Grey’s Anatomy – Jukebox Hero

By: Jamie Steinberg

“We all have heroes. People we look up to, people who we aspire to be. They are great – if we don’t look too closely. If we get to close, we realize heroes are just regular people. And regular people can fail us.” – Meredith Gray

It is Minnick’s (Marika Dominczyk)’s first official day at work and she’s already making waves. She looks at the board for surgeries and decides some of them need to be rescheduled because she wants to be able to scrub in on them. She gets a fair warning by Maggie (Kelly McCreary) who notes, “If anyone lays a finger on it and [Bailey] sees you she’ll take that finger and kill you.”

Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) answers and ER call where a cab driver (Phil LaMarr) is bringing a woman in labor to the hospital. The baby seems to quickly be on the way so Arizona advises the woman to put her knees up on the dashboard and lean back. As they arrive at the hospital, the cab gets into an accident…with the patient’s husband!

Dr. Webber (James Pickens Jr.) has a plan for Minnick – starve her from surgery. Make her unable to scrub in. Riggs (Martin Henderson) is the first to take on the doctor as he tells her that he has just finished his surgery, much to her surprise.

Now that the mama-to-be is at the hospital it is time for her to give birth to the baby. Unfortunately, she’ll have to have a C-Section since she needs surgery to fix her broken legs and hip. It seems the baby’s father, Brian, will not be allowed in the surgery room yet Arizona relents realizing that the baby will need a parent to bond with.

Two hockey players come into the ER. They got into a fight and one of them basically has had his face cutoff by a skate stomp. Jo (Camilla Luddington) is treating one while the other is headed to plastics. Jo begins to lecture her player about lashing out with bad behavior when Warren (Jason George) intervenes. Minnick wants to scrub in on Arizona’s patient, but is denied. Minnick explains she wasn’t asking Arizona for permission, but is still shut-out being told, “Richard Webber is my friend.” It looks like this possible love connection has gone cold…

Minnick heads to see the hockey player who is being by Jackson. She wants Warren to scrub in so he can learn alongside Avery, but Jackson won’t have it. He reminds Minnick that he is there to save the face of this man – the face his mother loves, one the woman of his dreams will see, one he makes a first impression with at job interviews and so on. So, Avery has ruled out Warren participating, which makes Minnick wonder, “Does anyone get taught around here?”

In OR, Arizona is ready to operate on Mindy (Kate Minor). Brian takes a moment to explain to his wife that he is responsible for the car accident and really hopes she can forgive him.

The cab driver is next door to Jo’s hockey player patient. He stops Warren and wonders what the status is of Mindi (the mother-to-be), but Warren can’t give out the information. He hears the hockey player next door struggling to breath and brings it to Warren’s attention. Thankfully, Warren is able to grab the player in time for treatment.

Things start to take a turn for the worse in the OR when Arizona laments her need for Alex (Justin Chambers). Murphy (Tessa Ferrer) reminds her that he’s not there so she’s going to have to handle this case on her own.

Edwards (Jerikka Hinton) runs into Owen (Kevin McKidd) who wants to know if she has seen his wife. Edwards is keeping Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) a secret so she tells him she has not located her. He can tell she isn’t being truthful so he tells her to let Amelia know that he understands how she feels and accepts her decision.

While everyone has their hands full at the hospital, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) has spent the episode trying to track down Karev. She goes to several jails only to be turned away for not having his social security number, case number or the simple fact he isn’t there.

Mindy’s surgery goes well, but Brian is still worried that his wife won’t forgive him. Arizona tries to take the blame for the accident since she says Mindy wouldn’t have had her legs on the dashboard if it weren’t for her instructions. Brian tries to take the blame though because he was baby shopping and sped off to get to the hospital when he learned his wife was in labor.

Bailey, Minnick and Webber wait for the residents to show up for a meeting, but none of them come. Webber is proud. Bailey (Chandra Wilson) isn’t pleased by the mutiny and feels that they are just “but hurt” by the fact that she is implementing new ways (and doctors) that will take them to the next level of care.

The cab driver is discharged and headed home. He is bummed that Mindy needed surgery because he was hoping to have a heroic story to tell. Warren tells him that thanks to his quick thinking they were able to catch the hockey player in time to save his life. So, the cab driver was – in fact – a hero afterall!

“Our heroes aren’t special. They are just people. They are like us, just trying to survive. They’re trying to be happy, trying to do better, be better, feel better. Heroes aren’t more special than the rest of us.” – Meredith Gray

We see Jo saying that after the day she is had she is fine. She says that bad days happen and that she is built for it. Meredith returns home without any luck finding Alex. She flops down on her bed only to have Alex raise up from it! After the two scream from shock, he says that he has been there all day – sleeping.