Staff Writer
How can a medical drama get into the holiday halloween spirit without going too cray? By keeping the focus on its characters at all times. That’s the mantra that seems to have worked wonders for Grey’s this week with its super special halloween episode, “Thriller”.
A few highlights: Owen leaving the world’s most socially awkward voicemail, Alex embracing the forever alone attitude while stealing actual candy from babies, spooky melodramatic music playing through every scene, an old lady scaring a kid to death, and some ridiculously good costumes.
GIF Courtesy of TumblrMeredith and Christina drama…
Oh man, these two are breaking my heart. As soon as it was announced that Sandra Oh would be leaving this season, we all knew the separation of arguably the greatest friendship ever created on network television was fairly imminent. It would either be that, or a sudden death… and we all know how well those go down with fans! *Shudder*
GIF Courtesy of TumblrMeredith continues on her mommy crusade tonight, attempting to juggle a newly approved research project with her surgical commitments and plans to spend time with her kids. This particular day she’s planning a halloween party for a bunch of children (including her own… and Calzona’s Sofia).
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GIF Courtesy of Tumblr
GIF Courtesy of TumblrIt’s a pretty cute idea but I still feel the pang of despair knowing Mark and Lexie would have been uber involved in all these family get togethers. Why Shonda, whyyyy?
GIF Courtesy of TumblrSymbolic of this “superwoman” juggle, Meredith delegates the fixing of Zola’s butterfly wings to Derek. Thank God his 20-odd years of neurosurgery have prepared him for stitching broken wings back together.
Mer then bumps into Christina, who’s offended she forgot to invite her to the halloween party.
Mer: “Well, you don’t wanna be around a bunch of kids hopped up on sugar anyway, right?”
Christina: “Right… ‘Cause I hate children!”
Mer: “[Sensing the sarcastic tone] Christina…”
Christina: “But I love your kids.”
Awkward moment ensues.
Mer: “I… I’m sorry, I should’ve invited you. I just thought… But you should come by for a drink.”
Christina hesitantly accepts the invitation but she looks a bit left out. Then she spends most of the episode scrubbing in with Owen on a patient who attacked a man because he thought he was a zombie, then got shot in the chest but didn’t die because all his organs are in the wrong place. Christina is in surgical heaven. She gets to operate backwards and can apparently also operate “with both hands, upside down, underwater, and in a straight jacket”. Awesome!
Christina tells Owen not to over-complicate the surgery, and Owen tells Christina not to over-complicate her situation with Meredith. It’s all very amicable. Afterwards, Owen calls Emma (who’d apparently broken up with him because he hadn’t told her about Christina) to patch things up via voicemail.
GIF Courtesy of TumblrChristina also decides to take his advice and go the the party; this means bringing the cupcakes Mer had halfheartedly asked her to bring, after not really inviting her to the party in the first place. Christina seems to be taking the high road here.
Meanwhile, Meredith gets a patient in the ER who comes in with her adult son and a deep leg wound. Mer unwraps the wound. It’s FULL of maggots. They writhe. The lady is terrified of hospitals, and needles, and doctors, etc., so Meredith goes and buys her an eye mask so she doesn’t have to think about what’s happening, and sweetly chats to her about halloween costumes to keep her in high spirits. Why can’t you be that considerate towards Christina, Mer? What the hell happened?
When Christina appears at the kids’ halloween party (which incidentally, is being held at Alex’s house, where Christina currently lives), she sees Meredith with all the other parents and realizes this isn’t the place for her to spend halloween night. Leaving the cupcakes on the table, she escapes and heads back to Joe’s bar. (Is Joe gone now? I can’t remember… and I didn’t recognise the new barman…)
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GIF Courtesy of Tumblr
GIF Courtesy of TumblrBarman: “What are you supposed to be?”
Christina: “Sexy…” Shoves nearby hat on head, “Witch.”
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GIF Courtesy of TumblrMy oh my, who does she see sitting next to her? Why Sharky, of course. He buys her a drink and they trade some flirty gazes. Well folks, are we looking at a new fling for Christina? I actually wouldn’t mind seeing that… She spent so much of the last ten years looking for a mentor (and generally sleeping with them) that it’s nice to see a bit of role reversal. Plus Sharky looked pretty sharp in his random pirate outfit. I did spend the whole of last season thinking he was gay… But now that he’s not, why not pair him up with the queen!
Image Courtesy of TumblrParting is such sweet sorrow… I s’pose the growing apart of two best friends is a massive storyline that’s never really been explored properly before. Plus it’s something nearly everybody experiences and can relate to, so could definitely be one of the more poignant plots we’ve seen on the show.
Alex and Jo drama…
Basically these two go through a bit of a rough patch tonight that mostly involves Jo chasing after Alex, trying to repair the damage caused by his lashing out at people.
Jo is also still assigned to Webber’s case, who’s got it lodged in his head that he can teach the second years while he’s still their patient. He insists he wants one of them to fly solo on his surgery later that day. Bailey is not happy about this. (Seriously, why is Bailey being such an over-protective weirdo when it comes to Richard? He’s been nothing but an ass to everyone so far this season.) Consequently, Richard kicks her off his case and ropes Meredith back in. (That’s right, he gives her a totally fake “I’m only saying this so you’ll do what I want” apology and she accepts it enough to take on his case. *Sigh* The daddy issue laden idiot.)
GIF Courtesy of TumblrAnyways, back to Alex and Jo… Alex’s patient is a little girl who’s dad appears to be preoccupied with work but otherwise seems nice. Alex believes this man is the worst father that ever walked the earth. I believe that this is called “projection”. Jo recognizes that Alex is taking his anger towards his dad out on his patient’s father but Alex doesn’t want to hear this. He’s still mighty peeved off about the whole “I was fine until you planted the seed I should go talk to him” thing.
GIF Courtesy of TumblrEventually the pair of them figure out the girl’s mystery illness. It turns out she has a problem producing adrenaline, which causes her body to go into shock whenever she gets scared. “She could literally be scared, to death?” Yup. And all it takes is for her to go trick or treating down a creepy corridor, then bump into the world’s creepiest old woman. The girl collapses but luckily Alex finds her just in time. He also saves the old woman who was wheezing scarily due to a lung condition, not a zombie virus.
Jo then freaks out to Meredith about Alex, telling her she needs help fixing him because he’s spinning out over the whole long-lost-dad thing. Meredith shuts her down, claiming she’s too busy to take on Alex as well; she has “too many kids and too many patients” to “handle a broken Alex right now”. Such a good friend, Mer.
Jo resolves to up her game and fix Alex. Cut to several scenes later where a bitter and twisted Alex is eating a bucket full of halloween candy, watching TV and hiding from trick or treaters. (This was the most realistic thing a character did all episode, I might add.)
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GIF Courtesy of TumblrThere’s suddenly a knock on the door and Alex tries to ignore it, thinking it’s trick or treaters… Alas, it’s Jo: she’s dressed like Tinkerbell and armed with the world’s cheesiest speech.
GIF Courtesy of TumblrJo: “I was wrong about your dad. I made a bad call.” Yatta, yatta, yatta. She rambles a bit. But Alex likes it.
GIF Courtesy of TumblrBy the way, how the hell did she get so dolled up so fast? In fact, all the interns looked amazing. Steph was blind for the entire episode and she had intricate clown make-up on! I smell a fish…
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GIF Courtesy of TumblrAlso, everything about the way Jo was styled in this final scene just reminded me of Izzy in that elevator prom dress, which annoyed me because I’d actually grown to like Jo… Writers, don’t ruin it by making them too similar!
Ultimately Alex accepts her apology though and they presumably go back to hiding from trick or treaters, eating copious amounts of halloween candy and watching crap TV.
Callie and Arizona drama…
Right, so when we first meet Arizona this episode she’s asleep in bed with Leah. Leah wakes up and tries to sneak out as they agreed not to be an actual “thing” so she wasn’t supposed to sleep over. Arizona is weirdly clingy and doesn’t want her to go. She appears to have totally changed her tune since last week where she was completely ashamed of herself for even texting Leah. I think I just need to give up trying to understand Arizona this season…
GIF Courtesy of TumblrIt’s all very strange. The way the scene’s filmed, you can hear traffic and the bedroom seems cold and bare, which kinda makes you feel like you’re not supposed to want these two to become a thing because they seem wrong together. But then the quirky halloween music kicks in and because Leah has actually become quite likable now, you kind of want her to be happy and don’t think them being together would be such a bad idea. But then all the Calzona feels kick in and you’re back to square one…
Meanwhile, Leah reminds Arizona that it’s halloween and she’s thrown, as if she’s forgotten she has a kid she’s meant to hang out with during the holiday season.
At the hospital, Arizona and Callie bicker over who gets to take Sofia trick or treating that night. They each made her a different costume.
Arizona: “Fine, we can hold up the costumes and she can decide who’s work she loves more.”
Callie: “You know what, forget it. You take her. I’m not doing this.”
So, are we to believe that Arizona makes this comment despite the fact that she has always been a pediatric surgeon who knows better than to ask a child which parent she loves more? Arizona was always great with kids, that’s one definite characteristic she has always had. So what the heck are the writers doing with her? It’s like they are deliberately turning her into a completely different (totally unlikable) person.
Callie struggles for the rest of the day over whether she should let Arizona have Sofia to herself for the holiday. Her patient (the lady with the rather freaking gross maggoty leg wound) manages to sway her into insisting all three of them spend the holidays together
Callie: “Do you want me to stay?”
Maggot Lady: “Don’t you have kids to get home to for halloween?”
Callie: “Well, yeah… but you know, it’s okay, I’m gonna…”
Maggot Lady: “Oh no, you don’t wanna miss it! You only get ten before they go off with their friends getting into trouble. You gotta enjoy it while you can.”
Later in the day, Arizona finds Leah crying in the second year lounge. Leah reluctantly explains that she’s crying because she “got bit, by a delusional, psychotic drug addict who thinks he’s the undead.” And that she’s waiting for the guy’s HIV results. Poor old Leah tries to send Arizona away so they can avoid getting emotionally involved, but Arizona tells her now isn’t time to worry about that. She relays a story about the first time she accidentally nicked herself with an HIV infected needle.
GIF Courtesy of TumblrArizona: “My whole body went cold and I had never felt fear like that in my whole life.” What are other people thinking about these two as a coupling?
GIF Courtesy of TumblrCallie rocks up to Alex’s house where Meredith is hosting a halloween party for all the kids. With the twisted sister tension, and all, I am now thinking Meredith and Callie might be headed for new BFFdom. Who’da thought it? A friendship that began here…
GIF Courtesy of TumblrCallie explains that she and Arizona have agreed to get along during the holidays to spend as much time with Sofia as possible.
Callie: “We only get about ten of these before she starts wearing slutty costumes and running off with her friends, and I’m not about to cut that number in half. It’s the first thing Arizona and I have agreed on in months.”
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GIF Courtesy of TumblrThe thing about Callie and Arizona’s relationship in this episode is that they seem to have become indifferent to one another. We’ll see how long that lasts, I guess. Calzona fans have been promised a “mind-blowing” episode nine by Shonda on Twitter (this marks episode seven). So take that as you will!
Bailey and Ben drama…
Had anyone else sorta forgotten that Ben existed? Yeah me too. I even had to google whether or not they were married. It’s been a long couple of seasons, okay?
So Ben rocks up and wants to play happy families on halloween, which is apparently his favourite holiday. That’s cool, except the writers have decided this season to address the fact that Bailey has thus far spent approximately zero hours with her son on the show, having been featured in many large hospital related storylines instead. They first addressed this a couple of episodes ago when Christina used Bailey as an example of a mother who continues to put work ahead of family. In other words: “She didn’t let up.”
Tonight, we saw this being addressed much more directly (and kinda tragically) when Bailey comments on how happy little Tuck is because Ben has made such an effort to make him a costume and decorate the house. Clearly Bailey has never had time to do that herself and so it upsets her.
GIF Courtesy of TumblrBen later reveals that he’s dropped out of his residency so that he can return to Seattle and settle down properly with Bailey and Tuck, as a family. Far from seeing this as a positive thing, Bailey announces that she’s “disappointed” in him for dropping out. She wants somebody just as driven as she is, I suppose, but you’ve gotta feel bad for little Tuck who’s in the background watching them argue. (A tad reminiscent of Meredith’s childhood spent watching her parents argue over the same issue of ambition.)
GIF Courtesy of TumblrIt’s nice to see Bailey with a more interesting storyline this season than “oh Richard please stop being so stubborn” though, I must admit.
Jackson and Stephanie drama…
We got the faintest flicker of Japril back tonight. Even if their scenes together only served to strengthen Jackson’s relationship with Steph, at least they had scenes together! We haven’t seen much of April yet this season… Although the promo for next week hints she’ll have a slightly larger role in episode eight. April makes fun of Jackson for being so sickly sweet towards Stephanie. April tells him that when she used to work herself into a tizzy, Jackson’s straight talking was the one thing that could calm her down and get her back on track. She illustrated this by setting a paranoid patient straight about whether the drug addict he’d shot was in fact a zombie.
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GIF Courtesy of Tumblr
GIF Courtesy of TumblrApril to patient: “Hey, Victor! Victor! Hey, Hey! Listen to me! You are not under quarantine, you are in the ICU, which is where we take patients after surgery. You were attacked by a normal guy who took a bunch of drugs, lost his mind and attacked you. He didn’t die when he was shot because he’s got a condition called situs inversus, which means his heart is on the opposite side of his chest.”
Patient: “Random.”
April: “Yeah. Completely random, and also not in the least bit supernatural. And really, honestly when you think about it, isn’t that a hundred times scarier than the zombie apocalypse?”
Patient: “Yeah… Yeah I guess it is.”
April to Jackson: “You see, someone starts spinning out, you just shut it down.”
GIF Courtesy of TumblrJackson seemingly takes this on board when he later meets Stephanie (who’s dressed in full clown garb) inside Joe’s bar. She’s been spinning out all day because she’s worried she’ll never be able to operate again after undergoing laser eye surgery.
GIF Courtesy of TumblrJackson shuts her up by telling her he would’ve been happy to take the day off with her and drink soup and watch movies if she hadn’t been so stubbornly insistent on coming back to work before her recovery time was up. After a brief silence…
Steph: “Can we do it tomorrow?”
Jackson: “We’re gonna do it right damn now.”
GIF Courtesy of TumblrI do actually like Steph, she’s become the funniest of all the interns, I feel like every week we get a random source of hilarity from her. My fave this week:
GIF Courtesy of TumblrOverall…
Props to Grey’s for taking on a halloween special and actually coming up with a fun, fairly frightening episode (or at least creepy depending on whether you watch American Horror Story). More props to Grey’s for avoiding the usual filler plots we get presented with on holidays, and giving us some real story development instead. Also, well done Sharky for managing to pull off a sleeveless pirate jacket.
Don’t forget to check out the promo for next week, below:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fS1Pkn6C_A]
See y’all next week!
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