BWW Recap: GREY'S ANATOMY Pays Tribute to Moms Everywhere in a Heartbreaking Episode; Ellen Pompeo Directs!

We're back with GREY'S ANATOMY recaps after a week off. My apologies, I was too sick to recap last week! What any episode to return with though! This one had ALL.THE. FEELS.

Tonight's emotional hour was entitled "Be Still, My Soul" and it marked lead, Ellen Pompeo's directorial debut. Two weeks ago at Paleyfest, Ms. Pompeo commented on how the story in this episode had a great deal of meaning to her and it was important that this be the one that she direct. The episode centers on Maggie's struggle to come to terms with her mother's illness and eventual death. It also explores the beautiful relationship that exists between a child (of any age) and their mother. Guest star LaTanya Richardson Jackson is fantastic as Diane Pierce and Kelly McCreary (Maggie) breaks hearts with her performance.

The episode opens with a voiceover from Meredith talking about how before her mother died, she had started to write a note saying "tell Meredith not to..." and never finishing it. This is one of the rare times that a voiceover provides us with new information about a character. Meredith's voiceover about her relationship with her own mother flows beautifully throughout the episode and allows the parallels and staunch differences between Meredith's relationship with Ellis and Maggie's relationship with Diane to be all the more apparent.

When it is discovered that Diane's Cancer has spread, Maggie tries to take charge and advocate for a surgery that Meredith, as Diane's doctor does not agree with. Maggie isn't taking no for an answer and Diane isn't taking anyone's lead but Maggie's, so Meredith is quickly off the case. Richard, Bailey and Jackson are not any more interested in performing the procedure, but none of them has the heart to stand up to Maggie. Before too long, Maggie finds another option, a clinical trial. Even though this trial will be brutal on Diane's body, Maggie is determined to save her mom, and with Meredith off the case, there is no one left who has the heart to try to talk her out of it. We see a montage of Diane experiencing all the horrible side effects of the trial. Her health declines rapidly but despite warnings from Richard and Bailey, she presses on. She has one particularly moving scene with Meredith in which she tells her that she is happy Maggie found her.

On a particularly good health day, Diane decides it is time to impart her famous lasagna recipe on Maggie. She is going to teach her to make it from scratch and she encourages Maggie to invite her friends to dinner. This leads to a dinner party at Meredith's house...so we already know it won't end well. It does start well though! When Diane presses Meredith and Richard to tell her where Ellis is buried so she can pay her respects to Maggie's biological mother, the two are forced to sheepishly admit that dear Ellis' ashes were poured down the sink of OR 2 (her favorite OR). Initially, all dinner guests look on in utter horror, but then Diane starts to laugh, granting everyone else permission to do so too. This scene played particularly well in a room filled with hundreds of hardcore GREY'S fans at Paleyfest. Unfortunately, this dinner party does take a turn for the worse (shocker) and Diane's esophagus ruptures while she is laughing. She is rushed to the hospital and Maggie is once again in full-force "save mom" mode, even though the people around her are starting to see the writing on the wall.

When Meredith tries to gently (as possible) confront Maggie with the fact that the treatments Diane is receiving are "killing her faster than the cancer is", Maggie responds with a low blow and tells Meredith that unlike her, she actually cares about her mother to not give up on her rather than dumping her down the drain. It's cold, but Meredith clearly understands where it is coming from. Eventually, after Diane confides in Richard that the reason she is pursuing the treatment is so that Maggie feels confident that she had done everything she possibly could to save her mom. Richard tells her that the woman he sees, the woman Diane raised is "tough as nails" and can handle this. He reassures her that this will not break her or take away her optimism. After hearing this, Diane finally has a conversation with Maggie. We don't see the conversation, but we see that afterwards, Maggie has accepted the situation that her mother is truly in.

In a devastating scene, Maggie confides in Riggs that this is all still new to her. Diane has known about her cancer for months, but Maggie has just found out, and she has this fear that had she known sooner, she could have stopped it. Riggs embraces her in a hug and for the first time, she breaks down. Also super sweetly supportive of Maggie, are sisters Meredith and Amelia. Meredith tells her to listen to everything her mom says and record her voice in her mind. Maggie says that she is not ready to let her mom go and Meredith simply says that you are never ready...you just do it. It is so beautiful to see this sisterhood be so supportive. Meredith and Amelia sit with Maggie as she processes the news that her mom is going to die, they sit with her again in the room after her mom passes, and then there is the fantastic lasagna-eating scene at the end. These sisters have now each lost a parent (albeit in very different ways) and it is clear that their dynamic will now only become deeper.

The most powerful scene of the episode is when Diane imparts what she feels is the most important motherly advice that she can give to Maggie. It boils down to her telling her to let her hair down sometimes "you're never gonna look back and say I wish I'd been more uptight". She also tells her to find a man who loves her a little bit more than she loves him...and that it is important that the guy knows how lucky he is to be with her. She gets to impart the key things that she clearly wanted to say, but even so, she dies quite suddenly, proving Meredith's point that you are never ready. You always want more time.

The other minor story lines running throughout the episode were Meredith and Riggs still trying to schedule their dinner date, and Richard and Bailey being on bad terms due to the Eliza Minnick situation. In the end, Meredith tells Riggs that right now, she needs to be there for Maggie. Sisters before misters, yo. Richard buries the hatchet with Bailey when he reflects on the fact that Ellis died before she ever forgave him, and he doesn't ever want his friendship with Bailey to go that way. Richard also has an amazing scene where he recognizes that he may be Maggie's biological father, but right now she needs her dad. He helicopters Maggie's adoptive father in to the hospital to be with her, and the quiet but knowing moment between her two dads in the elevator is just so special. "It's family". He simply says, when Mr. Pierce offers to reimburse him.

Over all, this episode brought a few laughs, a lot of tears, and the desire for us all to call our moms (if we are fortunate enough to be able to do so). At Paleyfest, Ellen Pompeo shared that having lost her mother at a young age, she really wanted this episode to be a tribute to moms. She succeeded.

GREY'S ANATOMY airs on Thursdays at 7pm on CTV and 8pm on ABC.

Photo Credit: Richard Cartwright

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