BWW Recap: Season's Penultimate Episode of GREY'S ANATOMY is ...Explosive!

Wow. What an episode of GREY'S ANATOMY. The penultimate episode of season 13, entitled "True Colors" went out with a literal bang and left us all waiting with baited breath to see what happens in next week's finale. The three main story-lines of the episode could have each been an episode of it's own; Owen gets life changing news about his sister Megan, Alex has found Jo's abusive husband, and Edwards finds herself and a young girl in a terrifying situation with a dangerous patient. The episode was written by William Harper and directed by Kevin McKidd.

At the top of the episode, Owen opens his door to find two soldiers with news about his long-assumed-dead sister, Megan. We as viewers do not initially know what the news is because in his state of shock, Owen finds everything to be blurry and muffled. He aimlessly wanders through the hospital, trying to get his bearings and process this shocking news. He snaps out of it long enough to save a choking baby, but his bedside manner is less than ideal. Eventually, Amelia notices that something is off and gently confronts him. He tells her that Megan has been found. Alive. This is shocking to Amelia...but less so to we the viewers because I mean, as soon as we learned that Megan's body was never found, I think we all knew this was coming! Owen is not convinced that this person the army found is actually Megan and is stuck in inaction because of it. He has not even told his mother. Amelia takes charge and tells him that they need to find out. She takes him back to Meredith's house and calls the German hospital where Megan is being treated. In a delightful piece of character development, apparently Amelia speaks German. She is a 'German Shepherd'! Owen tells her to ask for Teddy-which is equally as delightful. Teddy confirms that it is in fact Megan and Amelia arranges for Megan to be transferred to Grey Sloan Memorial. Owen finally breaks down with the guilt that he had given up on his sister being alive, and all along she has been a prisoner of war being kept and likely tortured in a basement. Amelia comforts him as he cries. This performance by Kevin McKidd (who impressively also had director's duty in this episode) is heartbreaking and brilliant.

Meanwhile, after seeing Riggs interacting with a child at the hospital, Meredith decides to take the leap and invite him over to meet her own kids. Immediately after inviting him, she feels sick with nerves about it. She confides in Amelia, who turns out to be a rock for more than one character in this episode. She tells Meredith that Derek is dead and Maggie is ok and the only thing holding Meredith back is herself. "Let yourself have this" she says to her. Meredith seems to take this pep talk to heart. It's too bad that later in the episode Amelia then has to tell Meredith that there may in fact be 'something in her way' after all...in the form of Riggs' long lost fiancée. Meredith is not even thinking about how this affects her love life though. She is determined to tell Riggs immediately. She goes off to find him. I suspect she may get sidetracked though, what with a portion of the hospital blowing up and all! More on that later.

Along with the imminent return of Megan Hunt, viewers also get to finally meet Jo's husband! (The fact that these anticipated big returns are happening at the same time is kind of comical, but also super exciting. I'll take it!) Alex has tracked Jo (err Brooke)'s husband, Paul Stadler down at a medical conference. He tells Meredith over the phone that he found him with the help of a private investigator. This is some P.I.!!! They managed to find this dude without knowing anything about him...or even Jo's real name (which we now know is Brooke Stadler)! As viewers, we see Alex play out two scenarios in his head. In the first, he meets Paul, buddies up with him and gets him drunk and then takes him out to an alley and basically beats him to death. The last shot is of Alex back in jail. We then flash back to reality where Alex remains watching Paul from afar, deciding that perhaps this is not the best approach. Later, we see him play out a second scenario where he confronts Paul and tells him to never come back into Brooke's life. He then finds Paul killing Jo at her apartment, thanking Alex for helping him track her down. Based on these two terrifying potential consequences, Alex decides not to confront Paul and instead just watches him be driven away in a cab.

Back at the hospital, Edwards convinces Webber to sign her paperwork and take her off suspension. She has attended a few counseling sessions and believes she is "fixed". Minnick is not impressed and puts her on babysitting duty with a patient who was in a car accident while hooking up with his presumed girlfriend. Edwards bonds with the patient, Keith, who convinces her that he needs to be there for his girlfriend, Allison when she wakes up. Stephanie, being a former child patient, relates to the fear of waking up alone and in pain and connected to medical equipment. She agrees to sneak Keith over to see his girlfriend. Unfortunately, Keith is actually a very dangerous man who was actually attempting to rape Allison. He holds a scalpel to Stephanie's neck and forces her to help him escape the hospital before the authorities find him. When Bailey finds out that the patient and Stephanie are missing, she puts the hospital on lockdown. They end up trapped in a corridor with a little girl, Erin, who had been disappearing from her parents and exploring the hospital all episode. Keith learns that the only way the doors will open is for emergency services if there is a fire, so he decides to set a fire to set off the sprinklers and open the doors. As he is trying to do this, he tells Stephanie that he will be taking the child with him for insurance. Seeing no good ending to this scenario, Stephanie takes this opportunity to douse Keith with the flammable liquid he is using for the fire. Some ash falls on him and he goes up in flames...unfortunately, he then immediately makes a B-line for a row of oxygen tanks and boom! We see Stephanie fly back as she desperately tries to stop this from happening. We now have to wait until next week to find out the status of her and little Erin. Meredith approaches the hospital just as the explosion happens. Her news for Nathan may need to wait.

Some interesting observations:

-in the fantasty scenario where Alex buddies up to Paul, he introduces himself as Alex 'Stevens'....aww he was thinking about Izzie.

-Seriously...how did we not know that Amelia speaks fluent German?

-Did anyone else have the realization in the scene where Steph, Jackson, DeLuca, Maggie, Arizona and Eliza are talking about the "couple" who hooked up in the car, that each one of them has dated/hooked up with another person in their little scrum?

-As Meredith rushes off to tell Riggs about Megan, she asks Amelia to look after her kids. So Amelia is now alone in a house with Owen (who desperately wants a family) and three small children. They have enough going on with the Megan situation, but I wouldn't be surprised if this leads to some more baby discussions between the two as they await Megan's arrival to Seattle.

-Speaking of Megan's arrival in Seattle...this poor woman has been through hell and she is now en route to a hospital that kind of just blew up! Sheesh!

This episode was an instant classic! It will be a long 7 days to get to next week's finale! I want it now!!!

GREY'S ANATOMY airs on Thursdays at 7pm on CTV and 8pm on ABC.

Photo Credit: ABC/Richard Cartwright