Grey's Anatomy: Meredith Gets a Blast from the Past

Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) gets a blast from the past on Thursday's episode of Grey's Anatomy, which takes her all the way back to her first day working at Grey Sloan Seattle Grace.

Her patient in the episode is none other than Katie Bryce (Skyler Shaye), whose aneurysm was the first case Meredith and Derek worked on together on her first day as an intern. But Meredith isn't the only one with Derek on the brain - Amelia (Caterina Scorsone), who's inherited Katie's case, is wondering if she can live up to the surgical standard set by her late brother.

But before we get to the cases, there's quite a bit of personal life territory to cover: Amelia and Owen (Kevin McKidd) are back to hooking up at his place, Jo (Camilla Luddington) makes a note that Alex (Justin Chambers) is still keeping the engagement ring in his nightstand drawer, and Jackson (Jesse Williams) wants to settle up his and April's (Sarah Drew) final shared cell phone bill, post-divorce, but she refuses to take his money. Arizona (Jessica Capshaw), looking on, mentions that April should probably tell Jackson she's pregnant. But she says she's not ready to do that just yet, and wants to enjoy being pregnant before things inevitably get all complicated once she shares the baby news with Jackson. It's understandable - April is practically glowing, so much so that Jackson and Callie (Sara Ramirez) can hardly believe how well she's taking the divorce.

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After spending the night at Owen's, Amelia comes into the hospital like a whirling, one-booted dervish, bragging about the sex she just had. Maggie (Kelly McCreary), on the other hand, laments that she hasn't gotten laid in days because Andrew (Giacomo Gianniotti) is concerned that Webber (James Pickens Jr.) is on to them. It doesn't help his suspicions when Webber requests that Andrew be his charge for the day, and gives him assignments like inputting patient records, performing rectal exams, and picking up Webber's dry cleaning.

When Katie Bryce arrives at the hospital, Meredith recognizes her immediately - and unfortunately, Katie also recognizes Meredith, expressing disbelief that such an incompetent intern is now a real doctor. Katie asks for Dr. Shepherd to treat her, and is annoyed when Amelia shows up instead of Patrick Dempsey. Regardless, a scan reveals that Katie has a gigantic aneurysm in her brain that's on the verge of bursting.

Meredith is reluctant to let Amelia take over the case, but has no choice - especially after a patient she's been treating for cancer unveils a nasty chest wound that Meredith and Riggs (Martin Henderson) determine is septic. Riggs wants to operate, but Meredith insists on staying with the cancer patient to apply pressure to the wound. Meanwhile, Penny (Samantha Sloyan) acts as a go-between between Amelia and Meredith to relay information about Katie Bryce, as well as the occasional insult.

Meanwhile, we learn that Webber is still playing Arizona's wingman. He asks how things went with a woman in a denim jacket who left the bar with Arizona the other night, and is dissatisfied when she replies "Fine." Webber points out that he's facilitated an introduction between Arizona and about a dozen women and "fine" is an unsatisfactory outcome. Arizona goes into unnecessary detail to assure him that Denim Jacket was decidedly more than just fine.

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In between running endless errands for Webber, Andrew finally gets a 10-minute break - which he uses to arrange an illicit meetup with Maggie in an on-call room. But before they can get too far, he gets an emergency page from Webber, and Maggie lets it slip that the ex-chief is her father. Later, Arizona makes matters worse when, while trying to endorse Andrew as a roommate who's hardly ever home, she tells Webber that Andrew's mysterious girlfriend has a crazy sex drive and is "a screamer."

Back to Meredith and Amelia's cases: Amelia's hesitant to operate on Katie's aneurysm, and Katie asks her point-blank if she's a better surgeon than her brother was. Amelia reacts by confiding in Owen that she's nervous about screwing up Meredith and Derek's "surgical love child," in addition to everything else in her life. (She also adds that, at 60 days sober, it's too soon for her to start a relationship.)

Her concerns are for naught, however. Even though we don't see the surgery, it appears to go smoothly and afterwards, Katie apologizes to Meredith for being such a bitch. She also inquires about what happened to male Dr. Shepherd. (She waited this long to ask?)

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Meredith's cancer patient, unfortunately, isn't so lucky. Her chest bleeding becomes uncontrollable, and Riggs and Meredith realize they have no choice but to operate. But, before wheeling her into surgery, Riggs makes the patient call her estranged son (and earns a little respect from Meredith in doing so). Her son says he's coming to see her, but it's too late - the patient bleeds out before even making it into the OR.

Realizing that maybe Riggs isn't such a bad guy after all, Meredith asks him about what exactly happened with Owen's sister. (Owen's side of the story is that Riggs put Megan on a helicopter and it crashed.) Riggs tells Meredith that, yeah, that's basically what happened - but only after he tried to get on the helicopter in Megan's place and, after an argument, she insisted on going with her patient. The helicopter, as it turns out, disappeared without a trace and was never found.

At the end of the day, Webber and Maggie (without ever explicitly saying it) acknowledge that Maggie is seeing Andrew - but leave him to finish Webber's paperwork and decide to have a father-daughter dinner together instead. Jo tells Alex that she doesn't want to wear the engagement ring, but he should keep it in the drawer for now. Jackson insists on giving April a check for his half of their phone bill - but Alex has figured out that April is pregnant and advises her to tell Jackson before he figures it out as well.

Arizona is all dolled up for a date with Artisanal Soap (who smells like lilacs), and Webber gives her a paternalistic lecture about not wasting her time with frivolous people, saying she deserves someone special. Arizona laughs off his lecture and thanks him for helping her to be a little slutty again. Owen sweetly returns Amelia's boot, and they decide to make a fresh start with their relationship.

What did you think, Grey's fans? Are you happy Amelia and Owen are back together? Do you like Maggie and Andrew as a couple? And do you think there's a possibility that maybe Owen's sister isn't really dead?

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.

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