TV Review: Grey's Anatomy Episode 2.08

Sunday, November 13, 2005

From ABC: Derek and Addison Shepherd's professional relationship is challenged when their closest friends come to Seattle Grace seeking a radical, preemptive operation to avoid breast and ovarian cancer. Meanwhile, George can't understand why a patient who fell five stories doesn't seem happy to have survived; an elderly gentleman makes a difficult decision upon learning that his wife has only a few months to live; Cristina and Burke try to have a "normal" date, and Chief Webber is disappointed by Bailey's fellowship decision -- until he learns her reasons.

My Rating: 4/4

Oh my God! This show can frustrate me so! Anyone that watched the last scene tonight knows what I am talking about. We were this close … this close I'm telling you, and then? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. How frustrating is that. If this show were titled properly, it would be called "The one with all the frustrating moments in the elevator." However, it is called "Let it be."

I am jumping way ahead of myself here though. Let's go back to the beginning. It is just another day for our interns and surgical staff of Seattle Grace. The sun is shining. Derek is on his way to work on the ferry, as is Addison, but oops not really because Derek chooses to ignore her existence on the ferry. George is eating his bagel for breakfast when things go crappy – literally.

A man falls from the sky … yes Chicken Little the sky is falling! Well at last a part of it. Poor pigeon definitely got its payback for crapping on George's day though! However, it was for a good cause. The bird broke the man's fall and he lived. A fact he should be ecstatic about, but he is anything but. George is as happy as could be because a second earlier, and it would have been him breaking the man's fall, and not the bird. This could have injured both him and the man severely. The bird did them both a favor, even if George and Cristina spend a good amount of time taking the bird off the man's back, beak and all.

George finally figures out why the man isn't thrilled to have survived. He had jumped - a suicide attempt gone bad. The man then figures he was meant to live to patch things up with one of his old flames. She just happens to work at Seattle Grace in the billing department. Talk about coincidences huh? Well, George goes off to find her and he does. Problem here is the man is a bit late – ten years late in fact. Daisy, the woman in question, wants absolutely nothing to do with him. George goes to the man, and tells him he couldn't find the woman, and he dies right there at that moment on the operating table. Quite mysteriously in fact because other than a pretty banged up leg, the man was fine.

Moving on to Burke and Cristina. This episode marked their first real date. These two are a couple, and they have never seen each other dressed in normal clothing, much less outside of the walls of Seattle Grace. This could spell trouble for the new couple. After Cristina picks out the perfect dress to make her look hot, the two are off to dinner. Things don't start well. She eats meat, and he doesn't. There is silence, and things look bad. Then miracle of miracles, a man collapses in the restaurant, and luckily it is even a surgical case. Burke and Yang dive right in, and the patient is sent to SGH. The two perform surgery together, and things work well. When Burke apologizes for the bad date, Cristina says it was the best date of her life. Okayyyyyyy.

A good portion of this episode deals with a case Addison takes on. Two friends of hers and Derek fly out from NYC, and this isn't just a purely social visit. The woman wants to be tested for a gene that causes ovarian and breast cancer in women following the death of her mother. The gene runs in her family, and others have died as well. Once she tests positive for the gene, she asks Addison to remove it all - her ovaries, uterus and breasts. This she decides on her own without consulting her husband. This of course upsets him.

Izzie is also upset by the woman's decision, and this throws a bit of a cog into the new relationship she is forming with Alex. He kissed her last week if you recall – with tongue and all! He makes it clear to her he attends to do it again, but when she sees the case of this woman she is upset, and she tells him that if it was her in the woman's shoes he wouldn't be with her. Breasts are one of the things that attract him. At first, he doesn't deny this, but in a touching scene near the end of the episode Alex comes to Izzie and tells her even without breasts he'd want her because it isn't those he wants, he wants her. She slaps him, and then kisses him. Mixed signals!

A smaller subplot on tonight's show dealt with Bailey and a fellowship she has been offered at SGH. Webber is pressuring her for an answer, and when she doesn't supply one to him fast enough, he approaches her to ask if she is leaving SGH to take a fellowship elsewhere. She sets him straight, and delivers him some more news. Bailey is pregnant. We just learned she was married, and now she is pregnant. How exciting. Something tells me this baby will be born safe and sound. Two failed pregnancies in once season would be hard to handle.

Now let's talk about the source of my frustration in tonight's episode – Meredith and Derek. Meredith is assigned a case with Bailey that at first looks like simple gall stones, but turns out to be a case of advanced stage gall bladder cancer. The woman is old, and she comes with her husband. When Meredith finds out, she goes to him with Bailey, and he doesn't want his wife to know she is dying. Meredith doesn't tell her at first, but Bailey makes her. When she tells the wife, she doesn't want the husband to know. Heartbreaking story, but the couple will live happily in denial until she passes.

Throughout the episode while working on this case, Meredith keeps running into Derek in the elevator. Every single time she gets on it, he is either already in it or getting on it on another floor. The final time it is just the two of them, and she admits she misses him. He comes up close behind her, almost looks like he might kiss her or touch her, and then steps back after a really long agonizing moment with an 'I can't.' Oh my God! So so frustrating. He loves her. She loves him. He is staying with his wife out of some moral obligation or some other reason that makes no sense because he obviously no longer loves her. It just makes things really difficult, and the one it is hardest on is Meredith. I feel so sorry for her in this situation. She had no idea he was married, and if she had known she would never have allowed herself to be in this position. She is though, and it is making for really good television.

Once again Grey's Anatomy has captivated me for an hour on Sunday night. There are no words for how much I love this program, and it is by far my favorite on television. I am so involved in these characters and what happens in their lives each week. Next week, we spend Thanksgiving with our interns and others at what appears to be Meredith's house! Things should be interesting. See you next week.

If you want to discuss this episode with myself and others, don't forget I have a discussion topic set up over at the Media Village Forums in a topic here.

Starting with this week's episode, I will also post the episode song list once the song information becomes available. The songs will be available to download from iTunes unless otherwise noted.

Music from this week's episode
"Sexy Mistake" The Chalets
"No Sleep Tonight" The Faders
"Bang Bang To the Rock N Roll" Gabin
"I Melt With You" Nouvelle Vague
"Far Away Blues" Joe Purdy
"Miss Halfway" Anya Marina Good - Not Available for Download