After a high-octane start to the season, Grey's Anatomy backed off a bit this week for a quieter episode. It still gave us some great insight into Jo's (Camilla Luddington) time in psychiatric treatment, which proved beneficial.
Jo and Bailey (Chandra Wilson) are trapped with Carly in a hyperbaric chamber, the treatment for CO poisoning. To snap Jo out of a panic attack, Bailey blurts out that she's pregnant. They take on a little role reversal of Jo helping Bailey with some therapy techniques she learned from Carly to help her work through her conflicted emotions about being pregnant.
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That storyline kicks off because one of Jo's therapists, Carly (Rachel Bay Jones, a Tony winner for Dear Evan Hansen), comes into the hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning that the EMTs think could be a possible suicide attempt. Naturally, this throws Jo for a huge loop because if her therapist would try to die by suicide, what hope does Jo have that she can be well?
Interspersed with this scene are flashbacks to Jo's therapy sessions with Carly. She had to move from fear and shame to anger over what she learned about her birth parents and the way her birth mom pulled away from her when she wanted comfort and understanding.
Thankfully, this story has a happy ending. Not only do Bailey and Jo save Carly, it turns out she didn't try to die by suicide. It was an accident. It’s nice they went that way with it because it would have been a massive downer otherwise. And Bailey says some really nice things to Jo about how much progress she has obviously made.
Bailey then has to tell Ben (Jason George) that she's pregnant, which involves a lot of verbal diarrhea. She's nervous about how he'll react, but Ben comes through like a champ. He's super excited.
Speaking of babies, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) skips court because Zola (Aniela Gumbs) needs surgery to put in a new shunt for her spina bifida. Koracick (Greg Germann) is a little prickly with Meredith about being in the hospital after the article she wrote... until he learns why she's there. After that, he's very sweet to both her and Zola and performs the surgery perfectly.
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While Meredith sits and waits for the surgery, she and her sisters vent about the men in their lives. and it's very cute. Meredith isn't sure DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) will ever be anything more than a fun boyfriend, while Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) is kind of freaking out that she is now forever tied to Link (Chris Carmack) because of their baby. Maggie (Kelly McCreary), meanwhile, just got a bigger thrill from a heart surgery she just performed than she did during her entire relationship with Jackson (Jesse Williams), so she thinks that perhaps surgery is her one great love. It’s very Ellis Grey (Kate Burton) of her.
But cue Maggie falling in love with someone within three episodes. Also, Meredith later finds out that skipping her court date has landed her in jail, so that should be...interesting. Next week's episode should be called “Orange Is the New Grey.”
Over in the C-story, Gemma Richard (Jasmine Guy) asks Richard (James Pickens Jr.) out to breakfast following an overnight shift and tries to put the moves on him. It is wildly inappropriate, and Richard gently rejects her, then rejects her more firmly after she doesn't back off. He ends up storming out, but later, when Catherine (Debbie Allen) is super cold to him and Gemma texts him to apologize, he's suddenly reconsidering his romantic choices. Ruh roh, Chief.
Overall, not the most exciting episode of the show so far this season, but there was some really solid stuff from Bailey and Jo. And next week looks like a blast.