“A Diagnosis”
Original Airdate: February 20, 2020
If you don’t watch Station 19, now is a good time to start. Grey’s Anatomy and its spinoff series have been crossing over stories and characters for the past five episodes, so you will be missing a lot if you don’t watch both series. With the new set up, the action starts on Station 19 before continuing on Grey’s. This week, a husband and wife, Scott and Rachel, were camping and got attacked by a bear. Scott’s nose was ripped off, and he was badly clawed up. Rachel’s brachial artery was severed, and she almost bled out in the woods. Good thing the Station 19 crew was camping nearby, heard their screams, and jumped into action to help. Jackson was on the trip as Vic’s plus one and had the group find Scott’s severed nose in hopes of being able to reattach it.
Other memorable Grey’s mentions in Station 19 included Ben mentioning that he really wants to have a baby with Bailey, and Captain Maya Bishop meeting Carina DeLuca for the first time at Joe’s Bar. Carina buys Maya a drink, which could be the start of the third show-to-show relationship.
A BAD DAY ALL AROUND
Grey’s opens with Jackson arriving in an ambulance with Scott to Grey Sloan Memorial. We then see Maya run into the hospital to drop off Scott’s nose. She asks a nurse to bring the nose to Jackson and Helm, which is seen by Carina and thus completing the loop of the shows overlapping. In the OR, Jackson and Helm work to save Scott, while Owen and Jo are fixing Rachel’s arm. The scene then changes to the next morning and the recurring storyline of Suzanne, whom DeLuca and Riley still can’t diagnose. Suzanne has been off all medication for three days, yet they are no closer to figuring out why she is sick. Unfortunately, Riley won’t let DeLuca give Suzanne any medicine to stop her nausea even though she is vomiting. Riley tries to explain to DeLuca that they need Suzanne to suffer a little in order for her symptoms to come to light. DeLuca, who seems a little strung out, disagrees and storms off.
After lying to Link about getting a paternity test, Amelia decided to lock herself in her room at home. She won’t talk to Link or anyone else and isn’t too warm towards Maggie, who checks in on her. Amelia wants everyone to leave her alone, so Maggie agrees to honor her wishes. Back at Grey Sloan, Nico asks Schmitt how apartment searching is going. Schmitt isn’t having much luck, but Nico is still adamant about not living together. To soften things up, Schmitt invites Nico to go with him to look at a potential apartment later that night. Nico declines, as he says his parents are in town and he is going to dinner with them. Schmitt is excited to have a chance to meet Nico’s parents, yet Nico shoots him down again before leaving. Hayes walks by and brings Schmitt with him to look in on Joey, the foster teen with the broken collarbone from last episode. They try to get Joey to do physical therapy so he can regain mobility in his arm, but the kid is being stubborn and won’t listen to them. Hayes wants to find a way to cheer his patient up and goes to find a solution.
Link and Jo are then seen conversing at a nurse’s station. Neither has heard from their significant other, which is affecting Jo more than Link. Jo tells him about the bear attack and is afraid that Alex and Amelia are like bears and will eventually jump out of the woods at them. Link tries to talk her down by saying that Alex is going through family stuff and will tell Jo about it when he’s ready. He doesn’t think she has anything to worry about. Jo doesn’t return the favor when she admits that Amelia shuts people out sometimes, which scares Link.
Richard is back at Grey Sloan, and Bailey gifts him a bunch of new doctors that need his help to be trained properly. Bailey is worried about Richard and wants to give him his mojo back. Richard begrudgingly accepts Bailey’s “gift.” Jackson and Helm check in on Scott, who is awake and appears to be doing well. Jackson explains that they sewed his nose into his arm to keep it viable until his face heals and they can reattach it, which will easily make anyone squeamish. Jo and Owen go to see how Rachel is doing. She can’t believe that Scott jumped in front of a bear for her, but she’s less surprised when a man named Bryan comes flying in and saying that he loves her.
Over at another nurse’s station, Hayes asks a nurse where he can find the video game cart for Joey. Meredith is standing there and starts chatting with Hayes about how she is organizing a pro bono surgery day. She also tells him that there is a game room on the fourth floor he can check out for video games. DeLuca then comes flying down a flight of stairs and interrupts their conversation by standing between the two doctors. He completely ignores the fact that Hayes is standing there and starts talking to Mer, which annoys Hayes. DeLuca mutters “Give me a second” in Italian, and both Mer and DeLuca are surprised when Hayes tells DeLuca in Italian that he needs to learn some respect. Hayes tells Mer to count him in for the pro bono day before leaving. DeLuca is clearly going crazy at this point, and he tells Mer that he hasn’t slept in three days. Carina pops out of nowhere again and overhears her brother rambling, which clearly worries her. Mer is also worried about DeLuca and wants him to take a break. He tells her he can’t and leaves. Riley has shown up to the desk, so Mer tries to convince her to make DeLuca take some down time because he isn’t a machine. Riley says she needs DeLuca to be all in if they are going to solve the case, which doesn’t lighten Mer’s mood.
DIFFICULT PATIENT CARE
Back at the Grey/Shepherd/Pierce house, Maggie barges into Amelia’s room and tells her she called out sick from work. Amelia isn’t happy that Maggie isn’t respecting her space, but Maggie convinces Amelia that she needs her. Her speech does the trick, as Amelia calls Maggie an excellent sister. Over at Grey Sloan, Helm tells Rachel that Scott would like to see her. Bryan is still there, and Rachel blurts out that she isn’t in love with her husband anymore. She tells the doctors how she reconnected with Bryan online and was going to tell Scott on the camping trip that she is now in love with Bryan. Jo steps in by going to Scott’s room and lying about why he can’t see his wife. Poor Scott wants to tell Rachel he loves her before she goes back into surgery, but Jo shuts him down. After leaving the room, Jo tells Jackson that Rachel is in love with someone else. His reply about how patient care can sometimes be complicated is perfect.
An increasingly stressed out DeLuca is back in Suzanne’s room. He tells her that they have ruled some things out, which is a good thing, but they still don’t have a diagnosis. Suzanne’s mouth starts bleeding, and DeLuca isn’t sure what’s happening. He quickly checks her latest lab results and sees that her cell counts are bottoming out. He then makes the biggest mistake by yelling at Suzanne and her sister because he is over tired and doesn’t know how to help her. DeLuca momentarily calms down and realizes that Suzanne needs a bone marrow biopsy.
Carina catches Mer in the hall, and both women voice their concern about DeLuca. Carina is very worried that her brother is displaying signs of mania, which runs in the family. Mer isn’t so sure. Carina goes on to say that what is happening is obvious, and if Mer wasn’t in a relationship with him, she would see it too.
The conversation prompts Mer to pay Bailey a visit in her office. Bailey takes the opportunity to complain about her menopause symptoms before hearing what Mer wants to talk about. Mer tells her everything that has been going on with DeLuca and that she is worried for him. In a skills lab, the new doctors are practicing various techniques, but Richard isn’t paying any attention to them or teaching them. He seems to be off in his own world and doesn’t seem to care about his doctors. In a procedure room, DeLuca and Riley are taking a bone marrow sample from Suzanne. Riley asks DeLuca if he always gets this close to patients and whether he is still dating his boss. DeLuca says that he thinks he is still in a relationship with Mer, so Riley tells him it makes sense why Mer was concerned about him. Schmitt and Hayes bring Joey to the game room and want him to play a Wii Sports-like game. He is too distracted by his thoughts of his foster siblings to play. Hayes notices his sole focus and decides to try a different strategy for his patient.
Back in the OR, Jo and Owen are flushing out Rachel’s arm to keep it from getting infected. Jo asks Owen what would happen if Amelia’s baby turns out to be his. Owen doesn’t understand what she is talking about and tries to laugh it off, which makes Jo quickly say that she is being hypothetical. The fact that Amelia hasn’t told Owen the truth yet is getting very annoying, as it seems everyone else knows but Owen. Jo apologizes and says that she has been thinking about worst case scenarios since she still can’t ahold of Alex. Owen convinces her that Alex wouldn’t do anything to hurt her or screw up their marriage. Bailey calls DeLuca to her office and explains to him that all doctors get too involved with their patients from time to time. She has decided to put Mer in charge of the case and tells DeLuca that Mer will have to approve everything for Suzanne’s care. She has also instructed Mer to put Suzanne back on her medications. Bailey wants DeLuca to go home and get some rest, which doesn’t sit well with the chief resident. He fiercely argues back, which prompts Bailey to tell him to leave before he says anything he will regret.
BEING HELPFUL
Hayes finds Bailey in the hallway, and she immediately guesses that Joey won’t do his physical therapy. Hayes asks her for help in finding a way to help Joey. Bailey goes too far down the road with how to help him post-discharge, but Hayes simply wants to focus on how to help him now. He has the bright idea of asking Bailey if she knows how Joey could talk to his siblings, so Bailey agrees to try and figure out a way to make that happen.
Amelia has decided to open up to Maggie and reveals that she is having a boy. She tells Maggie that the baby might be Owen’s, so Maggie asks if it might be or is Owen’s. Amelia doesn’t know and still doesn’t want to know. She also spills on Link’s issue with not knowing the paternity, which leads Amelia to question if she wants to be with him if the baby is his because of him questioning their relationship. She wants Link to love her more than the Owen issue matters and feels it shouldn’t matter whose baby it is. She continues to tell Maggie how she loves her more than her own biological sisters, so biology shouldn’t matter. Amelia’s always found ways to not be happy, and this is another example of her self-destructive behavior. Maggie tries to make Amelia understand that it’s okay for Link to be terrified because she would be too if she were in that situation. Maggie knows that Link’s issue isn’t about how much he loves Amelia, and it’s really sweet how hard she is trying to make Amelia see the truth. Amelia still doesn’t see it, and their talk ends with Maggie holding a bawling Amelia.
Speaking of Link and Owen, the two doctors share a very awkward elevator ride at the hospital. Owen asks how Amelia is doing with her pregnancy. Link says things are complicated, but the baby is healthy. You can see how hard Link is trying to not tell Owen the truth which gets even harder when Owen decides to give Link some advice on how to deal with pregnant women. The look on Link’s face says it all, as he so desperately wants the conversation to end.
DeLuca isn’t happy when he finds Riley clearing her belongings out of an office. He tries to convince her to stay by saying that he is the only one that got kicked off the case. DeLuca wants her to stay and consult on the case, but Riley doesn’t want to do that. Naturally, this is the perfect moment for DeLuca to get a message that the bone marrow test results are in. The results show that Suzanne has macrophage activation syndrome, which means that her white blood cells are eating her red blood cells. Riley says she has never seen a case of Still’s disease before and can’t believe they have figured out a diagnosis. They realize they don’t have much time before Suzanne’s organs will shut down, so they race out of the room.
MAKING THINGS RIGHT
After surgery, Jo tells Bryan that Rachel will make a full recovery. He decides to tell Jo his life story about how he never thought he could be a homewrecker. He spins a yarn about how life happened and that he doesn’t care who gets hurt as long as it’s not him because he is so in love with Rachel. We then see Scott coding in his room. Owen, Jackson, and Helm jump into action to try and revive him. Owen decides to crack Scott’s chest right there in the room to figure out what is going on, while Jo sadly watches from outside the room. Jo goes back to Rachel’s room to deliver the bad news that Scott had major bleeding inside his chest that the doctors were unfortunately unable to stop. Rachel is incredibly upset at the news of her husband’s death and tells Bryan to leave.
Jo is pretty upset by the whole thing too, so she goes to a stairwell to give Alex a call. When she gets his voicemail, she leaves a long message for him. Jo says that she needs him to call her and tell her exactly what is going on. She says she would jump in front of a bear for him and needs to hear his voice. It’s a pretty moving message, so we will have to wait and see how Alex responds, which will happen off-screen if it’s not through texts.
After the somber scenes, we finally get some happiness: Hayes, Bailey, and Schmitt go to Joey’s room and bring in his three siblings to visit. Bailey managed to pull some strings to get them there. Joey immediately snaps out of his funk and is extremely happy to see his siblings, who are allowed to stay for pizza and video games. Bailey leaves the room and sees one of the new doctors leaving. He tells her that Richard told the group that they could leave early, which annoys Bailey.
Mer is checking on Suzanne when DeLuca and Riley rush in and announce that Suzanne has Still’s disease. Riley tries to quickly communicate how rare the condition is and that there is no cure, but they can manage her symptoms. DeLuca goes to put something into Suzanne’s IV, and Mer tells him to back away from the patient. He says he can’t wait around for her orders and gives Suzanne a dose of steroids, which should start to make her feel better within minutes. Mer throws DeLuca out of the room and goes outside to yell at him about not consulting with her first. DeLuca walks away after some nasty remarks, and Mer isn’t any happier with Riley for making her resident not follow her orders. Riley says that the situation is muddy because DeLuca is Mer’s resident and boyfriend.
ENDING ON A BAD NOTE
After the hallway chat, Mer goes back into Suzanne’s room and finds that she is getting better. Mer has calmed down fast and tells her patient that the team suspects that she had Still’s disease before the appendectomy. Mer explains that Suzanne’s immune system is in overdrive and that the steroids will fix the problem for now. They will get her on the right medications to manage the disease from here on out. DeLuca has been watching the whole thing from outside Suzanne’s room, and after she leaves, Mer tells him he can go in. DeLuca is peeved that Mer is getting the credit for solving the case, so he doesn’t want to talk to Suzanne. They move down the hall to an area where a bunch of nurses and doctors are hanging around, including Hayes. Mer tells DeLuca that he made a great diagnosis, but going rogue and giving Suzanne steroids that could have hurt her could have cost him his career if he was wrong. She tries to make him understand that he should have taken a minute to consult with her before giving the patient the steroids.
Things go downhill quickly when Mer tells DeLuca that he isn’t being himself and needs to get some sleep. He starts to get even crazier and yells loudly. Hayes decides to step in and tells DeLuca to calm down in Italian in an attempt to get through to him. DeLuca tells him to mind his own business in Italian. Hayes clearly wants to protect Mer more, but Mer tells him everything is fine. Mer’s final attempt to make DeLuca see sense includes telling him that he sounds like his father and to please leave and get some rest. DeLuca goes fully off the deep end and shouts that he doesn’t need this or her and officially breaks it off with Mer very publicly before storming off. Hayes rushes over to Mer and tells her that she should write DeLuca up because his behavior is unacceptable, but it’s doubtful Mer will go that far.
Outside of the hospital, Bailey finds Richard sitting on a bench. He doesn’t want her checking up on him, and Bailey retorts by saying she doesn’t want her residents leaving early. Richard doesn’t feel he has it in him to deal with the new group of residents because they aren’t good enough doctors to work at Grey Sloan. He says it feels like a punishment and like Catherine won. Bailey asks how she can help him. Richard doesn’t want help and is tired of everything. Bailey tells him it sounds like he is depressed, and Richard walks off saying he will be okay.
Back inside the hospital, Schmitt tells Nico that he wants to meet his family. Nico doesn’t want to make it a big thing and says that his family is too critical of him. He then reveals that his family doesn’t know he is gay, which shocks Schmitt and explains why Nico has been acting so weird. Nico leaves to go to dinner with his family without discussing it further with Schmitt. We then quickly see that DeLuca has decided to not go home and instead visits Suzanne.
Link goes to visit Amelia and finds Maggie answering the door instead. He is worried about Amelia, and Maggie assures him that she is fine. Amelia comes downstairs and informs Link that she won’t be getting the paternity results. She wants to raise her baby with someone who will love him no matter what a blood test says. Amelia says that she wants to raise the baby with her sisters and tells Link to go home because they are over. Link is shocked, and Maggie thinks it’s the hormones talking. Link wants to know if Amelia will tell Owen the baby could be his, but she won’t answer. Link leaves completely speechless. No sooner has the door closed when there is another knock. Maggie answers the door, and Jackson is standing on the front step. He has also been impacted by the bear incident and apologizes to Maggie for leaving her in the woods all those months ago. His apology is brief and came out of nowhere.
The episode ends with a quick shot of Mer texting Alex to ask him where he is because she needs him. He starts to reply, but the three dots disappear and he doesn’t answer, leaving Mer alone and sad for the first time in a long time.
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