Jo finally opens up to Meredith on Grey’s Anatomy 15×24 and the firefighters mourn the loss of one of their own on Station 19 2×16.
‘Grey’s Anatomy’ 15×24 ‘Drawn to the Blood’:
Meredith has a weird dream about Cece while she’s sleeping over at Jo and Alex’s. It’s clear that she’s having some kind of issues with everything going on with DeLuca.
But in the meantime, she’s camping out until Jo talks to her. That means everything with DeLuca is off to the side for the moment.
Jo does end up telling Meredith the truth about her parents but she does it in hopes that Meredith will leave her alone. It doesn’t even really seem like Meredith is shocked to hear what Jo learned, but she doesn’t leave either.
Even though she was mad at first when she made the admission, Jo also tells a story from her childhood about watching another kid with her mom and always thinking she’d have the same someday. It seems like she’s not only mourning the news about her rapist father, but also the loss of ever having a mother she can bond with.
Meredith gives Jo a very touching little speech about how Jo has used all of her darkness and turned it into light to help others. And she also tells Jo about her struggles in the past with her depression.
Somehow Meredith convinces her that they need to go to the hospital to get Jo a proper leave of absence so she can take care of herself and still keep her career.
Meanwhile, Alex is worried when Schmitt is put in charge of picking up the blood donor, Francis, for Gus. Everything goes wrong when Francis’ husband has an issue with customs and she’s scared to get off the plane.
As Schmitt is stuck with the donor freaking out, Alex has another problem as Gus’ dad slips on a Lego and breaks his ass. It actually provides a bit of comic relief for everyone, but it doesn’t last long as Gus starts to get more sick.
Owen goes to save the day and tries to get Francis to do the blood donation on the plane since she won’t leave it. But she’s too worried about something going wrong.
So Owen does a video call with Gus and Francis so she can see what’s happening to him and promises to keep her safe so she agrees to go. At the same time, Teddy gets all teary-eyed hearing Owen’s speech to Francis.
Gus crashes suddenly while Alex and his mom are just chatting, but Francis is still on her way to the hospital. They have to get more oxygen to his organs while they wait so they go to the hyperbaric chamber, and Meredith jumps in to talk to Alex about Jo.
At the same time, DeLuca is supposed to be watching Jo, but he gets called into the conference room to answer questions about Gabby. He learns that the insurance company found out about Meredith’s fraud, which is also a felony, and he’s supposed to answer questions about it.
Without telling anyone, DeLuca decides to take the fall for it all so Meredith isn’t taken away from her kids. Meredith has no idea until DeLuca goes to apologize to her about it while Catherine watches on.
Since Meredith is stuck in the chamber, she has no choice but to watch while DeLuca leaves to go to jail!!
To make this episode even crazier, the love triangle/square/whatever shape gets even more complicated. First, Link asked Amelia what their status was because she seemed a little preoccupied with her past life still.
Meanwhile, Teddy came to the realization that she still loves Owen even though it scares her. She goes to tell him, but he’s not home, so she tells Amelia instead, because she’s there watching Leo.
At the same time, Teddy has gone into labor and her water already broke! They have to leave right away for the hospital. And thanks to the fog rolling in, Owen, Francis, and Schmitt get stuck in a big car accident!
So much happened in this episode, and Grey’s Anatomy is just warming up for the season finale. At this point, it seems like anything could happen.
Let’s just hope all our favorite characters make it out of this one alive?
– Sonya Field
‘Station 19’ 2×16 ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’:
We get a chance to check in with everyone to start the episode. Vic’s been hanging with Andy and Maya, and Miller is checking on Gibson, who’s reflecting on the suddenness of Ripley’s death. Warren is spending some time by the water. Travis is remembering his fallen husband. And Vic is sitting in her and Ripley’s booth, having coffee and lying to the waitstaff about where Ripley is.
Andy goes to check on Sullivan, and he is kind of buried in funeral preparations… including writing the eulogy that he’s been asked to give. He tries to con Andy into writing it for him, but she’s not great with death and funerals, so she takes on a project collecting supplies for those affected by the recent wildfires.
Maya is a crying mess and is trying to hide it. Typical. Vic comes bouncing into the kitchen and is trying to put on a brave face. She breaks it to the team that she isn’t helping with funeral arrangements, and that she has no plans to go to the funeral either. Travis is incredibly concerned for her because he has been through this all before and sees the signs of denial.
Andy and Tanner have a moment where he talks about his temporary relocation for some advanced paramedic training. Andy doesn’t take it well, but she almost forgets about it when he infers that she and Sullivan have something going on. I don’t think we’ve ever seen Andy speechless before.
Andy and Warren get a call and find their emergency lying on the floor (after Andy kicks in the front door) with a chandelier embedded in his chest. They cut him free and get ready to move him to the Aid car, but then he crashes.
Sullivan needs some help with his eulogy, so he goes to Montgomery. Travis doesn’t give much help, but he does tell Sullivan about what Ripley had to say about Michael. He talks about how meaningful it was to him that the chief came down and spoke such wonderful, moving words.
Andy and Warren get their patient loaded up, but he crashes on the way to the hospital. They are forced to pull over so Warren can come around to the back and help Andy resuscitate him. Things aren’t going well, and they see that their patient is bleeding from the wound site anyway, so Warren removes the piece of chandelier stuck in his chest and packs the wound with sterile gauze. He applies pressure, and suddenly, the patient isn’t crashing anymore. Well done, Warren! Andy takes over driving and they are back on the road.
Sullivan, after hearing from Travis that Vic isn’t planning on going to the funeral, goes to Ripley’s sister to see if she can talk some sense into Vic. Jen comes down to the station to convince Vic she needs her there, but nothing is going to change her mind. Hughes is not ready to stand in front of a bunch of people and watch them eulogize the love of her life that she didn’t even get to claim because of their jobs. You can tell she’s frustrated by the scandal of it all, and that’s definitely weighing her decision-making.
Maya is still crying and Gibson is seriously flustered about what he can do to help her. She’s frustrated with the tears that won’t stop flowing because she’s not really a crier, so she’s yelling at Gibson, who’s just trying to help however he can… and then Miller starts talking about sea anemones. But really, Miller’s just reminding them to grieve however they need to grieve. And apparently he learned all of this from his new lady friend.
Warren and Andy get their patient to the hospital, and the relief of passing him off to the hospital ER staff has Andy taking a deep breath, and then suddenly all the emotions that have been piling up in her all day start flooding out. Warren’s advice: tackle one bleeder at a time. Tackle one emotion, one hard part at a time.
The first bleeder we see Andy start to tackle? Talking to Sullivan. And she gives him the advice he’s been looking for all day. Rather than trying to write the perfect eulogy, she advises him to get up there at the funeral and just talk to Ripley. Think about what he’d like Ripley to hear and speak to the crowd about all of it. He definitely seems a little less freaked out about his upcoming public speaking than he did even moments before.
It’s hard to tell if Montgomery actually knows what Vic needs or if he’s getting it hella wrong. The whole Station 19 crew is getting ready for the funeral, and Travis goes to find Vic, who’s still insisting on missing it. He tries to push her to wail on him a little, but she reigns herself in. Vic is having trouble dealing with what she was to Ripley. She wasn’t his wife, she was his secret girlfriend, so it’s not the same as when Montgomery lost Michael. She yells at him to leave her alone and stalks off.
She finds herself in the station lobby as she runs away, and we see that Schmidt is standing there with flowers. They are the same bouquet he picked out, and Schmidt tells her Ripley wanted them to say, “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” He gives them to her and Vic starts to cry. This is what she needed to make her want to go to the funeral. She needed to be reminded of how much Lucas Ripley loved her. Maya and Andy help her don her dress uniform, and then the whole crew dresses the truck in black for the procession.
Bagpipes. Salutes. Hugs. And then they’re all settling into the church for the funeral. Sullivan, Vic and Jen are the last ones to file in. Jen asks Vic to stay by her side.
Sullivan gives an incredibly moving eulogy. He has the whole room in tears. He talks about how much being able to get back to a good place with Lucas before he suddenly died meant to him. He talked about how important it is to hold on to those people you just click with. And he ends by telling Lucas that he’s good. That they’re all good. And that they will go on to be good. And then Pruitt and Montgomery ring the bell.
When we come back from the commercial break, we meet all of our firefighters at the bar. They’re drinking together in Ripley’s name. They notice that Travis isn’t wearing his wedding ring anymore. A truly monumental step for him.
We check in on everyone. Miller goes off on his first date after she makes a memorable first impression on the crew. Tanner compliments Sullivan on his beautiful eulogy. Andy and Maya check in, and Andy mentions Tanner’s comments about what he saw between Andy and Sullivan at the hospital. Maya sort of plants the idea in Andy’s head that there’s something going on there. Vic is back at her diner where her normal waiter is leaving for the night, but not before he mentions her “husband” at least twice. Warren calls it a night. Travis refuses to leave, talking about wanting to make a mistake or two now that he’s taken his ring off. A jerk face sits next to him and insults Vic. Travis is way too drunk to take that sitting down, so he punches the guy.
The episode ends with Vic telling her waiter the truth about Lucas Ripley. That he wasn’t her husband, and that he has died. The waiter sits down at the table and simply says, “That sucks.” Yes, it does.
And that’s all she wrote for Station 19 season 2’s penultimate episode. Next week is the season finale, and, thanks to the trailer, we know that our crew will be heading to Los Angeles to help fight a major wildfire. From the look of it, it’s going to be a VERY scary episode. Prepare yourselves as well as you can. This isn’t going to be an easy episode, but, then again, when is a Shondaland season finale ever easy?
– Kristen Kranz