'Grey's Anatomy' Season 17 Episode 5 Review: Alzheimer's, Covid-19 and death make this a heartwrenching watch
Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) isn't having it easy on 'Grey's Anatomy'. After torturing Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) for over 16 years, the writers have decided to divide their attention between her and Bailey. Bailey suffered a miscarriage last year, and now she had to watch her mother die. Her mother has also had Alzheimer's, just like Meredith's mother Ellis did.
Episodes like these make you wonder why Bailey doesn't get more episodes to herself because Wilson completely slays each scene she is in. In a tearful moment that reminded fans of Derek's death, Bailey tells her mother that it "is okay" to go, and watches her mother die in front of her. Bailey reminds all who forget, that those who are dying during a pandemic are not just numbers or statistics. They are a person, someone's brother or sister, husband or wife, mother or father, and not just a cold and clinical number to be tucked away in files.
Bailey visits Meredith, who is still unconscious, but the two have their conversations at the beach-limbo, where Bailey reveals why she never wanted to share the secret of her mother's illness before. Meredith and Bailey's friendship is what we're all here for, anyway. Meredith is recovering slowly and in the next episode she might just wake up at last. Meanwhile, Jo (Camilla Luddington) has stopped her pity party for a while and finally got on her feet. She delivered a baby and might just follow her ex-husband Alex Karev's (Justin Chambers) career path too. It's about time Jo gets a decent storyline, rather than just being relegated to the sidelines or feeling sad for herself.
Tom Koracick (Greg Germann) is alive and hopefully well, and is just as snarky as ever. But there's hope that he and Teddy (Kim Raver) might find their way back to each other, because the ending certainly suggests so. So then why all the rigmarole about Teddy and Owen if she was going to end up with Tom anyway? These relationships are so entangled and messy on the show, you can't tell one apart from another.
'Grey's Anatomy' airs on ABC on Thursdays at 9 pm.
