Blindspot 4x17 Review: "The Night of the Dying Breath" (Where Is My Wife?) [Contributor: Jen]

"The Night of the Dying Breath"

Original Airdate: April 5, 2019

Dominic kidnapped Jane at the end of "The One Where Jane Visits an Old Friend" and I feared he "zipped" her again. The good news is Jane still has her memories. The bad news is she's FREAKING BURIED ALIVE! I am officially stressed out.

In the interest of brevity, I'm going to do away with sections for "The Night of the Dying Breath." It's all one big mangled pile of goodness. Blindspot does well with these kind of high stake plots, which can be handled within an episode. It's the long game where this show struggles.

Poor Jane. She's buried underground, trapped in a wooden coffin with only a flashlight and a cell phone. Dominic has disabled her outgoing calls and it's an encrypted VPN. However, Patterson and Rich trace the call based on the phones which pinged at the same cell tower during the proof of life call. It doesn't give them Jane's location, but it does provide a search radius. This feels like Blindspot science.

Once the team tracks down the cell phone number they are able to call Jane freely. Jane says: "I'm in a box under the ground. I've got a flashlight and a phone. Scramble the jets."

Jane made a funny, guys! This is one of Jaimie Alexander's best episodes in a long time. We run the gamut of emotions with Jane and Jaimie Alexander nails each one. I was either tearing up, freaking out or laughing out loud right along with our heroine. Blindspot has become more of an ensemble over the last few seasons and all the actors are wonderful, but I wish they'd give the ball to their quarterback a little more often.

Dominic kidnapping Jane is Madeline Burke's "get out of jail free" card. She wants a plane and trip to Moscow in exchange for Jane's location. Kurt vacillates between giving Madeline everything she wants to ripping her face off, so it's probably good he's not in charge right now. 

That job falls on Reade who seems to grow calmer as Weller grows more panicked. Kurt wants Reade to ground all air traffic and while I am a big fan of Jane, that feels kind of nuts. And expensive. Can you imagine if they shut down airports every time there's a missing person? Yikes. Of course, if it was my person missing, I'd be screaming at the FAA too.

If you're wondering how Jane figured out she was buried underground, it's because she punched a hole in her coffin and dirt fell through it. I'm pretty confident I could not punch a hole through wood, so this was pretty awesome. At least, until the tiny coffin started filling with dirt. Then it was just scary. 

Things go from bad to worse for Jane. A nasty bug bites her (EWWW BUGS), Rich and Patterson make her eat dirt for clues (EWWW DIRT), and then her cell phone dies. I don't ever want to be buried alive. I really wouldn't do well.

The Jeller in "The Night of the Dying Breath" is top-notch. Kurt and Jane make sure their last words are "I love you" every time they speak on the phone. That's goals. Kurt is very soothing with Jane, promising to find her, while Jane cries because well she's buried alive. What would you do? I'd cry A LOT.  Kurt spends the rest of his time beating his chest like a gorilla, threatening everyone, agreeing to make deals with anyone, and yelling, "Where is my wife?" a lot. It's hot.

Patterson and Rich are desperately trying to locate Jane, but her cell phone goes dead. Why does the cell phone always die when characters are in crisis? It's maddening! 

Patterson: "We can set up an auto dial that will keep trying Jane's phone and connect us the second she gets it back up and running." 

Rich: "You just said her battery died. What do you expect her to do? Lick her finger and plug it into the dirt?" 

Patterson: "She'll think of something. She's Jane!"

Jane does think of something. She hot wires her phone battery to the flashlight battery using only the underwire from her bra. Thus making the only pro argument for underwire bras. Is this something that would actually work? I don't know. I was a Mass Communications major. Whatever. SHE'S IN A HOLE, PEOPLE! WE DON'T CARE ABOUT REAL SCIENCE ANYMORE!

Madeline Burke's attorney Richard Shirley is all Texas twang and summer shorts, which is meant to charm people into believing he's a good guy. How can he not be if he just took his kids to Wizarding World? I'm sure the shtick works well in the courtroom. His opponents probably underestimate him, but Team Blindspot does not make that mistake. 

This really boils down to a head to head between Madeline and Zapata. Madeline Burke is responsible for a lot of heinous criminal activity which includes the murder of her husband. Something her beloved sons don't know about. Zapata threatens to expose her and recharge Madeline's younger son with the DUI she had wiped from his record. It's family versus family. Tasha is ready to do anything to save hers, but can Madeline say the same?

The answer is yes. She discloses the location of Dominic's cabin right, but unfortunately he's gone and they are no closer to finding Jane. Team Blindspot is ready to ride or die. Everyone tells Reade to make the deal with Madeline even if doing so sends them all to jail. Jane, ever our heroine, made Reade promise not to let Madeline go on her account. Kurt also reminds Reade he promised him they'd get Jane back. THE FEELS, Y'ALL.

Reade's promise to Kurt wins out. Sorry Jane! You don't get to selflessly die for the greater good today. Maybe next episode. 

Reade agrees to the plane right around the time Jane gets her phone back up and running. Ah, the convenience of television. I love you. Patterson is able to triangulate her location through the magic of FBI triangulation just as Jane is running out of air. Did we know this would happen? Yes. Does it make it any less thrilling? No.

Kurt Weller, massive oak tree of a man, practically digs Jane out of the ground with his bare hands. All right, he has a shovel. But it's little and no one else helps dig. What the frack? The FBI couldn't have brought more than one shovel?

I don't fully understand what Madeline provided the team once this plane deal was made. Kurt was already at Dominic's cabin and the phone triangulation led the team to her location. It doesn't matter because Reade reneges on the deal once Jane is safe. Madeline and Shirley insisted on being in a conference room with no recording devices. They didn't want any record of Madeline admitting to criminal activity. Since there's no legal record of the deal, Reade and Zapata pretend it never existed. Ha, I love it.

The last time we saw Kurt Weller digging in the ground it was for the body of Taylor Shaw. It was the moment he realized his father was guilty for her murder all along and Jane had been lying to him about her identity. It is one of the most disturbing scenes in the series, so this moment felt very full circle to me. 

Kurt is no longer chasing after the dead. Jane knows who she is. There are no more lies between them. He finds Jane, performs mouth-to-mouth, and breathes life into her again. It was an inherently hopeful moment and a reminder of how far Kurt and Jane have come.

The team celebrates with booze (I fully support this decision) and Tasha tells Reade she wants to rejoin the team. The CIA is done going after her. Keaton is in the clear and can do whatever the heck he wants. This feels like a sloppy and rushed resolution to Tasha's rogue storyline, but if it helps move her romance with Reade along a little faster then I'll ignore it. I'm so over their obstinate refusal to say all the things.

Despite Madeline's arrest, Shirley informs Dominic that Helios is still a go. Eh, whatever. We can worry about that another time. For now, I'm just going to bask in all the Jeller goodness. Excellent episode!

Stray Thoughts:

• "The last one went to voicemail, and I doubt Jane is screening her calls." It was Rich versus Jane for the best lines. Rich gets the award every episode, so I'm giving this one to Jane. This one was A+ from Rich, however.
• "It looks like dirt, Patterson." Buried alive Jane is THE BEST. 
• Since Doe isn't actually Jane's last name I wonder if she's ever considered taking Kurt's? Jane Weller has a nice ring to it. 
• From my notes: What did Jane tell Reade? IS SHE PREGNANT? No, why would she tell Reade that? That's stupid, Jennifer. Get a grip.
• Man, Jane is going to need so much therapy after this and she already needed all the therapy.
• Only Jane Doe would memorize her serial numbers on her phone. 

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Ask an Author: Field Notes on Love’s Jennifer E. Smith [Contributor: Megan Mann]

For the better part of my almost 30 years on this planet, I have been a complete and total hopeless romantic. I simply love love. Sure, I love the saccharine stickiness that comes with it but I love all of the messy, salty bits too. Because that's what love is: a mix of salty and sweet. So it would come as no surprise when I tell you how much I love a good love story.

This is why I love Jennifer E. Smith's work and am always coming back for more. She writes a good love story that draws you in and keeps you there. Not because there's so much drama, but because she's mastered the will they/won't they theme in the best possible way. This is work written by someone who understands love on a level that has created a loyal fanbase always clamoring for more. It's beautiful storytelling that has you wistful and hopeful and starry-eyed with each turn of the page.

Her newest novel, Field Notes on Love, delivers all of this and more. In fact, it's probably now become my favorite of all of her books. (Which is astonishing since I loved The Geography of You and Me so much.)

Hugo is dumped just a week before his cross-country American train ride, and is obviously sad. Not just because Margaret broke up with him, but because this was a chance to do something on his own, and not as a packaged deal with his sextuplet siblings. When Margaret suggests he still go on his trip, Brit's joy is quickly dashed when he realizes everything is in her name and non-refundable. With the help of his siblings, they hatch a plan to find another girl with the same name willing to go on the adventure with him.

This is where Mae comes in. After her friend sends her the ad, the budding filmmaker responds with a video of her Hudson Valley hometown with its stifling (for her) tranquility. By chance, he ends up picking Mae when someone else falls through and the two meet in New York to embark on an adventure that shows them more than just the countryside. It shows them what they want out of life.

The story is stacked with love, but not in an overwhelming way. The scenes involving Hugo and Mae's families and friends are truly heartwarming and you hotly anticipate the next moment they'll share, leading you to believe that something is happening between these two strangers.

Here's what author Jennifer E. Smith had to say about her latest novel.

Congratulations! Field Notes on Love is finally out! How does it feel?

It feels great! I’m really proud of this book, so it’s fun to finally have it out in the world, and I’ve loved getting such enthusiastic responses from readers so far. It’s by far the best part of the job!

The story takes place primarily on a train. Where did the idea of a cross-country train ride as the center of your story come from?

I’ve always loved trains. There’s something so soothing about the rhythm of them and the way the world passes by out the window. I’ve never taken a train all the way across the country, as Hugo and Mae do in the book, but I’ve been on some long rides, and I wanted to explore what would happen when you took two complete strangers and put them together on a journey like that.

There's a certain nostalgia, and even romance, to rail travel. Did that play a part in your decisions? 

Absolutely. I think there’s something inherently romantic about the idea of train travel. Though I will say, after taking one overnight for research, it’s not quite as dreamy as it might seem. Don’t get me wrong — I loved the experience. And the views were incredible. But those sleeper rooms are tiny. As are the bathrooms!

(Megan's note: This is important to mention because after I, too, traveled overnight on a train and had a "sleeper seat," I realized that sleep was a loosely defined idea and maybe I should have done research first on what that meant.)

I also love that you wrote about the view of a single person among a packaged deal like sextuplets. What made you want to explore that?

Honestly, I’ve just always been fascinated by multiples. When I was dreaming up Hugo, I knew he would be looking for an excuse to escape his life for a bit. At first, I thought maybe he’d just come from a big family. But then I realized he’d feel more boxed in if his siblings were the same age — and if there were a lot of them.

Plus, I just figured it would be fun to write, and it really, really was — especially their group texts, which made me laugh. I feel like I could write a whole book just about the sextuplets. I love them all!

One of my favorite parts about your books is chance. In almost all of them, a chance encounter sets two people off on this epic love story. What makes the idea of two strangers happening on each other at the right moment so appealing for you?

I always say that I love to write about moments in time that act as hinges — days where there’s a clear split between a before and an after. Where yesterday your life was one way, and tomorrow it will be totally different. Fate, timing, chance, serendipity — whatever you want to call it, there’s something really fascinating about the idea that the right person could drop into your life at just the right moment. So I find myself returning to that theme again and again.

One of the things that Mae’s Nana says really struck a chord with me. She said that love is love and it doesn’t have to be for life — it could be for a week. I feel like that’s something that’s missing in books, specifically in YA. Love doesn’t have a timeline. It just is what it is. Why was that important for you to include?

Readers sometimes get frustrated because my books usually end in a way that’s hopeful but unresolved. Don’t get me wrong — I’m a sucker for a great happily ever after But life is long, and that doesn’t always happen when you’re 17 or 18. If it does, that’s amazing. But I also like the idea that life can be full of interesting experiences, and that it’s possible to have more than one great love story. Nana certainly did!

I also loved what Hugo said: “The truth is, love isn’t just one word. It’s different things for different people.” This is so important for readers, specifically teenagers and young adults who believe love is supposed to look a certain way. Am I reading too much into that or would you say the same?

No, I agree. I think it’s helpful to remember that love isn’t one size fits all.

But I think my favorite part about the whole book is that this isn’t just about romantic love. It’s all encompassing in our lives. There’s familial, romantic, platonic love and they’re all represented. Did you set out to showcase all aspects of love or was it a happy coincidence?

I always try to showcase different types of love in my books, and often the family stories are just as important to me as the romantic ones. In this book, in particular, there’s so much heart to the other stories: Mae’s dads and her grandmother, and Hugo’s parents and siblings. I wanted those to feel as real and meaningful as what was happening between the two of them on the train. Their story takes place over the course of a week, but those other relationships have existed their whole lives; they’ve formed the bedrock of who these two people are, and that’s no small thing.

With the book so open-ended, what do you think happens with Mae and Hugo?

I have my own ideas, but of course I’d rather leave it to the reader to decide!

Field Notes on Love is not the first book that involves travel. (See: The Geography of You and Me and The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight.) What makes the transient nature of travel so appealing? Why do so many of your books feature it?

There are so many reasons. On a personal level, travel has always been an important part of my life, and there’s something really fun about getting to revisit the places I love most in the world through the eyes of my characters. More broadly, I think it’s important to break out of your bubble and be a little uncomfortable and experience new things, and it makes me very happy every time I hear from a reader that my books have inspired them to travel too.

And then on a narrative level, there’s something about the forward motion of it all — literally moving the characters from one place to another — that always feels inspiring to me. I realize it’s getting a little ridiculous, how many books I’ve written about travel, but I just really, really love it. So this definitely won’t be the last.

Now to the fun parts! We know that your last release Windfall was optioned for film. (Any information would be so greatly welcomed!) Has there been any talks about Field Notes on Love becoming a film? 

I’m not sure what will happen with Field Notes, but yes, Windfall is still in development, as are several of the others. It’s a long road from the page to the screen, but there are some great people working on them, so we’ll see what happens. Fingers crossed!

Is there anything specific you were listening to while writing the story of Mae and Hugo that inspired you?

You know, I don’t really listen to music while I write. Sometimes I’ll put on the score from a favorite movie, but mostly when I work, I’m just listening to the sound of my beagle snoring beside my desk!

What are you reading right now?

I’ve always got a few books going at once! I’m actually reading Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier for the first time ever, and also The Friend by Sigrid Nunez. I recently finished Bad Blood by John Carreyrou, which was riveting, and Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, which was so impressive. I also loved Becoming by Michelle Obama, of course.

In terms of YA, my most recent favorite was XL by Scott Brown, which just came out this week. It’s funny and moving and smart, and the voice is just so clever and unique. Next up: The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, which I’m so excited to finally read!

I want thank Jennifer for taking the time out to talk to me about her amazing new book. Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith is available now. You can find Jennifer on Twitter for updates on the movies and her next work!

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Grey’s Anatomy 15x19 Review: “Silent All These Years” (The Hard Truth) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]

“Silent All These Years”

Original Airdate: March 28, 2019

Learning about a past that you didn’t know existed can be one of the toughest things in life, especially when that past is full of upsetting truths. Jo gets a double dose of hardship in what might be the most difficult subject matter ever tackled by Grey’s Anatomy. Whether you know someone who has been physically or sexually abused, this episode is particularly difficult to watch due to its intense sense of reality. Meredith’s voiceovers at the beginning and the end of the episode ring true: trauma affects everyone differently and can be triggered at any time, and its impact never truly goes away.

JO'S STORY

The episode spends time between present day where Jo helps an abused patient, and a few days prior, when Jo meets her birth mother for the first time. In order to understand the impact of the present-day storyline, you need to know about Jo’s past first. Jo travels alone to find her birth mother and has an awkward first interaction when she knocks on the door of a nice house that she believes belongs to her mother. Jo’s mother answers the door and is very surprised to find out that the woman standing in front of her is the child she gave up at a fire station. Jo is not happy to immediately learn that her mother has two teenage children and a loving husband. She asks her mother to meet her down the road at a diner to talk, but her mother is hesitant and asks Jo to leave.

Jo goes to the diner and waits for a while, to no avail. As she is about to leave, her mother walks in. Upset that she waited for a long time and that her mother doesn’t really want to speak to her, Jo gets defensive with the woman she has traveled a long way to meet. Jo’s mother tries to give as little detail as possible, but eventually caves and tells Jo the whole truth.

Jo’s mother was a college student when she went out on a date with one of her TAs. The TA took her to a remote spot and violently raped her. Nine months later, Jo was born. Her mother tried to hide her pregnancy and never told a soul that she was having a baby. She is the only one that knows she is Jo’s mother. She tells Jo that she pretended that everything was fine for years and thought that once Jo arrived, she could love her baby and start a new life. Even though she loved Jo from the minute she was born, Jo’s mother only saw the man that raped her in the baby’s face and couldn’t live with that pain. She decided to give her baby up to give it a better life than the one she was living.

It is also revealed that Jo’s father died in a motorcycle accident ten years prior. Jo’s mother tells her daughter that even after years of therapy and coming to terms with what happened to her, she still isn’t fully healed from the trauma. It took her a long time to build a successful life and have a family she could love. Jo is visibly shaken from the story and tells her mother about the physical abuse she suffered at the hands of her first husband. She reveals for the first time that she was seven weeks pregnant during one attack and decided to get an abortion because she couldn’t bring a child into such a hostile environment.

It is horrible to hear that both women are survivors of such terrible traumas, but it’s even sadder that their stories don’t really bond them together. Jo eventually softens up to her mother, but her mother decides to walk away rather than suffer anymore.

FINDING YOUR STRENGTH

Back at Grey Sloan Memorial, Jo has been avoiding Alex since she got back from her trip and won’t discuss it with him. She bumps into a woman in the hallway and notices that the woman is frightened and has a large open wound. The woman asks Jo for directions to the ER, and Jo decides to take her down to the ER herself to examine her. Jo gets help from intern Qadri, and the patient quickly becomes attached to the two female doctors. DeLuca pops in on them, and when the patient starts to get uneasy, Jo realizes that there is more to the story than a cut from a random kitchen accident. She sends DeLuca away and asks him to send Teddy.

The patient isn’t happy when Teddy arrives because she doesn’t want the help of any other doctors. Jo convinces her that Teddy is here to help, leading the patient to agree to let Teddy stay. The patient finally allows them to do a full body examination, and the doctors find that the woman has been beaten and most likely sexually assaulted. She is covered in head-to-toe bruises and has noticeable internal bleeding in her abdomen. An ultrasound shows that she has a torn diaphragm, which has caused some of her organs to be pushed into her chest cavity. Teddy asks Qadri to book an operating room, but wants her to delay having nurses prep the patient for surgery since sterilizing the patient would get rid of all physical evidence of the possible attack.

Jo and Teddy urge the patient to tell them what happened to her. The patient doesn’t want to admit that anything happened, but Jo is able to convince her to tell her story by revealing her own past. The patient describes being brutally attacked by a man at a bar, but doesn’t want to report the crime because she feels that neither a jury, nor her husband, would ever believe her story. This heartbreaking moment is the sad truth that abuse survivors face every day, and this scene was not sugar coated to soften the harsh realities of sexual abuse. Jo and Teddy believe their patient and convince her to let them prepare a rape kit in case she ever decides to take action in the future, which is another brutally honest and hard-to-watch scene.

They are eventually able to take their patient to surgery and successfully repair her diaphragm. After she wakes up, the patient decides to call her husband and report the crime to the police with Jo’s help. Jo handles the tough case extremely well given the details and what she learned on the trip that she just got back from. Teddy is especially proud of how Jo helped the patient and was there for her every step of the way. Unfortunately, Jo doesn’t take her own advice about telling your story and getting the help needed to heal. She still won’t talk to Alex by the end of the episode and even tries to avoid him altogether. She is unhealthily bottling up her emotions regarding her unfortunate beginnings, and it’s only a matter of time before the powder keg blows.

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Ask An Author: Dig’s A.S. King [Contributor: Megan Mann]

(Image source: Penguin Random House)

Very rarely do I find an author whose work I look forward to time after time — whose work I literally throw my phone while screaming upon the announcement of their next book. But I am constantly amazed at the work of A.S. King. If you've ever asked me for a book recommendation, the first one I'll suggest is Ask the Passengers.

So you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled on her blog last year and discovered that her new book would be out in 2019. I had a brief Twitter freakout and have been counting down to this day for months. And the newest novel didn't disappoint.

Dig follows a string of characters as they navigate their lives in a suburb outside of Philadelphia. There's something that each character is doing because of their parents. Marla has a secret that she can't share with her kids because they'll know that's why they turned out so strange. Loretta lives by the script she knows she should be playing out because her dad has a temper and her mother won't do anything. CanIHelpYou? sells drugs in the Arby's drive-thru to get away from her racist mother. The Shoveler is tired of moving because his mom can't hold down a job. Malcolm, Gottfried, Jake Marks. They've all been visited by The Freak and she knows what each of them needs. But how? And how do each of the stories intertwine?

I was lucky enough to dig (see what I did there?) through A.S. King's brain to see what she had to say about her newest book.

Dig is finally out! How does it feel?

This book has always felt a bit like I was walking upstream with three full barrels of dirt tied to my waist. So it feels good to finally release it. Maybe that means I can also untie the barrels now.

What was the writing process like for this one?

It was fun and frustrating, exciting and excruciating, just like all other books. But longer. With barrels tied to my waist, walking upstream. I write by the seat of my pants, so the speed and ease of a book’s writing process depends solely on how willing my characters are to cooperate. These characters weren’t so bad, but they were slow. Nearly four years slow. They did cooperate eventually... though The Freak didn’t tell me her secrets until page 350, so that was a bit cheeky of her. But mostly it was fun. And sometimes scary.

Let’s talk potatoes as some might be terrifically perplexed by their place on the cover before picking up Dig. Were they the catalyst for the story or did they simply keep coming up?

Potatoes just showed up. Over and over again, potatoes kept showing up. Then the former farm showed up, then the university showed up. It’s not that simple though. Again, I follow the characters. So once the spuds showed up a few times, I did what anyone would do: I Googled potatoes and potato recipes. They kept showing up, so I read non-fiction and researched more. (I am lucky to have a pretty extensive potato-growing past, so I know the feel and the smell of potato plants and their horticultural details very well. That helped.) So the spud fascination fed itself. It showed up, then it made me want to know more. This is pretty much my process.

I’ve said this to you before, but magical realism is one of my favorite aspects of your writing. But it wasn’t until Dig that it dawned on me how you’re using magical realism in terms of mental health. Astrid is struggling with her sexuality and sends messages to the sky. China has turned herself inside out from PTSD. Vera is seeing her best friend in different scenarios through her haze of grief. Gerald dreams in a different world to escape reality. In Dig, The Freak flickers to new places. Would you say a lot of your work is about the struggles of mental health?

My not-quite-realism/surrealism is certainty all about metaphors. And yes, I use it to connect with the real lives of my readers. That could mean something as serious as mental illness, or as mild as just feeling normal emotions most of the time. That said, The Freak isn’t a great example in this book of someone suffering from mental illness. I’d say the Shoveler probably is. Or Marla. Or Missy and Loretta. But yes, dealing with mental illness is surreal so I feel surrealism lends itself to the stories that my characters tell me.

As for the last question, yes, I’d say my stories are often about people who are struggling, period. Who doesn’t struggle? Sometimes my characters have diagnosable mental issues, sometimes not. But yes, the mental health of human beings has been something I have been interested in for my whole life. Not just because I have dealt with it directly, but because I know too many people who don’t “believe” in teenage mental illness, which leaves struggling teens at a disadvantage to face their issues with the help of professionals or even within their families. My goal is to crack/break/destroy the stigma, open the conversation, and finally get to a place where people can see what’s really going on. Some people don’t respond well to real-talk, so surrealism helps me sew it into their brains through a loophole.

Something else I’ve always immensely enjoyed, and why I think your work stands out to me, is the intense reality of it all. YA is often centered around typical teenage problems. But yours get down to the dirty parts of life — the parts not everyone always wants to explore. Why do you think that that makes you, or someone like Andrew Smith, stand out?

I’m not even sure if I do stand out. I write real because I am real. I know this is probably why Smith and I are great friends. It’s easy to talk to him because we speak the same real-language. Same with many of my writer friends who stand out. I have spent a lot of time in my life surrounded by people who were not living in the real world. People who lie to themselves. People who pretend everything is fine. People who can never be wrong or who make up stories to keep themselves superior. These are adults, mind you. Teenagers? I find them to be a lot more real than adults for the most part. And writers who have that same respect for teenagers, then, stand out to me.

Look, life is dirty. If we don’t start looking at the dirt, we... oh. We’re probably already there. That’s why I write about intense reality — because life is intense reality. Ask any kid who had to cower against a wall in their classroom today during a drill, or the real thing. Life is intense reality.

The formatting of this book is interesting. Was that intentional or did it just happen organically?

The formatting of the Shoveler’s and Marla’s internal rants probably made me the enemy of all typesetters everywhere. I knew it would. But that’s how his thought tunnels look. It’s a visual metaphor. And it was totally intentional.

But you could mean the structure — if so, yes, it was weird, wasn’t it? The blender. The strainer. I really have no idea where those came from. It just happened. So, I’ll claim: organic with revision intension.

Your characters are all so very different, but they all exist within the same place. Their stories don’t always intertwine in a big way, but they’re still aware of each other. Is that a reflection of how we’re absorbed in our own problems and don’t see the problems others are facing or am I simply reading too much into this?

I’m not sure. I mean, I don’t try to do anything in my books, so what happens is organic. And maybe organic things reflect reality. And if that’s true, then yeah, maybe this is true. So you aren’t reading too much into anything. You are educating me about my own book. Thank you. It fits the theme, all right.

But on this topic, I think it’s important to note that the book is about generational differences and, most importantly, the withholding and confusion of familial love and how that affects people in different generations. A lot of people don’t have the ability to love without conditions or without a sort of emotional blackmail. I’m no psychologist, but I’d say the family we read about in Dig is riddled with more approachable issues like anxiety and depression, but also more surreptitious issues like narcissism and sociopathy.

A lot of what happens to us as kids is what shapes the rest of our lives. Malcolm is lost because of his mother and father dying. Marla’s children are cold, distant, and a little unhinged because she was distant. The Freak had a tumultuous upbringing. What is it that drew you to these stories?

Oh, Megan, I know I’m a frustrating interviewee. I really do.

What drew me to the stories were the characters who showed up and started talking to me. They started telling me stuff and I started writing. I know that sounds like my brain is made of granola, but that’s really how I write books. I’m the last to know what the hell is going on. So choices, then, are unlikely.

But here’s a story about the day I figured out Dig was a real-live novel versus the weird bits of writing I was trying:

So I’d written the short Marla/Gottfried (note: this is the first mention of potatoes on page two —my brain is messed up!) and Marks brothers chapters first, then I wrote the Shoveler. For maybe eighty pages. He just kept shoveling and he wasn’t telling me much at all. The Freak showed up but she was a mystery (remember: she didn’t tell me squat for 350 pages) and I decided to toss the book. Bye, book! You’re fired!

I started writing another book about a girl named CanIHelpYou? and her job at Arby’s. After a few chapters, she and her friend hang out at the park one night and suddenly, there’s a kid with a snow shovel in the park — but there’s no snow. I thought: OH WOW. IT’S AN A.S. KING NOVEL. I dug out the Shoveler and The Freak, Malcolm showed up, and then I eventually figured out how they all fit together.

Technically, that’s what drew me to these stories. Curiosity. Excitement. And pure weirdness. And trust. I trust the process. I try not to stress when I toss 80 pages of what seemed like a good thing. They will usually wander back. But not without trust.

Okay, let’s change gears. What do you hope readers gain from Dig?

As always, I hope readers get what they need from the book.

But specifically, I hope readers can taste the privilege in their lives and their communities after seeing these examples, and I hope they can see that love is the only important thing. (Dental hygiene is pretty important, too, but love rocks.)

Have the characters from a future novel introduced themselves to you yet? If so, what can you tell us?

YES, THEY HAVE! And I can tell you nothing. Not yet. Sorry. But in the meantime, I do have a middle-grade novel coming out in October (The Year We Fell From Space) and I can tell you that it’s about stars, depression, and a meteorite.

(Megan's note: This bothers me because I WANT TO KNOW.)

What are you reading right now?

I’m reading poems, mostly. All kinds of poems. So many poems.

What’s the best advice you’ve gotten lately?

Breathe. 🡨 best advice ever.

And most importantly, what's your favorite potato dish?

Mashed, with proper homemade gravy.

I want to thank A.S. King so much for letting me getting super deep with her about her latest novel. It was an insightful read that will prove the importance of not only connection, but deep connection — the kind that reminds you that you're okay, that you're safe, and that you have someone to rely on when you need it. It's a book that reminds you to learn from your mistakes and not pass them on from generation to generation. It was, in short, another home-run for one of my favorite authors.

Dig is available to buy today!

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The Flash 5x17 Review: "Time Bomb" (Truth Bomb) [Contributor: Deborah MacArthur]

“Time Bomb”

Original Airdate: March 19, 2019

The Flash is dealing with some particularly good stuff this week, mostly revolving around the power of truth. How important truth is, how important it is to control one’s own truth and when it comes out, and how the reveal of one truth and the reveal of a seemingly similar truth don’t always end in the same way. The good episodes of this show always have tightly interwoven parallels, and “Time Bomb” — while still exhibiting some flaws — has tightly interwoven parallels up the wazoo.

SECRETS, SECRETS ARE NO FUN

Once again starting the episode in 2049, Nora confronts Eobard Thawne about the new Cicada that popped up last episode after the original Cicada was cured of his Cicada-ness. Nora is understandably upset, since Thawne promised he knew what was going on and how to stop Cicada, but now Thawne says he was “very wrong.” Well gee, thanks for that sudden self-awareness, megalomaniacal murderer from the future, but it’s not particularly helpful. Nora begs Thawne to help, but Thawne’s only advice is for her to tell Barry all about her partnership with him and her mission in the past.

Meanwhile, Grace has revealed who she actually is to her uncle Orlin, who doesn’t seem particularly happy about his adopted daughter taking his metahuman hatred and running with it, straight into a life of vengeance and violence. She tells her story, then says she has stuff (read: murderin’) to do, but when she gets back she and Orlin are going to work together to get his Cicada powers back.

During their investigation into why anyone would kidnap Orlin Dwyer after his surgery, the civilian law and order side of Team Flash has hit a brick wall. Dr. Ambres didn’t talk to people at the hospital where she worked and had a reputation for being withdrawn and angry, only really brightening up when dealing with comatose Grace. Considering this and what happens later in the episode, I just don’t get what the handle on Grace’s personality or motivations are meant to be. The writers seem to want to imply that Grace’s brain injury, plus influence from overhearing the people around her — namely, her uncle Orlin and Dr. Ambres — resulted in her deep hatred of metahumans. Like a kind of brainwashing made stronger by the dark matter shrapnel in her skull.

But the fact that Grace kills the people she should be essentially super-brainwashed into wanting to protect just gives me the feeling that the writers don’t have any idea what her emotional motivation should be. They just want her to be a wildcard anti-metahuman force, with no logical movements or a structure to her villainy, and I’m not sure I buy that. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong later and Grace will become an interesting, multifaceted villain. I doubt it, but maybe.

Back to the plot: while Nora still hesitates to tell her father the whole truth, Sherloque is still trying to uncover Nora’s secrets himself by interpreting her diary entries. (Side note: the diary entries we see on screen are some fantastic examples of effects people having fun and include mentions of a 2023 Chicken Plague that puts Chipotle out of business, Subway turning from sandwiches to yoga, and apparently a whole journal entry detailing her crush on Spencer Young from the episode “News Flash.) Since Nora includes no names from the future in her diary, Sherloque finds nothing.

S.T.A.R. Labs gets an alert that something’s been stolen from their archives (“Starchives”) and placed in the woods somewhere. The team splits up, Ralph and Iris going to the actual Starchives to check while Cisco breaches Sherloque and himself to the location in the woods. Both teams find the same thing: Eobard Thawne’s Time Sphere.

When Barry and Iris convene on the Time Sphere in the woods, Cisco and Iris perform “Operation Shazam”: to prove that the Time Sphere in both places is the same, Iris scratches the surface of the one in the Starchives and the same scratch appears on the one in the woods. It’s actually really cool. Fun with time travel! Anyway, Team Flash figures out the Cicada who kidnapped Dwyer must be from the future since there’s no such thing as coincidence when Time Spheres are involved.

And why is Cicada II traveling through time? A little investigation leads Barry, Cisco, and Nora to an ATM that was part of a metahuman crime scene back in 2017. Although the ATM and the surrounding wall were destroyed in the initial explosion, Cisco vibes a scorched hunk of concrete and confirms in-universe what the audience has known for ages: Cicada II is Grace Gibbons from the future and she’s targeting the meta who killed her parents.

Unlike most non-Team Flash metas on this show, though, said metahuman (Vickie Bolen) isn’t a thief or a criminal or even bad at all — she’s just a meta whose powers triggered on at the wrong moment. Vickie didn’t even know she was the cause of the ATM explosion, since her powers affected the machine and only exploded after she’d gone. Even when Joe clarifies the situation for her, Vickie refuses to go into police custody or tell her family about her powers — a decision that Barry, having experienced something similar in the past, vehemently disagrees with.

This little plot point about keeping secrets connects with the secret Nora’s keeping, of course, but Nora’s connection to Cicada II goes beyond just emotion implications. She apparently has a psychic connection to Grace, probably thanks to her trip into Grace’s brain earlier in the season, and can predict when Cicada II attacks at a birthday party for Vickie’s daughter. Vickie attempts to stop Cicada II by using her powers, but the little girl gets caught in the crossfire and has to be taken to the hospital, where Cicada II attacks yet again.

Even Orlin (whose rage might have been enhanced by the dark matter in his system, come to think of it — he seems weirdly rational now) can’t get through to Grace and stop her rampage. She ends up killing her uncle, so there’s that other half of the “what’s her point?” question I raised earlier in this review.

After Cicada II is (temporarily) stopped and the Bolen family is put into protective custody, Team Flash still has some stuff to deal with. Nora is partially inspired by the reconciliation between Vickie and her family after the latter had a poor reaction to her powers. She’s still struggling with how, but Sherloque takes it out of her hands and tells the rest of the team she’s been working with Eobard Thawne this whole time.

The reaction is... significantly more poor than the truth coming out in the Bolen family. Barry straight-up locks Nora in one of the metahuman holding cells, where she breaks down crying — alone.

Other Things:

• While I kind of like that the whole “distract Sherloque with a new girlfriend” plot from a while back completely backfired just because it’s amusing how little it changed, it really highlights the pointlessness of that episode.
• Shout out to the physical comedy going on with Ralph dodging a broom-wielding Sherloque.
• [Everyone blabbers in Time Travel Nonsense] Joe: “It makes sense... I can’t even believe I just said that.”
• My favorite scenes are the ones that get the closed captioning “[irreverent pizzicato music]”.
• “You don’t think she’d make a good Spider-Person?” The improvement of the Ralph Dibny character is by far the most impressive thing this show has ever accomplished.
• Next week: Nothin’. See you on April 16th.

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Blindspot 4x16 Review: "The One Where Jane Visits an Old Friend" (Rage and Remorse) [Contributor: Jen]

"The One Where Jane Visits an Old Friend"

Original Airdate: March 22, 2019

Blindspot finally deals with Jane's compartmentalization of her identities in "The One Where Jane Visits and Old Friend" and spoiler alert: the writers agree with me. Yeah! I always enjoy when that happens. An old friend (enemy?) returns to psychoanalyze Jane and just when I thought it was a flawless episode, they do something to make me want to tear my hair out. You are a fickle friend, Blindspot.

CASE OF THE WEEK

Does anyone even care about Madeline Burke and her stupid plans anymore? Ugh. She's starting to become a cliche, mustache twirling villain. Her swerves can be spotted a million miles away. End my misery, Blindspot. Please.

The Mexican cartel's hit man is in town and Tasha thinks there's a kill order out on her and Boston after nearly being taken out by a hail of bullets. All evidence points to yes. Honestly, I can't remember why the cartel is ticked at Tasha and Boston. I have a dim recollection it had something to do with the foiled Air Force One plot. Unfortunately (fortunately?) when said hit man is arrested, his silver gun case is filled with clothes and he swears he's in town for business. Sure, Jan.

The cartel is also hunting Madeline; but instead of laying low, she uses the cartel as cover to deal with her own loose ends. Some of the data Tasha pulled from the zip drive miraculously unscrambles and the team finds a hit list of MCI Global executives and the code word: "Helios." Which is some big bad plan I am sure they are clueless about.

The team figures out the cartel is not responsible for the MCI Global killings and convinces Madeline's pilot J.B. to tell them where she is. He agrees to the deal for $10 million. And they say crime doesn't pay.

Luckily our main characters are smartening up and only pretend to wire the money, courtesy of Rich Dotcom. It becomes clear to Boston that J.B. is conning the FBI. He's led them to the wrong extraction site and has absolutely no intention of handing Madeline over.

The real extraction point is the helicopter pad at the local hospital. Pretending to be a medical a chopper performing a bogus rescue is moderately brilliant. I will give Madeline that much.

This all leads to the big showdown at the hospital. Jane gets to kick butt again (yeah!) and use a magnetized MRI machine to disarm Madeline's goons. At first it didn't feel like real science, but then I decided I didn't care because it was cool. Tasha finally gets to put the cuffs on Madeline, which was a satisfying moment for her character.

There's not a lot of room left for rejoicing because typically when Blindspot arrests the Big Bad this early in the season, either they have something more awful planned or the Big Bad isn't the real Big Bad.

TEAM BLINDSPOT

The team is pretty busy trying to take down Madeline Burke, but there's a sweet subplot about Rich Dotcom buying all of Boston's art in secret. Patterson plays couples therapist and warns Rich not to tell Boston because it will devastate him. But Boston knows Rich is the one buying all the paintings all along. Half the fun for these guys is the push/pull. And as Boston remarks points out earlier in regards to J.B., you can't con a con.

Jane is really spiraling and it forces her to visit a frenemy, Borden, for help. Of course, she is worried about the team's reaction, particularly Patterson. But her reaction is perfectly Patterson when she says: "I just want Jane back, so whatever she needs."

Reade and Tasha chime in with their respective dittos and I absolutely love how Team Blindspot loves Jane. I also am thrilled Jane did not lie to Patterson about Borden. The truth is a rare and precious jewel on this show. I'm taking the win.

KURT AND JANE

Jane is pretty shaken up over her confrontation with Cameron Gibbs in "Frequently Recurring Struggle for Existence." All her Remi chickens are coming home to roost and our girl cannot deal. This show doesn't let Jane fall apart very often, so it's nice they are taking a minute to let the character freak out a bit. It's easy to forget Jane is not a machine in all the never-ending crisis. She's a person.

Kurt suggest Jane see a therapist. HOLY CRAP. Advice from Kurt that doesn't include his usual "Remi isn't you" pitch?! It's a miracle. Therapy feels so normal, and Blindspot always throws me for a loop when they do anything normal because this show is anything but. Meanwhile I'm thinking "Hey! Remember the last time Jane went to therapy her therapist turned out to be evil?" Good times.

The first therapist Kurt sends her to is a nice enough guy, but he feels Jane is a little outside his area of expertise. This is a sign of a good therapist/doctor. It's about getting your patient the best care and not about ego. Jane is a little bummed because she liked this guy. Me too, Jane!

But not all referrals are the magic fairy dust we hope them to be. Unfortunately, the therapist with all the expertise can barely keep up with Jane's winding tale. She has to explain her story again and again and is exhausted before the therapy even begins. It's not shocking the therapist is having trouble keeping up. We've watched this show. We know.

That said, I related to this scene in my bones as someone with a complicated health history. It's difficult getting new doctors up to speed. You want nothing more than someone who knows you in those moments. Familiarity is comforting, especially when you don't know what's going on in your own mind and body.

Me: Hey remember when I said, "Remember when Jane used to have an evil therapist?" Turns out he's the "old friend" in the episode title. You can't get anything past me!

Unpopular opinion: I really liked Borden and (if memory serves) I was bummed he turned out to be a Sandstorm operative.

It makes a lot of sense to bring Borden back for a couple reasons. First, he is familiar with Jane in more than one way. He knows Remi, Jane, and even Alice Kruger. He was also a victim to Remi's manipulations. Jane wasn't able to get through to Cameron Gibbs, but that doesn't mean her list of sins stops there. Borden is definitely on it.

I have been extremely frustrated with the way Jane has been approaching all her identities. She separates herself into different selves like Remi, and even Alice, are removed from Jane Doe. This isn't the first show I've watched where the main character has an "Other" as Borden classifies it. For Angel on Buffy the Vampire Slayer it was Angelus and the Gypsy curse. For Stefan on The Vampire Diaries it was The Ripper and his humanity switch. For Oliver Queen on Arrow it was man versus mask. Didn't watch any of those shows? Okay, how about Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vadar or Kylo Ren/Ben Solo? This is a tried and true hero trope.

We all struggle between light and dark. These stories are an allegory for the push/pull between our sinful nature and our virtue. The center between these two opposing forces is where redemption lies. There may be an outside force triggering the "evil" side of all these characters, but when they find their way back to the light there are two irrefutable lessons they all learn. First, they are responsible for the actions of their dark side persona. Second, the darkness is not separate from their identity. It is part of who they are. They have to accept their darker self in order to control it, so it no longer has total power over them.

Acceptance is the first step to redemption. It is the first step to forgiveness. So sorry Jane sweetie you don't get to talk about Remi in the third person anymore. As Borden says: "You talk about Remi as if she's a different person."

This differentiation is something Borden tackles immediately and he asks Jane why she does it. BECAUSE KURT DOES. Obviously, we know Kurt Weller loves Jane, but his need to constantly push all the Remi issues to the side by dismissing it as "not Jane" is a little off putting, quite frankly. It's easy to see why Jane is hesitant to accept this part of herself when it seems like the person who loves her most can't accept Remi either.

Before you start throwing things at me, I'm not saying Kurt doesn't accept Remi. He wouldn't be with Jane if he doesn't, but his way of helping her with Remi isn't really helpful. Kurt wants to push all of Jane's sins as Remi under the rug because he's long forgiven her for them. He loves her unconditionally and once you've truly forgiven someone, the past is past. All you want to do is move forward.

But Jane isn't in the same place as Kurt. She's not just stuck in her past. She's reliving it one memory at a time as they flood into her mind. Kurt may have forgiven Jane, but she hasn't forgiven herself. Borden hasn't forgiven Jane either, and at first it sounds like he's manipulating her into self-hatred, but he's really not. He's actually being a really good therapist and forcing Jane to look at some cold, hard truths about herself.

The zip took Remi's memories, which is how the Jane persona evolved. In all fairness, Jane is the "Other" and not Remi. Jane is Remi without all the rage and manipulation, which allowed her natural instincts to love and protect selflessly rise to the surface. The Zip gave Jane her soul and conscience back. It reprogrammed her morality and sense of justice. However, the Zip didn't erase Jane's culpability. Remi chose to erase her memories, but the zip didn't erase her actions. Remi's past was simply in stasis waiting for Jane to remember.

Borden: "The division between you isn't. It's an invention designed to deflect any blame you might feel for the things you've done in your past."

SO. MANY. TRUTH. BOMBS. Borden accuses Jane of remaining a victim so she doesn't have to face the things she's done. If she's a victim of Shepherd and Sandstorm, then she has no culpability in the things Remi did. This is basically crap. It might sound harsh, but it's true. Borden was a victim of Remi's manipulations just like Cameron Gibbs was and he's sitting in prison for his actions. Being hurt isn't a free pass to hurt others. Being victimized doesn't absolve you of personal responsibility. We are accountable for our actions.

Jane (and Kurt mostly) is deflecting. She's latched onto this defense mechanism of division between identities to keep the flood of regret at bay. It's a wall that has worked for awhile until she came face to face with one of those sins: Cameron Gibbs. He was a crack in the dam and now it's exploded. The pain and guilt is flooding in. Jane is drowning, but Borden is going to show her how to swim again.

Borden: "I met this you a long time ago and the love of my life was wiped off the face of the planet. Because you came into my life. Not Alice Krueger, not Remi Briggs, not Jane Doe. Just you."

Borden doesn't compartmentalize Jane like Kurt does. Alice, Remi and Jane are all HER. There is no separation now that her memories are back, which means it's time to deal with your crap Jane Doe.

He tells Jane to stop looking at herself through a prism of good and bad. Sure, saints and serial killers make up the outer edges of the good/bad spectrum, but most of us fall somewhere in the middle. We aren't all good and we aren't all bad. Borden saw good in Remi and he's seen Jane do some pretty terrible things. Alice Kruger was a little girl torn from her parents and she's very much alive inside of Jane and Remi.

There is a connective thread among all of these identities. Jane was always searching for the family and home Alice lost. She found it in Shepherd and Sandstorm first. Then, Kurt and Team Blindspot.

She's also someone who fights for justice. Remi's actions were bad, but her intentions were good. She wanted to right the wrongs of the world, which Borden points out isn't all that different from her role at the FBI. Jane realizes now that the wrongs she wants to right are her own, but the magnitude of the damage she has caused is overwhelming. She's paralyzed by the pressure to make it right.

We've all felt like this before. Maybe not to the extent Jane has, but there are days where I have so much to do that it's overwhelming. Sometimes I just hide under the covers or procrastinate doing others things to avoid it. Jane's behavior is no different and it's a very normal reaction to pressure. So Borden tells a beautiful story to help Jane cope.

Borden: "A boy walks along a beach when he comes across a thousand star fish all washed up on the shore, baking in the sun. Dying. So he picks one up and he throws it back into the sea. Saves it. A man walks up to the boy and says, 'You can't save every star fish on this beach. It's impossible.'" 

Jane: "And then the boy says, 'No, but I can save that one.'"

Remi told Borden this story while she was trying to recruit him for Sandstorm, but every good lie has some truth to it. This story has a lot of truth. We rarely find redemption in one sweeping action. There's no magic wand to wave to balance the scales. Forgiveness is a step by step process. It is two steps forward and one step back. We will fall down. We will make mistakes.

Jane couldn't make it right with Gibbs, but that doesn't mean she can't make anything right. The only way she's not going to drown in this flood of regret is by swimming. Our path to redemption can only truly be seen in hindsight. The road we walk is created by a million stones of failures and triumphs. We put down one and then another the next day and another the next until one day we're standing in the sun. We're home.

It's also important to realize it's really not about balancing the cosmic scales. How many nuclear bombs does Jane have to stop before she squares the balance sheet with her Sandstorm criminal activity? It's not a great way to approach life because life isn't math. It's not a balance sheet. Jane doesn't have to be perfect to be deserving of love and forgiveness. What counts is the effort. Putting one foot in front of the other and trying every day to be a good person.

But Jane will never find her way without Remi and Alice. The sooner she accepts that no identity was perfect, the better. Every part of her life feeds into who she is NOW and now is what truly matters. The person Jane is, and wants to be, rather than who she was. The past is the past. Jane has to keep pushing forward. She will win the war inside herself, one battle at a time.

It's really important for Jane to start seeing some positive qualities in Remi or else this will never work. Remi wasn't a great person, but she wasn't the devil either. The rage Remi feels is useful when it's pointed at the right target. The remorse Jane feels is useful when pointed at the right target.

So, Borden offers a thread in which Jane can connect all of her identities - strength. Alice, Remi and Jane all know how to survive. They all have an inner strength which propels them forward.  If there's one concept Jane understands it's fighting.

She also finally gets a clinical diagnosis and it's about dang time! Underneath all the guns, terrorism, tattoos and puzzles, Jane is struggling with plain old PTSD. She's traumatized. YA THINK? Granted, her case is a little more complicated than most, but her paralysis and agoraphobia are all symptoms of PTSD. Sometimes her history as a solider is kind of glazed over, so I think it was really powerful moment in the show when Borden reminded Jane there are many people struggling with the same things as her and there are treatments to help her get better.

He also tells Jane if she's ever struggling to remember how much she is needed. Kurt loves her. The team loves her. Jane has found the family and home Alice longed for. Her recovery will be long, but she doesn't have to do it alone.

I never fully believed all of Jane's therapy with Borden was all manipulation. If Jane isn't good or bad then neither is Borden. He truly helped her this time and by doing so put down a stone in his long road to redemption and forgiveness as well.

The session with Borden enough to get Jane off the bench, back into the field, and ready to kick butt. Blindspot immediately puts her in a two-on-one fight scene. It's a physical manifestation of everything going on emotionally and mentally. She's fighting with her fists, mind, and heart. Jane is starting to put all the pieces together. 

Which is why I was tearing my hair out when Dominic plunged that needle into her leg. I'm hoping it was just something to knock Jane out. I cannot take another memory wipe. Not after the leaps and bounds progress Jane made this week. We already did evil Remi in the first part of the season. NO MORE ZIP PLEASE!

Stray Thoughts:

• The FBI couldn't think to look under the floor? Really?
• "That is fantastic. Motel 8 is redecorating." Rich Dotcom zingers are the best kind of zingers
• This show expects to believe Madeline is some criminal mastermind, but she's also stupid enough to leave a wine glass with her finger prints and DNA all over it. God grant me patience.
• Worst CGI helicopter ever.

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Grey’s Anatomy 15x18 Review: “Add it Up” (Parts of a Whole) [Contributor: Julia Siegel]

“Add it Up”

Original Airdate: March 21, 2019

The format of many stories playing out at the same time continues on the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy, and it’s starting to get difficult to keep track of all the moving parts of the show. It’s becoming more complicated to remember each character’s season-long story, even though each tends to play out every week. This episode seems to kick off the beginning of the end of the season, as it appears many storylines are going to be sprinting toward the finish line.

ADAPTATION

This is the first time in a while that I don’t feel that there was a main plot in an episode. Instead, there are three stories that get equal screen time, along with some minor offshoots that connect to each. The most relevant plot centers on a mother and her adult child getting treated for severe injuries from a snowmobile accident. Amelia and Link are called in to work on the mother, who suffered two spinal injuries while Richard, Jackson, and Helm help their genderqueer patient. Richard has a difficult time understanding the pronouns that his patient prefers to be called and gets a lesson in proper terminology from Jackson and Helm. Richard tries to explain that he is trying to adapt to the current times, but it isn’t easy for him — even though he understands what it is like to be called something you aren’t. Jackson and Helm don’t seem to grasp what Richard says, which is the real downfall of the story.

The good news is that they are able to surgically fix their patient’s problems, but the mother isn’t so lucky. Amelia and Link think that their surgery is going well when they are able to easily repair their patient’s cervical spine fractures. However, when they move on to her lumbar spinal injury, things quickly go south. The patient’s spinal cord swells and leaves her permanently paralyzed from the neck down.

Even though Amelia and Link have tried to stay away from each other throughout the day and forget about their one-time “alternative pain relief” session in San Diego, the two wind up consoling each other after the surgery. They refill their pain relief prescription and give in to their budding feelings. It’s safe to say that we all knew that San Diego wasn’t a one-time thing for these two, and it will be interesting to see what the rest of the season has in store for them.

SELF-SABOTAGE

The next plot has many moving parts and is made up of several smaller stories. DeLuca is still brooding a week after his father packed up and left town and doesn’t want to be bothered by anyone. His attitude is bad throughout the episode, which shows everyone — including Meredith — his immaturity. Alex takes DeLuca on his service for the day and decides to throw him a bone by allowing him to be the hero doctor for their tween patient. The child has been suffering from pancreatitis for many years and is finally eligible to have her pancreas removed to ease her pain.

But it turns out that the kid is a math whiz — and smart in more ways than one. When her mom tells her that the surgery will allow her to lead a normal life again and go back to school, the patient sabotages her test results by drinking apple juice to raise her blood sugar. High blood sugar equals no surgery, and the doctors are quite perplexed as to how the number spiked. Intern Qadri finds the hidden juice box and tells Alex and DeLuca that their patient purposely rigged the test. While the patient is receiving an insulin drip to lower her glucose, Qadri asks the other interns to help beat her patient at math problems. The other interns were helping Maggie test a new project: three different rooms that each have stimulus to lower blood pressure. Maggie and Bailey, who was testing the video game room, decide to jump in on the math bowl because none of the doctors can resist a challenge.

The young patient defeats all of the doctors and admits to sabotaging her test results earlier because she doesn’t want to go back to school. She hates being bullied for being smart, which is something the room full of doctors can relate to. She doesn’t want the surgery, and her mother isn’t sure whether she should push her 11-year-old into something she doesn’t want to do. DeLuca pressures the mother to force her daughter to get the surgery that she needs. Alex is stunned at DeLuca’s behavior and takes him off the case. DeLuca will not relent and talks to the patient behind Alex’s back; he winds up convincing her to have the surgery.

Even though Alex is glad the kid is finally on board, he doesn’t allow DeLuca to participate in the surgery. After the procedure, Alex has a stern talk with DeLuca and tells him that he needs to check his attitude before he pushes everyone that cares about him away. He tells DeLuca that he had the same problem for years and it only brought him unhappiness. Alex gets through ti DeLuca and makes him realize that he hasn’t been treating Meredith well either. Meredith shows up at DeLuca’s house later that night to discuss what has been going on. She tells him that she doesn’t have time to be dating someone who is distant and can’t get their act together, which prompts DeLuca to fully realize the extent of his actions. He promises that he has gotten over the number his father did on him and goes back to being his old self.

The new couple makes up, but this isn’t going to be the last time that his problems will come up. Meredith has opened her eyes and witnessed that her much younger boyfriend isn’t on the same level as her. I’m not quite sure how long their fling will last, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they break up by the end of the season.

BABY DRAMA

The final story of the episode depicts the ongoing drama between Teddy, Owen, and Koracick. Owen has cleared his schedule to attend birthing class with Teddy and isn’t happy when Koracick also shows up. Teddy doesn’t make it to the class and winds up on bed rest all day due to some minor contractions. She has Carina page Owen, who quickly comes to her aid without telling Koracick what is going on. Owen hangs out with Teddy all day and makes several pitiful attempts to talk to the unborn baby, at Carina’s suggestion. Watching Owen try to talk to the baby is as painful for the audience as it is for Teddy and will make you wonder how Leo is such a happy baby around him.

Teddy is increasingly stressed that the baby will come early, but the bed rest helps. Things get more stressful when Koracick finds them in the same hospital room and learns what has been going on. He asks Owen to step outside and talk, which neither guy really wants to do. Koracick is beyond mad that Owen didn’t tell him that Teddy was having problems and asks if he would have even been paged if the baby was coming. Owen has been rude to Koracick ever since he started dating Teddy, and Koracick finally slams Owen for his behavior. Koracick gives a good speech about how Owen has had his many chances with Teddy and always lets her down and shouldn’t be mad that she now has someone in her life who is completely committed to her and loves her.

Hopefully this is the wake-up call that Owen needs because Koracick plans to stick around, and the two are going to have to learn to at least be civil.

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