Grey's Anatomy recap: Arizona gets a devastating diagnosis

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We all know Jessica Capshaw is leaving Grey's Anatomy at the end of this current season, and the April 5 episode seemed to indicate how her character might leave the show: Arizona was diagnosed with breast cancer. Fortunately, the diagnosis was a sham, but instead of being relieved, her friend Owen (Kevin McKidd) is riled up and out for blood…

Having been quite literally shown the door by Teddy (Kim Raver), Owen is already in a foul mood when the episode starts. Ex-wife Amelia (Caterina Scorsone) even places a call to Germany to reason with Teddy — one ex of Owen's to another — but it's a lost cause. Luckily, Owen soon finds a distraction: a car crash victim who says she has stage II breast cancer. 

As Owen realizes after a scan of this patient's chest, however, she doesn't even appear to be sick. 'I'll bet my license this woman does not have cancer,' Owen tells Arizona. Owen realizes her oncologist, one Scott Hanson, isn't the miracle doctor everyone thinks he is — he doesn't even have a crucial oncology certification. 

Exam: Dr. Hanson gives Arizona an ultrasound and finds a lesion on one of her breasts. She's skeptical, of course, knowing what she knows about this quack

Evidence: But then she and Owen take a closer look at the ultrasound and see a lesion with their own eyes. 'I have cancer?' Arizona asks, aghast

Proof: Arizona gets an ultrasound from April, whom she knows to be a good doctor. Turns out, Arizona's breast is lesion-free and Dr. Hanson has been using fake ultrasounds

Owen and Arizona go to his office, posing as a married couple to do some sleuthing. Arizona asks for a mammogram... and Owen looks all kinds of uncomfortable as Arizona removes her top in front of him. 

Dr. Hanson gives Arizona an ultrasound and finds a lesion on one of her breasts. She's skeptical, of course, knowing what she knows about this quack. But then she and Owen take a closer look at the ultrasound and see a lesion with their own eyes. 'I have cancer?' Arizona asks, aghast.

She and Owen rush back to Grey Sloan, and she gets an ultrasound from April (Sarah Drew), whom they know to be a good doctor. Turns out, Arizona's breast is lesion-free. The team realizes Dr. Hanson has been using fake ultrasounds and bilking his patients for money. 'We need to destroy him,' Arizona says.

Owen pays the not-so-good Dr. Hanson a visit at his office after hours and confronts him about his deceit. He literally threatens to give Dr. Hanson a taste of his own medicine. He's about to inject the man with chemotherapy drugs when he sees flashing lights from outside and realizes the cops have arrived. He skulks off, hopefully to vent his rage less harmfully.

Meanwhile, Amelia and Koracick (Greg Germann) are concerned their patient Noah's (Steele Gagnon) brain tumor is pressing against his brain stem, so they get Noah's mother to consent to their experimental laser therapy. (They're a lot less confident when Mom isn't around, though. 'Her son is basically a guinea pig,' Amelia remarks.) 

Alex (Justin Chambers) is also invested in Noah's case, thinking the same laser therapy could save his brain tumor patient, Kimmie (Nayah Damasen), who seems to have lost her optimism.

Vigilante justice: Owen pays the not-so-good Dr. Hanson a visit at his office after hours and confronts him about his deceit, threatening to inject him with chemotherapy drugs 

With the help of DeLuca (Giacomo Giannotti), this group of docs starts the laser treatment, but they have to go very cautiously to avoid boiling the kid's brain. It's nerve-fraying, painstaking work, and when Koracick finally persuades Amelia to stop, she vomits. 

The docs are terrified they caused long-term brain damage to their patient, but the little guy finally wakes up and starts laughing — real laughs, not seizure laughs. Alex, Amelia, and Koracick celebrate. But later, Koracick tells Alex that the laser work on Noah was like 'skiing down a mountain blindfolded' and that they can't risk putting Kimmie through the same procedure. Alex, enraged, throws Koracick against the wall; but this time, the Hulk gets his anger under control without having done too much damage. Koracick, to his credit, even seems to brush off the dust-up.

In the emergency room, the paramedics bring in a woman who collapsed at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, and Richard is surprised to see the patient is Ollie (Mary Kay Place), the AA sponsor of his whom we met in Season 2. Richard learns she has developed liver failure and cardiomyopathy. 

'My dying liver is killing my heart, and my heart is killing me,' she observes. Richard is also upset he never mentioned her condition to him — especially since she's the one person he has talked to the most in his life — and even more upset she's ready to give up on life. 

'I didn't know how to sponsor you through my death,' she explains.

Richard learns his AA sponsor Ollie has developed liver failure and cardiomyopathy as she tells him: 'My dying liver is killing my heart, and my heart is killing me

Richard introduces Ollie to his quasi-daughter Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and his actual daughter Maggie (Kelly McCreary) — but even as goddesses of general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery, respectively, Mer and Maggie can't come up with a game plan. They're out of options. Ollie isn't surprised, though. She's ready to go by this point. She just wants Maggie and Meredith to find Richard a new sponsor. (And later, Mer tells Maggie that Maggie does not want to see Richard drunk.) But Richard is stubborn — he wants them to do everything they can to save Ollie's life.

After a pep talk from boyfriend Jackson (Jesse Williams), Maggie finds Richard on a park bench and offers him a parable. She tells him she wishes she hadn't subjected her late adoptive mother to rigorous treatments. 

Advice: After a pep talk from boyfriend Jackson (Jesse Williams), Maggie finds Richard on a park bench and offers him a parable

Heart-to-heart: Maggie tells Richard she wishes she hadn't subjected her late adoptive mother to rigorous treatments but wanted to save her

'How could it be wrong to do everything in my power to save her?' she asks. 'Because you weren't doing it for her,' Richard replies, connecting the dots. 

Later, Richard finds Amelia feeling vulnerable after Amelia's laser stress, and he brings her to meet Ollie. 'You brought me another doctor?' Ollie says. 'No, Ollie,' Richard replies. 'I brought you a meeting.' He is done trying to save his longtime friend; he's just savoring their remaining time together and making her feel useful again.

At their home, a delightfully-shirtless Ben (Jason George, now of Station 19 fame) gives Bailey (Chandra Wilson) a wrapped present. To her disappointment, though, the 'present' is a pill box for her heart meds. (Practical? Yes. Romantic? Not in the least.) On another night, he comes home exhausted and falls asleep before Bailey can put the moves on him. So finally, on another night, she calls him home with an SOS that has him thinking there's an emergency. 

'It is urgent that we celebrate being alive, right here, right now, naked,' she contends, ripping off his firefighter uniform. You go, Bailey!

They're not the only ones getting down and dirty. Back at the hospital, after another hook-up with DeLuca in the on-call room, Sam (Jeanine Mason) realizes she has never seen his place… then realizes he actually lives in that on-call room. 'Move in with me,' she blurts out. And he doesn't seem opposed to the idea!

Meanwhile, Meredith and Jo (Camilla Luddington) are back at square one with their idea for the surgical innovation contest — now that Cerone (Rachel Ticotin) is spitefully hogging the patent to the polymer they need. But then they realize one of their rats, David Bowie, has grown a mini-liver even without the polymer. And just like that, they're back in the game.

Sorry: April gives an especially heartfelt apology to her ex-husband, Jackson, explaining she had lost faith in God during their marriage and had taken that crisis of faith as his victory

And finally, April spends the episode conducting an apology tour around the hospital — apologizing to Koracick for using him for sex, apologizing to Owen for her erratic behavior, and even apologizing to the interns for being harsh with them. (But when she flags down Schmitt, played by Jake Borelli, he apologizes to her, since his knee-jerk reaction is to assume he's in trouble!)

April gives an especially heartfelt apology to her ex-husband, Jackson, explaining she had lost faith in God during their marriage and had taken that crisis of faith as his victory since God was never part of his life. Post-breakup, however, she's realized he's been supportive the whole time. 

'Even when it felt like He wasn't there, you were,' she says. 'Thank you, and I'm really sorry.'

But when she apologizes to Maggie for being awful to her at the game night, she innocuously mentions she tried to jump Jackson in the closet — citing that romantic misfire as an example of her recent mess-ups — not realizing, of course, Maggie and Jackson are an item now. Maggie looks crestfallen; Jackson apparently failed to mention that incident. The episode ends with her looking seriously pissed with him. Eek. Would not want to be him right now. 'Til next week, Grey's fans!