Don't be fooled by the many hugs and tender smiles exchanged in this episode. There are so many storms brewing. First and foremost, Jo is not okay. She's telling Alex that she's fine, that it's only a little cold keeping her at home. He's not fooled. Alex has grown up so much just in the last few seasons, and how sweet was it to see him ask Link for help. Jo is his top priority.
Chicken soup in hand, Link visits Jo and tries every bit of kindness that exists to get her to open up. They reminisce about how she helped him through a breakup. They share jokes. But the whole time Jo just keeps drinking, until finally she tells Link about how her mom can't stand to be in the same room with her, even in spite of saying she loved Jo. She talks about how she never felt that it was normal for anyone to love her, how she always ran away.Jo stops short of giving Link all the details, because her bottle is empty. She goes to look for another one, and Link messages Alex to come home. Alex is happy to see Jo watching a cartoon and laughing when he gets there.
“She looks fine now.”
“She’s not.”
Link says he's never seen her this bad. And Jo's laughter in the background is too quick, too repetitive....practically unhinged.
While that heartrending story has clearly just begun, back at the hospital, a big transplant surgery brings Dr. Megan Hunt (Abigail Spencer) into town. She's there with a patient of hers. Owen didn't know she was coming. Megan didn't know about Teddy and the baby. Her first reaction is pure joy. That shifts drastically when Megan learns the actual circumstances; our girl is aghast that her brother basically had a one-night stand with their best friend and messed up the relationship so badly that she's house shopping with someone else. The way she lays it out, it sounds as dreadful as it actually is. That said, I at first interpreted Megan's questioning of Teddy as insensitive to what Owen had put Teddy through. However, the episode turned that around when Megan later confronted Owen. She's worried about him, and she won't accept her brother trying to write her off because she's found happiness. That minute where Megan tells Owen she goes to four different kinds of therapy so that she can have as much happiness as possible I wanted to give her a standing ovation. And she holds her brother's face and tells him he's not well. Owen's so bad with the women in his life that I don't often consider it might come from deep-rooted issues of his own. It has been a long road to reach this point, but it's a huge relief for the show to basically say out loud that Owen can't be with anybody until he fixes himself.
The transplant is for multiple body parts, including a penis and scrotum. Jackson shares the news with Catherine. This will be her first time doing a surgery since her own operation, and she is pumped. ("My baby brought me a penis!") Her pure joy is contagious until they find out that the patient Caleb, a wounded veteran, lied. He claimed he had a support system, when actually he broke up with his fiancée Anna because he didn't want her to know about his injuries. His fib backfired when his mom invited Anna to be their for his surgery. Catherine didn't want to go ahead withe the surgery. Jackson asked if maybe her reaction was due to her own nerves (as if), but she explained that her own experience with having a support system had just opened her eyes to how necessary it was. However, Owen sits down with Caleb. He tells Megan that he needs to be the one, because after all this is a penis they're talking about. He encourages Caleb to let Anna back into his life, as she clearly cares buckets for him. The surgery is a success.
The episode also introduces a new recurring story. Alex and Helm treat a young autistic boy named Gus. He doesn't like being touched, but Alex finds creative ways to calm him so they can do the examination. However, they discover that he has a tumor, which they are unable to operate on. Gus is anemic. Without a transfusion, he wouldn't survive an operation. They give him blood, but he has a scary reaction. After some tests, it turns out that Gus has an extremely rare blood type. There are maybe four people in the world who could give him blood, and it won't be that simple to get. Alex promises Gus's parents he won't stop until he saves their son. Maggie has some concerns with that promise. There are no guarantees.
I would be remiss if I didn't also mention the great side story with Bailey playing tour guide for a trio of STEM students. She keeps inadvertently walking them into suggestive conversations, becoming increasingly flustered. (Amelia's "So who can tell me what an endorphin is?" after they opened the door to her "aerobic sex" conversation was great.) Later, Bailey apologizes to the trio for not being the best Yoda for them. They thank her for all the badass power she displayed. They are more than impressed, as they should be. There's also a fun bit where Bailey and Webber realize that Alex did parts of his job smarter than they had. They agree to never tell him.
And off to the side somewhere along the way, Webber invited DeLuca to join him on a surgery. Both DeLuca and Meredith adorably worried over whether Webber was using it to measure up DeLuca as Meredith's boyfriend. It turned out he was more interested in what direction DeLuca wants to take his surgical career. He also approves of the boyfriend status too. There were many enjoyable elements in "The Whole Package." As worried as we all should be about Jo and Owen and Teddy, it was nice to celebrate the next milestone in Catherine's recovery, as well as to see MerLuca's relationship progress further. And Abigail Spencer is always a delight! Speaking of which:
Best Megan Hunt Lines in this Episode, because there were so many.
“This stomach won the Catherine Fox Award. You should all be looking at it.”
"We're having a baby!"
“It’s just so much stupidity”
“The word idiot felt too sophisticated.”
