‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 17 Episode 11: Mer Wakes Up, and Two Docs Talk Marriage (RECAP)
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy Season 17, Episode 11, “Sorry Doesn’t Always Make It Right.”]
Have we seen the last of Meredith’s (Ellen Pompeo) dream beach? She finally regains consciousness in the April 8 episode of Grey’s Anatomy (Season 17, Episode 11, aka “Sorry Doesn’t Always Make It Right”).
But the biggest developments belong to Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) and Link (Chris Carmack), who start talking about marriage this week. Read on, Grey’s fans…
As the episode starts, Link’s parents drop in unexpectedly, pulling up to Meredith’s house in their RV. They offer to take the kids — all the kids in the household — on a camping trip to Mt. Rainier. They also hail Amelia as their future daughter-in-law in a not-so-subtle hint that Link should propose already.
With Amelia and Link suddenly home alone, after winning “the lottery of silence,” they start undressing for some midday action. But then Amelia starts crying. Misreading the situation, Link gets down on bended knee, thinking his parents’ leaden hints about marriage got to her. But Amelia makes Link stand up again. She explains she just needs to cry. It’s been months since she could feel her feelings without kids around.
Amelia and Link start talking about the prospect of walking down the aisle, but Amelia isn’t sure she’s the marriage type, saying she’s “wired for self-destruction.” She divulges that she thinks constantly about getting high, as the pandemic is a threat to sobriety for her and everyone in her support group.
But Link tells Amelia he would marry her in a moment, saying the fact that she’s only thinking about getting high shows she’s the “opposite of self-destructive.” He gets down on bended knee once more, and again, Amelia tells him to get up. “Not when I’m confessing my darkest secrets and I have snot dripping down my face!” she says with a laugh.
At the hospital, Maggie (Kelly McCreary) and Cormac (Richard Flood) are working with a dad, Chris (Daniel Augustin), whose infant son, Arthur, is in heart failure. Chris’ wife, Hollie, is at home, in a deep depression about the state of the world in general and their son’s condition in particular. A heart transplant isn’t coming through, and Arthur’s chest can’t accommodate an artificial heart. Maggie urges Cormac to have the “difficult talk” with Chris and Hollie, saying, “It’s not giving up. It’s letting them go on.”
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— Grey's Anatomy (@GreysABC) April 9, 2021
But then Cormac gets an idea: They can fit in an artificial heart by taking out pieces of Arthur’s heart. Chris is reluctant, but Cormac says that Arthur’s survival chances are the same either way. So Chris agrees, and Maggie and Cormac get to work. And they pull off a successful surgery, giving Arthur a “battery pack” of an external artificial heart that will pull him through until a donor heart arrives. Chris is overjoyed, and he video chats Hollie, who weeps tears of joy.
The other patients of the week are Shayne and Karissa, the newlyweds that the Station 19 forefighters saved from a car wreck. When Shayne and Karissa arrive at the hospital by ambulance, Karissa is apologizing to Shayne. Turns out, she asked their rescuers to save her first.
As the surgeons treat the couple, Bailey (Chandra Wilson) urges Shayne to cut Karissa some slack, saying that she was probably just scared. But Shayne tells Karissa he wants an annulment. At first, he found her self-absorption funny, but now he realizes that he deserves a wife who actually considers him.
Raymond Liu/ABC
In the hospital waiting room, Richard (James Pickens Jr.) confronts Jo about her plans to switch from general surgery to OB/GYN. How does he know? Meredith told him!
Yep, Meredith finally wakes up, marking an upswing in her COVID-19 battle. And, as Richard realizes, Meredith was “always listening” to the goings-on at the hospital, even when she was unconscious. Sure enough, she heard Jo talking about her career plans. Luckily for Jo, Richard supports Jo’s desire to switch specialties.
Later that night, Owen (Kevin McKidd) has a heart-to-heart with Teddy at home. After weeks or maybe even months of resenting Teddy for keeping her romance with BFF Allison a secret, Owen has had a change of heart. “You tried to tell me the truth about your relationship with Allison, and I was awful to you, and I am sorry,” he says. He tells her he’s ready to be her friend again, if nothing else.
Jackson (Jesse Williams) and Schmitt (Jake Borelli) spend the episode administering rapid COVID-19 tests in the hospital parking lot, and Jackson even gets out his credit card to get hotel rooms for people in high-risk living situations. But surgical intern Alma (Lisa Vidal) points out that his altruism is just a quick fix: She used to be a social worker, and she knows these structural issues need a thorough approach. So Jackson hands her a legal pad and asks her to share all of her ideas. She has the plans; he has the wallet.
Don’t forget that Jackson’s ex April (Sarah Drew) left her surgical career to work with Seattle’s homeless population and that we’ll see April again this season. So we have a hunch that Jackson’s foray into housing work will bring April back into his orbit!
Grey’s Anatomy, Thursdays, 9/8c, ABC
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