It’s a time-honored tradition at Grey Sloan Memorial for professional doctors dealing with patients in precarious situations to make those patients’ stories all about themselves. Yeah, yeah, yeah, the doctors are the main characters here, and we need to move both story and emotional beats along, but sometimes the whole “Doctor realizes something about themselves thanks to a patient” framework can be done with enough subtlety that it really works … and sometimes Grey’s likes to hit you over the head with a proverbial hammer. This is the way of Grey’s Anatomy. It has been for two decades. It will be in perpetuity. We know it. We love it. We own it.
This doctor-patient storytelling device is all over “Cowgirls Don’t Cry,” and it runs the gamut of quite effective to plain old ridiculous. The good: Our sad boy, Lucas, has been deemed the screwup of the intern class, and it has become almost impossible to shake that. Currently, everyone’s on his case about being late all the time. Don’t they know it takes a while to get one’s hair looking perfectly disheveled? Cut the guy some slack. When Lucas and Simone are handed a patient who looks to be in severe pain but has a history of drug use, clean scans, and visiting more than one hospital in the area seeking pain meds, Webber wants to discharge the guy — but Lucas has a hunch that there’s something else going on here.
The guy tries to explain that the drug use was just some Adderall a long time ago, and he has since kicked the habit — he’s just being punished over and over for one mistake. “You screw up once, you’re a screwup forever,” he says. That hits home for Lucas, and he begs Simone to have his back and look over the guy’s scans one more time. On top of everything, he’s still hurting over the fact that he didn’t fight for Tessa Hobbes when he had a hunch about her. He doesn’t want to make that mistake again. Lucas is right, of course, and they find a toothpick lodged in the man’s intestinal tract. Webber calls it “an incredible save,” and Lucas has never been so proud of himself! I love seeing sad hot boys with no self-esteem start to believe in themselves.
It’s an obvious doctor-patient connection, but it really works as far as Lucas’s character development. I’m even fine with Mika’s little subplot, in which she has a patient who clearly needs a chest X-ray to see if she has pneumonia but doesn’t want one, because she can’t afford it. Earlier in the episode, we saw Mika eating trash-can doughnuts in order to gain weight so that she can qualify to donate plasma and make $75. Mika’s not only paying rent and student loans but helping her parents pay for their mortgage. She was living in her van not that long ago! Mika understands being broke, but she understands that this woman needs to take care of herself. She gives her an impassioned speech about that. Mika feels proud for this win, but is it really a win? The health-care system sucks!! It’s a mostly insignificant story line, but it functions just fine as a doctor-patient connection that illuminates a little more of Mika’s character.
But the doctor-patient connection foisted on us in this episode that made me laugh out loud is Maggie Pierce and her bull rider. It’s all about passion. We know Maggie loves her work more than anything in this world — it’s at the root of her marital issues — and now, thanks to her published paper on the partial-heart transplant, she’s getting incredible offers to work all over the country. She’s most interested in a research opportunity in Chicago building hearts that could save thousands of lives. She wants this job. She deserves this job! The problem is that Winston isn’t exactly thrilled about moving to Chicago after following her across the country once already. Although I doubt the moving part is really the issue. Winston seems like a supportive guy in general, but currently, their marriage is in shambles. In couples therapy, Maggie doesn’t even look like she wants to dig into their issues and work them out. It seems reasonable that Winston might be wondering what there is even left to support.
When Maggie meets Georgia, a young bull rider who has been trampled by a bull (as is wont to happen), she’s moved by Georgia’s passion and determination. The more people have told her that she can’t do something or shouldn’t do something, the harder she has pushed to prove that she can. The girl loves the rodeo, what can she say? Maggie sees a lot of herself in young Georgia. She understands the focus, the drive, the push to accomplish your dreams. Here’s the problem: Maggie is the one to tell Georgia that her focus, drive, and push to accomplish her dreams have nearly paralyzed her. All the doctors on her case agree that continuing to do this will eventually kill her. When Maggie applies Georgia’s story to herself and her desire to go after more, she conveniently forgets this part. Instead, she sees courage. I’m sorry, but there is a thin line between courage and stupidity.
All of this is to say that when Maggie and Winston have their final blowup of the episode, in which Maggie calls Winston out for his cowardice, it doesn’t exactly track. You want him to be brave like that bull rider who is going to get herself killed? It’s a stretch. Maggie’s not wrong to point out that Winston “retreats” whenever something is difficult — that he would rather change his specialty than deal with conflict. He would rather give up on their marriage than continue to fight. But I have to point out that Maggie has yet to apologize for anything she’s done that has led to things getting as bad as they have. She’s complicit in this too and won’t acknowledge any of it. Who’s the coward now, my friend?! My sincerest hope is that Maggie heads out to Chicago and Winston stays in Seattle but that they find some way to end on good terms. They both deserve some healing! Some understanding! And they both deserve to be with someone who actually gets who they are and loves them for that. I’m a sap, what can I say?
The conclusion to the Maggie-and-Winston saga is nigh, but honestly, I’m more anxious about whatever the hell is going to happen to Bailey. Dear Bailey! It’s encouraging to see that Grey’s Anatomy didn’t just move on from that gut-wrenching attack on the clinic we saw play out in the previous two episodes without diving into at least the emotional ramifications for the doctors who’d experienced it. In this episode, while Jo takes a personal day to rest, Bailey heads back to the hospital to continue her work. Ben’s worried about his wife — he drives her to work and sees the increased safety measures around the clinic for himself. But it’s when he picks her up that evening that he really has cause to be concerned: While sitting in the parking lot, he finds a flier stuffed in his windshield — in every windshield of ever car in the lot — with Bailey’s face on it marked with the words “baby killer” and her home address and phone number at the bottom. It seems the terrorizing of the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial is far from over.
The OR Board
Kwan and Jules are fun together, aren’t they? He wants to hook up after a great day — he held a beating heart in his hands! — but she turns him down at first. You see, the two of them made a “no feelings” rule, and after learning that Kwan is a staunch animal-rights activist, Jules is feeling a certain way about him. Here, certain means horny. Kwan assures her that he has no feelings involved, which puts them in the clear. That’s enough for her. Off they go! Someone should make them aware that no one can escape feelings at Grey Sloan Memorial. Having feelings is basically part of the residency program.
Schmitt — whose hot traveling nurse has now moved to Phoenix — is made aware by both Helm and Bailey that he’s the mean guy and he doesn’t have to be. It was nice to see Bailey revisiting her chief-resident “Nazi” days — and yes, the show does point out how “inappropriate” that nickname was.
Why was I so moved by Teddy offering Mika full access to the protein bars in her office?
Mika picking up a shift at Joe’s will ultimately be bad, because who can juggle a second job on top of your surgical internship? But it will ultimately be good, because it means Mika and Helm will definitely be hooking up.
Link-and-Jo Couple Watch: Link and Jo have not professed their undying love for each other yet, but they do platonically spend the day in bed seeing into each other’s souls. There is some gentle face caressing before Jo starts looking at Link with what can only be described as these hungry eyes. So maybe it was less than platonic? Anyway, watch this space!
Simone asking Lucas to be her “man of honor” at her wedding because he knows her the best is so unhinged, and I love it. He says yes! Also unhinged!
