Grey’s Anatomy – True Colors

By: Krista Ann Freego

The episode begins with shots of Minnick (Marika Dominczyk) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) together in bed and with Riggs (Martin Henderson) and Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) in bed. Both are very happy. The voice over is Meredith saying, “There are moments when all stars align. When everything seems, as it should be. Your life seems to have sorted itself out. It’s not like all of our problems go away. It’s just that the problems are just suddenly manageable. You feel so good, you wonder if it’s real. If I’ve learned anything, I can tell you that it is. It’s very real, but it will not last.”  It is so nice and refreshing to see Meredith with so much hope for happiness and a happily ever after. It is also nice to see Riggs happy, what with everything he has gone through. But this is Shondaland and thus the happiness is most likely short lived. Frankly, being a fan of this show for the past thirteen years I have clearly become highly suspicious when it looks like all the stars are aligning for Meredith’s happiness.

The next scene takes us to Hunt’s (Kevin McKidd) home. There is not any dialogue during this scene so the audience is left trying to guess what military officials are doing there to tell Hunt. Has his sister been found? Is she alive? Is she dead? All we know is the information practically puts Hunt into a trance.

Back to the hospital. It is Edwards’s (Jerrika Hinton) first day back. Well, not exactly. Someone has to sign off on Edwards so that she can come back to work. She manages to convince Webber (James Pickens, Jr.) to sign her authorization. Again, my spidey sense tells me that she probably should have waited a day of two before coming back to work.

It turns out that phone call that Alex (Justin Chambers) was making at the end of the last episode was to hire a private eye to find Jo’s (Camilla Luddington) abusive husband so that she doesn’t have to lay-in-wait and in fear of him re-emerging in her life.  I think that his thoughts about making the phone call came when we saw in last week’s episode how scared that woman was of her husband. So, Alex has followed Jo’s husband (guest star Matthew Morrison) to a medical conference (apparently Jo’s husband is a doctor as well). Alex calls Meredith to tell her where he is and she, much like all the audience, does not believe this is a good idea and tells him to come home.

Our medical case. Two people in one car drove off a cliff. The woman did not have a blouse on and the guy did not have on any pants. Both were unconscious when brought into the hospital.  Bailey (Chandra Wilson) guesses that these two people were parking and accidentally knocked the car into gear causing it to drive over the cliff.

A baby is brought into the ER and she is blue. The baby is choking on something and while in his daze Hunt snaps out long enough to take over the case as he turns the child over, slaps it hard on the back and the baby starts to cry.

The female victim is the first person to wake up. Her first words are requesting over and over again “is he alive.” Before anyone can answer her, she is unable to breath and speak and has to be rushed off as an emergency.

The family with the baby that was choking also have another daughter, an older daughter who is very precocious. Meredith finds her playing with a syringe and brings her back to her parents telling them “please keep a close eye on her, it’s very busy here today.” Hmm. More foreshadowing that her parents obviously do not keep a close eye on her and that she will be a key player in a dramatic moment on tonight’s episode.

In a new level of brilliant cruelty, Shonda has now integrated “what-if” character daydreaming scenarios into her plotlines.  Alex is at the conference with Jo’s ex. We see Alex befriend Jo’s ex and see her ex drunk and acting like an ass. Then, suddenly we see Alex reveal who he is and how he knows him by stating, “Paul, this is from your wife,” and then proceeds to beat the ever-living life out of him and ends up behind bars in jail. Suddenly, we see that it didn’t actually happen, but was rather a scenario that Alex was playing in his mind. It is nice to see Alex actually thinking about how his actions will play out rather than just acting and reacting without thinking.

Meredith, after seeing Riggs interact with a little girl, invites him over for dinner tonight to meet her children and then stay over. Progress!

The doctors are all talking about the car sex the two patients were having. One doctor stated that car sex is only for new couples and, therefore, they are not married. Maggie (Kelly McCreary) states that she doesn’t understand the allure of car sex and that it is not enough room and too many limbs and gear shifts. Minnick gives a wink to Arizona and states “you people need bigger cars.” I am just going to leave that one there for you all the think about and process as you choose.

Meredith confides in Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) that she invited Riggs over to meet the kids tonight and have dinner. Meredith has now also started referring to him by his first name, Nathan. Further progress. Meredith says that after doing this she now feels nauseous. Amelia assumes that it is because she is afraid that the kids are going to love him, get attached to him and then something is going to go horribly wrong and he won’t be in their lives anymore leaving the kids will be devastated. Meredith states she is wrong and that is not why she feels sick. Amelia assures her that it is and that she is always the one who thinks this way. Meredith retorts, “Yeah but you’re crazy, I’m just sick”.

Amelia: “Derek is dead. Maggie is fine. There is nothing in your way but you.”

Meredith: “Look at you being the sane one.”

Amelia: “Moments. I have moments.”

The parents of the baby that Owen saved want to thank him. The mother hugs Owen and says “we thought we lost her and you brought her back to us.” This triggers something inside Owen and he goes all vision hazy again and then yells at the mother, pushes her away and leaves the room. Amelia witnessed the entire exchange and knows for certain now that something is seriously wrong with Owen today.

Owen retreats into a nearby storage room and Amelia follows. Owen confesses what happened. Megan has been found. Amelia automatically thinks that means that Megan is dead and goes to console Owen. Owen then tells Amelia that they say that Megan is alive. Owen does not want to allow himself to believe it. He does not want to tell his mother or Riggs because it could be a mistake and he doesn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. Later in the episode it is in fact confirmed that Megan is alive and that it is indeed really her. Now, Owen is overcome with guilt for stopping his search for her and for moving on with his life. “Weeks went by without me thinking about her. I was so busy I couldn’t even spare her a thought. And she was in a hole, in the ground being tortured. I turned my back on her. I stopped searching. I gave up. I gave up on her.”

Again, we are shown another scene from the conference with Alex and Jo’s husband. Jo’s ex is getting ready in the wings to make his speech. Alex tells him that he is a friend of Brooke Statler (a/k/a Jo’s real name). Her ex asks where she is now and Alex tells him that he doesn’t need to know that or think about her ever again and that if he ever goes near her, he will find him and he will kill him. We then fast forward to Alex returning to the loft apartment he shared with Jo only to find her being choked by her husband. Her ex looks up at Alex and says, “Hey Alex! I found her,” which he punctuates by breaking her neck and killing her right before Alex’s eyes. The smug husband thanks Alex for his part in helping him find her. And again, we are flashed directly back to Alex still sitting on the couch in the lobby of the hotel of the conference. Another cruel what-if. Quite a sadistic “Grey’s Anatomy” version of choose your own adventure books that I would always read and fail at, as a kid. What does happen at the conference? Alex never confronts Jo’s ex. Instead, he leaves and goes back to Seattle.

The male patient wakes up and is insistent on getting out of bed, stating that he wants to go see the girl who came in with him. He states, “If she can just see me first. She’ll know she’s alright. She won’t be afraid. She won’t be so scared.” It turns out the male patient is not her boyfriend. He is not her love and is not a good man at all. In fact, he is a bad man – a very bad man. We learn when the female victim wakes up that he got into her car and put a knife to her throat, made her drive into the woods and tried to rape her. So, she hit the gas and drove off the cliff to kill him. When this truth comes to light Edwards is with the patient to take him to the female’s room. After the hospital goes on lockdown, we see the bad guy has swiped a scalpel and is now holding Edwards hostage. He wants her to get him out of the hospital before he is arrested and taken into custody.

Edwards and the bad man are then locked into a hallway that they can no longer escape. In fact, the bad man, Edwards and the precocious little girl are all trapped together. The bad man wants to start a big enough fire to trigger the fire alarm so the doors unlock and he can escape. When he reveals his plan is to take the little girl with him as a hostage, Edwards decides that he can’t be allowed to escape and sets him on fire. Unfortunately, he runs into another room with a vast supply of flammable material and Edwards runs after him to stop him from igniting them in order to save the little girl and the other people in the hospital. Sadly, she is too late and there is a giant explosion that neither she nor the very man could have survived and the little girl appears to be trapped in the fiery blaze.

When Meredith is informed by Amelia that Owen’s sister is still alive and was found, Meredith asks if Nathan knows yet. Amelia says “no.” Amelia tells Meredith that she can wait until later and Meredith states she needs to find him and tell him now because “If Derek was alive I would want to know right now.”

As Meredith has arrived outside the hospital to find Nathan and tell him about Megan, she sees the giant explosion and that is where this episode come to an end.

A moment of silence for Dr. Stephanie Edwards. Rest in Peace.