Spoiler alert! This story discusses the May 9 episode of Grey’s Anatomy, “She Used to Be Mine.” Use your Hulu subscription to catch up and then read on!
Simone Griffith went through a heart-wrenching situation on Grey’s Anatomy’s latest episode, “She Used to Be Mine,” when a pregnant woman almost died during childbirth, just like her mom had in that same hospital when Simone was born. The mom, Lauren, was going to be OK in the end, but Simone’s fate was less clear, as she headed straight to the bar and started downing tequila shots. Alexis Floyd says her character hit “rock bottom,” and she opened up about how this experience will change the surgical intern going forward.
Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) called on Simone to help out when Lauren continued to have complications following an emergency C-section. The longtime doctor also noticed when Simone stepped away from the operating table, terrified because she saw her mother lying there rather than Lauren. Alexis Floyd told People that Simone’s personal and professional life intertwined to become more than she could handle, and she realized she’s got to address this trauma that she carries from her mother’s death. Floyd said:
I think the first step is just awareness, and that is something that she hasn’t necessarily had to this extent yet. And sometimes it takes rock bottom for you to reach a place where you’re ready to finally make the change. They say when you hit rock bottom, the only place to go from there is up. So I think she maybe has hit a low she wasn’t expecting to, but I hope that it is a breakdown that leads to a breakthrough.
Bailey was picking up food from the bar when she saw Simone pounding tequila, and she took the barely functioning intern home. In a wonderfully moving scene, the two women discussed how important it is to have Black women in the medical field to help make sure that no one falls through the cracks or has their pain ignored.
Alexis Floyd thinks this personal trauma that she experienced at work and the conversation with Bailey afterward will absolutely affect the way she practices medicine in the future. The actress said:
I think it will empower her as a doctor. I think it’ll make her a more empathetic doctor. I think it’ll make her a braver doctor who makes bold choices for her patients. I think it’ll make her an activist in her place of work because she’ll no longer be trying to hide the sort of emotional complexity of what it is to be not just a Black woman physician caring for Black female patients in an industry, in a healthcare system that exorbitantly neglects that class.
I loved seeing Bailey and Simone come together like that, especially to address such an important issue. I can’t wait to see the first-year resident taking this “rock bottom” moment and using it to advocate for patients and their wild medical cases, and I also am excited to see how this mentor/mentee relationship between her and Bailey continues to develop.
While we wait for next week’s episode, set to air at 9 p.m. ET Thursday, May 16, you can relive the best Grey’s Anatomy episodes or start from one of these jumping-off points to binge through your favorite era.