Apparently, Teddy is in a league of her own when it comes to laying low. Until Thursday’s Grey’s Anatomy, we hadn’t so much as glimpsed Owen’s secret babymama since she checked herself out of Grey Sloan in the Season 15 premiere. But, after Maggie violated HIPAA to unburden herself to Mer, Grey sought out her former colleague to offer an ear to bend and a shoulder to lean on… which, in turn, brought us that much closer to the implosion of Owen and Amelia’s newly-rekindled (and, for my money, charming) romance. Did Teddy go so far as to tell her onetime lover that he’s about to become a father? Read on. This recap not only answers that question but reveals all the new intel we know about Jo’s history with Link.
‘DID HE JUST CALL YOU RICHIE?’ | As “Everyday Angel” began, Amelia couldn’t shake the feeling that Betty might ditch school, so she and Owen decided to just, er, keep an eye out rather than go to work; we learned that Jo and Link had been undergrads who’d waited tables together (“He was like my brother,” not a boyfriend, she insisted); and Mer tracked down Teddy at the park where Cristina used to get her coffee. At Grey Sloan, Maggie was taken aback to come face to face with Jackson, who’d returned from his leave for a very special surgery. But she was too irritated about his sudden disappearing act to agree to dinner that night. (In fact, her last text reply to him was a chilly “K.”) Bailey was at last eager to get started on Jo’s fellowship, only with Owen, Amelia and Mer all out that day, the duo would have to focus on current patients, not future ones. Finally, in the ER, Nico flustered the hell out of Levi by reminding him that he still owed him a drink — or, as Taryn put it, a date.
‘I CAN’T EVEN LOOK AT HIM, HOW THE HELL CAN I RAISE A CHILD WITH HIM?!?’ | At Mer’s, Teddy explained that she’d been planning to tell Owen about her pregnancy, but then she’d found out he was playing house with Amelia. So why was Teddy still in Seattle, then? Why hadn’t she taken a bus or train out of town? Could she and Owen at least be friends again, raise their child together? Oh, no, Teddy replied while violently salvaging the cookies Mer was supposed to make for Zola’s bake sale. “I hate him so much, I wanna smash his face in!” In response, Grey reminded Teddy that she’d grown up without her father because Ellis had hated him too much to let him love her. What’s more, when Teddy’s baby someday went looking for his dad, he wasn’t going to find some lowlife. “They’re gonna find a good man.” Later, Teddy admitted that she didn’t hate Owen at all, she loved him.
Remembering all of the things that Owen used to say to her about Amelia and her disinterest in having a family, Teddy couldn’t help but wonder: Did the removal of that brain tumor change Amelia thatmuch? Now that Omelia were raising Betty and Leo, was Amelia all in? Mer smartly declined to speculate about how in Amelia was. She simply maintained that the longer Teddy kept her secret, the worse it would be for all involved. Trouble was, if Teddy told Owen she was pregnant, she knew that he’d be there for her forevermore, and she’d never for one minute of that forevermore know if it was because of her or because of the baby.
‘WHY IS DR. AVERY IN THE DOGHOUSE?’ | Checking in on Cece, Maggie was forced to explain to the matchmaker that Jackson was just back at Grey Sloan to perform a complicated surgery. After that, he’d be off again on his spiritual journey. So was she sad that he was only back briefly? asked Cece. Aggravated, Pierce refused to answer (and was miffed when chatty Casey seemed to be about to answer for her just after she’d left the room). Later, Cece forced Maggie to open up to her by suggesting that she didn’t want her doctor distracted when her heart was at stake. So Jackson was off asking big questions — what were Maggie’s questions? she wanted to know. “Why does he keep texting me pictures of trees?” among other things, Pierce replied. But what Cece meant was, what questions did Maggie have about herself? Meanwhile, Jackson intrigued Alex with his case: that of a boy named Ravi who was suffering from a hereditary condition that left him with protrusions growing out of his back.
To Karev’s dismay, his wife’s handsome “brother” would also be involved in the operation. During surgery on the kid, Alex could barely contain his hostility. (Then again, containing hostility has never been an Alex specialty.) But his focus soon shifted back to Ravi, who it turned out had cancer. Though scared to death of the prospect of losing his boy, whose mom had died in childbirth, the dad gave Jackson permission to do whatever he had to in order to save him — even if that meant removing the scapula and severely limiting his range of motion going forward. Only, off a talk with a compassionate Maggie, Jackson had the bright idea to radiate Ravi’s scapula outside the body — by removing them and reattaching them. Link loved the idea, and ultimately, Alex was on board, too. Later, Alex revealed to Link why he’d been so hostile: Why hadn’t Jo’s “brother” leveled her abusive husband? he asked. Link hadn’t known, he answered, or damn right, he would have.
‘WE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN FRIENDS’ | After recalling that “when I was 14, I got alcohol poisoning in the middle of the school day,” Amelia explained to Owen that they were really stalking Betty because she’d read a text of the teen’s that suggested she might be skipping school with a bunch of kids — a big red flag for the recovering addict. A couple of hours later, the vice-principal came out and told them that they’d have to shove off — they couldn’t just stay in a school zone. So they parked… nearby. And it turned out to be a good thing they did: They caught Betty looking like she was leaving school with some pals. Later, Owen couldn’t help but wonder whether the prospect of parenthood had really been what had broken up his and Amelia’s marriage. Well, brain tumor, she replied. That and Christopher, her ill-fated baby. “I have not ever said [his name] out loud before,” she marveled. But she could now. Big, big step. “Were you guys seriously out here all day?” Betty asked after school. There had been. But on the plus side, she was fine and hadn’t done drugs.
‘IT’S NOT A DATE’ | In the ER, DeLuca told Richard Levi was distracted with a patient who needed stitches because he had a thing for Helm. (Ha.) In response, Webber questioned why DeLuca hadn’t noticed himself that the edges of the wound didn’t line up, and ordered him to step up his game. And, after Taryn screwed up on a patient, he did just that. As a matter of fact, DeLuca soon took so much initiative that Richard fussed at him for doing everything in the ER. Come again? Did he have a problem with the resident? Nope, Webber said. And “don’t get mad at me for thinking you’ve got it in you” to be an attending.
‘THE INTERNET DOES NOT PROVIDE ACCURATE DIAGNOSES’ | A mechanic named Nina who was at
Grey Sloan to see Mer was not interested in the slightest in meeting with Jo and Bailey.
But “Grey was a lump of clay when I met her,” Miranda said.
“And I helped her with the mini-livers,” added Jo. Unfortunately, the duo exhausted
every test that they could think of and still weren’t able to diagnose the patient. So she refused to let them give up. If Bailey was Mer’s teacher, said Nina, starting in on her lunch, act like it — go back and solve the problem. “If you don’t help me, I’m gonna kill myself,” she added before doubling over in pain. And it turned out she’d never been diagnosed correctly because the problem only revealed itself after she’d eaten something, and she’d always fasted before tests. At last, Bailey got to the bottom of it!
‘CAN I KISS YOU, PLEASE?’ | As the hour drew to a close, Richard was jamming with
Link and DeLuca at the bar when Levi showed up for his date… which turned out not to be a date at all — Nico immediately left Schmidt to join Richard, Link and DeLuca. Back at the hospital, Bailey wondered aloud to Jo why she was still stressed even after making so many changes to her life. What could it be? “My husband,” the firefighter, she deduced. “When I don’t hear from him, I don’t breathe.” (Were we headed for hard times for Ben and Bailey?) In recovery, Jackson reported to Ravi’s dad that the boy was going to be fine, then told Maggie how she’d helped make that possible — and that he wasn’t going away again. He’d had a great day, and she’d been a huge part of that. Regardless, she still couldn’t have dinner with him that night — she had to work on her rechargeable hearts. She did have time for a kiss, though. Finally, Jo got Alex to admit that Link was a pretty good guy, and as Teddy was leaving Mer’s, Amelia was coming in the back door, beaming because she’d be sticking around Owen’s place… indefinitely.
