Grey's Anatomy: The Doctors All Got Stoned, Seriously

After a season that's been very heavy-handed with a serious tone -- quite a feat for Grey's Anatomy, no? -- most of the docs decided to take a load off tonight. Well, they don't so much decide it as they do stumble into an accidental mental joyride that sends the whole hospital into a tailspin, but still. There's a lot of laughter ... filled with some hard truths in between, of course.

It all starts when Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw) shares the wealth on the tub of "lesbian appreciation cookies" she receives from the patient she saved from unnecessary treatments by the fake cancer doc. A whole host of Grey-Sloan Memorial's finest surgeons help themselves to the batch before being informed, much too late, that they're marijuana-laced edibles. Oops. (And they say Arizona has no stories left to tell.)

Suddenly, half the attendings are rendered useless or worse, and it's up to those who resisted that crumbly temptation to hold the hospital together. The new foundation's presentations are also postponed, on account of Jackson Avery (Jesse Williams) being under the influence and rambling about fine vaginas and his origination from onesuch instead of the serious business of his revolutionary new surgical technique. The only surgeon who does get to present his research in full is Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.), and it's good timing, too, because it gives Jo (Camilla Luddington) the knowledge that his cancer-detecting pen is long past the prototype stage and is now operational. Heyo foreshadowing!

While most of the doctors who ingested the cookies are pulled aside and asked to hide out until they've sobered up, a few of them end up back in the working wing, including Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson), who simply doesn't know the treats were spiked, and Dr. Roy, who denies having eaten any just to get some more time on the surgical floor.

Bailey finds out the hard way that she's under the influence once the walls of her operating room start to spin mid-procedure. She calls in Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) who would be absolutely delighted to, and more than capable of, performing the procedure if not for the fact that Bailey's so stoned she slams the woman's hand in a massive door. So, Jo'll have to go it alone, even though she's terrified of handling such a serious procedure solo. Fortunately, she has Mer at her side doing her trial-by-fire teaching technique, which gives Jo the foresight to take a look at the patient's pre-operative scans and make a decision for herself, using Webber's fancy pen, as to whether to dissect the entire organ or just the piece of it that is known to be infected with cancer. Her reward? As Mer puts it, "Now, you get to tell his family that not only did you save his life, you saved his quality of life." And with that, Jo and Webber's pen have their first successful trial run at a major solo surgery outing. Progress!

Of course, Webber gets to enjoy exactly zero percent of the big feat because he's got to tend to Dr. Roy, who freezes when a patient needs a central line and runs straight into a surgical tray cart that sends a scalpel careening into his arm, probably even his brachial artery. After Webber gets him to stop bleeding, though, with the help of his other, non-impaired interns, he delivers the good news that Roy's now been fired from the hospital for his complete disregard for patient safety. Ah, Roy. We barely knew thee.

Roy may be getting out while the getting is good, though, because now we know why Katherine freaked out so much about Jackson's decision to let Dr. Froy out of whatever NDA she had with his grandpa. As it turns out, Harper Avery was a notorious sexual harrasser whose messes Katherine begrudgingly cleaned up by way of settlement agreements that required his victims to never work at a Harper hospital (hence, Froy hanging up on them mid-conversation last time).

Jackson is naturally disappointed in his mother for having basically been his grandpa's enabler, but she reminds him that it was a different time, when women who spoke up were silenced anyway, and she thought she was actually helping these women (of which there were 13!) by giving them some money for their troubles instead of letting Harper just fire them and get away with it anyway. Jackson's willing to forgive her, but the rest of the world may not be.

Meredith certainly has some thinking to do about what this means for her legacy. Like her mother, she's spent a lot of energy working towards this supposedly top-tier prize, but now the name is ruinous. (Note: Maria Cerrone, it turns out, was one of his victims, which explains why Ellis Grey had to take her off their research project before.) The news is already all over it as the women start to come forward against the Harper Avery name, so this problem isn't going away any time soon.

And here it seemed like Grey's couldn't get any more timely, didn't it? The writers have obviously drawn a lot of inspiration from reality with this season, but then again, that does tend to happen when truth is stranger than fiction. Moving on ...

Owen (Kevin McKidd)'s efforts to become a foster father pan out much faster than he anticipated, as he gets the call to take in an infant long before he's ready to do so. He calls on Amelia (Catarina Scorsone) to offer some emergency assistance with getting his place ready for a baby, but she's on something of a babysitting duty herself, as she has to tote Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) along to keep his high behind from wrecking their expensive lab equipment.

Together, the trio raids Meredith's stash of baby supplies from the three Shepherd kids, and Karev even proves to be useful by pointing out how much more this kid will be cared about than he ever was in the foster system ... after snacking on a whole bag of chips, of course. Aside from that, the adventure gives Amelia and Owen some time to bond, and it's clear that something's going on between them right now, which means we might need one of the sober doctors to diagnose us with a case of watcher's whiplash because he, like, just flitted off to Germany to try and marry Teddy Altman. To be continued ...

Last but not least, we get a few subtle updates amid all the stoner-chatter of the docs that are confined to their couches. Bailey has apparently gotten a manufacturing deal for her colonoscopy device, and whaddya know, apparently a sex toy company that already deals in the, erm, rear end department has enough vision to fund such a product as the "Tailblazer." Go Chief!

Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gionniotti) is still pretty broken up about Sam's self-deportation -- so much so that he hallucinates her laying next to him for a majority of the episode. Arizona has something of a breakthrough over why she's been trying to keep Karina so close, and it's all because of Callie flitting off to the east coast with Penny and Sofia. Even so, Karina's still sweet enough to overcome any doubts she has, so the two end it on a kiss. The fact that Arizona realizes she's asked this woman to stay in her country, instead of journeying home to her own, might just be a hint at the endgame for her character. Could Arizona become an Italian before it's all said and done? We'll have to wait and see. Until then, ciao bellas!

Grey's Anatomy airs Thursday nights at 8/7c on ABC.