I am happy to report back to you all with the news that, after this week’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy, “One Day Like This,” somebody has finally gotten through to April Kepner. It’s a damn miracle, ya’ll.
She started off the day waking up at the Emerald City Bar, leading to a bit of a dark start to her shift as she fumbled through her patient’s records and discovered that he’d been in the ER numerous times for Diverticulitis, which Bailey had treated with antibiotics each time in an effort to avoid surgery. Most unfortunately for Rabbi Eli Riggler, an incredibly rare adverse reaction to the antibiotics that he had been prescribed caused his skin to begin to slough off. April took it upon herself to attack Dr. Bailey for her treatment plans, but Bailey had followed protocols, doing everything she could to avoid having to put him through surgery. As Avery tried to deescalate the situation, April snapped at him, saying that her reaction had nothing to do with her and everything to do with needing to clean up poor Dr. Bailey’s mess.
The doctors knew that Eli was dying, and quickly. While he gathered that as well, he still made jokes at April and kept a smile on his face. As April let it slip that she thought Bailey had made a mistake in his care, Eli saw April’s own pain and called her out. She told him not to worry about her, but what else should he worry about if not her? His wife not arriving in time? His skin giving up on being skin? He told her that the Talmud says that if someone is in need, and you can take away a sixtieth of their pain, that’s goodness. He used his position to convince her to talk to him, and they discussed pain and heartache.
She spent her whole life practicing what she preached, following God’s rules, and didn’t understand how that could lead to so many awful things. He pointed out that being devout doesn’t guarantee anything, good or fair. He relayed multiple biblical examples of unfairness, and asked why it should be any different today. “Faith wouldn’t be real faith if you only believe when things are good,” he told her, adding that she shouldn’t punish herself for her hardships. When he asked if she was happy now, April began to cry at his bedside. I guess that this is where he realized that she would be okay, because he rapidly declined from there.
He refused pain meds, even as April begged him to let her take away a sixtieth of his own pain, saying that she already had, and asked her to tell Bailey he forgave her. She found Bailey lighting a candle for him in the chapel and took her hand, relaying some of Eli’s own words to April back to Bailey. “Sometimes things just happen, and we don’t get to know why.”
Is that foreshadowing?! It has to be. My more solidified theory is that number 6 on the list of ways that April might take her leave is the most likely exit strategy, and it’s probably going to have very little explanation. Like if George got hit by the bus and that girl hadn’t been there to tell us he’d pushed her out of the way and we just had to wonder forever what the hell he was doing there.
Any word on Arizona yet? She already seems to be MIA, and I can’t take much more of all this speculating.