‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Recap: Season 18 Episode 17 — ‘I’ll Cover You’

Thursday’s Grey’s Anatomy wheeled into the O.R. a case that gave Levi the worst possible kind of deja vu. Was he able to keep the patient-of-the-week from meeting the same fate as Devon, or were the worried expressions Meredith and Richard were wearing justified? Read on, and we’ll reveal not only the answer to that question but what was the offer Nick made Bailey, who finally dropped the L word and how on earth did Webber wind up stoned?

‘MY OFFICE HAS A SMELL THAT IS NOT BRINGING ME JOY’ | As “I’ll Cover You” began, Link got it on with a woman we’d never seen before while Jo pulled double duty at Grey Sloan. As Catherine left home to try to save the residency program, Richard grabbed her cannabis-green smoothie from the fridge. (Here comes trouble… ) When Bailey gave Pru a tour of the hospital, she quickly realized that it couldn’t function without her. In the doctors lounge, Richard gave Nick the cold shoulder… or so it appeared. Webber was actually just really, really anxious to find some snacks. Turned out, he hadn’t even noticed Meredith and Nick in the room. (How strong was that smoothie?) Later, Link treated his longtime patient Simon, whose pregnant wife Kristen was worried that chemo might have gotten the better of him. When Link brought in Jo to consult, he called her on the fact that she’d asked him to babysit Luna when he asked to hang out with her. But they soon had a bigger issue: Simon’s cancer was progressing faster than previously thought. Jo would have to operate, and Link could scrub in — almost like they were hanging out. When the duo broke the news to the couple, Kristen broke down — Simon had to live to meet their baby. Ahead of surgery, the father-to-be beseeched Link to make sure that Kristen didn’t name the child after him. Link countered by suggesting that he get his head in the game instead.

In the O.R., Jo saw how bad off Simon was and did what she could to make the patient more comfortable in his last weeks. But there would be no saving him. He wasn’t going to meet his child. When Link and Jo told Kristen, she begged for an immediate C-section. It was too soon, Jo said. So Link told Kristen that Jo was just an OB student, he’d consult with Carina, her teacher. In the supply closet, Link then railed against Jo for using him, first for sex, then as a babysitter. “I fell in love with you,” Jo finally admitted. When he hadn’t seemed to do the same, she’d asked him to move out to protect their friendship. What’s more, she had had enough education to know that Kristen’s baby couldn’t be delivered at 32 weeks. Intense!

‘THAT IS VERY NOT AT ALL FUNNY’ | Elsewhere, Meredith investigated Richard’s strange behavior and informed him that he’d drunk a pot smoothie. “I don’t know if you know this, but I don’t drink or do drugs,” Webber told Grey, who wanted to call Catherine. But she couldn’t do that; Catherine had to save the program! Who could babysit Richard? Not Levi. He wasn’t on Mer’s service anymore that day, he was on Nick’s, Grey told him; Marsh could take her cases. She’d keep an eye on Richard. Meanwhile, Nick met with Bailey, who pretended that she didn’t know she was being hostile toward him. “I need more than surgeons, I need surgeons who can teach,” she snapped. He could do that — heck, he’d taught Jordan! But if she didn’t want to accept Nick’s offer of help, fine. Off that unpleasant meeting, Nick, having been granted privileges, if barely, was told by Levi that he couldn’t reveal Mer’s whereabouts, but he was to take her service. At the same time, Mer and Richard spoke a bit more openly about why she had to leave Seattle. It wasn’t Nick, it was the city. “Everywhere you look,” he acknowledged, “there’s a memory of people who aren’t here anymore” — like Ellis, for him. Not Adele? No, Ellis.

In the O.R., Bailey barked at Nick for taking over Mer’s cases and intimidated Levi as he was faced with a situation reminiscent of Devon’s. After daring to tell Bailey to hush for the sake of the patient, Nick encouraged Levi to write a new ending to the story — and he did, just as Richard snuck away from Mer and peeked in from the gallery. Shortly, Amelia took over for Mer on Richard duty. Upset over losing 10 years of sobriety, he couldn’t understand why Catherine had even had a pot shake around. At least Webber had had an idea about how to redesign the residency program. It had become too much about data, not enough about people. So they needed to rewrite that story. While all this was going on, Mer confronted Bailey, who admitted that she felt like she, the first female chief, was failing. She didn’t know why she was torturing Nick, it just all felt like it was out of her control. She was thankful to Mer for staying and to Nick for coming, but she wasn’t sure it was enough. At last, apologies we’re made. “I’m sorry,” Miranda said, “for calling you ‘that girl.’”

‘YOU… CAN… GO’ | In other developments, Maggie and Winston treated a woman named Margot who was suffering from terrible back pain and insistent on her wife not being called. Turned out, she’d been lying to her missus and the doctors, the former about having already taken care of the issue, the latter about when the pain had started. Needless to say, she needed surgery. Before the operation, Winston got rather intense about how they’d now have to call her emergency contact, and maybe Margot shouldn’t have lied to her wife in the first place. He was so intense, in fact, that Maggie sent him packing. As the episode rounded the corner toward the end, she challenged him to explain why he hadn’t been himself since Wendell had shown up. When Winston was 16, Wendell had asked him to pick up him and a friend at the mall. Winston had — and had realized too late that he’d driven a getaway car. Winston had taken the fall, and Wendell had talked his way out of it. Now he wanted Winston to lie to Bailey about his crap heart monitors. He’s the sucker who fell for the BS over and over — that was who Maggie had married. But “we will be OK,” he added, “because I love you.”

In therapy, Owen and Teddy were advised to let Leo be “gender creative” for now. The child’s parents’ job was to support and affirm — not easy for Altman when circumstances were ambiguous, her husband couldn’t resist noting. Later, at Grey Sloan, Teddy consulted with Amelia on a case and was stunned when she advised that they “wait and see.” Clearly, Teddy wasn’t talking about the case. She was talking about Leo, she admitted. “I like direction and answers and knowing what to say.” And she had none of that in this instance. In response, Amelia talked about how like herself she’d begun to feel since falling for Kai. Things don’t have to be super-defined. Near the end of the episode, Kristen warned Simon that if he didn’t live long enough to meet their baby, she’d name him Simon Simon! Levi thanked Bailey for letting him come back; the day had been hard but had reminded him why he wanted to be a surgeon. Link, after the worst day ever, asked Amelia for some Scout time. And Catherine, having been called by Mer, arrived to take Richard home. Why, he asked, did she have pot in the house? Her cancer had progressed, she admitted, and the pot was for her pain. Nooo!

So, what did you think of “I’ll Cover You”? Jo’s admission? Catherine’s revelation? Hit the comments.