Grey's Anatomy Season 14, Episode 9 Recap: "1-800-799-7233"

Right, so when we left off with Grey's some two months ago it was like the show walked us into a glass door. Wilson (Camilla Luddington) had just run into her abusive ex-husband Paul Stadler (Matthew Morrison) who called her Brooke and, frankly reader, I felt frozen on her behalf. Also something was happening with hackers.

The show drops us right back into that moment, which feels like being inside an air bubble in the middle of the sea, with Paul introducing her to his fiancee, Jenny (Bethany Joy Lenz) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) and Webber (James Pickens Jr.) are losing their shit over his work which is epically fucked. He's here to get her to sign divorce papers so once Wilson's head clears the conversation needs to begin: should she tell his soon to be next wife what a monster he was to her?

Meredith (Ellen Pompeo, the $20M woman), is still sucking the blood out of Schmidt the intern (no, literally) while she operates. Glasses is totally getting shuttled into the spin-off, right? The hackers have turned the thermostat up because this 24-esque b-story is doing way too much. After watching one intern freak out, Paul asks if he can stay and help and it's hard not to want to punch him in the face.

Stadler's appearance sends ripples through the hospital as those who know who he is find out that he is there. Karev (Justin Chambers) just about punches him on site and sends an intern to collect Wilson. Wilson's run outside to lose it and get it together was the first time in this episode that I cried, but readers I've been so emotional lately and anticipating this so I know, I'm a weenie. Weber sends Stadler into help Meredith with her spleen thing, but when he introduces himself after they finish up, she does a double take. Damn, I was hoping she'd punch him in the face. I guess she had to hold it together for the patient. Her terse, "I know who you are, I'm friends with Jo Wilson," served as a good rebuke, but it's still no punch in the face.

Okay, here is my question: if Paul Stadler is a "world-class surgeon" and Wilson is hiding from him by changing her name, did she think she could just stay in medicine and never see him again while working at one of the top hospitals in the country?

When this gaslighting MFer tries to convince Meredith that Wilson is unstable, I started to wish Meredith would stick a scalpel in his eye. When Wilson smiled at the intern who told her Karev said not to leave her alone, I probably cried again. OKay, you know I did. I'm not even going to talk to you about what Mer putting her hands on Wilson's shoulders and saying, "You are Jo Wilson and I know exactly who you are" did to my eyeballs. I thought I was prepared for this episode, but how do you prepare to watch someone being emotionally abused and manipulated?

As predicted, Wilson can't let Jenny leave without tipping her off to what kind of dude Paul is. Which takes some serious guts. They get Arizona to distract him with questions while Wilson explains to Jenny some of the things he did to her; they're horrendous. Wilson gives Jenny her cell number, after offering multiple times to get her out of this relationship if she needs help. And what happens? Jenny tells Paul everything. He comes back, is pissed, proceeds to physically intimidate everyone, including Meredith. I was all cried out at this point, but I gasped a few times.

When Wilson tells Karev she wishes Paul were dead, it's echoes of Karev saying previously that he should have killed Paul when he had the chance. Surely no one was surprised when Meredith walked in the next day to find the couple looking at his body in the ER; he'd been the victim of a hit and run.

In other noteworthy storylines: This Parker kid who blew the keypad on the blood bank has a future at Grey Sloane. Even if he is a convicted hacker and proud trans man who broke into the DMV, the most victimless crime imaginable. Saving the hospital $20M in ransom money and getting the AC back on? Hero.

It's a shame that Maggie (Kelly McCreary) and Jackson (Jesse Williams) had their flirtation shoved into this episode. While it does offset the horror of watching an abusive relationship in real time, it's also like an ice cream cone that I want to savor and not see their budding relationship as the offset to a bad one.

The DeLuca and Bellow thing needs to iron itself out. I'm having trouble caring, which is crazy because she, on her own, is adorable and he is a hunk. Needs more chemistry.

Did anyone ever tell Weber that Paul Stadler is a POS?