Grey’s Anatomy Recap: Forget Me Not

I’m just going to say it: Thank God. Thank God Cass Beckman has a weird habit of hanging out in hospitals where she does not work. Thank goodness she has a strange passion for making PowerPoints, and thank the high heavens that some dumb college kids ruined Teddy Altman’s morning with a prank on her way into work this week. I had not yet given up on the possibility of Teddy hooking up with Sophia Bush, who wandered onto the show earlier this season as a trauma surgeon from a competing hospital — and whose open marriage might’ve opened up new possibilities for Grey’s Anatomy’s most stagnant couple. (Sorry.) Now, we seem to be on the fast track toward just that.

Cass came back to wait around while her husband got a colonoscopy, which gave her the perfect opportunity to make Teddy question the confines of her marriage. There’s a real spark there, and not just because Cass offered to take some work off of Teddy’s hands. Teddy seems lighter around Cass — freer. Supported. Maybe because Cass seems to be the only one who recognizes how exhausted she is. Owen’s too busy daydreaming about his childhood friend, Nora.

It’s not just that I don’t like Teddy and Owen Hunt together (I don’t; as the world’s most obnoxiously dedicated Owen hater, I don’t like him with anyone). I’ve simply spent years hoping that this show would give us some truly interesting relationship mess — some innovative romantic configuration to drag us out of the monogamous, two-person rut that most couples on this show have fallen into. Remember the incredibly layered and complicated mess that was Lexie Grey-Mark Sloan-Callie Torres-Arizona Robbins? I’ve been hoping for something that feels like that but with less biphobia. And now, it might finally be happening.

The mechanics that got us here feel a little forced, but truthfully, I don’t care. Did Owen’s friend Nora just kind of show up out of nowhere? Yes. Does their chemistry feel nonexistent, even after she tried to kiss him? Oh, yeah. Does the whole thing feel drummed up to lead us to this week’s parking lot conversation, where Owen and Teddy both admitted that even though they love each other, their eyes are wandering? Absolutely. And if all of this leads us to crack this prison of a marriage open and set Teddy free, I’d watch it all again a thousand times.

There’s a non-zero chance that this week’s candid chat will lead to a breakup, but I’m not getting the vibe that we’re headed in that direction — at least, not yet. Would Owen, king of annoyingly retrograde opinions, really go for an open marriage, allowing himself to explore things with Nora while Teddy indulges in some couples’ spa days with Cass? I have my doubts! Still, this feels like a win; maybe they break up, or maybe they stop depressing us all with their passionless marriage, but either way, I’m cheering.

In a way, this week was all about hanging onto deep, formative love. Besides advancing Teddy and Owen’s decades-long romantic saga, the Alzheimer’s tragedy of last week continued to unfold as Catherine Fox’s former protegé, Evan Moore (Lena Waithe), fought like hell to keep her wife Tasha from losing the donated liver that she secured by lying about Tasha’s condition. This drove an unexpected wedge between Meredith and Nick, which shouldn’t actually surprise anyone because if there’s one thing Meredith will do in a situation like this, it’s make the choice that pisses everyone off.

That said, while I understand why Evan got mad at Meredith — no one wants to hear that a board of bureaucrats must deliberate over whether their loved one will live or die — Nick’s anger took a bit longer to parse. Obviously, he worried that Meredith could one day be in similar shoes to Tasha, which would put him in Evan’s role. At the same time, that doesn’t change medical protocol, which is all that Meredith was trying to enforce in spite of all of the intense feelings that this situation naturally brings up. Did Meredith show us those feelings? Of course not — this is Meredith Grey we’re talking about, after all. But you could see them simmering beneath the surface just the same.

In the end, the important thing is that these two came to an understanding and Meredith shared a rare emotional disclosure: “I can’t imagine my life without you.” When I tell you I actually gasped and clutched my chest — this moment was so sweet!!!

Also, because Nick is a McGenius transplant surgeon, he came up with a brilliant solution to our problem, splitting the liver into two parts and donating it to two patients — Tasha and a librarian named Lisa, who, like Devin on Love Is Blind season eight, has formed an unhealthy dependency on ibuprofen.

Lisa’s case might not have been super interesting, but the absolute ego trip that she brought out of Ben Warren sure was. His review from Altman is in, and I’m sure you’ll be shocked to learn that it was not good at all. The problem for Ben is that his wife is also his boss, and if there’s one thing Miranda Bailey can’t stomach, it’s a bad review. As the two care for Lisa, she poked and prodded him for signs of insubordination, and in the end, when she brought up the review and told her hubby to stay in his lane and remember he’s still on a trial period, he came back with the most “Ben”-like response possible. He’s not a floppy-eared resident in his twenties, he said. He’s got knowledge! And experience! And with that in mind, he said, “I am going to do what is best and hope my boss can see that.”

I’m sorry, but that is absolutely wild behavior. I don’t care how experienced this guy is; there’s a chain of command in every establishment, and they exist for a reason, especially in hospitals. Also, and I cannot emphasize this enough, Ben is still on a freaking trial period! Miranda’s nemesis, Sydney Heron, was right — the nepo energy is strong with this one.

Then again, let’s face it: at Grey Sloan, everyone considers themselves an exception to the rules. Just look at Blue and Lucas, who snuck Blue’s ex Molly in for a cheeky EEG after she suffered a seizure. When Amelia caught them, she couldn’t help but take a look at the results and diagnosed Molly with temporal lobe epilepsy. Understandably, Molly wasn’t eager to undergo more brain surgery that could potentially cost her even more years’ worth of memory, but Blue is desperate to start a new life with her and didn’t want to hear it. Eventually, they landed on a compromise: Molly will do the surgery if Amelia also performs an experimental procedure to try and get her memory back. We’ll have to wait until next week to see if Amelia bites, but given her passion for impossible surgeries, I think we probably all know the answer.

The OR Board

• Our other patient of the week, Cameron, felt a little disappointing. I did love the scavenger hunt subplot, and the visual of Cameron getting pinned to the MRI machine with a metal pole was fun, but overall, I wish the love triangle felt a little more … I don’t know … believable. Much like Teddy and Owen’s marriage, it felt kind of perfunctory.

• Still, I’m glad that the college shenanigans at least inspired Jules to get over her post-Mika angst. Who needs vibe-killing sorrow when you can go to Joe’s and meet someone new? Also, she got to flex on everyone in the process by figuring out the final clue on her way out, which is almost as good as sex anyway.

• Seriously, though, what do we think the odds are that Owen and Teddy choose an open marriage — and if they do, what are the odds that they actually stay together? Based on our knowledge of both of them, I feel like the odds are 70 percent and 0 percent, respectively.