Grey's Anatomy Season 14 Episode 22 Review: Fight For Your Mind
Jasmine Blu
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That was the highly-anticipated Arizona and Alex-centric hour that was teased. It was also the installment directed by Jesse Williams.
We now have confirmation on Arizona's exit, and the wrongful termination storyline got wrapped up fairly quickly.
So, how did Grey's Anatomy Season 14 Episode 22 fare for you all? Did you enjoy it?
Arizona and Alex had personal storylines throughout the hour, but they also had to share it with the hospital politics via the Harper Avery scandal or the firing of Vikram Roy. In a sense, that was disappointing.
Fans have been waiting for years to dig deeper into Alex's past and find out more about him. Of all the original characters remaining, he's the one that lacked the most background or ties to his personal life outside of the hospital.
This installment was meant to be an answer to that with The Bionic Woman herself, Lindsay Wagner, guest-starring as Alex's mother, Helen.
She was a great actress -- an iconic one, to cast in this role, and so maybe I had my hopes up too high because while I loved the tidbits of Alex's storyline, it left me unsettled more than anything.
My whole life all I wanted was a mom who isn't sick. I didn't care about toys or any of that crap. I just wanted a mom who was OK. She is. She finally is, and she doesn't want me here.
Alex
Jo and Alex took a road trip (it was weird that they drove to visit his mother, but they flew back). Now, let me tell you how I would have envisioned this type of hour. For one, I would have had this a standalone episode and not something that was squeezed in before the penultimate and final episodes of the season.
Related: Grey's Anatomy: Lindsay Wagner Cast as Alex's Mother!
I would have had at most a fourth of the hour spent on the car ride.
They could have used that to give Jo and Alex the opportunity to discuss Alex's past more because I imagine he and Jo have spoken about it, but the audience wasn't privy to it. It could have consisted of flashbacks. The flashbacks they used a while back could have been saved up for his standalone hour.
It could have unfolded from there where it took him a bit to track down his mother instead of having the friendly neighbor spill right off the bat that she was at work. It could have heightened everything. Then, it could have led to their reunion, and the rest of the hour could unfold from there.
Alex could have been forced to come to grips with his mother being healthy now but not contacting him. If we were lucky, his siblings could have been involved in some capacity too. Did Alex contact them to tell them he thought their mother was missing or dead?
Their family issues could have been laid out there and talked through. It wouldn't have been resolved by the hour's end because that would be too neat of a wrap-up, but it could have been fully fleshed out and opened the door for more development in the upcoming seasons.
Related: Grey's Anatomy Round Table: Nurse Olivia's Obnoxious Return!
The arc was unfulfilling and anticlimactic. We still don't know very much about Helen Karev or Alex or his siblings after this. All we know is that his mother's mental illness has improved over the years, and she's healthier than she has been.
Justin Chambers and Lindsay Wagner did a great job with what they were provided. Their hug made me smile, and I loved the moment when he went back to the library to speak with her.
My sweetest boy. My truest love.
Helen
Justin Chambers killed it during the batting cage scenes and when he was speaking to Jo on the bench. Alex's feelings were all mixed up because his mother was well and mentally healthy, but she never reached out to him.
He got hurt by her failure to reach out and let him know that she was OK. He was pissed off that she became healthy when he no longer needed her. Alex resented her for not getting better during the years he spent as a teen taking care of her and his siblings.
Then, of course, it hurt him that she didn't appear to want much to do with him because she strictly followed her routine, and that was how she remained healthy. It was a lot for Alex to process, and his anger and hurt during the batting cage scene was palpable.
By the end of the hour, he made peace with his mother's health and her new routine. She was unfazed by meeting Jo, and she's likely not going to their wedding. Again, it was unfulfilling.
The heart of Arizona's storyline stems from Sofia's issues. Sofia is not doing well in Seattle. The kid stole money to buy a plane ticket to go back to New York. She has been struggling all season.
There is something about this that irks me, and I can't pinpoint why. There is this inconsistency with Sofia's custody arrangement and where she felt happiest. In some ways, I understood Carina's point.
Arizona made the expected decision, and she called Callie up to tell her that Sofia would be returning to New York and that she would be joining her. Let's hope nothing happens to her between now and the finale that will interfere with that.
Callie, hey. I was thinking, um. I think Sofia should move back to New York with you, and I think I need to move back with her.
Arizona
Arizona's case with Theresa inspired her. The only thing I took away from Theresa was the fact that it's crazy ridiculous this hospital doesn't have a psychiatrist who is a semi-regular character. They should.
Everything with Theresa would have gotten resolved had a shrink stepped in. It wouldn't have required a house call from Arizona, but it did lead to a fantastic moment where Arizona spoke about how vital skating was to her.
Related: Grey's Anatomy Season 14 Episode 21 Review: Bad Reputation
I also loved when she acknowledged Callie made the right choice to amputate her leg. It utterly destroyed their marriage (along with other things), so it was nice that she has grown enough to make peace with the choice.
The case only existed for that one scene and for Arizona to come to this realization that she should have had ages ago. It was a lovely scene though.
Amelia has her work cut out for her with Betty. Owen is in bliss with baby Leo and has taken to dressing the kid up like a baby model, but Amelia had the more onerous task of helping Betty get through her detox. It was ugly.
It's never a pretty picture when someone is coming down from drugs, and Amelia handled it well at first. I loved when she called herself the exorcist. She may have been too confident though because I knew Betty would take off the second she had a moment alone, and sure enough, she did.
I expect Betty to pop back up again. Who knows what state she'll be in when she does though? Amelia admitting that she felt guilty because she was one of those doctors who prescribed patients things without thinking of the effects at the AA meeting was excellent. I like Amelia focusing on her sobriety.
I also enjoyed Meredith doing right by Marie but letting the woman know she doesn't want to deal with her again. Meredith understood why Marie felt the way she did, and she sympathized with Marie's situation, but it wasn't right of Marie to screw Meredith over like that.
Marie's actions were worse than ever because she knew better. She got used by Avery and discarded like all the other women, and she knew how awful it was that Ellis didn't put sisterhood and their friendship above the medicine and accolades, but she chose to screw Meredith over anyway.
Marie: Mer-Mer. Thank you so much. Can we talk?
Meredith: Marie, I think I said all I had to say.
Meredith acknowledging her mother's wrong in choosing medicine over friendship was necessary given how peeved she was about Catherine. I like that she can understand their positions and perspectives given the time period they came up in, but she doesn't let them off the hook for their choices.
Speaking of an Avery, I loved the exchange between Jackson and April. He was able to set aside money for Harriet, but the rest of it is up for grabs. Jackson Avery is a billionaire no more. If he wants to make right and keep all the hospitals afloat, he's going to have to go broke.
It looks good on him, and it suits him.
As for Vik. He should have stayed fired as far as I'm concerned. This storyline didn't last as long as I expected, and it didn't head in any of the directions that I expected either. Meh.
It did bring out badass Bailey, and I believe her when she threatened to be so far up Vik's ass he'd think she was her rectum thing. Serves him right.
Did you find the Alex/Helen storyline fulfilling? What are your thoughts on Arizona's choice to move to New York? Hit the comments below!
If you need to catch up on the season before it comes to an end, you can watch Grey's Anatomy online here via TV Fanatic!
Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is an insomniac who spends late nights and early mornings binge-watching way too many shows and binge-drinking way too much tea. Her eclectic taste makes her an unpredictable viewer with an appreciation for complex characters, diverse representation, dynamic duos, compelling stories, and guilty pleasures. You'll definitely find her obsessively live-tweeting, waxing poetic, and chatting up fellow Fanatics and readers. Follow her on X.
