Grey’s Anatomy Review: True Colors (Season 13 Episode 23)

Even at the end of thirteen seasons, Grey’s Anatomy still knows how to surprise its viewers.

On Grey’s Anatomy Season 13 Episode 23, “True Colors,” Owen gets shocking news about his sister, Alex comes close to making a terrible decision, and Stephanie lights a man on fire.

The last part causes an explosion in the hospital and leaves us with one heck of a cliffhanger.

It’s bit much, but it’s certainly not out of character for the show, and it’s not something we’ve seen done before.

Aside from the fact that we may have lost Stephanie, among others, this is a new kind of conflict for our main characters to deal with. Bailey is  just now getting comfortable as chief, not to mention that Meredith and others actually own the hospital that’s just suffered an explosion.

There’s a lot to explore there, and it all makes for suspenseful television — the kind of television that Grey’s Anatomy does so very well.

That said, the explosion disappoints me. I’d have been much more interested in seeing this play out without the explosion — maybe even with the doctors being forced to try to save the rapist, but especially in watching how Stephanie would come to terms with it later.

For Stephanie to do what she does takes a tremendous amount of courage, and I couldn’t help but cheer her on. If you think about it, so much of her story has led up to this moment. She’s become almost fearless, and it’s a shame the actress is leaving the show, because that character could have seen some fascinating development.

With the explosion, though, there’s a good chance she’s dead.

I suppose we can’t go too long without another casualty, can we?

Meanwhile, Owen learns that his sister is alive, and that news shatters him completely. All along he thought she was dead, but instead, she was being held captive for a decade.

Kevin McKidd delivers such a powerful performance in the way Owen deals with that news. We see his point of view being clouded, struggling to handle such psychological trauma, and finally, we watch him break.

Amelia is there for him, thankfully, and this may be the very thing that brings them back together. At least that’s what we can hope for. (It’s also a reason to bring up Teddy Altman, which is a nice touch.)

It will likely, however, throw a wrench in any progress between Meredith and Nathan. Consider too, the way Nathan and Meredith bonded over losing a loved one, and the dreams they’d have that person was still alive.

Meredith had that dream about Derek, and now Nathan is going to live it with Megan.

I’m excited, and a little nervous, to see where all that goes.

We get a bit more focus on Alex — something that’s been strangely missing for much of the season — but it doesn’t seem to go anywhere.

He finds Jo’s husband at a conference and imagines all the different ways he could confront him — from beating the guy to a pulp to just threatening him, but in the end, we just watch him let the guy take his cab.

Maybe that shows some growth. He thinks out the consequences of his actions, and that keeps him from doing something that could ruin his life or end up putting Jo in danger.

I don’t know where this all comes from, though. And I certainly don’t think it’s the last we’ll see of Paul.

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

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

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