TV Review: Grey's Anatomy Episode 2.17

Sunday, February 12, 2006

From ABC: Despite the best efforts of the Seattle Grace staff, the code black situation escalates.

My Rating: 4 out of 4

I think this series might have killed me just a little tonight. I think there is no doubt, at least not in my mind, that this was the best episode of this series. I laughed and I cried throughout the last half hour especially. This episode had it all, and it had intensity. Last week's episode gave us a Code Black when a an was brought into Seattle Grace Hospital after being shot in the chest by a homemade bazooka. Once the staff learns of this situation goes from life threatening to one person to life threatening to many many more.

The entire hospital is actually at risk. A young woman paramedic, Hannah played by guest star Christina Ricci, holds the man life in her hands because her hand is resting on the bomb. The bomb squad is called in and the O.R. is evacuated. However, the young woman ends up panicking and running out of the room. Due to Meredith's quick moving, she ends up being the one with her hand on the bomb. That is how we ended things last week.

This week in the episode titled (As we know it), we pick up things right where we left off. Meredith still has her hand on the bomb, and the bomb squad and Burke are best trying to figure out how to remove the bomb without blowing everyone up. The rest of the surgical staff is at loose ends because most of the surgical wing has been closed off. The only OR's running are Burke's and Shepard's.

Derek is hard at work on Bailey's husband. He was in a car accident on his way to the hospital to be with Bailey as she gave birth. Once she learned of her husband's condition, she decided to put an end to her labor, if only it was that easy right? Her condition becomes life threatening to her unborn baby the longer she waits to give birth. Addison is trying to talk into giving birth, but we all know how stubborn Bailey can be once she puts her mind to it. Her husband also has a tough time of it, and at point Derek almost loses him. Derek knows how important Bailey's husband is to her so he goes above and beyond to save the man.

However, by the end of the episode George has somehow talked her into giving birth. He got tough with her, and it worked. I really loved George in this episode. Even after Addison yells at him in the hallway when he approaches her about Bailey, he still tries. Bailey gives birth to a beautiful boy, who she even names William George. That was one of the happier moment's of this episode. It needed it because this episode was really heart stopping.

While the bomb is in play, there is a lot going on in the hospital. Once Izzie, Alex and George find out it is now Meredith with her hand the bomb, the three deal with the news in their own ways. Izzie has a panic attack of sorts, and she goes off to be on her own. Alex follows though, and he comforts her as best he can. However, it looks like the kind of comfort she wants at the moment is sexual. The two finally had sex for the first time on last week's episode. Once that is done, the two go to Webber to ask for something to do. He gives it to them by having some sort of attack. At first glance it appears to be a heart attack, but that isn't the case we learn once tests are run.

Before he has his attack, we learn from Webber that the OR where the bomb is directly over an oxygen line, which means if the bomb does go off in that room there is a chance that the whole hospital could blow up. This means they must move the gurney, Meredith and all, out of that room as carefully as possible. After a few tense moments, and Cristina telling Meredith that Burke told her I love you while she was sleeping the night before, they do make it safely into another operating room.

Burke goes to work and we soon know it is okay for Meredith to remove her hand with the bomb in it out of the man's body. She has a last moment freak out just before she does, and she tells those in the room to make sure that George and Izzie get to keep her house if she dies. She also has a moment where she sees Derek in her mind, and this last moment encouragement gives her the boost she needs to remove her hand. She does so successfully, and Burke goes to work on operating on the man.

Meredith steps out of the operating room to watch the bomb squad leader walk off with the bomb, and this is when it goes off. It literally leaves nothing left of one and possibly two bomb squad members, including the leader. Meredith is knocked unconscious from the blast but she is relatively unhurt. Cristina and Izzie help Meredith clean up, and she goes home with a cut on her forehead, which when I think of it is almost in the same exact spot she hurt her head a few episodes back.

As for Derek, he learns Meredith was the one holding the bomb while in surgery with Bailey's husband, and once he and Burke are both out, his first thoughts are to find Meredith, but Addison finds him first. Webber's wife is perceptive, and she knows when Derek was asking for a she, it wasn't his wife. Derek ends up on Meredith's doorstep, and this is probably one of the best Meredith and Derek scenes this season. However, I wanted to ram my head against the first hard surface because it just kept stringing us along.

As I mentioned when I began this review, this was the best episode of this season, and possibly even the series. I know it had me on the edge of my seat, even more so than last week's episode. Grey's Anatomy is one of the best series on television, and this episode just proved that. Last week, thirty eight million viewers tuned in, and that is nearly double the numbers of a standard episode of Grey's Anatomy. Let's hope some of those new viewers that tuned in last week stuck around to see the conclusion tonight. They were surely not disappointed if they did.