Grey’s Anatomy season 13 episode 20 review: Meredith, Riggs’ turbulence

For all of those wanting to see the Meredith – Riggs relationship move forward on Grey’s Anatomy, Thursday night’s new episode “In the Air Tonight” had that. Not only did it give you a chance to see Ellen Pompeo’s character finally start to consider a real relationship with Nathan, but she also had to revisit some of her past trauma aboard an aircraft in the process.

In some ways, you can argue that through everything that she went through on the airplane tonight, Meredith almost healed herself from two past traumas. She was able to let go more of the airplane accident that took her sister away from her, and then also start the healing process from when she ended up losing Derek. This episode was about the process for her starting to move forward, and proving further why she is such a formidable force both inside the hospital and out.

The entirety of this episode, save for the Meredith – Riggs scene where they joined the mile-high club (presumably) and the one at the end, was all about survival. The two doctors had to go through a shared experience of keeping airline passengers alive in the midst of some really insurmountable odds, as turbulence and other factors kept them darting around in the sky. This tested their ability to improvise, but also work well together. Meredith and Riggs had some help, and that’s a good thing given that there were absolutely some significant bumps in the road. For one, they had to take on the fact that the pilot was not willing to land the plane for a long time because of a lack of suitable conditions. Also, they had patients who were getting better and then falling back into danger.

There was an effective use of flashbacks tonight in order to bring us back into some of those devastating places. In particular, we had some that reminded us of the plane crash, about Derek, and what Meredith lost. Riggs said most of the right things — he may have been a little pushy, but you can argue that this is what Meredith needed.

As a whole, though, this was an excellent showcase for Ellen Pompeo and Martin Henderson, and the episode sets up an interesting future for the two. Grade: B+.

When will Grey’s Anatomy return to the air?

Then be sure to head over to the link here! That’s when we’ve got the return date and a little more news when it comes to what is coming up next.

Are you happy about the end result for Thursday’s new episode of Grey’s Anatomy? Be sure to share some of your thoughts in the comments! (Photo: ABC.)