‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Recap: Season 19 Episode 14/15 — Which Duo Breaks Up?

With the Season 19 finale of Grey’s Anatomy just over a month away, Thursday’s back-to-back episodes of ABC’s resurgent drama brought several storylines to major crossroads. One of our attendings was ready to throw caution to the wind and declare their love, another was dealt a heartbreaking blow, and two more “played doctor” when we least expected it. Who’s who? Let’s consult the chart. Er, the recap.

‘YOU ARE DONUTS IN HUMAN FORM’ | In “Shadow of Your Love,” a patient who’d tried to mail himself to his girlfriend as a grand gesture inspired very different reactions from Teddy and Owen. “What’s the lesson here? Romance can be fatal,” she said. Nah, her husband reassured the fella after his significant other dumped him for being so stupid. It had taken Owen an eternity to get the timing right with Teddy, he explained. If the guy really thought she was the one, he should try again. Hilariously, he didn’t think she was the one after all. But Owen’s pep talk had had a big impact on Teddy, who drolly remarked as they left for the day, “You really went for your two favorite things in that speech — proving me wrong and getting laid.” The latter of which, he was about to. Link, too, had been moved — so moved that he was ready to tell Jo, “Although I hate most of humanity, I don’t hate you.” He even filled their apartment with flowers and set the scene for dinner by candlelight. Alas, before he could open his heart to his BFF, she phoned in tears: The nursery had just informed her that there seemed to be something wrong with Luna’s hearing. D’oh! That’s a thousand bucks’ worth of flora down the drain!

‘SHE IS NOT THE QUEEN OF SPIRALS, SHE IS JUST A QUEEN’ | Spending the day with Kai, Amelia admitted that she had a long and colorful history of spiraling when people leave her, and with Meredith gone and Maggie going… eesh. Kai remained unfazed, pointing out that that tendency was but a small part of their girlfriend. “You are underestimating my ability to fall off the deep end,” Amelia cracked. (But seriously, she’s right.) Only after she had had a good cry over the loss of her sisters did Kai finally confess that they’d been asked to open a lab in London. “I wanted to tell you earlier,” they said, “but you were already so sad.” And Amelia was about to get even sadder: Kai had accepted the job. Back at Grey Sloan, Richard barked at Levi upon learning that he had yet to apply for a fellowship. Webber wouldn’t realize that he had in that instance failed his chief resident until Schmitt indirectly called him out for it while they were operating on a boy named Grayson whose real-life concerns Blue had dismissed. “Sometimes being a good doctor, or even a good mentor,” Levi said, “means listening to what the other person needs.” Snap!

‘SHE’S NOT POP-ROCK, SHE’S LED ZEPPELIN’ | Chicago-bound Maggie had one foot out the door when she was aggressively paged by a woman named Viv, who’d driven 400 miles to get her “platonic soulmate” Nola’s tumor removed. Though most of us can’t even get a doctor’s office to return a phone call, Pierce pushed her flight back and tackled the case with Winston, who she hadn’t even been sure would answer her page. “You’re still my boss till the end of the day,” he noted. By and by, the estranged couple came up with an ingenious way to take out the tumor that was crushing Nola’s heart. The surgery was going to be hella tricky, though. So “no interns,” Maggie said. “There’s no margin for error. Just you and me.” After they pulled off the miraculous procedure, they went to inform Viv, who broke down in tears, thinking that her friend had died. “Those were not ‘I just saved a life against all odds’ faces!” she told the Bickersons. As the couple left the hospital, they took turns praising one another’s work. “The way you accessed that jugular today!” Maggie marveled. The end of the sentence was clearly “It was so sexy!” because the next thing we knew, the two of them were getting naked.

‘WE CAN’T LET ADAMS NEAR YOUR INSEAM’ | In other developments, Bailey at first rejected Ben’s suggestion that, having been doxed, they should move into an Airbnb and change her number. “I’ve known that number longer than I’ve known you,” she exclaimed. But at day’s end, after receiving a texted photo of Tuck leaving school, Miranda informed her husband that yeah, they were pulling the kids out of school and hightailing it to a rental. Throughout Episode No. 1, Simone took Jules’ attitude toward marriage — it’s a distraction, Millin agued — as a criticism of her plans to wed Trey. But it wasn’t marriage that was a distraction, it was wedding planning, said Griffith, having a mini-meltdown over the fact that she didn’t have time to get fitted for her dress. Sweetly, Jules then took Simone’s measurements for her; they certainly couldn’t let “man of honor” Lucas do it!

‘I LOVE YOU, BUT… ’ | In “Mama Who Bore Me,” Amelia was distracted from her busy schedule of being heartbroken and ticked at Kai by a complicated surgery to install a 3D-printed vertebra in a patient who was allergic to the metal in the screws and plate that had been stabilizing her spine. (Whew — got all that?) Once she’d completed the operation with Owen, he suggested that she talk to Teddy and perhaps get Kai hired at Grey Sloan. Amelia did exactly that, but it didn’t matter. As Kai pointed out, when they’d told their girlfriend the news, she’d offered up zero words of encouragement and made it all about her. “I love you,” they added. “‘But,’” Amelia noted. “That’s what people say before they abandon you.” Elsewhere in the hospital, Simone roped Maggie into consulting on the case of a young lawyer with nipple discharge. So Pierce was on hand when the woman — Toby — remarked that her mother had warned her against being too ambitious; looking back at her career 20 years from now wouldn’t make her smile. You bet it will, Maggie countered. “You loving your job is a beautiful thing. It doesn’t make you cold, it makes you passionate.” Though Simone was initially reluctant to break the news to Toby that she had breast cancer, she ultimately stepped up.

‘I’LL SNEAK YOU A BAGEL LATER’ | When Grayson balked at the idea of rescheduling his bar mitzvah, Levi got the idea to have the ceremony and reception at the hospital. That way his elderly Zayde, who might not ever be able to make the trip to Seattle again, would be able to take part. Though Grayson was reluctant at first, he eventually warmed to the idea and seemed to have a swell time. Noticing the feat that Levi had pulled off, Richard floated the idea that pediatrics was the fellowship that he should pursue. Meanwhile, in Link and Jo’s storyline, he shuffled his schedule so that he could be there when Luna’s mom took her to get her hearing checked. The news was not good: The tot was diagnosed with progressive hearing loss. Link, as Link is wont to do, tried to cheerlead, but Jo pushed him away; she needed time to process this development.

‘YOU ARE MOVING, YOU’RE NOT DYING’ | The morning after Maggie and Winston’s farewell romp, she asked him to come with her to Chicago and work on their marriage. And what? Let her get him another job? He couldn’t. He was just starting to gain respect at Grey Sloan. Instead, she should stay, he said. Stay and fight the part of her that was as cold as Ellis. Ah, another day, another impasse. After Richard laid a guilt trip on Maggie, she pleaded her case to Catherine, who reassured her that her dedication to her career was “not coldness, focus.” Maggie, it seemed to Catherine, was following her heart — something that she suspected both her husband and Ellis wished they’d done way back when. After Winston kept Nola from succumbing to a blood clot in her jugular, Jules, awestruck, told him how eager she was to be on his service. As the second episode drew to a close, Richard apologized to Maggie and gave her a going-away present: a miniature of the bench where he’d learned he had a daughter. In one last moment with Winston, Maggie reminded him that both of her mothers had stayed in their marriages to keep other people happy, not themselves. She wouldn’t do the same. “We did the best we could,” she said. “I love you, but I have to go.” In response, he sadly told her, “I love you, too, and I have to stay.” As if to solidify in Maggie’s mind that she was making the right decision, as she took an elevator ride to her future, she saw both Ellis and Diane by her side. (Read Kelly McCreary’s take on her character’s send-off here.)

What did you think of Maggie’s exit? Amelia and Kai’s breakup? Jo shutting out Link? Owen — why, man, why? — giving more relationship advice?!? Hit the comments.