‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Tweet-cap: You Are Not Alone

Warning: This post contains spoilers for the “You Can Look (But You’d Better Not Touch)” episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

Stuff happens. As Jo notes in the opening minutes of Grey’s Anatomy, people sometimes find themselves in terrible circumstances. It doesn’t make them terrible people.

Is Kristen, the pregnant teen treated by Arizona, Bailey, and Jo, a terrible person? She’s in prison for 20 years to life, for a crime we never learn about. She’s considered dangerous to other inmates, guards, and the visiting doctors. But she also clearly loves her unborn child and wants the very best for her daughter. A terrible person wouldn’t love like that, right?

Maybe Kristen just found herself in a terrible circumstance that got out of control. Just like Alex, whose nonpresence weighs heavily in this bottle episode. Grey’s Anatomy left with Alex going to the district attorney to take a plea deal that would send him to prison. It returns without any resolution to that issue. Instead, Arizona, Bailey, and Jo go off on a harrowing journey to help this young, bitter, combative young woman. But Alex’s fate still looms large, a veritable ticking time bomb.

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

Arizona, Bailey, and Jo are in a car, apparently on their way to treat a young, pregnant patient who cannot be transported. Bailey looks like she’d rather be pretty much anywhere than on this road trip to hell. Where are they heading? The boonies? It sounds like wherever they’re going doesn’t have modern equipment.

Nope, not the boonies — prison.

The docs are shocked by the grim environment at the prison, where they’re barked at by guards, searched, asked if they’re carrying weapons. Arizona even has to endure a guard looking at her prosthetic leg.

They meet the patient’s lawyer, who seems very level-headed and no-nonsense. She’s clearly got this whole routine down pat. She warns the docs not to lose their pass, and updates them on her client, Kristen.

Then they meet the prison’s in-house medic, Dr. Eldredge, who is also no-nonsense but weary and sooooo not having it about the Seattle docs’ being there. Eldredge takes them to Kristen’s room, and at first, it seems like Kristen isn’t so bad.

Bailey is especially freaked out by the whole situation, and it gets worse when they enter the room to examine Kristen. She immediately launches herself at Eldredge, all because the hospital doctor refuses to give her another snack. Hangry much?

Bailey runs off to help Dr. Eldredge with her finger (and Eldredge shrugs her off, because she’s a badass). Meanwhile, Arizona and Jo try to examine Kristen, who mouths off at them until her lawyer shushes her.

Turns out Kristen’s baby has something called an acardiac twin, basically a mass that is literally sucking the blood out of the baby. Kristen has a vampire in her uterus.

Kristen is shocked and disappointed to learn that she’s not having the baby today. The procedure will merely cut off the mass from the baby, so she doesn’t have to pump blood for it. All they will do is move the baby and use a probe to separate it from the vampire.

Jo opens up about her own sketchy past, living in cars and robbing convenience stores, hoping to get through to Kristen. But the girl brushes her off — she grew up in a fancy neighborhood, attended private school, and had a mom who baked award-winning casseroles. They are nothing alike.

Still, Kristen is excited to welcome the baby. Her mom will adopt the infant and bring her to visit. She’s already settled on a name too — Ellie.

Meanwhile, Bailey is wandering the medical ward, treating random patients, and starts yelling at Dr. Eldredge for not having enough gauze. Why not better manage resources? Eldredge shuts her down by showing her the meager storage closet. There are no resources to manage.

Arizona is called downstairs at the prison, where she meets Kristen’s mom, Emily. But when Arizona offers to tell Kristen her mom’s there, Emily refuses. She’s not there to support her daughter — she’s just there to get the baby. She plans to adopt her and never bring her to visit Kristen again.

Arizona, Bailey, and Jo are shocked, but agree not to tell Kristen. Unfortunately, when they begin the procedure with the probe, Kristen catches a weird expression on Arizona’s face and gets agitated that they are keeping something from her.

Arizona informs Emily, and encourages her to be by Kristen’s side for labor. Emily still refuses, saying that Kristen started out as a perfect child and now she’s become a person that Emily doesn’t recognize. Arizona shakes her head in disappointment. She would never discard Sofia like this.

In labor, Kristen demands that the prison call her mom, as is her right. Unable to take it anymore, Jo confesses that Emily is there — and she doesn’t want to see Kristen. The girl begins to cry that she wants her mommy, and it’s just incredibly sad. Bailey steps in and takes her hand. She wasn’t really onboard before, but now she is. She tells Kristen that she isn’t alone. They are there for her. She even persuades Eldredge to take off Kristen’s restraints during labor.

Kristen gives birth to her little girl and is forced to say goodbye, maybe forever, to little Ellie. She hopes for the best kind of life for her daughter. “Be good,” she whispers before handing her over.

What will happen to Kristen now? Life in prison goes on and she may never see her baby again, if Emily goes through with her plan. Meanwhile, Bailey shakes hands with Eldredge and tells her if she ever needs a new job to come calling at Grey Sloan.

Arizona updates Emily on the baby’s condition. Emily is such a monster that she won’t even keep the name that Kristen chose. Instead, Emily will call her Hannah. Ugh. Arizona is not rainbows and unicorns when she asks, “If this one makes a mistake, will you leave her too?”

The three docs wearily get in the car, and Bailey tells Jo that she was right — stuff just happens sometimes. But Jo doesn’t want to believe that anymore. She wants to think there’s good in this world.

Bailey finally tells her the secret she’s been harboring all day: Alex came to her and revealed he was going to the D.A. to accept the plea bargain that will send him to prison. Jo gets out of the car and vomits. The docs get back on the road, but who knows what they’ll find when they get to the end of it?

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.