‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 19 Episodes 14 & 15: Maggie Scrubs Out (RECAP)
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Just one episode isn’t enough for Maggie’s (Kelly McCreary) farewell, so the Powers That Be at Grey’s Anatomy turned her swan song into a two-parter — Season 19, Episode 14, “Shadow of Your Love,” and Episode 15, “Mama Who Bore Me” — on April 13. And she and Winston (Anthony Hill) finally make a decision about their relationship just as another workplace romance hits the skids.
[Warning: The below contains major spoilers for the Grey’s Anatomy Season 19, Episode 14, “Shadow of Your Love,” and Episode 15, “Mama Who Bore Me.”]
But we’ll start with last week’s cliffhanger: Bailey (Chandra Wilson) is trying to play it cool and not panic about getting doxxed by anti-abortion trolls. She has Adams babysit her cell phone, even though Yasuda doesn’t understand why Bailey hasn’t considered just turning it off. (“Have you considered being a wife, a mother, and a high-level professional?” Bailey tells her.) But when someone texts Bailey a photo of her son, Tuck, at school, she knows she has to take swift action. She changes her phone number and email addresses and moves her family to a rental apartment.
Eric McCandless/ABC
One patient of the week is William (Jon Bass), who tried to mail himself to his girlfriend, only to be injured when his box fell off a conveyor belt. The docs fix him up, and when his girlfriend dumps him over the phone, he decides not to pursue her, even after Owen (Kevin McKidd) tells him about declaring his love for Teddy (Kim Raver) after so many false starts. (“Thank you for that story,” William says, leaving Owen sputtering.)
Owen’s story, at least, inspires Link (Chris Carmack) to declare his love for Jo (Camilla Luddington), so he sets up a romantic dinner for her at home and rehearses what he’s going to say. (“You are donuts in human form,” he says, brainstorming aloud.)
But Jo calls in tears from the hospital. Something’s wrong with Luna’s hearing, she says. So Link blows out the candles, throws away the flowers, and heads to the hospital to be by Jo’s side. And together, they find out Luna has progressive hearing loss. Link is upbeat about the diagnosis, but Jo isn’t ready for that level of positivity. “I need to wrap my head around this before you go all cheerleader,” she tells him, heading home with Luna.
Another patient is Nola (Deanna Russo), who has mediastinal mass syndrome: a large tumor is crushing her heart. Maggie agrees to operate, but she needs Winston to scrub in with her; there’s no room for intern-level mistakes, she says.
Maggie and Winston rock Nola’s surgery, and they ride that adrenaline high into the bedroom, having sex amid Maggie’s luggage and boxes.
But then Maggie asks Winston to go with her to Chicago, and Winston asks her to stay in Seattle. Winston even compares Maggie to her biological mom, Ellis Grey, which has Maggie wondering if she’s as cold as Ellis seemed to be.
Raymond Liu/ABC
Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) is also upset that Maggie is moving halfway across the country, but at least Kai (E.R. Fightmaster) is there to soften the blow. They spend the day in bed with Amelia and hear her out when she says she has a history of spiraling when people leave her. Amelia even calls herself the “queen of spirals,” but that doesn’t square with the Amelia that Kai knows. “She’s not the queen of spirals — she’s just a queen,” Kai argues.
But then Kai breaks the news they flew in to Seatle to tell: They’ve been offered a position in London with triple the lab and triple the staff. Oh, and they’ve accepted the position. Yet another person leaving Amelia.
Raymond Liu/ABC
Amelia goes to Maggie for sister talk, but Maggie can relate to Kai, since they’re both leaving for career advancements. Despite her heartbreak over both situations, Amelia does assure Maggie that she’s nothing like Ellis, pointing out that saving lives makes Maggie happy and that Ellis didn’t even know what happiness was. “Go,” Amelia tells Maggie. “Be happy.”
Maggie also gets a pep talk from Catherine (Debbie Allen), who tells her that she saw Ellis at surgical conferences but never got to know her very well, since Ellis was always jetting off to the next operation. But that wasn’t coldness, Catherine says. It was focus.
In fact, Catherine contends, Maggie got the best of traits from Richard and Ellis.
Before she flies out, Maggie gets roped into one more case: She helps Griffith (Alexis Floyd) diagnose a lawyer named Tobey (Karen Obilom) with breast cancer. And later, Maggie tells Griffith that her adoptive mom, Diane, died of breast cancer, and that she’s really missing her right now.
Raymond Liu/ABC
That night, Maggie finds Winston outside the hospital and tells him she hasn’t backtracked on her decision to leave. “Ellis stayed with her husband, and by all accounts, that’s why she became so bitter,” she says. “I don’t think I’m cold. And I don’t think you’re a coward. I think that we did the best we could and that neither of us is to blame. I love you, but I have to go.”
“I love you, too,” he says. “And I have to stay.”
Amelia and Kai put a pin in their London drama when Kai is recruited to help a Lindsey (Jackie Tohn), an Ehlers-Danlos patient who fell in the shower and now has compressed vertebrae. The docs realize she’s allergic to the steel screws in her spine, so Kai devices a 3D-printed brace to support Lindsay’s spine without the screws.
Owen, impressed with Kai’s innovation, tells Amelia to talk to Teddy about finding Kai a place at Grey Sloan. And later, Amelia tells Kai that Teddy said the hospital has some research funding coming in and that Kai can stay. But Kai says they and Amelia work better long-distance. Amelia thinks they’re talking about Amelia being a mother, but Kai says they’re talking about the two of them, pointing out that ever since Kai told Amelia about London, Amelia has made it all about her instead of congratulating them.
“I love you, but…” Kai starts.
“But,” Amelia interjects. “That’s what people say before they abandon you.”
Levi (Jake Borelli) spends the two-parter treating Grayson (Colin O’Brien), a teen whose ulcerative colitis has turned gravely serious since he stopped taking his medications, which interfered with his bar mitzvah preparations. The docs give Grayson an ostomy, and Levi convinces him to have his bar mitzvah at the hospital.
Eric McCandless/ABC
After the ceremony, Grayson’s friends and family — and the Grey Sloan interns — party in the hospital waiting area. That’s where Richard shares a dance with Catherine, who says that her tests that day went well and that she hopes to be with Richard for a long, long time. (That sounds like foreshadowing to us…)
That’s also where Richard gives Maggie a business card holder in the shape of the bench. He says that’s the bench where he found out he had a daughter.
And then Maggie leaves, giving Richard one last glance before getting onto the Grey Sloan elevator.
Liliane Lathan/ABC
As Maggie has a moment to herself in that elevator, the camera pans out, and we see that she’s flanked by Ellis (Kate Burton) on one side and Diane (LaTanya Richardson Jackson) on the other. She smiles, and when she gets off the elevator, Ellis and Diane share a proud smile, too.
Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 9/8c, ABC
