I’ll admit—I’m always happy to see a new episode of GREY’S. So a season
premiere, after a four-month hiatus, always conjures excitement. This year’s
season premiere, though, left a lot to be desired. Here’s what was wrong with
it, and what I hope this season will do
Spoiler Alert:
You are advised to read on only after watching the season 16 premiere of GREY’S
ANATOMY. Definitive plot points have been mentioned.
When GREY’S left us in May, there were cliffhangers all around us. Jackson was missing in the fog, with Maggie looking for him. Teddy got
back together with Owen, while Tom Koracick was left setting up a crib for their
baby. Amelia kind of broke up with Link. Jo checked herself in for psychiatric
help, after finally admitting her issues to Alex. Andrew DeLuca went to jail
for something Meredith did. Meredith got fired for it, and so did Richard and
Alex for being accomplices. Aside from the firing bit, everything was resolved,
and extremely unsatisfactorily.
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| Where do we go from here? Where, indeed! |
Jackson’s disappearance was the gimmickiest of the lot, especially
because of how ABC promoted the premiere, implying that he’d been seriously
injured or may even be in grave danger. What we got from it was the surgical
case of the week—some hikers he found who were literally in a cliffhanger
situation. Of course his breakup with Maggie was inevitable and came as no
shock. It was among the few developments in the premiere that were handled well. In
fact, it was quite nice to see him bonding with Vic (from STATION 19), and there was
this, sort of, instant chemistry between them. I’m not a fan of Maggie, and
didn’t quite like her and Jackson together much. But I did feel slightly bad
for her when she tells Jackson that they don’t like each other and hence he and
Vic are none of her business, especially knowing that she was absolutely right.
Kelly McCreary did that scene really well, hiding the pain with her steely
exterior. McCreary really makes me want
to like Maggie sometimes.
I do wish that this season, the breakup makes Maggie pull herself
together and grow up a little. She needs to take a step back and assess her own
life and whatever she believes people owe her, emotionally and otherwise. She
owes that to herself. On the other hand, I think Jackson should really take
some time for himself, even though he has a bond already with Vic. I mean, they
have both admitted that neither is ready for anything yet. Also, I think it’ll
be fun to see Jackson single for a while. I don’t remember what that was even
like.
OWEN-TEDDY-TOM
It was so heart-breaking last season to see how the crass but well-meaning
and utterly caring Tom Koracick was left setting up a crib for Teddy’s baby,
while she was getting back with Owen. Tom and Teddy weren’t going to last too
long, especially since it’s been quite apparent that Owen and Teddy have been
end-game. Yet, Teddy and Tom had something sweet, and I did expect more emotion
with their breakup. I didn’t want to see melodrama, but I also didn’t want it
to simply be an assumption that Tom makes, with Teddy barely making a half-hearted
apology—which is what happened. I love Teddy; always have. And I like that she
had something of her own, after her late husband Henry, something that didn’t
involve Owen. So it was disappointing to see a sweet bond end, especially in this manner.
I do wish we see some more closure on this front. As for Teddy and Owen,
they’re ready to start a life together and all, but I hope it comes with some
adjustment, some amount of dealing with being a conventional, co-habiting, co-parenting
couple. I feel this way especially since they’ve never really been together that
way, having simply gone from friends to what-ifs prior to this. So I’d like to
see what makes them tick as a couple, because frankly, I really just saw them
as the best of friends, like Meredith and Alex are, and it surprised me when
their relationship took a romantic turn. And with Tom, I look forward to what they
do with him, since he is definitely going to be around, with Greg Germann
having been promoted to series regular this season.
AMELIA AND LINK
Their relationship has probably been the most refreshing of GREY’S romances lately. I loved them as soon as they started flirting when they
were both at that conference last season. They look great together, they have this
cute banter, and they have some hot chemistry. Also, their relationship bloomed
with excitement after Meredith’s loss (in choosing DeLuca over Link) became
Amelia’s gain. While Meredith and DeLuca’s chemistry fizzled and became a tired
relationship almost overnight, Amelia and Link have had that spark throughout,
even when things got a little serious when he went with her for that tense dinner
with the Shepherds. So it’s nice now to see them embracing what they have, after
taking a step back to assess what they want from this relationship.
However,
why, oh why would they go down a pregnancy path! It’s too soon. I wanted to see
them together a bit, trying to figure this sweet, new, exciting relationship
out before something definitive like a pregnancy were to come along to throw them into
a make-or-break situation. I certainly don’t want them to go into a zone of angst
and high emotions. I do hope the writers have a better plan than that for these characters.
ALEX AND JO
Last season, Jo unraveled and unraveled hard. It put a strong strain on her
relationship with Alex, so soon after they’d finally gotten married. It drove
Alex crazy that she wouldn’t talk to him, and understandably so. We literally
saw what he went through when Izzie ghosted him, and he’s also had to deal with
his mom, and there was also Ava/Rebecca. This emotional wringer with Jo has
been poetic in a tragic way, so it was nice to see the light at the end of the
tunnel, especially after Jo gave him an ‘out’ and he chose not to take it. It
was especially meaningful because it was a choice he didn’t take lightly. He committed
to sticking together after giving it some serious thought, and that’s what I
love about their relationship. They never overdo the emotional presentation of
the deep bond they share, yet we know it’s there. However, I do think that it happened all too
quickly. And I do hope that we see how they find their way back to each other
in a more practical, day-to-day space, beyond simply making big commitments and
grand gestures.
MEREDITH AND ANDREW
These two showed so much promise when they hooked up last year, after
that awkward kiss at Alex and Jo’s wedding in season 14. They were hot, they
were endearing, they were cute, until DeLuca started to act like he was entitled
to be with her, and Meredith toyed with Link and him, leading both on, acting superior
and then eventually being a bitch to Link. That’s when I lost interest in ‘MerLuca’.
Yet, they could have kept the spark alive, but they went down a serious path,
with his family issues and so on, before we even had a chance to see them
together enough to want them to become a serious couple. The relationship
brought out sides in them that I didn’t like, and soon, I couldn’t care less
about them. So it was no surprise then when I didn’t feel shook up when he took
the blame for her insurance fraud. Yet, I wanted more from it, from a plot
perspective, than a quick dropping of charges and even Meredith getting away
with only being given community service. Though there is some hope for that cliffhanger
leading to more than just that, with her medical license being threatened. Let
the complex and compelling fight begin. That aside, I still don’t like MerLuca
together. I can only hope they’re not end-game. And no, I don’t say this because
I think no one can fill Derek’s shoes. I don’t feel that way (Meredith's been better off without Derek). I want to see
Meredith in a good, meaningful, interesting relationship, and her relationship with DeLuca is certainly not all that.
RICHARD, ALEX AND PAC-NORTH
The one thing I’ve never grudged GREY’S ANATOMY for is their over-the-top cliffhangers. Even if they have done gigantic disaster episodes in the past, with nail-biting
season-enders, they’ve always made the cliffhangers count for
something, making them series-defining turns and not simply gimmicks. For
example, when the plane crashed, it led to the survivors taking the hospital to
court and eventually becoming the owners of the hospital and renaming it to Grey+Sloan
Memorial. When Alex beat up Andrew, it sparked off his entire character arc for
the following season. So with Grey, Webber and Karev being fired in last season’s
finale, I had a feeling that it would be a cliffhanger that wouldn’t
just be resolved minutes into the new season (like the others unfortunately were in this season 16 opener). And it was good to see something come out of it
that will inform the storylines going forward. We all know that they will
eventually resume their responsibilities at Grey+Sloan, but I look forward to
seeing how that happens. Let it inform the characters and their relationships,
as it already is happening with Richard and Catherine, with Richard and Alex now working
at Pacific North General Hospital. Let it show us sides to them as doctors
outside of Grey+Sloan. Let this resolution take its time. There can be so much that comes out of it.
