Before we dive into the medicine and drama from this week’s episode, let’s take a step back and recap last week’s.

Last week’s episode started with a typical Doctor Meredith Grey monologue: “The harder the hit, the more it’ll sting.” The scene focused in on Doctor Alex Karev and his life as a doctor in the clinic.

Karev, now a put-together person, was once notorious for being impulsive, irrational and extremely immature. In the season finale of season 12, Karev reverted to his old ways. Karev walked in on Doctor Andrew DeLuca helping Karev’s drunken girlfriend, Doctor Jo Wilson, to bed. Upon walking in on them, Karev began attacking DeLuca and beat him to a bloody pulp. DeLuca was rushed to the hospital and required immediate, emergent care.

Long story short, Karev turned himself in to the police. DeLuca, struggling to fully recover from his severe injuries, pressed charges. Karev was then charged with second-degree felony assault. Upon being charged a felon, Doctor Miranda Bailey, chief of surgery, banned Karev from the surgical part of the hospital, but, also having a close relationship with Karev and not wanting to leave him unemployed, offered him a job in the Denny Duquette memorial clinic.

The previous episode focused on Karev and his frustration with being stuck in the clinic.

I felt as though the episode portrayed Karev in a very mature and even remotely respectful manner, especially how he dealt with the plethora of non-ideal situations he faced.

This whole Karev vs. DeLuca dilemma really angers me, so it was nice to see some good come out of the poor situation.

Before I begin discussing this week’s episode, can I just say how ecstatic I was that there was finally a strong focus on the medicine, and less of one on the complications of everyone’s personal lives?!

This week’s episode was heavily centered around the medicine, for the first time all season.

Bailey and Grey struggle to save two patients in need of liver transplants.

One of the patients was an elderly woman who had been on the transplant list for years, finally received a kidney.

The other was a younger girl who in a critical condition and needed a liver transplant, or else she was going to die.

Many calls were made, but nobody was finding any viable livers for the young woman.

Upon hearing that Bailey had an elderly patient who had a viable lived in her possession, Grey sought out Bailey, begging for that liver to go to the younger, terminal patient.

I personally felt as though Bailey reacted somewhat out of character when dealing with this problem. I felt as though, for whatever reason, Bailey continually lacked her softer, more understanding side.

All in all, however, everything worked out, and both patients received some very much needed liver transplants.

Though it was not as serious, or as intense as past medical emergencies, I was just extremely grateful Shonda Rhimes, the show’s director, finally focused an episode on what Grey’s is supposed to be all about: saving lives.