Grey’s Anatomy Recap: Season 19, Episode 17 — Sam/Jo Romance?

“He’s a jigsaw puzzle!” Grey’s Anatomy’s Link excitedly said of Thursday’s Special Guest Patient. But before hitting the O.R., the ortho god, still reeling from Tank’s demise, was smacked with self-doubt. Was history going to repeat itself, in so doing killing off Jo’s new admirer before they had even gotten past the flirting stage? Read on…

‘DON’T WORRY, IT FEELS WORSE THAN IT LOOKS’ | As “Come Fly With Me” got underway, Nick showed up at Grey Sloan early and was stood up, he told Amelia. Um, by whom? Lucas, it turned out. Nick had a long list of tasks for the resident, and he hadn’t shown up to take them down. Mika feared that Helm, during a “rage blackout,” had so vehemently defended her to Teddy that she was about to be fired. Instead, the new chief held an emergency meeting to revisit the conditions under which the residents were working and living. Jules worked hard not to appear to be peeved by Blue’s new flirtation. (But she clearly was.) Bailey thanked Kwan for tackling the pro-lifer who’d tried to attack her, and soon, he’d bumped into Jules’ roommate Max, who’d awakened feeling under the weather. And Owen recruited Link for a consult. En route to meet Sam Sutton (guest star Sam Page), an Air Force pilot injured in a base-jumping accident, Link asked Owen which of his bones were broken. Hunt’s answer? Pretty much all of them.

“Is it annoying if I say that you’re really lucky?” Link asked after meeting the patient. Kinda. But as Owen assured Sam, if anyone could help him, it was Link. Sam’s wingman Kwame, aware of what had happened to Tank, wasn’t so sure. “So don’t have [another] bad day.” In response, Link said that he’d do his best — and his best was pretty damn good. Looking at Sam’s X-rays, Jules marveled that “nothing is where it’s supposed to be.” And to get any of it back where it’s supposed to be, Link was going to need to perform multiple surgeries over several days. Sam wasn’t into that idea… couldn’t they do it all at once? As Owen strongly recommended, much to Link’s chagrin, yes. As Sam asked Simone and Jules to call Kwame’s wife if he should die, Link and Owen clashed over the course of treatment, with Hunt bringing to bear his status as a vet. When Jo checked in with Link, he confessed his fears — and that he needed a whole team of doctors. Count me in, she said. As soon as she entered Sam’s room, he took note. “I may be dying in the next 18 hours,” he blurted out, “so… are you single?” Simone, as well as Link still suffering some aftereffects of losing Tank, questioned Link’s Owen’s approach to his surgery and was summarily shut down by Hunt.

‘I AM YOUR NEW MAID OF HONOR… DID HE NOT TELL YOU?’ | Examining Max (Juliet Mills, interviewed here), Blue was pumped by Jules’ roomie about their relationship. But she would disclose nothing herself. “Girl code.” Meanwhile, Jules revealed to Simone that she’d replaced Lucas as her person of honor at her wedding. Mind you, Jules didn’t know at the time that she was revealing this; she’d assumed that Lucas would’ve told the bride. (Nope.) Nonetheless, Jules proved to Simone that she knew her plenty well enough to do the job. (Actually, pretty sweet the way the show backed into that friendship.) Later, Levi shared with Max that she had a UTI, and she shared with Blue that she’d never told “the one that got away” how she’d felt. Yes, lotsa sharing. After Blue got fussed at for leaving Max unattended and she went on a walkabout, she mistook Levi for her grandson and was diagnosed with delirium from the UTI. “What the hell happened?” Jules wanted to know when she was paged to Max’s room. Millin was ticked that, as Max’s emergency contact, she hadn’t been called. She was further enraged that Blue had left her unattended.

‘WHERE CAN YOU GET THREE MEALS A DAY FOR $15?’ | After a patient went into hypoglycemic shock owing to Lucas’ negligence, Nick chewed him a new one. “If you want me on your side, you need to grow up,” Marsh barked, adding that Adams had better get his ADHD meds straight, stat. When he disclosed to Mika what he had done, she hollered that of course he hadn’t been fired for it — he was related to surgical legends. In Teddy’s meeting about the residents, Richard poo-pooed how bad things were for the interns. At which point, Bailey mentioned that he had been the attending who’d kept her from going to a loved one’s funeral when she was a resident! Soon, Webber, Bailey and Amelia were all sharing resident horror stories. “There is something to be said for adversity making people stronger,” Teddy admitted. That was no excuse, Amelia acknowledged, for her yelling at Mika. Soon, Yasuda entered the meeting and quit rather than be fired. Rather than accept her resignation, Teddy announced that a grant was being started to help residents in need. “You have no idea how much that means to me,” Mika said.

‘I ALWAYS THOUGHT I WAS JUST THE BLACK SHEEP’ | As the hour neared its conclusion, Sam’s epic surgery got underway. Simone was able to give Kwame an update, but there were still gory miles to go. When at last Sam was bandaged up like the proverbial mummy, Link and the surgical team were given a round of applause. Owen told Kwame that Link was able to save all of Sam’s limbs. But Link was concerned that Hunt had overpromised. “If you ever put me in that position again in front of a patient,” he said, “we’re going to have a problem.” To Mika’s shock, Amelia apologized for taking out her anger on her. Nick apologized to Lucas for calling him out on the ADHD that he didn’t even know that he had. “The signs… they’re all there,” Nick said. “Maybe it just takes one to know one.” Yeah, he had ADHD, too. Adams would get checked out, and they’d take it from there. As tired as he was, Link was determined to stay at Sam’s bedside until he woke up. Then Jo would stay with him, she said. Simone sat with Jules as she watched over Max. Richard showed up at Joe’s to admit that he hadn’t listened to Helm when he’d tried to get her to come back to Grey Sloan. He was listening now, though. What would it take? Finally, Amelia apologized to Winston for lashing out at him. “I was wrong, and I’m sorry.” Big whoop, he replied with the way that he stalked off from her.

What did you think of the episode? Anyone else insta-shipping Sam and Jo? (Sorry, Link.) Hit the comments with your thoughts.