Saturday, May 13, 2017

Grey’s Anatomy 13x23 Review: “True Colors” (The Shocking Truth) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]


“True Colors”
Original Airdate: May 11, 2017

If you thought this new episode of Grey’s Anatomy was surprising, then we should be in for one wild season finale. One story makes an incredibly shocking reappearance, while guest star Matthew Morrison plays a key role in another. However, it’s the last twenty minutes that are incredible, shocking, intense, and explosive to set up the (probably tragic) season finale.

BIG REVEALS


There were two reveals that are set to shake up the characters in the near future, but maybe not in the season finale due to the ending of the episode. The big shocker of the episode has the largest implications, as Owen receives extremely surprising and confusing news. After about ten years, his missing and presumed dead sister has been found by the Army. The news proves to be too much for Owen to handle, and he reverts back to his tortured, PTSD self that we were introduced to when he first joined the show.

Kevin McKidd pulled double duty in the episode as the director and acting as Owen. McKidd did a solid job of showing some deep emotional distress through the confliction Owen feels about moving on when his sister was trapped by enemy forces somewhere in the Middle East. The silver lining to his pain is that Amelia plays the sane one in their relationship and immediately drops everything to support her estranged husband. Even though they didn’t talk about their relationship, Amelia is able to help Owen by jumping into action when he needs her the most. It was also great to hear Teddy Altman’s name dropped, but it would have been better if Kim Raver showed up.

Owen isn’t sure he can trust that it really is his sister who was found, so she is on route to Grey-Sloan. Now Owen will have to confront his fears of his family and his wife, which may actually bring them all back together. However, he hasn’t told his mother or Nathan about the news. It gets interesting here because Nathan and Owen’s sister, Megan, were engaged at the time she went missing. I’m very interested to see how Nathan reacts to the news and how this will affect his new relationship with Meredith.


FANTASIES


The other big news of the episode was the discovery of Jo’s long-lost abusive husband. Alex has hunted down Dr. Paul Stadler, played by the wonderful Matthew Morrison, at a medical conference. This story was really funny because it played out through some daydreams Alex had while trying to figure out how to approach Stadler. Every scenario Alex comes up with winds up with a tragic end, which shows that he really has grown up and can realize the consequences of his potential actions. Alex thankfully doesn’t do anything stupid again and doesn’t engage Stadler.

So, what happens next? We at least finally learned that Jo’s real name is Brooke Stadler, so that’s a start. Will Alex try to find Stadler again to find out the truth behind the scenario that Jo paints? Also, how will Jo react to Alex finding Paul? I doubt this is the last we will see of Morrison on Grey’s Anatony, and any time that we get with him will be a blessing. Morrison is the perfect actor to take on this role, and his limited screentime in this episode proves it. This is a storyline that will more than likely drag on into next season for a few reasons. First, this isn’t a story that can be summed up in one episode. Second, with Camilla Luddington being pregnant during the filming of these episodes, she hasn’t been in much the second half of the season and will probably not be present for much of the finale. Third, the ending of this episode doesn’t leave room for this situation to be resolved in the finale.

EXPLOSIVE FINALE


After the first two shockers were out of the way, the third and final surprise of the episode started with a great twist. The promo for this episode promised a crazy patient going after Edwards, but nothing happens for the first half of the episode. In a very quick plot twist, the kind, sweet patient that Edwards is treating turns out to be a dangerous rapist. The patient holds Edwards hostage to get out of the hospital, but things get more real when the other doctors learn the truth about the patient. Bailey declares a Code Orange to lock down the hospital, which traps Edwards, the psycho rapist, and a little girl in a small section of the hospital.

Edwards tries to play hero by setting the rapist on fire, but the plan goes horribly wrong when he flails and falls next to a group of oxygen tanks. As Edwards runs to move the rapist away from the oxygen tanks, a massive explosion blows out a huge section of the hospital. After Edwards’ crazy spell in the previous episode, it seemed likely that this may be her last season. It wouldn’t be surprising if she becomes a casualty of what will be a tragic season finale. It isn’t certain who else may be trapped from the explosion, but it should be an intense ride.

The disaster finales are some of the best episodes of the series, so we should be in for a treat. This penultimate episode was really fantastic and a great lead-in for the finale. Unfortunately, it does appear that the tragedy will take up the whole episode, which is why I believe that the other two shockers in this episode won’t be further discussed until next season. Either way, it is a good step forward to bring up these stories again and show some effort into moving them forward.

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