'Grey's Anatomy' Recap: "Break Down the House" and "Get Off On the Pain"
Linda Fitzpatrick ’20 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Warning: the following contains spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy‘s 14th season premiere.
With nods to the beloved characters George O’Malley (T.R. Knight) and Derek Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey), season 14 of Grey’s Anatomy premiered on September 28th with fresh energy, which may or may not have spurred from Bailey’s (Chandra Wilson) decision to ditch her stiff heels for her comfy surgical clogs (go, Bailey!). This new tone for the season has a lot to do with the return of Krista Vernoff, current showrunner of Grey’s Anatomy. Formerly, Vernoff served as a writer for the first seven seasons.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Vernoff addresses her desire to stray from a season full of dark and twisty storylines, saying, “I feel like it’s part of my personal activism to help people sit down and laugh at night so they can get back up in the morning and fight the good fight.” Laughter doesn’t mean complete happiness for the Seattle, Washington residents, however. In fact, the two hour premiere sets up ample conflicts for the upcoming season.
Most concerning? Definitely that tumor in Amelia’s (Caterina Scorsone) brain, found after she acted oddly for many episodes, but especially in the two hour premiere. Amelia’s diagnosis poses a lot of questions for the future, and not just: will she survive this? After giving Hunt (Kevin McKidd) permission to leave her (which he took to heart), this discovery is sure to give Hunt second thoughts on his actions with Teddy (Kim Raver). There are pros and cons for whomever Hunt ends up with. If he stays with Amelia out of guilt or pity, the marriage won’t be fulfilling. Consequently, would he ever be able to forgive himself for walking away from his wife during her darkest hours? This is certainly an inner turmoil season 14 is bound to investigate.
Aside from physical health, there are many relationships struggling.
I mean… #GreysAnatomy 🤷♀️ pic.twitter.com/F4Hx7x95cp
— Grey's Anatomy (@GreysABC) September 29, 2017
“Japril” fans were hit with a hard blow during the premiere when April (Sarah Drew) announces she will be moving out of Jackson’s (Jesse Williams) house. The flip side is that she admits she still has feelings for him, but will Jackson be able to reciprocate those feelings before it’s too late, or will he try something new with the slightly comical relationship budding between he and Maggie Pierce (Kelly McCreary)?
Perhaps worse than a budding romance is being rejected when you propose to the long lost love of your life. This leads us to Nathan (Martin Henderson), who has a lot to figure out now that Megan Hunt (Abigail Spencer) is back and convinced he still has feelings for Meredith (Ellen Pompeo). It will be interesting to see how Meredith handles being caught in a love triangle again, especially after her initial reaction was to just walk away.
Beyond the trials and tribulations for many of the romantic relationships on Grey’s, Season 14 has added lots of laughter with the addition of the sub-interns, a group of students in the top ten-percent of their class interning at Grey Sloan. Glued to their electronics and prone to mind-boggling mistakes, these new characters are sure to spread joy to viewers through their quirky personalities and attempts to find their footing in a new hospital.
