Teddy revisits her ghosts of trauma past on 'Grey's Anatomy'

After months of watching the doctors of Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital deal with the unimaginable beast of COVID-19 and endure the pain of Meredith’s (Ellen Pompeo) coma and DeLuca’s (Giacomo Gianniotti) death, we are finally getting a break from the halls of the hospital. Sort of. 

Thursday’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy (Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on CTV) focused on Teddy (Kim Raver) and her PTSD that has culminated in a mental breakdown in Owen’s (Kevin McKidd) guest room. At least she’s wearing really nice pajamas throughout her hallucinations. 

Following the death of DeLuca on Teddy and Owen’s watch, Teddy has completely frozen. She’s unresponsive to all of Owen’s attempts to revive her and eventually he asks for Amelia’s (Caterina Scorsone) help with supplying an IV to keep Teddy hydrated. 

While Owen and Amelia attempt to read Ikea instructions and have a trauma-off to decide who gets the Sadness Crown, Teddy spends the episode reliving the best and worst moments of her life. Can we go back to the hospital? This is too sad. 

Meredith finally gets more than a few lines and is even vertical for most of her scenes this episode, although she is still only existing in hallucinations. She acts as Teddy’s ghost of traumas past and attempts to guide her through her most formative life moments in an effort to help Teddy understand how she has arrived at this point. 

After losing both her parents one shortly after the other, Teddy ran from the pain of their deaths into the arms of her best friend Allison. When Allison died in 9/11, Teddy ran to the army, where she fell in love with Owen. When Owen chose Cristina, Teddy ran to Henry, who was already dying when she married him. (Side note, we would have loved at least a second season with Scott Foley.) 

After Teddy and Owen finally got together, she still didn’t feel like she was his first choice and detonated her life by having an affair with Tom, thus bringing us to her current state, which includes blaming herself for DeLuca’s death and being terrified that Meredith will also die on her watch. Yeah, that all definitely deserves a day in bed. 

Teddy’s dreams brought up several points that are pivotal to her arc as a character. Her history of cheating may be a sign that she doesn’t feel she is worthy of happiness and instead creates situations that she knows will ultimately end in heartbreak. 

Her scenes with Owen also alluded to the fact that their romantic relationship ending may not have been a bad thing since she still felt like his second choice. Ending it literally any other way would have been better, but we get that seeing the pair’s wedding and dinner scene helped bring some closure.

Teddy’s scenes with Meredith and DeLuca, both of whom helped her search for meaning in her past, paved the way for Teddy to eventually forgive herself for hurting those she loved and losing patients she tried to save, which could be the final step she needs to deem herself deserving of happiness. Plus, we’re always happy to have another episode with DeLuca. RIP. 

It may not have been a beach, but Teddy’s walk down memory lane was the trip she needed to wake up literally and figuratively. It also gave Amelia time to read Owen the riot act and remind him that his past also includes hurting people he loved because of his trauma (i.e. strangling Cristina in his sleep and almost killing her). Just because his trauma response doesn’t look like Teddy’s doesn’t make it less valid. Also, can we please get a Sandra Oh cameo already? We’ve been through so much this season. 

The overarching theme of the episode was "There’s no joy without pain," which is a tough but accurate lesson and one that was hammered home when Teddy asked Meredith to not die, with Mer replying, “I’ll try my best.”

At some point this season we are going to need some joy and Meredith speaking outside a beach/dream sequence is at the top of our list. And this upcoming reunion is a very, very close second. Come on Thursday!

GREYS ANATOMY SEASON 17 IS LITERALLY ICONIC #greys pic.twitter.com/GvV7sD4cSt

— “ (@connorsoIiver) March 26, 2021

Watch new episodes of Grey’s Anatomy every Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on CTV and catch up here.

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