Just last week, Scandal allowed Jake Ballard to drag Olivia Pope for her decision to start sleeping with Fitz once again. While fans can argue all they want over whom Liv should end up with, it’s snore-worthy to watch one of the gladiator’s exes bash her choices. That’s why this week’s Grey’s Anatomy, "Leave It Inside," was so wonderful. The fellow Shondaland drama went all in on sex positivity on about 1,000 fronts.
The most overtly pro-sex storyline arrives in the form of Holly, a patient of the week with a massive inoperable heart tumour. The young woman has come to terms with her deadly illness and accepted she has about a year left to live. Instead of being cooped up in hospitals for her final days, she’s out living her best life. "I’d like to have sex with as many men as I care to until my tumour tells me I can’t," she tells doctors Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), Maggie (Kelly McCreary), and April (Sarah Drew). Everyone is taken aback by Holly’s honesty and bravery in the face of literal death, but no one is judging her for her sexuality. In fact, April reflexively says, “Goals.”
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Holly continues on with her sex-positive self throughout the episode, making jokes about the good and bad types of kinks, checking out the very handsome doctor Andrew (Giacomo Gianniotti), and revealing she would rather tell the last guy she hooked up with, a sweet guy named Corey, she "died" rather than continue dealing with him. The terminal young woman only wants to see what "looks good" to her in the moment.
Again, Holly’s doctors try their best to respect her wishes. Meredith repeatedly attempts to tell Corey (Drew Lipson) that Holly died so he’ll stop camping out in the hospital. In the end, she simply tells him to move on and go live his life. This statement plays into another big sex-positive theme in the episode, with Meredith making room for Nathan (Martin Henderson) in her heart and possibly even in her bed.
"Leave It Inside" begins with Meredith cleaning out old memories of the late Derek, including a picture of a giant tumour McDreamy drew for her. Maggie and Amelia realise that’s because the widow is getting ready to sleep with her new guy. "She doesn’t want to have sex with him in a shrine to Derek," Amelia says. "We have to support this," Maggie responds, with both women nodding in agreement. No one wants to dissect Meredith’s seemingly unconscious decision, not even Derek’s own sister, Amelia.
The episode ends with everyone on the hunt for what they want. Meredith and Nathan walk out of Seattle Grace holding hands. April and Maggie decide to go out for a drink to both find "a nice, new attractive man," while asking themselves, "What would Holly do?" Even Dr. Eliza and Dr. Arizona finally get to have their "naked date" after talking about it throughout the entire episode. Kudos, Seattle Grace, kudos.
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