Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 16 Review: Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone

Amelia takes on a risky case on Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 16, “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone.” 

It’s a brain surgery on a nine-year-old girl named Dylan, which is only possible due to advanced imaging — and the chances of the surgery working aren’t exactly high.

This surgery involves brain mapping, and Amelia’s plan is the only option to save the patient, who, otherwise, might only live for another five or ten years. Dylan is terrified, rightly, and Amelia feels the pressure. In a callback to Derek, Amelia talks about how this surgery is something even her brother couldn’t do.  

In a lot of ways, Amelia Shepherd still feels like she’s living in Derek’s shadow. Monica, however, has complete faith in Amelia. As someone who never met Derek Shepherd, she looks at Amelia as the most accomplished brain surgeon she’s ever known.

She’d think that even if she had met Derek. 

Everything about the surgery is emotional, from Dylan’s fear of doing it to Lucas suggesting that her mother (played by Piper Perabo) could hold her hand until she falls asleep. It’s one of the most emotional cases we’ve seen on Grey’s Anatomy in a while. 

It’s a difficult surgery, but ultimately, it goes as planned, and Dylan even earns some special badges from the doctors to add to her sash.

But it’s just a little too easy… right? Given the stakes, all the buildup, and the hesitations, any viewer would be right to feel like there’s more to this story. And there is.

The episode ends on a cliffhanger, with Dylan suddenly completely unresponsive and unable to move or speak. Even if you felt like more was going to happen with this patient, it still feels like a shock, especially as we watch Lucas scramble to help her on his own. 

Meanwhile, Jo and Link discuss wedding plans, and, in true Grey’s Anatomy fashion, have a patient who is planning a wedding.

This couple is special, too. Mariana and Edgar are the “NICU couple” —  two people who were born right there at Grey-Sloan, were in the NICU there together, and who have since known each other for their entire lives.

Mariana is there for severe endometriosis and will need a surgery that requires Link to shave down part of her bone. As Jo points out, if the same energy were being spent on those kinds of issues with women’s health as it is with erectile dysfunction, maybe so many women wouldn’t be suffering. 

Grey’s does well in putting a spotlight on that disease and showing how it’s had such a profound effect on this patient, especially when she talks about how many doctors didn’t take her seriously or assumed she was exaggerating her pain. Thankfully, the surgery has a good outcome that will greatly improve her quality of life. 

What she won’t be doing, though, is marrying Edgar. She hesitates when he suggests they get married right there in the hospital before her surgery, which indicates her feelings on marrying him altogether.

That’s scary for Jo at first, who likens their relationship to hers with Link, but that feeling doesn’t last long. 

Instead, it results in Jo finding them the perfect venue, due to a recent cancellation…. and it’s open in four days! 

This episode also continues to explore whatever tension there is between Winston and Jules, only now, Winston seems paranoid about it. He insists to Richard that there’s nothing going on between them (Richard can obviously tell), and Winston begins drawing a harder line between them. 

Their patient, meanwhile, needs a major surgery but worries more than anything about the cash in his wallet that he has to use to pay rent — and he has to do so by 5:00pm.

Jules becomes personally invested when she and Winston spot the patient’s father pocketing the cash for himself, while Winston insists it isn’t their place to interfere. 

He continues to draw a line in conversations, remarking that they aren’t co-interns and he’s her mentor, but later, he loses it on the patient’s dad and reveals his own personal connection to that story.

Jules is sympathetic and asks him to get coffee, but he refuses. The next day, he asks Richard to work with Jules.

Clearly, there are complicated feelings there. Winston crossed a line with the patient’s dad (though who can blame him?), but he’s also trying to break the cycle, apparently, of attendings who date interns. 

Other thoughts:

• Bailey has been fawning over people a bit too much lately. Her focus on bringing in this particular intern doesn’t entirely make sense. Blue’s response to her when she oversteps, however, is fantastic. 
• Lucas and Simone are in different places when it comes to committing to a future together, and it’s heartbreaking to see Lucas’s heart so broken in their conversation at the end of the episode. At the same time, it wasn’t long ago that she was about to be married. Hopefully, they can get on the same page soon.

 

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

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