#i'm struggling. meredith characterization will be the death of me

[lesbiansayaishii]

writing meddison is like. addison is a romantic until she's not. meredith is a little shit until she's not. they're in love. i don't know how to write them being in love without it feeling out of character for one or both of them. present day meredith is so different from the meredith addison knew in 2006. writing past meddison is like a whole different ship from present day meddison.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Grey's Anatomy: Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves (19x10)

Oyyyy vey. I have some spicy thoughts.

Cons:

I sound so heartless saying this but Natalia's death didn't really move me the way the episode wanted it to. I think the quiet grief of her husband was pretty effective, but part of the problem is that her characterization was so... inspiration-porn-y? Like, she's this young woman dying of cancer who is supernaturally positive and full of manic-pixie-like wonder and enthusiasm for the world. I don't know anybody like that. I would have liked to see her get angry or mad. See her be a real person struggling with her sickness in some real way. That would have made the death hit much harder for me.

Also if you've read any of my prior Grey's reviews you know how much Teddy and Owen annoy me, so on the one hand I feel like I should be happy that they had a mature conversation about the conflict between them and got back into a good place, but on the other hand I don't trust it and these two are so poisonous to each other that nothing about their marriage feels satisfying or worthy of protecting. So there's that. I guess maybe now Owen will stop being so whiny, now that he has his medical license back and is Chief of Trauma once more?

I also felt just vaguely impatient and annoyed about Lucas rebounding with some random girl and Simone being jealous about it. Feels like a tepid shadow of real love triangle drama. Not that I'm craving love triangle drama in specific, I'm just feeling ennui about this development. I'm contradicting myself from last week, but I almost want Simone's shitty fiancé to be more involved, because that drama felt juicier, if still annoying.

Pros:

I liked the cancer sisters and that whole bit. A good comedic plot thread that was also touching on I think a very real issue. Basically the sister who doesn't have cancer resents being put in a position where she's being told how to process it before it's even happening to her. This felt very real for me, and part of a culture of positivity that is overall probably a good thing but does have some downsides that people should look out for. The cat litter thing was hilarious.

I also like Schmitt and Jo being good buddies. Schmitt's whole thing about how it's annoying when charming and beautiful people act like social interactions will be no big deal really cracked me up. And then he went for it with hot nurse Carlos and he got a date! I'm still sad that Schmitt and Nico's relationship had such an unceremonious ending on the show, but I'm down to see where things go from here for Levi!

I almost never put anything about Catherine Fox in the "pros" sections of my reviews because I don't like her as a character, but actually this week I enjoyed that she was staying focused on her surgery but also didn't play games and deny it when Richard said "I know something's wrong and I'm ready to hear about it." I liked the story of the patient with the penis that needed to be operated on, and how he didn't want to tell his wife, but the wife knew the whole time. There's something there about how honesty is important, but there can be innate understandings specific to certain relationships that go beyond that.

Also, despite being a little meh about Simone and Lucas's plot thread this week, I still overall like the interns. I like the vibes of them, I like things like Blue fainting in the OR, and Lucas being pissed about it, and everyone giving him a hard time. Them all living in that house together is warming my heart in a way I wouldn't have expected.

I also liked Maggie and Amelia, how they had a moment to connect. Maggie has been staying with Amelia because of the conflict with Winston, but she feels she's overstayed her welcome because Meredith was the one that bridged the relationship between the two of them. Amelia affirms that they still look out for each other, even though Meredith has moved away.

And that's about it. Teddy and Owen are annoying and the big sad dramatic death didn't really get to me. I'm a hater sometimes, what can I say. Still, there's plenty to like!

7.5/10