Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 9 Fumbles Both Cliffhangers in Snoozefest Midseason Premiere

Critic’s Rating: 2.8 / 5.0

2.8

Bailey and Ben carried the midseason premiere on their backs.

After a long hiatus, literal seasons have changed during this time; Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 9 delivered an underwhelming hour that did little to move the plot forward in any meaningful way.

And those cliffhangers? Mostly, nothing burgers. Boo! Hiss! Yawn.

Teddy is Mean AF

What’s going on with Teddy? It seems like she flipped her “bitch switch” some time again and never went back.

But hey, I welcome this recent surge in no-nonsense, lowkey mean, unapologetic middle-aged women who aren’t looking to appease.

It’s semi-refreshing because female characters are always expected to be considerate, nice, and a slew of other things.

On the other hand, I have a natural aversion to “meanness.” Sue me.

Teddy has been harsh this season, particularly during this installment. She’s been overdoing it with her speaking to people, scolding and reprimanding them like children.

It’s like she’s trying to overcompensate for the trouble she faced during that Meredith fiasco. Maybe she thinks that being a hardass will help. But this is Grey’s Anatomy; that’s rarely the case, and nothing she says or does will keep people in that hospital from doing the absolute most.

Towen Still Sucks

But knowing Grey’s, part of showcasing how “mean” Teddy is will be to justify Owen tripping over his scalpel down infidelity road with his childhood friend.

If Teddy is mean enough, it’d be natural for Owen to lean into his connection with Nora, right?

I’m not even an Owen hater, but why is Owen Owen?

His admission to Nora that the feelings were mutual after their near-kiss was 50 kinds of messy. But we knew things were headed this way.

My issue is that, at this point, it’s a genuine wonder why Teddy and Owen are still “happily married.” I’ve lost count of how they’ve hurt each other, betrayed one another, lied, chosen other people and things, and the list goes on.

They’re such a hot mess as a couple, something that has only worsened over the years rather than improved. They’re also tiresome.

Teddy and Owen come to mind when there are calls for this series to shift away from the old guard. Their storylines, particularly those revolving around their marriage, tend to drag things down.

Unless they pull something unexpected out of their hats, like a threesome or foursome with Nora and/or Cass, it’s hard to invest or care.

Molly Will Break Blue’s Heart, and I HATE IT

A happy Blue is a sight to behold, mainly because Harry Shum Jr. is simply the best and has an infectious smile.

However, Molly is a problem. She’s playing both sides of the fence here with one foot in the past with Blue and the other in the future with David.

She has her cake, and she wants to eat it, too. It’s irritating that she keeps playing these games with Blue, and he allows it. He cannot seem to resist this woman.

Love makes us do stupid things, and Molly takes full advantage of that. Even the way she hangs around the hospital is infuriating.

Blue’s confession of love made a girl cringe because there’s nothing of substance coming from this, right? As someone who wasn’t particularly fond of them revisiting this aspect of Blue’s past in the first place, this arc may suck.

Jules Shuts Down in Mika’s Absence

Poor Jules!

When Mika left Grey Sloan, she took Jules’ heart with her, and it was heartbreaking to see Jules grapple with this loss.

She loved Mika with all her heart, and the worst thing about Mika’s exit was that there was little to say about it. What could Jules say or do?

Nothing. Mika lost her sister, was grieving, and couldn’t roam the halls of the same hospital where her sister died, and she nearly did, too.

Her grief was so palpable that, as frustrating as it was that we were losing inarguably the best intern of the bunch, given how they set up her exit, we only wanted what was best for her—even if it meant they would deprive us of this beautiful love story.

Goodness knows most of the other love stories suck.

Jules Pushes People Away, But For How Long?

For someone like Jules, opening her heart isn’t easy in the first place, and with Mika gone, the thought of giving anyone else pieces of herself and growing attached was too much to bear.

Unsurprisingly, she resorted to shutting everyone out, especially Simone, who was also happily in a relationship with her person.

She could avoid getting hurt if she didn’t have to care anymore. But that’s also not Jules; it does not come naturally to her.

She had one of her roughest days on the series to date, trying to navigate that hellish day, grieving Mika, and barely functioning. Her work suffered like nothing we’ve seen before.

The patient rolling off the table onto the floor made me literally gasp. Then, the hour followed it up when Jules froze as Teddy chewed Simone over it instead of her.

I am curious to see how Jules and Simone will mend their friendship. It seems both Simone and Blue understand that Jules is having a hard time without Mika—Simone specifically gets the nature of that grief and its intensity.

But Simone seems less inclined to let things go easily. We’ll have to see, though.

The Midseason Premiere Squanders Its Cliffhangers

This hour had zero momentum following the final moments of Grey’s Anatomy Season 21 Episode 8.

We learned quickly that Lucas wasn’t gravely injured from the shooting, and it was evident early on that Jo wasn’t miscarrying.

For Baby Shepherd to have a close brush with death in a store robbery, the premiere does little with that.

Amelia and Lucas didn’t even have a conversation about it until the end of the hour, and it had none of the impact you’d expect, given that most of Amelia’s hardships centered around the traumatic experience of seeing her father’s murder when she was a child.

Grey’s Anatomy misses all these great moments to build on Lucas and Amelia’s dynamic and take full advantage of their similarities and the Shepherd legacy.

Instead, Simone was the only one who had a halfway decent reaction to almost losing him, and Ben came in clutch like a true dad when Lucas had a panic attack.

Ben really was one of the saving graces of this episode.

The prospect of Lucas battling PTSD from this event is a promising potential storyline, so there’s that.

Jo and Link’s Dispute Was Irksome

Meanwhile, Jo’s ordeal turned into this odd situation. The series scrambled to explain away why Carina DeLuca wasn’t at the hospital and introduced this cherubic Gen-Z doctor with no filter to check around in Jo’s hoo-ha.

I would’ve been annoyed by him if I were Jo. Get that child away from me!

But if it wasn’t bad enough that Jo’s doctor was probably still getting carded and obnoxious, Link was the same when he kept throwing his weight around and trying to tell Jo what to do with her body.

She’s a pregnant woman and an OBGYN herself; why did he think his input was essential to anything?

Fortunately, in a moment that paralleled nicely with Ben/Lucas, Bailey was there to comfort, handhold, and reassure Link, and she finally got through to him with pearls of wisdom.

Again, Ben and Bailey carried this episode on their backs.

Somehow, Link’s behavior shifted to him being the concerned person who wanted to be involved, and Jo clocked in to not always working together as a unit because she’s used to going at it alone.

Why Does Winston Suck So Bad Now?

I don’t know. I didn’t agree with that assessment, but I also don’t care enough to argue about it anymore.

But with the biggest cliffhangers losing steam two minutes into the hour, it contributed to a primarily dull hour.

Amelia didn’t have enough time with Lucas, but she and Winston were at each other’s throats again. Most days, they seem like obnoxious siblings who hate each other.

But other times, because it’s Grey’s Anatomy, I’m always paranoid that their fighting might lead to f*cking, and I don’t know what to do with that.

When Did Winston become so insufferable? Ugh.

Over to you, Grey’s Fanatics.

Was the midseason premiere underwhelming?

Do you feel bad for Jules? What is the deal with Winston and Teddy’s attitudes?

Hit the comments below!

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