TV Review: Grey's Anatomy Episode 2.22

Sunday, April 02, 2006

From ABC: George begins to overstay his welcome at Burke's apartment; Meredith learns a secret about her father; Bailey worries her colleagues will not treat her the same now that she's a mother; and Alex gets a lesson in bedside manners.

My Rating: 3 out of 4

This week's episode titled The Name of the Game is all about the games people play in life. We quickly learn that both Meredith and Izzie have taking on vows of celibacy. Meredith is also going sober as she informs the bartender Joe and her friend Derek. In order to help her cope with the lack of both things, she is knitting a sweater. Or so she thinks. Izzie is actually knitting one, and letting Meredith think she is. Of course Denny doesn't like the fact that Izzie has taken on a vow of celibacy, buit Izzie doesn't care all that much about that.

Meanwhile, O'Malley is at Cristina's and Preston's playing charades with his new girlfriend, but Yang is shocked her boyfriend doesn't even know who Madonna is. Her competitive winning spirit makes it so that she now wants George out of the house. Yang is taking a surgery course, and as it turns out Webber is also taking it as a refresher course. Of course, once again Yang's competitive nature comes into play here. Of course Meredith might want to forget about both her vows once she learns that her father has a secret. George meets her father in the hospital, and it turns out so is his wife and pregnant daughter. The sister that Meredith never met or knew she had. And this is just the first eight minutes.

We come back to find Bailey is upset that she is now being mommy tracked by the Chief. She hasn't had surgery in days, and she is getting crabby about it. She latches onto Derek for the day as his "intern." Meanwhile, Meredith and Izzie are working in ortho for the day with George's new love interest, and neither seem to enthused. As for Preston, he is working with a cancer patient that wants him to cut as much of it out as possible. The patient is played by Laurie Metcalf, Roseanne's Jackie Harris. Her child isn't even aware her mother is sick. The woman continues the lie even in the face of certain death. She finally does tell her daughter though by the end of the episode after Alex talks to her with some tough words.

Yang is the one responsible for letting the sister out of the bag when Meredith joins her friends at lunch. She mentions seeing her dad, and Yang blurts out about her sister. Of course, George leaves the table before all this happens. Back in the operating room, Bailey is helping Derek with an awake brain surgery on a teenage boy headed for the National Spelling Bee. Things go wrong when Derek goes a bit too far and hits the language center of the brain. Derek is able to repair the damage made, and it makes Bailey a bit emotional, which explains why she is on the mommy track.

Meredith curious to meet her sister goes to her sister's room, but the woman has no idea that Meredith is her sister. Addison leaves the room allowing Meredith to prep the young woman for surgery. The woman tells Meredith all about how wonderful her father is about her and her older sister. Another sister that Meredith had no idea even existed. Meredith goes to ortho to release her frustration. What I'm wondering here is if the one sister is in her twenties and the other is going to medical school, then were these children somehow born before her dad left Ellis. Because if I remember correctly, Meredith's dad left them twenty years ago.

Thatcher's wife does find Meredith with her daughter, and the moment is awkward at best. The woman immediately know who Meredith is. As for Thatcher, he shares an awkward moment himself with Webber. He finds it in his right to inform the man about Ellis' condition. Her father then looks for George for some odd reason to ask him about Meredith, and George actually puts aside his anger at Meredith to answer her father.

Cristina is one-uped by Webber in the class, and he gives her some advice she uses to rid her apartment with Burke of George. She goes back to basics, and Preston throws him out. This leads him to run to his new love, and he finds her living in the hospital. Finally, it appears he is moving on from Meredith though. As for Meredith, she meets her dog's vet, and we have a new love interest for her as Chris O'Donnell joins the cast.

This week's episode while appeared to be full of fun and games was actually not. It had its fun moments, but those were weighed down a bit with more heavier issues. The story line with Meredith adds more to her character development, and it also helped George to move on from their problems it seems. At least we hope so. It was also nice to see an episode with very little love triangle action going on. Alex didn't give Izzie any flack for Denny, and it appears Derek and Addison are as happy as they can be. Now all we need is to find Meredith a man - enter the hot vet as we see in the previews for the next episode. I'm also enjoying this softer side to Bailey which we have seen develop throughout the season. She can still be tough, but it is good to see the softer side too.