When I heard about this airplane episode a while ago, I imagined it would involve Arizona visiting Sophia or Jackson and Maggie traveling to Haiti to visit her mother. So I was quite a bit disappointed to see the episode feature Mer and Nathan drama. The episode was filled with amazing guest stars and was directed by Grey's Anatomy's own, Chandra Wilson.
So before I talk about the Mer-Nathan drama, let's talk about everything else. The episode overall was really intense and interesting. I was surprised that no one died, I mean it was an episode of Grey's Anatomy, getting so many happy endings felt unusual. The biggest case of the evening involved Max (Jai Rodriguez), who was thrown out of his seat during some turbulences and hit his head hard, resulting in a brain bleed that needed to be resolved right away. The situation got even more dangerous as Max was on blood thinners. Who whole scenery was very dramatic, with Max throwing up and suffering seizures. As the plane couldn't land, Meredith improvised and drilled Max's skull to release pressure. The whole situation made Meredith excel and put on a performance worthy of a Harper Avery. The show proved Meredith was an excellent surgeon so many times but this one was a nice throwback to her neuro days while working with Derek. It did feel a bit unrealistic that the needle didn't hit Max's brain with all the turbulences. Eventually
During the whole crisis with Max, Nathan had to take off a douchey passenger suffering from pulmonary hypertension. Nathan even used a defibrillator to save his life and to all our surprise even the douche made it out of the plane alive. I call him the douche as his name wasn't mentioned and not even IMDb had the solution to this mystery. It was hilarious to see the older couple lend Nathan erectile dysfunction meds to relieve the pressure in the douche's chest. The best part of this story was early on in the episode when Meredith called him out for being a douche and stressing out the mother for not being able to calm her child. The mother was played by the Mistresses' Rebeka Montoya, really a delight to see her grace my small screen again. Love how Shonda always finds a way to send these important messages. Kudos to Ellen for executing it so smoothly and with so much strength.
Another very welcome guest star was Greek's Spencer Grammer playing the stewardess Candice who flirted quite a bit with Nathan. Also appearing The Originals' Callard Harris as a pediatric dentist who shared a connection with Meredith. I really loved the spark that rose between his character and Meredith. It was truly palpable and it is a shame we won't see him again.
Grey's did an amazing job with their standalone episodes this season and I In The Air Tonight was a very strong outing as well. What are your thoughts about episode 289 of Grey's Anatomy? As always use the comment section to share your thoughts on the episode and the whole Mer-Nathan drama.
