TV Review: Grey's Anatomy Episode 2.11

Sunday, December 04, 2005

From ABC: Cristina Yang has little sympathy for Constance Ferguson (special guest star Rosanna Arquette), a prison inmate who jeopardizes her health just to get out of solitary confinement. Meanwhile the interns all keep careful watch on the family of premature quintuplets with a variety of serious health challenges, Izzie's anger at Alex reaches boiling point, and Dr. Addison Shepherd decides to teach Izzie a very painful lesson.

My Rating: 4 out of 4

If possible I think Grey's Anatomy just keeps getting better and better as the season progresses. Unlike other shows on air, this program has gone straight through since September without a single break. Although that might mean an early season end for Grey's Anatomy, but only time will tell if that is this case. This week's episode titled 'Owner of Lonely Heart'  was highly intense and emotional with several cases taking the attention of our interns.

However, the main case is the same one from last week. The case of the quintuplets born to one couple on last week's episode. Each of the interns is in charge of one of the babies, and only one of them is in good condition. Two are near death, and the interns, along with Bailey, are doing all they can in order to keep these babies all alive. We see each of our interns spending time with the babies, but it is Izzie and Meredith who spend the most time. Their babies are in the worst condition.

Emily has an underdeveloped heart, and Burke and Addison to correct the problem perform surgery, but as soon as they open up her chest they know the baby has no chance of survival. Her heart hasn't even grown enough to make it possible to save her. They don't tell Izzie this fact, and in fact Addison decides to use the baby as a teaching lesson for her protégé.

She puts the young doctor in charge of the baby with the instruction to not let the baby die. The baby does die though by the morning, and Izzie blames herself because she fell asleep instead of watching her. Addison talks to her, and explains what happened. I know the lesson is a hard one to learn, but I can see why Addison did this. I cried for Izzie a bit though, and once she is set to go home for the day. Her friends are there by her side, and in order to help Izzie better, Meredith gave the go ahead for the three roommates to adopt a dog.

Izzie really had it tough on this episode though. Last week, she had caught Alex after he just had sex with Nurse Olivia. She is extremely unhappy to say the least, and she expects her friends to be there for her then too. However, Meredith isn't as supportive as she would have liked. Meredith actually goes so far as to tell Izzie she was better off without him. Ouch! Plus, on the flip side, Meredith and Alex are sort of friends now, so double ouch! Izzie is in an understandably bad mood all episode. Olivia trying to apologize didn't help much. The combination of all that happened made me feel really bad for the young intern. Meredith's baby, Charlotte, has underdeveloped lungs, and she is able to find a way to help the baby live, so that is one positive note. All the other babies do appear to do well here. The only one that doesn't make it is Baby Emily.

Our five babies aren't the only patients that decide to venture into the hospital. One has O'Malley and Olivia in charge of his care. Apparently he has a slight build up of blood in some areas. The treatment prescribed leeches. Once those have done their job, the patient wants to keep the leeches. First, George thinks the man wants to keep them as pets, but the man instead wants to release them back in the wild. George asks the man if he is married, and the man says no. I wonder why! Hah!

Our other case is a bit more serious. A woman comes in from the jail after having swallowed a razor blade. She is in solitary, so this is her way to get out and talk to people. Turns out she has swallowed not one but four blades. This needs surgery, but she'll be as good as new in a couple of days. That isn't good enough for her. She then swallows a light bulb, but this causes even more damage, and it looks like she has landed herself in the hospital for a couple of weeks stay. Actress Rosanna Arquette played the woman wonderfully. She is amazing actress, and she will next be seen on season three of The L word, which begins its season next month.

A minor sub plot to this episode was of Burke and Cristina. Their relationship had been a focus the last couple of weeks. This week the focus was definitely on Izzie and Alex. However, we do see in this episode that Cristina appears to be staying with Burke. She is also trying this relationship thing out a bit. There is hope for her yet, but it does appear from the preview for next week's episode we have some more bumps in the road up ahead.

Another great episode for Grey's Anatomy. This show is just consistently good. I've enjoyed all of the episodes this show has presented us with. Some have been better than others, but each had its good moments. This show has also gone non-stop since September with high quality episodes, and this is something I definitely applaud. Next week, we have Izzie getting into the holiday spirit once again when Grey's Anatomy airs another new episode. The preview looked promising, and we even have a promising Derek and Meredith moment as well. It was nice to see them having fun again this episode. I really love a happy Derek and Meredith. We'll have to see what the interns and staff of SGH have in store for us next week.