TV Review: Grey's Anatomy Episode 2.13

Sunday, January 15, 2006

From ABC: Izzie seems to be getting over Alex when she shares an undeniable chemistry with Denny Duquette, a patient who's awaiting a heart transplant, and George treats Bex, a young teen hermaphrodite.

My Rating: 4 out of 4

Grey's Anatomy is back after a month long holiday hiatus with an episode titled Begin the Begin. The series had gone twelve straight weeks without a break, so a few weeks off was good for the series. I am really glad to see the series back though. We were left with the Christmas episode and Derek's confession to Addison that he was in fact in love with Meredith. This opened up the door for the return of the love triangle between our three Seattle Grace staff members when the series returned from its break, and that is exactly what happened.

This series picks up three weeks after the last episode just past the New Year, a new beginning and fresh start in Meredith's mind. We see her at home with the dog that only seems to like her. Once the interns make their way to the hospital, a new rule is now being enforced. Apparently, the hospital has an eighty hour workweek policy, that all the interns have been violating since they began. That is no longer going to be allowed to happen. Meredith is sent home until noon, and Cristina is even forced to leave the OR during an operation because she's already passed eighty hours for the week. This doesn't set to well with her, so she practically begs Bailey to allow her to tag along for heart retrieval.

If successful, the heart would go into the man that is Izzie and Burke's patient, Denny. It seems this man has a bit of a crush for Izzie, and she seems to show some interest in him as well. She does try to keep a professional doctor/patient relationship as much as she can however. Watching these two flirt around was fun though. Is she finally getting over Alex? Well, that definitely looks to be the case, and this happening only fuels the rumors that a cast member is leaving the show. Since those rumors started to fly back in December, my bet has been on Alex not passing his exam and being forced to leave the hospital. We're still waiting to hear how he did. Mention of his test rules are mentioned during the episode, so hopefully this means we will hear something soon.

We had three cases on this week's episode, a young girl that turns out to be a hermaphrodite, a writer that has become so disgusted with his latest novel that he decides to eat his words (literally), and the aforementioned heart transplant. Let's first talk about Bex, a young girl that ends being the patient of Addison and George. At first it appear she has a tumor pressed up against one of her ovaries, but after some more testing it turns out not to be an ovary but a testes. Her parents have raised a daughter for the last fourteen years, so they know this changes everything. There is a possibility their little girl isn't a girl but a boy. They decide to withhold the information from her, and to have the tumor removed.

George isn't thrilled about lying to his patient, and he struggles with telling her some. He ends up leading the daughter into a conversation with her parents, and the truth does come out in the end. Bex is actually happy with the idea she is possibly a boy, and we see a touching moment near the end of the episode with George helping her cut her hair until her mother walks in and takes over. I really loved George in this episode with his interaction here.

The second case is for Webber and Alex to handle. Webber was actually quite nice to Alex in this episode, and that was nice to see. The writer has eaten his manuscript, so the doctors need to go in and remove it surgically. I've been disgusted with something I've written, but I've never had the urge to eat my manuscript whole before! Once it is removed, the man is still experiencing some problems, so Alex decides to do some research. As it turns out, when the man ate his manuscript, the paper contained mercury in it, and he got sick with mercury poisoning. Once this is discovered, Alex administers the proper treatment and all is well.

The major case of tonight's episode was the heart transplant. Bailey and Yang head off to hopefully retrieve the heart for Burke's patient. This allows some one on one conversation between the two. Burke wants to know if Cristina will move in with him, and he is also curious about the baby. Bailey is still pregnant with her own child, and this allows Cristina to question her about the pregnancy on their way back from Ohio. The heart turns out to be a no go, and this leaves Burke and Izzie's patient with no heart. He leaves the hospital.

The cases weren't all that was happening. We also had a heating up of the love triangle with Derek, Meredith and Addison. We have one scene between the former couple in the elevator, and I was screaming at the two to just kiss already dammit, but that was too soon for that I think. Addison is staying with Derek in his trailer, and that is making for fun times. Derek also approaches Ellis about a program that might help her with her Alzheimer's upon Webber's urging. When Meredith catches Derek at her mother's, sparks fly, and she tells him to leave her mother and her alone. Derek goes to Webber to get his help talking to Meredith, and it is only then that she goes to Derek to find out about the program for her mother.

I really am glad this series is back. I was getting a bit bored with the love triangle story line, but I think they are reintroducing it nicely. They were being a bit too wishy washy for my taste with it the last few episodes, but I think that was because Derek was being wishy-washy himself. Now he has admitted his feelings for Meredith, so this definitely makes things more interesting. I really love Bailey's renewed interaction with the interns as well. She isn't so much the nazi anymore, and we are getting to see some true and honest feelings from her here. I hope her having the baby doesn't make her the one that leaves. I think she adds something to the series with her character, and I'd miss it. We have another new episode of Grey's Anatomy next week. I can't wait! You can download a preview of next week's episode here.