Grey`s Anatomy - Papa Don`t Preach - Review: "Thicker Than Blood"

This was one major gut punch! After all these years Grey`s still can deliver stories and character moments that go right for the gut and leave you breathless. Papa Don`t Preach was a self-contained outing with a major focus on The Webber family and some Omelia drama, while the former hit all the right buttons as the story progressed, the Omelia drama was just one major eye-roll. Let`s dig into the episode written by Jalysa Conway and directed by Daniel Willis.

There were so much complexity and beauty from Kelly McCreary in this episode. The socially awkward Maggie finally tapped a bit into her Webber side and met her adorable cousin Sabi and grumpy Uncle Chris. Maggie and Sabi were just as similar as they were different. Sabi was a mouth full, barely stopping with her jibberish, while Maggie is the silent type most of the time. Still, the cousins found a lot of similarities between them. The two developed a natural bound and the fact the actresses were real-life sisters certainly helped in establishing that. Sabi had a huge biatrial myxoma ( a muscle tumor that took over her both atriums, preventing normal blood flow) and someone had to operate. Maggie emerged as the prime candidate for sure, but Sabi wasn`t comfortable considering the familiar connection. Maggie couldn`t relate. That was something I always appreciated in Maggie´s character, the clean-cut between her emotions and her surgical persona. It is very distinctive with all our surgeons of course, yet Maggie`s change into Goddess mode is always so apparent and distinct.

Of course, in true Grey`s fashion things went downhill in a second as Sabi had a rare condition where she didn`t respond to clothing medication, which led to cloth forming in her body and ultimately brain death. Alex called the time of death and the subsequent scenes featuring Maggie coming to terms with losing Sabi and telling the sharing the news to Chris and Richard were heartbreaking. What a performance from Kelly. She left me breathless. Mer`s cold-hearted voiceover directing every single word Maggie said to Chris and Richard just left me with teary eyes. The emphasis on how this death isn`t about the surgeon but the family and what they needed at that moment just worked phenomenally. Kelly was spot on. This episode reminded me about the solid friendship Maggie and Alex once had. I think it was about the time when Mer went AWOL after Dereck`s death when they shared more scenes and were great buddies. Him being there for her and supporting her the way he did was sweet and a testament to how much Alex has grown and how much he cares indeed.

This episode was filled with a lot of tension between Richard and Chris. I am not really sure if Richard`s siblings have been mentioned before this episode but their stonecold relationship was painful to watch. Seeing the amount of resentment between them and how strained their relationship was just made me feel bad for Richard. Being singled out by his family and marked the black sheep for having pursuit his dreams wasn`t really something he deserved. Richard remembering how Chris treated him after he shared he was an alcoholic woke up major rage within me. It was sweet seeing them finding common ground while sharing memories of Sabi made me hopeful this episode could have a happy end. Yeah right. Like I didn`t learn through these 15-something years. I certainly hope this family drama won`t be dropped with this episode. We need more of Richard-Chris scenes.

Something we certainly need less of is Richard-Gemma scenes. Like why in the world would the writers push on this arc. Seeing shady Catherine work her moves and Gemma out of Seattle was quite precious though. Debbie Allen is just a gift that keeps giving. No matter if she is the pushy Chief, the overbearing Mother or cutthroat Wife, she can do it all. Her inviting Maggie to dinner was just hilarious. She didn`t care what Maggie had to say, she had her own plans and Maggie shouldn`t oppose them.

The secondary story this week was about Amelia sharing her news with Owen. Her reaching out to him with a crappy excuse was true Amelia fashion. Their push and pull through the episode was not my cup of tea. They were rehashing topics that were wrapped seasons ago. There was no need for angry outbursts and all of this conundrum. Owen`s fragile masculinity once again was hurt and we had to look through it all again. Like he moved on, not asking Amelia if she was okay with it. He didn`t give her the benefit of expressing her feelings about him reconciling with Teddy, where the hell does he get the right act like this then. If Amelia were pregnant with Owen back in the day, she wouldn`t have aborted either. At that point, she simply didn`t feel ready for a kid and thought she would never be. Circumstances are different now, Amelia is different now just Owen is the same poor human being he ever was.

That is a wrap, guys. What are your thoughts on the latest GA episode? Sound off in the comment section. In a bit over 36 hours, Grey`s Anatomy will reach a new milestone! 350 episodes and we are all here to witness it. Till my next review, toodles.