Grey's Anatomy recap: Season 16, episode 20: Sing It Again

When we last saw Richard Webber, he was being escorted out of a medical conference. While internet trolls claim he was either drunk or recently dumped, we know from his multiple hallucinations that it’s something neurological.

Bailey has gathered the troops and tasked the best minds of Grey Sloan Memorial to clearly diagnose the man she is calling their No. 1 patient. She lists off Webber’s previous ailments, which include appendicitis, a brain tumor, and that one time he was electrocuted.

I’m with Bailey. If this guy can live through all of that, surely this team of brilliant people can figure out why he’s suffering from memory lapses, tremors, mood swings, and erratic behavior.

Tom asks the question we are all thinking: Could this be dementia or Alzheimers? Meredith is quick to rule it out. Since she’s had a front-row seat to that disease her entire life, she’s confident it is neither.

Everyone piles into Richard’s hospital room. He’s highly annoyed by all the pomp and circumstance and is adamant about leaving since he’s perfectly healthy. He implores Catherine to back him up since she was at the conference with him all weekend.

A dozen pairs of eyes dart back and forth, giving concerned looks. Catherine was not at the conference. But she gracefully steps into the role and praises her husband for his fabulous speech and promises to get him home as soon as possible.

Since most of the doctors in the hospital are digging to find a diagnosis for Richard, Teddy has agreed to cover for Maggie. Tom approaches her at the board and Teddy’s sad, guilt-ridden eyes do nothing but fuel Tom’s disdain for her pending nuptials. Just as he wishes Teddy and “Strawberry Shortcake” their own happily ever after, Tom stops dead in his tracks as if he’s seen a ghost.

In theory, he sort of does see a ghost.

Tom’s ex-wife Dana approaches, maneuvering a small boy in a wheelchair ahead of her. The boy is named Guthrey and he immediately starts diffusing the situation by introducing himself and affirming that Tom's evident freak out is for a very good reason.

Why? Because Guthrey looks exactly like his brother who died before he was born. That brother would be Tom’s son. It’s as if Tom is looking directly at David in the flesh. Except this kid has a brain tumor that has spread to his spine and needs Dr. Tom to fix him up since he’s the best neurologist in the entire world.

Now that’s what we call a punch to the gut.

While Tom is trying to assuage the shock waves ricocheting through his body, Maggie, Meredith, and Amelia wait to get Richard’s brain scans back. Meredith asks Richard to verbally dictate the steps of a simple procedure, just to make sure he hasn’t lost his mind. The good news is that he can name all of the steps. Bonus: The scans are clean. However, that does leave the sisters back at square one with zero leads.

Speaking of zero leads, Owen and Link have quite the head-scratcher case, too. It all started with a rather large book falling onto a woman’s foot, causing it to break. Her husband is quite the darling man and promises to dote on her however long she will be off her feet. They are the picture of an adorable marriage.

Post-surgery, everything is fine, until the woman starts singing all of her sentences. She has no idea she’s doing it. In fact, she thinks everyone else is singing! Link and Owen have no clue why this is happening. They blame the anesthesia, but when the woman almost crashes, her husband nearly loses it. The doctors bring her back and we all assume that dramatic moment was enough to shock the lyrics out of her.

Nope. She’s still a songbird. And what does her husband do? He starts singing back to her. Of course he does.

Owen and Link high five each other for saving the woman’s life and presumably shrug their shoulders about this singing phenomenon after Koracick can’t find anything wrong. I’d like a little more effort than that, but whatever. Owen gives Link some fatherly advice, suggesting he get ready for never sleeping again. Good talk.

Back in neuro, Tom melts down. He tells Teddy that there’s no way he can perform surgery on a kid who looks exactly like David. So Teddy calls Amelia to take over. A ticked off Dana reminds her ex-husband that he is the reason they came to Grey Sloan in the first place. She wants Tom to do the surgery.

He assures Dana that the torch has been safely passed to Amelia and leaves the conversation. Amelia is ready and willing. She cracks that kid’s skull open and just when she starts to pull out the tumor, she goes into labor. Helm fetches Tom and Amelia hands that torch right back to her mentor. She barks at him to MOVE.

Tom steps in right as Guthrey crashes. He freezes. The surgical team shouts for him to do something and are appalled when he just stands there. Suddenly, you hear Teddy’s voice from the gallery where she’s been watching. She encourages Tom to take it back to basics. Feel the instruments. Breathe. Do what you’ve done a thousand times before.

Tom commands the room and asks everyone to, in my medical expertise, flip the boy upside down and sideways while someone holds his brain in place. No biggie. They flip him right-side-up and Tom saves the day. And he saves Guthrey.

He thanks Teddy with some seductive hand-holding. Then she runs to find Owen so they can make out in a supply closet. P.S.: She wants to get married this coming weekend. Screw the wedding plans.

Oh, I should also point out that Amelia did not bring a bundle of joy into the world. It was false labor. I’m sure all that yelling she and Link did during the Braxton Hicks was completely cleansing on some level. Silver lining, people.

Now if only someone could find a diagnosis for Richard. Wait a minute. It looks like someone is going to have to find Richard first! Our No. 1 patient has wandered away from his bed.

Bailey sounds the alarm, but it’s Meredith who finds Richard in an OR room about to cut into a person lying on the operating table. WHAT IS GOING ON?

Correction. That’s the imagine Richard sees. What Meredith sees is Richard in an empty OR holding a scalpel up to his own stomach. He’s happy to see Meredith and invites her to assist. Meredith insists they must make sure that the scalpel is sterilized and asks him to hand it over. Richard becomes irritated and argues that he is the only one who can fix what is wrong!

Meredith looks Richard in the eyes and with all the authority in the world guarantees the man standing before her that she can fix him because he is the one who taught her everything she knows. And not just surgery. He taught her to be a good person and a good parent.

Richard: “Ellis, there’s something wrong with me.”

Another gut punch. Richard thinks Meredith is Ellis Grey.

Meredith escorts Richard back to his bed. He mentions rounds at Seattle Grace and calls Catherine by the name Adele. Everyone is crushed.

Meredith marches into the research room and slumps down at a table with DeLuca, who has been sleuthing around all day, openly disobeying Bailey’s orders to stay home and get rest. He looks a mess and Meredith doesn’t care. Surely he’s come up with some fresh ideas, right?

She’s counting on DeLuca to help her figure something out. Because Meredith refuses to be haunted by the same disease that took her mother away. Richard will not go down that same path.

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