Sunday, March 17, 2019

Grey’s Anatomy 15x17 Review: “And Dream of Sheep” (Erratic Behavior) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]


“And Dream of Sheep”
Original Airdate: March 14, 2019

This episode is brought to you by a delusional doctor and his nowhere near approved baby in a bag idea. Dr. DeLuca Sr. is off the rails and causing problems left and right, yet his own son is still blind to the truth. Things quickly go from bad to worse, leading to bad blood between family members. Mental illness is at the forefront at the episode, including looking at Helen Karev and Bailey’s statuses. Elsewhere, could romance be budding for two doctors who have both experienced loss?

BREACH OF PROTOCOL


A majority of the episode is dedicated to the DeLuca family science project of growing fetal lambs in bags. Yes, you read that right. If this sounds crazy to you, make sure you go rewatch the previous episode before watching this one. DeLuca Sr. is moving at a fast and furious pace to show that his idea is functional. Carina still doesn’t believe that her father is mentally stable enough to be running the research project and continues to voice her concerns to whoever is willing to listen. DeLuca Sr. proves his daughter’s point when he verbally attacks her after they lose one of their two baby lambs just a few days into the study. It is clear that DeLuca Sr.’s emotions change abruptly and that he is outwardly displaying signs of bipolar disorder, but Andrew won’t open his eyes to the truth and protects his father.

DeLuca Sr. kicks Carina off the study and goes back to work like nothing ever happened. Elsewhere in the hospital, a married couple is brought to the ER with injuries from a car accident. The woman is five months pregnant and happens to be Teddy’s patient. Owen tells Teddy that he is willing to work on the woman and she can take the man since the case might get tough. Teddy denies Owen’s cautions and runs full steam ahead on her patient, who is suffering from bleeding in her abdomen. Tests show that one of the woman’s uterine arteries is bleeding, and Teddy knows that there is a possibility that the baby might not survive. News travels around the hospital quickly, and Andrew accidentally spills the beans to his father, who quickly makes his way to the woman’s bedside.

Alex, Carina, and Andrew arrive right as DeLuca Sr. finishes his pitch to the parents-to-be to let him save their baby with his revolutionary sack, which is nowhere near being ready for human trials, let alone FDA approval. All of the doctors involved are beyond upset that DeLuca Sr. is giving the couple false hope when he knows that they cannot legally or ethically experiment on the baby. DeLuca Sr. begs Alex to let him save the life of the baby, and Alex does the right thing by shutting him down and not allowing him to play mad scientist with a fetus. The woman continues to go downhill and loses the baby when surgery becomes the only option.

DeLuca Sr. can’t believe that Alex wouldn’t give him the chance to save the baby and goes into another verbal attack. Alex shuts down the study, and DeLuca Sr. decides to leave and take his work back to Italy. Through all the chaos, Andrew finally sees how unstable and unhinged his father has become. He realizes that he should have stuck by his sister and believed her claims. It’s a little late for Andrew to come to the obvious conclusions, as he has strained his relationships with his father, sister, and Meredith in the process. Andrew’s behavior about the study and his father has left Meredith with a stale taste in her mouth, and this new relationship may be coming to a close before it even begins. Honestly, it’s good that Meredith is seeing that Andrew isn’t mature enough to handle a relationship with her now before they get too serious, because there’s no way that it could ever work out long term.

ADMITTING ONE'S PROBLEMS


Mental illness is discussed thoroughly throughout the episode not only with DeLuca Sr., but also with Helen and Bailey. Helen has been staying with Alex and Jo for a week now and extended her trip to stay longer. Alex is very happy that his mother has been doing so well, given that she is in a strange place and outside of her normal routine. He truly believes that she has made a lot of progress and has gotten better. Bailey runs into Helen in the hospital cafeteria and has a conversation with her about her trip. Helen admits that even though she is having a great time in Seattle, she is very nervous about her return trip home. She isn’t sure whether she can do the reverse trip, which is why she has extended her trip without setting a date to leave.

Bailey tells Alex about her conversation with his mother to let him know that she isn’t comfortable asking for help. Alex takes the news the wrong way and accuses Bailey of being prejudiced towards mentally ill people. Bailey firmly reminds Alex that she is a person living with mental illness and that even though one may seem all together, it can be very difficult to ask for and accept help from others. Bailey rips him a new one until Alex understands her point. At the end of the episode, Alex asks Bailey to take back the chief job for two days, that way he can travel to Iowa with his mom. Bailey accepts and is happy that they are on the same page again.

FINDING YOUR ROOTS


While Alex struggles to understand his mother, Jo wants to dig deeper into her family tree. The results from her genetic testing are in, and Jo asks Maggie for support since they are both adopted. Maggie is happy to lend a hand to Jo and reads the DNA report for her. Jo is happy that she has nothing scary hidden in her genes, and Maggie tells her that she should continue to look for more if she really wants to. Jo asks intern Parker if he would be able to find her potential cousin, who is listed on the genetic testing report as a near-certain match, and he is more than happy to look into it for her.

The search leads Jo to wonder whether she should try and find out who her birth mother is. She takes it as a sign that she should find the truth when she encounters Maggie taping a segment for a local TV morning news show about how she came to learn about her famous surgeon parents. Jackson tells Jo not to be fooled by the process because it might not be all sunshine and rainbows. He tells her about how he met his birth father a few years ago and how much of a disaster that was. His warning seems to sink in, but Jo decides to ask Parker to widen the search to find her birth mother. Parker tells her that he was curious on his own and already found her. It turns out that Jo’s mother is living in Pittsburgh, so the Karevs might be taking a trip to Pennsylvania in the near future.

MEDICAL CONFERENCE GETAWAY


In the comedic relief side plot, Amelia and Link find themselves continuously bumping into each other when they attend the same medical conference on alternate pain relief. The chemistry that first started to appear a few episodes back during the opioid overdose crisis takes center stage, with both characters realizing their awkward tension quickly. Amelia tries to avoid Link, yet fate keeps pushing them together. She eventually gives up and decides to go to Link’s lecture, which he tells her might not be the best idea. He was right, as Amelia leaves quickly when she hears him talk about prescribing opioids to a teen athlete years ago, who later died from a car accident while under the influence.

Link catches up with her later to fully explain that she missed the good part of the lecture and didn’t hear him talk about how he has been fighting since then for better opioid reform to prevent addiction and death. Amelia is surprised to hear Link’s views and decides that he isn’t so bad after all. Link proposes that they tackle the problem together, since they both have a personal stake in it. They start their partnership by engaging in some “alternative pain relief” with no strings attached, but I think we all know that this isn’t a one-time fling.

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