TV REVIEW: It’s Couples Night on Grey’s Anatomy’s “Don’t Let’s Start”

After the emotional Callie/Arizona break up last week, Grey’s fans were ready for a little detour off that roller coaster of a relationship, and we got it tonight with “Don’t Let’s Start.” The latest offering pointed the spotlight at several other couples who are faring much better than the up and down Calzona. Mer/Der revealed the power of makeup shower sex, Alex said he’s all in with Jo, Jackson found a way to make April a little less neurotic, and Bailey & Ben were adorably cute with Miranda being nice to hubby for once.

I Hope You Cooked Enough

Maggie returns Ellis’ journals to half sis Meredith saying, “Thank you Dr. Grey.” Derek can’t believe she calls her sister “Dr. Grey.”

“We should have her over for dinner. She’s family,” he suggests. Meredith says she’s family “ish.”

Later, Maggie is thrilled when Meredith invites her to dinner. Derek acts surprised but has a little matchmaker glint in his eye. Webber conveniently walks in right after Maggie leaves, and Derek asks what he’s doing tomorrow night for dinner. For someone so smart, you can be pretty dumb Dr. Shephard. Who thinks this will end well?

Meredith is furious that Derek invited Richard to the Maggie dinner. She accuses him of playing the I gave up my dream job card, “you’ll be playing that till the end of time.” He says he’s sorry but he was just trying to help out, adding, “Zola needs more black people in her life.” Sounds reasonable enough. The dinner’s on.

Arizona Is a Messy Haired Wreck

Arizona is struggling with the breakup, even sleeping in the hospital. She’s bitter but more determined than ever to make her fellowship work. After all, she kinda traded in her marriage for this opportunity to become a fetal surgeon.

Geena Davis is back as Dr. Herman and at first it seems she may have lightened up a little with Arizona, just a little. She may have even cracked a joke, or semi-joke. I thought a smile may have been coming. Nope, I was wrong; must’ve been an optical illusion. She tells Robbins to go to a previously scheduled consult then they’ll meet up to go over the intricacies of an upcoming surgery.

Dr. Herman is a tad Dr. Jekyll Mr. Hyde in this one. She abruptly says the pre-surgery meeting is off, read her damn notes, and be ready. Arizona is left wondering what the heck just happened.

When blondie goes back to peds to complain to Alex, he’s not hearing it. He says, “No one forced you to do this. Now you’re going to complain because your teacher’s hard. Suck it up.”

Herman shows up for the complicated surgery allowing Karev to tag along. He thought it sounded cool. Wow, the scenes of the surgery are amazing. We see parts of the fetus, a baby arm here, a leg there, and we feel like we’ve just witnessed some revolutionary surgery, for real. During the procedure, Herman loses it, demanding that Arizona quote her notes word for word. Karev defends her and mean doc says it would be a shame “if you had to leave now before we get to the good stuff.” Something is up with the wicked witch of fetal repair.

Later, Arizona thanks Alex for having her back. She also confesses that she and Callie are kaput but Sweet Alex comes through saying, “Okay.” He pauses a few seconds, changing his mind, “Screw that. She’s got it in for you… defend yourself, what have you got to lose?”

(ABC/Eric McCandless)
CONNIE RAY, JESSE WILLIAMSMother Knows Best

April’s mom pays a visit and is disappointed when daughter can’t drop everything and take a half day to shop till they drop. Jackson wins the new hubby of the year award by saying he’s got a light load and will fill in. The odd couple buy out the baby store and April freaks out, yelling at her mom. She tells mom she doesn’t want her help. Avery steps in, “April, you’re not being fair.” Jackson and April argue with Avery saying “your mother is the sweetest person ever.” He admits he does want mama Kepner’s help; he doesn’t know what to do with a baby.

Mom shows up at the hospital before heading to the airport. She tells April, “You were rude. You owe me an apology.” April doesn’t want to say she’s sorry, but mom launches into a how proud I am of you speech causing the doctor to have a change of heart. Mom says she’s kind of a baby whisperer and wants to help the young couple. April backs down on the whine and apologizes. “Can I call you if I have questions?”

“Well, I suppose if you must,” says mom sweetly seeing visions of baby Avery dancing in her head.

Jo and Owen Go Above and Beyond

In the touchy feely medical case of the night, a young woman named Melissa is brought in after being brutally attacked, bleeding internally. Hunt has to do emergency surgery in the ER because blood is filling her abdomen. When he says filling, he means completely full. Owen cuts into her and it’s a gusher, like the great flood of blood. Jo comes in for the assist and the two realize they don’t know anything about the girl. In surgery they see that she has an Operation Iraqi Freedom tattoo; she’s a vet. Melissa wakes up more concerned with her car than her own health, saying “everything was in that car.” Jo gets it, this girl was living in her car, just as the intern had to when she was in high school.

Owen tells the young woman about vet assistance programs to help “homeless veterans.” She says she’s not “homeless,” that’s not her. The techie nerd crew she currently works with comes to visit her and here we go misty moments of Grey’s. She begs the docs not to say anything to them.

Owen ends up pulling rank on the young vet saying she’s got to take help from the special vet programs.. He doesn’t back down, doesn’t take no for an answer, and practically orders it. “Yes, sir,” she says.

Bailey Jumps on the #FitFam Bandwagon

Bailey evaluates her lifestyle choices, mainly her poor nutrition and lack of exercise, after a forty something named Jeremy is brought in for stomach pains that turn out to be a mass of cancerous tumors. His poor health habits have created a breeding ground for cancer.

Miranda knows she’s got to make some serious lifestyle changes, choosing to go jogging. There wasn’t even a gun to her head. When Ben and Richard find out about the exercise, they both lose it, trying to stifle some serious chuckles. Maggie is a sweetheart, encouraging her to stick with it, nothing is easy at first. You know if Miranda puts her mind to something … can marathons be that far in the future?

(ABC/Eric McCandless)
CAMILLA LUDDINGTON, SARA RAMIREZ, MEG CHAMBERS STEEDLE

Cute Couple Alert

Alex and Jo are still going strong with Jo evaluating their living conditions in tonight’s episode.

At the end of their shift, Alex finds Jo and tells her, “Let’s go home.”

“You mean your home? Did you ever ask me to move in,” she snaps thinking about the homeless vet, her days living in a car.

Alex is confused, “Did I do something?”

She says she feels like she has “a bed and a house and it is so good. But my bed isn’t my bed, it’s your bed.”

Alex reassures his lady love with, “Hey, you got me. I swear to God. I’m not going anywhere but home with you. Come on. Let’s go home.” Can this actually be heading to a happily ever after for our forever tortured, unlucky in love Alex Karev? I think I heard an evil laugh emanate from the Shonda Rhimes writers’ room.

Mer/Der start off with their new go to move … arguing. It looks like it’s going to be another fightfest before their guests arrive. Meredith says she needs a “time out” to take a shower and get ready. Derek says he could use a shower too. Are they finally getting over the whole Washington DC job offer thing? Cue super sexy shower scene; yeah, things are looking up for Grey’s power couple.

April and Jackson have their sexy time too with April saying she was a jerk. He agrees (who can argue with April) and they have a super cute make out session.

It was nice to see our non-Calzona couples happy and in love for one episode. Just one. We know the Grey’s disaster train will be rolling through before long, but this was a sweet little interlude.

End Notes

Webber and Maggie show up for dinner with no one answering the door. Mer/Der must’ve been extra dirty because they are taking an extra long shower.

Maggie says this whole thing was a mistake. Webber tries to keep her there, confessing that he screwed up, he knows. He just wants to take it all back.

“I’m not angry at you for being a bad dad. You’re my genetic history. I needed you to be honest with me from the start,” she says.

“I didn’t know what to do. I’ll never be anything but sorry for that,” Richard admits.

“Okay, goodnight,” Maggie says before leaving. It was an abrupt exit but who doesn’t get the feeling that they’ll all be one big, mixed up family unit before this season winds down?

In the twisty surprise of the night, Arizona confronts Dr. Herman about the older doc’s rough treatment. She tells her as much as she wants the fellowship she can’t take the rudeness for a whole year. Dr. Herman says no risk of that, she’ll be dead in six months. What?! She has a brain tumor.

Arizona is as shocked as we are. “Who knows about this?”

She doesn’t answer. She says fetal surgery is so new, there aren’t any text books, so that’s why she’s been so hard on Arizona. “I need to teach you a year’s worth of stuff in six months.” She also needs Robbins to keep her mouth shut on the whole illness thing. Wait, has Arizona kept a secret ever? Hmmm, I’ll give it two episodes before even the night time cleaning crew knows about the Dr. Herman diagnosis.

“Don’t Let’s Start” moved things right along, setting up for a future Mer/Maggie/Richard bonding episode. It showed us a semi-mature Alex seemingly ready to fully commit to Jo, and it gave us hope that April and Jackson could rise above their differences to raise a child together in marital bliss (or at least a non-yelling at each other union).

So, what did you think of this one? Is there hope for Calzona or are they finito? Will the Ellis Grey daughter’s become true sisters? And is there possibly any hope for Karev to stay happy for more than two episodes? Next week looks to be another drama-filled installment with plenty of Shepherd screaming as brother and sister face off. See you back here next week after another ABC, Shondaland TGIT night.

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays on ABC at 8 pm.