#they’re a found family they work together at the hospital! my friends Alex meredith izzie Christina and George oh I love George

[idk-i-just-really-like-tsc]

okay. listen. I am watching greys anatomy for the first time even tho it has like 80 seasons and I didn’t think I would like it. but apparently I’ve regressed very far down a road on from firefighter shows to doctor shows and now here I am. And I just wanted to say that greys anatomy episode 2x17 is one of the most insane episodes of television I have ever seen. ever.

[takaraphoenix]

I’ve been trying to figure out why I don’t enjoy Grey’s Anatomy as much anymore as I used to and I think I found it. It’s the lack of friendship, the narrative shift away from the found family and friendship centric plots of the past and toward nearly exclusively romantic and sexual storylines as well as blood-family.

This show used to angle on friendships, above all else. Yes, it’d always been about the over-the-top love drama too, sure, but at the heart of it stood the friendships that withstood all of that. Cristina and Meredith used to be the central relationship of this show, regardless what drama Meredith and Derek, or Cristina and Owen, had going on, those two fell back to each other. When the show started out, the dynamic between Meredith, Cristina, George, Alex and Izzy was the core focus. The way they lived together, learned together, loved together.

This show had a really strong found family vibe going on and it kept carrying it, even as those five one by one fell apart, it never lost the focus of binding new characters into the network of friendships and establishing strong bonds.

The way Meredith grew closer with Callie, how Meredith and Arizona bonded over being the last survivors at the hospital from the crash, the dynamic between Meredith and Jackson, how Meredith and Jo became friends through Alex when Alex became the “new Cristina”.

But the show fundamentally changed when Alex left, like that was the breaking point when they decided to give up on being focused on friendships.

I thought that Jo would become the “new Alex”, that her and Meredith would bond over Alex leaving, since their friendship had already been build up. But honestly, it feels like Jo and Meredith barely had any scenes at all since Alex left?

Alex’s stupid letter that claimed Meredith was “her own person” still makes me mad, because being strong for yourself is one thing - and Meredith definite is strong for herself - but you still need other people. To support you, to vent to, to have your back, to laugh with and cry with. You can’t be your own support system.

She’s now living with her biological sister and her sister-in-law and her children. The found family was entirely replaced with the family-tree family and it became her sole focus, really. I’m not against her having blood-family, but what bothers me is that she doesn’t seem to have anything outside her family anymore. The only strong dynamics - aside from Richard and Bailey, but they are her mentors first and I’m reluctant to count them among the “friends” in the same sense as M.A.G.I.C. were - are with her family and with whatever current love interest they’re trying to make work.

(Which, I also have a problem with how things with Cormac played out. It never even got to sail at all. That flimsy excuse that Cormac’s kid didn’t like that he was in a relationship and instead of using that opportunity to have Meredith bond with his kids, to have the couple bring their children closer and have open conversations with them, they just completely end that relationship, like she is not a single mother of three too and doesn’t know the kids’ input is important and that kids’ trust needs to be earned.)

The fact that the narrative essentially removed Meredith Grey from Grey’s Anatomy isn’t helping any either. The only times she is seen in Seattle anymore is when she is at home with her kids and her sister. First, she was in the coma last season which already dragged on too long in my opinion and how, they keep shipping her off to her little side-project. I swear, if this were any other character but Meredith, I would say they’re setting that character up for their own spin-off with that, it doesn’t even really feel like she is still a part of Grey’s Anatomy, it very much feels like she’s on another show.

And so far - and we are a fourth into this season by now - that plotline hasn’t really let Meredith establish friendships either. She brought Amelia, her sister, into this. With her boss she as a boss/employee and doctor/patient dynamic, with Kai, she doesn’t really have any dynamic at all yet because the only times Kai’s brought in outside of work-scenes is to flirt with Amelia (which, nice, but I would also like to see them establish a friendship with Meredith?) and then there’s her new boyfriend, with whom she spends most of her time over there.

I miss this show being about found families and how much friendships mean. Now, it really does feel like it’s all about romance, because even the other characters are all about their romances. The only solid friendships this show has left at this moment are Schmidt and Taryn, as well as Jo and Link, all others are exclusively centered in their biological families or their romances. That’s it, I can’t name a single central friendship aside those two in the currently running season of Grey’s Anatomy, where this show used to be so strongly defined through its friendships.

I really hope that the writers will soon remember that friendships exist and spend more time on them again.

[jazy3]

Thoughts on Grey’s Anatomy: 17X7

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

They did it! I can’t believe it! They actually killed DeLuca off! I’m so happy right now! As long time readers will know I have never been a Andrew DeLuca fan and I speculated back in the summer that they might be planning to write his character off after it was revealed that the planned finale for Season 16 included an explosion that was supposed to claim the life of one of the characters. I speculated that DeLuca was the most likely candidate with Tom and Jackson being the most likely runners up because I felt that they had gone as far as they could with DeLuca’s character and there wasn’t much left for him to do on the show.

Add that to the fact that the actor who plays DeLuca said a bunch of stuff to the press last year where he spoiled some pretty major plot points and stated that he knew things about where the show was going when he hadn’t even read a single script for the season yet and I was pretty sure his days were numbered. That being said, the show had teased us a bunch of times about firing, killing, or writing off the character during seasons 15 and 16 and they never went through with it so a big part of me was skeptical that they ever would.

But it turns out I was right! His days were numbered and they wound up killing him off in the Mid-Season Premiere! I’m still in shock. It hasn’t really sunk in yet to be honest. This episode honestly made me wish we’d gotten to see the remaining episodes and finale of Season 16 as planned. Based on what we know it looks like the plan was for Richard, Bailey, Meredith, and Carina to stage an intervention, DeLuca was to go away and get treatment and return to the hospital only to die tragically in an explosion.

Season 17 would have opened with the characters finding out about that and mourning his death and I think it would have been interesting to see Meredith navigate that as in the Finale Hayes asked her out and she said yes. It seems likely that if the COVID-19 Pandemic had not hit when it did and shut down production and altered filming for this season we would have seen Meredith and Hayes go out for a drink and start dating.

Seeing Meredith navigate the loss of her ex-boyfriend who she was no longer close to while in the beginning stages of her relationship with Hayes would have been very interesting and I’m sorry we didn’t get to see that. I’m also sorry that due to safety restrictions Meredith and Hayes haven’t had much screen time this season, but it looks like that’s about to change as I’ll get into a bit later.

Back to the episode at hand. I never liked DeLuca as a character and I hated him with Meredith so I’m glad that they killed him off and that we never have to deal with that nonsense again. I’m glad that they caught the human trafficker Opal and took those people down. I was never super invested in that storyline so I’m glad they wrapped that up. I feel so bad for Carina though. She’s a great character and is wonderfully acted by Stefania Spampinato.

My heart broke for her in this episode because while I won’t miss her brother I know that she will and will be absolutely gutted when she finds out that he’s died especially after she worked so hard to get him help and treatment for his Bipolar Disorder. I’m glad she has Maya there to support her.

LOL at Bailey sleeping through the whole damn episode! What did I miss indeed! That poor woman slept through DeLuca getting stabbed, almost dying, not dying, having surgery twice, and then actually dying as well as the other shenanigans going on at the hospital. I loved that she was asleep at Meredith’s bedside especially after they spent a good chunk of Season 16 fighting.

I also feel really bad for Richard in that he’s obviously grateful that DeLuca helped save his life and wanted to help and when Owen turned him down because it wasn’t a good idea for him to scrub in Richard lurked in the background in the OR gallery the whole time to make sure that everything was okay. Plus he can’t talk to Meredith about it right now because she’s in a coma which must be so difficult for him. The extra stress also puts his sobriety at risk and that worries me.

I got to be honest I am struggling to understand Teddy’s point of view this season. She’s being really awful! She’s being cruel to Tom. She was cruel to Owen. I don't know what Teddy expected to have happen. Both Cristina and Amelia walked away from their marriages to Owen and moved on with their lives in large part because they realized Owen was in love with Teddy and always would be.

And then she finally gets what she’s wanted all these years and the minute she realizes Amelia’s baby might be Owen’s and not Link’s she runs back to Tom and has a several months long affair with him and then drops him like a hot potato as soon as she realizes that the baby is Link’s and after Owen finds out about the affair she refuses to talk to Tom for months and then comes crawling back to him and wants to be his friend after Owen makes it clear he wants nothing to do with her. WTF?

I feel bad for Tom. I really like his character. He’s super interesting and complex and he deserves better than someone who treats him like that. Tom is a good man at heart and he treated Teddy like gold and in return she’s done nothing but break his heart and stomp all over him when he’s already down. He deserves someone better. I’ve never been an Owen fan, but honestly Teddy is behaving so horribly I’m on his side on this one.

They had some great scenes in the OR together, but Teddy clearly read too much into it. Every time he gives her a crumb she’s convinced he’s forgiven her and wants to give her a second chance and that’s not it at all. Owen has been clear. He doesn’t forgive her and he doesn’t want to get back together with her. All he wants is to co-parent peacefully and work together as colleagues because he values her skills as a surgeon. That’s it.

It was cute to see Teddy Face Timing with Leo. I’m glad they are finding safe ways to incorporate the kids into the story. Speaking of which, the scene where Amelia and Maggie tell Zola that her Mom has been placed on a vent and she might not come off it was heartbreaking. That kid has grown into her own as an actress and really holds her own in that scene.

Her line about how she didn’t want them to tell Bailey or Ellis yet because they’re too young to understand broke me heart. Zola’s only a few years older than them but she’s old enough to understand the impact of what’s happening in a way that they can’t. And she remembers how hard it was when Derek died. When Cristina left. When Alex left. She doesn’t want to put her siblings though the same thing especially when Alex’s departure is still so fresh for them and they never got a chance to really know their Dad. The fact that Zola can recognize that at such a young age is raw and heart breaking.

We saw Winston and Maggie reconnect this episode which would have been super hot and enjoyable if Meredith hadn’t just been put on a ventilator! The scene where Jackson showed up looking for Maggie was too funny! I loved the scenes with Jackson, Link, and Winston in the backyard having beers! Winston has a great sense of humour and seems to be a calming presence. I like the idea of those three being friends.

Link’s face when he realized that Winston doesn’t know that Maggie and Jackson used to date and are also step-siblings. I’ll be interested to see Winston’s reaction when that comes out. I loved Link’s rant about how worried he was about Meredith and what her declining health and potential death was doing and would do to Amelia. Did anyone else catch that he called Amelia his wife? I’m calling it. They’re foreshadowing an Amelink wedding!

I liked hearing Jackson talk about how Meredith is family and they’re all worried and Winston’s comments about how all they can do is just keeping moving physically and metaphorically. I’m also loving Amelia and Maggie’s wardrobes this season. Their sweaters in this episode were gorgeous! Hats off to the wardrobe department! They’re looking good!

I loved seeing Jo and Hayes work together again because I love their friendship, but to be honest I was expecting more of the friendly teasing and banter of last season where she egged him on about Meredith and they traded barbs. Their scenes in this episode were a lot more intense and agitated. She totally played him with that line about Meredith.

He kept saying no to taking Luna to see her Mom and so Jo made it personal for him. If Meredith asked to see her kids Hayes would never say no and he would move heaven and earth for her. By making that connection Jo got him to agree to her plan. I also love that the reason he kept saying no in the beginning was because of what happened to Meredith.

She went from laughing and joking to being put on a vent and he doesn’t want to run the risk with any other patient and it’s obviously eating him up inside. He misses her. He cares about her and he’s clearly terrified about the possibility of her not waking up. That being said, Jo’s line where she compared Alex leaving her for Izzie because he found out he had kids he didn’t know he had and sending her a heartfelt letter to Hayes spending years watching his wife and the mother of his two boys die of cancer was way out of line. Super not okay. I really think that Jo is going to adopt that baby. I think that’s why they are setting up her interest in OBGYN.

In other news, Nico is still a terrible boyfriend to Levi. I honestly don’t know why Levi puts up with him. Levi really shone in this episode I think. He felt responsible for what happened, but instead of bungling things and making things worse like he might have done in the past he got out of his own way and asked Dr. Khan who was a vascular surgeon in Pakistan prior to immigrating to the U.S. to take his place.

I feel like this episode implies that the Beach is limbo now as I don’t know how else DeLuca could have ended up there as he wasn’t someone who was close to Meredith the way that Derek, George, Richard, and Bailey are. Not sure how I feel about that as I was kind of liking the is it a COVID dream is it the afterlife ambiguity.

Onto next week’s promo! I’m not excited that they appear to be setting up an episode in which the other characters mourn DeLuca’s passing as none of the other characters apart from Carina were really that close to him. They spent the last two seasons establishing that everyone hated his guts, considered him a nuisance, and only put up with him because they had to. So to me the other characters mourning him doesn’t feel authentic or real. It just feels forced.

There are several things I am excited about though. Seeing Maggie’s reaction to his death I think will be interesting. She was visibly upset and ran to his side when Alex beat him up in Season 13 and mourning the loss of your ex-boyfriend who you were no longer close to while being in a committed relationship with someone new I think is an interesting dynamic. She’s kinda standing in for Meredith here because she’s on a vent.

I’d like to see Catherine support Richard and make up for her horrible behaviour last season. And the best thing of all: Hayes!!! In the promo trailer we see Hayes sitting at Meredith’s bedside talking to her about how she needs to fight and how they all need her to fight. Bring it on! It’s about damn time! And Derek’s back and he’s … fishing? I’m excited to see what happens there and if they actually get to talk and have a real conversation this time. It has also been announced that Sarah Drew will be returning for a cameo as Dr. April Kepner this season so I’m excited for that!

Until next time!

[odd-birds-and-booksellers]

JOLEX IS ENDGAME

Look this is a rough draft of an idea okay but I can’t breathe knowing Alex and Jo Karev don’t end up together so I found a away to make it happen. It’s part of my grieving process and I think I’m on to something. Right, I know the Alex and Izzie reunion is fresh in peoples mind but I’ve got plan so imagine if you will A couple of years have past and Izzie’s cancer has become back and she tragically passes. Alex turns to his person Meredith (who as we know has a lot of experience with being a single parent and being widowed) she convinces him to back to Seattle, telling him he needs the support and it takes a village to raise kids. So Alex returns but is hesitant to get a job back at grey solan because jo still works there and he doesn’t wanna upset her. They end up bumping into her when he comes to get keys from mer and although jo is shocked she has moved on (dunno who with, don’t really care) and is genuinely sad to hear Alex’s happy ever after hasn’t worked out. She asks if he’s working back at the hospital again and he said he didn’t think it was a good idea but she encourages him that if it’s her holding him back then to not worry about it and she will be fine. Alex returns to Grey Solan and slowly starts to see jo around more and more and they slowly become friends again (much like the first time) Alex keeps his kids and home life very separate from the hospital and sees his friendship with jo as light relief from the pain he’s feel every time he remembers how his life panned out (she’s like his escape back to the past before everything changed. Anyhow Jo is thriving she’s with (new guy) and very happy and she probably has won Catherine fox award at this point. As their friendship develops it feels like history repeating itself and slowly Alex starts to have this feelings again. Meredith who is very aware of Alex’s feeling returning to the surface confront Alex who admits he’s always loved jo and has always felt so guilty for loving both women but they owned different parts of him. Izzie was like this idealistic fairytale he had dreamed of as a kid and jos love was messy and hard but set his soul on fire until he couldn’t breathe without her. Meredith sets him straight he can’t do this again jo has survived all the odd, the darkest things life has to offer and overcome them and he can not be so selfish to break her heart again and he will if even thinks about telling her about his feelings. So Alex continues to be friends with jo but tried to distant himself and focus on the kids but then one night when Maggie is babysitting he and mer do get drunk and while mer is talking to someone else he leaves jo this voicemail about coming back was the right thing for his kids that they love having cousins (mers kids) and aunts and this huge family but coming back fucking killed Alex “I’m trying to grieve for my wife and all I can think is powdered doughnuts and sofas and trees breaking windows and this why I could never come back” The next day Alex is feeling a little worse for wear and he bumps into jo who explain quite clearly this can never happen, she won’t be the women that goes back to the man that left her in letter, she won’t and she can’t. Jos new man sense this upset but she reassured him nothing has changed in her heart (which is true) Meredith ends up apologising to jo she never wanted her to get hurt again and the end up having a heart to heart in which jo admits Alex was the first man that every truly loved her and she’ll never get over him completely because he broke her heart but she understood why, she never hated him for it, she’s laugh and cries “He’s my Izzie, he’s the love I’ll never quite be over and it’s hurts all over agin like I’ve just picked a scab not because I still love him but because this how he must have wanted her when he left me” mer reminds her that when it came to her an Izzie she was the one he wanted but between the kids were a different ball game to which jo nods and wipes her tears. Time passes and life shift and Alex is used to being back and eventually the kids start coming round the hospital and one day Alex brings them by briefly just to check a patient but while they are meant to be waiting in the staff room, his daughter goes for a wonder and ends up lost and bumps into jo (who is unaware she’s Alex’s daughter) anyhow jo ends up befriending her and offers to help her find her dad and when she runs into Alex it all becomes clear and there’s very awkward moment before Alex’s daughter hugs jo and thanks her for helping her. Alex goes back to Meredith and tells her awful he feels having all these feelings like he could just slit jo into his life like he could have the best of both worlds. And Meredith says “you think jo is just gonna let you do that... if you want jo back you will have to fight” Alex slowly starts flirting with jo again (it’s much like the first time they get together) And there’s another storm (like when he said he loved her for the first time) and they start an argument on how to treat a patient and it’s all dramatic and they end up saving the patient and then Alex ask jo if he has a chance, he will understand either way but he’s got to know, because he’s prepared to work hard for her to making him her and Khios kids work if she thinks there’s even the smaller chance he will fight, but he can not put it all on the line without a chance because he has the kids to think about and she says she doesn’t know she honestly doesn’t “sometimes I see you and It all fades away but then I look at your children and I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you Alex but I’m not a replacement, I’m not a back up for you to pick back up now Izzie is gone” She leaves but she breaks up with her boyfriend because “I know how heartbreaking it is to have someone you love, love someone else and I don’t wanna hurt you” And then Alex turns up at her door “you’re not their mom, you’ll never be my god they loved her and she loved them and I’m not asking you to be her replacement, but they’re apart of package now but I don’t want you as a replacement. Jo you don’t slot back into Izzies place, you were never in Izzie place, you have a complete separate part of my heart, you aren’t second place that was never how it was, god jo there was never a day I didn’t think about you and hope you were happy and I know you are but there’s got to be some sort of twisted sick fate that pulls us together. Izzie dying was awful and it breaks my heart and at the same time I’m the luckiest man because I got to love her and I got love you and it’s selfish and wrong to say but Izzie’s cancer always had the possibility of returning and I think I found my kids at exactly the right time and I don’t regret going to them and giving them as much happiness as possible but I believe we were always meant to find our way back to each other, me and you we’re unfinished business.

[geekkatsblog]

Grey's Anatomy 16x14 review

(Who hurt the writers on Grey's? Everyone is breaking up and everyone's unhappy.)

_________________________________________

Deluca

Talking about him first because he is the biggest mess on Grey's right now and that's saying something. I really hope its sleep deprivation and not anything else because the way he's heading, hes gonna either be put in the mental or fired and either way no one can say he wouldn't deserve it. He was just out of it the whole episode. He was an ass to Dr Haynes who is one of his superiors, Yelling at Meredith in front of everyone, bringing out all of their personal business and even if he didn't care that's really embarrassing for the chief of surgery to be yelled at by a resident. He broke up with Meredith and THEN YELLED AT THE PATIENT. I was just done by then and Dr Riley calling him a machine 😳😱😰, wow what is happening to sweet innocent Deluca? I miss him. I sure hope that they figure out fast and solve what the hell is wrong with him or he's gone.

_________________________________________

Meredith

Apparently had no patients or chief of general surgery duties to do, so she decided to steal Deluca's out of concern, only to be yelled at, dumped and embarrassed by her resident/boyfriend. Honestly I don't know what to say, well for starters she should have either left Deluca alone or suggested the problem to Bailey and have another Doctor take over Suzanne instead of taking over the case. She can't keep using her Chief of General status to protect him. She should have chewed him out and told him to go get some sleep like she would have done with any other resident. Was kinda disappointed she let him talk to her like that. Come on Mer great sex or not he's not worth lowering your respect at work, at least not again you already went through that as an intern.

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Dr Haynes/ Mc Widow

So far so good, still not at shipper level with him and Mer yet, but as a stand alone character hell yea he's awesome. I kinda like him as the peds dr as well, him trying to help Joey with his physical therapy was something that he could have pawned of to an intern but no he made it his priority to find out himself how to help Joey, you can tell he really cares for his patients. My heart melted when he discussed with Bailey on how to help Joey, and then when he tried to defend Meredith form Deluca who is currently in hulk form. He's a cool addition to the cast so far.

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Jo Wilson/Karev

Is definitely on the brink of breaking and who could blame her? However she needs to find another way to break besides sticking her nose in other people's business. When she was talking to Link about Amelia earlier about having a tumor and not wanting kids. She definitely did not have the whole story about that and needed to zip it then in the OR with Owen she brought up how he would feel if Amelia's baby was HIS OMG, she almost ruined everything. For a second I wanted to slap her but then when she started to cry at the phone call with Alex and I couldn't stay mad, she's definitely suffering right now. Why are they doing it this way? I can't understand. They made a reference with the bear case and rekindled old flames that made me wonder if Alex found Izzie Idk, I'll have to wait and see.

On another note though, did they really try to validate affairs on that episode last night? Wow.

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Owen

Giving advice on how to care for a pregnant woman to Link on the elevator..... what a cringe 😖😖. Link knew and he didn't. And then besides going to the ultrasounds was Owen really there for Teddy? the 1st third Teddy was afraid to tell him she was pregnant, the 2nd third he spent being upset with Teddy and sorting out his relationship with Amelia and the adopted kids and the 3rd third he was pissed at Teddy's relationship with Koracick so when we think about it is he really qualified to give advice??? That was all he did in the episode, give advice, even to Jo. Since when is he a reliable source at giving advice.

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Bailey

Nothing much to do, except give a PSA on menopause, kicking Deluca off the case, temporarily ending powered up Deluca and sharing some joy with Joey while also attempting to share some with Richard. She is definitely going to help Joey, I'm not sure about the others since they seem to be happy and settling into their new homes well. Plus 4 adoptees as well as Tuck, that might be a little too much to handle. I was happy to see her and Richard's friendship as I usually am. That is the most personal I've seen their friendship usually it's mostly work husband to work wife. She's concerned and for good reason because I've never seen him so down before, it's almost at alcoholism relapse level and she's probably the only one left to help him.

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Richard

Is in a deep slump. His wife left him, hes separated and work no longer seems to be doing the trick for distracting him. Hes not teaching the interns and refusing to accept the help from friends. I hope this isn't a relapse coming or a cheating scandal either. Richard you've come too far now to go backwards. Get it together and surprise Catherine by being great.

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Amelia/Link

They broke up........ saw it coming but yet didn't see it coming and the excuse she used. Idk it was a little weak at the end of the day anyone would be sceptical to enter a relationship with potentially another man's baby. It may however be for the best right now, she had a rough pregnancy before where her baby died and the paternity stress definitely isn't good for her and baby. She needs to focus on her and her kid for now to ensure a healthy birth. Then for sure she needs to get the test done and face the problem. Props for her though for finally realizing that Maggie is possibly one of the most supportive people ever and deserves to be supported as well.

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Maggie

May have finally found her person in Amelia Shepherd who after being shown how it's done to be a supportive person has seemed to try it for herself. Their moments tonight were sweet to me Amelia is more like her half sister than Mer is. They really are sweet and are developing a close bond. When Amelia called her everything at the end to Link❤❤❤. I think this is the beginning to a beautiful sister hood.

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Jackson

Mark Sloan's work reincarnated, then in the episode at the end, popped up out of no where outside Meredith's house to apologize for being an ass to Maggie at the end of their relationship. Basically just a filler role tonight.

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Nico and Levi

They were the most confusing of the night and that's saying something. At the beginning of their relationship Nico tells Levi he doesn't want a baby gay who's parents don't know that he's gay and after Levi outed himself to his parents and family and everyone else causing conflict among his family Nico then confesses that his own parents are unaware that he's gay.

Say what????????????

The funniest part to me about it is that when Levi was about to tell him how wrong it was for Nico to come at him for not telling his parents when he himself didn't even tell his own family, Nico was like I know what I said,....... excuse me what? The writers didn't even try with this one, they made him say one thing and was like well we need to throw some good old fashion conflict in these guy's relationships so let's just ignore what he said earlier and go from there. It sucks because they really were a great couple with potential.

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End notes/Questions

• I'm incredibly thankful that Suzanne lived so that her kids could see her again. She really is an awesome mom, and her family dynamic, with her sister reminds me of the one I have with my sister, so that case really did hit a spot.

• The foster kids reunion was so cute and how sweet is Joey, hes like the kindest teenager ever. And so are his siblings, they're all adorable.

• I need them to do something with the place they're taking Deluca down and solve it fast because I don't like the place he's heading.

• Same goes for Alex, hes ghosting Jo and now Meredith. I know they have to try to take the band aid off slowly so it won't affect Jo's character but I wished they'd do it without erasing Alex's growth.

• Will Link and Amelia get back together and who's the father Owen or Link?

• Is Richard going to have a relapse or is something going to change.

• Will Ben and Bailey adopt Joey and his siblings, just Joey or none. For some reason I can feel a Ben and Bailey conflict coming on, they haven't discussed the miscarriage and that's bad.

• What's going to happen with Livi and Nico? I'm at a lost on where it's going at this point.

• Pac north is gone, are we going to see some more new doctors at the hospital?

• And last and most importantly, can we have at least one healthy happy couple on Grey's If not I'll settle for a happy healthy person.

[mrandmrskarev]

I’m really curious about what your theory is to what happened/what will happen to them in the future. Do you think you’ll ever share it? Hahahahah

Okay, I didn't want to share these but I am now, so sit down and relax because this is going to be a looong answer. Before starting I want to say that I will write two theories, they're basically the same but with little different things, in my head everyday I have new scenarios so if you ask me this tomorrow, I could write a total different thing. Also, sorry for my english and my grammar mistakes, english isn't my native languge. *and sorry for the late reply.

1) It’s 6 months since Alex left Jo, Meredith, Bailey, Richard and his whole life. No one's heard from him since those letter he sent to them, including Meredith who is his best friend. She never called him or texted him to know how was his new life in Kansas. Life is pretty normal at Grey Sloan, everyone is busy with their schedules and surgeries. Jo still shares her loft with Levi and they are good roomates. She is still single and she is focusing on her carreer, sometimes she likes to have fun nights. It's a sunny morning in Seattle, Meredith is ready to start her day, she is with her interns when she sees Alex Karev getting closer to her. She is like petrified and surprised to see him there. She gives him a big hug and she asks him what he is doing there, where are Izzie and the kids. Alex says things didn't work between him and Izzie. He says that at the beginning, for a few weeks,they were happy and the kids were happy, but at one point everything changed again. He says he tried to make things work but he failed. He failed not only because he and Izzie weren't the same of years ago but also because his mind was somewhere else and that he realized he isn't in love with Izzie but he was terribly in love with the idea of having a family. He says that he wanted things to work because he wanted to give those kids the happy family he never had, he wanted to fill those kids' memories with laughter, happiness and lots of love and he thought that the best way to give all of that to those kids was being the perfect family. But he failed because things weren't as he imagined. Alex confesses to Mer he kept thinking of Jo even if he was happy to spend time with his kids, that even if he had Izzie there, Izzie wasn't Jo. Izzie has been a big part of his life but she belongs to the past just like his love for her. And he tells Mer she was right when years ago she told him Izzie wasn't the love of his life. In that farm, nothing had sense, only the kids which he loves. He says to Mer he loves being a dad and that the happiness of his children come first but day after day, he realized that his kids can be happy even if parents aren't together. He imagined a whole different life for his children but as much as he loves them, his life wasn't there with Izzie. He belongs to Seattle, his life is there with Mer and Jo which he misses more than anyone else. He knows what he did is terrible and he knows he's a jerk and he doesn't claim to have his life back because he knows things changed since he left, especially he knows with Jo something broke, and that everything changed and nothing is like before. He also asks Mer if Jo met someone else and Mer tells him she is still single and she shares the loft with Glasses. Everything Alex wants is to apologize to Jo, tell her in person this time, that she deserved better than a letter, that she deserves better than him but he also wants to get Jo back even if he knows it's not easy and probably it's impossible but he will try, no matter what. Jo hears from Levi Alex is back in Seattle, because Levi is one of the interns who were with Mer. She is shocked and mad and she doesn't want to see him but .... (now you can keep imagine what you want, you can finish this like you wish, all the scenes are already in my head by the way 🥰)

2) It's basically the same of the first one. But in this one Jo started dating Jack Gibson, yes the guy from Station19. The first one who see Alex as he arrives at Grey Sloan is always Mer and he says to her the same things I wrote before BUT he adds something else. He says that one day, after the 50490344th fight with Izzie, she got a call from the hospital for an emergency and she asks Alex to take the kids to their dentist for their monthly check up. The dentist is a great friend of Izzie and he supported her during her whole pregnancy five years and half ago. Alex doesn't know him yet so he's curious to see who he is and to meet him. When they arrive there, the dentist greets the kids and shakes Alex's hands. He says he's happy Izzie finally found someone who loves her and her kids after all these years and that he's happy those kids can finally have a dad. Alex realizes that the dentist doesn't know Alex is the biological dad of the twins so when he was about to tell him that, the dentist says Izzie's journey with pregnancy wasn't easy. That she tried more than once to get pregnant. So Alex asks him  why, adding that he can imagine how difficult it was... and the dentist tells him that she used the sperm of her ex husband at first and that she got pregnant but she had a miscarriage around the 8th weeks and after a few months, she tried to get pregnant again using another donor's sperm. The dentist also says that after she had the miscarriage, she didn't want to try to get pregnant again but he helped her and convinced her to try again. In that moment, the world Alex had built all those months he spent there, collapsed. He couldn't believe what that man said to him. So after brining back the kids home and having a long fight with Izzie, he decided to leave that place because Izzie lied to him and that wasn't his life and those kids weren't his kids. He said one thing to the kids before to go, he said to them that he enjoyed the time he spent with them but he isn't their dad, he said to them they are smart and amazing and hope one day they will meet their biological father. After hearing the whole story Meredith is like paralyzed, even if she is not surprised at all. She's happy to have him back there but as she understands that he's back for Jo too, she tells him Jo started dating the firefitghter Jack from station19 and that after a long time, she seems finally happy (...) When Jo sees that Alex is back, she is shocked and ..... (you can continue as you want, and yes I have the whole story in my head)

[steves-on-a-plane]

Chapter Eight: The Kids Aren’t Alright

Renowned and Illustrious Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7/ Words:  Crossover Fic: Grey’s Anatomy x Iron Man/MCU Timeline: Grey’s Anatomy Season 3 & Iron Man 1 Pairings: Meredith Grey x Derek Shepard & Tony Stark x Pepper Potts Other Relationships: Brother!Tony Stark & Sister!Meredith Grey Summary: Trying to cope with Tony’s kidnapping, Meredith remembers the the first day she met her stepbrother.  Next Chapter will be posted: November 20, 2019

“Meredith?” Izzie let herself into Meredith’s room where she was already lying in bed with Christina. “Hey, honey.” She frowned sympathetically at her friend. “Your dad and Susan are gone, Derek went home too. Alex and I cleaned up downstairs. Anything else I can do?”

“Lay with us.” Meredith suggested. So, Izzie flopped down on the bed at Mer and Christina’s feet.

“They’ll find him.” Izzie seemed positive. “Someone as high profile as that? He’ll be back within the week.”

“He’s the number one weapon’s developer in the free world.” Christina shook her head. “Was probably selling stuff to people on both sides.”

“Christina!” Izzie gasped before turning her head to glaring at her.

“What?” Christina shrugged. “I’m just being honest. Although, Dr. Barbie has a point, I’m sure they’ll get him back. Eventually.”

“Well, I’m going to choose to believe that it will work out in the end. That Tony will come home safe. I’m the meantime, I’m going to bed. Have fun wallowing.” Izzie groaned before getting up off the bed and leaving the room.

“Stevens could be right.” Christina leaned her head on Meredith’s shoulder.

“Yeah, or I could never see my brother again.” Meredith sighed. “Typical Tony.” She chuckled bitterly. “Just when I think he's going to stay in my life, he disappears.”

“What about that red headed woman, why hasn't she called you? The one who came with him when you were sick?” Christina asked. “His assistant? Piper or Pippa?” She racked her brain trying to think of the woman’s name.

“Pepper.” Meredith remembered, reaching for her cellphone that was already ringing.

“No, that's not it.” Christina shook her head.

“Christina it's Pepper, she's calling right now!” Meredith waved her phone at her best friend before answering.

“Yes, uh, hi I’m calling for Meredith Grey?” Pepper sounded tired. Her voice carried a great weight to it. “I’m just realizing now that I’m not certain if this is still her number.”

“Pepper, it’s me.” Meredith didn’t know what else to say. Should she ask about Tony? Should she be angry for not being called sooner? She decided to wait and see what the assistant said.

“Meredith, hello.” Pepper took a deep breath. How do you tell someone that their only living relative has been kidnapped by terrorists? “I called the hospital first, but they said you’d gone home. I had to have JARVIS look up your phone number. But, none of that is important. I’m calling because…”

“I saw the TV, Pepper.” The surgeon interrupted.

“I’m so sorry you had to find out this way.” Pepper inhaled another deep breath not really sure what to say. “All I had been told was there’d been an incident. I was waiting on more information from the military when I saw the news myself. Meredith I’m…”

“Stop saying you’re sorry.” The Surgeon snapped. “You didn’t have him kidnapped, did you?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Okay. Then here’s what’s going to happen. You know Tony better than anyone, right? You need to be Tony until he gets back. I can’t help you. I don’t know the first thing about how that company runs. But you do, Pepper. They’re going to find Tony, and when they do, he is going to want to come back to his company. The best you can do for him is make sure he has something to come back to. Keep things going as normal as possible. It’s Tony we’re talking about.”

“Wow. Alright.” Pepper was a little taken aback by Meredith’s almost cold reaction to the situation, but then she remembered this was Tony’s sister. Pepper had heard many stories of Howard Stark form her boss and from what little she saw of Ellis Grey, the two must have made quite a pair. Apparently, they raised their two children to be much tougher than the world needed them to be.

“I’ll be sure to call you with any updated information I get.” Pepper said.

“Good.” Meredith replied. “I don’t like finding these things out on the television.” So, Meredith hung up the phone. It would be the last time she would hear from Pepper Potts for a while.

“What did she say?” Christina asked, tilting her head slightly to the side. She really did not like the version of Meredith that her family brought out of her best friend. Then again, the whole family was so toxic it was amazing Mer was still alive at all.

“She said she’ll let me know if she hears anything.” Meredith pulled the bed covers up to her shoulders and snuggled back up against Christina.

“Oh? Like she did when he went missing?” Christian snorted. She began to rant about something but Meredith wasn’t listening. Not really. She couldn’t help but think back to the day when she’d first met Tony Stark.

Meredith and Elis left the city of Seattle following her parents’ divorce and shortly after her fifth birthday. For the first two years, it was just Mer and her mother. There was naturally a string of babysitters along the way, because that was the only way the single mother with no other family could still be a surgeon. When that wasn’t possible, she was shuttled off to the hospital daycare. Meredith didn’t mind being along so much. At least when she was alone she could do as she pleased.

One morning Meredith came down the stairs for breakfast. She was expecting her babysitting at the time, a shiny, bubbly twenty-something named Becky. Instead it was Elis, sitting up straight at the counter island with a cup of coffee. When Meredith poured herself a bowl of cereal, her mother told her about the friend she’d met a few months ago.

“He has a son about your age.” She said. “I’ve invited them over for lunch.” What else could Meredith say but, ���okay’ before finishing her breakfast and scurrying right back upstairs? She didn’t come back down again until one o’clock when the front doorbell rang. Meredith stood at the top of the stairs. She had a perfect view of the front door from there. She waited, quietly, for her mother to answer the door.

Standing on the front steps was a man roughly her mother’s age. His dark brown hair was meticulously arranged as was the dark brown mustache above his lip. His eyes were hard and expressionless but he smiled when he saw Elis. As Howard Stark stepped into the house his son followed a few paces behind. Meredith found herself walking down a few of the steps to get a closer look. Tony looked up at her, crossed his arms over his chest and frowned.

“She’ll never be my mother.” Was the first thing the young boy said once they were alone together.”My father would never marry a doctor.”

“She’s not a doctor.” Meredith argued. “She’s a surgeon. One of the best.” Meredith knew this to be true because she had heard all of the other surgeons at the hospital saying as much. She puffed her chest out and glared at the boy. “You’re rude.”

“So are you.” Tony huffed. They sat in silence for almost an hour while the adults talked downstairs.

Meredith was fine with this as she didn’t like Tony or his father all that much. She already had a dad, back in Seattle, and he would be coming for her any day. She was sure of it. So she was very content ignoring Tony while he fidgeted with his erector set. A heaping mess of aluminum parts, plastic, and motors was scattered around her bedroom floor but she didn’t even warrant it a second glance. Instead she sat on her bed playing with Anatomy Jane, taking the dolls organs out one by one and them putting them together in just the right order. She couldn’t wait for Mr. Stark and his son to leave.

Now though, Meredith found herself wishing she had answered his calls or at the very least put aside their petty fight years ago. Would they have turned out differently, she couldn’t help but wonder, if only she’d bothered to be kinder to Tony from the very first day?

[calzona-ga]

Krista Vernoff, fresh off a two-season renewal and new job as 'Station 19' showrunner, talks with The Hollywood Reporter about the big cliffhanger.

[This story contains spoilers from the season 15 finale of Grey's Anatomy.]

ABC's Grey's Anatomy wrapped up its "Season of Love" on Thursday with a finale that teed up a plethora of new storylines to explore in the recently announced 16th (and 17th!) seasons.

Thursday's season 15 finale featured Meredith (finally!) professing her love for Andrew (Giacomo Gianniotti) — and doing so while he was behind bars. DeLuca was arrested (and stands to risk his career) after covering for Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), who committed insurance fraud to help a family who had been terrorized by immigration reform efforts. Meanwhile, Meredith, Richard (James Pickens) and Alex (Justin Chambers) wind up being fired by Bailey (Chandra Wilson) for their roles in the offense.

Elsewhere, Teddy (Kim Raver) goes into labor and finds support in an unlikely ally: Amelia (Caterina Scorsone). After Teddy gives birth (a girl, named after her best friend, Allison, who died on 9/11), Owen (finally!) professes his love to his former Army friend. It sets up a love triangle between Koracick (new series regular Greg Germann), who is back at home building baby furniture for Teddy. (Poor guy, Teddy doesn't bother to tell her boyfriend that she's in labor.) Then there's Amelia, who sees Owen moving on with Teddy and has Link (new regular Chris Carmack) waiting in the wings for something more serious at a time when she decides to work on herself.

As for Jo (Camilla Luddington), she (finally!) tells someone what triggered her depression as she turns the corner and fills in Alex (Justin Chambers) before getting treatment.

The hour ends with a cliffhanger that sees Jackson (Jesse Williams) leave Maggie (Kelly McCreary) alone after going out into the thick fog amid a multiple-car pile-up. Jackson fails to return, leaving Maggie terrified of what may have happened to him.

Below, showrunner Krista Vernoff — who hit pause on her well-earned vacation — talks with The Hollywood Reporter about the season as a whole and why she hopes viewers will be talking about Jackson all summer.

The episode ends with a cliffhanger, Jackson is nowhere to be found after going out into the fog. Why leave the finale so open-ended? Was this a contract decision or a creative one? He's coming back next season as a regular. It was a creative decision. It was a cliffhanger. I want people to come back [in the fall] and talk all summer and wonder what happens to him. We have not mapped it out. The writers come back June 3, I'm on vacation for two weeks and then we'll hit it. What I love about act six of our finale is we gave ourselves so much to play with for next season on all the storylines.

Will there be a time jump next season? I have no idea. It's unlikely that there will be much of a time jump because I really want to play through the consequences of what Meredith did. But I honestly might be lying to you because I honestly just don't know yet.

You described this as the Season of Love," and it ended with Meredith professing her love for Andrew. Is there a theme for season 16? That is a later conversation. We got through this season and then the writers went away. I'm really proud of the work we did this season but I don't have answers for next season.

You mentioned that you're excited to explore the consequences of Meredith's actions. Knowing that the series often takes on larger social issues, have you considered using Meredith's arrest for fraud to explore a bigger political storyline, perhaps around fighting for immigration reform? We have not. The very nature of what Meredith did here was an argument for reform because she was confronting and talking about a really broken system. The system was so broken and it was just enraging to her. The idea that this family is suffering this much and is now going to suffer more was more than Meredith could bear. So she made what amounts to a really stupid decision from a really noble place.

Meredith's actions felt very old-school Grey's — similar to when Izzie (Katherine Heigl) cut Denny's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) LVAD wire. And there was a reference to that famed scene in the finale as well! Was that intentional? Yes. One of the things that hasn't happened lately is Meredith Grey hasn't faced consequences for the rules that she breaks. She is a bold rule breaker and we love her for it — and she always gets away with it. We felt we had laid the groundwork to shock the audience when this time, Meredith doesn't get off so easy.

Meredith, Richard and Alex have all been fired, which will have a massive ripple effect on pretty much everyone, both at the hospital and in their respective personal lives … Indeed! It is consequential AF, as the kids say. We were excited in the writer's room about that. We couldn't stop kind of laughing like, "Holy shit, what have we done?! What are we doing?!" But when you get to 342 episodes — which is where we are — you have the right to take some bold swings, you have to take some bold swings if you want to keep the show fresh and exciting and you don't want people to get ahead of you. You have to be bold. And I feel like we were really bold here and we'll see how it all shakes out.

Jo reaches a turning point and is admitted for therapy. How much will you explore how there's no quick and easy fix for mental health and depression? I think that Jo is suffering from depression born of trauma … and the idea that her brain is telling her that she should never have existed. She's been in a horrible spiral and spirals are made more horrible when they live inside your head and you're unable to talk to anyone about them. This I know to be true: talking about things is the beginning of healing them. I was really proud of the design of that story. Episode 19 was such an exquisite episode and I hope that the writer and director and editors of that episode all get the Emmy attention they deserve. When I saw that episode, it uprooted all of my plans for Jo. There was no way in my mind that Jo could be happy and playful again this season, having just survived that. … We showed the beginning of the healing process. And the next step of the healing process is getting treatment. She needs treatment and that's what we see. So, while it makes you cry in the finale to see her and Alex say goodbye to each other, I believe that it's a happy cry because Jo is getting the help that she needs.

Let's talk about the Teddy/Koracick/Owen/Amelia/Link of it all. You really put a new spin on the love triangle in this one. Owen professes his love for Teddy, who doesn't call her boyfriend, Koracick, to tell him that she was in labor. What was exciting for you about exploring that, what, quadrangle? What do we even call that?! A love quintangle! In the end, it was a love quintangle. I was excited to take that story on because it was so complicated. I'm proud that we did that for the whole season without really ever having Amelia and Teddy go after each other, without leaning into those tropes that we have seen so often in love triangles where there are two women and one man. I'm proud that it was Amelia driving Teddy to the hospital in the end and then talking about how they could be friends and maybe they should be friends. I am very excited as a writer by the complexity of Teddy and Owen having that baby and having declared their love and then panning to find Tom alone in the nursery that he is building for Teddy and her baby. That's an exciting thing as a storyteller because it leaves just great material for next season.

Amelia's journey was terrific: she's getting over Owen and winds up meeting this Link, and they're absolutely wonderful together. And I say that as someone who has loved Amelia and Owen together since their start. Instead, Amelia says she's open to something more with Link but decides to explore who she is before committing to anything serious.

I was exceedingly proud of Amelia for her growth and for her maturity and for telling Link the truth, which is that he was a rebound and maybe he's not a rebound anymore because life is complicated and he is terrific but that she dove into him too quickly and she has to figure some things out before she can decide anything permanent. It's like, if everyone could grow up that much the world would be a better place.

The balance of power between Nico and Schmidt shifted — and Schmidt just came out to his mother, having found his confidence. Meanwhile, Nico seems truly miserable. Jake Borelli was upped to series regular but there's no word about Alex Landi. Will he be back next season? What did you enjoy most about their storylines this year? Alex Landi is going to be recurring for us again next year. I am not sure where it's all going but I thought that coming out scene was just gorgeous. I just loved them.

You're going to be showrunner on both Grey's and midseason spinoff Station 19 next season. I'd imagine that means you're shaking things up there, yes? I'm not ready to answer what I'm planning to do with it because I just took this on and I've got to study it and get inside of it. It's an exciting world and the idea of merging these two shows in a way where characters from Grey's might appear on Station 19 and vice versa. The design is that Station 19 is three blocks from Grey Sloan. When Stacy McKee [showrunner and creator] decided to go it made the most sense for me to oversee the whole thing and see how cohesive I could make it.

I loved seeing Schmidt in that world, too. Is there a specific character or two you're looking forward to writing for? I loved it, too. I need a month in a writer's room [to answer that]. I'm going to have writer's rooms that are right next door to each other and I've got great teams and I am really excited to answer that question for you in six weeks! [Laughs.]

How much pressure do you feel running both series? Maybe it's just exhaustion that's not allowing me to have the anxiety that I should probably be experiencing but I am excited. I had a conversation with Chandra Wilson when I came back to the show [two seasons ago] and we had a conversation about Bailey. The question she posed is, "We've established Bailey as being an ambitious woman. What does she do with all of her ambition now that she's the chief of the hospital?" That's where we started our conversation about Bailey and that's what I feel like applies here. It's like, "She gets two hospitals!" I feel like I came back to Grey's and it has been a joy. And I think it's been a success and now I get two shows! I get two hospitals. It's like my ambition is excited and I'm excited to challenge myself and see what I'm capable of doing with this new challenge.

Grey's was renewed for two more seasons. I hate to ask, but has there been any talk about if season 17 is the end? I've heard nothing yet. I'm under contract through season 17, that's what I can tell you.

[rorykillmore]

how about a ramble on one of your fave aus for one of your characters?

okay i want to preface this by saying that it took me awhile to decide what i wanted to do for this ask, and at one point i had like a list of options that i could potentially try to expand on

and also that a few years ago on denny, we had a huge… like, site-wide au that spawned from like a throwaway joke about my character (alana) being a veterinarian? and soon lots of people were like, connecting their characters to this setting until we had an entire like… denny normal world au on our hands that was surprisingly a ton of fun to play with. everyone got involved and got to take their characters out of their varied heightened settings to kind of explore what they’d be like if they lived a more normal life and how certain things would translate and it was just!! a lot of fun!!

so one of my options for this ask was a grey’s anatomy au which is something i’ve talked a bit about with @numinousbones anyway in the past and something i have a huge soft spot for and then i realized. not only does something like this lend itself really well to a panfandom setting, but it’s also kinda reminiscent of that dumb old veterinarian au. so i tried to think up some stuff that incorporated various people’s high muse characters in a number of ways! obviously if anyone else takes a liking to this they can feel free to alter what i’ve thought up for their characters OR just come up with stuff for characters i haven’t mentioned

so first i wanted to start with a core group of interns, like MAGIC (meredith/alex/george/izzie/cristina) in the first 5 seasons of grey’s. basically this is just a group of characters who start out training at the hospital as a group, under the same resident doctor. they grow and learn and compete together and ultimately become a kind of found family unit.  i went through a few character combinations for this and then decided i really liked dolores, laurel, lee, dev, and cloud for an au of this. partially because they’re characters we’re all really into right now (even if dev’s not on denny yet), and partially because, well, it’s a combination that lends itself well to a lot of shipping drama, true to grey’s anatomy form,

so lee and dev are kind of the on again, off again couple. they hit it off right from the start and are pretty obviously into each other, but it mostly manifests through brief hookups and stuff at first. both of them are a liiittle afraid of commitment and also. they’re here to become kickass doctors and their ambition should take priority over a longterm relationship. right? anyways everyone at the hospital knows they’re a thing, they’re just never sure when lee and dev are “on” and when they’re “off”. some of the attendings are infamously exhausted by this drama,

laurel and dolores are more like. the “will they or won’t they” couple that kills everyone because they take SEASONS to get together. it takes them ages to even realize they have feelings and then ages longer to do anything about it. they probably run into traditional obstacles to cause drama like finding other brief love interests, getting into fights over stuff, etc. it’s painfully obvious to lee and dev but nobody wants to risk the dynamic of their friend group by throwing it out into the open

cloud escapes the shipping drama (for now) but he still goes through a lot with the rest of them and also, after his first year as an intern, maybe he latches onto studying under an attending in the specialty he wants to go into, aka sophie. they develop a nice rapport and a pretty great mentor/apprentice relationship, maybe something a la alex and addison in the early years of grey’s, but then if you wanted to be mean you could translate cloud’s geostigma arc into… cloud getting sick with something else (because there’s Always a storyline on grey’s where one of the doctors gets sick, someone should run a health check on this hospital) and he and sophie try to like, keep it on the downlow for awhile while they try to help him. at some point the rest of the friend group finds out and are predictably upset,

i was thinking of which character could work as the resident who trains the original group of interns (like bailey does in the show) and for some reason lin hu just struck me as perfect for it? maybe because he’s so grumpy. imagine him trying to wrangle lee/dev/dolores/laurel/cloud and all their drama. also he probably has a friendly(ish) rivalry with another attending (ammy) and some kind of romance arc with shu-chi and kulau, who. hmm. maybe they’re his rivals who hold high positions at other hospitals? but then they all slowly fall for each other,

then as the au goes on and the interns work their way up to being full time residents, you could bring in a NEW group of interns which could be like… mike and some of the other kid characters on the site maybe? i feel like we need to work max into this au too. but anyway, mike gets assigned to cloud probably, and gets a lot of those “reckless baby interns causing shenanigans” storylines. i also had the sad/sweet thought that maybe you could bring eleven in as a patient at some point (not with anything too serious because we don’t want to make this like, an izzie/denny scenario, we’re not that mean), but with something that would require her staying at the hospital for a little while and she and mike could fall for each other? and mike could get a lecture from some older doctor about falling for patients and get all defiant about it,

i like the idea of shiro as this like. brilliant, established, charismatic attending. kind of like mcdreamy, but nicer. everyone kinda looks up to him. but i also threw shades of owen into this idea – no ngl, i just took some of owen’s character concept and applied it to a better character. that is to say, i feel like shiro would work as like… a former army medic or something who now works as a surgeon, and he’s really good at what he does and has great bedside manner and is really charming and reassuring with everyone, but beneath that he has layers of trauma he doesn’t really deal with. maybe sara could be like? the teddy to his owen? like they were old Army Buddies and maybe she comes to the hospital at some point because her sister works there and snagged her a job and then she and shiro have to work through some old shit. he’s finally cornered by someone who knows he suppresses things!,

on that note i was trying to figure out how to fit the legends in… idk what they would work better as. a ragtag group of army medics? or like a paramedic/emergency response team who get to go onto the scene of an accident or disaster and try to help people regularly? or maybe they could be something like firefighters? idk they feel like they’d work better as something more hands-on like that

lastly it occurred to me that death should be given the obvious position of “old guy who works in the hospital morgue”. he’s notoriously grumpy and sometimes vaguely creepy but on occasion he gets really poignant moments with other characters who are struggling to deal with like, a patient they’ve lost, or another character who gets killed off (as if that would ever happen in a GREY’S ANATOMY au!)

anyway. those are some basic concepts. despite this being a “normal au” you could expect to throw your characters at a lot of like… natural disasters and sudden high stakes stuff and virtually anything that would cause drama because that’s what grey’s is all about!

i didn’t get much into like… what each character would specialize in. or what their backstories in this world would be, although i was really tempted to. but i think this post is long enough and hopefully you had fun listening to me paint just like, a broad picture of some people’s characters!

also a song for au insp (x)

[tintinxtintin]

perfect harmony (jackson avery)  1. invasion

please see author’s note at end

Penelope

Another dreary day in Seattle. I grabbed my lab coat from the back seat of my car and shrug it over my shoulders. At least it isn't raining yet. I straighten out my blue scrubs and grab my little bag that has my change of clothes in it for after my shift. Once I have everything together I get out of the car and make my way into the building of Seattle Grace. Or I guess I should call it Seattle Grace Mercy West now.

We were undergoing a merger, so all of MW's doctors would be transferring here. I didn't totally hate the idea but I wasn't exactly jumping up and down either. I had a feeling that some of the new doctors would be rude and horrible but then again, our doctors weren't always the nicest either. I just wanted to get through the next 48 hours as smoothly as possible. But who was I kidding? I was a surgeon for crying out loud. Smooth sailing wasn't in our vocabulary.

I stepped into the elevator and was about to press the button when two men in orange scrubs and SGMWH lab coats shoved themselves inside. They were laughing and paid no attention to me. I didn't care. I ignored them. I wouldn't be starting my morning out on a bad note.

I made it into the locker room, following behind the guys who were in the elevator. I went up to my locker to put my things inside. I then sat with my good friend Izzie while waiting for the rest of our group to finish up. Izzie caught the sight of a short-haired redheaded girl putting her things into George's cubby and politely asked her not to. The girl refused and Izzie raised her voice. Instead of just moving, the girl mumbled something under her breath and Izzie jumped at her. Her husband Alex has to hold her back, and I mentally pout, wanting to see Iz put that girl in her place.

The girl's friend snickered at Izzie being pulled away and I glared at her.

"Something funny to you?" She quickly shook her head, seemingly terrified. I grabbed my pager and followed Iz and Alex out. Cristina and Lexie caught up to us and we all made our way to Meredith's room. We eyed the Mercy Westers in disgust.

"They're locusts- comfortable locusts, feeding on our surgeries," Meredith said from her spot in the hospital bed. I nodded in agreement.

"It's rude. There should at least be a couple of days where they act like guests before they put their feet up on the coffee table," Iz chimed in.

"And what's with the orange scrubs? What, ours aren't good enough for them?" I asked, instantly hating the ugly color.

"We ran out. They're on back order. Randall from the supply company says they'll be here in a week."

We sat there for a few minutes just talking about the merger until Meredith yelled at us to get to work. We went to the pit and there were patients everywhere. It must've been from the other hospital closing. One of the men from the elevator spoke up about a zoning system to help keep some of the chaos under control. I had to admit it was smart. He identified himself as Jackson Avery, and I had the first opportunity to get a good look at him.

He was extremely attractive. He was light skinned with gorgeous blue eyes. I knew he would make a lot of the nurses swoon. I wasn't a nurse, however. I didn't have time to drool over him. I had work to do.

~

I was back in the pit, checking on a patient when all of a sudden I heard someone yelling. I looked up just in time to see Avery holding another patient to the ground. Owen congratulated him and he responded with a simple thanks. Everyone in the room applauded him except Cristina and I. I hadn't seen what happened so I had no idea why he had done it. I figured the patient got a little too angry and threatened someone and Avery stopped him.

I caught him filling out a patient's chart and looked at him from the corner of my eye. I couldn't get over how attractive he was. I mean, sure we had Mark Sloan but damn. This man was just absolutely fine as hell.

"You know I can see you undressing me with your eyes, right?" He said. I felt my cheeks get hot, but I hid it.

"That's because I'm not trying to hide it," I responded. He chuckled, and I found myself loving the sound.

He walked over to me, holding his hand out to shake.

"I don't believe we've met yet. I'm Jackson Avery."

"Penelope Coleman." His hands were so soft yet so firm. I'd love for his hands to explore-

"Beautiful name for an equally beautiful woman."

"Thank you, Dr. Avery, for that flattering compliment but if you'll excuse me, I have patients to check on." I left him standing there, walking away.

I don't know what it is about this man that has me acting this way, but I don't like it. I've never been the kind of girl who wore her heart out her sleeves. I don't blush at mediocre comments from guys who think that a smirk and a few winks are enough to get a woman into bed. Not that Avery thought that way but I really wouldn't be surprised if he did.

I wasn't particularly busy at the moment so I headed back to Meredith's room to check on her. She was blankly staring at the TV when I walked in. When she noticed me come in she smiled and patted the spot on the bed next to her feet.

"I trust that you've been practicing medicine today, Penny. I don't wanna hear about how a Mercy Wester is stealing all the glory." She laughed.

"Well, that might suck because one of them is. His name is Jackson Avery and he's absolutely delicious if I do say so myself. He tackled a patient who tried to kill someone. Practically got a standing ovation."

"Damn it. This is so horrible." I shrugged my shoulders and sat with her for a good ten minutes before telling her I'd be back later. It was almost lunchtime for me so I headed down to the cafeteria. My group was already sitting down so I plopped in a chair next to Lexie. It was about four minutes before we all realized the Mercy Westers weren't eating. They were stealing surgeries.

We all hauled ass back up to the surgery wing to try and scrub in on surgeries.

~

"Bye Mer, love you." I waved goodbye to Meredith who was starting to fall asleep. I had already changed into a comfier outfit and was on my way out. I knew Derek was on call, Iz and Alex would be at Derek's trailer, and Lexie was spending the night with Mark, so I'd have the whole house to myself for the night. As soon as I was at home, I'd be taking a long hot shower. And then I'd order pizza and watch Ellis Grey perform a fancy surgery.

Just as I was stepping into the elevator, I heard someone yelling for me to hold it. I did, and Jackson Avery walked in. He smirked at me and I rolled my eyes. The elevator door closed.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were stalking me, Dr. Coleman." He said, turning to face me.

"Quite the opposite Dr. Avery. In fact, this is the second time today you've hopped on the same elevator I happen to be on. Now, why do you think that is?"

He shook his head and laughed. We were both silent after that. The elevator stopped again on the third floor and another MW known as Dr. Percy got on. I watched as he told Avery that he'd already found a nurse in geriatrics to screw so Avery would have to find another way home. I almost laughed when he said that. How could someone be so rude? At least tell him ahead of time so he could make arrangements to get home.

When we got to the first floor, Percy left to find his nurse and Avery and I walked toward the door. I could see him pull out his cell phone in order to call a cab. I rolled my eyes and offered him a ride. I wasn't gonna let the poor man pay for a ride when I was perfectly capable of driving him home myself.

We walked to my car together and got in.

"I really appreciate the ride, Coleman. Charles can be a jackass sometimes." He broke the silence.

"it's really no problem. And you can call me Penny whenever you aren't addressing me for work." He nodded and told me to call him Jackson.

It was a twenty-five minute drive to his apartment and the entire time we talked about our families (let's just say I almost crashed the car when he told me who his grandfather was), work, and a hundred other things. He was so easy to talk to. He was funny too. I would definitely say he was the only Mercy Wester that I actually liked.

-------------------------------

this chapter was loosely based off of Grey's Anatomy season 6 episode 5

a/n: most of the dialogue and characters in this story belong to shonda rhimes, and everybody included in the production of grey’s anatomy. i do not claim to own either; i only own my oc, penelope coleman. this story is meant to entertain, not take credit.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Grey's Anatomy: Break Down The House/Get Off On The Pain (14x01/02)

Grey's Anatomy is a soap opera. I mean that's not a surprise to anybody, but every once in a while you see episodes that reminds you - Grey's Anatomy is a soap opera. I don't even mean that in a bad way, actually. This episode had a lot of great moments, and the extreme drama of them is what made them great. It also had just one or two moments that had me on the verge of an eye-roll... let's take a look.

Cons:

To anyone who's been reading my reviews, it'll be no surprise to you that I'm annoyed about Amelia. Owen has his sister back, and Amelia has been avoiding him and acting horribly. Then Owen tries to talk to her about it, since he knows something is really wrong, and she lashes out again. All last season I kept saying that Amelia needed to get over herself, and now we learn, thanks to her participation in a sex study (I'll get to that later) that her erratic behavior is actually because she has a giant brain tumor. Okay... did we not already do this with Izzy? This was the big shocking cliffhanger at the end of the two part episode, and it felt like the most cliche, overwrought thing that could have been done at this point. Amelia has been pissing me off for... well, forever now, and it seems like sort of a cop-out to blame all of her shitty behavior on a medical drama cliche like a brain tumor. A brain surgeon has a brain tumor?! Gasp. How surprising.

Maggie was also getting on my nerves a lot last season, and while she did have some good elements in this episode that I'll get to later, she still had one of her quintessential annoying moments. Nathan and Owen have decided not to tell Megan about Nathan and Meredith's relationship. Teddy thinks this is ridiculous, and Maggie agrees. She says that she was in Megan's position once, in that she found out about Nathan and Meredith and it was weird. Okay. The utter hubris of comparing what happened with her to what's going on with Megan is... ugh. Maggie. Please. I still can't believe how much she built up that whole thing. She had an unrequited crush on a guy. Nothing even happened, and he started dating someone else. How can you even compare the situations? She also spends her time being awkward around Jackson, and he spends his time being awkward right back. I'm convinced that this is perhaps the least interesting potential romantic relationship this show has ever done, right after DeLuca's unrequited thing for Jo. Please stop.

So, Eliza Minnick is gone. She ghosted Arizona and disappeared into the night after being fired. I mean, no particular skin off my back, since she was really annoying. But it's also annoying to see such a clear signal from the show that her presence was an utter waste of time. It takes absolutely nothing for Arizona to bounce back from this, and it takes no time for me as a viewer either. Eliza was such a poorly written character. Oh, and speaking of bouncing back - I'm really happy that Arizona found somebody to hook up with, and I'm actually rather pleased with the new character. But have you noticed that all the lesbians and bisexual women on this show are gorgeous, long-haired femme girls? Callie, Arizona, Eliza, and now Carina? Even Penny didn't have any sort of a butch vibe going on. I'm not trying to say that we need our lesbian characters to look like a cliche, but if they could not all be super hot ultra-feminine, that would be nice. Maybe this is a thing nobody cares about but me, but I apparently care a little bit about it.

Pros:

I'm gonna go through a few subplot elements before we talk about Megan Hunt.

April. Okay, so while I don't think Maggie and Jackson are interesting, I still kind of do think April and Jackson are interesting. They're a couple that I actually root for. I think they belong together. I like that April identified her pain and was honest to Jackson about it. As much as I want these two to work it out, for April's sake I hope she finds a way to be happy, with or without Jackson.

Arizona brings a woman home to her house and they're hooking up on the couch when DeLuca comes in. He sees this woman, and the two of them immediately start bickering in furious Italian. Turns out, this woman is Carina, DeLuca's older sister. She's actually a doctor too, and she goes in to meet with Bailey. Bailey has been having her own sort of internal feminist uprising as she laments the necessity of wearing uncomfortable heels to work, so when Carina suggests a sex study where women masturbate inside the MRI machine to study the effects of orgasms on the brain, Bailey decides to go for it.

This plot thread, setting aside the ending where Amelia has a stupid tumor, was pretty funny and great. Carina seems like a better match for Arizona than Eliza was. She's funny and sexy and the scene where she and DeLuca are yelling at each other while Arizona is shirtless on the couch was pretty hysterical. I also loved how everybody had this girlish interest in her sex study. Female sexuality is a very repressed topic, and it was fun to see it explored seriously. And Bailey getting rid of all her high heels was pretty fantastic. Ben is such a good husband - he points out to Bailey that her sexiest (and most uncomfortable) pair of heels will only hurt her if she tries to stand in them, leading to some fun sexy times.

Richard had the tiniest of little subplots with Maggie that I thought was quite fun. He's impressed with Meredith's bad-ass surgery skills, and tell Maggie that Meredith is just like Ellis. Maggie gets  a little competitive and asks if Richard ever compliments her, Maggie, when talking to Meredith. Richard says that while Meredith reminds him of Ellis, he likes to take credit for Maggie's success personally. This was a great moment to remind me that I didn't always dislike Maggie so much. If she could just stay away from the romance plots I think I'd be a lot more cool with her.

Jo and Alex. Another unsurprising fact for my readers is that I'm not super duper happy with Jo and Alex's romance as of late. But in this episode... I don't know. Maybe it was just that I know they're both in so much pain, and as annoying as Jo can be, I really do want Alex to be happy. Also, Alex told the truth to Jo, and the two of them seem like they could really make a good start out of this. Obviously the looming threat of Jo's husband is still out there, but for now I think they might be on solid footing. And kudos to Ben for playing the "new Stephanie" by supporting Jo through all of this craziness. Bailey correctly points out to him that he doesn't get to have an opinion about how Jo, a woman, feels in regards to Alex's violent attack of DeLuca. Ben agrees, but he still manages to help out by going to Alex and telling him the real problem - Jo is afraid of him. With that hurdle jumped, these two can finally move forward with their lives. I think I might like them better together and happy than I did when they were mutually angsting and pining.

Okay. Now for the main event. Megan is great. Admittedly, she's a little too well-adjusted to be somebody who's been held hostage for ten years, but when you hear her story it does make a little bit of sense. She was treated poorly at first, but eventually she was utilized as a doctor, and actually made friends and adopted a Syrian refugee as her son. She wasn't permitted to leave, but she was treated well. Her motivations are entirely about getting back to her adopted son. She has a serious abdominal injury, but wants to go with the quicker, more risky option in order to get back to her child sooner, instead of the safer, more painful option that will take much longer.

Everything about this setup kind of breaks my heart. Megan is really cool, and funny, and doesn't put up with nonsense from Owen or Nathan whatsoever. Meredith is the one who breaks the news to her about her past with Nathan, and Megan takes it in stride. She and Meredith seem to really like each other, and although Meredith's first surgery doesn't go as planned, the second one is a huge and innovative success that will get Megan back to her son in way less time.

Nathan breaks my heart. He's so devastatingly relieved to see Megan again, but obviously his feelings for Meredith can't just poof away. And Meredith is being so cool about the whole thing, stepping in as Megan's surgeon and doing an amazing job. April gives Nathan the advice that he needs to be all in with Megan, and let her know that he's there for her completely. He decides to propose, and we get another very soap opera-y moment when Meredith walks in to tell Megan it's time for her surgery, interrupting the proposal. Turns out, Megan says no, because she thinks Nathan is still in love with Meredith.

This is a love triangle, of sorts, but I love the fact that there's no animosity between the two women. Nathan has pined for Megan and missed her for ten years, but the fact remains that they've both moved on with their lives in big ways. Megan, as difficult as her time has been, has found a new family in her son. And Nathan has clawed his way back to a brotherly bond with Owen, and has found new love with Meredith. They can't just erase that and move back to where they were. And yet... the love is still real.

Oh yeah, and let's talk about Teddy. I didn't realize how much I had missed her until she was there! It was cool to see the scenes of her, Owen, Nathan, and Megan. These four all have a special bond that nobody else at the hospital could understand. I've always liked Teddy, and even though Owen was absolutely wrong to kiss her, I can see how it would be appealing for both of them to give this thing a shot. Of course, it just made me like Teddy even more that she said no. I don't know if she'll be around after this, but I'd love to see her integrate back into the story, even if just temporarily. It was so cute when Arizona saw her and immediately gave her a summary of everything that had happened - Callie left her and took Sofia and she found love again and then Eliza got fired - that's a lot of stuff to blurt out to somebody you haven't seen in years!

I'll end by saying that even though this episode had a lot of dark elements to it, it was undeniably a lighter episode than we've seen in a while. Megan is back and she's going to be okay, and all of the major surgeries in the episode were a success. Jo succeeded despite a med student dropping his glasses into the surgical field, Amelia succeeded with a delicate jaw surgery even against Jackson's disapproval and doubt, and Meredith found a way to help Megan get better quicker so she can return to her son. I'm always glad when we can get a bit of hope from this show, even if it is mixed in with a lot of interpersonal drama.

Well, there you have it. I'm back to writing reviews for this monstrosity of a show. I always forget how long these things take me... it's gonna be an adjustment getting back into it!

8/10

[takaraphoenix]

I only had plans to just jump into the cold water and watch season 17 of Grey’s Anatomy, because c’mon, it’s been ten years since I dropped the show, that would be so much catching up to do.

So naturally I ended up starting at season 1. Because I’m me and I hate doing things only half.

I forgot just how much I used to love this show? It was so good?

I mean, holy shit, it is so funny and delightful and interesting. And I loved the characters.

Which is why I stopped watching it. I was found family trope baited.

And, look, I understand that you have a hard time keeping the same cast around for seventeen years, that’s insane. I get it.

But seasons 1 and 2, getting back into it, what really made this show was the complex friendship-family dynamic between Meredith, Isobel, George, Cristina, Alex, Burke and Shepherd. Bailey and Richard are more on the sidelines, as their bosses.

The fact that by now, Richard and Bailey are the only ones from the original line-up who are still around, aside from Meredith, and that 2/3 of the original cast are gone is just kind of... depressing, when you’re a person who watches for the characters.

And there are so many great moments!

I adore the friendship between Cristina and Meredith, they’re so different and yet in the right ways to make them match. Meredith, Isobel and George living together? The girls just not respecting boundaries at all and collapsing in his bed to whine about a bad day? All of them having Thanksgiving together as a family.

I am weak for a found family trope. And if they live together, you just... you just get my vote. And the show makes them work so nice and smooth.

First Burke, then George, then Izzy and then I... stopped watching because I came to realize that this show wasn’t about a specific set of characters and their found family, it was about a building with a rotating door of doctors and with Meredith at the center as the real constance.

And! That’s fine! Like I said, you really can’t keep the same cast around for seventeen years.

But I’ve been watching on and off during season 16 already and am now watching season 17 and... rewatching seasons 1 and 2 just feels entirely different, because the found family really was the center of it. It was about this close-knit, complicated group of friends and their drama.

Now, it feels much more like a regular hospital show, where you got Drama A going on between these here characters over there, and Drama B between those here over there and the... family-like bond that ties these dramas, these characters, overall together is missing because the show progressed and evolved into an essemble of different characters who entered during different times for different reasons. (And I know, in a way, it quite literally keeps the “family” part around, with Meredith’s sister and sister-in-law, but the overall feeling, of everything? That’s different.)

Which is... fine, normal even, for a hospital show. But rewatching the beginnings makes that feel nearly sad, because in the beginning, this show was more than just another hospital show and that was what gave it its charm, the charm that set it apart from other doctor dramas.