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Grey's Anatomy Season 14, Episode 21 Recap: "Bad Reputation"

Photo: ABC/Eric McCandless.
Ever wonder what it was like in the inner circle of Louis CK or Matt Lauer or Charlie Rose or Mario Batali or any of the dozens of other men who've had to figure out what to do when the news broke that they were at the center of a sexual misconduct scandal? Not Weinstein because the sheer scope of what he did eclipses everyone else in the world and puts him in a superpredator category all his own. Well, tonight's Grey's Anatomy is here to show you, except the badly behaved man in question is dead. All just in time for literally every man listed above to start plotting their return to public life way too soon.
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Catherine (Debbie Allen) hires a crisis management expert who is like Olivia Pope but a moron who immediately suggests they attack the women accusing her father of misconduct because "someone is going to take the fall." Luckily Catherine, Jackson (Jesse Williams), and Webber (James Pickens, Jr.) all lose it when she says that, so I can keep watching this episode. Catherine braced everyone for her to be the scapegoat but based on Jackson's reaction; I'm predicting now that he will not let that go down as she plans.
News crews are staking out the hospital and shouting questions at everyone as they arrive. Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) starts the day by giving her (and her mother's) Harper Avery Awards back and finds herself pulled in a PR stunt surgery with Jackson. When the charity which brought the kid with the nose growth in gets wind of the scandal, they pull funding, so Mer jumps in to save the day by offering to do it pro bono, but not without exchanging words with Jackson over why they're doing it first. Jackson finds himself in a weird position here; he keeps dismissing things because it's his grandpa and family name at the center of the scandal. While they're planning the surgery, which they disagree on, they fight it out with Mer as the stand-in for the women who are attacked and Jackson as the stand-in for what taking those men down does when it takes down an institution. If the Harper Avery foundation takes a major hit in the face of this news, 72 hospitals also go down -- all those people lose their jobs.
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And that's the whole point of the #MeToo movement: the big development was we started prizing the safety and sanity of women over that of institutions deemed "too big to fail" and helmed by vile men who abused their power.
At least Jackson admits it was stupid to pay for the contest just because he can't compete for a Harper Avery (Mer's line that he could have just bought himself a Best Surgeon in the World trophy and had his name engraved on it is A+++++++++). And, I have to admit, watching them peel the skin back on that kid's nasal growth was awesome. There haven't been a lot of those medical gross-out moments this season, so they went big on this one.
Karev (Justin Chambers) and Wilson (Camilla Luddington) are wedding planning, and Kepner (Sarah Drew) jumps in with her type A personality and offers to do it all for them if they give her a date and a budget. I want a friend like Kepner! But when Karev goes to check his account and tell Wilson how much he can kick in, he shuts down. Later, a blast from the past: the nurse that he gave syphilis to and she, in turn, gave it to George (T.R. Knight), Olivia Jankovik nee Harper (Sarah Utterback), is back baby! Her kid, Milo, swallowed a chew toy. Of course she's not over being Typhoid Mary, and of course, she tries to warn Wilson off marrying him. It turns out Karev was freaking out because he hadn't checked his account and didn't notice his mom wasn't cashing the checks he sent, so he thinks she may be dead. You know, if these two would go see a therapist about their communication issues, I would be much more comfortable with their wedding.
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Hunt (Kevin McKidd) takes Leo for his baby wellness checkup only to find that his mom, Betty (Peyton Kennedy) is there. And she's the kid from Everything Sucks! on Netflix, which is to say: she looks about 14 (she's supposed to be 15). Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) takes her to the food truck, and she lost the baby because she got addicted to opioids. Amelia's immediate reaction is to take her in, and Webber tells her to go for it because Ollie (Mary Kay Place) dragged him to a meeting and saved his life once upon a time -- that little continuity, to remind us he is still grieving, and that storyline isn't just over? That's why I love this show. Anyway, on to Amelia imagining telling Mer that she's moving a drug addict in with her kids and Hunt is all for it because he gets that the kid should have his mom if it is at all possible. So, they decide to...move in together and take care of the whole family together? Okay, these two are getting back together. Right?
Yes, the moment Catherine reads the script that Mer and Jackson wrote, that moment when she gets to the part where under their new foundation the promise to rehire and retrain every woman who was paid off after enduring Harper Avery's harassment -- that was the moment I started bawling. DAMMIT GREY'S ANATOMY! Jackson is right though; it's bullshit that Harper's behavior should take yet another woman, Catherine, down -- even if she felt she had to cover it up. I don't know that I'm sold on it being the Catherine Fox foundation, but I am for every little bit of their good intentions.
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Maggie and Jackson update: still on. She's impressed. He's noble. Steady as she goes.
That intern who got fired for eating pot cookies last week? He's back, with a lawyer. Uh oh.
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