Grey's Recap: Did Betty/Britney Live?
With Thursday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy, the ABC drama’s Season of Love served up a sobering reminder that sometimes love hurts: Despite Amelia’s best efforts to get Betty/Britney clean, her young ward arrived at Grey Sloan unconscious after mixing meth and opioids. (And she wasn’t the only overdose with which the doctors had to contend in “I Want a New Drug.”) Did Leo’s mom pull through? Read on…
‘SHE’S GONNA BREAK THE RECORD FOR THE HOSPITAL’S LONGEST SURGERY’
| While watching from the gallery as Mer operated, Dahlia wondered aloud how long it would be before she could handle a 24-hour surgery. “I’m not sure that’s a healthy life goal,” Link told her. When Jo learned from Alex which procedure Mer was doing, she assumed that it had been bumped from its place on the schedule the previous day. “No,” Link told her, “she started it yesterday.” And, because it was likely to take five more hours, she was on target to break the record for the hospital’s longest surgery ever! In another part of the hospital, Levi was adorkably chagrined by the fact that Nico was working through their breakfast. “When I said breakfast,” the doc formerly known as Glasses said, “I meant more a place that we could sit, someone takes our orders… ” In response, Nico said that he only let interns help with hip replacements when they were prepared — he didn’t dish out special favors. “At work,” cracked Levi. And when it appeared that Schmitt was indeed prepared, Nico suggested that they have a real breakfast on Thursday. “I’ll make French toast,” said Levi. Adorkable!
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‘I PACKED A SMALL SHOVEL’ | When Maggie bumped into Jackson in the parking lot, she was surprised to see him with… toilet paper? It’s the most important supply when camping, he explained, tipping her off for the first time that Glen Rock wasn’t some kind of spa or five-star hotel. She’d thought “it sounds fancy, but I deserve it.” Nope, they were going camping, he said. “Are we, though?” she replied. And if I’m not mistaken, wasn’t this the first fun, playful Maggie moment that we’ve gotten since she and Jackson hooked up? In any case, I’m counting it as progress. As Teddy walked into work with Bailey, she was admitting that the last thing she’d expected was to be dating at 30 weeks pregnant. Nonetheless, she could easily sing the extended remix of Koracick’s praises. “He’s kind of wow,” she summed up. Just then, a car pulled in much too fast, nearly running them down, dumped out an unconscious passenger and went squealing away. Upon examining the patient, the docs immediately realized that it was an OD — the first of many they’d see that day.
‘I’M AWARE THAT I SOUND LIKE MY MOTHER, BUT HAS THE WORLD GONE TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET?’
| At Omelia’s, the couple were bracing themselves to let go of Leo. “I hope you play soccer,” Owen told the little boy. “I hope you love your life,” Amelia then said. Which made Owen realize that his goodbye had sounded shallow. “I’m always gonna be rooting for you,” he said on his second try. Since the Dickinsons were ringing the bell — and knocking, and dammit, keep your pants on, people! — it was time. “You ready?” Owen asked. “No,” Amelia admitted. But she reassured him that Britney’s parents were good people, and the baby would grow up loved. No sooner had the Dickinsons entered than Owen exited — Grey Sloan was being slammed with enough trauma cases to fill a whole season, he said. At the hospital, the ODs were being ambulanced in so fast and furious that Owen set up shop in the parking lot and arranged for “the walking wounded” to go to the clinic. Among the patients was Britney, whose rehab boyfriend Linus still called her Betty. Owen was only a few steps away, but as the girl was wheeled into the clinic, he was too busy with other patients to realize that Amelia’s ward had ever been there.
‘DO YOU THINK SHE’S PART ROBOT?’
| As Mer’s never-ending surgery continued, Taryn began to seem like she was in pain. She wasn’t, though; she’d just had too much coffee. Within earshot of Mer, DeLuca told Helm that the hardest part of the surgery was yet to come, and suggested that, despite fatigue, Grey would need to be sharper at the end than she was at the beginning. Finally, Mer told Taryn to go update the family and pitch in in the pit. Later, when Mer actually did break the record and those in the gallery applauded, she wasn’t in any mood to celebrate. For one thing, she still hadn’t completed the operation. For another, as she told DeLuca, “that just means that I’m gonna wanna break [the record] again.” As the surgery went on (and on), she asked her suitor to tell her something, anything, to distract her from her aches and pains. So he revealed that, when he was a kid, he’d broken a record himself: most roller-coaster rides in one day. How many times had he done it? Uh, 12. He hadn’t actually broken any record, he’d just believed he had for several years.
‘WHEN I LOOK AT YOU, SURGERY ISN’T WHAT SPRINGS TO MIND’ | When Nico tried to get Levi an assist on a hip replacement with Link, the boss ixnayed it, saying that the intern would have to wait. “I see the butterflies floating around between you two, and that’s cool” — but see past your boyfriend, and you’ll notice that the ER is inundated with traumas. But Levi, Link added, could assist with surgery on a patient who’d broken both her arms when she took a fall after OD’ing. During the operation, Nico marveled that anyone could want anything badly enough to break both of their arms trying to get it. Levi understood, though. As a kid, he’d been so eager to be the first to get his mitts on a new X-Men comic book that he’d wound up flipping over the handlebars of his bike and breaking both of his arms. Post-op, an impressed Levi praised Nico as more than a surgeon, an artist. “I think it didn’t occur to me,” he added, “because you’re also a work of art, physically.” Anyway, newly inspired, Levi wanted to become as good a surgeon as Nico. “You’ll get there,” Nico replied, adding with a whisper, “You’re also good at a lot of things.” As Nico left the room, Levi lit up. “So much better than a comic book!” he exclaimed. Adorkable!
‘HE CAN’T MAINTAIN A PROTOCOL ON A PARK BENCH’ | Meanwhile, Alex was peeved that this influx of patients just had to occur on the day that Mer was about to break a hospital record; now, he told Jo, he might not get to be there to cheer her on. Just then, a woman named Wendy approached looking for her son Truman, who’d gone missing from the park when she’d turned around to see why it was suddenly full of police cars and ambulances. She’d come to the hospital thinking that maybe a cop might have brought Truman there. Later, as Jo worried about the anxious mom’s blood pressure, a homeless old guy named Mr. Tennyson entered the ER with the shaken-up little boy, whom he’d found in the park. As Alex noticed that the fella’s feet needed tending to, Mr. Tennyson revealed that Wendy had been “passed out on the bench… with the rest of the junkies.” After Wendy’s husband arrived and learned that she’d taken Truman with her while she’d gone to buy drugs, he was… well, you can imagine how he was. Not pleased. Extremely not pleased.
‘YOU WILL REALIZE ALL THE THINGS YOU DON’T NEED IN LIFE’
| Shortly, as Dahlia treated Mr. Tennyson’s feet, he shared that he wasn’t a junkie, he was only living in the park because shelters had limits on how many nights a person could stay, and he was maxed out. Later, Maggie visited Mr. T’s room to tell Jackson that she couldn’t go camping with him that weekend. And, before she could stop him, he’d sweetly given her a long spiel about why he was so sure that she’d love it. Only the thing was, Betty/Britney was in the hospital, Maggie explained. So Amelia would need her support. “My bad,” said Jackson, bummed but accepting of this turn of events. After learning that Mr. Tennyson was homeless, Jackson was perturbed to discover that he couldn’t get him into a shelter. He felt even worse about the fact that he’d blathered on in front of this homeless man about how he had so many pairs of ski boots, etc. Finally, it dawned on Jackson that he had enough gear in his trunk alone to at least set up the old guy with a decent campsite.
‘SHE WAS SCARED THAT FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE, SHE WOULD HAVE TO TELL PEOPLE THAT HER DEALER GOT HER PREGNANT AT 15’
| At the clinic, Betty told Linus that she had to, had to, had to leave. She couldn’t put Amelia through seeing her there. But before she could even begin to beat a hasty retreat, she experienced chest pains and lost consciousness. After quickly finding out from Linus that the girl had taken meth and the tainted opioids, Link carried her into the ER, where Owen laid eyes on Amelia’s worst nightmare. As Link hustled Linus out of the trauma room, Richard wisely urged Owen to let him treat Betty/Britney. When Owen refused, Richard did as he asked and went to call Amelia. Meanwhile, as Link treated Linus, the boy told his doctor that Betty had shared with him all her fears — including that no one would love her after her mistakes. “But I did, alright? And I do,” he declared. Later, Owen was going over Betty/Britney’s case with Richard, Bailey and Teddy — the teen had had an aortic dissection — when Amelia arrived… with the girl’s parents. Amelia scarcely had time to process what had happened before tempers flared, and Bailey had to tell Owen and John to simmer down now.
‘RIGHT NOW, THAT SOUNDS PRETTY GREAT’
| As Betty/Britney was prepped for surgery, Bailey laid down the law with Omelia, forbidding them to set foot in the ER. Afterwards, Amelia was taking a moment to compose herself in an empty hallway when she wound up being joined by Link, who marveled at how futile their work seemed on a day like that, when they were treating people who were working so hard to kill themselves. “Where would you go,” she asked, “if you just gave it all up? When it all seems hopeless, what’s your secret fantasy escape hatch?” Barbados, he said, adding that when he’d visited, he’d been taken by the blues bar some expats had opened. What about Amelia? Actually, in that moment, Link’s fantasy escape sounded awesome to her. And it was about to seem even awesomer when blood leaking into the hall from beneath a door brought an end to their moment of bonding. Behind the door? Linus, who fell out of the room like one of Jason’s victims in a Friday the 13th movie.
‘SHE’S GONNA NEED HER SISTER’
| Knowing just how touch-and-go Betty/Britney’s condition was, Teddy suggested that she, not Maggie, scrub in on the surgery with Richard. “Amelia may never see that little girl open her eyes again,” Teddy noted. And if that happened, “let me be the surgeon to tell her that we lost her.” That way, Maggie could be there for Amelia. Smart, Teddy. And kindhearted. And, it soon appeared, prescient. Betty/Britney wound up with a total of zero blood flow to the aorta if I understood the medicalese correctly. So Richard beseeched Teddy to take whatever extraordinary measures she possibly could. Teddy’s solution: She’d rebuild Betty/Britney’s distal aorta completely. Meanwhile, Link expressed to Amelia his frustration at having lost Linus. “He was a good kid,” she said. “I have to call his parents.” Link offered to do so for her, but she turned him down… and then broke down, collapsing under the weight of her fears for Betty/Britney. Link clearly wanted to hug her, help her… something… but they didn’t know each other well, so he couldn’t or, at least, didn’t. As Mer left the O.R. for the first time in more than a day, Maggie reported that Amelia needed them, stat.
‘THAT MEANS SHE MADE IT, RIGHT?’
| As the hour drew to a close, Amelia and Owen were sitting on pins and needles in the waiting room with Leo and the Dickinsons. “I can’t even stand to look at you,” muttered John, reflecting in horror on the last words he’d said to his daughter. He then begged Omelia to tell him that Britney was going to be OK. Alas, they couldn’t. Buuut… it turned out that she would pull through. Teddy soon came in with the good news and, for her Herculean efforts, was rewarded with a warm hug from Amelia. Arriving on the scene, Mer and Maggie were relieved to know that Betty/Britney — and, by extension, Amelia — was all right. That out of the way, Mer immediately fell asleep standing up. When DeLuca found her a little later snoozing on a gurney in a hallway, he rolled her into a room, gently laid a blanket over her and left her with a kiss on the forehead. Upon hearing from the Karevs that Wendy had been taken into custody, her husband said, “Good. The police can have her.” Though Jo urged him to get his wife help, Alex added strongly, “[But] you don’t let her near [your son] till you know she’s clean. Protect your kid.” Afterwards, thinking that her hubby had been dumped by his junkie dad when he was Truman’s age, Jo gently approached him. “I was 6,” he said. “I wish I’d been 3 [like Truman] so I wouldn’t have remembered.” Jo couldn’t take away that pain; however, she had brought him hot chocolate.
‘BE IN THE BEAUTY WITH ME FOR A SECOND’ | As Bailey left for the day, Ben by her side, she was struck by what a scary world it was — especially for a parent. Her husband agreed that it was scary, but, he hastened to add, “It’s beautiful, too. And if you descend into the fear and miss the beauty, that’s when you start to go to a bad place and need to escape.” So he urged her to just be with him for a moment and take in the beauty. As for Betty/Britney, as Amelia waited along with the Dickinsons for her to wake up, John argued against telling her that Linus had died. “I’m afraid something like that would kill her,” he said. In response, Amelia revealed that her fiancé had died years ago. And it could have killed her. “Instead, it saved my life… because I decided to live.” When at last Betty/Britney awakened, she and her mom shared a tender moment, and Amelia and Owen’s eyes shone with gratitude and relief.
So, I know nobody’s a big Betty/Britney fan, but c’mon, you had to feel for Amelia, right? Were her scenes with Link a precursor to something happening between them? And is anything cuter than Levi and Nico? Comment away.
Launch Gallery: <i>Grey's</i> Season 15 Photos
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