Grey's Recap: And Baby Makes Trouble — Plus, a 'One-Time Thing' Is Repeated
Grey’s Anatomy’s Teddy thought that she wouldn’t be experiencing firsts with her and Owen’s daughter until after she was born. But in Thursday’s “Add It Up,” the peanut scared her mom half out of her mind for the first time — by making it appear that she might arrive prematurely. And while that tense situation brought to a head the simmering tension between the men in the mom-to-be’s life — and revealed how awful at baby talk Owen is — Amelia futilely tried to keep her distance from Link, and DeLuca so successfully kept his distance from Meredith that he made her wonder what she was doing with him. How’d the myriad dramas shake out? Read on…
RELATEDAbigail Spencer Returning to Grey’s as Megan — Will Nathan Be Joining Her?
‘PHEROMONES… I REALLY LIKE YOURS’
| As the episode began, Maggie showed the interns around the Grey Sloan rooms in which she hoped to use environment to improve patient health pre- and post-op. One was a virtual Garden of Eden; another, a blue-light special. But the most popular seemed to be the game room, where the tour found Bailey engrossed in a round of Tetris. Nearby, Meredith tried to ask DeLuca if he’d heard from his father, and her beau vanished so fast, his exit could’ve been accompanied by the sound effect that always underscored the Road Runner’s takeoffs. Speaking of speedy, Owen so briefly informed Teddy that he’d be able to attend her birthing class that neither she nor Koracick had a chance to tell him that her boyfriend was going with her. “I think he and I are thisclose to becoming besties,” Tom cracked. No sooner was he out of the room than the mom-to-be began experiencing pain. “I’m hoping that it’s just stress,” she told Casey when he subsequently found her in the blue room. But, since it “feels more like my body is pushing out all my organs,” she instructed the intern to page Owen and OB. Finally, Richard informed Jackson that his mom had decided not to return to work as scheduled. Because… ? “She didn’t give me a reason,” Webber replied. “She just waved her hand and said, ‘Cancer card,'” aka her new shorthand for “Don’t question me.”
Related stories
Speechless on the Bubble: Keep or Cut?
The Rookie Boss Weighs In on Show's First Big Exit, Its Impact on Nolan
ABC's The Fix Premiere: Grade It!
Later, Maggie was telling Amelia about the way blue light could improve one’s mood when she noticed that Amelia was already in a good mood. Considering she’d been in tears the last time Maggie saw her, WTH? she asked. Amelia had had “insanely good sex” at the conference in San Diego, she admitted. With a complete stranger? asked Maggie. “Not a complete stranger,” Amelia answered. And right on cue, Link entered and apologized to Maggie for being pokey responding to her inquiry; he’d been away at a conference in San Diego. Ack! Now Maggie knew! Off that awkwardness, Amelia fussed at Link for being indiscreet — even though she’d been even less discreet! — and reminded him that their hookup was a one-time thing, strictly for pain management. Not even any ordinary pain management, “for acute pain, not chronic; do not refill.” What’s more, since she found his pheromones pretty tough to resist, she suggested that they steer clear of one another. Which was going to be difficult since Richard had paged them both to tackle the case of a woman named Carrie who’d injured her spine when she’d rolled her snowmobile. Also hurt in the accident was Toby, Carrie’s genderqueer offspring.
‘IF I WAS HIDING OUT, YOU WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO FIND ME’
| When Alex found Mer in the green room working on her ingestible diagnostic device, they compared notes on their relationships: Jo was in Pittsburgh, potentially to meet her mother, and Karev was worried since he couldn’t reach her. As for Mer, she was giving DeLuca space — whether she wanted to or not — to deal with the emotional fallout from his father’s tumultuous visit. And he was busy helping out on the case of a young math whiz named Nora, whom Alex had known since she was 5. In fact, DeLuca told the child and her mom, she could now have the pancreatectomy for which she’d been waiting ages. Or, that is, she could have had it, had Alex not had to report that Nora’s glucose levels had suddenly spiked; now it would have to be postponed. When Karev apologized to DeLuca for having to cancel his surgery, Andrew snapped at him, “Did Meredith ask you to do this? Throw me a bone?” After he stomped off, Dahlia discovered that the youngster’s glucose level might have spiked because she’d snuck a juice box, potentially to sabotage her own surgery. In the green room, Karev was complaining to Mer, “Your boyfriend’s being a jerk,” when in walked the jerk himself. No, he didn’t want to get coffee with Grey; he was actually there to fill in Alex on Dahlia’s discovery. When the docs confronted Nora, she admitted that she’d drunk the juice box — not to get out of surgery but to get out of returning to school, where she was friendless and bullied.
As Mom began spiraling, blaming herself, she asked what she should do. And DeLuca, with all the compassion of a rock hurled through a window, told her to force Nora to have the surgery. He was so out of line, the way he spoke to the patient’s mother, Alex ended up angrily telling him, “Walk away now, or you’re fired.” Later, the interim chief was just about to axe DeLuca for returning to Nora’s room when he overheard the younger doctor sweetly opening up to her about his own experience being bullied. And she had a big advantage over the younger version of him, he noted, because “you are way cooler than I was.” At the end of the day, “kids are mean, and they’re always gonna be mean, but you can kick their asses at math,” he noted. What’s more, “we’re all a buncha nerds here [at Grey Sloan], and we like you a lot.” So could she push through? Yeah, she nodded as Alex observed from the doorway. Nonetheless, when Nora was wheeled into surgery, Karev left DeLuca out — and ordered him out when he tried to scrub in. As the episode drew to a close, DeLuca approached Karev as he again tried to reach Jo. “What you did today,” DeLuca said, “was unprofessional.” Au contraire, Karev shot back — what DeLuca had done had been unprofessional. He’d been too pissed about Vincenzo to gently get through to Nora in the first place. Oh, and that anger of his was screwing with his relationship with Mer, too, said Alex, adding with the voice of experience, “When people reach out a hand, you don’t bite it!” Otherwise, they’ll stop reaching out.
RELATEDGrey’s Anatomy: Amy Acker Cast as Derek’s MIA Fourth Sister, Kathleen
‘YOU WANNA HOLD OR BE HELD?’
| Though Amelia found it a muscle-bound challenge to work in close proximity to her one-night stand, she agreed to remain on Carrie’s case when they learned that she was at risk of being left paraplegic and Link expressed his reluctance to fly solo on her surgery. And it turned out they would have to operate fast, too — Carrie was already beginning to lose feeling in her lower extremities. In the O.R., it at first appeared that the patient was going to pull through just fine. Link couldn’t believe how well Amelia handled working in neuro — it was a pressure cooker. Yes, she said, but “adrenaline’s the only high I let myself have anymore.” Just then, Carrie’s signal dropped — she wasn’t registering feeling in her arms or legs! In the end, despite Amelia and Link’s best efforts, Carrie wound up paralyzed from the neck down. In another O.R., Richard, Jackson and Helm operated on Toby, Webber struggling every step of the way to get the pronouns right. Then again, he’d once fired a mechanic for calling him Ricky. “That’s kind of a false equivalence,” noted Taryn, “comparing an annoying nickname to misgendering.” Still, Webber continued on with his Grumpy Old Man routine. When Toby learned post-op about Carrie’s condition, they wondered aloud to Jackson how they could possibly help a mom who’d always had all the answers. “She’s already given you all that you need,” he reassured them. “You’ve got it.” And it appeared that they did indeed have it; Toby then asked to be present when Carrie got the news. Mind you, they weren’t the only ones left reeling by the end result of Carrie’s surgery. Off that heartbreak, Amelia and Link retired to the blue room, where they tenderly engaged in some additional pain relief. (Which was fine — we no more believed that was a “one-time thing” than we wanted it to be.)
While all that was going on, Owen received his page about Teddy and ran out of birthing class — without saying a word to Koracick about why he was splitting! (Jerrrrk.) In the ER, Carina told Teddy that her contractions were sporadic and not very strong. OMG, “what do they feel like when they’re strong?” asked the mom-to-be, who was in full-on panic mode by the time her babydaddy arrived. She had cervical insufficiency, for Pete’s sake! “‘Insufficient’ is something I’ve never been called my entire life!” Regardless, Carina OK’d Teddy’s course of action — which involved tilting her bed upward at the feet — and advised Owen to remain calm and talk to her and their daughter. And he tried. Lord, did he try. But his baby talk left so much to be desired that Teddy soon told him, “You can’t use that voice.” Teddy herself had trouble with baby talk, too. “Hello… hi… guten tag,” she said, then gave up. “I’m already failing as a mom!” To alleviate her worries, Owen brought in a second bed and joined her in her uncomfortable semi-upside-down position. Even as he began to turn green, he reassured her, “We’re in this together. We’re a family.”
‘WELL, THIS IS COZY’ | Owen finally seemed to get the hang of baby talk as he told his daughter how amazing her mom was, whether she was jamming to Duran Duran or scarfing down a whole pizza. Of course, it was during that tender moment that Tom arrived on the scene. Teddy hadn’t messaged him because she hadn’t wanted to worry any more people than she’d had to, she said. (But she kinda owed it to him not to leave him in the dark, didn’t she? Dude cares!) When Owen stepped out of the room, Tom followed, smoke coming out of his ears. “If you plan to make a play here, if you’re gonna show up with a ring and take advantage of the very old pain and vulnerability of a woman you have over and over again hurt and abandoned, please rethink that,” Koracick spat, “because I will not lie down. I’ll fight for her.” You go, Tom! Sure, Owen had history with Teddy, but that “history is… you chose Amelia,” Koracick pointed out. He was in love with Teddy and argued that she deserved to be with someone for whom she was the first and only choice. (Swoon… ) Apparently, Tom got through to Owen, too, because after he learned from Carina that everything was OK, he left Teddy with the guy who was so devoted to her.
As the hour came to an end, DeLuca invited Mer over to his place, and when she arrived, she quickly informed him that she wasn’t the wait-around-at-work-and-wonder-if-her-boyfriend-was-avoiding-her type. “I’m past that point in my life.” In response, DeLuca admitted that he’d been shocked by how much it hurt that he hadn’t been able to fix his dad. So he’d needed a minute. “Now I just need you,” he added. “Well, maybe I need a minute now,” she replied. She didn’t need one, mind you. But she wanted to… at least until she saw that he’d cooked her a mind-blowing dinner. At Jolex’s place, Alex came home to find Jo in bed asleep. “I missed you,” he whispered as he kissed her forehead. Only after he’d moved off did Jo reveal — at least to the audience — that she was awake. And looked troubled. And I suspect we know why. So, what did you think of “Add It Up”? Koracick’s declaration of love? DeLuca’s snit fit? L’Amelia, Round 2? Hit the comments.
Launch Gallery: <i>Grey's</i> Season 15 Photos
Sign up for TVLine's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
