Grey’s Anatomy Recap: Oops! … He Did It Again
Teddy and Owen’s marriage is in a “delicate” place, so naturally he crawls into another woman’s (hospital) bed.
Photo: Anne Marie Fox/Disney
It’s a reliable rule of TV dramas that when one couple gets married, at least one must break up. Last Grey’s Anatomy, when Jo and Link decided to organize a wedding in just four days, I wondered if the cursed pair might be Teddy and Owen, who’d gone missing from our screens after their attempt at an open marriage went about as well as blindfolded surgery on a roller coaster. Turns out, they’ve been on vacation in Hawaii, repairing their bond through a steady regimen of couples therapy and sex. So no dice on the breakup. The thing is, though, that Owen is still Owen — so of course he goes and kisses another woman despite his marriage’s “delicate” state.
Appropriately enough, this episode is all about hope — why we need it, how we celebrate it, and the lies we occasionally tell ourselves to preserve it. Jo and Link’s relationship has brought hope to both of them for decades, even before they began dating, and the reception also sparks a surgical “eureka” moment for Teddy right before her marriage threatens to implode. There’s Adams and Griffith, who manage to break up (again) before the ceremony even begins, and there’s my favorite patient of the week, Deb, who ends her first date with an emergency surgery only to find him waiting for her when she wakes up. The world might be imploding — Jo and Link’s vows even include a nod to the impending climate crisis — but still, optimism abounds if you know where to look!
Exhibit A: This very fortuitous wedding. Jo and Link not only managed to luck into a beautiful and affordable wedding venue but also managed to pull together evites, outfits, a cake, and almost all of the other wedding ceremony/reception requisites in just four days. It takes a village, and although we never see the cake that Helm made for the wedding, I’m convinced it’s professional-grade.
First of all, finally. These nuptials are long overdue, even if they’re happening at the last minute. Second of all, Schmitt came back from Texas for the wedding! Yay!!! And third of all, Bailey would be the one to wish she’d gotten more notice before the big day. She was also right — it’s very rude to give your very busy colleagues mere days to figure out what they’re going to wear, especially when their wardrobes are 90 percent scrubs.
For a while, only one thing seems to be missing from this wedding — the perfect vows. It turns out Link is not much of a writer. And unlike many a college student, apparently, he is a man of integrity who refuses to use ChatGPT to do his homework for him. Instead, this ortho god does his best to figure out a proper skeleton for his speech and fails miserably multiple times. Bailey tries to help by suggesting he approach the task like post-op notes, but that only begets an overwrought metaphor — yeesh. Ultimately, Bailey tells him to express his feelings in whatever way feels natural. So he breaks out the acoustic guitar and serenades Jo at the altar. Personally, I’d spontaneously combust from embarrassment if this happened to me, but Jo loves it, and that’s what matters.
The wedding brings up a lot of complicated feelings for Jo, who’s forced to face the grief of growing up without a mother when Link’s mother, Maureen, starts doting on her in ways both sweet and passive-aggressive. In other words, Schmitt explains to his frustrated BFF, Maureen is acting like a mom — something Jo’s never dealt with. I’m not sure how I feel about this characterization of matriarchs, especially so close to Mother’s Day, but I’ll allow it.
Most of the hospital crew makes it to the wedding, but Owen is one of the rare exceptions. In fairness, it’s a tough week for him. His childhood friend–slash–onetime extramarital hookup, Nora, is back in the hospital with an infected graft, and her condition seems to get worse by the minute. Teddy and Ndugu try a surgical procedure to help her heal, but her heart stops, leaving them with no choice but to leave the graft in, wait for her to wake up, and tell her she’s out of options. All of this is a nightmare for Owen, who clearly has some lingering feelings for Nora despite his recent redevotion to monogamy. Nora tries to put on a brave face when she finds out she’s dying, but she handles it like pretty much any of us would — with a lot of tears.
Here’s the thing: I’m not a monster, so I don’t blame Owen for holding Nora while she cried. When she says she’s kind of a little bit in love with him, he seems genuinely unsure how to respond, which makes sense, because how do you respond? Truthfully, despite my anti-Owen crusade, I don’t even really fault him for cradling Nora and kissing her on the head. The woman is devastated and just needs someone to console her while her family is stuck on a last-minute flight home, and Owen’s the only person in this hospital who can give her that peace.
At the same time, Owen is prone to emotional affairs, even with women who are not terminally ill. He cheated with Cristina; he cheated on Cristina. Somehow, separately from that, he also had an emotional affair with Teddy while with Cristina and full-on cheated on Amelia with Teddy. If there’s an opportunity to check out of a relationship, time and time again, Owen has proven he’ll take it. So while I don’t necessarily blame him for wanting to comfort his longtime friend in a time of need, I also can’t help but observe that it fits into a notorious pattern for him — which has to make it sting even worse for Teddy when she finds him taking care of Nora like that.
The prognosis here is depressing, so let’s move on to the far happier story of the most charming patient of the week, Deb. She arrives with her date, Steve, in tow, and because of that, we quickly discover that she’s lying to doctors about her condition. In front of Steve, she claims to be suffering cardiac symptoms, but in reality, she’s got a major case of the shits — which, sure, is not something you necessarily want to say in front of someone who still doesn’t know your favorite movie or how many siblings you have. It turns out Deb has a “toxic megacolon” (great name for a punk band) and needs an ostomy procedure. She and the doctors make a valiant, borderline nonsensical effort to hide all of this from Steve, but when he sees a nurse slapping a sign on Deb’s door describing her nasty bacterial infection, he figures it out pretty quickly.
Because our society is shallow and we’re all accustomed to folks cutting and running at the first sign of trouble (or, in this case, poo problems), Deb tries to offer Steve an “out” as soon as she wakes up. But in the most charming line of the season, he rebuffs her by offering to continue their date: “I thought maybe we could watch a movie and drink clear liquids together.” Folks, I’m dying! Deb and Steve forever. I hope they come back and get married right there in the hospital one day.
Millin, who remains informally kicked off Ndugu’s service after he realized he (and possibly she, but I’m not convinced) was catching feelings, is on Webber’s service again this week, which means she gets to perform Deb’s ostomy procedure. She crushes the assignment — a triumph that seems to set her free from fretting over whatever’s going on with Ndugu. She politely rescinds her request for his mentorship and tells him she’s exploring all the specialties, and now, it’s just a waiting game to see how long it sticks. Will he tell her how he feels in a moment of emotional impetuousness? This is Grey’s, so probably, but we’ll see! Maybe this will be a rare case of restrained longing.
Of course, not every case can be happy, and Nora isn’t the only patient who’s having a horrible time. Dylan, the adorable Girl Scout from last week, is now fully paralyzed after her long-shot brain surgery. The 11-year-old adventurer who can barely keep herself in a tent can now only blink her eyes — a hopefully temporary outcome that’s devastating her parents. This creates a major rift between Adams and Griffith: He doesn’t want Dylan or her parents to see the hospital staff giving up, and she sees herself as too much of a realist to indulge any delusions about Dylan’s prognosis. When Dylan loses the ability to even blink, Adams and Griffith’s disagreement turns into a huge, unsubtle metaphor for their romance — which leads to a big fight, which leads to another breakup.
Dylan is going in for another scan before next week, but that doesn’t stop Adams and Griffith from hitting each other where it hurts. Adams can’t stop insinuating that Griffith’s pessimism about Dylan is no different from her reservations about their relationship, and when he pushes too hard, Griffith snaps back by saying not everyone can take risks like he does because “not everyone gets bailed out when it goes wrong.” Um, ouch?! I don’t know sports terms too well, but this feels like a major foul. She’s clearly referring to Adams getting taken off remediation after spending months begging for mercy, and honestly, it’s very unfair. They go their separate ways, and while Lucas ends up at JoLink’s wedding, Simone lands at Joe’s, where a very handsome man successfully hits on her. It’s been a rough week, and she’s well within her breakup rights to do this, but somehow, I’m guessing this will eventually end with regrets. Such is the curse of the wedding episode.
• Teddy would spend a wedding reception jotting game-changing surgical ideas onto a napkin. Surgical goddess behavior. Owen, you do not deserve!!!
• I’m not sure why Schmitt showed up at Jo’s door with a stick of rock candy (is Texas known for its rock candy??), but there was something distinctly charming about the way he was eating it while observing Jo and Maureen’s whole Deal.
• Can you believe we’re one week away from the finale? I’m not ready!
