Grey's Anatomy Season 16 Episode 8 Review: My Shot
Jasmine Blu
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Yay, Meredith got to keep her license.
It was never any doubt that Meredith would get to keep it, but it didn't stop Grey's Anatomy Season 16 Episode 8 from being a full hour dedicated to, well, worshipping at the altar of Meredith Grey.
It was a celebration of the 350th episode, and in many ways, it was better structured than the 300th celebration.
Meredith's medical license hearing was at the center of the hour. Most of it was dedicated to that alone.
Everyone and their mother came out to support Meredith and testify on her behalf. It made you wonder if everyone was there, who was running the hospital?
The only halfway decent doctor remaining was Tom.
God bless Meredith's lawyer, who had to give Meredith the same speech that your parents used to recite before you went into a store.
You know the "don't ask me for anything and don't touch anything" speech.
Lawyer: I'm begging you, Meredith, sit down. Don't talk, and let me do my job, please.
Meredith: No, you're an adult who is completely incapable of being quiet no matter how much your life depends on it, and today it could cost you your future.
She knew her client, and all she wanted was for Meredith to sit down, shut up, and let her do her job. She gets brownie points for trying to rein her in, but it's Meredith we're talking about here.
It wasn't going to happen regardless, but when she recognized one of the panelists as the man whose poor actions killed Derek, she couldn't keep her mouth shut.
It was a typical Meredith Grey moment having her go off on the man who killed her husband.
It's Meredith Grey's world, and we just live in it. By itself, it was a badass moment. It was gratifying and cathartic.
It was the type of moment designed to get you jumping to your feet and cheering her on. If not for the other frustrating underlying issues with the hour and this arc, I would've.
Mer: Can he do that?
Lawyer: He's a panelist. He can do whatever he wants.
The season was supposed to delve into the pitfalls of the healthcare system and expose its many issues. It was supposed to delve into how the system is broken and shine a light on the dark parts of it that need work.
As much as people side-eyed the series for choosing a theme similar to what shows as The Resident and New Amsterdam do so well, it's the impression that was given.
Unfortunately, the first half of the season was derailed by Meredith's legal woes and recklessness.
Meredith: How do we switch out one of the doctors on the panel.
Lawyer: We don't. Why?
Meredith: Because that one killed my husband.
An important theme that would've benefited from the power of Grey's platform got lost.
Instead of focusing on these healthcare issues, the storyline became one where an entitled, privileged Meredith was portrayed as a martyr who shirked consequences of any kind at every conceivable turn.
The show barely touched upon the treatment of Gabby or illegal aliens.
It glossed over her warden's inability to afford adequate care. Pac North is an underfunded, understaffed hospital with ill-trained medical professionals and non-functioning equipment, but it's the comedic C-storyline of the season.
Ironically, this storyline meant to give voice and pay homage to the little guy became about Meredith's persecution.
Take him to Grey Sloan, he should have the best care there is. And get him a damn head CT!
Mer
It was such a glaring and prominent tone during the first half of the season that the assumption was it was intentional.
It's not intentional, though. It's just tone-deaf.
For half the season, some of us were waiting for the moment where it hit Meredith why she was in her position and how fortunate she was, but she didn't.
Bailey: You lied to those people. You flat out lied.
Richard: And you answered those questions like you don't know Meredith.
She hasn't learned anything from this experience. She walked away as a renegade who avoided culpability again.
She got a hero's welcome and a gaggle of friends, coworkers, family, and former patients rallying to support her and worshipping at the altar of Meredith Grey.
Everything about how Meredith got into this position was dumb, and it was her stupidity that got her here. She had other methods of getting Gabby her surgery without committing insurance fraud.
The series didn't even try to give her a valid excuse as to why she chose fraud. It wasn't her only choice; she didn't lack options.
These people have come from all over to speak for Meredith.
Alex
No, she just committed insurance fraud; she's Meredith Grey, so she gets away with it.
The message of why Meredith's medical license was on the line and issue at hand was lost. No one doubted she was a great doctor.
No one is saying she isn't incredible with her patients. No one is downplaying her skills and talent.
All they're saying is that she isn't above a clear set of guidelines. Meredith couldn't respect those guidelines when she went rogue, committed insurance fraud, and dragged Richard, Alex, and DeLuca into it.
She couldn't respect her community service sentence when she left it a million times and did everything else.
She couldn't respect it when she went to prison for failing to do her community service and tried to make deals with guards to get out in a timely fashion as if she was checking out of a five-star hotel instead of prison.
She couldn't respect what her lawyer told her and instead turned the court proceedings into a circus.
You don't have to like things, but you do have to respect the process and work within it, and Meredith kept doing the opposite.
Take him to Grey Sloan, he should have the best care there is. And get him a damn head CT!
Mer
But it's frustrating that we were supposed to applaud her for being the savior of the little people and lament her "witch trials" for being a good person.
And it's worse how everyone went along with it.
Everyone came to speak on her behalf and discuss how incredible of a surgeon she is like we needed this neverending Meredith ass-kissing.
We know Meredith is incredible. We see it. They drill it into us and show it all the time.
My conflict of interest! My medical license should not be in this man's hands. He is dangerous!
Mer
After a while, it's offputting how much they cram it down our throats. WE KNOW!
But Meredith's supporters even extended to name drop mentions of every living character from the past who mattered.
Arizona, Callie, April, Cristina, and even Addison wrote on her behalf. Hell, I was expecting a letter from Sam in Roswell, New Mexico Switzerland too.
Was Joe the bartender unavailable?
Alex, ever the loyal brother, went so far as to bring in many of the patients she helped over the years.
Bailey: Meredith Grey could commit murder and you'd hide the body.
Richard: I really don't have the time for this right now.
Bailey: You cheated the system to get Meredith Grey into my program.
It was a beautiful commemoration of the series by having her first-ever patient waltz through those doors.
We got flashbacks to each of their cases and all.
The combination of her plethora of patients who took time out of their day to speak on her behalf, all of her colleagues, a handful of letters, and the woman who reported her rallying to her defense was a sure thing for Meredith.
The cherry on top was when she eviscerated the panelist who dared to judge her when he was responsible for Derek's death.
Take him to Grey Sloan, he should have the best care there is. And get him a damn head CT!
Mer
How could a man who made such an egregious error judge our magnanimous heroine?
She tore into him and highlighted his hypocrisy, which remained ironic, and then saved the man when he collapsed onto the floor.
It's what real doctors do, and Meredith Grey is a real doctor!
Yup, Meredith would prevail; it's what she does.
Mer: You said some very nice things to the panel in there. Thank you.
Bailey: Oh, so see you Monday then.
Mer: What?
Bailey: Come back. Come back to Grey Sloan.
It was heartrending to bring back this man responsible for Derek's death, and it came with a host of flashbacks that got everyone in their feelings.
It was almost poetic justice that both Meredith and Amelia could set aside their feelings and get this man the best possible care, which included the CT scan he never gave Derek.
It was a sign of Amelia's growth that she handed the surgery to Tom, and the guy died on the table.
Among the circus, it was a cathartic and healing moment, namely for Amelia, who did not have the closure Meredith had when Derek died.
My conflict of interest! My medical license should not be in this man's hands. He is dangerous!
Mer
And Link was right there to be as supportive as ever, and we needn't gush about him further else it gets redundant.
But back to Meredith.
She had ample support for this venture, but the prosecutor or whoever was building an excellent case.
Because we can talk about how incredible Meredith is all day, but it doesn't change how reckless, impulsive, and defiant she is.
We got flashbacks of a portion of the times Meredith went rogue, and it evoked feelings for anyone who has followed the series over the past 16 years.
Take some time, Meredith. Figure out what you really want. Let me know if I'm a part of that.
DeLuca
However, it also showed that Meredith doesn't learn her lesson. She's done things that should've cost her her job and license a few times over for years at all stages of her career.
If we didn't love Meredith Grey so much, wouldn't it concern you that she's as impulsive and reckless as she was when she was an intern and resident?
It remained frustrating that Bailey had legitimate reasons for firing Meredith and responding to her the way she did, but instead, they turned it into something as petty and childish as jealousy.
How reductive.
Richard: I'm not going to pretend like I never give Meredith special treatment. There was a history.
Bailey: Her mother.
Richard: Meredith is family.
The issue has always been how Meredith continuously does the most and doesn't face consequences. She always has someone bailing her out or giving her a pass.
The hearing revealed that Richard has been favoring and partaking in nepotism with Meredith since before she got to Seattle Grace.
He's the reason she got into the program; he slipped her in, but instead of exploring why Bailey has a valid concern about it, they reduced it to jealousy.
Bailey: Meredith Grey could commit murder and you'd hide the body.
Richard: I really don't have the time for this right now.
Bailey: You cheated the system to get Meredith Grey into my program.
It was a disservice to Bailey and her relationship with Richard and Meredith.
Basically, two out of his three pseudo-daughters were having a pissing match over who daddy loves more. Somehow, Bailey became the Jan Brady of the series.
It carried over into how she behaved so childishly while on the stand pretending as if she barely knew Meredith. The character assassination of Bailey to prop up Meredith (who didn't need it) was infuriating.
But after all of that, Bailey invited Meredith back to the hospital since daddy told her he loves them both, it's squashed now? Sure, OK.
Mer: Today may be my actual last day of being a doctor.
DeLuca: Mer it's not over.
Mer: We won't make it. If I lose my license and I can't cut and you can, we won't make it.
But the latest casualties are DeLuca (again) and Levi, which is ironic.
DeLuca has now realized what many of us noticed a while ago: Meredith isn't in love with him. She cares about him and said the words, but she's going back on that, and she's not interested.
She told him that if she lost her license, they wouldn't be together.
Damn, bro. He was an asshole while pursuing her, and look at what it got him!
He doesn't think Meredith can ever respect him, and she won't love him like she did Derek, and he's right about both.
Fans who disagreed with the pairing got criticized often for being ageist, but it wasn't about that at all.
The maturity level between the two is off, and they 've experienced different things, and they don't view each other the same way.
It was always evident that DeLuca cared more about this relationship than Meredith did, and his obsession with Meredith always felt like hero worship.
Take some time, Meredith. Figure out what you really want. Let me know if I'm a part of that.
DeLuca
He decided to step back and let Meredith figure things out, and they'll go from there.
Meanwhile, if the message wasn't already clear what's irritating about this situation, Levi's treatment sums it up.
It was fitting how they brought up that Meredith and the other doctors treated DeLuca abhorrently after Alex assaulted him.
Levi will now face similar treatment and shunning for doing his job.
Levi was the one who told Bailey about the wrong name on Gabby's hospital bracelet, and that's how Bailey found out about the insurance fraud.
Meredith: How do we switch out one of the doctors on the panel.
Lawyer: We don't. Why?
Meredith: Because that one killed my husband.
Levi made an innocent observation, figured it was a mistake, and since he always makes errors he wanted to correct it.
Now he feels guilty for doing what he was supposed to because of it leading to Meredith getting in trouble for doing something she wasn't supposed to do.
If the message after all of this is that someone like Levi is the bad guy for doing his job, then tell me again how this storyline didn't become one of privilege and special treatment?
What happens if he sees something like that again and doesn't report it? An entire room of interns and residents turned their backs on him after he spent the day crying on the stand for noticing something he should've.
Richard's other problem child was Maggie, who was deep into the wine bottle and explaining Sabi's surgery to a bartender.
She is hyper fixated on this surgery and where it went wrong. She's a mess, and Richard isn't speaking to her.
It's awful. It was sweet of Jackson to stop being a dick long enough to support and take care of her.
Maggie: Did you come to gloat.
Jackson: Just checking on you. It's two o'clock in the afternoon and you appear to be well over the legal limit.
Except, he was right there about to initiate a kiss or possible sex or whatever.
Is Jackson a fiend for messiness? He's with Vic now, and he has spent most of this time telling Maggie he doesn't like her. Now he's trying to kiss her.
Why come close to taking advantage of her during a vulnerable time and why give her mixed signals?
Mer: What just happened?
Maggie: I hate someone I used to love.
At least it was nice Jackson and not whomever the guy we've been dealing with for most of the season, but I don't know what they're trying to do with Jaggie anymore.
In hindsight, it's starting to seem like Jackson is drawn to women who are in vulnerable states, and it's something troubling about that.
Jaggie evolved from how supportive he was when her mother died, and now he's back at it again after Sabi. Is it a hero complex, or what?
Over to you, Grey's Fanatics.
How did you enjoy the 350the episode of Grey's Anatomy? Sound off below!
You can watch Grey's Anatomy online here via TV Fanatic.
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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.
