fakesnakesablaze

I'm not really a Jo fan, but I do think Jo is very important to the ending Alex because her relationship with Alex is a huge part of how Alex has grown and matured over the years (even if he can still be problematic). Jo was set up to be the girl Alex deserved after being treated like crap with Izzie, and their relationship has been a way to show just how loyal Alex can be in a loving partnership. Did Izzex have stronger chemistry? Sure. Was Izzie's character built during a time when Grey's was really good? Yes. But even if you were okay with Alex throwing away years of loyalty to a person he loved, Alex going off with Izzie doesn't mean that the viewers actually get to experience any of the things that made Izzex appealing in the first place. And for a character exit, the legacy Alex leaves behind is 10000 times more important than Alex's individual happiness. Meredith and Jo are the characters we'll continue to get week after week, so Jo being absolutely screwed over by Alex is going to matter a lot even if you don't like Jo. Meredith not having her person and maybe also being mad at him will also matter going forward. I'm guessing most characters won't really vilify Alex, but it's going to be hard to not think negatively of him after abandoning Jo in such a shitty way. I think they should have left the door open for Jo and Alex to continue and have both of them decide that it wouldn't work out. Or (and I know this is super crazy but...) actually start working on giving some of these characters satisfying conclusions before they need to up and leave. I was saying years ago that I wanted Jo and Alex to leave the show together to pursue a family and a career together, because I just wanted Alex to have a happy life. It would have been nice, and as much as I'd like Grey's to hang onto cast who want to be there (*cough* Sarah and Jessica) the show could stand to keep people more invested if they felt like their faves might get a quality send off and not one that feels rushed and out of character.

I just need someone to check Maggie! Bailey can be really annoying when it feels like her only purpose is to check someone, but I think that's such a personal thing for Bailey.

I think there is a lot of potential with this new hospital to bring in some new dynamics, but I'm curious how well they will be able to handle this. It's tough to see Richard and Alex shit on this opportunity so much when they were out of options the previous episode. It's a great chance to call out the privileges of Grey Sloan, but could Webber do it in a way that's a little less naive and whiney? I swear I used to love Jackson, but I think they've really brought his character down without April. For a character like Jackson, I think it's really important for him to be challenged, otherwise he's just a successful, rich, and handsome doctor and that doesn't really make for compelling storylines for him. Mark and April both required him to work and compromise and push himself in ways that have been missing since the Montana episode. I expected Jackson to behave in a kinder way during this breakup, but this attitude is more infuriating without any added interest to their storyline going forward. I almost tired of explaining just how frustrating Maggie is, but I find myself being able to add to it with every new episode. Maggie being upset with Jackson seems fine and I'd be fine to see Maggie have a bitch sesh with someone about her break up, but the stuff she said about Vic was so arrogant and gross, and I wish someone would have overheard it and checked her on it (Bailey would have been good). And then of course the way she handles the patient. It's always all about Maggie, and it's such a consistently annoying trait for Maggie. Can she not get a storyline where she learns to put others first? Bailey this week was better, but I still get major entitlement vibes from her. There was something about the Bailey of the early seasons that just cared so much about the patient and the development of the interns, but this Bailey seems far more concerned with feeling powerful. I think if they really wanted to bring old Bailey back, they'd give her more room to actually connect with and understand the residents and use that to influence her decision making. Maybe they are headed in that direction, but since we don't know the residents as well as we knew MAGIC I feel like we could connect with them more through Bailey. I really hate this look for Meredith. It's already dumb that she's in this situation, but all of this just adds to the stupidity of it. I kind of liked the idea of her helping some of the people, but the whole line of people and using her community service time to be a doctor is not okay, and it's shitty that she bullied the supervisor into letting her continue on with giving out medical care. I'm sure it was just for the visual, but I'd be so pissed if my entire clean up team was lined up waiting for a medical consult. Then we get some comments about how all others hospitals suck, and we get Meredith somehow just now coming to the realization that healthcare is not accessible to everyone? And of course a few weeks of mingling with poor people, she's ready to write about it? Mer is under qualified to talk about this topic, she's also not a writer, and is probably the least effective way a well off hospital and award winning surgeon could make a difference in this arena. I know she doesn't have her license right now, but if she really wanted to make a difference she should really focus on getting that back. I also think that this whole storyline robs Meredith of the chance for some personal growth. Krista said she wanted Meredith to deal with the consequences of her actions, but I feel like they could be doing a much better job at showing Meredith struggle with this turn in her life. Maybe that too is coming down the road when Mer realizes she needs to get her license back because writing is harder than she thought, but if so it's a rather another annoying step for this storyline. Amelia and Link were great, and their dynamic has really done a lot of great things for both characters, but I really wish Amelia wasn't going to have a baby. Amelia having a chill and casual dating life would have been really refreshing and I think they could have done a lot to explore Amelia outside of a relationship. Not sure if Caterina is pregnant. I could see why that might make it harder for her character to be living her best single life, but I still feel like they could have explored that option more. With that said, I like them as a couple and I think Amelia having a healthy baby is a good storyline for Amelia to have at some point. I liked Jo's storyline, even though I still feel meh on her. All of the fellowship talk just reminded me that Jo was supposed to be working on curing cancer all last season and now I think we're dropping that entirely for her to get dark blue scrubs. This could be a good move for her character, but usually the fellowship storylines do a lot more to show growth and development for characters. I have to assume the turn Tom's character is taking is to make Owen look better, but it just makes me hate both of them.

This definitely wasn't enough time to unpack Amelia's character, but they did a decent job of keeping to one centralized theme. Amelia is a risk taker and embraces failure. Other things touched on was her relationship to Derek, whom she feels she followed, and her mom who seems to struggle with her similarities to her father. I noticed when Maggie's bully was brought in that they left nuance at the door, and I feel like that's exactly what happened with her sisters. Based on the exposition surrounding Amelia's past, there is certainly some room for them to feel some kind anger, resentment, and/or frustration with Amelia, but I think they build an incredibly poor case that Amelia's behavior has ever truly affected them here. Amelia left NYC for LA almost ten years ago, so I have to assume their contact has been minimal and any transgressions against them would have most likely occurred before then, and definitely before she got sober in Private Practice (unless something happened with them after Derek's death). Nancy was obviously pretty bitchy in her last appearance, but I got the sense that she actually wanted what was best for Derek in her judgment, where here with Amelia she seems downright cruel. And Kathleen was so much worse. I think they mention at some point that she is a therapist? I know family is different, but I doubt anyone who has practiced mental health (not sure on the phrasing for that) would throw dismissive diagnoses at a person unless they are a sociopath. I think it would have been better if Kathleen was softer, but was still unintentionally rude, and then Nancy was the mean/bitter one because she took the hit financially or something. Rather than faulting the writers for lacking nuance in their characterization of this family, I suppose we could conclude that they are just that awful, but that's not only the lazy way to write this, it's also one that heavily colors Derek's mother and maybe even Derek for feeling any kind of good feelings to his sisters. Mama Shepherd's reactions at the dinner really soured me on her, and while I liked most of the talk on the bench, it still pretty awful that she couldn't be a good mother just because she reminded her of her husband. I honestly don't know if anything could have really made up for Mama Shepherd's refusal to come to Amelia's wedding after a hysterical plea on the phone. I did really love the bit about Amelia insisting on doing things on her own even if it's harder, because that's 100% how I grew up, but I don't know how well that tracks with the girl that moved in with her brother and took his job and still lives with her sister in law. Stray Observations I miss when most of the patients on Grey's were good. This patient's dialogue was so telegraphed. I know the show always had the surgeons do things that they would never do IRL, but I died when the brother asked Link to hold the fries so he could have a moment with his brother. The most questionable choice Amelia has ever made is getting a dozen plain glazed doughnuts. Can we get a new setting for parent-adult child heart-to-hearts? I didn't care for the rom-com fake husband trope and the direction and music cues around it made it worse. I was surprised they kept the premise through the whole first half of the episode. I love the way they are handling casual sex between them, even if we know it won't be just casual for much longer I really hope they drop the "pain medicine" and "blue light" like metaphors with Amelia and Link Did Owen actually seem annoyed with Amelia that he couldn't find a toy in his house for the baby he has primary custody of? Not to mention does he really need to call her over this?

I forgot about this entirely. I assumed it was just meant to add some awkwardness to the situation with Richard, but I found it really forced, and then also really sealed the deal on the patient being just a plot device by not even following up with her. In ye olden days of Grey's, I think the patient would have been shown to be desperate for approval and legitimacy and Deluca would actually empathize with her by the end and we'd get a nice tender moment showing him feeling more confident in his relationship with Mer. But why do that when you can have a cringefest in the OR?

Everything about Megan, Owen, and Teddy bothered me this episode. I feel like Megan is supposed to be this audience insert, but the entire time it feels like she doesn't really understand what's going on and her pushiness and the way Owen and Teddy react, just bothers me. It felt weird that teddy seemed fine to let Megan yell at Owen as if Teddy has no agency in this and is too agreeable to do it herself (she's not). Then we go to my frustration with Teddy. Her character motivation this season is either willfully being ignored because they know it ruins her character or they just forgot that the characters on this show should have a consistent motivation. This is Teddy's third (or fourth?) time mentioning that she thinks she's going to be a terrible mother, but we have no idea why. And Teddy is just now looking to get a house despite the fact that she took a job in Seattle months ago, and before that had already quit her job to fly to Seattle with the idea that her child should be raised near the father. It's just absurd that she's just now settling into a more permanent housing situation all under the guise that she can't rent a place. And then the kicker for me is that the only concern Teddy voices about living with Owen, is not wanting to step into Amelia's role and not any of the other million red flags she should have about being with Owen. And of course we learn here that Teddy seems to think she would step into a romantic thing with Owen if they lived together, so maybe she shouldn't be with Tom. And then Owen, I know learning from past experiences isn't Owen's thing, but he should stop asking women to live with him without actually having a proper conversation about boundaries and how that would impact their currently platonic, but once romantic relationship. I'm not totally sure what to make of the conversation he had with the soldier other than the set up for PTSD counseling, but it definitely made me wonder more about how Owen viewed Cristina when he first came back. And I'm a little worried that Owen's PTSD is going to be his version of a brain tumor that can excuse away any and all bad behavior. I feel like they are already just lumping a lot of his life choices together instead of exploring the motivations behind those actions. I personally think he's not proactive about what he wants in life. He just seems to gravitate toward whatever woman is most available. He completely fails to think about the long term consequences of actions. He doesn't set expectations clearly enough. He could stand to be less rigid about how things should be done. Maybe the therapist will address those things, but I'm just worried they won't actually delve into the real problems there and it will all just be him self sabotaging his chance with Teddy. I can't believe that Meredith's storyline this episode was worrying about Deluca. This is how many episodes in a row now where Meredith's focus is on how Deluca is doing. And this sudden push to give Deluca a personality is only make me like him less. I know at GSMH, it's seen as a good thing when a resident fights their superior, but all I see is someone who thinks they are too good to follow the rules (like Cristina). I've seen a lot of people say they like the idea of Merluca as a fling, but every episode just seems to confirm that they are trying to make them more than that. Bailey is the worst, and everything about her this episode bothered me so much. It's her first day back and she's upset that Alex wanted to wear a suit and immediately assumes he messed up because she can't find the reports she was looking for. And then again assumed Alex messed up and yells at him. And then at the end of the episode a bunch of young girls are so impressed with her and all of the women when she was actually being a terrible chief all day. Alex delegating work is cute, but I really don't think it's appropriate for surgical interns to do admin work for the chief. I'm also really tired of Bailey acknowledging Alex' success privately while being an asshole to him. I'm not sure where all of this supposed to go for either character, but I do hope it actually goes somewhere. Bailey hasn't been a very compelling character as chief and it'd be nice to see her do something new. And Alex needs to have gotten something out of this experience. Any particular reason why Jackson and Mer are just now realizing the role Richard has played in their lives? The dialogue felt super forced, like the writers talking about the relationship, and not the characters. And Jo... I feel like this is this season's version of April's crisis of faith storyline, but I'm just really struggling to connect with Jo's feelings, whereas I had no problem with April's despite not being religious at all. I already struggle to relate to Jo's entire backstory, but I just really don't understand what exactly she is feeling. I think the runner monologue was supposed to reveal some of that, but it just feels like a forced way for Jo's life to parallel her moms. I also don't really care for Jo and Link as friends. They expositioning a really close relationship, but it just doesn't ring true for me. But it is nice to see people looking out for Jo (*cough cough*, unlike what we saw for April). Side Notes: Mer being bubbly with Megan seems weird for Mer I wish I could go to therapy as often as Megan does Megan really annoyed me in this episode I wish my hair looked as good as Jo's after laying bed for a week They used the word penis maybe 3 times too many in this episode I hope we can properly address Jackson's need for recognition soon

The more they try to give Deluca depth the more I actually hate him. Mer smiling at the end was cute, but holy fuck that's not worth a season worth of drama so she can smile in between dealing with his punk ass. Also, no way does a guy go from couch surfing/on-call room lodging for almost a full year to a fully furnished swank pad with no change in pay in less than a year. Tom was about 85% in the right with Owen. Telling Owen he'd make Teddy's life more stressful to protect her was a big dick move and I wasn't here for it, but the rest was exactly what Owen needed to hear. Unfortunately, I'm sure Owen only heard what he wanted to from all of that. Amelia and Link were fun last episode and already boring me this episode. Webber is now "Old Man Yells At Clouds" and Jackson was kind of being a dick to Webber.