Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 Episode 17 Sparks Station 19 Nostalgia — And Brings Up the Strangest Irrational Fear Ever

Critic’s Rating: 3.8 / 5.0

3.8

Ever since Station 19 was canceled, all eyes were on crossover moments with Grey’s Anatomy.

After all, Carina DeLuca was still an OB at the hospital, so it would make sense to see her pop up now and then.

Yet it’s taken until the penultimate episode of Grey’s Anatomy Season 22 for it to happen, and fortunately, it did not disappoint.

Jo Needs to Talk to Warren About Her Career

As Maya Bishop was brought into the ER suffering from burns due to a three-alarm fire, Warren quickly jumped in.

He was respectful about it at least, as Bryant was the one on Toni’s service. But the situation called for Warren to secure Toni’s approval before scrubbing in.

And that came because Bishop needed Warren by her side.

Out of everyone in the hospital, she knew that she could trust him the most.

As he would later point out to Toni, he was not only a firefighter but also an anesthesiologist.

Sure, Bishop was a friend, but he is also extremely good at compartmentalizing.

I get a sense that firefighters are like soldiers. Friends may be involved, but the job remains the focus, and Warren has learned that and brought it into medicine.

However, throughout all of this, we got a reminder that Warren has been through multiple careers, which connects to another storyline happening throughout the hour.

Jo admitted to Teddy that she is having second thoughts about switching to OB, but if she doesn’t continue with that line of work, it feels like the last few years of sacrifice have been for nothing.

While I know this was focused on Teddy’s arc, as she was offered the chance to move to Paris — which is clearly the way she and Owen are going to be written out of Grey’s Anatomy — Jo was speaking to the wrong doctor about the feeling of going backward.

Has Jo completely forgotten that Warren was a firefighter and is now back to working through his residency?

Were the years he spent with Station 19 a waste? Because this installment certainly didn’t seem that way.

Warren was so calm and so focused that Toni noticed he was damn good at his job, asking him to become her fellow while admitting that she was initially wrong.

Considering the respect and friendship Warren and Jo have for each other, it doesn’t make sense that she wouldn’t turn to him with her concerns, and I hope to see that rectified during the next season.

The Station 19-Grey’s Anatomy Crossover We Needed

I had worried that this crossover moment with Station 19 would bring back too much nostalgia.

Part of me feared that everyone would be rallying around the waiting room or the OR, waiting for updates about how Bishop was.

I wondered if Carina would suddenly show up after two years of not seeing her, which would have completely overshadowed the episode.

It’s not that I don’t want to see Carina, but I needed this crossover to be about the medicine. And that’s exactly what it became.

Bishop showed just how much she had learned to trust Warren, something she hadn’t done when Station 19 started.

Meanwhile, Warren showed that he is back in the right spot and has learned the fine line between taking risks and providing patient care.

The focus shifted to how the doctors could continue to work together, with Link and Amelia initially taking care of the leg break and nerve damage before Warren and Bryant could handle the debris in full.

On top of that, we got to see what it takes to keep a burn patient from going into shock.

You can correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember Grey’s Anatomy or Station 19 ever delving into the importance of keeping the OR temperature high to prevent a burn patient from suffering hypothermia.

Then there was the reminder that Warren, despite no longer being an anesthesiologist, still clearly understands the methodology and respects the profession.

There was a small mention of which drugs to push, with Warren making it clear to Toni that he knew exactly what he was doing.

This crossover brought nostalgia, but that wasn’t the real reason behind it. This episode was all about pushing Warren’s growth and career in plastics.

I mentioned during my NCIS review for this week that a special guest star from the universe needs to add to the plot and not just act as fan service, and while that series couldn’t manage it, Grey’s Anatomy killed it — pun definitely intended.

Meredith and Bailey See the Tables Turned

While all this was going on, Meredith and Bailey were forced to judge medical students’ inventions.

It’s a chance to see the tables turned, with the student becoming the teacher as Meredith shares some life lessons she’s learned.

No, those life lessons weren’t to help the students. They were to help Bailey.

Quite honestly, though, while it was fun to see Meredith have the opportunity to point out a few flaws in Bailey’s thinking, it was an unnecessary side plot.

All I could think was that Webber needed to realize that Bailey was taking the blame for something Blue had done.

I couldn’t believe how dumb Webber appeared.

He knows Bailey well enough to know that she wouldn’t have injected a trial drug without approval.

Yes, she took a risk in the past, but she learned from that decision. Since then, she’s called doctors out for their actions, including Meredith Grey.

In the end, Webber figured it out. It’s not all that clear who told him what or how the full truth came out, but Webber did the one thing Bailey should have done.

He fired Blue, which does seem a little out of character for the Webber we once knew.

He was the one more lenient toward Izzie when she was learning, while Bailey wanted her fired.

However, I guess both Webber and Bailey have been through some major life shifts over the years. As we age, we become less tolerant.

Bailey is where Webber was at the start of Grey’s Anatomy, and now Webber has realized that some doctors cannot be protected from their own decisions.

Do I think that Blue will remain fired? Not at all. This reeks of Grey’s Anatomy Seasons 2 and 3.

I’m sure we’ll see Blue work his way back in some way next season.

The problem here is that I don’t care.

Blue has been so heavily underused, unlike Izzie, so I’d rather see him gone and allow Harry Shum Jr. to do something better in his acting career than continue with this character.

Chit Chat from the ER

• I’m ready for Teddy and Owen to leave the series — nothing about their storyline was revolutionary.
• Amelia just needs to focus on the Alzheimer’s research rather than the relationship drama.
• Just as we’re about to lose Teddy and Owen, their replacement comes in: Simone and Lucas! Please, no!
• Now I’m ready to see Carina show up to support Bishop.
• Winston has an irrational fear of yarn? Now that is a strange thing I need to hear about!

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