Grey's Anatomy recap: Meredith and DeLuca aren't the only things heating up

Although I love the weird storylines that often define medical dramas, it’s always fun to see the doctors out of the hospital, away from their natural habitat. Especially when parties are involved. We get to see them in fancy outfits instead of scrubs. The ladies take time to style their hair. And the promise of good food, better booze, and sparkling conversation levels the playing field. It’s just a room full of adults celebrating the successful surgery of Dr. Catherine Avery.

At least that’s what Jackson hoped it to be. Instead, he navigates a stressful party while his mother is MIA getting drunk in the back of a limo with Bailey. He supervises his angry girlfriend, an actual fight in his living room, Alex’s mother, and a randy couple who sneak off to his guest bedroom. Am I forgetting anything? Oh yes, the emergency fire evacuation.

Problem #1 — Maggie
Remember the woman Kiki who came to Maggie because her heart was a dud? She’s the one who bullied Maggie in med school and was deemed “the worst.” Of course, Maggie came through. The procedure Maggie pioneered is going to be in a medical journal and is sure to bore colleagues to tears. Get this: Kiki wrote one, too. Everyone’s talking about it. It’s entertaining, gut-wrenching, and emotional.

Unfortunately, it paints Maggie as a supporting role to Kiki’s top billing. Do you know what else is unfortunate? Maggie’s party romper/onesie. It was a green monstrosity, which fits Maggie’s mood since she’s green with envy. She’s pissed that Kiki’s story is being praised when it’s Maggie who saved that life in the first place. There would be no story without her!

Webber steps in and tells his daughter to suck it up. It’s okay to be angry, but she needs to channel that energy into something. Perhaps she should write a new article that won’t induce drowsiness. Maggie agrees and all is well.

Problem #2 — Owen and Koracick
Owen and Amelia arrive at Jackson’s party in terrible moods. Betty’s parents took Leo away, so they decided that a soiree with all of their colleagues is exactly where they should go when both are teetering on the edge. It doesn’t help that they walk straight off the elevator and into a hallway make out sesh with Teddy and Koracick. Owen orders three fingers of whiskey when he hears that Koracick is taking Teddy to Palm Springs for a babymoon.

Owen broods and turns his feelings inward. Amelia broods and spews her feelings outward. They bicker over the fact that Betty and Leo were what kept them together. Now what? Owen blames Amelia for generalizing everything and Amelia straight up blames Teddy, who she claims Owen has been eyeballing all night.

Amelia leaves and Owen marches straight to Teddy. Bottom line: He doesn’t want Koracick anywhere near the delivery room or his daughter when the time comes. Koracick meanders over with a plate full of salty foods for his seven-month pregnant girlfriend. Owen asks if Koracick minds leaving him and Teddy alone for a moment.

Why yes, he does mind. Push comes to shove, literally, and Koracick punches Owen in the face in front of all the guests who are, at that moment, raising a glass to toast him and Amelia for a successful surgery. Not awkward at all.

Later, Owen goes home to find Amelia outside waiting for him. Betty’s parents brought Leo back. They can’t handle a baby and a daughter who has a disease. So they tag Owen and Amelia to take over just as Betty gives them a death grip hug and leaves with her parents.

Problem #3 — Alex’s Mother
Helen arrives at the hospital and through a wild “lost in translation” conversation, ends up riding with Jo to Jackson’s penthouse where Alex is already playing ping pong next to a pretty sweet fireplace. Remember, Helen is not well and the fact that she has traveled by bus and train to get to her son is concerning.

Alex is surprised to see her and even more startled that she seems to be doing well. She even knitted him a jaunty scarf. He and Jo keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and it never does. Until she starts mumbling something about smelling burning plastic. Alex’s face falls, knowing there isn’t a fire. He collects his mother to take her back to his place.

Helen is insistent that there is a fire, but no one listens to her. Until she screams it and points in the direction of the kitchen where smoke billows from the doorway. Since these folks deal with emergency situations every day, they calmly evacuate the building with Alex smiling from ear-to-ear. His mother is not crazy. Correction: She’s not crazy today.

Problem #4 — Meredith and DeLuca
These two crazy kids can’t keep their hands off of each other, so they make a plan to stay at Meredith’s since all her kiddos are gone. Of course, Amelia hijacks that plan, thanks to brooding Owen. When Meredith tells DeLuca that her sister is crashing, he gently pulls her into the guest bedroom.

Excuse me, DeLuca, but Dr. Grey would never sleep with you in the guest room of Jackson’s penthouse with everyone she knows downstairs. She’s a lady.

Then he whispers what he would like to do to her in Italian and I have elevator flashbacks. I’m all, “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, MEREDITH?” What is it with DeLuca speaking a foreign language? It gets me every time.

Although nothing technically happens, they do end up sitting on the bed together. Scratch that. DeLuca is sitting. Meredith is straddling him. His phone rings and he thankfully ignores his sister. When things start to get steamy, Webber walks in. Meredith does not jump up off of DeLuca’s lap since she is a grown woman who can do whatever she wants, but it still felt like dad walking in on a heavy petting session with a couple of 16-year-olds in the living room.

At the end of the night, after Meredith and DeLuca unknowingly start the fire thanks to a plastic tray in the oven, Meredith ends up at DeLuca’s place, but they aren’t alone. Carina is there. With their father.

I bet he’s whispering of a few different words in Italian right about now, but the metaphorical fire has been ignited. What will DeLuca do? Take the heat or get out of the kitchen? Fan the flame or crash and burn trying? Add fuel to the fire or ice his father out?

Fire idioms. Gotta love ’em.