S11.E09: Where Do We Go From Here?

[runforcover]

WEAK. I hate when this show strikes out. Generally, I feel the show is strongest when it is Meredith focused, rather than Mer/Der, etc. I guess we'll see if dark-twistiness re-emerges. I'm assuming we are in for the competing forces between Meredith turning into a mother versus her mother, as synthesized into some better thing when this show is finally put down.

But this episode was both hollow and too much. I don't need to check in with everyone. It just dilutes all the stories. I found the dialogue particularly bad, written by 14 year olds.

And while the techno-advances are cool, they need to cool off on the bells and whistles. It's annoying and condescending. I'm not on a ride. This show is way too in love with its setting.

[kingshearte]

She was doing well enough in the OR that Meredith saw no reason why she would be asked to leave and had no idea anything was even going on.  I'm sure it didn't help that when she got downstairs the first thing she saw was her husband treating patients with no one harassing him about his mental state.

Yeah, I get that doing surgery is a bit different than sewing up cuts, but that bugged me too. She's in no condition to be working because of this news about her baby, but he's fine to work, despite the same news? I'd have been spitting nails in her shoes. And I am glad that a few characters pointed out the double standard at play here — although I will point out, Shonda and co., that acknowledging it doesn't automatically just make it fine.

 

I usually am not an Owen fan, but I dont think he did anything wrong. He was told by the spouse of a surgeon (a fellow surgeon and board member) that the surgeon in question was not fit to operate. If he didn't tell April to leave the OR, and she made a mistake, would Owen and the hospital not be liable?

This is a valid point, and it would be interesting to see how it would have played out if the roles had been reversed, and one of the female doctors had told him to pull her husband from surgery because of personal issues. I'm thinking he would have accepted that, gone to pull the husband, but had the husband assure him that no, he was in fact fine, and then accepted that. I think Owen's sexism is not that overt kind where you explicitly think that men are better than women, but more that sneaky in-under-the-radar kind, where you think you're all for equality, but when push comes to shove, you find yourself trusting the men's judgement more. I feel like we've seen a few explicit examples of that recently, though, so maybe it's building toward something useful?

[Nobodysfan]

Yeah, I get that doing surgery is a bit different than sewing up cuts, but that bugged me too. She's in no condition to be working because of this news about her baby, but he's fine to work, despite the same news? I'd have been spitting nails in her shoes. And I am glad that a few characters pointed out the double standard at play here — although I will point out, Shonda and co., that acknowledging it doesn't automatically just make it fine.

 

This is a valid point, and it would be interesting to see how it would have played out if the roles had been reversed, and one of the female doctors had told him to pull her husband from surgery because of personal issues. I'm thinking he would have accepted that, gone to pull the husband, but had the husband assure him that no, he was in fact fine, and then accepted that. I think Owen's sexism is not that overt kind where you explicitly think that men are better than women, but more that sneaky in-under-the-radar kind, where you think you're all for equality, but when push comes to shove, you find yourself trusting the men's judgement more. I feel like we've seen a few explicit examples of that recently, though, so maybe it's building toward something useful?

 

Well, it is hard to tell if he had acted differently if Jackson was in the OR and April told him to get him out.

It is true, Owen didn´t believe there could be a reason why the woman did what she did, trusted the husband´s word,but later he realised things can be diffferent even praised Meredith so much, tried to help her with Cristina talk as well.

Edited February 2, 2015 by owenhuntfan

[Clanstarling]

 

I think Owen's sexism is not that overt kind where you explicitly think that men are better than women, but more that sneaky in-under-the-radar kind, where you think you're all for equality, but when push comes to shove, you find yourself trusting the men's judgement more.

In all fairness, I don't think you can boil it down to a simple sexism. There's also personality and history. He's told by Jackson, who has been a pretty steady guy, that his wife, who has been known to be emotionally fragile upon occasion, that there's a problem. Jackson doesn't say "oh and by the way, I'm just as devastated an shouldn't be working either." All Owen knows is this normally unflappable guy, who unquestionably loves April, says rather frantically that April shouldn't be there. Add to the equation that Jackson is technically Owen's boss. All that factors in.

 

Which isn't to say Jackson should have reacted the way he did. Still, even if April was okay, as a patient, I'm not sure I'd want to be in the hands of a surgeon who just received devastating news, no matter how well they compartmentalized.

Edited February 2, 2015 by clanstarling

[jaytee1812]

I genuinely think if Owen had April saying to him that Jackson was in no fit state to operate he would've removed Jackson from the OR. He knows this is a couple who don't interfere in each other's careers unless something seriously wrong and that they wouldn't put him in the middle of something trivial.

[aliciakr]

nice post

Nice post

[kingshearte]

Still, even if April was okay, as a patient, I'm not sure I'd want to be in the hands of a surgeon who just received devastating news, no matter how well they compartmentalized.

That I fully agree with. Probably neither of them should have been treating patients beyond anything but the most minor of non-life-threatening issues.

[Clover]

I hadn't watched this show since Christina left.  My sister was watching it, so I sat down to give it another try.  Wow, this show is bad; all the crying, handwringing DRAMA.  Miss Christina, Mark, and what this show used to be.  Won't be back.

[hks]

Small correction to the recap: The tumor Meredith finds and fixes in the mom was in her liver or pancreas or something in her mid-section. It wasn't a brain tumor...THIS TIME.  It makes sense because Meredith is a General Surgeon, so she gets all the middle area tumors, I think. The brain tumors go to the Shepards.

 

My favorites in the episode: Jackson, April, Alex, and Bailey. Everyone else was from meh to bleh.

 

Finally, one awesome thing I saw was that Debbie Allen (i.e, Jackson's mom, i.e., Phylicia Rashad's sister, i.e., dancer extraordinare) directed this episode. I think she's directed a lot of stuff before, including other episodes of Grey's, but I think that's pretty cool. What's even cooler to me is that next week Chandra Wilson is directing - which I think she's done several times before also. Kevin McKidd (Owen) has directed a bunch too.  I really like that about Shonda Rhimes. She gives her actors chances to shine in other ways. 

[Eolivet]

I liked this episode. I really liked April calling Owen out for what he did. The fact is that, to me, there's always the implicit backing of the patriarchy whenever a man orders a woman to do anything, and April was absolutely right to call it out. I wish Owen had brought up the "hospital liability" thing as opposed to "your husband thinks you shouldn't be working in your delicate condition" thing. Again, I get these things happen, but I like when women don't say silent, and Shonda's characters never stay silent. Just because it's right doesn't mean it's fair.

 

I do wonder why they had the mother have a tumor, though -- did Shonda think it was just too dark if there was no reason for her actions? I thought that would've tied in really well to April's predicament: sometimes, bad things happen and there's not always a reason why.

 

Glad they at least mentioned the wedding Post-It. "No running" was a pretty big Post-It commandment to break.

[candall]

Meredith looks great.  Rested.

 

Kepner's artificial eyelashes are about an inch long.  I don't know how she manages to blink.

 

. . .I wasn't very invested in this episode. 

 

.

[MilkMachine]

I know sometimes it can be hokey or heavy-handed to tie the POTW to the main character's story, but I actually like the parallel they drew for April at the very end of the episode. It was so easy for her to be angry at that mother, but when she found out it was a tumor I think it was more than "oh crap I was wrong." I think the parallel is that she realized that the mother was probably a good person who was doing every thing could for her babies, but her body failed her and she wasn't able to protect them (from herself). I imagine on some level April must feel angry at her body for growing a baby that wouldn't be able to survive. April, too, had done everything right but still had to live with the crap outcome. And it's not fair, but it is real life.