After somewhat of a bumbling start to the 21st season, Grey's Anatomy seems to be finding its groove again. Season 21, Episode 3, "I Can See Clearly Now," has the interns struggling with relationships and the next steps in their careers, puts Amelia back to work on tumors and sees Meredith and Richard at odds — again.
When the episode opens, Simone Griffith is preparing for the kidney transplant she'll be participating in that day, though Lucas Adams is trying to distract her with kisses since she's been up half the night studying. Benson Kwan walks in on them in the kitchen as he heads to the hospital early, and though Griffith tries to get information out of him about Molly, his ex-fiance who spent Season 21, Episode 2, "Take Me to Church," waiting for him at the hospital so they could talk about their relationship, it's clear Kwan doesn't want to talk about it. He tried to kiss Molly before she left, and he's obviously still reeling from that.
Elsewhere, Mika Yasuda and Jules Millin are out on an early morning run, which is not what Millin thought Yasuda meant when she suggested they do something, just the two of them. Millin isn't really a runner, but when Yasuda kisses her, she gets back the energy to keep running, much to Yasuda's delight. At the Warren-Bailey house, Ben tells Bailey he wants to help her in the clinic before his interview with Sydney Heron about returning to the residency program, but Bailey shrugs him off, telling him she has business at the hospital. She even tells him she can't do lunch but can't tell him the real reason.
Meredith Grey can't tell Nick Marsh initially either, though she breaks her silence after asking him to distract Richard Webber by inviting him to join Nick for his transplant surgery. Meredith and Bailey will be performing a biopsy on Catherine Fox, but they can't tell anyone — especially not Richard. Nick isn't sold at first, but eventually, he does decide to ask Richard to join him for the transplant, even if it makes him an accomplice to what Meredith and Catherine are hiding.
At the hospital, the chaplain, James, walks up behind Levi Schmitt right when he stumbles upon James's dating profile on an app. James jokes that "some people think they'll go to hell for swiping left on a chaplain," which leaves Levi bumbling over his words and a little embarrassed, but their flirting is cute and continues throughout the episode. As James leaves — with extra treats from the coffee cart for the nurses — Jo Wilson and Atticus "Link" Lincoln walk by, discussing upcoming appointments. Jo tells Link that she has scheduled an OB appointment for them at Seattle Presbyterian, which Link finds odd, considering they work at a hospital. Jo doesn't want people to treat her differently once they know she's pregnant, so she would rather go to another hospital. "It's your call," Link tells her. "But if I had a vagina, I'd want Carina DeLuca all over it." Which didn't come out the way he thought it would.
Amelia Shepherd, working in a mediocre lab, is approached by Teddy Altman, who has put Amelia name on a waitlist for another lab but has something else she thinks Amelia might find interesting — a hemangioblastoma on the thoracic spine. "Were you thinking I wouldn't notice that she's 20 weeks pregnant?" Amelia asks before handing the chart back to Teddy and telling her that the patient will need to terminate the pregnancy. Teddy says she doesn't want to and that four other neurosurgeons have turned her down. She asks Amelia to just meet with her. Unless, of course, she's too busy doing nothing in her lab.
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In the main foyer of the hospital, Ben arrives to try to speak with Sydney Heron early, but she's not interested. She knows he is married to Bailey, and he won't be getting any special treatment from Heron. She tells him to wait until his scheduled appointment and then hands out assignments to the interns — the ER with Owen Hunt for Kwan, the ICU for Millin, Webber for Griffith, Marsh for Adams, and Shepherd for Yasuda. Griffith balks at her assignment as she is supposed to be on Marsh's transplant, but Marsh specifically requested Adams, and Yasuda barely acknowledges her assignment as she's just received a call and something is obviously wrong, though she tells Millin that she's fine.
In the ICU, Millin, Schmitt, and Ndugu are with Donna Mae Clarkson, a patient who is very ill but has no advanced directive. Ndugu and Schmitt both try to explain that life-saving measures would potentially be very painful, but she wants a quantity of life, not quality, and she's not going to change her mind. As she heads for the clinic, Meredith is spotted by Richard, who hopes she is visiting from Boston to see Catherine. He is worried that the rift between Catherine and Meredith is eating at her, as Catherine hasn't been acting like herself lately, but Meredith tells him that she's there for a patient consultation. She tells him she'll think about reaching out to Catherine to repair their relationship, but when she walks into the room where Catherine and Bailey are, they're already at odds. "Nice of you to show up," Catherine snips, which Meredith follows with "Nice of you to tell your husband," Bailey tells them to play nice — their real enemy is Catherine's cancer.
Amelia meets with Rhiannon Fletcher, who is the surrogate for her brother, Julian, and his husband. She's hopeful that Amelia is there to tell her she can remove the tumor without hurting the baby, but Amelia immediately begins telling he that the risk is too high because her pregnancy hormones have caused the tumor to grow more rapidly. Rhiannon won't take no for an answer, even if her brother wants her to — she promised him she would carry his baby, and it's their last egg, so she wants Shepherd to take another look.
Down in the ER, Kwan is excited to be working on big traumas, but the ER hasn't had any yet. Instead, they're little things like a head laceration and bruised ribs. Eventually, Hunt has to tell him that even if they're small, they're still traumas. Kwan has to decide if he can handle the little stuff and the big stuff.
Upstairs, Marsh has convinced Richard to join him for the transplant as there is a groundbreaking angle to it. Griffith and Adams are arguing about whether he should have taken the assignment with Marsh, given that she had studied all night, and she throws his family name in his face just before Richard shows up to tell her that they'll be joining Marsh on the transplant. Things are going to get awkward now.
Meredith tries to convince Catherine one more time to tell Richard, but she insists that she doesn't need to tell him until there's something to tell. They begin the biopsy, which seems to be going smoothly until Catherine starts to hemorrhage. Now Meredith doesn't care what Catherine wants, she will definitely be telling Richard.
Shepherd feels like there is really no option for getting the tumor out, but Altman knows all the right words to say. "Anyone who has gone to four different surgeons isn't looking for a second opinion. If we say no, she's just going to try to go to someone else." Whether it's because Amelia doesn't want to be shown up by someone or she doesn't think anyone else would do it as well as she would doesn't matter, now she's in.
In Marsh's OR, guest star Jack McBrayer is wide awake as Tom, the scrub nurse from Hope General who needs a kidney transplant. He'll be awake for the whole surgery, which is a surprise to Adams but not Griffith, who takes the opportunity to show Marsh and Webber how prepared she is. She rattles off the reasons for an awake surgery, like a shorter recovery time and the potential to save the healthcare system money, but Tom reveals what seems to be the real reason. He wants to be able to keep an eye on his surgeons as he seems to be very nervous about how sterile things are and how many Raytec sponges have been opened. Throughout the surgery, he even asks the doctors to count the sponges out loud for him so he knows that they have all of them.
Schmitt tries again to get Donna Mae to sign an advanced directive, even telling her that life saving measures can be particularly violent, which Millin tells him is an understatement. When Ndugu mentions that some patients don't like to think about their own death, Schmitt gets an idea. He wants to bring in the chaplain, though when they get to his office, he is so nervous he lets Millin do most of the talking. Eventually, though, he tells James that he's worried the patient is struggling with her own mortality, which he's hoping James can help with.
Outside, Sydney and Ben are finally meeting to talk about his residency. Their conversation is under the dictionary definition of "awkward," especially when she accuses him of running after whatever job is the shiniest. She tells him that being a surgeon requires patience, commitment, and stick-to-itiveness, and she doesn't think he has what is takes, which Ben does not take well. "You want commitment? I've carried people down 10 flights of stairs wearing 75 pounds of gear. You want patience? I convinced a hopeless teen to step away from the ledge. Stick-to-itiveness? I have been happily married for 12 years, and I have three children that I love more than any career. So if you don't want to bring me back, I'll be fine." He leaves in a huff, leaving Sydney surprised by his response.
Shepherd and Altman tell Rhiannon that they're going to do the surgery, but Shepherd wants to make sure she understands what might happen. She tells Rhiannon that the surgery will increase the risk to her and that they might not be able to save the pregnancy, but she will try. She's also going to put Rhiannon's life and health above the baby's.
Back in Marsh's OR, Tom has requested another lap pad check. Richard tries to brush him off as they've already done one, but Tom knows a patient who went septic because a surgeon left a lap pad in her abdomen. Marsh asks Bokhee to do another count, and she confirms that there are still 10. Webber's phone goes off shortly after, and Marsh asks Griffith to check it since Adams is suturing. It's Meredith, paging him to the IR suite. He dismisses it, saying that Meredith doesn't know he's in a surgery, but when Griffith says that it's a 911, Marsh steps in. "You should go," he tells Webber, who says he's sure it can wait, especially because Tom seems to panic when there is the potential for Richard to leave. But Marsh knows what is going on. "Richard, you need to go. It's your wife. Meredith is doing a procedure on her. You need to go." Say no more, Dr. Marsh. Webber is on his way.
Before her surgery, Rhiannon's brother, Julian, is desperate to know if she'll be okay and asks Yasuda if he's going to regret letting his sister be his surrogate because now her life is at risk. Yasuda is honest with him — she wishes she could tell him it will all be okay, but she just doesn't know. None of them do.
In the IR suite, Richard comes in to find Meredith and Bailey putting in a shunt to try and prevent liver failure. Meredith explains that Catherine wanted to wait for the results of the biopsy before telling him, and he kisses her hand and tells them to take care of her and that he'll be waiting outside. He's obviously scared, but what Meredith doesn't know yet is that he's also livid.
Tom asks for one more lap pad count and then gets upset when they aren't counting out loud and asks if they are sure that the kidney is pink. Marsh has finally had enough and tells Tom that he has done more than 600 transplants and has had one done himself, so while he understands being on the table is stressful, it's under control. Tom seems to relax, but Bokhee and Griffith are just the opposite. A lap pad is missing.
James is speaking to Donna Mae in the ICU, and he tells her that it's okay to fear it, but she insists that she doesn't. She insists that she understands what it means not to sign one and then finally tells them the real reason she's not signing it — she refuses to die before her "bastard ex-husband." That's definitely not the answer any of them were expecting.
Shepherd, Altman, Jo, and Yasuda have moved to the OR with Rhiannon, and things seem to be going well — at least until they lose the neuro signal to her legs. Shepherd tells the anesthesiologist to start her on LR and pressors, but the pressors decrease blood flow to the baby. There still isn't a signal, so Shepherd orders more pressors, but Jo wants her to wait. They start arguing because Shepherd is worried Rhiannon's spinal cord doesn't have the few seconds it might wait for the medication to work before adding more, and Jo is worried that more pressors will kill the baby. As they continue to argue, Yasuda loses her cool. "Just stop!" She yells. "This is a human being on the table. She is someone's daughter, someone's sister. She is counting on us to save her and, ideally, the baby, so stop arguing like she's some kind of science experiment! Just figure out what to do and do it!" The time it has taken Yasuda to yell at them was just enough time to get blood flow to the spinal cord and get the baby's rhythm back to normal, which is great, but Shepherd isn't pleased with Yasuda's behavior and indicates that she needs to leave the OR. Yasuda knows she messed up, though it's not as if she hasn't done that in Shepherd's OR before.
Marsh, Griffith, Adams, and Bokhee are still desperately searching for the 10th lap pad, and Tom is starting to panic. He begins to make a high-pitched squeaking noise, and when Marsh tries to calm him down, he finally admits that he was the one who miscounted the lap pads on the septic patient he mentioned earlier in the surgery, so he knows it could happen to anyone. As Marsh is reassuring him that it could happen to anyone, Adams finally finds the 10th lap pad — stuck to Marsh's shoe, which makes them laugh. Now they're finally done, and Griffith can close.
In the ICU, Ndugu and Schmitt have news for Donna Mae — they've found her husband, who was living at an assisted living facility but has been dead for several months. Donna Mae breaks into a mix of laughter and tears. She'll miss that "horses's ass," but at least she outlived him. Now she can sign a DNR.
Catherine's finally out of her procedure and her first question when she wakes up is if the biopsy went smoothly. Bailey tells her that sure it did, as long as she counts having to convert to a more complicated procedure as smoothly. Bailey also tells Catherine that they told Richard because it became more than just a biopsy. Catherine thanks her, which Bailey asks her to repeat. "Thank you, Dr. Bailey," Catherine says again. "I know I've been stubborn and very difficult, and…but you are a big part of what makes this hospital great, and you — you should always be here."
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Rhiannon is still asleep, but she's out of surgery, and Shepherd got the whole tumor, and they think the baby will be okay. Julian and his husband both thank her, and then Julian apologizes for seeming mistrustful earlier. He's Rhiannon's older brother and has always watched out for her, and he felt helpless. Amelia understands. After all, her brother watched out for her, too.
Outside Catherine's room, Richard catches Meredith walking by. He's upset that she looked him in the eye and lied about why she was there, and she apologizes but also tells him she was just trying to get Catherine to even do the biopsy. He makes it clear that he is very upset that Meredith didn't tell him, and when she tells him that she tried to get Catherine to tell him, but she thinks she was scared, he says that Catherine being scared is the reason Meredith should have told him. "Shame on you" is the last thing he says to her, though his reaction does seem a little over the top.
As things wrap up in the episode, Hunt asks Kwan if he's still thinking about going into trauma, and he says he likes the variety of patients but isn't sure if he wants to be the guy waiting around for a car wreck. Their big trauma put a man in a medically induced coma with a brain bleed, and his family's life will never be the same. It's clear Molly is still on his mind.
Marsh and Adams are going over final notes for Tom's surgery as someone else will be handling post-op care. Marsh tells Adams he did excellent work and then asks him about repeating his intern year. He says that he doesn't think it's such a bad thing to repeat it — he thinks internships should be longer anyway because it would better prepare them. Adams asks if Marsh thinks he'll lose ground, and Marsh tells him to keep working with people who make him better, like Griffith. "You stick with her; you'll be fine."
Teddy, who is thrilled about Rhiannon's surgery, has another proposition for Shepherd. 15 people similar to Rhiannon — patients with impossible cases who have been turned down by multiple other hospitals — have asked to see Amelia. They have only been told no so far. Amelia is surprised that they want to see her, but Teddy isn't. "They all say the same thing. They want the neurosurgeon who is working on the cure for Alzheimer's to take them on," so she wants Shepherd to think about it. Just as they finish talking, Yasuda comes up to apologize for being completely out of line in the OR. Shepherd tells her that her outburst was inappropriate but that she wasn't wrong. After Shepherd leaves, Yasuda asks to talk to Altman for a minute.
Bailey drops by the residency office just as Sydney is packing up to leave. She tells Bailey that she knows it means she's meant to be elsewhere and then tells Bailey that she hired Ben. She forgot how hard the job is, and she can never do it as well as Bailey, especially because she gets frustrated that some of the interns don't even want to do the work. But Ben wants to do the work, and he has, so she hired him. She also thought it would be better for her to do it instead of Bailey, given their marriage. "Ben Warren is a keeper."
Outside the hospital, Jo tells Link that she changed her mind about the OB appointment to give their kid the best care, though it's maybe a little because of what Link said about DeLuca. As they leave the hospital courtyard, Schmitt approaches James with coffee and a biscotti as a thank you. They joke about Donna Mae, who is still alive, and James tells him that some patients can be nightmares, which he worries might be too judgy, but Schmitt likes it. It makes James seem less saintly, which is hard when he gives free pastries to the nurses. James jokes that the barista comps him because they hooked up and then admits that he doesn't actually get many matches on the apps. Levi pulls out his phone and swipes on James's profile, though it just pulls up another picture. "I'm sitting right here," James says. "You could just ask me."
Griffith is waiting for Adams in the ambulance bay, and when he sits down, she admits that bringing up his family name was out of line. Adams admits that he could have said something, but he didn't. "That competition is going to make us better. And we're pretty great together, right?" Griffith shrugs, then grins at him and gives him a hard time for referring to her as his girlfriend when they were arguing earlier.
Yasuda and Millin are at the bar, having a drink, and Yasuda finally tells Millin what has been distracting her all day — her 22-year-old sister has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Altman is going to help her get care at Grey-Sloan, which is great, but Yasuda has a request for Millin. She likes where things were going with them, but right now she just needs a friend. Millin is disappointed, but she slides into the booth next to Yasuda and hugs her, telling her that she can be her friend.
The episode ends with Meredith and Nick in Catherine's room, talking softly. Nick reveals that Richard is mad at him, too, but Nick isn't upset about it. He did ask to be let in. He jokes that he is a little miffed she hasn't asked about his groundbreaking surgery, and she gasps, wanting to know how it was. "It was a little irritating but mostly great," he says, telling her that it might be the future of kidney transplants. She asks him to tell her all about it on the plane, and they slip out of the room, leaving Catherine to sleep.
Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.