Grey's Anatomy recap: Superheroes to the rescue

Just when you think Meredith is going to finally choose DeLuca after that steamy interlude in the elevator, Thor walks in and makes a move by saving a patient and a birthday party in the span of an afternoon. Okay, comparing Link to Thor might be a stretch when he’s in scrubs and without a hammer, but you can’t deny the muscles. No wonder all the kids at the superhero-themed birthday party are psyched that the Norse god paid them a visit.

Before Link works his magic educating Meredith on the ins and outs of Marvel characters, he almost annoys her to death in the ER. A woman falls from a balcony and sustains multiple injuries. One of them is a broken pelvis and Link is ready to rush her to the OR without stabilizing her pelvis. Meredith hates this idea but has to go along with it since he’s Mr. Ortho.

There’s a lot of panic and arguing over this poor woman’s exposed abdomen. Meredith barks instructions to everyone in the room. This is a teaching hospital after all. She chastises Link for being lazy and rhetorically asks how he ever managed to become a doctor? His good buddy Jo responds for him, explaining that he was a cancer kid. Link answers that he worked his ass off like all the other doctors and would appreciate a little respect thankyouverymuch.

Then he fixes the woman’s pelvis, careful to teach the young ones around him that stabilizing this woman’s pelvis in the ER would have caused further internal damage. SUCK IT DR. GREY.

Shining in the OR is a weak spot for Meredith, but there’s no time to explore these squishy feelings. She must find someone to help her understand the intricacies of a superhero birthday party that is happening in the next half hour. Lo and behold, Link knows a thing or two about comics, kids, and the fact that “the” goes in front of Hulk.

The kids absolutely love Link and Meredith notices. In fact, she’s so enamored with Bachelor Number Two that she misses a text message from Bachelor Number One. DeLuca will have to drink alone tonight. Meredith is too busy with Thor chugging wine out of a paper cup.

DeLuca is riding a high from a very successful solo surgery. (Does that make him Superman?) This storyline was by far the most dramatic of them all. It, too, involves abdominal distress. And Owen nearly dying.

A woman named Claire comes into the ER with two kids. She complains of flu-like symptoms and is not eager to stay, but Owen makes her get a CT scan, thanks to tenderness in her belly. She rolls her eyes and points to Owen’s IV pole. You see, Owen is sick, too, but insists on walking around with fluids since the ER is crazy busy and he is addicted to trauma. Haters gonna hate. Don’t mess with a man and his drip.

The CT scan shows that Claire’s bowels are inflamed and could burst at any minute. Why? Because homegirl took some old antibiotics and her body responded by nearly killing her. Lesson learned, people. Just say no to grandma’s old drugs in the medicine cabinet.

Claire is rushed to the OR. DeLuca and Schmidt gather around as Owen lays out a plan. Soon we hear, “Oops!” and Owen notices that the anesthesiologist accidentally put the drugs in his IV instead of Claire’s IV. (Recap continued on next page)

I’m sorry, Mr. Anesthesiologist, but you’re going with “oops?” OOPS? What kind of professional gives a doctor paralytic fluid that was meant for the woman he’s about to cut open and thinks OOPS is the appropriate response?

Owen is a trauma professional. He knows he has about thirty seconds before it’s lights out. He tells DeLuca how to start the surgery and instructs him to call someone to come help. Then he tells Schmidt that he’s going to have to put a tube down his throat and keep him alive before the paralysis sets in.

Then Owen passes out. And everyone does exactly what they were asked to do. DeLuca saves the woman by himself. Schmidt saves Owen. And Teddy stays by Owen’s side because she can’t buy a clue that Owen loves Amelia.

Teddy may not get the man, but she does get his job. When Owen wakes up from his near-death experience, he hands the Chief of Trauma reins over to Teddy and runs into the arms of his other woman. It’s going to be one, big, dysfunctional family once that baby comes. Especially if you add Dr. Tom Koracik in the mix. He’s already sniffing around Teddy and I think she’s going to let him do whatever he wants as long as he keeps feeding her French fries.

Or there may not be time for such antics. Koracik is going to be pretty busy for the foreseeable future. He’s heading up the Catherine Fox Dream Team with Amelia now that Meredith has been kicked off for blabbing about Catherine’s nasty tumor to everyone. Catherine is furious! And hell hath no fury like a woman with a scalpel scorned.

That’s right. Catherine is performing surgery and her husband and son are not happy about it. And it’s not just any surgery. She’s preserving a uterus that has been fighting cancer for way too long. It’s complex, it’s personal, and everyone will be watching because it’s groundbreaking as well. She’s a hospital version of Wonder Woman

Catherine isn’t fazed by her audience. She ignores Jackson when he suggests he take over because he can tell she’s in pain. Catherine works to save the woman’s uterus, but in the end, she loses her mind when she finally admits there’s nothing she can do. She can’t fix it. No one can.

Clearly, Catherine is shouting her own diagnosis, as well as the woman who lies before her.

Jackson and Weber find her in the doctor’s lounge, absolutely livid. They jump on the angry bandwagon and call Catherine out for telling Meredith and Koracik of all people before she told her own family about her diagnosis. Jackson challenges her control issues and starts piling on the arguments, forcing Catherine to cut him off with a harsh truth:

“You don’t get to say that to me. Not with all I’m going through. I will play the cancer card all I want because I’m the one with cancer!”

And just like that, Catherine breaks down. Because admitting it makes it true. But if anyone can channel real superhero powers, it’s Catherine Fox. Cancer will not take her out. And if it does, she’ll go out fighting. Probably with Thor’s hammer.

Related content:

• The Grey’s Anatomy binge guide: 25 of the most essential episodes
• Ellen Pompeo congratulates former Grey’s Anatomy costar Sandra Oh on Globes win