Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 13 Review: Don’t You (Forget About Me)
Never question Amelia Shepherd. Seriously. On Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 13, “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” Simone makes that mistake — but it comes from a place of concern for a friend. At least partly.
She’s described as “the one to watch” early on, in a conversation between Richard and Nick, and based on what we’ve seen from her this season, they’re not wrong.
She’s the clear choice to assist Amelia with Molly’s groundbreaking brain surgery — a surgery Blue is already nervous about, even before Molly’s current boyfriend reveals that she’s been obsessed with regaining her memories in a way that’s become unhealthy.
Blue goes to Simone as a friend and asks that she not let things get out of hand during the surgery, putting Simone in an awkward position. Amelia is known for pushing boundaries with her patients, but she does so from a place of experience and expertise.
Simone questioning Amelia in the OR isn’t just about her friendship with Blue — it’s also about where she is right now as a surgeon. She’s had recent successes and a solo surgery, so she’s gaining confidence. But she’s also still questioning herself in the exact way Amelia once warned her about, especially as a woman in surgery.
Putting her in a position to make this kind of misstep is good storytelling because it gets at all of those layers, and even though Amelia reprimands Simone for it, she still includes her in the win — and in presenting at Grand Rounds.
It is, in fact, a successful surgery, though it turns out the memories Molly has during it are from after her accident and not before. Blue ultimately asks Molly if she’s really there to be with him or because she thinks he’ll help her get her memories back.
Her answer is heartbreaking. It’s a really tragic storyline, and it’s one that’s extraordinarily complex. There had been so much hope for Blue to have the love of his life back, and now, that’s all come crashing down.
Luckily, he has a support system that hearkens back to the original group of Grey’s Anatomy interns in a really endearing way.
All four of this remaining group come together at the bar at the end of the episode — Simone and Jules after having big wins career-wise, Lucas feeling disappointed that he might really have to repeat the year, and Blue dealing with the loss of Molly.
All with a little bit of tough love thrown in.
Meanwhile, Teddy and Owen both explore the rules of their marriage — with differing outcomes. It’s a bit of a twist because we expect that Teddy will be the one to go through with sleeping with another person while Owen might have pause.
Instead, though Teddy and Cass very clearly want to be together, Teddy just can’t make the leap. Owen, on the other hand, winds up sleeping with Nora by the end of the episode.
As interesting as this storyline has set out to be, with some good potential for the characters, it still leaves Teddy and Owen at an odd place. Perhaps if this were all done a bit more slowly, or perhaps if their marriage troubles had felt authentic in the first place, this might have landed better.
The previews for the next episode show them both declaring that they don’t want to continue with keeping the marriage open, but the fact that Owen took that step could wind up meaning more conflict altogether. Ultimately, it’s all just a bit frustrating.
Other thoughts:
- Jo finally telling off Dr. Marcus for swooping in and taking her cases under the guise of helping her is probably one of the most satisfying moments of the episode. Equally fun are all of Ben’s moments with her about the pregnancy.
- Jules working with Winston as a mentor is also nice to watch, especially since she has her own success on this episode.
What did you think of this episode of Grey’s Anatomy? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to leave your own rating!
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Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.
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Ashley Bissette Sumerel
Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.