#Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 Episode 6 Review: No Time for Despair

Just when we thought Mer was out of the woods, she took a turn for the worse!

While Grey’s Anatomy Season 17 Episode 6 was still relentless with the COVID coverage, it also had a great deal of personal development.

It also had serious action, perfectly incorporated one of Grey’s Anatomy Season 16’s biggest dangling storylines, and it connected it to Station 19’s previous hour in such a way that it worked even if you didn’t watch the other series.

The hour matched perfectly with Station 19 Season 4 Episode 5, as the doctors had the displeasure of treating the racist jackass who kidnapped a bunch of girls and locked them in his basement. But the real stroke of genius was how they used that to connect to DeLuca’s sex-trafficking victim from Grey’s Anatomy Season 16 Episode 18.

Finally, they’re on the path of tying up that loose end, and DeLuca is about to get sweet vindication and stop a sex-trafficking ring. Bring Ginger Sataness DOWN!

They were able to approach the story of the sex-trafficking victims from two different angles. It was a nail-biter awaiting the second when DeLuca would lay eyes on this evil woman and take her down once and for all. Unfortunately, the second she saw him, she evaded him at every cost.

Levi, bless his heart, is so gullible and naive. He didn’t notice how shifty the woman was behaving, and somebody needs to work on their observation skills. Maybe he was overworked and tired from the hospital getting slammed with COVID cases and death.

She must’ve been searching for the girls to find out if they knew anything about the larger operation. But DeLuca’s presence prompted her to bolt, and in the final moments of the hour, he saw her and took off after her.

Was the world always this messed up and we didn’t have kids so we didn’t pay attention?
Amelia

It was such a relief that he told Carina who the woman was, and his sister believed him this time. DeLuca is doing well keeping up a healthy regiment amid his tireless work during a pandemic, and like Bailey, I couldn’t be prouder of him.

The Siblings DeLuca in a car chasing after a sex-trafficker? Sign me up! If anything happens to either one of them, I will lose it, but it sounds exciting, and I cannot wait to see how the show resolves this storyline.

Thank goodness Grey’s Anatomy didn’t abandon it.

On the other side of the case, you had all the doctors outraged by this monstrous man’s actions. They had to deal with him and his victims, and the young girls’ story moved them all.

It also made so many of them think about the state of the world. Teddy, Owen, Jackson, and Amelia –they’re all parents, so they took the case especially hard.

However, Jackson and Maggie were the ones who considered the nature of it on more than one level. Owen had a nice moment giving this guy the business and all.

The entire thing disgusted Jackson, and he understood that things like this happen to young women of color and the repercussions are always different. We’re to assume that he’s the one who got the one teen’s mother out of jail because “money talks,” and it’s the only thing society listens to; it certainly isn’t justice.

Jackson only seems to get flyby lines of preaching a word, but I do wonder when he’ll get something more substantial. At least it was more than what Hayes got. Grey’s promoted Richard Flood to series regular, but we’ve barely seen him; it’s a shame.

Hayes: You did this?

Jackson: Money did this. It’s the only language this country understands.

Maggie took the bulk of explaining why the case bothered her so much. She’s been the mouthpiece for systemic racism, particularly against Black people and women, and her diatribe during this hour was no exception.

She provided some of the factoids about how sex-trafficking affects girls of color, and she went on to discuss the plight of how society treats young Black girls and women.

And she reiterated how tiresome it is. She sees things like this happen all the time, so the outrage to her goes much deeper than it does for everyone else. She tied it to how society is treating the pandemic as well.

Maggie was quick to point out how different things would be if the virus didn’t disproportionately affect or kill POC. In her mind, wearing masks to protect each other wouldn’t be up for debate.

Now there’s a p;plague that is killing Black people at a rate that should make everyone outraged. If COVID were killing White people at the rate that it’s killing Black people, you better believe that everyone would be wearing masks because it would be the damn law.
Maggie

Amelia, for her part, listened intently. Amelia showed that she learned something over the years since their last discussion about race.

Maggie had another rough go of it, but by the end of the hour, Winston arrived at her doorstep to be with her.

And Richard and DeLuca were both showing up for Bailey in the aftermath of her loss. She didn’t want to go home, she only wanted to work, but it was hard for her there, too.

Richard wanted her to take some time. Later on, he mentioned how things would affect all of the staff as they continued to burn out from everything going on, and the endless death took a toll on all.

Pretty soon we’re going to start losing our own. Not to the disease but to the toll it’s taking.
Richard

And DeLuca spoke about what it was like for him when he lost his mother. He also shared some of the beautiful ways families of COVID victims were honoring and memorializing their loved ones since traditional funerals were out of the question.

And it gave us a bit of insight into something that many people didn’t think about regarding the deaths. Not only did family members miss out on being there with their loved ones during their final moments, but they can’t even have the funerals and things they want or need to grieve.

It’s awful; there are so many layers to how terrible this virus and its effects are, and they’re neverending.

Even superhumans need more than a minute to grieve the loss of the person who made them who they are.
DeLuca

The Bailey and DeLuca bonding was a genuinely special moment, and it’s the type of rapport that was missing during the previous season, especially as DeLuca battled mental illness. It’s another thing the hour rectified as the two of them stood on common ground, and this time DeLuca looked out for her.

And when she told him how proud she was of him for taking care of himself, you could tell it came from the heart.

The death rate and stress are already taking a toll on Teddy. She’s been in the thick of the pandemic since the beginning of the season. As much as you’d want to get angry at her for snapping at Helm the way she did, seeing empty beds because of more losses and knowing that two of her colleagues and friends were fighting the same disease made her snap.

Teddy’s moodiness, or however else you’d like to describe it — it’s visceral and real.

And she and Owen shared another moment after avoiding each other for so long. He wanted to put things behind him for the betterment of their children.

They’re knee-deep in a pandemic, losing lives every hour, and the trafficker case reminded them of how awful the world is, so at some point, it does make you reevaluate things. Life is too precious and short, you know?

Teddy told Owen about Allison, but she was shocked by his reaction. What did she expect? She just told him that the best friend she always raved about — the one who she mourned and affected everything Teddy did in her life was her lover and soulmate.

We named our daughter after a lie!
Owen

Owen had to process that they named THEIR child after the woman Teddy was in love with until the day she died. Was he supposed to smile or something?

Owen’s level of “I have no time for this bullsh!t” attitude during this installment fueled me.

And Richard telling Teddy to get her crap together, stop whining, and quit playing the victim did too.

On the COVID front, there’s still no way of telling what the show intends to do with Tom and Mer. It feels as though one of them will perish, and during the hour, that person appeared to be Tom.

Tom: I just want to see for myself that it’s possible to beat this thing.

Mer: Almost beat it.

Tom: I really just wan to be in a room where someone isn’t dying. Everyone’s dying.

It was heartbreaking as he faced his own mortality while watching his roommate die right next to him. He could recall all the little things he learned about the man in such a short period, right down to the conversations he had with his family.

Germann is exceptional, and his facial reactions and the inflection in his voice destroyed me in each scene. He was having a hard time joking around and being his usual self, surrounded by so much death.

It has to be terrifying, seeing people around you die of the same thing you’re battling and wondering when or if you’re next.

It made perfect sense that he went to Mer’s room to see her. From what he learned, she was doing better, and he needed to see that someone could beat this thing and reach the other side of it.

It must’ve given him hope, and it also was a relief that he wasn’t losing someone he cared about, too. Tom and Mer have such a fantastic camaraderie that’s underrated, and their scene together was easily the best of the night.

When he spoke about his son and what he wouldn’t give for another moment with him, it was brutal. It also made you think about the fact that Mer was spending time with the people she lost in her dreamscape, but Tom wasn’t so fortunate in that regard.

Mer’s room gave him escapism from the death that surrounded him. But it still feels as if he’s on borrowed time. They’re scene, while beautiful, was also ominous.

But then, they did flip it on us and made Mer take a turn for the worse. She overexerted herself, helping another COVID-patient unmasked and unprotected.

Sometimes when you think the storm has passed, you realize you were just in the eye of it.
Mer

And it not only laid her out again, but she has to go on a ventilator now. Bloody hell, Mer! What did you do?!

As her voiceover said, we thought she got through the storm, and it turns out she was only in the eye of it. She had a moment of getting better only to get worse.

So yeah, Mer did wake up for the midseason finale, but it wasn’t for long. Things are looking bleak, and we’ll have to wait until March to see if Mer survives this and what the future holds.

Over to you, Grey’s Fanatics. Are you grateful they picked the human-trafficking storyline back up? Will Mer and Tom survive this season? Hit the comments below, and let’s discuss EVERYTHING!

You can watch Grey’s Anatomy online right here via TV Fanatic!

Jasmine Blu is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.