Yasuda’s Reaction Highlights A Major Change In Grey’s Anatomy Season 19

While the shocking events of Grey’s Anatomy season 19, episodes 11 and 12 majorly hit other characters, Mika Yasuda’s reaction hinted at a storyline highlighting a significant change in how interns respond to shocking situations in the medical drama. Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital was never a stranger to attacks and disasters, and many of those took out several doctors in the Seattle hospital. While the hit-and-run effectively targeted only Addison and OB/GYN trainer Tia, witnessing the event after a day spent fending off anti-abortion protesters outside the clinic took a toll on Yasuda, whose reaction profoundly differed from those of previous interns who found themselves in similar crises.

When faced with unpredictable and dangerous situations, previous interns often proved rash and reckless, with Meredith inserting her hand in a patient to keep a bomb stable in Grey’s Anatomy season 2, which was the most strikingly foolish response. When put on the spot, members of MAGIC and more recent interns all tended to display foolish bouts of heroism. Instead, Yasuda’s reaction in Grey’s Anatomy season 19, episode 12 went the opposite way, pointing to Mika’s self-preservation rather than an inclination to do something recklessly brave.

Yasuda Freezing Shows Grey’s Anatomy’s Season 19 Interns’ Are Different

Yasuda’s shock hints at Grey’s Anatomy’s new interns’ pragmatism over their predecessors’ heroics. Her being seemingly okay but then unable to continue working because she was overtaken by fear highlighted Yasuda’s entirely different approach to disasters hitting Grey Sloan Memorial, one possibly more realistic than Meredith’s past gutsy deeds. Yasuda’s admission that she didn’t know how to deal with the violent attack because the victims could have been any of them and her fear of not being cut out to be a surgeon because she froze in action proved she had a human reaction, the opposite to the proactive heroics of her intern predecessors.

Richard acknowledging Yasuda’s freezing as a natural human reaction to a traumatic event also highlighted a change in how Grey Sloan’s administration dealt with the interns being in harm’s way. After all, Meredith grabbing the bomb in Grey’s Anatomy season 2 was never celebrated but never punished. Richard’s words of support to Mika Yasuda hint at things changing enough at Grey Sloan that heroics aren’t necessarily expected. Instead, fear-induced self-preserving reactions are viewed as the norm.

Yasuda’s Story Highlights Grey’s Anatomy’s Troubling History With Hotheads

Grey’s Anatomy’s past interns could do whatever dangerous thing they thought of, conscious that they wouldn’t necessarily suffer the consequences of acting that way. From Grey’s Anatomy season 5’s interns who would operate on themselves, frustrated that they couldn’t on patients, to Meredith, Cristina, George, and Izzie cutting Denny’s LVAD wire in Grey’s Anatomy season 2, Grey Sloan has a long history of being lenient with hotheads, especially if their intentions weren’t nefarious. This was true even with more recent debacles, like Schmitt’s Webber method surgery that ended with one patient dead.

Having Richard support Yasuda showed that Grey Sloan Memorial doesn’t let its interns and residents handle their losses and traumas alone in Grey’s Anatomy season 19. Indeed, even if Schmitt didn’t realize what state Yasuda was in, Richard Webber did, offering her a helping hand that was almost entirely inexistent for previous interns. This way, Grey’s Anatomy season 19 essentially showed Grey Sloan Memorial changed how it treats its interns and residents in need.