By Olivia Ritter ’17

We’re back in Shondaland – a world of beautiful love stories, painful heartbreaks and lots of drama. In this week’s episode, Shonda takes us far back, practically to another era. We return to the beginning of MerDer – the relationship that set unrealistic standards for our lives.

Right from the jump, we’re reminded of their power as a neurosurgery team just as much as their majestic relationship. That’s right, Katie Bryce is back – the teenage pageant girl from Season 1, Episode 1: “Hard Day’s Night.” Twelve years later, Katie’s now a grown woman, presenting similar neurological issues. But this time, it is Amelia Shepherd who will be operating on her, not Derek (no longer with us). Of course, Meredith finds Katie in the ER, recognizes her immediately and is reminded of McDreamy.

Meredith being Meredith, she holds onto this patient, checking in with her and monitoring Amelia’s treatment. (The nostalgia is real.) But Meredith is still angry at Amelia for who even knows at this point, so she doesn’t trust her with that very first patient “Grey’s” fans became attached to twelve years ago.

Meanwhile, Meredith has patients of her own, including long-time cancer patient Daphne, who is being discharged from the hospital. After the brief happy moment, Meredith discovers an infection in Daphne’s chest, which she cuts open and finds that it won’t stop bleeding. Those happy moments don’t ever last, do they?

Meredith is assisted by Riggs, who finally tells us the reason for Owen’s saltiness toward him. Turns out Riggs and Owen’s sister, Megan, were fighting over a seat in a helicopter that held Megan’s patient. The problem was that the helicopter was going over some dangerous airspace and Riggs was protecting Megan. Megan got the spot on the copter and was never found. Can’t he just explain that to Owen? So many words left unsaid in this show.

After Meredith and Riggs operate on Daphne and Amelia completes her surgery on Katie, both Amelia and Meredith emerge from the scrub rooms. Amelia, eager and happy. Meredith, upset and distraught. Daphne didn’t make the surgery but Katie did.

Right, April is still pregnant, isn’t she? She hasn’t told Jackson even though Arizona and Alex know – pediatric doctors always know. Even though she is separated from the baby’s father and is prone to freaking out, April is unnervingly happy. This is a problem to be settled.

Back to Meredith and Amelia: Meredith visits Katie in recovery and is very non-Meredith. She is very optimistic and happy about Katie being there. Is this a new Meredith or is it her yearning for Derek?

Amelia is seen shuffling through Katie’s old chart and places her CT scan of Katie’s brain atop Derek’s 11-year-old scan. Does she think she’s the new Derek? Because she’s not. Amelia, look: You may share the same last name but you will never be Derek Shepherd.

This episode might not seem particularly sad and Shonda probably realized that. So, she added a little snippet of Derek saying his famous line (“It’s a beautiful night to save lives –  let’s have some fun”) during Katie’s first surgery. Not to mention, his first surgery with Meredith Grey, his soulmate.

Shonda, you are keeping us on our toes! This positive energy from Meredith is a very scary and a little ominous, given has lost Cristina and Derek in the past two seasons and used to describe herself as “dark and twisty.” We’ll see what’s next for this new attitude of Meredith’s and hopefully some of April’s low-key pregnancy when we binge again next Thursday at 8 p.m.!