‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 16 Episode 20: A Case Hits Close to Home for Koracick (RECAP)
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Let’s savor Grey’s Anatomy Season 16 while we can, people. Next week’s episode is the last of the season, now that production on the show has been shut down. Luckily, this penultimate installment—Episode 20, a.k.a. April 2’s “Sing It Again”—tees up a lot of drama for next week’s finale.
As the episode starts, Richard (James Pickens Jr.) is flying back to Seattle with Catherine (Debbie Allen), now that his “public episode” at the conference—as Bailey (Chandra Wilson) calls it—is the subject of headlines and mean-spirited memes.
At Grey Sloan, Bailey, Meredith (Ellen Pompeo), and Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) are trying to diagnose him, and they call in residents and interns into the “war room” to help them run through possible scenarios. Dementia and Alzheimer’s aren’t off the table, but Mer is positive it’s not the latter. She’s had a “front row seat” to Alzheimer’s, as she says, and she’s convinced Richard doesn’t have it.
Christopher Willard/ABC
For his part, Richard is confused about where or even when he is. He still believes Catherine was there at the conference with him, he thinks Grey Sloan is still Seattle Grace, and he wants to start rounds with the interns early so that he can get home in time for dinner with Adele. When Meredith and Maggie (Kelly McCreary) give him a drawing test, he can’t even draw the face of a clock.
As the surgeons run test after test, Catherine storms into the war room and tells the docs to work harder, because they look like “feckless interns.” Jackson (Jesse Williams)—fresh off a tour with Ben’s (Jason George) Physician Response Team—finds her in the conference room and tells her to ease up. After all, he reminds her, she was the one who broke up with him and then bought his former workplace. She doesn’t need his reminder, though—she’s already beating herself up for any stress she added to Richard’s life.
😰 #GreysAnatomy pic.twitter.com/Bi4IHntB3k
— Grey's Anatomy (@GreysABC) April 3, 2020
Speaking of stress, the docs return to Richard’s room to find his bed empty. Meredith eventually finds Richard in the O.R., holding a scalpel to his abdomen. Mer asks him to hand over the scalpel, assuring him that she can fix him using the skills he taught her. He relents, and as he gives Mer the scalpel, he calls her by her mother’s name, saying, “Ellis, something’s wrong with me.”
After returning Richard to his bed, Meredith finds DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) in the hospital library, making the most of his suspension by trying to solve Richard’s case himself. Mer is still pissed at DeLuca, but she says they won’t leave the room until they have answers for Richard.
For Richard. #GreysAnatomy pic.twitter.com/6WCAPyuOxU
— Grey's Anatomy (@GreysABC) April 3, 2020
The other major drama of the episode? A woman named Dana Hamilton arrives at the hospital with her son Guthrie, and the sight of them renders Koracick (Greg Germann) speechless. Why? Dana is his ex-wife, and Guthrie is a dead ringer for their late son, David.
Ali Goldstein/ABC
Turns out, Guthrie has a brain tumor that is impacting his spine, and Dana—determined not to lose another son— believes Koracick is the only one who can fix him. But Koracick offloads the case onto a very pregnant Amelia, trying to convince Dana and her new husband that Amelia knows everything he knows. Later, he tells Teddy that he can’t be in the same room as Guthrie without feeling like he’s drowning.
Ali Goldstein/ABC
After placating the parents, Amelia operates on Guthrie, but she starts experiencing painful contractions in the O.R. and has to stop. She pages Koracick and yells at him until he agrees to finish the operation, but when Guthrie’s blood pressure crashes, he freezes. Teddy (Kim Raver), watching from the gallery, commands him to focus on the surgical tools in his hands in an attempt to ground him in reality. Her plan works. Koracick snaps into action and successfully finishes the surgery.
Later, Teddy finds Koracick in his office and apologizes for adding to his pain. He replies, “You’ve taken away more than you’ve caused.”
Ali Goldstein/ABC
Speaking of Teddy, she then goes to Owen (Kevin McKidd) and tells him between kisses that she wants to get married right away—like, next weekend. (Never mind the fact that she was just holding Koracick’s hand in his office!)
Oh, and Amelia? No sooner does she get done telling Lincoln (Chris Carmack) that her contractions feel like getting kicked in the balls than her doctor tells her that her contractions are just Braxton Hicks, i.e. false labor. “Suddenly they hurt less,” a sheepish Amelia tells Link.
Almost parenthood 😂 #GreysAnatomy pic.twitter.com/olAuZg5zCM
— Grey's Anatomy (@GreysABC) April 3, 2020
And the other patient of the week is Vera, a professor who suffered a broken foot when her husband, another professor named Herschel, accidentally dropped a heavy book on her. In the operating room, Link and Owen wire her foot together again, but Vera wakes up from the operation with a song in her heart. Specifically, she’s hearing music where there is none, and she’s singing everything she speaks.
Koracick diagnoses Vera with musicophilia, which he explains is a “spectrum of neurological phenomena related to music.” It’s likely a complication from being under anesthesia, and it may or may not fade over time. Herschel isn’t thrilled, since he and Vera prefer to work in silence, but after Vera nearly suffers a fatal post-op complication, he suddenly doesn’t mind her singing. He even sings a love song to her—in a cute albeit off-key way.
Ali Goldstein/ABC
Oh, and Jo (Camilla Luddington) and Schmitt (Jake Borelli) are getting along famously as roommates. But Schmitt takes it personally when Jo yells at him in the middle of the chaotic E.R. Later that night, though, Jo tells him not to move out and to separate their professional relationship form their friendship, and they agree to watch something with hot guys together.
Next week, season finale! See y’all there!
Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC
