“Grey’s Anatomy” recap: “Dark Was The Night”

By Joe Dyton (thedytonian@yahoo.com)

Last night’s midseason finale? Now, that was an episode of “Grey’s”! After a few weeks of watchable, but unsubstantial episodes, we finally got something we could sink or teeth into yesterday. There was tension, high stakes, decent comic relief; these are the things that make “Grey’s”, “Grey’s”. I still wrestle with is it worth it to sit through uneventful episodes to get a big payoff like last night. I still think I’d rather have some excitement every week and a strong payoff episode rather than go through nothing going on for episodes at a time and one or two big POW! episodes a season. I understand every episode can’t be like last night’s; if you keep the pedal to metal full-time, you’ll burn out the engine. I’m just looking for a few more speed bursts. Anyway, this isn’t about the season so far, it’s about last night’s show, so let’s get to it.

I have to applaud the “Grey’s” writers’ room; they got me to care about Henry’s well-being. Just last week, I said I had a hard time emotionally  investing him because he was married to a third-string character. That changed when Cristina was put in charge of Henry’s surgery. Now, we were getting somewhere. Cristina tasked with saving her mentor’s husband’s life? That’s good drama. Although, I felt Henry’s fate was sealed when Teddy passed up on Richard’s decades’ worth of OR experience in favor of a fifth-year resident just because Cristina knew how to do a more state-of-the-art procedure. After that decision was made in the elevator, I wrote in my notebook that Henry was finished. I know hindsight is always 20/20, but I don’t think keeping Henry’s identity secret was the best way to go. Her cavalier, just another patient attitude might have made her a little sloppy. From all we’ve seen from Cristina, the pressure of operating on Teddy’s husband wouldn’t have gotten to her. She operated on her best friend’s husband at gunpoint for crying out loud. It doesn’t seem like Henry had much of a chance anyway, and by not telling her it set up the great, but painful scene where Owen broke the news to her who it was. Putting that scene behind the glass and out of earshot was a good idea, and well-executed. A small part of me wishes we could have heard the conversation though. In seven-plus seasons, how many times have we seen Cristina lose it like that? Off the top of my head, I can only think of two times; when she lost her and Burke’s baby and when she begged Meredith to take of her wedding dress after Burke disappeared. Again, it was a small part of me that wished that; I think they made the right call.

I thought losing Henry on the table was painful enough, but then they go ahead and make us sit through Teddy talking to Owen as if he made it through the surgery fine. I felt so bad for Owen as he was battling through his Chiefly duties and his friendship with Teddy about whether to tell her not. You could see the wheels turning in his head. Richard was right; that news couldn’t be delivered as she was trying to save a patient’s heart. It just stunk that he had to lie to his friend. He probably would have been better off avoiding her OR all together. For the first time in a while, I can’t wait to see what happens next on this show. Will Teddy blame Cristina? How will she react when she finds out Owen lied to her? The rest of the episode could have been bad, and I would have been OK with that because the writers found a way for me to care about a Teddy storyline.

Speaking of the rest of the episode, I was actually kind of surprised that the McDreamy’s aren’t going to get Zola. At least it doesn’t look that way. Until they get an official word, I’m not writing that off just yet. It’ll make for a more interesting story in terms of Meredith and Derek’s relationship if they don’t get her though. Will Mer blame Derek like he thinks she will? On the flip side if they do get Zola, I’m sure the writers can get plenty of mileage out of Derek and Meredith being parents, so it’s a win-win there. I liked the domino effect that Jackson and Callie’s mess-up started, even if leaving equipment in a patient was already done on “Nip/Tuck”. If that doesn’t happen, then Teddy’s not in surgery and she’s probably watching Henry’s surgery and all the backlash from the dishonesty wouldn’t occur. And of course, there was Alex and Meredith trying to get a newborn back to the bigger, better-equipped Seattle Grace Mercy West. You’d think hospital ambulances’ engines would be checked so often, they would never break down like that, but what are you going to do? We have to let some things  slide for the sake of entertainment, right? Anyway, they were just lucky the thing didn’t blow up when they got hit like the driver said they might. My goodness, that was an eerie ending with the passengers from the other car just lying in the road, but what a way to end the last episode of 2011.

OK a few more thoughts and I’m finished…

*I enjoyed watching Mark and then Arizona try to sell Derek on him and Meredith co-parenting Sophia (I guess they’d be parents four and five, so would it be quint-parenting?). That was nice comic relief to a somewhat heavy episode.

*Between what happened to Callie last season and the passengers that hit Alex and Meredith last night, is “Grey’s” the best “always buckle up” PSA ever?

*I was shocked when I saw this was “Grey’s” midseason finale. It aired on November 10!!! Couldn’t they have had one more episode next week before Thanksgiving? No new episodes in December? That just seems early to me.

 Line of the Night: “She’s a baby, not a timeshare in Cabo.”

*Honorable mentions:

-“I have Alzheimer’s in my family history, what’s your excuse?”

-“I think we should get another surgeon.”

-“I’m not her valet.”

-“I knew what J-Lo wore to the coffee house. That’s what I was doing.”

-“She’ll never forgive any of us.”

Well, that’s all that I have. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did. That’s a wrap for “Grey’s” in 2011. We’ll reconvene about this show next year. Have a wonderful weekend!

Joe Dyton is a marketing copywriter in Washington, DC and a freelance sports reporter for the Frederick News-Post in Frederick, MD. He is a former assistant editor for The Dealmakers real estate magazine in Hamilton, NJ and a former sports writer and copy editor for The Trentonian in Trenton, NJ. He can be reached at thedytonian@yahoo.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dyton99.

“Grey’s Anatomy” recap: “Heart-Shaped Box”

By Joe Dyton

Like the last couple of episodes of “Grey’s”, I thought last night’s wasn’t bad, just weak in terms of story content. There was nothing that really took me to the edge of my seat, or had me anxiously awaiting the return from a commercial break. It was a serviceable episode, but it would have been nice if there was just one hook during the 60 minutes.

The crown jewel of the episode of course was the return of Mama O’Malley. It wasn’t so much what she did, but her presence helped remind me of how good the show was. I enjoyed Mer, Cristina and Alex (sort of) reminiscing about great George moments like when he flew solo in the elevator. Mrs. O’Malley’s also gave us the great scene when Bailey admitted she had been so hard on Meredith because her behavior, even when she was doing the right thing was, “maddening”. Bailey telling her what to wear to her court hearing was a nice touch. We also got Alex to admit he only called George a creep because he reminded of him of Izzie, which made Alex sad. An Izzie mention? How about that? And of course, I can’t forget the comical scene when Callie freaked out when she saw her ex-mother-in-law and introduced her wife to her as Dr. Robbins. My favorite part of the episode came when Callie went full disclosure on her life and all Mrs. O’Malley wanted to see was a picture of Sophia. That storyline saved what was more or less a mediocre episode.

I also got a kick out of the Chief playing Jiminy Cricket to Cristina and Jackson, but rather than telling them to let their conscience be their guide, he told them to look to the heart in the box. I was wondering how the Chief was going to stay relevant now that he’s not technically the Chief anymore, but it looks like he will be more of a guidance figure. Until the writers realize the show’s at its best when Richard’s in charge and give him his job back, of course. The Chief’s advice seemed to work though; Cristina came up with a quality wish list, and Jackson realized learning from Mark was more important than being with Lexie. I can understand why Jackson did what he did, but I feel like the writers missed an opportunity by rushing the break-up. It would have made for much better theatre if he continued to date Lexie while learning from Mark and then something ends up happening between Mark and Lexie. Then there’s a great inner-conflict; could Jackson still want to learn from the guy who messed around with his girlfriend? That’s better than what we got; Jackson deciding whether or not he could learn from the guy who his girlfriend still pined for.

The rest of the show didn’t interest me very much. I felt more was going to happen with the peds fellowship interviewee Arizona was dealing with. She kind of came and went, and just happened to mention on the phone that Arizona kept going on and on about Alex while he was in earshot. I felt there was going to be more there; maybe an actual encounter with Alex or something. Did they really just bring her in so we could find out Alex is the frontrunner for the fellowship? I wish I could be more interested in Teddy, but I can’t. Her and Henry arguing about him going to medical school? Zzzzzz Honestly, I thought it was a cool ambition on his part. There was some drama at the end when he was coughing up blood, but it’s hard for me to emotionally invest in the husband of the show’s third-string head of cardio (behind Burke and Hahn). The writer in me found the storyline with Lexie and McDreamy’s patient somewhat interesting (plus Alfre Woodard was excellent). Of course the love triangle in the books paralleled what Lexie was going through; she had the right a guy, a nice guy, but she can’t fight the pull towards the flawed one.

OK a few random thoughts and I’m finished…

 

*The heart in a box was a cool apparatus, but watching it beat on its own freaked me out a little bit.

 

*Sorry I didn’t get a chance to write about last week’s show. Overall, I felt the same way as I did about this week’s episode; not bad, but not engrossing either. I will admit, ABC’s promo department got me good. The prior week’s preview had me thinking we were in for another Cristina-Teddy blow-up and break-up. All they did was reshuffle their conversation to make it look like Teddy was saying Cristina was done in a negative way. In reality, she was graduating her! Good job, ABC, you got me hook, line and sinker! I also wanted to give Alex a thumb’s up for his efforts to get Meredith and Derek’s adoption case in front of a judge. The softball scenes were very funny; although I can’t believe in that big of a hospital, Owen couldn’t put together a team of 10 staff members who could actually play. I did especially like Lexie pegging Mark’s new girlfriend with the ball, even if that was what led to Jackson and Lexie’s downfall. And, during that episode, there was a “Private Practice” promo that called it, “TV’s most provocative medical drama”. Umm…did “Grey’s” pass that torch and I just missed it? Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but that felt like a slight on “Grey’s”.

Line of the Night: “She let a starving person loose in a grocery store.”

*Honorable mentions…

-“She’s all dressed up with no place to go.”

-“The Plastics Posse!”

-“I’m picking Mark.”

-“I have a reputation for arrogance.”

-“Want me to drop a note in his locker?”

That’s all I’ve got for this week. I hope you enjoyed the show. Next week’s episode looks pretty tense, but I thought the same thing about last week’s, so don’t take my word for it!

Joe Dyton is a marketing copywriter in Washington, DC and a freelance sports reporter for the Frederick News-Post in Frederick, MD. He is a former assistant editor for The Dealmakers real estate magazine in Hamilton, NJ and a former sports writer and copy editor for The Trentonian in Trenton, NJ. He can be reached at thedytonian@yahoo.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dyton99.

“Grey’s Anatomy”: “Love, Loss and Legacy”

By Joe Dyton

Thursday night on “Grey’s” the heartbeat of the episode was obviously Jackson’s mother, Dr. Catherine Avery, popping in to perform a high-profile operation (let’s just leave it at that). Overall, I thought the storyline worked. Debbie Allen was great in role, not that it was any surprise. I think what I liked most about her being there was her presence wasn’t just about Avery. It was funny to find out that she and April were Facebook friends, that she always carried a torch for Richard, and of course it was great to watch her go toe-to-toe with Mark Sloan.

Mama Avery also gave us a look at how Ellis and Meredith’s relationship would have been if Ellis had been lucid when the series began. I have to imagine Ellis Grey would have been just as hard on Meredith as Jackson’s mother was on him. Nothing would have been good enough. Although the difference, in my opinion was Catherine was tough on Jackson out of caring, while Ellis was just tough to be tough.

I wasn’t sure how to react about Alex letting Derek and Meredith know that Zola had been admitted. As a human being and a friend, I totally get why Alex did it. On the other hand, doesn’t professionalism have to take priority there? It was explained very clearly what was at stake if Derek and Meredith were made aware of what was going on. I always wonder if the rules are as fast and loose at other hospitals as they are at Seattle Grace. I’m trying to think about a time when one of these docs had a dilemma like Alex and actually decided, “You know what? This is going against the rules. I want to do it, but I can’t.” If anyone can think of a time when one of the doctors did the right thing, please refresh my memory. Given this is the place where Izzie cut Denny’s LVAD wire to move him up on the heart donor list, my guess is morality hasn’t conquered all too many times.

I love Bailey, but I wasn’t all that interested in the love triangle thing she had going on last night. At first, maybe I thought it was because I just prefer Bailey in a professional setting, but I remembered that I found her marital woes with Tucker interesting. I guess I wasn’t as emotionally invested in watching her struggle between Ben and Eli because there wasn’t as much at stake. There was still plenty of funny stuff that came out her triangle; I enjoyed the scene with Henry when it was revealed that Bailey never invited Eli to the dinner party (always an awkward situation). I even liked her scene with Teddy when she told Bailey how to break it off. When I like a Teddy scene, it has to be somewhat decent. Anyway, any Bailey is better than no Bailey, so I’ll take what I can get. I just hope she’s in more interesting storylines (interesting to me at least) from now on. My guess is now that “Off the Map” crashed and burned, Ben will be back in Bailey’s life pretty soon?

A few other thoughts and I’m done….

*I loved April’s over-enthusiastically “Woo!” when  Jackson’s mother asked who was excited to make history. I also got a kick out of all the strategically-placed heads around the auditorium when her patient was on stage.

*Another good running gag was Richard trying to guilt-trip Bailey into asking Meredith to help out with his trial. I feel like he’s pumping a dry well there. If there’s anyone who actually cares about following rules at that hospital, it’s Bailey.

*I was certain that the combination of Catherine finding out that Richard was still married, Mark and Catherine’s bickering and Mark longing for Lexie, that Mark and Catherine would, ahem, “get together”. It just seemed like the perfect storm for Jackson’s mom and mentor to go there.

*Line of the Night: “Your left hand is shaking like a motel bedspread.”

*Honorable mentions:

-“You have a mom, Jackson and I have surgeons who procreated.”

-“I have to serve dinner to  a dead man walking?”

-“I am using my powers for good.”

*”Grey’s” is going to need a new lead-in; I just saw that “Charlie’s Angels” has been canceled. I don’t think anyone was surprised by that. I think we’re about four aside for new shows that have gotten full-season pick-ups versus shows that have been canceled. ABC will burn off the rest of the “Angels” episodes that have already been produced.

That’s all I have for this week! Again, sorry for the delayed delivery. Have a great weekend!!

Joe Dyton is a marketing copywriter in Washington, DC and a freelance sports reporter for the Frederick News-Post in Frederick, MD. He is a former assistant editor for The Dealmakers real estate magazine in Hamilton, NJ and a former sports writer and copy editor for The Trentonian in Trenton, NJ. He can be reached at thedytonian@yahoo.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dyton99.

“Grey’s Anatomy” recap: “Take the Lead”

Last night on “Grey’s Anatomy”, our fifth-year residents got to spread their wings a little further when they got to be the lead in the OR for the first time. I enjoyed that storyline, but it made for a slower first half of the show. Once they got to the actual operations, I found the episode much more interesting. Personally, I’d rather have an hour-long show be a little more balanced as far as intriguing stories go, but last night there was still enough things going on during the first 30 minutes to keep it from being a total snooze pre-OR scenes. I’m just hope more of this season’s shows hold my interest from 9:00 to 10:00 more often than not.

Alright, the goal for these recaps this season is keeping them concise, so let’s get to it…

There were a couple of scenes that really stood out for me last night, but my favorite was during Cristina’s appendectomy. I laughed out loud when it turned out holier-than-thou, “know the basics” Teddy couldn’t help Cristina through the operation because she drew a blank too and their scrub nurse had to bail them out. That was one of those great, comic relief moments the show used to give us consistently to break up the melodrama. More of that, please! I also enjoyed watching Cristina grill her interns for an appendectomy step-by-step under the guise of teaching when in reality she was the one who needed the lesson. Felt bad that she made her one intern cry though. Also on the Teddy-Cristina front, when Teddy told Cristina that questioning her every move never gets old, all I could think was, “Yeah, actually it has gotten old.” It’s never good when a plot device like that has worn out its welcome two weeks into a season.

Obviously, the biggest development from last night was Richard stepping down as Chief of Surgery and handing the reigns over to Owen. Sometimes I’m my own worst enemy when it comes to avoiding spoilers because I read so much about TV. I read about this over the summer, so I wasn’t surprised about the announcement. I wasn’t expecting it to be so unceremonious though. Couldn’t we have at least seen when Richard offered Owen the job? Also, let the record show this is the third time Richard has stepped down or planned to step down from the post. Is the time it actually sticks? It will be interesting going forward to see how Owen and Cristina’s relationship goes with him having the big job. Between that and Cristina’s recent life decision, there is a lot going on there.

The Teddy-Cristina scene was the funniest (in my mind) scene, and Richard stepping down was the biggestdevelopment, but the best scene was Derek and Meredith’s quasi-blowout at the end of the show. I say quasi because Meredith was pretty calm during the whole thing. I was glad to see Derek finally let it all out; everything he said was right. Meredith does just jump in without thinking and never really suffers any consequences; she’s like an “Entourage” character. I liked that Derek admitted he was sticking around because of the promise he made and all the things about Meredith that make him want to pull his perfect hair out are what he loves about her as well. It’s great to see this couple become interesting again.

OK a few other thoughts and I’m finished…

*I got a little nervous when I saw the “No animals were harmed…” disclaimer before the episode, but last night’s pig operation was not nearly as jarring as it was last time. Speaking of, when everyone was asking Alex if they could borrow his pig was one of the funnier scenes. Do they just have pigs lying around the hospital for practice??

*Has the pressure of being a fifth-year resident and flying solo gotten to Alex? His bedside manner was pretty bad last night. I never remember him being a “cut ‘em open, fix ‘em up and move on to the next” kind of guy. Also, I thought it was going to take Alex a little longer to get back in everyone’s good graces for tattling on Meredith. Usually, I complain when “Grey’s” drags things out, but this would have seem like a logical time to extend a situation four or five episodes.

*The one thing I really didn’t like about last night was Arizona scaring Jackson out of performing his cleft repair. I understand she wanted the kid to have the best set of hands possible working on him, but her tactic felt a little underhanded. She had already told him she was going to have Sloan to do it, why did she then tell him he could do it, just to scare him out of it at the end?

*I also thought the writers got good mileage out of Owen trying to get on Bailey’s good side. Callie’s right; that’s the one person you don’t want against you. I was also wondering if Callie’s crash-and-burn as Chief Resident was going to come up as April tries to stay above water; glad that wasn’t forgotten. Nice moment between Callie and April there. 

“Line of the Night”:

“Are you guys the slow class?” 

*Honorable mentions

-“That wasn’t very Chief-y.”

“Can I have your pig?”

“Good luck with that, MacGyver.”

“Call the morgue, moron. He’s dead.”

That’s all I have for this week. I hope you all enjoyed the show. Until next week…

Joe Dyton is a marketing copywriter in Washington, DC and a freelance sports reporter for the Frederick News-Post in Frederick, MD. He is a former assistant editor for The Dealmakers real estate magazine in Hamilton, NJ and a former sports writer and copy editor for The Trentonian in Trenton, NJ. He can be reached at thedytonian@yahoo.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dyton99.

“Grey’s Anatomy” recap: “Unaccompanied Minor”

By Joe Dyton

 

Happy Monday! Wow, that just doesn’t have the same feel as TGIF!, does it? Well, I hope you had a nice weekend, and you’re having a nice day.

 

On Thursday, “Grey’s Anatomy” wrapped up it’s seventh season. I have to say, by “Grey’s” standards, the finale was kind of tame, wasn’t it? There was definitely some good fireworks between two of the show’s premiere couples, but besides that, it felt like any other episode of the show. I’d be hard pressed to say I was disappointed about that, but I was definitely surprised.

 

The episode started out with that explosive, “Grey’s” finale feel. When the Chief said there was a plane crash, and it was all hands on deck, I thought we were going to see patients being rushed in, doctors racing against the clock to save lives, you know, the works. Instead, the doctors were just standing around and realized there weren’t going to be any survirors. Fortunately, there turned out to be one, and that led to what was my favorite moment in the episode. I loved when all the families of deceased decided to stick around until the mom of the lone survivor made it to the hospital. It was a touching moment, for what was for the most part a throwaway of a storyline. This was the best the writers could do for the characters not named, Derek, Meredith, Cristina and Owen?

 

Speaking of which, let’s just jump into the two headlines of the episode. It’s been mentioned often in this space that Derek and Meredith had become boring since their Post-In note nuptials. Well, that’s done, at least for awhile. It would have been easy to shake things up between them by giving them a personal issue (Meredith having cold feet about being a mom, a pretty nurse with eyes for McDreamy, etc) to contend with. I like that the writers went the other way and made what’s tearing them apart a professinal conflict. I’m on Derek’s side with this one regarding his anger, but I think it’s silly to think he wouldn’t get back in touch with Meredith. Especially after he would have found out that they were able to take Zola home. I’d like to think he would have put his issues aside to help their daughter settle in to her new home. Sometimes I think writers don’t give the audience enough credit, “Derek’s angry at Meredith, but we’ll show them how angry he really is by having him sleep at the new house.” No, that’s OK, we get it, he’s angry. There was no need to push the envelope by having him not return Meredith’s messages regarding Zola. It’ll be interesting to see how much time will have passed when the season picks back up in September; that to me will determine where Derek and Meredith stand. If it’s only a few days, my guess is McDreamy will still be angry and sleeping under the stars.

 

Since Meredith and Derek had the professional agrument take care of, Cristina and Owen got to cover the personal fight portion of the program. So, Cristina is with child, but doesn’t want to be. Haven’t we seen this show before during late Season One/early Season Two with Burke instead of Owen? Despite this being a recycled storyline, Cristina and Owen’s back and forth was incredible to watch. Kevin McKidd and Sandra Oh really brought it. I was not surprised that Cristina didn’t want to keep it; there was no way Owen was winning that fight. I was shocked that he threw her out of the house though. After all of his, “Can’t we talk about this” pleading throughout the hour, he was quick to pull the trigger when Cristina told him what she wanted to do. I’m actually more interested to see whether Cristina changes her mind than what happens with Derek and Meredith to be honest.

 

As for the third major headline, April kind of won Chief Resident by default, right? After Jackson and Cristina dropped out, it was a three-horse race between April, Alex and Meredith. Once Alex tattled on Meredith, she was done and given Owen’s background and strong belief in character, there was no chance he was going to pick Alex. So, April gets the big job, which I don’t know if she’ll be able to handle. I feel she’s too nice and will get pushed around by the more assertive residents.

 

Other than that, there wasn’t much suspense throughout the episode. It was touching, although not surprising to see Teddy realize she had true feelings for her “husband”, Henry. It was also sweet for Lucy to ask Alex to ask her to stay, but that shipped had sailed the minute she took the job in Africa after he gave it up to be with her. No suprise that Alex told her where she could go for two reasons: a) like I said, she took the job he gave up to be with her and more importantly b) Rachel Taylor has been cast in the “Charlie’s Angels” remake, so she had to be written out of “Grey’s” eventually. As for Mark and Lexie, I thought Mark giving Jackson his blessing was noble if not a little odd, but just wake me when Mark and Lexie get back together, OK?. And lastly, way too little Bailey for my taste on Thursday. I did like that Eli stepped up and pushed until she agreed to let him be there for her, but the heart and soul of the show needs more than a scene or two. I won’t complain about Callie and Arizona more or less being window dressing, since they got their due for a couple of episodes prior to this.

 

*Line of the Night: “This isn’t pizza versus Thai.”

 

Honorable mentions:

 

-”It doesn’t mean you have to feed me warm milk and run me a bath.”

-”The next time you’re in a burning building, no one’s bringing you a glass of water.”

-”You wanna play Angry Birds?”

-”It was Adele’s.”

-”I probably owe him a goat.”

-”I would like to stay.”

-”Get out!”

 

So, overall a decent, but mainly uneventful finale. After last year’s explosive gunman two-hour finale, I guess I can let the powers that be slide on a more muted one this year. I guess all the creative energy was put into the big musical event episode. I’ll be interested to see how things between Meredith and Derek and Cristina and Owen play out, but other than that, I don’t see myself waiting for Season Eight with great anticipation.

 

I hope you all enjoyed the show and Season Seven. Enjoy the hiatus, and we’ll check back in September.

 

Joe Dyton is a marketing copywriter in Washington, DC and a freelance sports reporter for the Frederick News-Post in Frederick, MD. He is a former assistant editor for The Dealmakers real estate magazine in Hamilton, NJ and a former sports writer and copy editor for The Trentonian in Trenton, NJ. He can be reached at thedytonian@yahoo.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dyton99.

“Grey’s Anatomy” recap: “I Will Survive”

On Thursday, we got the penultimate episode of the seventh season of “Grey’s”. I thought it kind of a snooze for the first three quarters of the show. Normally, I’d complain about that, but I’m willing to give the show a pass because the purpose of last night’s show is to set up next week’s finale. The finale looks good based on the previews, but we’ll see what happens when we watch it.

But, back to Thursday’s show. The biggest problem for me was much of the hour was fueled by the Chief Resident race, and I don’t really care who wins. Not to mention, this just feels like a repeat of the race to succeed the Chief when he was planning to retire a few seasons ago. So when a storyline that a) I’m not that interested in and b) has been done before is carrying the hour, it’s not going to be best viewing experience for me. On this storyline though, it looks like the race is down to Alex and April, right? Cristina is out, Jackson dropped out and Alex more or less push Meredith out with his end of the episode bombshell (more on that later). Is Lexie in the race too? I honestly can’t remember. For comedy’s sake, it would be great if April won the gig; can you imagine the rest of the residents having to report to perky, rules-following April?

As for the non-chief resident parts of the show, what can I say? Now that Callie and baby are both healthy, Arizona and Callie are married and Arizona and Mark are getting along alright; there’s not much to feed that storyline anymore. I’m not sure where Arizona and Callie go from here; I guess they’ve had their time in the spotlight, and they’ll now take Meredith and Derek’s spot as the show’s happy, harmonious couple (I can’t imagine things staying sunny between Mer and Der if/when her tainting their trial comes to light). At least there’s some hope for Mark if he and Lexie find their way back to one another (poor Jackson).

Speaking of Jackson, I thought he asked off of the Chief’s diabetes trial to focus on surgery because he thought that would be better his chances for a shot at Chief Resident. I never would have guessed he did it for selfless reasons; dropping out because he didn’t want his name to hurt the Chief’s chances of winning awards was pretty noble. Who knows, maybe Owen will take that selflessness into consideration when he makes his pick.

I wish I could get more excited about Derek and Meredith’s plans to adopt. It’s great that they want to, but just like I was indifferent about Meredith getting pregnant, I don’t think my enjoyment of the show will be made or broken if they get to adopt Zola. When Meredith was talking to the social worker, I wanted to root hard for her to do well, but honestly, I just wanted to show to move on to something, anything more interesting. It’ll be interesting to see if Meredith’s messing with the trial with hurt their adoption chances.

I don’t think it was much of a surprise that Teddy’s situation was going to get messy eventually. It was inevitable that Henry was going to develop real feelings for Teddy and Andrew was going to return, right? Hey, after seven seasons, it’s tough to keep the surprises coming, so I can’t beat up the writers too badly for this plotline. Does anyone think Teddy is really going to go to Germany with Andrew though? I’ve heard nothing about Kim Raver leaving the show, so if she did head off to Germany, I’d be somewhat surprised about that.

On the medical side of things, I’m torn on the Teddy-Cristina debate. I can understand Teddy being mad that her subordinate went over her head, but I agree with Cristina too. Yes, she defied her boss, but she saved the patient’s life. I do think there’s a little truth to Cristina’s accusation that Teddy is threatened by her. Why else would she overreact so badly? I have to bring out my Logic Police badge for a second though; aren’t there other cardio surgeons that Cristina could work under? Is Teddy the only heart doctor in the hospital? As for Cristina’s case; the tree in the lung was pretty interesting. No surprise that April was going to sell her out to Teddy though. It’s all about the checklist and protocol after all. You know what, never mind; I don’t think I could take it if April wins Chief Resident.

Alright, let’s move on to the two most interesting parts of the episode; at least for me anyway. I loved the Owen and Cristina showdown near the end of the episode. The best part about it was everything Owen said was right; Chief Resident would be nothing more than a resume highlight for her. She’d hate the administrative part of the job (where April would excel actually), and want to quit no sooner than she got the gig. The same thing happened to Callie, remember? It would have been an interesting story for Cristina if she did get it though; she’d have to deal with that doubt about whether she was Chief Resident because she earned it or because her husband did the picking.

And then there’s Alex. Oh, Alex. I will admit, I was surprised about how the Lucy thing turned out. I assumed that once he turned down the Africa job, she was going to say she took the job at Baylor. Then we’d have the classic TV “I gave up a good job for you, why didn’t you do the same for me?” argument. What a great job by the writers taking it a step farther and have Lucy not head to Texas, but take the exact same job that Alex turned down. That was just push Alex needed to go into destructive mode. Well, that and Cristina telling him that he doesn’t stand a chance against Meredith for Chief Resident. There was no way Alex was going to play fair and square; he just needed a reason to play the “Meredith cheated” card, and he got two. Can’t wait to what happens next week, and it’s been awhile since I said that about “Grey’s”.

A few other random thoughts…

*Sorry I didn’t do a recap for last week’s show. I was out of the office on Friday, went home for the weekend and didn’t get to watch it until Wednesday. Overall, I thought the episode was kind of bland for having two main characters getting married to one another. Also on that point, I was shocked about how close-minded Callie’s mother was. I remember her dad was the same way; I thought him finally coming around would have rubbed off on her too. Other quick thoughts…I was kind of surprised Meredith and Derek would miss Callie and Arizona’s wedding; did they really have to pick that moment to get officially married?…I can’t figure out Stark; he’s mostly a jerk, but then he turns around and gives April a glowing recommendation for Chief Resident…last week was the second episode in a row that Bailey had to talk Callie off the edge; she’s like her fairy godmother.

Line of the Night: “Meredith messed with the Alzheimer’s trial.”

Honorable Mentions:

“My mom was a nurturing as a steak knife.”
-”No time for mommy (stuff).”
-”I have everything I ever wanted…almost.”

*I was kind of surprised next week’s finale is only an hour; the reaction to Meredith’s deceit and the fallout from the Chief Resident selection could probably take up the hour itself. That’s fine with though; I’d rather there be fewer, stronger storylines in a shorter amount of time than a bunch of filler storylines in a two-hour finale.

Joe Dyton is a marketing copywriter in Washington, DC and a freelance sports reporter for the Frederick News-Post in Frederick, MD. He is a former assistant editor for The Dealmakers real estate magazine in Hamilton, NJ and a former sports writer and copy editor for The Trentonian in Trenton, NJ. He can be reached at thedytonian@yahoo.com. Follow Joe on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dyton99.