'Grey's Anatomy' Season 16 Episode 12: This Richard-Catherine episode was as dull as ditchwater
It's common knowledge that dinner parties in 'Grey's Anatomy' don't end well. But what was more awkward and dull than the dinner was the episode itself. Jeez, what a snoozefest.
The premise was clear from the promos: Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr) and Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) have decided to separate because couples in 'Grey's Anatomy' are really not destined for happiness. They wish to give their children, Jackson (Jesse Williams) and Maggie (Kelly McCreary), the good news at a family dinner. However, Jackson and Maggie, who are already ready to run knives into each other, don't stop sniping at each other. Though Maggie does have a point when she tells Jackson off for jumping into relationships right after breakups, "Why can't you be alone?"
To add to the misery, there are dates involved at this dinner too. Yet in all that hullabaloo, Richard and Catherine manage to tell their kids they're separating. The show doesn't stop dangling the mention of Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) like a carrot for the viewers. When are we going to address that elephant in the room?
Catherine and Richard have a quiet conversation alone, where she attempts apologizing to him for not standing by him during the whole firing debacle, but he really isn't having it. No 'buts' in apologies, he tells her firmly. Catherine bows to no man and at the end of the episode, she seems to turn rather diabolical, which rather than being an unforeseen twist, just makes you say....er, sorry what?
Meanwhile, Nico Kim and Levi Schmitt have to go and see his Uncle Saul, who is on his deathbed. Schmitt tells him that he is homosexual and Uncle Saul dies promptly. Yet turns out that Uncle Saul had his own skeletons in the cupboard and had spent his life hating himself immensely for loving men. Normally, one would be emotionally invested in this part of the episode, but everything just seems so tacked on and forced.
The episode was bland and dreary, in short. There was a time that 'Grey's Anatomy' had powerful and emotional conversations handled well, which is what these storylines deserved. Episodes without Meredith or Alex for that matter seem to be falling flat. Though Richard is one of the only few from the original cast of the show, his charm and personality is receding into the background. Also, please stop with Jackson and Maggie, they have the same amount of chemistry as two step-siblings.
Grey's writers, call it a day or come up with storylines that viewers want to care about.
'Grey's Anatomy' Season 16 Episode 12 aired on February 6 on ABC.