Written by Jayse Smith
If you’re like me, the fourteenth season of the best and most dramatic medical show on television left your head spinning, don’t worry! Your Grey’s Anatomy season recap is here, and its been a rollercoaster ride of emotions. Through the ups and downs, the highs and the lows, we have followed this group of doctors and interns from Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital for years and the cast and crew still consistently manage to present fresh content in each episode. This season also saw the exit of three major characters!
At the beginning of the season, Doctor Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) is forced to renovate due to the fire from last season, the fire which saw the exit of fan favourite Dr. Stephanie Edwards (Jerrika Hinton), and it brings a fresh new look to Grey-Sloan. Bailey though has other things to worry about this season, her partner Doctor Ben Warren (Jason Winston George) decides that he wants out of medicine and sets about training, in secret, to enter the Fire department. Bailey’s gonna flip! When Miranda eventually finds out what Warren is up to causes strain on the couple and this may have been a main contributor to why she winds up as a patient in another hospital later in the season.
Remember Amelia Sheppard (Caterina Scorsone)? Oh yeah, her. Her character was kind of forgettable in season 13, but the writers this season have given her a storyline that sees her tackle one of her biggest obstacles yet! A ten-year old brain tumour wreaked havoc at Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital early in the season and Amelia, one of our favourite characters faces the battle of her life. The relationship between Amelia and Dr Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd) takes a downward turn after this as Dr. Sheppard begins to reevaluate every single part of her life: was every decision and choice for the past ten years a direct result of her tumour?
Speaking of Owen, what is he up to you ask? Well after the return of his missing sister Megan (Abigail Spencer), Owen decides that both he and Amelia aren’t happy (*cries*) and they separate. Megan helps him through this stage. After this Owen makes the decision to foster a child and its awesome to see him taking on this role and he makes a great father. The relationship between Owen and Amelia seems to be rekindled by the final episode as Amelia has taken on the role of sponsor for a drug addicted teen. The four of them live under the same roof, thus causing an instant family environment, the rekindled relationship is cemented at the Jolex wedding where Meredith confronts Amelia and tells her to man up and admit her feelings for Owen have returned.
Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), good ole Mere who my wife says she is #goals. The stalwart of the show, our narrator, guiding light, and lady of a million smiles tackles a plethora of interesting obstacles this season, beginning with Nathan Riggs (Martin Henderson). After Nathan’s ex-wife reappears after being missing in Iraq, Mere and Nathan decide to call time on their relationship as Nathan still has feelings for her and Meredith believes Megan is Riggs’s “Big Love”. We discover that Greys mother, Dr. Ellis Grey (Kate Burton) had in fact slapped her name on the “Grey method” when she actually borrowed and shared the idea with a friend, a friend Marie Cerone (Rachel Ticotin) who Meredith used to call Auntie Marie. A competition to fuel innovation, which was funded by Jackson (Jesse Williams) unbeknown to the other staff, captures the minds of staff at Grey-Sloan. This is what leads Meredith and Jo (Camilla Luddington) to work together to create a project that uses a polymer now owned by Cerone. Low and behold she crashes back into Meredith’s life and demands that if the duo want her polymer, Meredith must declare that the Grey Method was in fact her idea too and thus tarnish Ellis’ name. Will she do it, will Meredith allow her mother be the called a liar? How far will she and Jo go to win the competition?
Earlier in the season after separating from Jackson, April Kepner’s (Sarah Drew) life is in a downward spiral. She drinks, stays out every night and is constantly partying. The only time she seems to be the April we know and love is when she has Harriet (Mavrick and Brassix Orion), the daughter she has shared custody of with Jackson. It’s interesting that the writers have given us a glimpse into the other side of Kepner this season, they obviously knew she would be written out of the show by season end. That brings me to April’s death. Wow, what an episode. Matthew (Justin Bruening), April’s rekindled love interest, the man she left at the altar a few years ago has returned. In this episode Matthew and Kepner leave in the same car which it is discovered is involved in a car accident, but only Matthew has been brought into the hospital—where’s April? No one has heard from her so Dr. Hunt decides to go look for her at the scene of the accident. She is found down the side of a ravine, in freezing water, dead. Once back at the hospital Meredith announces to all around them “She’s not dead until she’s warm and dead,” referring to the time Meredith was found in freezing water and was brought back from the brink. Do the team succeed in bringing Kepner back in the same fashion?
Jackson, Jackson, Jackson. The Grey-Sloan heartthrob, plastic surgeon, and billionaire causes some major issues this season. He begins a relationship with Maggie (Kelly McCreary) and this causes a little awkwardness as Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen), Jackson’s mother is married to Richard Webber (James Pickens Jnr), Maggie’s birth father. Maggie and Jackson’s romance is uplifting, awkward and cute with numerous memorable scenes throughout the series. Jackson also faces numerous complications this season, trying to be there for April as she spirals downwards and constantly pushes him away—nearly every time he sees her he asks, “Are you okay,” to which she eventually tells him to stop asking. Jackson also must deal with the fall-out of the sexual assault allegations directed at his grandfather Harper Avery (Chelcie Ross), who also passes away this season. These allegations are eventually substantiated, and the Harper Avery Foundation is left in ruins. When Harper passed away he left Jackson with a substantial amount of money so Jackson uses this money to build a new foundation, The Catherine Fox Foundation and splits the rest of the funds between all the people affected by his grandfather’s actions. In the final episodes of the season, Jackson promises to become a man of God if April’s life is spared—this will make for an interesting theme in following seasons of the show.
To be honest, Maggie becomes the envy of every woman this season as she and Jackson finally admit they’ve fallen for each other and “Jaggie” is born. Their relationship isn’t without its challenges with one of them being April Kepner. During one of her wallowing episodes, Jackson tries to console her and April kisses him. Something that Jackson keeps from Maggie until it all explodes in episode eighteen. The other obstruction for the relationship is their respective parents who are married. Fortunately these issues seem to solve themselves and by the final episode their romance is steaming ahead, what does the future hold for #Jaggie? This is definitely a relationship to watch in the coming seasons of the show.
Arizona (Jessica Capshaw), this is my personal favourite character out of Greys with her sunny disposition paired with a ‘go get em’ and can do attitude just makes her so lovable. Still reeling from the death of Karen, April’s ex-fiance’s partner (yes April and Matthew do get back together) during childbirth and as part of the competition initiated by Jackson, Robbins decides to develop a crash cart filled with items to have on hand at every birth in case the worst should happen. This development makes waves in the neo-natal world and triggers the return of Dr. Nicole Herman (Geena Davis), who was Robbins’ inspiration behind getting into the field to begin with. This season also sees the return of Sofia (Eva Binder), the child of Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona, and this sees Arizona juggle life as a mum along with Sofia’s want to return to New York begins a renewed dialogue between herself and Callie, which by the end of the season leads to this statement “I think … needs to move back to New York, and I think I need to move with her.” Hopefully we haven’t seen the last of Robbins, but in the final episode she tells Alex (Justin Chambers), “my work here is done”, which indicates she may be moving on permanently. *CRIES*
Jo and Alex on their wedding day sneak off to have sex in a shed close to the wedding venue. When it’s done, they realise the shed houses a dead body and they are trapped, the door has become stuck! But I’ve jumped ahead too far, this couple have had their fair share of issues this season. It’s been a long road to the altar for these two. After his failed marriage to Izzie Stevens in the early years of Grey’s, Alex and Jo started dating in season 9. The couple hit a major setback at the end of season 12 when Jo declined Alex’s proposal, as she was afraid to reveal her name wasn’t Jo Wilson and she was still married to an abusive man from whom she’s been hiding from all these years.
Through this season Jo gets the courage to divorce her abusive partner and sever the power and control he has over her. This results in Paul, her husband, showing up at the hospital to confront her. After numerous terrifying confrontations, Paul is struck by a car and passes away which Jo is accused of. But now Jo is free and assigns April to begin planning a wedding…April is overjoyed!
Alex decides that with wedding plans in full swing, he needs to find his mum who he believes is still an addict and possibly dead. The search leads to a library where he discovers his mum has turned her life around and this causes Alex incredible pain as to why she couldn’t have been like this when he was a kid and needed her: “My whole life all I wanted was a mom who wasn’t sick. I didn’t care about toys or any of that crap. I just wanted a mum who was OK. She is. She finally is, and she doesn’t want me here.” After a brief confrontation, he and his mother reconcile and put the past behind them. His mother explains that she has her schizophrenia under control, but any changes major to her routine, such as attending his wedding, would derail her recovery and mental stability.
The couple’s wedding day is spectacular and of course, what would a Greys Anatomy wedding be without a few minor and major hiccups.
1. April sends most of the guests to another couples wedding.
2. The celebrant has an anaphylactic reaction to a canapé and collapses as she walks down the aisle.
3. Jo and Alex get stuck in a shed, with a dead guy. This day had disaster written all over it. When everyone is finally together on a ferry, Alex shows Meredith a website on his phone which allows anyone the power to marry people and Meredith officiates Jo and Alex’s wedding as the sun sets. *SWOON*
Stay tuned because Greys will return for its fifteenth season in September 2018 and The Nerd Daily will be covering every single episode blow-by-blow!
