They managed to balance some medical and scientific plots with a bunch of 'ship-teasing.

By the end of Grey's Anatomy Season 18 Episode 7, they left us with a pining/love quadrangle, a medical breakthrough for Parkinson's, and a new resident who knows how to put some respect on Miranda Bailey's name.

We also got Maggie's return, and Winston was pleased to see her.

You have to sympathize with Miranda Bailey. Indeed, these days, you can't get anyone to pay attention without a bribe, even if the topic at hand is something they're passionate about and enjoy.

Swag is the catnip for students of all ages, so sadly, gimmicks are the most effective way of getting the point across, or in this case, recruiting top-of-the-line residents.

The series chooses to focus so much on the residency program, and GSM's status as a teaching hospital is one of the strongest storylines this season.

Most of the residents don't stand out enough to make as much of a difference, but Webber and Bailey's passion for the program makes the series feel like itself again and harkens back to the earlier seasons in a fun, nostalgic type of way.

It's taking a lot to get the residency program back on track.

Despite the hospital seemingly chasing all of this accreditation and high standings, they're learning that they have to shift and adapt to the times to usher in a new breed of talent who can rise to the standards of the many doctors who have walked through those doors and excelled.

Bailey was on the verge of stepping on an actual soapbox to give a speech about how they used to be great, and she was having a tough time when Mer, one of the biggest draws, didn't show up along with Winston and others who promised to share their time.

If she doesn't win the Nobel Prize for what she's doing out there, I might just fire her.

Bailey

• Permalink: If she doesn't win the Nobel Prize for what she's doing out there, I might just fire her.

And to be fair, it was pretty crappy of everyone to bail like that. The others don't seem to notice how often they keep dropping the ball and screwing Bailey over. She's been catching hell trying to keep GSM afloat, and everyone's been focusing on their own things.

Winston's excitement over his wife's return was adorable, and you couldn't blame him. Maggie looked gorgeous!

But I would've been pissed if I learned that he blew off an obligation and ignored a call for a consult so he could have marathon sex with his wife. But, you know, these are classic Grey's Anatomy things, and he's earned his stripes by now with that move alone.

It's probably a good thing that Bailey got this reality check about how much things have changed and that she and the hospital can't rest on their laurels and assume that Mer's status and name, esteemed attendings, and their tech is enough to lure a new breed of residents to the program.

It's one of those things where you consider that this is in a post-COVID time now, and younger doctors are more aware of things like burnout, work/life balance, and they know their worth and value.

If you think about it, hospitals have been short-staffed because of doctors retiring, quitting, burning out, and other things, so residents know that they're hot commodities and they hold power.

Mer makes it up to Bailey by bringing her Jordan Wright from Minnesota, who idolizes Bailey. Hopefully, this isn't a one-and-done situation, and we can see Wright in action at the hospital and Bailey mentoring him.

It's something that she's been missing for a long time, and Bailey shines best when she gets to pour all of her knowledge and passion into budding medical minds.

Nick needed Mer back in Minnesota as Hamilton sure as heck didn't think he did.

The opportunity to witness Nick and Mer in an OR together and working on a case felt short-lived when she had to kick him out of it for his level of investment.

It was an opportunity to learn more about Nick, and this time, we found out about a man he considered a brother, Bryan, played by Shadowhunter's (or the Old Spice guy) Isaiah Mustafa. Bryan was the one who gave Nick a kidney. Is it weird to say I wish we saw more of Nick and Bryan's interactions to get a feel for them as friends?

The hour reduced Bryan to a body on the table for the most part, and they told us about all of these personal elements to their relationship, but we didn't feel them between the two men. It was used as fuel to break more ground in Mer and Nick's relationship.

Kai: If Grey walks, will you really leave to?
Amelia: She brought me on the project, and she's family.

• Permalink: She brought me on the project, and she's family.

Nick tricked Mer into operating on his best friend, and it was a messed up thing to do, but you understood where he was coming from, and it made one think about the Cristina/Henry thing. Nick didn't want to burden Mer if something happened and Bryan didn't survive.

It was a poor way of handling the situation, and it was worse when he kept overstepping in the OR, forcing Mer to excuse him from her surgery politely.

Fortunately, their locker room talk and Nick's honesty and vulnerability during their chat seemed to bring them closer together rather than drive them apart or cause any issues.

Mer is right; as a good surgeon, she's invested in all of her patients. She pours herself into all of them, and it was nice that she shared how she creates stories in her head when necessary to humanize them further. Nick should've known that firsthand based on how she was with him.

Although, there was also was an extra spark of something between them then.

Mer scrubbing into surgery was a nice change of pace from the ongoing clinical trial stuff happening. And they made some advancement in that storyline overall, but it's still affecting the show a great deal with them making Mer split her time between Minnesota and Seattle.

It hinders Mer's interactions with others. When she's in Minnesota, she feels less integral to the series, which could be a test for how the show carries on if Pompeo exits. But it still feels weird to volley back and forth when we're already coming off of Grey's Anatomy Season 17, which also isolated her character.

And as a mother to almost half a dozen kids, it feels strange that she's always gone, especially after all of that time in a coma.  While I'm a fan of Nick, it's weird that he almost encourages her to keep away from her children.

Hamilton is insufferable and demanding, but at least he's smart enough to know that pissing off Mer wasn't the brightest idea.

In the end, in a refreshing change of pace, it wasn't Mer who made this big breakthrough in their research but rather Amelia and Kai. And they did all o this while shamelessly flirting for the entire hour.

The series is committed to this Kai and Amelia's potential relationship and teasing, which was the most pronounced installment for whatever is building between them yet.

It's the most time we've gotten to spend with Kai and get to know them, and with every passing second, Amelia's interest in them grows. They orbit around one another, and everything else fades away when they share the screen.

Kai: Who is your brother?
Amelia: You just became my favorite person.

• Permalink: You just became my favorite person.

Kai's love for the scientific research portion of medicine is fascinating to someone like Amelia, who has spent much of her career living for neuro. Her identity is tied into it.

But Kai showed that they have a unique read on Amelia that no one else had before, and for once, Amelia doesn't feel as if she's in her brother's shadow a bit since Kai doesn't seem to know who he is.

Kai sees possibilities in Amelia that Amelia wouldn't have entertained or considered tapping into, and that's something to explore with her character. Amelia's intrigue is palpable, and they keep dancing around these two becoming something more serious. The buildup to this relationship is some extended foreplay.

It was shocking that they didn't end the hour with a kiss

But with their minds together, they may have made the most significant breakthrough yet. You can appreciate the series dedicating some time to cutting-edge medical storylines from a medical aspect.

Link had an epiphany about Amelia, but it's too late. The woman has moved on with startling ease and quickness and had epiphanies of her own. She's so into Kai right now that it's doubtful she'll be looking back anytime soon.

The hour also teased the hell out of Jo and Link despite firmly establishing them as friends since Link's introduction. It's hard to say how one should feel about it.

JoLInk has been an alternative version of Merlex, so it's hard to wrap one's head around the series suddenly teasing relationship between them now. They've been cohabiting and co-parenting together, and with Amelia gone as much as she is, the single-parent support club they've had going on is consistent.

All it took was some memories from the past and a case to open up a new world of possibilities for Jo, and now we have both of them pining, but in different ways.

Is it possible that Jo went this long without knowing that Link had a crush on her when they were teens? It seems odd that this never came up. It's even stranger than finding out this information now has initiated a crush on Link.

Jo went from poking fun of her patient's best friend for her crush to becoming the woman herself. It's another case of wondering why two best friends can't remain platonic, especially when they drew that line in the sand firmly.

And not only is the Jo and Link friendship one of the best remaining ones on the series, but Jo is more fun and likable when she's interacting with Link. But will that translate to a romantic relationship?

What if all the crap that we've been through is just the middle part of the story/ The part you have to go through to find your happily ever after Because when two people have been there or each other over and over, don't they deserve to be happy?

Jo

• Permalink: What if all the crap that we've been through is just the middle part of the story/ The part...

We've already gone down the path of her having casual sex with Jackson, and they probably don't want to keep her single forever, but Jo has been thriving as a single mother who found her passion in her career.

It sucks that all of that may get derailed by a redundant storyline where she's pining after her best friend who is in love with someone else. Haven't we seen that already on this series a half a dozen times?

Jo and Link together wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but is it necessary at all? Right now, I'm leaning toward no on that, but we'll have to see how the storyline plays out.

In the meantime, Jo and Link's park rescue was one of the hour's highlights and had the most excitement to it. While there were some character strengths in the other storylines, and the return to medicine is appreciated, most of the hour was a bit of a snoozefest.

Jo: I never had a crush on you.
Link: Not you, me.
Jo: What are you talking about?
Link: I had a huge crush on you!

• Permalink: I had a huge crush on you!

But Jo and Link scrambling to save Jeremy while they waited an eternity for the ambulance to show up was entertaining. And they spent a lot of time showing how the AED machine worked, which was cool.

Luna and Scout got to sit in on their first medical procedures, and they handled it well.

Jo and Link are a great team, and it's always exciting when you see doctors practice their skills in the field. They kicked butt together, and they make great parterers and are fun as friends.

But how are we feeling about them as a romantic connection?

Right now, Link doesn't seem to regard Jo in the same way he did when he was a kid, and he's grateful that they never went there because of the fear of losing his best friend.

He needs her as a friend more than anything else, and while his phrasing of that wasn't the most flattering, you understood his position. But he's still hung up on Amelia.

Now more than ever, he needs things to stay platonic between Jo to minimize the messiness with everyone's feelings involved. But Grey's Anatomy loves a mess, so it won't stay that way for long.

Over to you, Grey's Fanatics. Are you digging the Amelia and Kai chemistry? How do you feel about Jo and Link? Hit the comments below!

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.