Derek confesses, but did he say everything that Meredith wanted to hear? Find out in our Grey’s Anatomy season 11, episode 17 recap.

Case(s) of the week: Meredith and Derek’s marriage, 17-year-old with liver failure, Owen’s mother slips in the shower.

Owen and Amelia continue to experience interruptions in their plan to get away and this time it is Owen’s mom who sets off the pagers. When the medic/firefighter/young, attractive man who assisted Owen’s mother to the hospital lingers a little too long, he begins to put the pieces together. John, a man younger than Owen, is taking her around town.

After meeting in a writers’ group where the two shared their stories about time in the service, Ev and John took their chats to coffee and beyond. Six months later, Ev tries to talk to Owen about how John makes her happy, but it falls on closed ears. However, Amelia is willing to listen as long as Evelyn is still enough to get a clear CT. After serving in the military and taking care of Owen on her own for 32 years, it was nice to find a companion who made their age difference seem nonexistent.

Just as Meredith used to do with her mother’s VCR, Grey’s Anatomy takes apart the Merder marriage. Derek steps inside to explain his story, but it seems a bit off from the start. Heading to airport to fix his marriage, Derek left his phone in the lab and a woman picked it up. But the pieces that were left over from the VCR are just as hard to make it fit in their relationship. The tape may still play, but you’ll always wonder where those pieces fit in. Meredith plays with the leftover screw that reminds her she was once where Derek’s newest research assistant Renée is.

Renée is working on research to solve just how Autism works, a case close to her heart, as she works to find a way to get inside her sister’s head. With each passing week, Renée’s work pushes her closer and closer to Derek. By their fifth week together, Renée’s near breakthroughs pull Derek in to offer his assistance as a cheerleader and assistant. But it does not end there.

Downstairs in the ER of Grey Sloan Memorial, Jo and Stephanie are looking for cases. Stephanie more so than Jo, who is several hours behind in nearly every specialty other than neurology after helping Amelia with Herman’s tumor. But Jo wins out on a headache that turns into seven hours of trauma work. A nosebleed that jumps back into someone’s head after a trip to China? Some kind of critter is making itself at home in a patient’s sinus cavity.

Meredith has quite the interesting case sitting at home, but she pushes Zola and Bailey in front of her troubles to take care of a bloodier case. Danny suffers from liver failure, but draining of bile is not enough to carry him until a transplant is available. Meredith suggests a redirection of his bile duct, but it is a risky surgery given the patient’s current condition.

However, her boldness in presenting the procedure over Alex’s advice convinces the patient to opt for the operation over living another day in the hospital with an uncertain outlook. His sister is reluctant to give over her consent, but seeing her brother confined to a bed in constant pain over getting to see his friends and watch hockey changes her mind.

While Meredith and Alex enter the OR, Owen’s mother experiences an aneurysm rupture in her chest that sends her to her own OR. But before she gets there, Evelyn calls John over to break off their relationship. Owen is the most important person in her world regardless of how much John is pushing to become a part of it. John’s intentions to Owen may not seem honorable, but as Evelyn is under the knife, Owen and John find a way to connect over genuine concern for her well being.

And luckily for the pair she comes out alive and no worse for the wear. John returns to her side with Owen’s permission. With his mom in good hands, Owen finally gets to take Amelia home.

Stephanie wanders around the hospital trying to bribe doctors for their surgeries, including Warren. Bailey catches wind of the bribe and confronts Edwards about it, but focuses not so much on the act, but the amount. Fifty bucks? Bailey couldn’t even get dinner for that! Meanwhile, Jo sits downstairs coaxing what turns out to be a leech from a woman’s face.

Upstairs, Meredith’s streak comes to an end. In Danny’s surgery things turn south when his body proves it was not up to the task. Meredith is angry, but not at the surgery. She is mad at Derek. Luckily, Alex is there to serve as a punching bag for as long as she needs. But there is one rule: She cannot bring the troubles in her marriage to the OR.

While Meredith’s streak in the OR ends, Derek’s streak as the honorable man ends. As the story catches up to last night, we find Derek in the research lab with Renée and a huge breakthrough in science breaks the tension between them. She approaches him and he does not back away. Sure, he runs away once it is over because he wants to be with Meredith, but will that be enough? Renée better stay out of the Seattle area!

With the kids in bed, Derek makes Meredith take a minute to remember the Post It, the kids, the ferry scrub caps. Everything that makes him a part of Seattle, including her, he has already. Just because Meredith proved that she can thrive and shine without Derek, does not mean that she has to. Nor does she want to.

And if you were waiting for the kiss to change everything, well… maybe next week!

Watch Grey’s Anatomy season 11, episode 18, “When I Grow Up,” Thursday, April 2 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.