‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Season 12 Spoilers: Penny Spends First Day With Meredith, April And Jackson Face Relationship Issues

During Thursday night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy, newbie Penny (Samantha Sloyan) arrived for her first day as a resident at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. The first day at a new job is never easy, but it is even worse when you are allegedly responsible for the death of the beloved doctor Derick Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey).

Warning: this article contains spoilers from Thursday’s “The Me Nobody Knows” episode of Grey’s Anatomy.

Prior to Penny’s arrival, Chief Miranda Bailey (Chandra Wilson) informs Meredith that the chief of general surgery typically mentors the transfer residents. Miranda tells Meredith that she, or former chief Richard Webber (James Pickens, Jr.), would take over the mentoring duties, but Meredith tells her she will do it and allows Penny to be placed on her service.

When Penny finds out she will be working with Meredith, she tells her she doesn’t want it to feel uncomfortable, to which Meredith says “then don’t make it uncomfortable.” As the day progresses, Meredith aggressively gives Penny a rundown of surgery 101, grilling her every step of the way. Seeing how Meredith is treating the newest Grey Sloan resident, Richard calls her out on it and tells Meredith that she is not teaching Penny, rather she is hazing her.

Eventually, after several of Penny’s mishaps, Meredith feels like she can no longer “rise above,” and goes to Amelia (Caterina Scoresone) to vent.

“You were right — she doesn’t belong here,” Meredith tells Amelia. “I tried to rise above because it’s the right thing to do. But she has made mistake after mistake.”

It isn’t always easy to do the right thing. #GreysAnatomy pic.twitter.com/NRBoJNyYbt

— Greys Anatomy (@GreysABC) November 6, 2015

While the sister-in-laws are talking in the restroom, Callie (Sara Ramirez) comes out of one of the stalls and confronts Meredith. She calls her a bully, and tells her she is not even trying to teach Penny.

While Penny and Meredith have their day from hell, April (Sarah Drew) tries to convince Jackson (Jesse William) to perform a nearly impossible surgery on a little boy from Jordan, who had lost his parents, his home, and barely missed becoming a child soldier. April also introduces Jackson to Nathan (Martin Henderson), the doctor she met overseas who brought Kamal (Elisha Henig) to the hospital. She then takes Jackson to meet Kamal, whose hands are severely deformed from a condition that causes tumors to rapidly multiply.

Jackson and April have a confrontation after Jackson sees the severity of Kamal’s condition, and he yells at her for lying to him. Apparently, Nathan had sent Kamal’s scans over from Jordan for Jackson to review. However, April told Jackson they had become lost in the mail because she knew he wouldn’t even consider the surgery if he saw just how bad Kamal’s hands were.

“I didn’t lie,” April tells Jackson.

“You bent the truth,” Nathan responds, with Jackson chiming in saying, “until it broke.”

Jackson originally tells April that there is nothing he can do for Kamal, and he needs an amputation. However, he eventually decides to perform the surgery in hopes of saving Kamal’s hands, and requests the help of Callie. At first, it seems as though there wasn’t going to be any bone for Callie to work with, but she eventually was able to find enough to form the hand, and the whole crowd joined in a round of applause.

Always the wise Webber. #GreysAnatomy pic.twitter.com/RnU9Fpstzi

— Greys Anatomy (@GreysABC) November 6, 2015

Meanwhile, Meredith goes into the hospital’s chapel to talk to Derick, and tells Alex she is waiting for a divine intervention. Meredith later has a heart-to-heart with Richard, who admits that he never wanted to hire Meredith in the first place, but he did because it wouldn’t have been fair to her.

“I decided that wasn’t fair for you,” he said. “I put aside my personal feelings and [rose] above. And I’m glad I did that … everyday.”

Meredith agrees with Richard, and says Derick would have probably said the same thing, and would have liked Penny. Eventually, Meredith sends Penny a message telling her she is on her surgery for the rest of the week.

Speaking of Richard, he had some of his own issues going on during the episode. One of his old friends and his friend’s daughter were in a car accident and end up at Grey Sloan. When Richard confronts his friend about his un-treated diabetes, he questions why Richard thinks he can give him parental advice when he doesn’t even have any kids. Richard then denies having children in front of his daughter Maggie (Kelly McCreary), who is hurt by his words. Realizing what he had done, Richard confronts Maggie, telling her that he wasn’t sure how to tell people about their situation. Maggie then tells him he has nothing to be ashamed of through tears, and walks away. Richard later goes back to his friend and tells him about his affair and how the only good thing to come of it was his daughter.

At the end of the episode, Jackson seeks out April to tell her thank you for bringing Kamal to him. She tells him thank you, and that she knew he could do it all along. The estranged couple then embrace in a hug, showing more emotion towards each other than they had the whole season. However, the moment is cut short when Nathan comes in, asking April if she was ready to go out for drinks to celebrate the successful surgery.

Check out the promo for next week’s episode “Something Against You” below:

[Photo via YouTube video screenshot]