As season 21 hits the home stretch, Grey’s Anatomy brings in Piper Perabo for a meaty guest-starring role. The show has been on a pretty solid streak since its midseason return, and episode 16, “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” is no exception.
Perabo plays the parent of a young patient who is at Grey-Sloan for a risky brain surgery. Monica, Lucas, and Simone are all on the case, with Amelia taking the lead. Meanwhile, Jo and Linc team up to help a woman with debilitating endometriosis days before her wedding. Elsewhere, Winston, Jules, and Richard work on a car accident victim, and Blue tries to woo a prospective intern on Bailey’s behalf.
Piper Perabo Is The Best Part Of The Episode
She Gives A Powerful Performance In A Tense & Effective Storyline
It’s pretty common for Grey’s Anatomy to bring in “name” guest stars for multi-episode arcs – the show did it earlier this season with Lena Waithe. It’s a win-win for those involved. Grey’s gets a few more people tuning in to see an actor they already love, the performer gets to play in the show’s sandbox for a bit, and with any luck, viewers connect with the case because someone familiar is there.
Luckily, that’s exactly what happens with Perabo in this episode. She gives a heartbreaking performance that’s incredibly effective in making us feel the stakes, and it goes a long way to help sell Amelia’s nerves before the surgery. Grey’s has given us a lot of “confident” Amelia this season, and while it’s always great to see her own her power, it makes sense that she’s uneasy here.
Grey’s also makes a smart choice in how the patient is portrayed – the show is big on precocious, confident kids, usually to juxtapose how terrified their parents are. In this case, though, both the kid and parents are understandably rattled, which makes the situation even more nerve-racking.
Amelia confiding in Monica about Derek is no small thing and proves how much she’s come to trust her.
There are also a couple of nice beats between Amelia and Monica. Before the surgery, Amelia rejected Monica’s pep talk, and I found it refreshing that Monica wasn’t hurt by that and recognized Amelia needed time alone. The show has taken its time developing their potential romance, which has been effective so far. However, Amelia confiding in Monica about Derek is no small thing and proves how much she’s come to trust her.
It’s Great To See Jo & Linc On A Case Together
Grey’s Anatomy Makes A Smart Change To Their Wedding Plans
Jo and Linc’s storyline does quite a lot and, for the most part, works. For one, it’s nice to see them team up on a case together, and the show has some fun with Jo getting overly invested in the NICU couple, while Linc doesn’t really care. I don’t know that the parallel between their relationships is quite as obvious as Jo thinks it is, though, and it highlights a bit of a ret-con approach the show has taken to Jo and Linc’s history.
While it was established from the beginning that they were friends beforehand, Grey’s has worked hard this season to make them a great love story: two people with a lot of history that were always meant to be. While this has likely been done to minimize Jo’s marriage to Alex – which she references in this episode – her past with Linc seemed a lot less significant in his early seasons.
Regardless of their muddled history, though, they’ve become a really solid couple, and while I doubt their spur-of-the-moment wedding will go off without a hitch, it’s preferable to dragging the wedding planning into next season.
Grey’s Anatomy Continues To Toy With A Jules/Winston Romance
In This Episode, There Are Mixed Results
The episode also delves deeper into the connection between Winston and Jules, but it’s not wholly successful. On the one hand, it’s interesting to see Jules so oblivious to the sparks between them, but it has the unfortunate side effect of Winston treating her in a pretty crummy way. He’s dismissive of her as both a mentee and a friend when she hasn’t done anything wrong.
The case certainly helps sell a connection between the two of them, bonding over their dads, and it’s nice to see some passion from Winston when he finally goes after the patient’s father. But on the whole, his cold behavior toward her leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and I’m still having a hard time getting behind them as a couple.
The Other Grey’s Anatomy Interns Have Some Drama Of Their Own
Blue’s Storyline Is Surprisingly Effective
On the surface, Blue trying to woo a prospective intern on behalf of Bailey is a textbook “filler” storyline, but it’s effective for a couple of reasons. The intern going rogue forces Blue into more of a mature leadership role than we’ve seen before, which Bailey clearly respects and appreciates. It tees up all of the current interns moving into more confident positions next season as they move up in the program. It also suggests Blue is on a path away from Molly, as he and the prospective intern initially seem to have some romantic sparks.
Lucas and Simone’s storyline is a little more predictable, as her hesitancy to ask him to move in seemed likely to come out eventually. But Lucas surprised me by confronting Simone about it immediately after Blue spilled the beans. The two seem destined for a major relationship change by the finale, with Simone either making a big romantic gesture and convincing Lucas to move in for real, or one or both of them deciding they need some time apart. With only two episodes left in the Grey’s Anatomy season, we’ll find out which way they go soon.