Is Alex Karev already a father without knowing it? That’s what he — and we — were wondering when Nurse Olivia returned to Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital during the April 26 episode of Grey’s Anatomy with a kid in tow! In case you don’t remember, Alex and Olivia famously slept together during Season 2 of the series, during which he gave her syphilis. She remained working for the hospital until she was cut during the Seattle Grace-Mercy West merger in Season 6. But before we do a deep dive into Alex’s story from this week, let’s address the elephant in the room — that nasty Harper Avery scandal.
Seeing as how the news of the scandal had already emerged, the episode opens with Meredith returning her and mom Ellis’ Harper Avery awards to the hospital. Reporters were camped outside the hospital, waiting to ask any and all doctors how they felt about working under the name of a sexual predator. Inside, Bailey then told Jackson she was pulling the plug on his contest since he was the one who donated most of the money to it and his name is now tarnished. And the hospital also hired a crisis manager named Erin. While she tried figuring out how to squash the scandal, she asked Jackson to operate on a kid she had found through a charity organization. Any good press would do the hospital good, she said.
Catherine offered to take the fall for Harper Avery’s crimes, as Erin said “it’s a scapegoat they want”. But Jackson and Meredith came up with another idea — tear down the foundation and build a new one. More specifically, Jackson announced that the Harper Avery Foundation would be dissolved, and all those who were wronged by his grandfather would be welcomed back to work and retrained for employment at the… Catherine Fox Foundation.
As for Alex’s situation with Olivia, her return came as Alex and Jo were considering places to get married. Not wanting to deal with the frustrations that come from planning a wedding, they hired April to do the job for them. But that was after Alex discovered the checks he had been sending his mom weren’t being cashed. Is she dead? We’ll have to wait for next week’s episode to find out. Anyway, Olivia showed up in Grey Sloan’s ER with her son, who swallowed a toy. When Olivia learned Alex and Jo were engaged, she wished Jo “the best of luck”. She then told Jo a ton of unflattering stories about Alex, and pretty much referred to him as a “pig”. Fortunately, Olivia’s son is not Alex’s baby. She told the doctors that she no longer lives in Seattle and she’s now married to a wonderful man. Phew!
In other Grey’s Anatomy news, Leo’s birth mom showed up at his six-month checkup with Owen, and Amelia quickly suspected the 15-year-old was a drug user. So as Arizona inspected the baby, Amelia whisked Betty away for a one-on-one chat, after which Amelia came up with the crazy idea to pretty much adopt Betty and try to get her life back on track. Owen seemed cool with the idea, especially if it meant keeping Leo and his mom together. He even invited Amelia and Betty to move in with him. So could this be the “family” Owen’s always wanted?
Oh, and at the very end of the episode, Bailey was informed that Grey Sloan was being sued for feeding Vik a pot-filled cookie and then firing him. Oy vey.