‘Grey’s Anatomy’ season 13, episode 13 review: Could Arizona, Eliza Minnick ever become an item?
Losing your first is never easy, and it doesn’t matter if you are a resident, an attending, or someone trying to change the course of how an entire hospital operates.
Tonight on “Grey’s Anatomy,” we had a chance to see a more personal side of Dr. Eliza Minnick as she struggled with the concept of losing a child as a result of the decisions that she made leading into the surgery. She’s eager to allow the residents to learn by getting their hands dirty during the procedures; it’s a smart idea in theory, but there is a difference between doing a trial run for the sake of a routine appointment, and then doing one for the sake of a surgery that can cost someone their lives. Her method is risky, but she’d never lost a child before.
We give Arizona some credit for being there for her in the closing minutes, and then reminding her that she could “have friends” in Seattle if she’d change the way in which she teaches / makes enemies of Webber and the various attendings. She could even have more than that in the form of a relationship with Arizona, who seems to us like she could be receptive to it in the event that she didn’t feel like a traitor to the other doctors in doing so.
April struggles with her promotion – In the wake of taking Bailey’s promotion to Chief of Surgery, April in the minds of some of the doctors has chosen a side — unfortunately, it’s not the side that they would like for her to be on, and that’s something that could easily cause even more tension than we saw tonight with her making it clear to Webber than Ben was going to be operating instead of him. (Ben, in turn, had to spend most of his surgery as lead listening to constant arguments between Webber and Bailey. At the episode’s end, Webber also made it clear just how upset he was with Catherine over seeing her choose a side he believed to be in competition with him.)
Where is Meredith? – It’s absolutely strange to see an episode with Ellen Pompeo not around, and the same goes for not getting any Justin Chambers. Heck, it feels like there were a ton of interesting characters not a part of this episode. We’re not sure if this was a creative decision or a way to get some people some time off, but it did change the balance of the story in a strange way.
The reality here to us is that this was a big episode for Dr. Minnick that gave us some good insight in terms of her history, how she operates, and also her expectations for the hospital. Meanwhile, it showed how the arrival of one person can create such division and eventually conflict with the group. What the episode brought to the table was compelling enough, but the absence of so many key characters kept us distracted for most of the episode, wondering when they would turn up. Grade: B.
Next week – Alex is going to be returning to the hospital! If you want to read a little bit more news about that, head over to the link here. (Photo: ABC.)