Saturday, April 15, 2017

Grey’s Anatomy 13x20 Review: “In the Air Tonight” (Letting Go) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]


“In the Air Tonight”
Original Airdate: April 13, 2017

Here we go again, Grey’s Anatomy fans. As if one airplane episode wasn’t enough torture to watch, this new one is just as tense and emotionally draining for the characters and audience. This time around, Meredith and Nathan unexpectedly find themselves on the same plane, forced to confront their feelings and deal with a nasty case of turbulence. The retrospective bottle episode (yes, another bottle episode!) is just what the doctor ordered and is the perfect way to go into the final few episodes of the season.


COME TOGETHER 


What would you do if you were trapped sitting in the same row as a person you had a major crush on and they have been super noncommittal about dating you? I give Nathan major props for making multiple moves on Meredith during their tumultuous journey. It’s too bad that the show now airs at 8 p.m. instead of at a later hour like in the past, or else this episode truly would have been old-school Grey’s Anatomy. After joining the mile high club, Meredith forces herself even further away from Nathan, just as she did after their first hook-up.

The episode brings back a few major reminiscent moments for Meredith, where she relives all the terror she has been through over the entire series. Some of the best episodes of the series have been when disaster struck, yet they are also the hardest to watch. Seeing the scenes from the plane crash that killed Lexi and Mark was rough, given the circumstances of the flashback triggers. However, this allowed Meredith to confront her worst fears, again, and admit to Nathan why she has been acting weird. In one of the saddest moments of the series, Meredith exclaims, “I am married!” My heart broke when she admitted that she can’t move on from Derek. I wanted to jump into the TV and give her a big hug because the scene was so heartbreaking.

After the craziness that ensues, Nathan forces Meredith to realize that she can’t keep holding herself back and stop living. Even though Meredith is traditionally stubborn, Nathan manages to crack through her icy façade and convince her to get a hotel room with him. It’s official: Nathan and Meredith are giving it a go! Another emotional montage shows Meredith letting go of her past to start moving on with her life. It will be interesting to see how her attitude and outlook on life changes in the final episodes of the season and how Maggie handles the new couple.


AMAZING MEDICINE 


The best part of the episode isn’t that there’s a new relationship, though. The medicine in the episode was fantastic and truly captivating to watch unfold. In a nutshell, the plane is caught between two storm systems, which causes some turbulence while the seatbelt light is off. The turbulence crashes two passengers into the roof and injures several more. Meredith and Riggs are the only surgeons on board and have limited equipment, as the plane isn’t stocked with medical supplies. A pediatric dentist comes to give some help, but being on an unsteady plane and trying to care for a patient with a potentially severe brain bleed and a patient in cardiac arrest becomes almost impossible.

So, some of the best fieldwork occurs with the help of a syringe, straw, gauze, and extra seat belts to tie the patient to the chair. The guy with the brain bleed needed the pressure relieved from his brain immediately, and without a drill to make burr holes, Meredith has few options to perform neurosurgery. It has been a while since there has been a medical case this awesome on the show, so it was gripping to watch the inventiveness play out. This must have been a fun episode to film because the scenario was so crazy that it worked brilliantly. One can only hope that there are more fantastic medical cases coming our way in the future since Grey’s Anatomy is a medical show at its core.

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