Shonda Rhimes makes great finales, and she’s definitely had enough experience. Right now Grey’s Anatomy is in its 11th season and shows no signs of slowing down. This week’s winter finale was quite a doozy, and Rhimes left us with quite a few cliff hangers to keep us on our toes until January 29th.
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The scene opens up to a patient with two very nasty and serious infections. One is in her brain and the other is by her heart and lungs. Maggie and Derek are at odds over who should get to operate first. Maggie called Meredith in for a second opinion, and who does she side with? Her half-sister of course, which really angers Derek. He demands she take a look at the brain scans again, insisting that his operation needs to be done first, and Mer doesn’t budge. Owen is a less than effective mediator in all this and decides that both Maggie and Derek do some more tests to determine who gets to operate first.
Arizona is still so terribly conflicted as to what to do about the whole My-boss-has-a-life-threatening-tumor-and-could-die-any-second problem and believes Dr. Herman might be making spontaneous decisions because of her tumor like eating ice cream first thing in the morning or having sex with Graham, her other fellow, in an on call room (Really Herman? Graham? You can do better). Arizona is rightfully mortified and decides to take things into her own hands. She calls the hospital where Dr. Herman is a patient and demands that her brain scans be sent over to Amelia, head of neuro. She believes Herman acting out are side effects of the tumor, which Herman immediately shuts down when she finds out Arizona confronted Graham about their sexual relationship. Herman demands she leave her alone, and that her recent antics aren’t a side effect of the tumor, they’re a side effect of dying. Amelia eventually sees the tumor, calling it “beautiful”, and Arizona starts grabbing every scan Amelia has demanding her that she not tell anyone about Herman’s secret, but Amelia has great news. She thinks she can take out the tumor.
[New page = Unfriendly competition]
Owen and Callie are working on their wounded warrior project and have two soldiers, Rick and Jordan, with a missing leg, who Callie pits against each other in a competition to see who can try on their robotic prosthetic leg first. Jordan wins the contest, so they suit him up with the leg and have him take steps with Callie’s help. Owen warns her not to make them too competitive, right when Rick teases Jordan about the progress he’s made with the leg, and Jordan falls down, hitting his head on the hospital floor. Owen blames Callie for the incident, and Rick now feels guilty for pushing his friend too far, and decides he’s quitting the program. Amelia is able to save Jordan, but he’s in a coma and they’re not sure when and if he’ll wake up. Amelia and Owen have a bonding moment over each of their personal struggles (Amelia with her relapse and recovery and Owen with his PTSD) which leads Owen to have a change of heart. He apologizes to Callie about blaming her, and tells her to push Rick back into the program. He reluctantly agrees and takes his first steps with the robotic leg by the end of the episode.
Meanwhile, April is going in for another ultrasound, but gets a surprise when the person performing the ultrasound is none other than Edwards. Awkward. Edwards accidentally lets slip that April is having a boy, and she is immediately upset, saying she didn’t want to know, but Edwards is focused on something else entirely: something is wrong with their baby. Avery walks into the ultrasound and makes a comment about how the baby is sitting “like Buddha”, the same way in which the baby was positioned for the last ultrasound, so Edwards gets a second opinion from Jo, a third from Arizona, and a fourth and final opinion from Herman herself, concluding her fears: April and Avery’s baby has osteogenesis imperfecta, a birth defect where the baby has fragile bones that are easily broken for no reason. Arizona asks Herman if there’s anything she can do, and Herman, sensing Arizona is friends with the patient, says “Be there for her” as the baby will likely not live to term, and if he does, will only live for a couple of weeks. Arizona still believes there’s something she can do, and Edwards does too, and while she’s talking to Herman, Avery walks by and hears Herman say just how cute the baby looks sitting “like a little Buddha”. Avery is maaaad and demands Edwards tell him what is wrong with his baby.
[New page = Shepherd vs. Shepherd]
The chest scans come in from their patient, and it’s decided that Maggie should definitely operate before Derek, but not before Derek gets a second (Third? Fourth?) opinion from Richard Webber. Webber sides with Derek, not knowing that he just got pulled into this huge war among the married couple. Derek tries to pull rank over Maggie in front of Webber, Mer and Owen, and insists he needs to operate first. Mer reminds him that the patient is Maggie’s and she should have the final say, and that’s that she needs to operate on this girl ASAP. Derek is defeated as the girls rush her into surgery. After a few complications, the surgery ends up being a success, but not before Derek gives everyone on the show and all of us viewers a heart attack, by claiming the girls may have taken too long on the necessary brain surgery needed and that the patient might have lost function in her brain. She didn’t, she’s fine, and for a brief moment everyone is happy that the patient has been saved.
Derek really doesn’t like loosing, especially to his wife, who he already resents and has done so the entire season for not taking the job for the President in D.C. Well turns out the President is a very hard person to say no to, as a White House aid goes in person to the hospital to convince him to go back. At first, he doesn’t even question it. He immediately tells her he is not going to change his mind because he decided to stay in Seattle for his family, but after how things just went in surgery, he’s mad, and wants to win. Badly. So he confronts Meredith and tells her he was offered the job again. She pushes him and tells him he should say yes, because she knows that’s what he really wants, and he dials the number on the business card the aid gave him and smugly accepts the job right in front of Meredith. She’s so mad. She demands that he leave right then and there, and we’re assuming she means she doesn’t want him to say goodbye to their kids, and as he walks away, she has flashbacks to the day on the carousel when Webber walks away from her future with Ellis.
Are the lovebirds doomed? Is Derek really leaving his family to go work for the President? Will April and Avery’s baby be okay? Sound off in the comments!