‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 14, Episode 9 Recap: Episode “1-800-799-7233” Named For Domestic Violence Hotline

Grey’s Anatomy returned from its midseason break yesterday with episode 9 of its 14th season.

GREY’S ANATOMY RECAP

We pick up where we left off – with Jo’s run-in with her estranged husband Paul (Matthew Morrison), whom she has tried to avoid for years. Before Jo can even react, Paul introduces his fiancée Jenny and tells Jo he needs to sign divorce papers so that he can legally get married again.

Then Arizona runs over and gets overly excited about the fact that the Dr. Paul Stadler is in the hospital, and ribs Jo for not sharing that she knows him. Paul runs with this and throws in the fact that Jo used to party a lot. He tells Jo he wants to speak in private, but his look is smarmy and questionable.

Meanwhile, Meredith is in the OR with Schmitt, who is hooked up to an IV to help out the woman on the operating table with an enlarged spleen. Somehow the hackers got a hold of the temperature gauges in the hospital, so now it’s a stifling 90 degrees throughout the buildings.

Bailey is searching for Jackson, who was last seen in the medevac helicopter with Maggie, both covered in blood because his patient’s tube came loose and splatted them. Finally at the other hospital, Jackson goes MIA. Bailey also gets help from an intern named Casey Parker, who apparently served a couple of tours of duty in cybersecurity, and can help out with the hack.

Paul is about to leave the hospital when Webber find him and stops him, insisting on giving him a tour of the hospital. Paul offers to stay and help during the hacking situation. Elsewhere, Karev is completely oblivious to all this, and is just annoyed that Jo hasn’t shown up with his patient’s info yet. Paul shows up and sits next to him, but luckily Karev recognizes him as Jo’s ex. He instructs intern Helm to find Jo, bring her to him, and not let her out of his sight.

Paul then joins Meredith in the OR, who also recognizes him and sticks by Jo’s side. “I know who you are. I’m friends with Jo Wilson,” she says. But Paul doesn’t miss a beat: “So Jo Wilson said something about me? Was she drunk when she told you?” he asks, trying to undermine Jo’s credibility. He then tells Meredith a long-winded lie about his past and how Jo stole money from him, but Mere is clearly not buying it. Helm finds Jo in the galley where Meredith and Paul are, and she texts Karev to let him know she’s ok.

At the other hospital, Jackson and Maggie are discussing high school stories as they operate on their patient Claude. Then they awkwardly chat while only in towels in the locker room, as their blood-soaked clothes must be washed and sterilized. Maggie tries to flirt, but ends up talking about bacteria on toilet seats, and then finally their clothes are ready and they can leave. Jackson sees his 27 missed calls from Bailey too.

Back at Grey Sloan Memorial, Meredith finishes her surgery and runs into Karev, and they then compare notes on Paul. Jo finds them and assures them that Paul is lying, and that he always twists a story to fit his own narrative. “You are Jo Wilson. I know exactly who you are,” Meredith assures her. Meredith then finds Paul and makes him sign the divorce papers. As he is about to leave with his new fiancée Jenny, Meredith and Jo decide they can’t let her leave with him because she is in danger too. They enlist Arizona to distract Paul while they steal Jenny away. Jo shares her story and gives her her cell number, and it’s unclear if the message got through to Jenny. She and Paul leave arm in arm.

As Meredith and Jo try to leave, though, Paul and Jenny reappears and he starts to lay into Jo. “I’m so glad you and Jenny had a chat,” he says before verbally abusing Jo. Meredith gets involved and mimes calling security on the down phones, but Paul doesn’t know the phones aren’t working and he leaves. Before he does, though, he thanks Jo for her number so he will “know where to find her.”

Meanwhile, super intern Casey Parker is enlisted by Bailey to help with the hack, since the FBI seem to be more interested in catching the hacker than fixing the systems. Parker says he has some experience hacking because he hacked into the DMV because his license was taking too long. Bailey decides that’s an innocent enough crime, and Parker manages to fix the phones. When he’s done, Bailey asks if he had really hacked the DMV and why, and he admits that it was because his license said he was a girl, when he is in fact a proud trans man. “Thank you for your service, Dr. Parker,” replies Bailey, which is the only acceptable response.

Back with Jackson and Maggie, he decides to finally ask her out for a drink, but Maggie smartly declines. They have a lot of related baggage, not to mention that their parents are married. And right then, her Tinder date Clive appears and she goes off with him, leaving Jackson in the dust.

As Jo and Karev leave the hospital that night, Jo freaks out about Paul, and ominously says she wishes he were dead. The next day, who shows up after a hit-and-run but Paul, covered in blood and needing medical attention.

The episode last night was not named after a song title, as every single other episode in the series’ 14 year run has been, but instead, it was called “1-800-799-7233.” The number is significant and powerful, as it is the number for the Domestic Violence Hotline.