Grey's Anatomy Season 14, Episode 5 Recap: "Danger Zone"

Well Grey’s fans, it's time to hop on the couch with a glass of wine and a strawberry jelly roll (or snack of your choice) and take a trip into the past.

This episode was planned to be rife with flashbacks to tell us the story of how Megan Hunt (Abigail Spencer) went missing in Iraq. It's a four-way flashback, with the POVs of Owen (Kevin McKidd), Riggs (Martin Henderson), and Teddy (Kim Raver) all showing us their experiences when they were stationed together. Perhaps I can finally feel some feels about all of these people because, as faithful Grey’s recap readers this season have noted, I do not give a fuck about this Riggs & Megan storyline (so far).

First things first: The question of whether or not Riggs was ending it or getting back tighter with Megan has been answered. He is fully with Megan. Riggs is, I don’t know, assembling a house (?) for them and the Syrian kid she adopted, Farouk (Bardia Seiri), in L.A.

Flashback to Megan obnoxiously waking Riggs up by yelling that they're under fire and then laughing uproariously (the writers letting us know she’s going out for the last test before a potential promotion), and Megan finding a necklace he’s giving her to propose instead of a ring. She enthusiastically says yes and then runs out to a helicopter where Owen and Teddy happen to be sitting — why do I already suspect these flashbacks are going to be full of magical thinking moments? Not sure whose POV that copter shot is supposed to be, but Teddy looks dubious about the whole thing so #ImWithHer.

Megan doesn’t get the promotion but manages not to cry in a scene where several things happen that are not military regulation. I’m not clear on why Riggs is the only person not in Army gear or participating in any of this, but listening to it happen from the wings. He was also dressed in civilian-esque garb rather than camo in the copter scene — was he in Doctors Without Borders or something?

While Megan and Owen road trip to L.A. at Owen’s last-minute insistence (yes, reader, this will end in a fight as foreshadowed), Nathan is freaking Farouk out with all these stories about what their new life will be like. He may be a good surgeon, but he’s clearly got no sense about PTSD or even a basic understanding of psychology.

Flashback to Teddy low-key calling out Riggs in Iraq for not really proposing to Megan but giving her a necklace that some chick named Felicia Phillips left in his room. Oops, that’s right: Nathan and Megan split up because he was a cheater. Well, saying "split up" is putting it generously.

I don’t know what to make of Owen and Megan singing along to the Salt ’N Pepa classic “Push It.” Has the song so lost all its sexual power that it’s NBD for a pair of siblings to sing it? Or has ownership of female sexuality become so accepted that it’s cool for a brother and sister to sing it together? Anyway, they take a quick detour to some creepy place they obviously used to visit as kids and play some high stakes carnie games.

Bring on the fighting: Owen tells Megan he’d rather she stay in Seattle, while they also fight in a flashback to Iraq when she discovers he didn’t recommend her for the position because he was worried about her taking a job that was three times as dangerous. In a parallel operating space, Teddy is giving Riggs what for. Megan ignoring her older brother who outranks her because she’s mad is peak little sister. (Exhibit A: “Shut up, please. Sir.”) So Owen is blinded by her little sisterness, and she’ll never be a general. And that’s the downside of working with family.

Meanwhile, in the present, while Riggs wasn’t paying attention, Farouk wondered off to get them food and had a little breakdown. Gee, does that mirror the attention he paid to his relationship with Megan in the past? Riggs does do a good job talking him through salsa and indecision, so I’ll give him some credit for that. Back in the past, Teddy convinces Riggs to come clean, sparking a whole chain of events. It's obviously going to turn out to be horrible advice since Megan is already pissed about her thing with Owen.

PLOT TWIST! While making Owen apologize for the fifth time, Megan tells him that she cheated on Riggs first! In the flashback, Riggs asks for the necklace back, and Megan comes clean on her cheating. Both of these Hunts need to be in anger management of the lifelong variety. But finally, we get some blanks get filled in from that first meeting between Owen and Riggs where the former completely lost his shit. Megan did ask to go back on the chopper to avoid flying with Riggs, but she didn’t know the female patient she was with wasn’t trying to stop the shooters who got a ton of guys they treated that day. She was the second shooter and she's the reason Megan gets kidnapped. Owen let her break protocol to do it — so a situation where he was going to be mad at Riggs anyway got blown way out of proportion.

Owen decides to stop being such a pain in the ass and lets Megan follow her dream of living on the beach. Farouk gets his box fan. But Teddy didn’t get a good enough storyline in this episode. Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) gets broken up with. Can Owen and Teddy get together now? That's a storyline I could care about.

So, we leave this episode with the field clear. Meredith (Ellen Pomepo) can get a new love interest, as can Amelia. Owen should probably stop getting married. I still don't care about the Megan storyline, so now I never have to think about it again.

I feel free, readers. I feel free.