Grey’s Anatomy has always been celebrated for its strong female characters (I mean, look at Meredith in literally any episode ever), but the Season 14 premiere was so jam-packed with girl power, from individuals standing up for themselves to women pushing each other up. With so many "hell yeah" worthy moments, there’s little doubt in my mind that this is going to be the biggest season for the girls yet.
I quit watching Grey's after Derek’s death (my hiatus lasted for all of five seconds), and despite constant complaints and "when will it end"s and feeling trapped in an endless cycle of simultaneously amazing yet terrible television, I am so here for what’s going on right now. For the first time in forever, I didn't roll my eyes even once during an episode (except for just a little when Megan pretended to have amnesia, but if you didn't, you're lying). Instead, I found myself once again thriving on the cases, the drama and, obviously, the #grlpwr (in no particular order).
When Meredith put aside her personal life and performed two crazy af surgeries
I don’t think there’s ever been a doubt about how strong Meredith Grey is. Most recently, we saw her shine when she told Riggs that his long-lost fiancée was alive. “Go,” she pushed him. “If this were Derek, I’d already be gone.”
So when she saw the severity of Megan’s scans, which even Bailey and Webber didn’t know how to resolve, of course she immediately launched into a plan to fix her.
When Teddy (excuse me, where the hell have you been and who do you think you are?) attacked Meredith for treating Megan without disclosing her relationship with Riggs, Amelia jumped to her defense. Teddy then attacked Amelia for her problems with Owen (which is in some ways fair, but completely pushes aside the fact that Amelia is working on her own emergent cases), and Amelia said, “I’m sorry, is it 1952? Should I put on my apron and mix him a gin and tonic?” No, girl—do your thing!
But Meredith took Teddy's advice to heart (because girl fights are so 2000) and came clean with Megan. After she promised to do everything she could to make sure Megan could get back to her son, which at this point in time was all she cared about, they were both ready to push through. When the surgery was unsuccessful, Meredith gave herself time for a small, destructive breakdown, and when Maggie and Webber checked to see if she was okay, she told them, “I hope you don’t want any coffee because I broke all the mugs." Unembarrassed, unapologetic, and a total boss. And when she was ready to do a full abdominal wall transplant—a surgery that’s only been successful two out of the three times it’s been tried—she NAILED IT. As if there was any doubt.
When Ben became Stephanie
In Stephanie's glaring absence, Jo wondered who she would compete with, who she'd gossip with and who’d tell her when she needs a shower. She did need a shower, Ben told her, and so Ben became Stephanie. He told her that this wouldn't be the case when she tried to talk to him about Alex, but when she desperately needed someone’s advice, he stepped in. While trying to work through a poor decision in a one-night stand, Jo told Ben how she chooses bad guys. He immediately told her that guys hurting her have nothing do with her or who she chooses.
YAS, BEN. I don’t know about you, but I hope he stays the new Stephanie.
When Jo slayed her solo surgery
In the cutest moment of the premiere, a little boy mistook Jo for Alora the Warrior Queen, a character from his comic book. Jo adopted the title to amp herself up for a solo surgery. “Handle it? I’m a freakin’ warrior queen." And then, when a med student dropped his actual glasses into the little boy’s open abdomen, she refused to hand the surgery over to Alex and absolutely SLAYED at sanitizing the area, kicking the students out and completing the surgery.
When Bailey smashed her shoes (aka the patriarchy)
I first noticed Bailey's thing with the shoes when she was eating her lunch barefoot and watching the construction workers work, because same. The next morning, she sat holding her heels in her hands and said she didn’t want to stuff her feet into them anymore. When Webber was chief, he didn’t have to “toddle around on sticks all day.” Hunt didn’t need to "squeeze five toes into a space made for two.” But since she’d become chief, she couldn’t wear her surgical clogs anymore. “You know why?” she asked Ben. “Society?” DING DING DING. And when she threw her shelves full of heels into a garbage bag, millions of women screamed in delight and horror combined.
When Carina DeLuca brought her groundbreaking research to Bailey
DeLuca’s sister, Carina, made her grand debut in the season premiere. She’s an OBGYN, and she'd come to ask Bailey to let her use the hospital’s MRI machine for her research study on the changes in the female brain during orgasm. This has been studied extensively in men, but never in women. “They study the male brains and they expect the female brain to magically fit in with their conclusions…” Um, hello, could you remind the actual fields of science and medicine of this please?
The study is fully funded by drug companies that see potential in a “female Viagra,” but Carina's interest actually lies in how sexual stimulation can contribute to pain control (which nobody would fund because why would they?).
“Let me get this straight,” Bailey said. “You want me to let you have women masturbate in my MRI machine so that you can study their brains while they orgasm?” She looked down at her heels, which she was still wearing at this point. “Done.” BLESS UP.
When Amelia went a little bit rogue
Amidst all of the above, Amelia was working on her own surgery: a 14-year-old with a massive tumor in the side of his head. Unfortunately, it was wrapped around critical nerves, and while she needed his help to deconstruct and reconstruct his jaw, Avery adamantly refused to do so. He went so far as to show her pictures from a similar surgery he failed at, which left a woman without her mandible. Okay, pretty boy, pls take your head out of your ass. Just because you failed at something doesn’t mean everyone else will. Avery took her to Bailey to try to put a stop to it, and as they continued to argue, Bailey looked down at the heels she was still wearing. She took the shoes off, told him that since it's Amelia's patient, it's her decision, and then shut her shoes in her desk and put on her surgical clogs.
Since Jackson wouldn’t help, Amelia dismantled the kid’s jaw herself. After removing the entirety of the tumor, she called Jackson in to reconstruct it and he went off, threatening Amelia that she should be on review to lose her medical license for her recklessness. Having taken apart his jaw when that part of the procedure was outside of her specialty, I can see his point. However, she stood up for what she believed she could do, and she did it. How many other times have we seen this over the years? Despite everyone else telling her to send him off to a pain clinic that wouldn't help, she gave a little boy his life back, and she was a total badass doing it.
Let's just hope she approaches her own treatments with the same attitude—I'm already biting my nails over the next episode's preview!