Every doctor has a story which lead them to their career. You’d think after 13 seasons we’d know everything about the Grey’s Anatomy doctors, but as it turns out there are some key moments and key people we haven’t yet been introduced to. In very special bottleneck episode of Grey’s Anatomy, Dr. Webber tries to re-teach his staff how to treat their patients like people. It’s not just something they learn in their interns years. Humanizing their work cuts through the routine and reminds the doctors of the most important part of their job.
The entire episode is exclusively in the OR surrounding one patient. Owen, Meredith, and Stephanie are beyond exhausted, so their movements are mechanical and methodical. Dr. Webber is appalled to see the doctors treating the patients a car in pieces, though I guarantee many car enthusiasts would probably treat their cars with greater care. He comes up with a game to humanize their John Doe patient. They will imagine him as a completely different person. Dr. Webber chooses the name Gail. The more Webber tries to create a story for their patient, the crankier Meredith gets. Now being a surgeon at all hours while dealing with cranky children at home is understandably exhausting, but yelling about rank to your former mentor was completely uncalled for.
Owen has his own demons to wrestle with when it comes to connecting with his intuition. Finally we meet Owen’s sister, even if it is in a dream sequence. She’s cocky, intuitive, and loves to tease her brother. If she were in front of her brother, she would push and prod him until he got everything out of his system. She would force him to empty his mind of everything but what needs to be done. Against Meredith’s protests, Owen removes their patient’s entire liver. At this point everyone is furious and not listening to each other. Stephanie, coaxed by little Stephanie, screams at her superiors just to get their attention. Stephanie recognizes that the body is attacking itself. Getting a glimpse of little Stephanie makes grown up Stephanie even more likable.
Because she has been so negative, everyone thinks that Meredith doesn’t feel it. Meredith actually feels too much. She knows exactly what her patient’s name is. She made it a priority to know because she knows how it feels to be on the other side of this. Meredith can never forget what it felt like to have incompetent strangers try to explain her husband’s death. We get to see the exact moment Meredith had to tell Zola and Bailey their father was dead. Suddenly Meredith realizes that for Dr. Webber, the patient on the table is his mother. She died from pancreatic cancer when he was 10, leaving him to figure the world out for himself. They all needed to get through the surgery by picturing the patient as worthy of all their work. For Webber, it was his mother. For Meredith, it was Derek. Sometimes it is necessary to remind yourself of what, and who, lead you to where you are; others never forget.
Who else was excited to see Derek again? Should we take the appearance of Owen’s sister as a sign that she could still be alive?
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