TV Review: Grey's Anatomy Episode 2.21

Sunday, March 19, 2006

From ABC: When a series of deaths occur at Seattle Grace, the uncanny events bring out the doctors' superstitious sides and make Izzie nervous about Denny's surgery. Meanwhile, Derek and Addison discuss making a more permanent living arrangement, and Richard treats a very special, old friend.

My Rating:  4 out of 4

Tonight's episode titled Superstition was probably one of the best episodes this season of Grey's Anatomy. It begins with a hospital superstition that states that people die in cycles of three and seven. I've actually the cycle of three before tonight's episode. The episode begins with four deaths in quick succession, so it quickly begins to spread that three more patients will die before the end of the night. So surgeries are cancelled left and right. However, not everyone can wait until after midnight in order to have surgery. Some cases need immediate attention, and while we have high medical drama this episode, the focus is not on the medical cases, but more on the interactions between the interns and staff while working on said cases.

There are four cases this week. The first to arrive being a woman coughing blood. She has a special relationship with Chief Webber, so she has George call him to help her. As it turns out, she is his Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor, and she has been so for several years. He tells her what is going on with Ellis Grey, and he immediately get taken down a notch by his sponsor because it is the situation with Ellis that caused him to hit rock bottom in the first place. His being close to her now could set him back as far as his sobriety goes.  She comes in with a bad liver, and she does need surgery. Webber operates, and she comes out well. So no death here.

The next is a man involved in a motor vehicle accident. He also suffers from chronic obsessive-compulsive disorder. He needs to say or do things a certain amount of times for good luck. Derek needs to operate on his brain, and anytime brain surgery is involved there is a risk. This man isn't as fortunate as Webber's friend, and he does die on the operating table. We have death number five.

Next into the emergency room at Seattle Grace is a woman that first says she was hit by lightning, and then she was under a tree hit by lightning. Finally, she says she was actually in a tree when the bolt hit it. It turns out, she needs to have surgery to remove her spleen. However, the staff at the hospital isn't the only ones with their superstitions. She believes she is having a bad day, so she might die if she goes under the knife before midnight. However, Bailey and Meredith try to convince her to have the surgery because she might not be able to wait until after midnight. They are right. The woman does end up bleeding out, and she dies in the ICU. We have number six.

Our last case is the same one we've been dealing for a while now. That is the case of Denny and his bad heart. This week, it appears his condition has worsened again, and he needs another surgery. He can't wait until after midnight either. Izzie is worried for him. Alex tells Denny how it is with no sugar coating, both when it comes to his health and in regard to Izzie. As Denny waits in the operating room, Izzie confronts Alex, and we have one of the best scenes of this episode. She breaks up with him, and tells him that Denny is more of a man than he will ever be.

Burke is the doctor on this case, and he spends the majority of the episode for looking his stock of personal surgery caps. They have gone missing from the laundry. Cristina has one, but she won't give it to him. So Burke sends George after it, and he becomes her shadow for a good part of the episodes, even following her she is with Meredith. At least he can stay in the same room with her, even if he can't bear to look at her. It is actually Izzie that gets the cap Cristina has when she learns about it. Another great scene for Izzie when she threatens Yang for the cap.

When Burke sees the tenseness between Alex and Izzie he orders them both out and away from his operating room. He brings in George to assist. While Izzie waits on news on Denny, she hears two others have died. However, we learn soon enough that Denny wasn't one of them. Izzie admits to him she has feelings, and we see her kiss him. Since it is after midnight by this point, no one else has died. We have only six in the hospital that day.

As I mentioned the interaction between the staff is a focus of this episode. When people begin dying, Addison goes out to buy hot chocolate for everyone because it is her way of getting good luck. She even brings Meredith some, and of course this raises some eyebrows. George still isn't talking to Meredith, and Alex finally has enough at the end of the day. He decides to tell George off in front of both Meredith and Cristina.

While Alex might have been upset over Izzie's breaking up with him, I actually agreed with what he told George. The intern has become quite whiny since the incident with Meredith. Yes, she hurt him, and yes he has a right to be upset, but he seemed to be stuck on it. He didn't even attempt anything with the hot doctor hitting on him. By this point, she is tired of waiting on him to call, and she tells him so. However, he finally wakes up from his Meredith induced coma, and makes the first call. Torres agrees to go out with him.

This episode of Grey's Anatomy was one of the best of the season. It had both humor and intensity. I also enjoyed the high amount of character development within the episode. One thing that bothers me a bit is I don't think we saw Allison and Derek further things with their relationship as mentioned in the summary. I did appreciate what we did see. Izzie is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters on this series, and this episode only cemented that love for her and her character. She has more than one side to her, and this is what makes her great. She's soft and hard. It appears we have no new episode of Grey's Anatomy next week. An all-new episode will be shown in two weeks.