“I Want a New Drug”
Original Airdate: February 21, 2019
Grey’s Anatomy is now tied with ER as the longest running primetime medical series in television history! It wouldn’t be a Grey’s Anatomy milestone without one character actually having a milestone moment, while the rest of the characters and audience are taken on an emotional ride. The show has been spending a lot of time over the past year discussing the ongoing opioid crisis in America through the eyes of Amelia and Betty/Brittany. This episode was specifically crafted to be the boiling-over point of the discussion about drugs, overdosing, and the consequences of one’s actions.
EPIDEMIC
A large overdose epidemic sweeps through Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital when at least 50 people have adverse effects to various drugs that they bought, and consequently took, at a nearby park. It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation as the ER overflows with patients. Link, Bailey, Richard, Alex, Owen, and Amelia have an especially difficult time handling what is going on around them, while Teddy steps up to save Betty/Brittany’s life. Betty/Brittany comes to the hospital with her boyfriend; both took the same spiked meth and pills. They are put in the clinic since they aren’t exhibiting many symptoms of overdosing. Suddenly, Betty/Brittany starts to have pain in her chest and passes out. Link sees her struggling to breathe, picks her up, and runs her over to the ER to put her in Owen’s care.
Owen is shocked to see Betty/Brittany and wants to do everything possible to save her life. Teddy, Bailey, and Richard step in since Owen wouldn’t be objective in treating the teen. Amelia and Betty/Brittany’s parents arrive right before Teddy is ready to bring Betty/Brittany to the OR for emergency surgery to repair an aortic dissection. Owen tells Teddy to get Maggie to do the surgery, but Teddy says there is no time to wait and that she is more than qualified to do the surgery. It’s great to see the old Teddy emerge and pull double duty in the hospital. Maggie meets her in the OR and wants to take over the surgery, but Teddy says that she should do it in case Betty/Brittany doesn’t make it.
Teddy knows that Amelia is going to need Maggie’s support no matter the outcome. Plus, if Betty/Brittany doesn’t make it, it’s not like Amelia is Teddy’s number one fan to begin with. The surgery is a success, even though there were complications, and Betty/Brittany makes it through. She is very surprised to see her parents when she wakes up, and she appears to be happy to have them and Owen and Amelia there for her. Complicating the situation is the death of her boyfriend, whom Link was unable to save from bleeding out after the kid ripped his IV out and caused what looked like an artery or vein to sever.
Mr. Dickinson doesn’t want to tell his daughter that her boyfriend is dead, but Amelia argues that she needs to hear the truth in order for the severity of her life decisions to sink in. Amelia feels that Betty/Brittany will be more likely to get clean if she knows the truth because Amelia had the same thing happen to her. The Dickinsons do appear to be warming up toward Owen and Amelia, which is good because this story is far from over.
Elsewhere in the hospital, Jo and Alex help a woman find her lost three-year-old son. A homeless man walks into the ER with the child and tells Jo and Alex that he saw the mother passed out on a park bench like the other drug users. Alex calls social services, the boy’s father, and the police while Jo treats the woman. The father arrives to claim his son and the police arrest the mother. Jo tells the father that his wife needs help and treatment to become sober, but Alex shuts her down to tell the man that he needs to protect his child first and foremost. We do get a small moment of backstory when Jo asks Alex if he had the same thing happen to him as a child. Alex tells her how his junkie dad abandoned him outside of a bar when he was six. Little moments like these really show how much Alex has grown over the course of the show.
RECORD BREAKER
While everyone else is handling the drug users, Meredith is setting a new hospital record for longest single surgery. The very long-named and confusing procedure spans over twenty-four hours, which was started on one night and ended the next. Meredith is assisted by her trusty companions DeLuca and Helm, who never seem to leave her side anymore. In typical Meredith fashion, she doesn’t want to celebrate her record at the moment she breaks the previous one because they haven’t completed the surgery, and now that she knows she holds the longest single surgery time, she will want to beat it again.
Meredith is so worn out by the end of the operation that she falls asleep on a gurney in the middle of the hallway. DeLuca sees her and wheels her into an open hospital room, puts a blanket around her, and turns out the lights to let her rest peacefully. It is a little odd that Meredith breaks a record in the episode that Grey’s Anatomy ties the record for longest running primetime medical series because it seems like her momentous occasion would fit better for the record-setting next episode.
However, expect a big celebration full of surprises for the viewers and characters in the next episode. The big Grey’s milestone airs Thursday, February 28, so mark your calendars and make sure you don’t miss the occasion!
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