“Ain’t That a Kick in the Head”
Original Airdate: October 12, 2017
Neurosurgeon Amelia Shepherd has had her fair share of highs and lows over the years, but she hasn’t faced anything as tough as the surgery her life depends on. Through a classic episode style that only Grey’s Anatomy can pull off, the latest episode of the medical drama is nearly perfect in execution, narrative, acting, and character development. Grey’s is off to a very surprisingly strong start this season and isn’t shying away from getting down to the nitty gritty immediately. The writers clearly learned from their mistakes from last season’s slow arc, and I sure hope that they can keep up the pace.
ROUGH TIMES
A majority of the episode focuses on Amelia’s brain surgery and the first few days of recovery. To say that it is a difficult process for the usually stubborn and headstrong character is quite the understatement. Amelia has gone through some difficult situations in the past, but nothing trumps the struggle of recovering from surgery without pain medication. The best part of these scenes is Amelia’s ongoing commitment to staying sober, as opioid pain medication used to be her drug of choice.
Even with a massive tumor taking over her brain, Amelia has managed to grow a lot as a character over the past several years. This is shown by her clear-headedness at the top of the show when she divvies up responsibilities to each of the doctors. While everyone thought she was crazy for most of her time on the show, Amelia has gained the respect of her colleagues over time. The character’s journey has been tough, but she now has the chance to start fresh — a rarity for the characters that still appear on the show. It is unclear who Amelia will be without the tumor, especially since the tumor was supposedly in her brain from roughly the first time we met her.
One direction her story could go in is rekindling her marriage with Owen, which may or may not be headed in the right direction. Owen asks Amelia to come home with him at the end of the episode, and it is unclear whether he is driving her to their place or to Meredith’s house. Owen and Amelia’s relationship has been rocky from the start, so it wouldn’t be shocking if she goes her own way for a long time, or forever. The tumor storyline has allowed for more character development than one would think and has set Amelia on course for a major arc to play out throughout the season.
ALL IN
The second largest story of the episode is Nathan’s commitment to Megan, who is still going crazy over being bedridden and unable to go back to her son in Iraq. Megan gets word that her son is sick and in a Baghdad hospital. Meredith keeps her sane by sharing her own story of how making rash decisions, like kidnapping the baby you are trying to adopt, only makes things worse. Meredith and Megan’s chemistry has been on point since the season premiere, and it reaches new heights in this episode. It is great to see these women bonding, even though they are in an unwanted love triangle. Their relationship is one of the best reasons to keep Megan around for a while, as it is really interesting to watch develop.
Interestingly, Nathan takes Meredith’s advice about doing some sort of grand gesture to win Megan back over. With Meredith’s help, Nathan is able to get Megan’s son a medical visa and deliver him to her at Grey-Sloan. The reunion is bittersweet, as it is great for Nathan and Megan’s potential love reboot and terrible for Meredith’s obviously broken heart. It’s funny to watch both Megan and Meredith say that Nathan is a great guy and that the other should be with him. Don’t count Meredith out of his picture just yet because it seems that she may still try to fight for him, considering how distraught she looks after the reunion. Plus, there is no hint that Nathan’s big moment has actually won Megan over.
IN OTHER NEWS...
Other than the previously mentioned moments, there are a few minor details that are worth mentioning from the episode. First, April still misses Jackson, but it’s probably too late to fix that. Maggie and Jackson are getting much closer, and it’s only a matter of time before they hook up. Speaking of Jackson, Harper Avery left a sizable fortune to his grandson. Who knows what Jackson will do with $250 million, but he isn’t keen on accepting the generous gift.
Ben is up to some mysterious training/exercise, which can only mean that he is working toward becoming a firefighter. He even has a line about how Bailey isn’t going to like what he is training for, which all but confirms the fan theory about why Ben is leaving the main show for the still-untitled spinoff. At this rate, it is only a matter of time before Ben admits what he is planning to do. Also on the awkward romance radar, Jo has brought up her abusive husband again when Meredith wants to include her in an article about Megan’s surgery in a medical journal. Thankfully, this is some great foreshadowing for Matthew Morrison’s Dr. Paul Stadler’s return! I, for one, really want to see the inevitable confrontation sooner rather than later.
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