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“Grey’s Anatomy” recap (11.2): Bring the Thunder

Whenever anyone besides Meredith narrates an episode, it’s pretty much a given that the episode will be a game changer. This time it’s Maggie Pierce, who is still navigating her way through a new life in Seattle. We learn a few things about Dr. Maggie Pierce, right off the bat.

  1. She spends most of her free time on the phone with her loving family back in Boston, as she’s been struggling (or perhaps a little hesitant) to make new friends.
  2. Puzzles are her thing. She has an eye for them, and a dogged determination to solve them.
  3. It’s going to be easy to love Dr. Pierce, who is equal parts awkward and awesome.
After telling her parents that maybe she should just leave the whole “Meredith, you’re my sister” thing alone, she gets a page to rush to the ER. There, an older woman is coding, while her daughter stands by crying. Maggie quickly assesses the situation, putting the pieces together until they fit, and decides on a plan of action. She revives the woman, which most be a pretty epic way to kick off your morning. Not so epic is running into Richard and Meredith in the elevator. Maggie chooses the stairs, and Richard follows after her. He tells her that it’s going to be pretty hard to avoid another doctor at this hospital (God knows, others have tried and failed for 11 years) so she might as well make peace with it. Like a boss, she solves his crossword puzzle for him before moving on.

On Maggie’s service that day is Jo, who Maggie mistakenly refers to as Willis. Maggie is embarrassed about the mistake, but Jo is a good sport about it, so they head off to do rounds. First up is Dr. Bailey’s patient Robbie, a young guy who is painfully attempting to pass a massive kidney stone. Maggie swoops in and does some of her magic, making Robbie feel a lot better and determining he’s at risk for serious heart problems if he goes into surgery right away. Next up is Rita, a pregnant woman with a heart malformation who has been put on bed rest. Her baby also has heart issues and will need surgery as soon as she’s born. Arizona struts in with Stephanie, using golf metaphors like a good lesbian. “Mind if we play through?” Fore! Both Arizona and Maggie will be attending to the family’s medical needs. When Jo and Maggie leave, we find out that Rita’s chances of surviving the pregnancy are pretty slim but Maggie is determined to give her patient a fighting chance. Maggie impresses Jo with her badassery, even if her name retention skills are a bit lacking.

Lastly, Maggie and Jo check in on Marjorie, the woman Maggie saved from flat lining earlier. She’s suffering from stage four lung cancer, and the woman is simply ready to go. When her daughter leaves the room, she tells Maggie and Jo that she wants to die but her daughter won’t let her sign a DNR. She wants to go out with dignity, not in agony. When the daughter comes back, Jo oversteps and tells her that her mother is miserable and probably won’t survive another cardiac event. A furious Maggie pulls Jo aside and schools her on patient etiquette. Maggie then softens and tells Jo “she just had to bring the thunder.” It’s a new life lesson for Jo. “When you seem really nice, or young or pretty, sometimes people don’t take you seriously. You have to help them understand who they are dealing with. You have to ‘bring the thunder.'” This is the best thing I’ve heard all year. I want to get one of those wall clings that shouts, “Bring the thunder,” for every room in my house. The echo results come back for Robbie, the fellow with the kidney stone. He also has dilated cardiomyopathy. When Maggie conveys the news to Dr. Bailey, she also inquires about running an XO panel, which is music to Bailey’s ears. That’s what she was doing in her lab before the board shut her down. Bailey still has a set of keys, because of course she does. Instant allies! Also, Bailey doesn’t give a rat’s ass if the board doesn’t like it. Maggie isn’t sure how to take Bailey’s outburst, but Jo assures her that Bailey “is the thunder.” Jo then spills the beans about Bailey and the board, and how Alex is going to take the seat instead. Maggie gets a page to consult with Alex, but first she needs to check in on Rita and the baby. Rita is having a lot of back pain, so Maggie tells Jo to run a CT scan on her. Rita’s husband is concerned, but Maggie tells them not to jump the gun. However, the look she flashes Jo as she leaves isn’t a good sign.

In Alex and Dr. Lebackes’ OR, the tunes are pumping as they operate on their patient. The nurses are dancing; the only thing that’s missing is the chips and dip. (Not sanitary of course.) When Maggie arrives to consult, she congratulates Alex on his board seat, right in front of Dr. Lebackes. This of course, is all kinds of terrible because Alex hasn’t officially been offered a spot back at SGM, nor has he told his current boss of his plans. Smooth move, Maggie. Maggie nearly throttles Jo (or Watson as she calls her this time) when she comes out of Alex’s OR. She orders Jo off of her service for being indiscreet and not giving her the whole story about Alex before she opened her mouth and got him fired. Jo isn’t sure if this is more thunder, but Maggie says no. She doesn’t think she can trust Jo, so she’s banned from Maggie’s service. Owen stops Maggie to question her about a request to see the McNeill family files. The McNeill’s are the family whose three children all suffered from cardiomyopathy. One even passed away from it. Since Maggie worked on Lincoln McNeill after Cristina left, she wants to do some research into the genes. Something about the case makes her want to investigate further. Owen of course, takes this as a personal affront to Cristina’s work. He thinks that Maggie is insinuating that Cristina didn’t do everything she could, but that’s not it at all. It’s just a puzzle that needs a final piece. Owen tells her to leave the family alone, as they’ve been through enough.

In the cafeteria, Maggie runs into little Zola. It’s then that Maggie finally meets Derek, who is naturally sitting with Meredith, who winces at Maggie through a plastered on smile. Maggie brings up the big brain mapping White House project, and Derek has to tell her that’s not happening anymore. Maggie is mortified at yet another misstep today. Meredith tries to shoo her away, but Derek invites Maggie to join them. Maggie chooses to get as far away from Meredith’s hostility as possible. She sees Richard and Amelia eating together and asks to join them. She finds out that Amelia is Derek’s sister and asks, “is everyone in this room, somehow related?” Amelia laughs the laugh of a thousand raucous angels, while looking knowingly at Richard, then excuses herself so they can chat. Maggie is thrown for a loop about Meredith, Derek and Zola. Meredith was so much easier to dislike when she’s just being twisty Meredith. She asks Richard if maybe she should tell Meredith after all, and Richard thinks perhaps she should. Maggie asks if Richard knew anything about Ellis and why she gave Maggie up, but Richard answers truthfully that he had no idea. He does know that giving up Maggie would have been the hardest thing that Ellis ever had to do. Before they can discuss Ellis any further, Jo rushes over to show Maggie the labs on Rita. Even though Maggie protests because Jo is off her service, the results are bad so they run off to deal with the situation. Maggie heads off to find Arizona, but what she walks into is a Calzona argument. The fellowship committee needs an answer from Arizona that day, and Callie is frustrated that this is all happening so soon. Maggie closes the door and their argument continues. Arizona tells Callie she needs something like this in her life. Something to be passionate about and focus her energy. Callie assumes that having another child would keep Arizona quite focused. With Callie’s research, Arizona’s fellowship, and raising Sofia, Callie worries there won’t be room for another child in the Robbins-Torres home. Last week, a few readers (wonderfully and kindly) raised some issues with my thoughts about Arizona. They made some very excellent points, and I want to make it very clear that I am both Team Arizona and Team Callie. I love both these characters, and they frustrate me in equal amounts as well. While I think that Arizona acts impulsively at times to the detriment of her relationships with others, I also think that Callie can be so uber focused and stubborn, that she can’t see beyond her own expectations. That’s what makes this argument important. Arizona is expressing a real desire to further her career, while Callie is busy expressing the need to have another child. This couple has trouble seeing how their needs can actually fit together, rather than them putting more space between them. I believe in them though, because at the end of the day, I really want love to win out. When the person you love opens her heart to you, you ought to at least open your mind. Once Callie walks out, Arizona follows Maggie into Rita’s room. She’s having and aortic dissection, which means she has a tear in her heart. The baby needs to be delivered right away by C-section, while Rita is taken to surgery to repair her heart. Rita’s husband finally loses his cool demeanor and starts raging. He’s mad at the world, and especially at his wife. Maggie asks the husband to leave the room, and she lets him vent his fear and frustration about the situation. They lost a child a few years ago to a freak accident, and he’s just so terrified to lose his wife and unborn child. Maggie tells him that Rita made “a hard choice for the sake of the baby. You have to have the faith that she has.” Arizona overhears them and the comment sinks in to her own dilemma with Callie.

In the OR, Arizona and Maggie wish each other luck. They deliver the baby, who Arizona whisks off to the NICU, and Maggie gets to work on Rita. Maggie argues with Jo briefly, who offers to leave mid-surgery, but calmer heads win out. Maggie gets Rita’s heart working, and leaves Jo to close. Maggie then runs off to help Arizona with the baby. Maggie talks Arizona through options for surgery, and they figure out a fix. After surgery, Jo tries to talk to Maggie about being kicked off her service, but they run into Alex who just makes the situation tenser. Maggie gets a page that Dr. Shepherd wants a cardio consult, but she’s not sure which. When she calls Derek, “the other Dr. Shepherd”, she scores immediate points with Amelia. They head over to a young woman named Tracy, who is suffering from a stroke after a session of vigorous sexytimes with a guy she met at the gym. Since they just met, he doesn’t know her last name. April is also there, dolling out the snark. Maggie uses her puzzle solving skills to use Tracy’s iPod to track down her identity. It’s kind of brilliant, and Amelia is impressed. I think this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship. When Maggie goes to check on Marjorie, she finds Meredith working on her. Jo tells Maggie that Meredith put in a central line. Before Maggie can confront Mer (who was kind of just doing her job), she’s confronted by Bailey, Owen and Jackson. When Jackson tells Maggie that Bailey’s genome project has been halted, she straight up declares that the board made a stupid decision. It’s the key to understanding so many mysteries, she excitedly explains. However, she doesn’t know that Jackson is on the board. Another smooth move. Bailey loves it! Meredith walks by and Maggie grabs her to complain about Meredith going around her. Meredith is like, I’m a doctor who saves lives. You know, doctoring, with the life saving?

Maggie chases Meredith down on the staircase, but as she launches into her speech about respect and all that good stuff, she’s stopped in her tracks by a singing fish with a ukulele. A Fish-o-gram if you will. Maggie’s parents sent it to surprise her, so there goes that opportunity to talk with her secret sister. Maggie calls them to thank them, but ends up breaking down into tears. She doesn’t feel like she can be her true self in Seattle. Maggie joins Amelia to chat about stroke victim Tracy. Amelia can’t help herself from bringing up mind blowing sex, which makes Maggie smirk. Maggie has found the cause of the stroke though: a blood clot that travelled from Tracy’s leg to her brain. Maggie moves into surgery to repair a hole in Tracy’s heart, while Amelia sits and watches, eating chips. These two are the best. They trade stories of feeling misunderstood in their families. Amelia brings up Meredith and how they grew close, giving her the sort of family member she could connect with. With this subtle push from Amelia, maybe Maggie will talk to Meredith after all.

Bailey sends Jo to get Maggie after the operation. She’s mapped the genome and found a mutant gene that’s causing their patient Robbie’s cardiomyopathy. It was only just discovered and wasn’t yet identified when the McNeill kids fell ill. Bingo, they all share the same mutation. Maggie gathers the McNeill parents and explains that there is finally an answer. It’s not the house, or anything anyone did. The grieving parents finally share a moment of relief. Maggie gets paged to Marjorie’s room where she finds Meredith performing resuscitation. She literally pushes her out of the way and takes over, this time much more gentle. Her heart won’t take being defibrillated again, so Maggie calmly comforts the woman as she slips away. Meredith won’t participate in calling time of death, and leaves furious.

Owen stops Maggie to thank her for her efforts to give the McNeill’s an answer. Meredith barges in, accusing Maggie of slow coding their patient. An accusation like that could end Maggie’s career, so Maggie accuses Meredith right back of undermining her authority since she started. Maggie’s story, that she did everything she could to save Marjorie, doesn’t waver and Meredith walks away. Maggie stops Meredith before she can speak to Marjorie’s daughter and explains herself. “I did what my patient and I decided was in her best interest. You look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing,” she says to a steely-eyed Meredith. When Maggie stumbles while explaining what happened to the daughter, Meredith steps in and assures the daughter that they did everything they could to save her mother.

Once again, Maggie walks in on Callie and Arizona deciding what to do about the fellowship. Arizona decides to pass up the fellowship, but Callie tells her not to. She’s had a change of heart because she knows that they can figure it out together. A happy Arizona can only make the world a better place for them, their children and Calzona shippers. They give each other a big squeeze to seal the deal. Maggie visits her patients once again before she heads out for the night. Rita and baby are doing well. Tracy’s parents have been tracked down, and she and Amelia give her one night stand some solid advice: go home, and next time, take her to dinner first. Maggie also overhears Jo talking about how Maggie hates her. Jo stands up for herself and lets Maggie know that she’s not an untrustworthy hack. She learned a tremendous amount in just one day from being on Maggie’s service, and thinks she deserves another chance. In other words, she brings the thunder. Maggie agrees, and even calls her Dr. Wilson before she leaves. Granted, it’s written on her hand as a reminder, but still.

In her final act for the day, Maggie stops Meredith as she’s leaving. She drops the sister bomb, and to say that Meredith doesn’t take it well, would be an understatement. She accuses Maggie of lying because of the timeline, Meredith would have known that her mother was pregnant. She warns Maggie to stay away from her. Here are some of our favorite #GreysGays tweets from last night’s episode, “Puzzle with a Piece Missing.”

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