Grey’s Anatomy Season 20 Episode 5 Review: Never Felt So Alone

And I repeat, Jolink have become that annoyingly happy couple that either endears or nauseates with no in-between.

But alas, their shenanigans were nothing if not entertaining and slightly comical on Grey’s Anatomy Season 20 Episode 5, as the hour brought some more tension and drama among characters and was mostly case-focused.

Meredith’s appearance brought a touch of nostalgia and a Derek Mention, but alas, we’ve reached a point where she’s not the be-all of a show that used to be hers.

Whether or not that’s a good thing remains to be seen, but given that Grey’s Anatomy will likely outlive us all, I’m leaning toward it being great that it has found a way to carry on without her.

And sometimes, her presence within an hour is so insignificant and distracting she needn’t be there at all.

For starters, one of the issues with Meredith Grey is that we rarely see her with her own children as she’s often jet-setting around the country on huge journeys to save the world of medicine or something else incredible.

Another issue is that she sometimes comes across as a terrible spouse to Nick. Respectfully, the guy often deserves better than what he gets from her.

This hour gave us the best of both of those particular issues as we had to spend Mer’s entire storyline with her berating and being angry at her current spouse — a fellow doctor who spends an excessive amount of time in Boston with her children, for taking Bailey to the hospital without telling her.

Before we reached the point where Nick aired his frustrations with Meredith upon her arrival, it was fairly obvious what had transpired: Bailey got sick, Meredith wasn’t there, and Nick took all the proper precautions to ensure that Bailey was okay and the other children were tended to before he got in contact with Meredith.

Nothing Nick did was out of the norm or unusual, especially for someone who is a doctor and was a parent himself.

And given that he never knows what the heck Meredith is up to at any given time, it makes sense that his priority was on Bailey, not reaching out to provide Mer with a play-by-play of everything that was taking place when she was across the country and wasn’t likely to get there anytime soon.

Mer: My kid was sick, and I wasn’t here, and I felt really upset about that; I’m all they have.
Nick: But you’re not.

Also, in Nick’s defense, Bailey had appendicitis. He would’ve required an immediate surgery. It wasn’t an ailment or illness that required a parent’s permission or a rundown of their options.

An appendectomy is something essential in those instances.

Nick called about this issue as soon as he could. And he didn’t deserve an ounce of what Mer threw at him the entire installment.

Fortunately, she apologized to him. But doesn’t it feel like that’s something she has to do a lot? He has the patience of a saint to deal with half the stuff she lobs at him at any given moment.

But in Mer’s defense, we know the anxiety she has when it comes to her loved ones in hospitals. Almost everyone she’s ever cared about has died or had some health scare.

The most triggering of them is, of course, Derek. And the circumstances surrounding his death aren’t something that one can ever get past.

It’s interesting that even as one of the top medical doctors in the country, Mer still has this innate fear of hospitals, entrusting her loved ones to them and in the hands of medical professionals she doesn’t know.

The trauma of Derek’s death still lingers, understandably so, and the thought of her not being able to be with her child when all of these medical decisions and procedures were happening without her was one colossal trigger.

Hey, I’m sorry about last night. I tried to put you on that impalement, but my co-chief overruled me.

Levi [to Mika]

It sucks that she took it out on Nick, but her feelings also made perfect sense, given everything that she’s gone through.

Fortunately, she and Nick could talk things out, and he could remind her that she isn’t taking care of her kids alone anymore (although, let’s be honest, she never did, right?) and that he loves them as well.

He’s there to support her and them, too. They’re in this together.

Alas, Mernick has overcome another argument, and they’ve come out of it stronger. Mer’s post-Derek endgame is still intact.

Jo and Link are going strong, too. They’re just a happy couple with little silly disasters along the way.

Undoubtedly, their most prominent supporters are eating up all the cuteness and silliness when it comes to them. And the pregnancy scare was probably pure fun.

Admittedly, it had its amusing moments. Link, with all of his Himbo Energy, not being able to tell that the pregnancy test she took was a dud was hilarious, as was his initial reaction to her handing him a stick she peed on.

Also, can you blame the guy for trying to be a good feminist while also freaking out over the prospect of them having another child still in diapers when they’re already juggling each of their own children?

Jo: It’s not negative.
Link: You’re pregnant?
Jo: It’s not positive either!
Link: Is there a third option?

Nevertheless, they’re just in love with each other and confident in their future, and they want to have a biological child. “A little bit of you, and a little bit of me” energy was strong by the end of the hour.

But Jo seems like she has baby fever, while Link is a bit more practical about this and likely wants to wait a while, like when she’s more established in the field she just jumped into and when their children are a bit older.

All is well with those two, however.

Meanwhile, there’s something about all the Amelia Shepherd and Owen scenes they’ve given us this season that makes a girl nostalgic for the times they were good as a pairing.

But while they’re no longer a plausible ship, they work incredibly well as partners in the field and even “best friends,” and the series leans into that well now.

They were great during the medical student’s surgery, especially Owen’s faith in Amelia and her capabilities.

Thanks to his investment in the patient and his ability to relate to her, Lucas was involved in the surgery, unlike the previous one.

It’s always lovely when the interns connect personally with the patients because it highlights their beside manner more, and we get illuminating moments about them in their personal lives through their professional ones.

Lucas is making his turnaround after the series inexplicably made him an ass for much of the season thus far. And we may be getting likable Lucas again, and he’s back to knowing what he wants, which is Simone.

He loves and desires her, and cutting her out of his life altogether isn’t working for him either. The patient helped him realize those things.

The merry-go-round of Lumone continues because he was there in the on-call room to talk to her, and after the day she had, she couldn’t stick by her “no” and invited him for a snuggle fest.

They definitely have the old-school Grey’s Couple vibes. They’re enough to drive a person crazy, and the series could do to spend more time on character building for both of them to sell us even more on their dynamic, but they still have a girl in a chokehold, and I want them to be good!

Lucas: Can we talk?
Simone: I had a really long night.
Lucas: OK. I’ll go.
Simone: Wait…

I also want Mika and Helm to be good, but one of the biggest issues is that they barely show these two at all. Most of their relationship happens offscreen, but we’re supposed to know they’re very serious and head over heels for each other.

And that’s why Mika learning that Helm blocked her from getting the impalement case and stuck her with Teen Kevin from This Is Us hitting and puking on her was such a colossal blow.

Why is Helm doing the medical version of cockblocking? Better yet, why does this show have such a hard-on for beating down Mika when she’s the best of them all? The girl can’t catch a break anywhere!

Between this and Bailey perhaps having an epiphany about the emotional and mental burnout from medical students and, subsequently, interns, Mika may have a break coming her way, and she’ll get what she deserves and a chance to shine.

Simone: Hey, Eddie, did you come up here to hurt yourself?
Eddie: I don’t know.
Simone: Are you having thoughts of suicide?
Eddie: I guess, sometimes.
Simone: I’m here if you want to talk; we both are. Maybe you can sit down, you had a long night.

She deserves to be in an OR and figuring out her field of interest. And she should have her shot at a mentor or something. She’s such a great candidate for the prized intern out of them all, and I’m ready to see her thrive!

Jules is holding her own in the process. Her greatest moment of the hour was her unapologetically calling Winston out on his shitty attitude toward their patient.

At Winston’s big age and with his experience, it made no sense that he was being that rude to Gilbert and acting as if he was inconvenienced or showing his ignorance.

His utter disregard for Gilbert’s anxiety and the tools he uses to calm himself was pretty appalling. The way he spoke to Angela and him was also terrible.

Why was he acting as if the cuddling thing was some farce? Isn’t it medically proven that the action boosts serotonin and so forth?

Is that not one of a few reasons they still swaddle babies in hospitals or cuddle them, too? None of this is anything new, so Winston acting as if it was debunked science and a nuisance was irksome.

His attitude sucked, but we learned it was because he got the divorce papers from Maggie. At this point, he should be celebrating, not being mean to everyone around him, or talking about how dealing with his own patient is an inconvenience.

And when did he become the “cool attending,” anyway?

Jules: I’m really sorry for what I said earlier, it was inappropriate.
Winston: It was right.

Whatever the case, once he hopped on the bed to calm Gilbert, we got a turning point, and then he apologized to Jules, and it felt like the likable Winston was back again.

But this isn’t the first time they’ve had these intimate conversations, and one has to wonder if something is brewing there.

It would be on brand for Grey’s to continue their nostalgic streak by introducing an attending/intern ship. But we’ll have to see.

The most emotional case of the hour was with Simone, Blue, and Eddie.

Simone and Blue have some of the most fascinating interactions out of the interns. Because they’re both really great at what they do but have this way of holding back or putting others at arm’s length.

They work well together, though. It feels natural between them when they’re caught up in a moment as partners in the field. And then one or both go back to putting up these walls and shutting the other out.

They feel like potential close friends in the making, but we haven’t gotten to it yet. As much as I like Simone and Lucas as a pairing and find Blue and Jules interesting, exploring a possible deep friendship blossoming between Simone and Blue would be right up my alley.

It’s the friendships that often are better and more complex and gratifying than the romantic ships in this series.

And we have yet to get much of that from the new interns outside of the hints of Mika and Lucas for a while, as well as installments like this where Jules and Mika shared a sweet moment.

Jo: I’m not pregnant.
Link: Are you disappointed?
Jo: I want another kid.

Blue continues to be one of the most fascinating interns, and Harry Shum Jr plays his complexities well.

It was interesting to hear him speak to Eddie and relate to him and his feelings of suicide ideation and insecurity about his worth and how great he could be as a doctor.

We don’t get insight into Blue too often, but when we do, it’s always intriguing, and he has this hidden depth that makes you want to know more.

He and Simone handled Eddie incredibly well, and it’s good that Ben and Bailey stayed back and let them work through that situation.

Ben was right that once Simone and Blue built that rapport, their popping out could’ve upset the flow and exacerbated the situation.

The plot was great for touching on the burnout of medical students, how that trickled over to the interns, and the overall mental health of medical professionals.

It’s a stressful field, and within that, it’s not uncommon to see extreme burnout, mental fatigue and breaks, alcoholism and addiction issues, depression, and so much more.

They’re the types of things they will warn you about when you pursue the field of study, but it’s always a cautionary tale and warning without much aid offered or changes made to protect the health of the people involved genuinely.

It was another sign for Bailey that she needed to focus a bit more on the well-being of these interns, her moment with Simone notwithstanding. But I’m still unsure in what capacity she can do that and how things could improve.

Hey, how are you doing? Maggie told me that the divorce papers came in today.

Amelia

Right now, most of them are floundering.

Over to you, Grey’s Anatomy Fanatics. Did Mer overreact and treat Nick horribly, or did you understand? Should Jolink have a child together? Sound off below!

Grey’s Anatomy will return after a short hiatus, but until then, you can relive the season on Hulu.

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Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You’ll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.

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