characters.

This may seem like a nitpicking criticism, but I found it odd that Meredith's children were completely absent in the last two episodes. There isn't even any reference to them. The show doesn't need to feature them heavily in the episodes but they could include a throwaway line of dialogue here and there just so that they'd seem to exist offscreen. It bugs me because it takes me out of the drama whenever they have scenes in Meredith's house or, for example, when Meredith was dealing with Alex's problems in the first episode. Also, there wasn't any reference to the state of Meredith's kitchen table or kitchen for that matter after April's c-section.

I agree that Jo is deeply hurt by what Alex said to her in the hospital. What he said to her was him being at his worst. I don't see Jo as being afraid of Alex hurting her at all. I do see his beating of DeLuca as being a big problem for her, or for anyone who wanted to be in a relationship with Alex. I think that Alex will have to undergo some kind of therapy.

I predict that this is where they will go with Jo right now.

With regards to Jo, I think that she is going to decide on her own that she shouldn't have to hide from this abusive ex and will file for divorce in the first half of this season. I think that Alex will find out about her past at the mid season point. The storyline with the lady with the brain tumor may have provided a little foreshadowing of this. I hope that Jo tells Stephanie about her secret. She needs to have someone there for her, someone whose reaction to Jo keeping this big secret will be less about their own feelings. When Alex finds out about Jo's past, he will feel understandably betrayed and hurt, but Stepanie, as Jo's friend, will probably be understanding of Jo and supportive of her. Jo needs that.

I really enjoyed the episode. I wanted to see more of April and Jackson in the first episode and was a little disappointed last week. (Apparently they cut out one of their scenes.) Anyways, I was happy they were included. I thought April was funny and neurotic in the scene when Jackson is taking Harriet home. Logically, it would make sense for Harriet to stay in the hospital in April's room until April was released and for them then to hire a nurse or nanny to help April until she is recovered. April could pay for some of this expense and Jackson cover more of it. They could think of it as child support. But if this were a logical tv drama that did not find creative ways to put my favorite couples in proximity for romantic tension and a possible reconciliation, I most likely wouldn't be interested in watching. Instead I would watch repeats of Law and Order, which is a great tv show, but not really the same thing as Grey's. April seems to be returning more to her personality from before Samuel's death, which is good. (I found her character mostly annoying up until season 9, but since then, I have grown to like her and have become invested in Jackson and April as a couple.) I loved the scene when she sings "Faith," although I did find it an odd choice for a lullaby. All the same Sarah Drew has a lovely singing voice and it was very sweet. April's objection to moving in with Jackson is valid. Both of them still have feelings for each other. (I don't know how aware she is of his feelings for her.) It seems that it would be hard to push those feelings aside were they living together and for it not to be very painful when she is better and she moves out. I think it would feel like getting divorced a second time. Jackson is a natural caretaker and was very sweet, which I liked. He was so sad and angry all of last season. He seems less aware of his need for boundaries even though in the last episode he acknowledged how difficult it is to turn those feelings off. The healthiest thing for him, if he doesn't want to get entangled in a relationship with April and get back together, is for him to insist on hiring a nurse or companion to help April with the baby. I am glad, however, that Jackson is ignoring his need for boundaries and opting for romantic entanglement.

Riggs does not seem to be into Maggie at all. I think you're right about DeLuca.

We don't yet know what Jo's abusive husband was like in reality or to her at the time. There are cases where violent boyfriends or husbands have murdered their victims after the woman has left them or after the woman has gotten a restraining order. We don't know how long Jo was married and suffered abuse, if the husband threatened to kill her if she left him or if he threatened to kill anyone else she got involved with. We don't know if Jo had a subsequent boyfriend that he beat up. All we know is Jo was afraid of him enough to change her identity and keep this secret and that she doesn't believe that Alex could protect her. I thought the first episode was really good - the acting and writing. I agree with you that I just hope they portray it sympathetically to Alex and Jo. As long as Jo believes her fears for herself and Alex are justified and the writing and acting are both good, I'll like watching this story. I don't know if originally Jo's backstory included an abusive ex and her being in hiding, but I have less trouble accepting this than Owen having a long lost sister.

Though at this point Alex doesn't know she lied about her past and name. He jumped to the wrong conclusion twice. First, when he thought Deluca was taking advantage of her when she was drunk and then when he thought she brought Deluca back home to sleep with him.