Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 14 Review: Never Meet Your Heroes

You know the old saying, “never meet your heroes”? That rings true when Bailey meets one of hers on Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 14, “Love in the Ice Age.”

At grand rounds, Bailey presents a renowned surgeon, Dr. Joseph Chase, whom she refers to as one of her “surgical heroes.” She’s never met Dr. Chase in person, and she’s all but starstruck to have him helping with a difficult case.

In the audience, though, Simone panics when she sees him. It turns out that he’s the reason she was kicked out of her former program. She’s also seen firsthand how arrogant and dismissive he truly is.

What’s interesting is that Richard isn’t impressed with this guy, either. Richard sees right through him. He’s a little offended, too, since Bailey first asked for his help and then brought in someone from the outside.

Richard ends up calling her out, and even though Bailey doesn’t totally realize it, Richard knows her well enough to see what’s really going on: she brought in Dr. Chase because she wanted to meet him.

Meanwhile, Lucas is doing everything he can to convince Catherine not to force him to do that remedial year, and when he assumes he should be watching Chase’s “groundbreaking” surgery, Richard pulls him away to show him something better.

At first, it feels like a punishment of sorts, but then it’s clear when Richard busts out that videotape that he wants to give Lucas a chance to learn something more informative than what Chase is doing. 

Never mind the fact that Lucas seems puzzled by the physical videotape at first (this makes me cry a little on the inside), but then he gets to see surgery done in a more classic fashion, without all of the added technology they have today.

Lucas is impressed by it, and it’s clearly useful for him to see. It’s also a nice touch that the old surgery videotapes still have a place on the show. 

Their viewing is interrupted, however, by Bailey messaging Richard for help in the OR. Why? Because her surgical hero is deceptive fraud.

In the OR, Bailey has Simone helping — and though Simone isn’t thrilled to be working next to Chase, she keeps her composure and does her best work. Bailey, embarrassingly, reverts to feeling like a student in Chase’s presence, answering one of his teaching questions that was meant for the intern and not for the attending. 

Her reaction is natural, of course. This is a surgeon she’s admired from afar for a long time, so there’s some regression in his presence as well as some nerves. 

That doesn’t last long, though. When the surgery doesn’t go as planned and Chase realizes he can’t finish the procedure and include the patient in his study, his response is to close. To give up.

Simone and Bailey are both shocked that he won’t continue, and then the rose-colored glasses Bailey’s been wearing shatter and she understands that Chase appears so successful because he only continues cases when he can have a perfect outcome.

Giving up at this point, however, would ultimately kill their patient. Bailey becomes the surgeon we expect her to be, kicking Chase out of the OR and taking over.

Richard and Lucas arrive to help, and Bailey figures out a plan to save the patient that requires all hands on deck. Without the outsider, Bailey leads the team of doctors who actually care about their patients — and it’s incredibly satisfying to watch. 

The surgery works and is better than what Chase would have done with his original plan. Bailey didn’t need to bring in some fancy surgeon. Her genius, paired with the team at Grey Sloan, was all she needed.

Elsewhere on the episode, Teddy and Owen are once again at odds with each other. At first, it seems they’re going to move forward in a positive way, deciding they no longer want the open marriage and only want to be with each other.

But that comes crashing down when Teddy realizes that while she couldn’t go through with sleeping with someone else, Owen did. 

Her anger and hurt feelings over this feel natural — but extremely unfair at the same time. They did, after all, have an agreement about the open marriage.

The whole thing is hard to watch, and it’s paralleled with losing a patient they’ve been working on together throughout the episode. Teddy “knowing when to let it go” and calling the time of death feels thick with metaphor about their relationship.

However, by the end of the episode, it seems they might still have a chance to work things out. 

One way or another, we need a resolution between the two of them soon. Whether they divorce or move past their difficulties and enjoy a little time as a happily married couple — it doesn’t matter. But the conflict itself is tiresome.

Other thoughts:

• It’s a smaller storyline, but Link having Blue take his baseball ticket to go with Winston because he needs a night out is a truly endearing gesture. Winston isn’t necessarily thrilled (and he could probably be kinder about it) but the whole thing is still really sweet.
• All of the cases on this episode are captivating, which isn’t always the case. In particular, Link and Winston’s patient who neglected surgery to travel is fascinating, and his reasoning — spreading his brother’s ashes — makes those stakes even higher. 

 

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Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.

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