nyone else feel the nostalgic heartstrings being tugged throughout “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”? We get a scene with all four interns decompressing at Joe’s after their shifts — both great ones and downright crummy ones — just like our OG intern crew used to do. Jo and Ben, who were once surgical residents together, are becoming pals again. And Owen and Teddy are blowing up their marriage for like the seventh time. A flurry of Grey’s Anatomy traditions! Let’s dive into those moments and the rest of what the latest episode of Grey’s has in store.
It’s only brain surgery!
Brain surgery’s wild — who knew? Just kidding! Everyone knew. We knew Molly’s brain surgery was going to be difficult, but I don’t think Kwan realized just how difficult. Dave’s arrival is annoying at first — he refuses to leave without Molly — but as Molly gets prepped for her surgery, Dave turns up at the hospital with a rather important bit of information for Kwan. He’s worried about Molly. Right after her accident, she went a little nuts trying to find a way to get her memories back. She was obsessed. And when it didn’t happen, she spiraled. She didn’t sleep. She didn’t eat. Eventually, her parents had to intervene and get her help. Dave’s worried she’s headed down that same slippery slope now. Kwan doesn’t want to believe it, and instead calls Dave jealous, but he just can’t shake it. As they head into the surgery, Kwan pulls aside Simone, who is assisting Amelia, and tells her not to let Amelia push Molly too far with this. Simone doesn’t think she has that kind of authority, but Kwan reminds her that everyone has been calling her “the one to watch,” and she has more power than she thinks. (Or so he thinks.)
In the surgery, things go pretty well. They insert a pacemaker-like device that will put a stop to Molly’s seizures. Then, they move on to the experimental brain-stimulation part of the surgery. It’s not long before Simone starts to worry that this stimulation is going to bring on a seizure — the signs are there in Molly’s brain waves — and she basically tells Amelia she’s going to stop pushing the button to perform the stimulation. Oh, buddy, is Amelia pissed that her intern is disobeying orders and acting like she knows better than the chief of neurosurgery. Amelia takes the reins, and lo and behold — something starts happening as the stimulation continues. Molly starts to recall a memory: She’s on a train in Big Sky, and there’s a man in front of her in a red jacket. After a few back-and-forths with the stimulation, Amelia turns it off. Because she’s a professional, okay? The woman knows how far to go before putting her patient in real danger.
This less-than-smooth interaction between attending and intern means that Amelia needs to have a difficult conversation with the one she thought was the standout. Simone’s star may be on the rise, but she has a lot to learn, and she needs to trust her attending. She cannot bring patient baggage into an OR ever. I mean, that’s easier said than done at Grey Sloan Memorial, but point taken! Simone has learned her lesson. Amelia hasn’t completely written off the star student: She wants Simone to write up the presentation on Molly’s case that the two of them will be delivering at Grand Rounds. It winds up being another banger of a day for Simone.
Less so for Kwan! When Molly wakes up, Kwan tells her that he called her parents and found out that not only did she not tell them about the surgery, but that she also never even told them that she and Kwan were back together. She’s been lying to his face the whole time. They talk about the memory she began to see during the surgery, but it’s most likely a memory from after the accident — probably from a time she went hiking with Dave. The surgery was always a long shot — no one with retrograde amnesia has ever recovered memories. The possibility brings up Kwan’s growing worry that there might be truth in what Dave told him earlier. And when Molly launches into how, even if this surgery doesn’t work, there must be other things they can try, that seeing him made her feel like her old life was still there in her brain, and she won’t give up, well, Kwan’s worries are confirmed. Molly’s in tears: She wants to remember who she was; she doesn’t feel whole. Then it dawns on Kwan, and he asks a terrifying question: “Are you only with me because you think it might help get your memory back?” She answers truthfully: “I don’t know.” It breaks Kwan’s heart. He’s in love with her and would be with her even if she never gets those memories back, but Molly can’t say the same.
Know your worth
Nick Marsh is back in town! He’s at Grey Sloan to work with Webber on Allan, one of his old kidney-transplant patients. Allan has had three kidney transplants (which means he has five kidneys hanging out in his body!) and has developed post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder. Webber and Nick, with Ben and Lucas assisting, are going in to remove a residual tumor. Things take a turn, however, when Lucas finds Allan in pain and an ultrasound reveals that his one working kidney is thrombotic — there’s a clot cutting off blood supply, and if he doesn’t get into surgery now, he could lose the kidney. It’s a great catch that saves Allan’s life, but Nick and Webber are unable to save the kidney in the end. And since Allan refuses to call his estranged brother to see if he might be willing and able to donate one, Allan will go back on dialysis.
This storyline is about much more than kidneys, though. Lucas is shown more than once that life is all about taking a leap and asking for what you want. Ben makes a bold ask to perform a nephrectomy (that’s a no from Nick), and when Lucas asks why he took the risk, he reminds him that “you never know unless you ask.” Lucas also sees Allan choose dialysis and a shortened life over asking his brother a difficult question. Both of these things lead Lucas to broach the subject of overturning the punishment he received for the Sam Sutton debacle. Lucas talks to Nick, who has a soft spot for the guy, and after he lays out why he shouldn’t be repeating his intern year — he’s just as skilled as his peers, and repeating the year will completely derail his career for, most likely, the rest of his life — Nick agrees. But Nick also knows that he’s not the one who needs convincing — Catherine Fox ordered Lucas to repeat his internship; she is the one who will have to change her mind. Nick doesn’t really have any advice on how to go about that monumental task, but he knows someone who might: Webber.
Once again, Lucas asks the question. Unfortunately, Webber is of the belief that for Catherine to change her mind, she needs an irrefutable reason, and Webber doesn’t think Lucas has that. While the answer to Lucas’ question seems to be a no in the short term, the man typically known for his brooding face doesn’t look completely deterred. Getting Catherine to change her mind isn’t impossible — he just needs to give her a good reason.
Lucas isn’t the only person at the hospital remembering their own worth. Since Marcus performed the cervical cerclage on Jo, she’s had a tough time working with her co-resident. Mostly, he’s walking all over her, and she’s having trouble saying no to the guy who saved her babies. But it’s getting out of hand. Now Marcus is stealing her patients and making big decisions without even consulting her and is telling her it’s just because he wants to give her and her babies a break. He’s also taken to calling surgery “surge,” and that really is a bridge too far. Ben is aghast — the Jo Wilson he knows would never stand for such a thing. As she helps out with Nora’s friend Liz, who was supposed to be hosting her high school reunion before she started having some strange symptoms, Jo gets inspired. Liz worked on this reunion for two years, and now some man is just going to take all the glory! Liz won’t stand for it, and neither will Jo. By the end of the episode, when Marcus arrives to say something condescending, Jo stands her ground. He will not steal her surgeries, and he sure as hell won’t refer to surgery as “surge” anymore! Jo can advocate for herself — all he’s been doing is undermining her authority and limiting her training. But not anymore! It is so very satisfying. Jo and Ben celebrate the moral victory with some post-work burgers, and if this is how these two rekindle their friendship, I could not be more thrilled.
(Open) marriage is what brings us together today
The moment Owen sends Teddy off to a medical conference in Oakland with a little oh, you should take time to get a massage or, you know, do something else for yourself (wink-wink), you know this open-marriage thing is on. The man is practically pushing his wife to go get laid immediately. And all of this is before Nora shows up at the hospital with her pregnant friend Liz in some mild distress. So yes, we are testing marital boundaries tonight, kids. The results are … let’s call them mixed.
Teddy arrives at the conference with Bailey — who is giving a presentation on her ob-gyn and abortion health-care teaching program — and it takes all of 30 seconds to run into Cass Beckman. Cass is already making plans with her usual medical conference hookup, Phil, but when Bailey runs into technical difficulties with her slideshow ahead of her presentation, Teddy offers up the assistance of noted PowerPoint expert Cass Beckman, and the women end up side by side on a couch. Who knew you could get so cozy over a Microsoft Suite program? Sparks fly, as usual, and the moment Bailey steps out of the room, Teddy informs Cass that she has figured her stuff out and they should really spend some time together, if you know what she means. Cass does know because Teddy could, honestly, not be any thirstier. Alas, they have to sit through Bailey’s meeting-the-moment presentation, but the second that ends, they are up in a hotel room finally making good on all that sexual tension.
Well, they are for a little bit anyway. As things progress to the bed, Teddy freezes. She really likes Cass, but she can’t help but feel like she’s cheating on Owen. She asks Cass if this is how it felt for her when she first opened her marriage, but Cass’ experience couldn’t be more different: For her, opening her marriage felt freeing and right. It’s then that Teddy realizes this is not the thing that’s going to fix her marriage. She winds up tossing back some selections from the minibar in Bailey’s room instead.
Teddy’s husband, however — you know, the guy who was quite reluctant to try out this open-marriage thing — doesn’t seem to have the hesitancy that Teddy does when it comes down to it. This feels very on brand for Owen Hunt, a man who continually believes he wants one thing and then changes his mind when backed into a corner. Nora brings her friend Liz in on the day Liz is supposed to be hosting their high school reunion. She’s pregnant and having some chest pain, among other symptoms, and Nora is worried. Jo, Jules, and Winston wind up taking Liz’s case. It turns out she has achalasia with megaesophagus — or undigested food is getting stuck in her esophagus — and Jules, now under Winston’s mentorship, clears that sucker out like a pro. Winston’s impressed, and at the end of the day, he lets her perform her first transesophageal echocardiogram. Jules is pumped, and I must admit, I’m very into this mentor/mentee pairing.
While all of this is going on, Owen and Nora are having their own flirting session out on a bench. You’d think Nora would be supporting her friend throughout this ordeal, but the woman only has time for Owen Hunt. When he offers to go to the high school reunion with her and explains that he has an open marriage now, Nora asks zero follow-up questions but takes him up on his offer. The two end up in bed together, and neither of them has second thoughts about it. It seems like Owen and Teddy’s initial foray into open-marriage land is going to get a little bit messy. In case you’ve had any doubt.
