Staff Writer
You might wanna double take guys, ‘cause I’m pretty sure we just saw this whole season’s trajectory take shape in a single episode. Seriously.
Meredith and Christina…
Photo courtesy of ABCWatching the twisted-sister-centric promo for this episode last week, I totally thought we would get a massive “we all had interns in that room!” style fallout. But instead, we got something MUCH more unnerving; the beginning of the end for Christina.
We start off with Meredith returning to the hospital from maternity leave, wanting to “jump into the deep end” by scrubbing in on a cool heart-lung transplant with her bestie, Christina. There’s a classic moment where Bailey comes over to the two of them expecting to be the one scrubbing in… Alas, Christina has replaced her with Mer.
Meredith: “Come on! I deserve this.. I’ve been on the bench for months.”
Bailey: “You deserve nothing!”
Meredith: “I named my son after you… *does cocky, happy dance* You can’t be mad at meee…”
Bailey: “Your son is the devil’s spawn, he drinks the milk of a liver thief!”
And that my friends, is why we watch this show.
As the episode progresses we begin to see the difference a baby has made in the surgical focus of one Meredith Grey. She tells the heart-lung patient that baby Bailey is so cute a photo might cause her to have another heart attack. Smooth moves, Mer. Then Christina has to remind her to examine the patient. It’s one of those, you can “have it all” but can you “do it all”, moments that Shonda likes to throw into the mix every now and again.
Then the mommy-drama kicks in, as Meredith realizes she won’t be home in time to throw the “princess tea party” she promised Zola that morning. (You’d think she’d know better than to make a promise like that… I mean, didn’t we establish that surgeons shouldn’t make promises they can’t keep back in like season two?) Derek is still a big hot-shot neuro-God or something, so he tells Meredith that if she can’t make it home in time she’ll have to rope Callie in to deal with Zola (more on that later).
Mer can’t stop yapping about the princess tea party while Christina’s trying to talk to her about the groundbreaking surgery they’re about to do together. Then, when the two are “having a moment” about how scrubbing in together on this groundbreaking operation was what they’d dreamt of doing as interns, Meredith has to zip off to use her breast-pump. Christina is left to ponder the groundbreaking surgery all on her lonesome.
Already we’re seeing that these not-so-twisted-anymore-sisters are struggling to stay on the same wavelength.
As the patient gets wheeled in, Meredith is in the ER with Zola as she cut her head open in daycare and needs a couple of stitches. Meredith debates whether to stay with Zola or leave and do the heart-liver transplant with Christina. “Doesn’t it sound a little Ellis Grey to you?” She queries Karev, “To leave my kid to go to surgery while she’s getting stitches?” Frankly Mer… It does a little… But until you give Zola a creepy “internal organs falling out” barbie doll and let her play in the pit, you’re a far cry from Ellis Grey. God rest her soul.
Mer rushes to scrub in, only to find Dr Bailey prepping for surgery instead of her. Christina’s changed her mind and doesn’t think Meredith should operate. After all, she’s clearly preoccupied, worrying about Zola and princess tea parties.
Once the surgery’s complete, things get intense in the hallway.
Mer: “I understand that you believe you’re God’s gift to medicine, but I am every bit as talented and competent a surgeon as you are.”
Christina: “No. You’re not. I’m sorry, but you’re not. And that’s okay, you have different priorities now.”
Christina goes on to explain that in order for Mer to spend time with her kids she has to cut back on OR hours and research, all the things that turn a good surgeon into an amazing one. We all knew this day would come, Grey’s has been threatening this great divide for years. So much of Christina’s storyline has been about how she doesn’t want a kid because she wants to be an amazing surgeon and the proof is in the pudding, folks.
Christina ends the discussion with: “You and I started running down the same road, at the same time, and at a certain point you let up. […] We’re in different places now, and that’s okay.”
Okay?! It may be okay for you two but we fans will have to process a tad… Because we totally know what this means: the writers are paving a way for Christina to leave. Up until this point it would have made no sense for either of them to leave the show. We’ve seen them living together as old ladies in a dream sequence; we’ve established that they are each other’s “person”. But they’re in different places now y’all: it almost makes sense for Christina to move on. Which I guess is the point.
Alex and Jo…
Photo courtesy of ABCWe are definitely seeing a more complex side to Alex emerge this season. Jo gets to know his dad, Jimmy, who’s preparing to be discharged at the end of the day. He clearly has an aggressive side, snapping at Jo for trying to book him into a rehab clinic, but we also see him regret being a asshole in his youth. Dammit I think we might actually like Karev’s dad.
There’s an awesome scene near the end where Karev stands next to him in the elevator as he’s leaving the hospital. Jo has told Karev that this might be the last chance he has to save his dad because as soon as he leaves the hospital, “He’s gonna go and use again and he’s gonna die.” For a second Karev looks as though he wants to reach out but then the doors open and Jimmy disappears. Ah man! I hope this isn’t the last we get of these two. Some childhood Karev flashbacks would also be amaze (while we’re sharing hopes for the season).
Callie…
Photo courtesy of ABCOur favourite pizza loving ortho-nut had a very empowering episode tonight. As much as I do not like the total breaking apart of Calzona, it’s nice to see Callie on her own again. Sort of. She has kind of shacked up with MerDer… Which she realizes when talking to Owen about their simultaneous break-ups: “Derek and Meredith and I are in a relationship… I used to dance in my underwear! I thought I’d get back to that when I left Arizona and instead I walked right into Big Love. I rebounded to the McDreamies.”
Owen chuckles about this while enjoying the banana-loaf his rebound Gala girl sent him as an “I like you” gift. Anyone else thinking we might see Callie and Owen rebounding on each other at some point? I feel like ever since that what/if episode where they were married and had three kids it’s only been a matter of time ‘til Shonda found a way to get them in an on-call room together.
She later delivers a great “yeah, you can say no!” speech to the donor-baby sister of her patient, who has just been asked to donate a kidney. Even though the sister later changes her mind and donates anyway, Callie sticks to her guns and kicks Arizona out of her apartment. You go girl! At the end of the ep we see her putting Sofia to bed, putting her headphones on, whipping off the pants and dancing in her underwear. Just like in season two. Except back then she was straight, living off her parents, moping after George and didn’t have a place to live. Oh how times have changed.
Arizona and Perky…
Photo Courtesy of ABCWhat the heck is going on with Arizona, guys? Am I the only one who feels peeved that they’ve turned her into a lonely, pitiful cheater this season?
Perky drops a bomb in the form of coffee when she (rather perkily) greets Arizona in the hospital foyer. Arizona freaks out to April: “What did I do?!” And then panics because she has a vague drunken memory that Perky came back to her apartment the night of the Gala (we SO knew something would happen when she gazed at her through that taxi-cab window).
Things get weirder when Perky acts all pally during a surgery, telling Arizona not to worry because she “won’t tell anybody what happened” the other night… Oh dear, Arizona not again!
Perky later examines Webber (whose health is slowly improving) with a rather timid touch. I’m slightly confused as to Perky’s personality… One minute she’s an uber-driven Christina-type, next minute she’s all anxious and nervy, and in between she’s… Well… Perky. I don’t get it! At first I thought that if her role on the show expands this season, she could be an attempt next season to fill the Christina-shaped void. But I really don’t think she has the balls. I mean, Christina hated it when Burke brought her coffee back in season one… Perky’s now bringing Arizona coffee and acting all “you think I’m pretty?”… It just doesn’t fit. Writers: we need a new bitch.
Okay, so after Callie announced in the bar that she’ll be kicking Arizona out of the apartment, Perky pipes up with an invite for her to crash at her place. Arizona then asks what the hell happened after the Gala and it’s all good because they “just hung out”. Although if you ask me, loitering at your boss’s apartment after finding them passed out drunk is pretty weird. And a bit creepy. They have a moment though so I guess we’re supposed to be thinking they might become a thing. I’m intrigued but so over the whole intern-dating-an-attending thing that Grey’s Anatomy has revisited like a million times since the pilot.
Can I just say: while Callie has been playing house with the McDreamies, Arizona’s been all alone in that handi-capable apartment getting drunk with random interns and eating grilled cheese. Nothing about that sentence sounds positive for Arizona. Shonda’s been saying for the past year that we’re gonna see Arizona struggle more than the others to cope with the plane-crash induced PTSD because she hasn’t had to deal with anything like the amount of trauma Meredith and Christina have in the past. I hope that means we’ll see her hit rock bottom soon so she can get back to being herself. (And we can have a Calzona reunion.) Is she even going to therapy like Callie told her to or did we drop that plot, Grey’s?
Jackson, Stephanie and Catherine…
Photo courtesy of ABCI’m not gonna lie: I really can’t stand the Averys. Jackson and his mom, Jackson and his mom, Jackson and his mom… It feels like 90% of Jackson’s storylines involve the phrase “Jackson and his mom”. Like seriously, so boring.
In this case Stephanie is trying to win over Catherine (Jackson’s mom) but this becomes more difficult when she walks in on them having ironic sex in an on-call room. How hipster of them.
Eventually though, the pair bond when Stephanie speaks up on behalf of pissed off daughter in laws everywhere. It’s a little weird that she repeated the metaphor used to describe a guy who inserted his penis into a hornets’ nest though: “There are 500 other things about me that are more interesting than [catching me having ironic sex in an on-call room]”.
Meh, I’m over this showmance already, let’s cut to the chase and bring back Japril!
Overall…
I like the journey this season is taking us on, it’s eclectic enough that even if we find certain characters dull, there’s pretty much a storyline for everyone. I do hope they kick the on-again off-again dynamics up a notch though because at the moment we’ve got a lot of singletons and a distinct lack of chemistry.
See y’all next week!
Here’s a promo to wet your whistle (grossest saying ever?):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX0Vs8qFvzY
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