Grey's Anatomy 14x18 “Hold Back The River” Episode Review
You've all probably figured out at this point that I watch a lot of TV and have multiple opinions on every single one based on the speed of these reviews alone. This review will cover a show you may not watch but have heard a lot about: Grey's Anatomy and how it's the show that simply won't quit.
I began watching this show out of curiosity during summer 2016 and found myself catching up on the first twelve seasons by the time senior year of college rolled around. I have cried, laughed, cheered, and screamed at this show for the way it tugs at the strings of our emotions. Shonda Rimes knows what she is doing and bathes in our suffering.
Now onto the review:
There are three main things going on in this episode I am more than willing to discuss and dissect:
Webber and his AA sponsor Ollie (who hasn't been seen since season two, I had to look that up),
Owen and Arizona looking into a breast cancer patient
Amelia and Koracick performing that ultra-sound surgery on Noah, the patient with laughing seizures.
Richard Webber discovers Ollie's liver is failing and has signed a DNR eight months ago, something he had no idea about despite speaking with her on a daily basis. He is upset at her for her secrecy and does everything in his power to make her reconsider her options, bringing in Meredith and his daughter Maggie for help. All involving parties, except Richard, realize the hopelessness of the situation and Ollie begs the girls to watch out for Richard after she is gone. This paves the way for Maggie and Richard to have a heart to heart about letting Ollie live out her last days peacefully, something she wish she had done for her own mother. A touching scene that should happen often considering their father and daughter. In the end, Richard accepts his friend's passing, the keeper of his secrets, and brings Amelia to her hospital room to start another AA meeting.
Next up is Owen, reeling from his failed attempt to win Teddy back. He is angrier than I have ever seen him, taking it out on Amelia, who called Teddy on his behalf, Arizona, who also called Teddy, and the interns. Then he gets involved with returning patients, Peggy and Dana. Dana is getting sick related to her chemo treatment; she's been diagnosed with breast cancer. She goes on about her doctor, Dr. Hanson, being a miracle worker and curing women of their cancers. That sounds fishy considering cancer is not something that can be cured immediately.
This prompts Owen and Arizona to check her scans, confirming all our suspicions. Dana never had cancer, the scans came back completely clean. After failing to get previous medical records from this mysterious Hanson, the duo goes to his clinic undercover as a married couple to figure out what's going on. Seeing these two pretend to be married was highly amusing and the awkwardness Owen showed being around Arizona's bare chest brought it to a whole other level.
Dr. Hanson reveals the scans to the "couple" indicating Arizona has breast cancer. She freaks out, unable to deny what the monitors were saying and immediately goes back to Grey-Sloan with Owen to get a second opinion. Once they confirm Arizona is cancer-free, thank goodness, they figure out this doctor has been using fake scans to tell women they had breast cancer in order to collect insurance money, the most unethical thing I have ever seen on this show. It was wild and it pushed Owen over the edge.
Angry Owen turned into a creepy insane Owen by the time he returned to the clinic, ready to inject some chemicals into the fraud. All the lights were shut off in the room, and Hanson almost peed his pants. Luckily, the police arrived to arrest Hanson before Owen could do any more damage. Dr. Hunt needs a break, like take a nap or something. I'm not sure where his character will go moving forward, he seems burned out.
My third and final point of the hour: Amelia and Koracick finally started their ultra-sound surgery thing to cure Noah of his laughing seizures. Amelia is super nervous about the procedure and her super-hero pose does not help with calming her down. Amelia has become one of my favorites again this season. I think tumor-free Amelia is a good look on her.
The surgery worked in the end. Noah no longer has laughing seizures and can laugh normally at cartoons. But the doctors aren't sure how they pulled it off without killing the kid. This uncertainty prevents them from doing the same procedure on singing sensation Kimmie, earning the wrath of Alex Karev. He nearly killed Koracick for his refusal to do the operation. I wanted that kid to live and sing for future days to come, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. My heart breaks once again for this show.
Side stuff that happened throughout the episode. April went around apologizing to everyone she hurt while she lost her faith in God and got some surprising responses. She spoke with Owen, Casey, Glasses, Korarick, Jackson, and finally Maggie, telling her how she kissed Jackson in the supply room a few episodes back. Drama for the future. Ben and Bailey spent the episode having sex. Meredith, Jo, and Hellmouth found a way to create the mini-livers without Cerone 's polymer. Yay! I was worried for them about that.
This week's episode had a lot going on, or maybe I just had a lot to say about it? I was ranting to my TV about half this stuff, especially Owen and his anger issues. I will never get over that awful man pumping chemo into all those healthy women though... shame on him and his heartless actions. Hope he rots in prison. Oh yeah... DeLuca and Sam are moving in together because his last roommates keep sleeping with his sister.
If you're into Grey's Anatomy and have some thoughts you'd like to share about the latest episode, comment below and we can surely talk about the nonsense that went on. It's a beautiful day to save lives!