Grey's Anatomy Season 17 Episode 17 Review: Someone Saved My Life Tonight

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After a dark, melancholic season, the finale ended on a lighter and happier note.

Of course, after those final moments of Grey's Anatomy Season 17 Episode 17, we'd have to exclude Amelia and Link from that equation. The healthiest relationship remaining on the series, ended with the two on totally different pages.

Man, it sucks.

Married Magston

It was another hour where they sped through the timeline, catching us up to current times. It was a necessary evil, but hopefully, it'll be the last of that for a while. The time jumps and haziness of being a year behind made things confusing throughout the season.

Maggie and Winston's wedding was a timeline marker for us, but even considering that we probably could've done without the pointless twist of their parents objecting to the wedding.

It seemed silly and nonsensical that after Maggie flew them into town, and they spent weeks quarantining for their quiet event in the yard, their parents stood up in the middle of the ceremony to object.

Hayes: I'm glad you didn't die, Grey.
Mer: Me too.

The parents didn't want Maggie and Winston to get married during a pandemic without all of their loved ones, but they could've said that at the start.

It was a waste of time, money, and more to force them to postpone their wedding during it. Maggie deserved every last drop of the champagne she chugged after that display.

Blushing Bride

We found out that the two have been living together this whole time, though, and they had months to almost a year to plan a bigger wedding with their family and friends at Meredith's death beach.

And the wedding was beautiful. Maggie looked absolutely gorgeous. It was sweet that Richard was there to officiate, and I hate that we didn't get to hear them recite their vows and all of that, but they jumped the broom and threw a kickass wedding reception.

It was genuinely pleasing to see everyone having a good time and happy. It was festive, fun, and everyone dancing and laughing was a reprieve from all the darkness we endured all season.

And that's why it was jarring and ludicrous that everyone left Maggie's wedding reception and drove to the hospital to stand at the nurse's station and applaud Meredith for saving Gerlie.

Celebrating Mer's accomplishment

I mean, it isn't just me, no? I know I've griped about this for a long time now, but isn't the Meredith worship and ass-kissing thing the series does excessive and insane?!

Meredith didn't have the decency to stick around for her COVID clap-out ceremony, and she chose to sneak away, leaving all of her friends waiting around looking like idiots.

Are you telling me these same people thought it was anything other than tacky to leave Maggie's wedding to stand around and clap for Meredith all over again?

Call me a grudge holder, but I'll be damned if I'm leaving cake and booze to go clap for Meredith Grey, especially after she ghosted me the last time.

At this rate, Meredith comes across as insufferable by the second for this alone.

New School Versus Old  - Grey's Anatomy Season 17 Episode 17

It's hard to swallow her new methodologies for running the residency program. She jumped right in and changed everything up, which included removing rounds. While some of her reasoning made sense, walking rounds are vital for a reason.

Bailey struggled with her mentee not seeming to honor the past and the way she and Richard did things before, and you could understand why it bothered her so much.

Some of it is tradition, and Mer wasn't interested in any of that, but Mer also came in with a set plan and a sense that her methods were the best, and it spilled into how she tackled things with Gerlie.

Mer's harsh approach with Bailey, bringing up her losing her mother, and things of that nature when making her points felt disrespectful more than anything else, and it rubbed the wrong way.

Welcoming Mer Back - tall - Grey's Anatomy Season 17 Episode 17

And, of course, she never answered for that.

But Mer's focus on Gerlie was a way for the series to touch on long-term COVID effects on those who survived it. For many who recovered from serious cases, the fight isn't over.

Many face a host of other medical challenges, some irreparable, and we haven't begun to scratch the surface of that. Gerlie needed a double lung transplant, but she wasn't someone who would've been considered a good candidate because of her experience with COVID and breathing with a ventilator for months.

It hit close to home for Meredith, who knows that she'll have some lingering effects, too, and that she's lucky compared to others. She wanted to point out that the fight to save COVID patients doesn't end when the virus is no longer in their system.

Saving Gerlie  - Grey's Anatomy Season 17 Episode 17

It's another Mer quest, and it comes from a personal place. And she and Teddy were successful with Gerlie. She's ahead of the game with her work, and it's something she got to text with Cristina about later.

Meredith continues to find fulfillment and success in her career above anything else. We got some sweet, brief moments with her and the kids, and she also shared some time with Hayes.

It was a bit flirty, but it's hard to tell where the two of them could go if they head anywhere at all.

Teddy and Owen are headed down the aisle, which puts them right back to where they were before the end of Grey's Anatomy Season 16 Episode 21.

Owen Proposes to Teddy

They've been acting like two lusty teenagers. Teddy's mild COVID only served as a temporary stop to their sexy times, but other than that, they're head over heels for each other again, somehow more than before.

It was bizarre that Owen and Teddy were even at Mer's house for Christmas, let alone Owen orchestrating fake snow in her backyard so that he could propose to Teddy.

I don't know why my thinking is so dark instead of addict, but it's been a year. So much. So much.

Amelia

Snow is always a Towen thing, so it's cute that they incorporated that, but the proposal felt like a "fun twist" to throw in, especially when it thwarted Link.

We were supposed to wonder if it was Teddy and Owen getting married at the end of the hour or not, but that wasn't the case.

The only thing weirder than Owen proposing in Meredith's backyard on Christmas was Link thinking it was a good idea to propose to Amelia at Maggie's wedding.

Taking Care of Teddy-tall - Grey's Anatomy Season 17 Episode 9

I love Link to death, but why do people think it's ever acceptable to propose at someone else's wedding? It's tacky as hell!

In this case, it was enough to give you secondhand embarrassment.

Amelia and Link were some of the best parts of this season. Their relationship has been a mature, healthy one, and it's been refreshing how well they work together as a pairing.

Open and honest communication was one thing that set them apart from any of the other couples. As a result, it's confusing and painful to see their relationship unravel because of a lack of communication.

Different Ideas  - Grey's Anatomy Season 17 Episode 17

It's frustrating that Amelia isn't talking to Link and telling him how she feels about anything, and it's disturbing that Link can't seem to read a room or notice that Amelia is not happy right now.

Amelia has a history of self-sabotage, so it makes you wonder if she's falling back into that habit with her relationship with Link, or has she grown disillusioned with their romance?

For a bit, it felt as if she was on the brink of relapsing. She's spoken so much about her addiction this season. Most of it felt introspective, but it's such a constant in her life that it has been concerning.

She's spent a lot of time in meetings and talking to people, speaking to AA groups about her feelings more than Link or anyone else. And Amelia expressed this unspecified feeling she has about positive, light Link and his inability to understand her addiction or darkness.

Unhappy Amelia

It's as if she doesn't want to drag him down into her darkness, but she resents how seemingly perfect and undamaged he is compared to her or something.

The time jumps showed that Amelia has gone almost a year not telling Link that she doesn't want any more kids or any of the other things she's feeling, and that has to be hell for her and him.

He thought they were fine, and she's been unhappy.

But it does feel as if Link isn't listening to Amelia either. They said they would revisit the marriage discussion and check back in with one another. The problem is that Amelia knew her stance then, but she didn't want to tell him.

Link's Proposal

But they haven't talked about it again since. Why did Link think the next step should've been popping the question?

And while they both chose to step in while Meredith was sick and help take care of her kids for two months, it was wrong of Link to compare that to him agreeing to help Jo foster Luna without talking to Amelia about it.

Link's idea is that you step up for family, but those two situations aren't comparable at all.

And it already pressed on an issue for them, since he's decided he wants more kids seemingly out of the blue (because plot), after spending an inordinate amount of time overwhelmed by Mer's kids, and Amelia is not ready for all of that.

Link's Impulsiveness - tall - Grey's Anatomy Season 17 Episode 17

By the time Link proposed to Amelia with his array of rings to choose from, you almost wanted the sand to swallow him whole. Mer's kids didn't even know how to react to the silence, and without saying a word, Amelia told him everything he didn't want to hear.

His crestfallen expression was devastating, but he was also a glutton for punishment here. It truly sucks that they've taken one of the best couples and put them through the wringer like this.

It hurts to see both of them in so much pain.

Link's a good guy, and he did everything he could to help his best friend, so it's insane that as his life is falling apart, Jo's is coming together.

Crestfallen

Thanks to Jo, we got a glimpse of both Tom and Jackson in the finale. It was fairly predictable, if ridiculous, that Jackson would sublet his loft to Jo.

So now, Levi and Helm will have her apartment, and she gets to live in Jackson's former fancy digs with baby Luna. And in a hilarious moment, she shared with Bailey that she sold her hospital shares to Tom.

You're allowed to want what you want even if it's not what he wants.

Richard

Honestly, good for Tom.

The Luna custody thing was a bit murky, but we all suspected Jo would get her happy ending with Luna.

So Link fostered Luna on paper since he could pass the background check, and has a stable job and family, but he could hand her off to Jo? It feels a bit fraudulent.

Home with Luna

But if Link and Amelia are on the rocks, and Link ends up staying with Jo for a bit, then he'll be fostering Luna after all.

Shockingly characters like Jo, Teddy, and Owen got their happiness, but damn, at what cost? Amelink, the cost is Amelink, dammit.

Over to you, Grey's Fanatics. Are you upset about the Amelink development?

Are you rooting for Owen and Teddy to get married for real this time? Did you love Maggie and Winston's wedding? Hit the comments below.

You can watch Grey's Anatomy online here via TV Fanatic.

Someone Saved My Life Tonight Review

Editor Rating: 3.6 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 2.2 / 5.0 (118 Votes)

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.

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