The Verdict Is…
Grey’s Anatomy delivers one of its strongest episodes this week with Meredith’s hearing and some surprising faces from the past appearing. After all these years the show still manages to deliver some shocking and emotional episodes, and the actors involved, especially Ellen Pompeo, have done a great job with their performances. We start with all the doctors meeting for Meredith’s hearing. Tension’s in the air too as it’s the first time they’ve all been reunited since the insurance incident. Meredith’s lawyer immediately warns her to be quiet as her whole career hangs in the balance. Unfortunately, she notices that one of the doctosr on the panel is the one that killed her husband when he operated on him and failed to perform a head CT. The hearing gets underway and Bailey is first up. Still reeling over the insurance scandal, she doesn’t really have anything nice to say to Meredith’s lawyer or to the opposition, listing all the unethical things Meredith has done over the years. After hearing from Gaby’s dad and a few other doctors, Schmidt is then questioned, revealing that he saw Gaby’s hospital bracelet with Meredith’s daughter’s name on it. This led him to bring it to Bailey as he thought there was a mistake. Realising he is the reason why Meredith was fired, he gets up and begs her for forgiveness. Webber meanwhile lies under oath when asked if Meredith helped him get his late wife the new experimental treatment. We also find out from his administration assistant that Meredith wasn’t originally on the list of interns but it was actually Richard who had to pull some strings to get her on the program. While Karev is interrogated by Dr Castello, this proves too much for Meredith as she gets up to confront him. She angrily tells him that he has no right to judge her and decide if she should keep her licence when he’s the one who killed her husband. Shocked by this revelation, he gets up and collapses on the floor, having a seizure. Meredith rushes to his side and as he’s brought on the gurney, she ironically orders him to have a head CT. Bailey berates Richard about the way he’s been acting around Grey all these years, especially now she knows he manipulated who was on the list of interns. While they fight, at Grey Sloan Amelia asks Koracick to perform the surgery on Castello as she’s unable to do it due to her circumstances. During the operation though, Koracick has trouble with the patient and he dies on the table. As the panel decide to adjourn, Karev pleads with them to continue as many people are here to testify. We then see a lot of Meredith’s past patients arriving and one by one they recall how Meredith helped them. Bailey then bursts in and gives a speech about Meredith, admitting that yes, she has broken the law, but she did it to save a life. She tells them she shouldn’t lose her licence as she is too good at what she does and worked hard despite everything she has gone through. After waiting for the panel to make a decision, Meredith’s lawyer arrives in the waiting room and announces that she’s allowed to keep her licence. As they head out, Bailey surprises Meredith by telling her she has her job back and she will see her on Monday. After discussing their parents together, Maggie and Jackson almost kiss but he stops it as he’s unable to go through with it, prompting her to throw him out. Back in hospital, all the interns find out that Schmidt was the one who got Meredith fired, causing them to look at him in disgust. We then end the episode with DeLuca and Meredith talking and deciding to go on a break. After all these years, Grey’s Anatomy still surprises me when it delivers episodes like this one. Shondra Rhimes knows exactly what to do to tug at the heartstrings and this week was no exception. Meredith had to deal with the doctor responsible for Derek’s death and seeing her confront him was one of the best scenes of the episode. It was also quite emotional, especially with the flashbacks from that fateful day. Anyone who has been watching Grey’s Anatomy since the beginning will clearly remember how heart-wrenching his passing was. The end of the episode brought past patients of Meredith to the foreground too and seeing some old faces with more flashbacks was certainly a nice touch. Let’s not forget Bailey’ speech either. She has always been one of my favourite characters on the show and this time, without fail, she gave us another great performance. Next week is the fall finale and while Meredith is now back at Grey Sloan, things should be back to normal. However, “normal” in Grey’s Anatomy’s world is not always what it should be and is usually synonymous with more drama. Roll on next week!
