TV Review: Grey's Anatomy Episode 2.05

Sunday, October 23, 2005

From ABC: Meredith and Dr. Shepherd have to use more than medicine when a young woman's traditionalist, religious father forbids her to have a life-saving operation. Meanwhile, George and Alex are forced to perform surgery under less than ideal conditions in an attempt to save a patient's life, and its decision time for Derek and the two women in his life.

My Rating:

Another busy week for the interns of Seattle Grace Hospital. Power outages, gun shot victims, porn and the love lives of many of the surgical staff of SGH were a focus of this week's episode, especially when it comes to the female interns. Meredith has her on-going saga with Derek. This week he has to make a choice between his wife and Meredith. Last week, we all remember Addison serving him with divorce papers. She wants an answer as does Meredith. Izzie and Alex went out on their first on last week's program, and we could tell by the way things ended on that episode that the date wouldn't go well. Then we have Cristina and Burke. Last week, we saw Burke go to comfort her following her losing their baby.

This week we continued on with on-going story lines and dealt with some medical drama in the halls of Seattle Grace. We also once again saw Meredith's mother make an appearance, but this might be the last time we see her for a while. She was discharged from the hospital and released back into the care of her nursing home. Last week, I had a theory about Ellis and Chief Webber and their past relationship. A theory that was proven correct early on in this episode. Ellis and Richard had an affair twenty one years ago. Ellis left her husband, Meredith's father, but Richard didn't go through with leaving his own wife. This explains Richard's behavior towards Ellis since her arrival at Seattle Grace.

This week all the interns were busy on their own cases. The only ones that shared a case were Alex and George. Meredith is assigned to work with Derek, at his request. They have a case of a girl that needs surgery in the next day or there is a chance she will never be able to walk again. Alex and George are assigned to gun shot victim, a policeman shot in the chest. Izzie is assigned to a woman that is said to have a heart attack, and Cristina is assigned to a man that uses porn in order to control his pain. Yes, you read that right!

Let's first talk about Meredith and Derek. They have a case of a young woman that needs immediate surgery. Problems arise when her father denies the operation based of their religious beliefs. After this is discovered, Derek decides they will respect the family's wishes and find a way to have their beliefs followed as quickly as possible, so the surgery can go ahead as scheduled. The young woman needs a cleansing ritual by a Shaman in order for her soul to be found. The ritual is performed, and the surgery goes forward.

However, this isn't all that happens with these two. After stating she won't make a stand for him, Meredith goes back on this, and she makes an impassioned speech to Derek. During this speech, she asks him to choose her over Addison, and she tells him she loves him. I think I was even cheering Meredith on during this scene. She then tells Derek she will be awaiting his decision on whether or not he signs the divorce papers at Joe's. To show up if her chooses her.

Well does he show up? No. In another moment of hesitation, he stays at the hospital, and he even once again asks the advice of Dr. Bailey. The shocker we find out here is that Bailey is married and has been happily for ten years. We keep learning more and more about Bailey each week. Now what will happen here? We are once again left wondering as the episode ends. Addison shows up and meets with Derek, and Meredith is left at Joe's bar with her fellow interns. Will his standing her up make her finally give up on Derek? Not by a long shot. In fact, I think Derek will end up choosing Meredith. I think they are stretching this out for sweeps. We will have to see!

The most serious hospital case this week is the one involving the shot cop. When transferring him to the OR, the power in the hospital goes out, and there isn't enough power in the generators to run the elevators. The man's condition deteriorates, and they need to open his chest and perform an operation in the elevator under the guidance of Burke and with half the hospital staff watching. Alex freezes and George has to step in, but in this episode we finally see George become a doctor. Over the last few weeks, we've seen George grow more and more, and in this episode he performs under pressure and performs well. I love how they have developed this character over the course of this season.

Cristina is back in action this week, and her first case is a man that controls his pain by watching porn - all of the time. When the power goes out, there goes his porn, and this makes him a very unhappy and in pain man. Cristina gives up, and finally starts telling him an erotic story about naughty bad saucy nurses soaping up together in a shower. By far the most humorous case of the season so far. Poor Cristina.

Now what about her and Burke? After last week, he comes to her wanting a relationship. She doesn't give him an immediate answer, but by the end of the episode we have a couple on our hands. This will be fun to watch in the weeks to come. Wonder how Webber will react when he finds out!

Izzie's case had the least amount of focus this week. She has a woman that comes in after an apparent heart attack. Izzie looks into her history, and finds that the woman comes in to the hospital every year on the same day. Turns out it is the anniversary of the death of a man the woman was in love with, and the stress of the day causes her heart to stop every year. A heartbreaking scene. I felt bad for the woman, and you can tell Izzie does too.

Now how about Izzie and Alex? Their first date is a flop, and Izzie is not happy. However, no one knows of the news Alex received last episode about his medical boards. He even freezes when faced with the open heart surgery in the elevator. This is obviously affecting him. I actually feel bad for the guy, and I never thought I would say that. However, I do have a question here. I'm not sure what happened, but didn't Izzie have a boyfriend? Did they break-up? I think they might have some point last season, but I don't recall if they did or didn't. HMM! Well, if they didn't and he shows back up at some point, that will surely cause problems.

Week after week, this show is by far one of the best on television. We have strong writing that develops characters each and every week slowly. We learn new things about at least one of the major players on each episode, and the secrets are revealed slowly with not a lot of fan fare. Just stated and put out there for the fans. This was another solid episode, and after tonight's previews I can't wait to see what happens to our cast of interns next week at Seattle Grace.