It’s nearly impossible to keep one’s personal details classified when walking the halls of Grey Sloan Memorial. But isn’t it adorable when they try? Between a major cancer diagnosis and all the romantic entanglements, someone might as well write all the secrets on the OR whiteboard beside the early afternoon “Whipple procedure.”
First and foremost on this week’s Grey’s Anatomy (season 21, ep 2 “Take Me to Church”), Catherine (Debbie Allen) begrudgingly allows Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) to hijack her day for an impromptu CT scan to determine if the cancer has spread. As long as Meredith keeps it a secret, particularly from Richard (James Pickens Jr.). Unaware that Catherine is on the CT table, Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) points over the shoulder of a jittery Meredith at the scans popping up on the monitor and confirms that her sister’s mystery patient has tumors all over her liver.
Catherine is resolute. This is how she’s going to die. Good to know. Now, everyone get back to work!
Meredith immediately takes Catherine’s scans across the street to Bailey (Chandra Wilson) for a consult. Sure, Bailey has been chomping at the bit to get in front of Catherine to get her job back, but when she sees the scans and learns whose liver is on the other side of those tumors, she’s all in for helping Meredith figure out a way to save the woman who helped both of them break glass ceilings.
It’s simple: They must convince Catherine to do a biopsy to make sure the tumors are actually cancer and not something else. Once they butter up their former boss in a dive bar by singing her trailblazing praises, Catherine relents and agrees to the surgery. I loved that Catherine picked a place that had peanut shells on the floor because “Richard would never come looking for me here.” Meredith and Bailey then beg Teddy (Kim Raver) to borrow a scrub nurse for the surgery that they plan to perform in the clinic. No questions asked.
Teddy says yes, even though she and Owen (Kevin McKidd) are tiptoeing through their first day back after the recent firing. Of course, at the beginning of her shift, Richard tells Teddy she’s no longer the chief, and she has to slum it as a regular old cardiothoracic surgeon. It technically doesn’t bother Teddy since Owen’s sister Megan sent her friend Nora to Grey Sloan so Teddy could specifically check out Nora’s esophagus.
Nora grew up with Owen and Megan and accidentally revealed that everyone’s favorite military hero played the part of Rooster in the school’s production of Little Orphan Annie. I’d watch that all day long.
It was easy for me to use context clues to determine that Nora was not doing well when blood spewed from her mouth. Teddy saves the day and a life, but the more interesting twist to Nora’s surgery is the young woman lurking in the shadows. Remember Kwan’s (Harry Shum Jr.) ex-fiancée Molly (Dianne Doan), who has amnesia? It turns out that she has quite a stubborn streak and has no problem hanging around the hospital until Kwan shares their story.
No one knows who Molly is, and the guesses surrounding her proximity are entertaining. No, she’s not his cousin. No, she’s not a patient’s relative. Kwan never reveals her true identity, but eventually caves when Molly gently demands to know why they called the wedding off. Kwan admits that he cheated on her before the wedding, they got into a huge fight, and she drove off in her car, which led to the accident that resulted in her amnesia.
Sweet Molly’s eyes glisten, but she’s not mad at Kwan; in fact, she tries to help him find peace. He thanks her by sticking his tongue down her throat, immediately regretting it, and walking away with a flippant “call if you need anything” goodbye.
Speaking of goodbyes, poor Amelia, Beltran (Natalie Morales), and Schmidt (Jake Borelli) remove a benign tumor from a young kid’s chest cavity, only to find that he has a brain tumor that should kill him in a matter of months. Schmidt tries to wall up the sadness of the diagnosis, but with the help of the kid’s reverend, he learns to listen and live in the moment, even when the diagnosis is grim. Should this young man be picking out coffins from a catalog? Perhaps not. But writing a list of things you want to do before you die feels a little more helpful.
Something tells me that, like Yasuda (Midori Francis) and Millin (Adelaide Kane), Schmidt might be making out with the reverend in the elevator soon. There was a vibe. Tell me I’m wrong.
In other news, Richard, Adams (Niko Terho), and Winston (Anthony Hill) play a round of golf. Well, Winston mostly looks for his ball in the woods, but that’s neither here nor there. The point of the story is that Richard is sharp on the field, which means he can still be sharp in the OR. And his first order of business is hiring Teddy back as chief.
Will Richard go back to the OR? Or will he remain in a managerial role? My hope is that Catherine finally tells him that she’s sick, and Richard is forced to nurse her back to health with meds, loving care, and the sweet, sweet musical stylings of one Mr. Luther Vandross. That would definitely heal me.
Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.