Monday, March 12, 2018

Grey’s Anatomy 14x14 Recap: “Games People Play” (Hot and Heavy) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]


“Games People Play”
Original Airdate: March 8, 2018

It’s that time of year: the docs at Grey Sloan are starting to get pre-spring fever for each other. There are many moving parts to this lighthearted episode, which features some of the best and quirkiest writing of the season. The happier, upbeat tone is just what we needed — especially given the news that Jessica Capshaw (Arizona) and Sarah Drew (April) will be departing the show at the end of the season.


BEST CRAZY MEDICAL MOMENT


While Grey’s Anatomy is famous for showcasing the personal lives and struggles of its characters, there is still plenty of great medicine laced into the narratives. My new favorite medical moment of the series might just be the screw-up that occurs in the emergency room at the beginning of the episode. A group of rugby players come in injured and, naturally, can’t stop fooling around. April is trying to drain some blood from her patient’s ear with a scalpel while yelling at the kids to stop throwing their ball around.

You know disaster is going to strike as soon as the kid with the broken leg throws the ball across the room to one of his buddies. In a wonderfully choreographed sequence, the ball misses its target, hits off a backboard a paramedic is holding, and smacks into April, who pushes the scalpel forward and cuts her patient’s ear clean off. The ear lands on the floor and DeLuca starts walking right at it. In the best banana peel-like moment, DeLuca stomps on the ear and smacks his head on the floor.

While DeLuca is passed out on the floor, I was laughing my head off — similar to Bailey and Richard watching the security video of the incident at the end of the episode. It’s pretty bad that a girl’s ear was accidentally cut off, but this was easily the funniest moment of the season. DeLuca earns himself a night in the hospital with a grade three concussion, April gets suspended for the day, and Owen turns on his military powers to make the rugby guys play nice.


COUPLING UP


DeLuca’s accident leads to a rekindling of his relationship with Sam. Amelia bluntly points out that Sam loves DeLuca. Sam goes to declare her love, but DeLuca beats her to the punch. One happy couple down, a few more to go! While the ear moment was insane, this episode is truly defined by the docs finally confronting their feelings for one another. Thank goodness most of them have decided to give in because the innuendos were getting to be a bit much.

Another funny moment occurs inside a very crowded elevator at the beginning of the episode. Amelia is right up against Owen, and the heat is just palpable. The exes have had plenty of chemistry since their split, but Amelia straight-up spends the hour drooling over Owen and his manliness. She has the hots for him so badly that she spends a good five minutes explaining how she is always thinking about sleeping with him. She finally gets her wish at the end of the day, but who knows if this is short-lived or a rekindling of their relationship.

A game night at the Grey-Shepherd-Pierce residence leads to a hook-up, two break-ups, and a budding romance. Most of the docs don’t show up, leaving April, Jackson and his date Priya, Maggie and her boyfriend Clive, and Tom Koracick playing random games. This game night doesn’t go anywhere near as planned, and you probably wouldn’t be able to guess what would happen between the people in this group. First, Clive’s wife shows up and drags him away. No, neither we nor Maggie knew that Clive was married. A very drunk April sort of makes Tom drive her home, which leads to the most unexpected hook-up of the episode.

Jackson and Priya also leave, but Jackson shows up on the doorstep a little later to deliver the sexiest speech that Grey’s Anatomy has seen in a long time. He tells Maggie that he broke up with Priya because he can’t stop thinking about his feelings for Maggie. Their impending kiss session is interrupted by Meredith barging through the door and not even acknowledging what has happening. This romance has been a long time coming, and it should be interesting to see where it goes. As Jackson says, it’s complicated, but it does feel right for these two to be a couple.


THE FUTURE


Most of episode focuses on setting up for the near future, especially in the love department. However, the ongoing Surgical Innovation Contest is still in full swing, and Meredith and Jo might have hit a bigger snag than they thought. The doctor who holds the patent for the biopolymer they need to move forward on their project has died, leaving his patent to his daughter. She comes to meet with Meredith in person about selling the patent, and she is none other than Meredith’s Aunt Marie. Meredith thinks she has the sale in the bag, but it turns out there was some bad blood between Ellis Grey and her former best friend, Marie.

Meredith’s pitch appears to potentially win Marie over by revealing a mouse that was given the biopolymer and is thriving with the mini-livers it grew. Richard sees Marie leaving and asks Meredith if Marie’s anger has subsided. A confused Meredith doesn’t get the answers she was looking for from Richard, but the promo for the next episode suggests that Marie and Ellis may have had a secret romance that didn’t end well. Meredith and Jo’s project is in jeopardy, so unless Meredith can figure out a way to get Marie to sell her the biopolymer, it will all be over.

This episode also starts the final stretch of episodes for April and Arizona, and let the speculation as to how they will leave begin! It doesn’t seem likely that either character will be killed off given that their departures have been announced two months before the end of the season. When characters are killed off the show, the news that they are leaving typically isn’t announced until right before a death or right after. However, if April keeps up her self-destructive streak, she might put herself in the ground.

My best guess is that Arizona will either move to New York to be closer to Callie and Sofia or will move to Italy with Carina to continue their research. Yes, Sofia is currently living with Arizona in Seattle, but it makes sense for her to be close to both her parents. April will either die, go back to the Army because she gets fired for cutting a girl’s ear off, or just move away because she can’t deal with being around Jackson anymore. Both Arizona and April have almost been killed off before, so it wouldn’t be as impactful for them to be randomly killed off now. It will be sad to see two long-time series regulars go, but at least we get two months to say goodbye.

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