‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Tweet-Cap: Miracles Can Happen

Warning: This recap for the “Falling Slowly” episode of Grey’s Anatomy contains spoilers.

Real love is accepting someone, flaws and all.

That’s the theme in Grey’s Anatomy‘s big case of the week, a couple who survive a glider crash, and that’s the theme among the doctors, with storylines focusing on Amelia/Owen and Jackson/April.

It’s not surprising to see some bumps in the road for the former couple, since they got married after, like, five seconds of knowing each other. As for the latter, well, they got divorced for a reason.

The theme is also echoed in other relationships, like Alex and Jo, who still have so many secrets and so much unsaid between them. Now, he’s banished to the hospital version of hell. Can he claw his way back out? Can these two crazy kids say what’s been unsaid and accept each other’s flaws? Only time will tell.

Here’s a rundown of this week’s episode, including our live tweets:

Clinical depression

Alex did a very bad thing when he beat up DeLuca, but man, working at the clinic… well, let’s all just pray for him.

His boss, a nurse named Tamir, is a total hardass who doesn’t give him an inch. Alex’s first case in the clinic is a simple abscess, but Tamir warns him not to pick up a scalpel. All he can do is page surgery… because Alex isn’t a surgeon in the clinic. He’s just a scut worker.

In bed, Amelia and Owen make post-coital pillow talk… except it’s more like a quiz show. Amelia learns that Owen goes to church. What else doesn’t she know about him? How does he want to raise their kids? He’s excited she wants kids, but she screeches that they don’t know each other well enough yet.

At the hospital, Riggs tries to get closer to Meredith by asking her to “hang out” (it’s a date). Meredith continues to rebuff him. “We’re not that kind of friends,” she says before leaving.

Mer is called to a trauma coming in from the helipad. Owen is working with her and vents about Amelia’s tendency to latch onto things, like a shark. She sympathizes.

They get that case of the husband and wife involved in a glider crash. He turns out to be a paraplegic, and it’s cute how much the couple care about each other as they yell “I love you” from adjoining ER rooms.

Bailey meets with DeLuca to talk about the hospital’s internal review and how they’ve complied with the district attorney’s requests. But, she adds, he shouldn’t talk to anybody about the case. He shrugs sadly — nobody wants to talk to him anyway!

As Owen scans the wife, Amelia pops in, still in quiz mode. When did he lose his father? Why did he join the Army? And on and on. The matter isn’t helped when Riggs clearly knows more about Owen than she does.

Meanwhile, neither April nor Jackson seem to be getting a wink of sleep. He complains to Ben about April, she complains to Arizona about Jackson. And of course, Harriet isn’t sleeping through the night.

At the clinic, Alex treats an underage woman named Emma who is clearly drunk. All she wants is an IV and to leave. Tamir tries to hurry him along, but Alex is clearly torn about his duty to do something helpful.

Owen finishes his scan of the wife and believes they should operate to remove her spleen. Also, her aorta isn’t looking great. Meredith disagrees, saying they should just monitor her for now. And Riggs takes her side. Hmmm, is he doing it to get on her good side?

See something, say something

Arizona and Jo run into DeLuca in the hall, and the former is amazed by his facial recovery — good job, Jackson! She asks about the trial, but he brushes her off, saying he can’t talk about it.

It’s a ladies + Alex lunch, as Meredith, Amelia, and Maggie schlep down to the clinic to have a bite with him. Amelia is still on this “knowing everything about Owen” thing. See, she thinks if he knows her deep, dark scary secrets, he won’t love her anymore.

Tamir breaks up their party, ordering Alex to see to Emma. First, he gives her a stupid brochure. Then, he yells at her for partying too much. She replies that she only had one beer. As he berates her, Richard steps in to stop him. Well, apparently, he came at Alex’s behest to talk some sense into Emma.

In the “real” part of the hospital, the crash wife’s spleen ruptures and her aorta is dissecting. She needs surgery, stat. Owen is pissed, because he wanted to do this in the first place.

Back in the clinic, Richard tries to talk to Emma, bringing up his own experience with AA. She becomes agitated, once again insisting she’s not an alcoholic. As she gets out of the bed, her shoulder dislocates! And she just puts it back in, as though she’s done this time and time again.

More Jackson/April drama! Jackson is still venting to Ben about April’s early morning coffee-making habit. She huffs to Arizona that she’s trying to be the perfect guest. Both Ben and Arizona counsel their friends to talk to each other and that maybe it’s time for April to move out of Jackson’s apartment.

With Emma’s case seemingly closed, Alex takes off for his legal appointment. But as the bus is about to pull away, he has a major light-bulb moment. He takes Emma’s charts to Richard and lists her symptoms. Richard also has a major light-bulb moment. Turns out Emma has a rare disease — and Alex has just saved her life. He won’t take credit for it, though.

Amelia is STILL obsessing over how much she knows about Owen. In fact, she feels like she knows more about Stephanie — her sickle cell anemia, her taste for mushrooms, etc.

Flaws and all

After the crash wife’s surgery, the doctors discover she’s been paralyzed from the waist down. Owen goes nuts on Riggs and Meredith for voting against him. After he leaves, Meredith accuses Riggs of siding with her because of their “thing.” He is offended. “I agreed with you because you were right, not because you were you.”

Meredith takes the crash husband to see his wife. He feels enormously guilty for causing the situation and paralyzing his wife. She tells him to buck up and be there for her.

Jackson comes home to find April with their (finally!) sleeping daughter. After a dumb argument about the TV, they finally talk about their issues. She offers to move out, but Jackson doesn’t want her to. And she doesn’t want to, either. She will, however, stop making the damn coffee in the morning.

Owen and Amelia go to bed, but she is clearly still agitated. She finally confesses everything about her former fiancé, who died of a drug overdose after they’d used together. He admits that he once choked Cristina during a PTSD nightmare. They’ve both done terrible things. But they’ll make beautiful babies! And they should start trying immediately.

Meredith finds Riggs outside the hospital. She declares that she can’t do this anymore — she doesn’t want to question her medical decisions, or his. “Let’s just be colleagues,” she says.

He playfully suggests that colleagues is a little aloof — can’t they be friends? Maggie comes upon them in that moment, and they play it off as Riggs wanting to be friends with her. Sigh. Meredith, you of all people must know that secrets will get out, someday.

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. on ABC.