Grey’s Anatomy season 16 episode 5 review: Talking through our fears
By Meg Dowell
This week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy starts with an unexpected surgery and ends with an even more unexpected ruling from a judge.
This review contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy season 16 episode 5 “Breathe Again.” Come back later if you don’t want to know what happens yet!
All is right with the Grey’s Anatomy world — well, mostly. Warren is totally stoked to be a dad. Alex and Jo are bonding over the art of throwing things at walls. Maggie is totally killing it at her job (not literally) and is finally able to focus on what she’s good at now that Jackson isn’t stressing her out by trying to mold her into someone she isn’t.
Oh, and DeLuca sort of wasn’t terrible in this episode? So that’s refreshing.
While Zola’s emergency surgery was highly unexpected, even more unexpected was the ending cliffhanger: That Meredith gets to go to jail for missing too much mandatory community service! OOPS!
There was plenty of Tom being Tom and no sign of Teddy or Owen (or their shared tiny human). But our favorite leading ladies did get to take up most of this week’s air time.
We even got some three-way sisterly bonding between Meredith, Amelia, and Maggie — something we honestly don’t get enough of. While each struggle in their own way apart, they truly shine when together.
This allowed plenty of room for some “real talk” about being afraid. Which is always an important emotion to address, if you don’t want it to chew you alive from the inside out.
Meredith leans on her sisters to help her through waiting room anxiety (we are so glad Zola is okay!), and Amelia uses the opportunity to voice her concerns about knowing absolutely nothing about the father of her child.
Jo and Bailey also have plenty of inescapable time to talk through their anxieties about being alive. (Does it feel to anyone else like Jo is becoming Bailey’s replacement Meredith? I don’t know how to process this possibility.)
Before Bailey talks through her fears about being pregnant — of which she understandably has many — Jo talks both in the past and present about her fears of being angry. Of losing control. Of losing someone she cares about.
And by the end of the episode, we see her filled with hope. Hopeful Jo is our favorite. It’s also nice to see the show acknowledge that things like depression don’t just go away, even with intense therapy. They require long-term maintenance. Luckily, she has Alex — and now Bailey — to serve as her support system.
It’s always a little unsettling when so many characters end an episode on a happy note. Not because happy isn’t good, but because happy means there are sad things coming — that’s just how Grey’s Anatomy works.
Just as long as nothing happens to Amelia and Link. I will continue to worry endlessly about them until I know they’re going to be okay.
Hopefully some jail time will remind Meredith that she needs to take things like community service more seriously. She has to think about her kids. They need their mom, and that means she’s going to have to shape up and take responsibility for what she’s done.
Everyone else is showing some good signs of quality character development. Even Bailey. Meredith should, too.
Next. Grey's Anatomy: What happened to the Bailey we used to know?. dark