TV REVIEW: Grey’s Anatomy Brings the Thunder in “Puzzle With a Piece Missing”

“Puzzle with a Piece Missing” begins with Meredith’s secret sister Maggie Pierce narrating, talking about puzzles and how she loves piecing them together. She once solved the NY Times crossword in eleven minutes when she was thirteen. Underachiever.

The episode goes to great lengths to show just how super motivated and brilliant Cristina Yang’s replacement (I did not just say that) is. Well, she is a Grey. “Puzzle” also pieces together the picture of a young woman who despite all her protesting really wants to fit in.

All About Maggie

This one is all about Maggie, offering a glimpse into the hospital through Pierce’s eyes. She’s on the phone with her parents, saying “I was curious. I picked up the rock. I saw what was underneath it and I put the rock back.” Mom and dad are asking about Meredith, concerned that their daughter’s alone. She’s called away off to the first case of the night – an elderly woman’s crashing, heart stopped. Maggie gets the ticker going again. Puzzle solved.

A few seconds later, it’s off to the next case, a young man named Robbie who’s trying to pass a ginormous kidney stone. Jo’s on Dr. Pierce’s rotation for the day and Maggie can’t seem to remember her last name. I guess it’s a puzzle too difficult to solve. She hilariously calls her Wilton, Milton, Nemo.

The next patient is a pregnant lady who was advised to never get pregnant; her heart can’t take it. Too late for take backs now … that baby’s coming soon.

Pierce ping pongs from one patient to another showing she’s more than competent, bordering on Yang brilliance. She checks on the elderly lady she saved earlier, who greets her with, “Please, please let me die.” She talks about the ugly room with the ugly machines and being alone, hurting constantly. She says the drugs are making her forget her life and it was a beautiful life. The daughter will never let her go. When Jo and Maggie try to talk to the daughter, she’s not listening. Save mom, no matter what.

Bring the Thunder

Maggie harshly reprimands Jo for speaking to a patient’s family. She gives Wilson a life lesson about “bringing the thunder.”  She explains that “when you seem really nice and young, you have to bring the thunder so they know who they’re dealing with.” She advises Jo to learn how to bring it because “you’re really pretty.” When they see Miranda blow a fuse later, Jo tells Maggie that Bailey “is the thunder.”

(ABC/Ron Tom)
CATERINA SCORSONE, KELLY MCCREARY

Blabbermouth

Jo confides in Pierce that Alex is getting a board seat soon. When Maggie joins Karev and Dr. Butthole in a surgery she blows the whole board appointment thing. Dr. Butthole progresses to Dr. Asshole when he “brings the thunder” and fires Karev for the perceived betrayal. Pierce tiptoes outta there quick, no thunder.

Maggie gets in Watson’s face, Wilson’s face. She kicks Jo off her service because she should have told her the Karev news was confidential. “I can’t trust you.”

Second Thoughts

Maggie decided she didn’t need to have half sister Meredith in her life, and is better off without her. She second guesses that decision tonight after seeing Mer with Zola. The kid is that cute. “It’s easier when she’s a rude, bitchy person. She adopted a surgically needy African orphan. It’s annoying. Should I talk to her?” Pierce asks Richard.

“She’s more than you bargained for. But when the world gives you more than you bargained for you usually end up glad you got it,” Webber advises.

Maggie notes how ironic it is that Meredith adopts a kid, while her mother gives one up. When she asks Richard if he knows what went down, he says, “I never knew anything about it.”

Jo keeps barging into Pierce’s space, not taking to the banished command, trying to show a little thunder of her own. She finds Maggie with some bad news about the high risk pregnant lady. The baby’s coming now and mom has an aortic tear. Pierce ends up saving the mom and having an idea that Arizona goes with to save the baby.

Maggie confronts Jo who won’t accept that she’s off Pierce’s service. Wilson stands up for herself and Maggie likes it. “This is your thunder?” she asks the intern even calling her by her last name. Don’t think she’s off the serice anymore.

Because saving babies is never enough, Maggie gets one more case for the night. A young woman apparently had a stroke while having epic sex with a guy she’d known a little over an hour. The guy’s mightily impressed with himself, even asking for the doc’s numbers.

Dr. Pierce Finds Her Person

Maggie consults with Amelia about the stroke sex girl. Amelia is focused only on the sex saying she’s had good sex but not mind blowing sex. “He nearly screwed her brains out.,” she adds giggling. Girl Shephard admits, “I haven’t had sex in a long time.” “You’re preaching to the choir, sister,” Maggie responds. They high five. Aw, did Maggie just find her person?

They bond with more talk about their troubles. Amelia says she didn’t feel like she had a sister until she met Meredith. Maggie looks doubtful.

One high note is when Pierce repoens the genome lab to investigate the bad heart family from last season. Bailey calls Maggie saying she found a defective gene causing the cardiomyopathy. The McNeil’s come in to be told it was all in the genes. They are thrilled to find out it had nothing to do with anything they could’ve controlled. No time to celebrate, Maggie’s off the races again.

The elderly woman is crashing again and Maggie lets her die with Meredith saying move out of the way. Mer is furious that Pierce let the woman die.

Meredith tattles to Owen that Maggie didn’t do everything to save the patient. Pierce tries to explain the situation to Meredith, adding “Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing.” The old woman’s daughter shows up and Meredith brings the thunder when she says, “Dr. Pierce did everything for your mother, but…”

Ellis Grey’s MY Mother

Aw, is Grey’s getting sentimental in its old age? No one died tonight. Let me rephrase that … no one tragically died tonight.

Maggie ends up revealing her sister card to Meredith. “My mother was Ellis Grey.” She talks about her adoption story, about her amazing parents. That’s a piece doesn’t fit into the puzzle of Mer’s life. She asks skeptically, “What do you want? What are you after? You’re wrong. Or you’re lying. Stay away from me.” That went well.

Oh Meredith, we love you too much to dislike you this much. Shonda pulled the old let’s make everyone feel sorry for Maggie Pierce in this episode and it worked. We are now rooting for her, want her to make friends, and want Meredith and her to become sisters from the same mother.

What did you think of tonight’s eppy? Did it fit together like a perfect puzzle or was it disjointed and disappointing? Will the kiss and make-up session occur next week or will the writers make us wait a bit longer? More importantly, are you willing to add Maggie Pierce into the fold of characters we love and call our own in Shondaland?

Also, did you catch that shower scene with Alex Karev coming next week? Who says Grey’s isn’t getting better and better?

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays on ABC at 8 p.m.