Find out what happens when Amelia’s past is put on display for all of Grey-Sloan Memorial with our recap of Grey’s Anatomy season 11, episode 7!
Since her move to Seattle, Amelia Shepherd has taken a back seat to a majority of the stories on Grey’s Anatomy. Possibly one of the most interesting characters circulating the hospital floors, Amelia’s story is less familiar to those who did not watch her life develop on the spin-off Private Practice. Tonight’s Grey’s Anatomy season 11, episode 8, works Amelia into the web of the leading surgeons and drops a hearty load of drama onto her plate!
Second chances don’t run in surgery: Arizona is not one to jump into something on a whim. Dr. Herman’s time is running out to transfer her knowledge to Arizona so that she may carry the fetal surgery legacy. But with a brain tumor comes appointments and headaches that cause you to miss work and go AWOL. When this happens when a time-sensitive patient’s fetus slips into a dangerous state, Arizona is left with no choice but to deliver the baby and hand off control to Alex.
In an act of heroism, a man jumped from the second story of a burning building clutching to his wife. But upon landing, the man and his wife sustained grave injuries and he refused to let her lifeless body go. Once in the ER, Meredith and Maggie are able to talk him into letting go of Haddie. In a miraculous move, Meredith is able to find a pulse and rushes Haddie off to another trauma room.
But the real drama lurks outside the curtains where the daughter wants an update on the condition of her parents. Amelia heads out to deliver the news, but the woman, a fellow Narcotics Anonymous attendee demands a different doctor (within her rights) while airing a laundry list of Amelia’s past mistakes (not within her rights). Instead of defending his sister, Derek marches into the trauma room and executes a surgery that did not require opening her skull, proving, rather pompously, that he is still king of neuro.
Baby’s first time: Jo’s first solo surgery is approaching, but her comments about Bailey’s stature do not go unnoticed before she steps into the OR. Confident in her approach, her hindsight is less than 20/20 when she cannot decide if she nicked a vein or not. Bailey’s playful torture of Jo during surgery washes away when she has to make sure that Jo’s possible mistake check out.
Once Graham and Arizona deliver the baby, Alex and Arizona head off with the preemie while Graham is left to routinely deliver the placenta and close the mother. But when he goes to pull, the woman begins to lose blood by the pints. April tries to help, but in the end the baby survives and the mother passes. The father is rightfully pissed, but Herman steps in to explain that Arizona made all the right calls and prevented the baby from dying.
The other shoe: Owen calls for an emergency board meeting in the wake of Amelia and Derek’s refusal to speak up about the issue. In a moment of recollection, Derek realizes he may have inadvertently given the hint that Amelia is not fit for the position. Amelia is furious at Derek, and rightfully so. He acted in a fit of jealously, but deep down he knows that Amelia is the right fit for her position as chief of neurosurgery.
He tells the board that much while cycling through his own recollections of the night their father was shot in front of them.
Arizona and Dr. Herman go over the next step of the recovery process as she discusses the radiation that she must start. In her absence, Herman monitored the hospital system watching Arizona as she worked through her time without her guidance. Seeing the faith that Herman has in her, Arizona decides to proceed with her education.
At the end of the work day, Maggie and Meredith share a bunk in the on call room where they air their final grievances over the missed dinner. Maggie is not pissed so much that Richard was there, but that she did not get a break from another night of yelling at her TV and considering buying a cat. Meredith takes Maggie into the Grey’s Anatomy super secret Ellis Grey house drinking club.
The evening ends with a toast to George O’Malley and Arizona arriving at the chez Grey to stay. Amelia comes home to find Derek waiting up for her. But it ends with Derek needing to lean a bit harder on Amelia as he looks for a way explain that he is at rock bottom.
Watch Grey’s Anatomy season 11, episode 8, “Risk,” Thursday, November 20 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.
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