Grey’s Anatomy – It Only Gets Much Worse

By: Jamie Steinberg

The episode begins with Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) explaining the origin of “Murphy’s Law.” She notes that Edward Murphy in 1949 conducted a rocket sled experiment to see how much pressure a human could withstand. This taught Murphy, “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”

We cut to Kepner (Sarah Drew) who is now in charge of General Surgery having taken Meredith’s position while she is suspended. We also see Webber (James Pickens, Jr.) and Catherine Avery (Debbie Allen) debating her meddling by bringing in Minnick (Marika Dominczyk). “If you see a problem in our marriage will I hear about it or will a consultant get me out of my bedroom,” wonders Webber. Frosty!

According to Maggie (Kelly McCreary), it seems Kepner is “slinking.” She is hovering under the radar at the hospital and at home (according to Jackson) so no one makes waves with her about taking over for Meredith. Meanwhile, the residents appear to love Minnick since she is providing a solo surgery for each of them. Minnick needs a certain surgery for Warren (Jason George) and surprisingly must steal it from Webber. A spineless Kepner must beg Webber to participate so she doesn’t have to go back to Bailey (Chandra Wilson) about it.

Edwards (Jerrika Hinton) and Minnick head to the ER to troll for patients as their original surgical option passed away. When they find Murphy (Tessa Ferrer) with a young boy who needs gallbladder surgery they swipe it for themselves.

Kepner and Maggie head to see Meredith’s cancer patient to let her know that April will now be operating. The patient is not happy as she was used to Meredith and had received a promise from her for a successful surgery. April is able to calm the patient and get her to agree to the operation with her now as lead surgeon.

At home, Bailey wants Warren to tell her what side he is officially on – Team Minnick or Team Webber. He refuses to give an answer noting, “I have enough problems being your first lady. Just stay out of it.” Ouch.

Back at the hospital, Maggie finally speaks her mind. She is tired of Kepner pretending it is okay to slither into Meredith’s job. She goes as far as to accuse Kepner of being a traitor! Over in the OR, Weber and Warren are operating when Bailey comes in. Webber is still bitter having to co-operate on the patient and starts to tell Warren to carefully select the music that plays while he operates since he once had a resident who did their first solo surgery with him who play something out of sorts. It seems Bailey was that resident. Webber tells Warren, “Somewhere between then and now Dr. Bailey forgot that I know how to teach.”

Over lunch, Owen (Kevin McKidd) and the other angry doctors glare at Kepner. Maggie makes the argument against Kepner being in charge, but Owen thinks they should be Switzerland – neutral. It isn’t Kepner’s fault that Minnick is in their hair. Unfortunately, Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) can no longer remain neutral once she learns that a resident will be scrubbing in on a peds case (Edward’s surgery). Minnick is an orthopedic surgeon according to Arizona, but Minnick assures her that she has had just as much general surgery training as Robbins. So, she is completely capable of teaching Edwards during this surgery. Robbins warns her though, “Pretty soon you are going to find yourself out of teachers. Its’ tough to be a leader when there is no one to lead.” Arizona wants in on the surgery and Minnick agrees – BUT Robbins can only observe.

Kepner, Maggie and Wilson (Camilla Luddington) scrub up for the cancer surgery. Maggie is still bitter about Kepner taking on Meredith’s surgery, but Kepner has had enough of the resistance from her fellow doctors. She tells Maggie she can’t scrub in and that she’ll get help from Wilson if she needs it.

In Edwards surgery, things start go wrong. They end up losing the little boy. This is the first patient that Edwards has lost and she looks to Minnick for help and reassurance, but finds none. Edwards runs out of the OR and finds comfort in the arms of Webber.

Webber meets with his wife after work and is still very angry. He informs her, “Bailey was my start to finish and you turned her against me!” April thinks that people are angry that she was the one put in charge over them, but she doesn’t understand it isn’t hospital politics at the crux but loyalty. Jackson (Jesse Williams) tells Kepner that he knows she got the job because of his mother.

Minnick is in tears when Arizona finds her. Arizona thinks Minnick should be putting up a strong front for Edwards and teach her how to handle losing a patient. It seems Minnick has never lost a child patient before though and doesn’t know to keep it together. She looks at Arizona for advise asking, “I never lost a kid. How do you do it?” Arizona reminds her of the first time she lost a child patient and tells her just to take her time.

The end of the episode finds Kepner in her office when she is interrupted by Catherine. Mama Avery says Kepner can’t hide in her office and suggests they go out to dinner to celebrate her new job and not let everyone make her feel bad for it. Catherine explains Kepner got the job because she was a fighter – someone who had to work hard to become doctor. It was not something that came easy to her.

At the episode’s end we hear Meredith saying, “Once things start to go wrong, it’s hard to break the cycle. Murphy’s Law is not physics. It’s just a thing a guy said.” We see Minnick in her car crying as she bangs on her steering wheel, causing the horn to stay on. Arizona walks over and tells her to pop the hood, helping her cut the horn’s noise. The two hug and then we see Kepner and Catherine wining and dining at a fancy restaurant.