We all know that sometimes Grey’s drifts into fantasy territory. Reality is set aside for the sake of ‘drama and thrills’. Most of the time this works. We ignore the obvious step into melodrama in order to enjoy the medical emergency or plane crash or shooting (delete as appropriate). Sometimes, however, it’s just plain annoying and the general level of irritation throughout the episode taints what could be or should be an otherwise excellent story.
Why Try To Change Me Now, written by Austin Guzman, directed by Jeannot Szwarc, showed a great deal of promise, introducing both a new character and a powerful storyline for Grey’s stalwart Richard Webber. Setting aside the fact we had to put reality on the shelf for 42 mins I enjoyed watching Eliza Minnick teasing the Attendings and flirting with Arizona and I look forward to watching Richard conquer his demons once again as his job is challenged. But honestly I could not escape the shoddy way this storyline has appeared. Firstly you don’t just decide one day that the programme is broken, secondly in order to introduce such a senior member of staff the board would have to be involved - in this case Arizona, Jackson and Meredith. Indeed getting into detail of this I’m assuming Arizona’s stake has increased as it’s likely she is holding Sofia/Callie’s options. Thirdly who in their right minds introduces a new coach without actually telling the team players about it. Four: I don’t know how employment law works in the state of Washington but where I come from Richard would have a strong case of constructive dismissal. Five: Bailey took the residents out of action without informing the Attendings in advance - surely that puts patients at risk? And lastly and most importantly, deliberately harming a patient irrespective of how many doctors are in the room is fundamentally wrong in every way. FIRST DO NO HARM. I’m annoyed, irritated, and rather angry. I like the new teaching method and I rather like this spiky new character, but that is not the way a professional organisation would introduce such a fundamental shift in method and unfortunately this highlights the naivety of the writing team. I will happily set aside reality for a rocking medical storyline but when it comes to creating ‘administrative’ drama for Richard. No.
Okay, now that I have that off my chest….
This story of course is all about Richard. He’s been on such a journey through the show and has already had his share of drama. It will come as no surprise that this will shake up his marriage. Not only has Catherine gone about this with Bailey in a somewhat underhand way but she’s done it to her husband. She’s already very unlikeable. This will not raise her stock much. I’ve got to keep the faith that Richard will not lose himself in the bottle over this. Like a sportsman who’s reached the peak of his game and is on the way down Richard needs to get more game time if he’s to pull through this. I’ll stop with the sports metaphors now.
Dr Minnick has arrived to upset the apple cart at Grey Sloan Memorial. Having pre-judged the existing teaching style at the hospital courtesy of a meddling Catherine Avery she presents herself to the residents as their teaching saviour. Honestly who wouldn’t want to get involved in countless solo surgeries, especially if it puts the Attendings in their place. Eliza’s style is all about getting the residents’ hands busy doing the do of operations rather than watching and assisting. Needless to say this pisses the Attendings off to the point that there will be a riot if Minnick doesn’t back down pretty quickly. It would appear at the end that she has no intention of backing down. I found myself rather conflicted here. On the one hand I rather enjoyed Minnick putting them in their place, after all surgeons can be rather arrogant. On the other any storyline which puts Jo Wilson getting one over on them is going to annoy me. Imagine my relief when the residents in the spotlight were Andrew and Leah…yes the same Leah who has just turned up again as a super resident. Yeah, go on then, I’m loving this.
Right at the end Arizona confronts Minnick in the Elevator (hmmm the Elevator….) about the mystery list of ranked Attendings. Apparently it wasn’t a list it was merely a reminder tool and no Eliza does not need reminding who Arizona is. All the Arizona fans breathe a huge sigh of relief as a flirtatious Minnick presents herself to our teeny tiny human specialist. It looks like Arizona’s about to get loved up.
It turns out Maggie isn’t such a great teacher. I’m feeling a Cristina vibe here. A genius who does epic things but can’t teach them. At least Maggie has the humility to recognise she’s not very good. Amelia and Owen duke it out with a repeated storyline - the “I don’t want a baby” one. We know it’s not true Amelia and we are all rather frustrated you didn’t tell Owen the whole truth. April started dating this week much to the interest of Jackson. I loved the way Arizona recognised the Tinder bing “I love that bing”. It’s got to be awkward dating someone while living with your ex-husband. The cues are there for a Jackson April reunion. With the lack of romance currently in Grey’s I’m hoping love will be a many splendoured thing in their house very soon.
Why Try To Change Me Now did not work for me. Stories have moved forward but at the expense of credibility. There were better ways of questioning the residents’ teaching programme and introducing conflict into Richard’s world. Saying that I rather like the introduction of Eliza Minnick as the antagonist, ready, willing and able to provoke, irritate and stir things up. Bring it on.
