Grey's Anatomy Season 15, Episode 16: "Blood & Water"

After the big milestone episode last week, Grey's Anatomy got back to basics this week with "Blood and Water." It didn't provide any major bombshells or high-stakes situations, but there were a couple of interesting cases of the week and lots of meaty stuff between parents and children.

The episode kicks off with Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) having a dream where her mom, Ellis (Kate Burton), gives her a message: "The light in the blood." Meredith, with a small assist from sister Maggie (Kelly McCreary), figures out that the message means there might be a non-invasive way of diagnosing diseases. That's how far this particular thread goes, but it feels like this might be an ongoing thing for Meredith because that is a groundbreaking medical advancement.

Maggie goes on a podcast to talk about her recent groundbreaking surgery. She starts talking about genetics and how surgery is in her blood. It comes out that Ellis Grey is her biological mother, and Chief Webber (James Pickens Jr.) is her bio dad. The podcasts hosts freak out a little because those names are celebrities in the medical community, but nobody freaks out more than Richard. He's super crappy to Maggie to about it, acting like he doesn't want to remind Catherine (Debbie Allen) that he's an adulterer. Chief, grow up. Do you realize how you are making your daughter feel? Like she's an unwanted dirty secret.

Maggie tells him what a horse’s patoot he's being, and he later apologizes. The Chief is ashamed of being a philanderer, but he's proud of Maggie and who she is.

Meanwhile, both Karev (Justin Chambers) and DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) have a parent in town. The stories dovetail nicely because DeLuca's father (Lorenzo Caccialanza) might possibly be bipolar. Carina (Stefania Spampinato) thinks he's on a manic swing, but DeLuca thinks his dad is doing well. Additionally, he wants to support his dad's idea for an external gestational womb for pre-term babies. Karev doesn't know what to do — he wants to help fund the research, and he doesn't want to say no to someone because he's scared of their possible mental illness. Still, Karev also knows firsthand what it's like to deal with a parent with mental illness, so it's something he has to consider. As of now, they're going to pursue.

Alex's mom (Lindsay Wagner) gives Jo (Camilla Luddington) a little nudge about grandkids by knitting them a bunch of baby hats. Jo freaks because she's scared about not knowing her own medical history, and what that could possibly mean for her children. But she ultimately decides she's on board with having kids (someday), so she is going to have a DNA screening done to figure out if there's anything genetic to be concerned about.

Finally, the fallout from Owen (Kevin McKidd) punching Koracick (Greg Germann) is that Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) was not bluffing when she told Owen that they're over. However, this complicates Leo's adoption because they're no longer together. Owen gives her a big speech about how he "chose her," which is a little condescending — don't act like she should fall down on her knees and thank you because you didn't choose the other woman you're in love with — and he then accuses her of being incapable of letting someone love her. Ouch. Maybe the problem here isn’t Amelia, but Owen — and maybe she’s going to find love with someone else in the hospital. Either way, this story feels far from over, but at the very least, Owen signs the papers and he is now officially Leo's dad, which is wonderful.

In a small storyline, Schmitt (Jake Borelli) doesn't want his mom to know about his relationship with Nico (Alex Landi), but it's not because he's ashamed of it. He hasn't come out to his mom yet, and he just wants to enjoy loving Nico before his mom jumps in with every potential pitfall she sees with her mom eyes.

The cases of the week fold in nicely with the main character drama. There's a daughter of a gay couple who has to find out which one of them is her biological father because she might have a rare genetic disorder that one of them has, and then there's a baseball player who hid his bone cancer from his mother so she wouldn't freak out. She finds out literally minutes before he has part of his leg removed and is fitted for a prosthetic. They’re both great examples of how Grey’s can find small moments with patients that gel so nicely with the other storylines.

Jackson: "[Kids are] sleep-depriving, sticky little monsters that demand snacks endlessly and want you to sing 'Row Row Row Your Boat' to them 50 times a day."