Grey’s Anatomy Season 21, Episode 9 Review: Thrilled to Reunite with My Favorite Characters, But They Deserve So Much More!

Grey’s Anatomy season 21 returns from hiatus with an episode that feels like classic Grey’s, for better or worse. The previous episode aired at the end of November and found the doctors dealing with a record heat wave. It was another of the show’s admirable attempts to reflect real-world issues – in this case, climate change.

That episode had a heavy dose of action as well, with Jo and Lucas caught up in a convenience store robbery that ended with a gunshot and both of their fates up in the air. Amelia and Winston were in the middle of a high-risk surgery on a teenager, while Jules was reeling from Mika leaving Grey Sloan. The new episode picks up right where the last one left off and has some solid moments throughout.

Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 9 Forgoes Some Unnecessary Drama

The Show Smarty Focuses On Smaller Character Beats

Based on the promos for the show’s return, I assumed we were in for Jo or Lucas undergoing life-threatening surgery. Instead, this Grey’s Anatomy episode makes a good call and gives Jo a smaller medical issue that, while still serious, is mostly just a welcome opportunity to further her relationships with Linc and Bailey, who’s really become the show’s beating heart with Meredith’s limited presence. This storyline also surprised me by being the funniest one of the episode thanks to Jo’s annoyance at her colleague, Marcus, who I very much hope sticks around.

Lucas’ response to the robbery is handled well, too. He largely pushes through, but there’s still time for a couple of nice beats with Ben and Amelia. I assumed the episode would reference the robbery Amelia and Derek witnessed as kids that led to their dad’s death, and the episode adequately acknowledges this parallel but doesn’t linger on it. It’s a great example of the show rewarding longtime viewers and making sure newer ones don’t feel left out.

The episode’s most high-stakes moments are saved for the surgeries on both Amelia and Winston’s patient and the robber. However, in classic Grey’s fashion, it’s more about the doctors, with Winston and Amelia continuing to prove they really shouldn’t work together anymore and Jules making a critical error while thinking about Mika.

Grey’s Anatomy Can’t Help But Repeat Frustrating Patterns

Teddy And Owen’s Relationship Problems Continue

Despite some of the episode’s high points, I can’t help but feel that the show is going in circles a bit with some of its characters, especially Teddy and Owen. I’m in the minority of the show’s viewers in that I genuinely like both of those characters and have been a fan of their relationship from the beginning. However, for several seasons now, their romance has been in near-constant crisis, and the characters have become downright unlikable at times as a result.

Unfortunately, that’s on full display in this episode, with Teddy continuing to treat Owen as an employee rather than her spouse and Owen choosing to keep his emotional connection (and near-cheating) with his childhood friend a secret. Of course, relationships are always going to have challenges, but at this point, I want to feel like Teddy and Owen are not only working through things together but genuinely like and support each other, which has been a question for a while now.

Bailey and Ben are a great example of how a healthy relationship can work well as a backdrop to the characters’ other struggles. Even Jo and Linc, who have suffered from repetitive communication issues in the past, take a welcome step forward in this episode and seem to be on the path to stability.

In a long-running show like Grey’s Anatomy, it’s hard to avoid characters backsliding – they can only progress so much before their arcs run out of steam. However, with the intern class providing plenty of drama, it would be nice to see the show give legacy characters like Owen and Teddy a bit of a break – and remind us why we liked them in the first place.