It seems like the “lighter season” of Grey’s only lasted 4 episodes, since this episode was pretty dramatic and painful to watch. The episode starts right after episode 4 ended, with Meredith staring in shock at Penny, the doctor who was unable to save Derek. It’s obvious that Penny recognizes Meredith, and both women are awkward and tense around each other, as Callie prattles on obliviously. Callie thinks that Penny is nervous about meeting Arizona, and while she goes to introduce the two, Meredith runs upstairs as she starts to have flashbacks of Derek’s death, the last time she saw Penny.
Throughout the dinner, Alex notices that there’s something wrong with Meredith. She denies that there’s something wrong, instead telling Alex that she just wants her guests to feel welcome. Callie gets paged to the hospital to go check on one of her post op patients, so she leaves, leaving a very uncomfortable Penny behind.
As the doctors sit down to eat, it is evident that Arizona is very drunk. She keeps referring to Penny as “Perfect Penny” and she seems surprised that she actually likes her. As they are all eating, Bailey recognizes Penny’s name and announces that Penny will be a new surgical resident starting next week. This prompts the doctors to start asking Penny questions about the old hospital she used to work at, which makes her uncomfortable since she doesn’t want to admit that she worked at the hospital where Derek died. As she is trying to deflect the questions, Meredith can’t hold off any longer, and she announces, “Well, Perfect Penny killed my husband,” and then she storms off. The doctors are all shocked at this, no one knows what to say for a while and they awkwardly stare at each other.
Amelia is the one to recover first, and she can’t believe what she just heard. She demands that Penny tell her everything about her brother’s death, since she was the last person to see him alive. They have a tearful altercation in which Amelia yells at her to get out of her house and also storms off. Right after, Callie shows up with Owen in tow, and they are both confused when they see everyone is sitting there awkward and tense. The doctors explain the situation to Callie and Owen, and Callie is heartbroken and starts crying. Owen goes upstairs to comfort Amelia, and he finds her fighting with Meredith, since she feels betrayed that Meredith didn’t tell her she knew who the woman was. They get into a huge screaming match, that ends with Meredith yelling at her to get out of her room or she was going to kill her. It’s clear that both doctors are still suffering from grief, and Penny’s arrival just made things way worse.
Meanwhile, Callie confronts Penny and asks her why she didn’t tell her about her past involvement in Derek’s death. Penny tells her that she didn’t even know if Callie knew Derek, to which she replies that he was her friend. As the guests start to leave, Meredith walks downstairs and sees that Penny is still there. She apologizes multiple times, and tells her that she’ll withdraw from the program at Grey Sloan so she never has to see her again. Meredith, despite the fact that she’s incredibly mad at Penny, tells her that she’ll see her next Monday.
Overall, the 250th episode of Grey’s Anatomy was incredibly emotional and brought back the subject of Derek’s death. It seems like Penny is going to be sticking around for a while, which will surely cause tension within Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital.
Here’s the promo for the next episode after the two week hiatus:
Where do I start? I really like this blog. I used to watch Greys when it had just started and stopped but after reading the recap I kinda want to start watching it again. You do a great job at explaining what is happening without confusing or boring us. I also like the fact you talk about the main thing that happen and not the little side stories that happen during the episodes.
I also like the fact you put the promo for next episode. It gets me excited about the next episode.
I am definitely going to read your blog more often.