Grey’s Anatomy season 16 episode 10 review: Maggie’s story gets even darker
By Meg Dowell
For many Grey’s Anatomy fans, the most surprising twist landed within the final moments of the midseason premiere.
After a long two-month hiatus, Grey’s Anatomy finally returned at the tail end of an extended crossover event. Linking up Station 19 and Grey’s storylines has been a long time coming — they were out of sync for a while, but it seems more crossovers might be in our near future.
Those who didn’t watch the first half of the two-hour event can rest assured that you really only missed some great “Warren-in-action” moments, more of the same Bailey/Warren heartbreak, and a reminder that Schmitt and Helm are BFFs. Also, be careful with scissors. Always. Please.
The episode begins right where Station 19‘s action ends, bringing the night’s traumas into Grey Sloan for emergency care. Everyone is worried about Bailey, but she gets donuts at the end, so she’s going to be just fine. (The donuts come with friends.)
One case of broken heart syndrome and another flatlined heart later, both Schmitt and Helm are on their long respective roads to recovery. Every doctor harmed in the accident, physically and otherwise, will live to operate another day.
If character deaths weren’t the episode’s key to heartbreak, then what was? Most other characters got their happy endings … unless you count the fact that, technically, the love of Jo’s life is in Iowa never to return. Fingers crossed we’ll get more on that later.
No beloved interns died, Jo didn’t end up stealing that baby, and Owen has finally sworn he’s a changed man — you might even believe him this time. But that doesn’t mean all’s well and good, especially for one character in particular.
When DeLuca shows up to try and comfort Maggie (side note — if they end up together, will the MerLuca mourning finally end?), someone else shows up too … to deliver some news that isn’t going to make this girl’s day any better.
It turns out Maggie is being sued for the “wrongful death” of her cousin — which means there may be enough available evidence that she made such a pivotal mistake in her treatment of Sabrina that she could end up in a similar place as Meredith in prior episodes.
Here’s hoping she has good malpractice insurance …
It’s been hinted that Maggie’s storyline would head to a dark place, and it’s clear Maggie isn’t going to handle this well. She was already on the verge of a breaking point when she quit her job. What will she do now? More importantly, who will show up to support and comfort her?
Meredith is a given, since she’s no stranger to dealing with legal trouble (though it’s much clearer that she definitely did something wrong, while Maggie’s case won’t be quite as obvious). But it looks like DeLuca might stick around too. And things between him and Meredith really might be over for good. Or not. Who knows?
While the first half of Season 16 focused heavily on Meredith and the possibility of her losing her license, it’s likely this half will focus more on Maggie, her relationship with Richard, and her figuring out her place in the world.
It wouldn’t be surprising if this was her final arc, but since we know Karev is down for the count, it’s questionable whether or not they’ll remove another member of the main cast so soon. Props to the writers if this ends up being the storyline that matures and refines Maggie’s character, but we’ve seen her go through plenty of heartbreak and end up right back where she started. So we’ll see how all this plays out.
We’re much more concerned about Jo at this point, really. The future of Alex is completely uncertain (at least to us). If they don’t just lazily write him out of the show, they’re going to have to do something (gasp!) dramatic. We’re not ready. But we have to be, don’t we?
Next. Grey's Anatomy: This is Alex Karev, he's all grown now. dark