Grey’s Anatomy Review: My Next Life (Season 12 Episode 12)

This week’s Grey’s Anatomy plays up on the nostalgia of the show’s very first episode. Meredith’s first patient comes back to Grey-Sloane with new symptoms and in the process, messes with Amelia’s head a little and makes Meredith meditate on her mistakes.

A little refresher: Katie is a beauty queen who was airlifted to then Seattle-Grace hospital after having a seizure. This time she comes into the emergency room with new symptoms and asks for Dr. Shepherd. She’s looking for Derek but instead Amelia shows up.

Let’s talk about Amelia first. Amelia is the little sister of the best neurosurgeon in the country. She’s always struggled to come out of his shadow and that’s played a role in a lot of her procedures. Remember last season when she was preparing to operate on Dr. Herman–giving her lecture series–and she told Owen:

My whole career I’ve been The Other Dr. Shepherd. He’s the real one. I’m the other one. Right now. This plan of mine is theoretical. It’s just talk. But at some point I am going to slice into Dr. Herman’s brain and I have this sick feeling that when I face that tumor I will discover that I am not just The Other Dr. Shepherd–I’m The Wrong Dr. Shepherd.

This episode is an echo of that, except while she could have called her brother for help on Dr. Herman’s case, she can’t call him for backup now. These feeling are amplified by the fact that Katie is Meredith and Derek’s surgical love child. The writers aren’t afraid to drive the point home. When Amelia diagnoses a large aneurysm in Katie’s head she asks:

“Are you as good as your brother? Are you better than him?

Now, Amelia isn’t having the easiest time. She’s just earned her sixty day chip for the fourth time in her life and admits she’s been avoiding big procedures until she is ready. She knows that if she kills this girl Meredith is going to hate her even more. Owen steps in and gives her a pep talk, pointing out that if it was anyone else’s name on Katie’s chart, Amelia wouldn’t hesitate.

Of course none of that helps when Meredith tries to insert herself into the case. Meredith wants in, but she has to discharge a cancer patient named Daphne. Daphne is getting her life together—she’s getting her degree, fighting cancer, and getting up the courage to call her son who she hasn’t seen in six years. She’s excited about being alive after cancer.

Right as Meredith pronounces her two months cancer free she notices that her port is red. Meredith checks it, and sees that it’s worse than she originally though. She calls cardio and when Riggs comes in, they squabble about whether or not Daphne needs surgery.

There is a lot of medical talk until Daphne and Katie end up heading to the OR at the same time. The look that Meredith receives from Katie as the gurneys pass each other is spine-tingling. You know that these two procedures aren’t both going to go well.

And they don’t. Daphne dies on the table while Katie is, once again, saved.

When the results of the surgeries are revealed we couldn’t help but think about the look Katie gave Meredith on the gurney, while she was trying to keep Daphne from bleeding out. We could almost hear a voice saying—it’s been twelve years, how much have you learned?

Daphne could have been saved.  If it wasn’t for Meredith’s mistake, Daphne would still be alive. Her opening monologue about death reflects that and ultimately leads to a bittersweet episode that bookends with a med school class full of cadavers.

Stray Thoughts

• The exchange about Meredith getting Katie lost in the first episode is absolute perfection.
• Stephanie and Amelia’s little talk about always clipping aneurysms is morbid and yet adorable. She’s ready for another big tumor. How are you going to top that 18-hour surgery that was the mother of all butterfly astrocytomas last season?
• Amelia and Owen go from being bad for her sobriety to being an item again. We honestly like them together and we want to see where this goes.
• Speaking of Owen, we finally know why he hates Riggs. Riggs confesses to Meredith that there was a patient that had to be evacuated in a helicopter. Riggs wanted to go because the airspace wasn’t clear, but Megan insisted she be the one to go. The helicopter was lost and Owen feels like it should have been Riggs.
• Richard as Arizona’s wingman leads to some of the most awkward scenes ever, but it was so amazing to see how seriously he’s taking his duties.

What did you think of this episode of Grey’s Anatomy? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.

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