Grey’s Anatomy Redux: Some Kind of Miracle
February 23, 2007 by Kath Skerry
Yeah, I got your emails…all of them. And I know I haven’t yet posted about last night’s Grey’s Anatomy, but there’s a reson for that – I’m a little unsure how to do so. See my problem is that I don’t know if last night’s episode was genius or a complete disaster. I’ve only watched it once and although I enjoyed the episode I really don’t know what to make of it.
What I liked…
Denny, Coach Taylor, Abby Morgan and the woman from Amen! Let’s just call them the ‘deadies’. It was nice to see the ‘deadies’ back. Well at least Denny and Dylan (is that his name? the bomb squad guy? or am I getting confused because he coaches the Dillion Panther on FNL?). Those two guys brought a lot to the scenes they were in last night. As did Ellen Pompeo. She’s a great crier…kudos for making it convincing.
Patrick Dempsey turned it up a notch last night, and his waterworks were impressive as well. Unfortunately for him (and me) every time he gets emotionally I can’t help but think of the “you wrecked me” scene from Can’t Buy Me Love. Sorry, but it’s true. With that aside, I thought he was great.
Also on the great list were Bailey – I love when her compassion shines through. George – for laying it down for Izzie (sorry but you crossed a line sweetie). Christina for showing some honest to god emotion over Meredith’s trauma. Nicely played Sandra Oh.
Here’s my issue…
I didn’t care about Meredith. Not that I wanted her to die or anything, but it was so obvious from her opening VO that she was going to live that there was no suspense there. The purgatory or wherever her and the deadies were hanging out kind of bored me. Why were the deadies there? Were they stuck? Why did Abby Morgan keep bleeding? And if she was bleeding, then why wasn’t Dylan turning into pink mist or Denny dying from a bad heart all over again? Maybe it was because I watched the show at 1am, but this all was very confusing to me.
My other big issue? How about Meredith being down for over an hour and yet no brain damage? She wakes up and she’s gossiping with Christina 2 minutes later? Come on now. Shonda Rhimes, I expected more of you.
My last bitch point…stop writing for the ‘Katherine Heigl her Emmy reel’ and start writing for Izzie Stevens! Ever since her amazing performance around Denny’s death, I feel that she keeps getting these dramatic monologues that seem just a bit to obvious to me. She was great being a complete bitch to Callie last night, but her “she will survive this” nonsense bored me.
So in closing I want to apologize because if have made it this far you’ve sadly just wasted a few minutes of your life that you’re not getting back. This scattered and poorly written post is a just a reflection of my mixed feelings about last night’s show. I thought maybe if I started writing I would come up with my point of view…but nope. The ball is in your court now. Genius episode or a complete disaster – convince me which one!!
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Filed under Grey's Anatomy, Grey's Anatomy Recap
Thank you for the update! (I missed last night’s epy)
Izzie’s storyline is making me craaayzy. Don’t get me wrong, I think Katherine Hiegel is great. But please. Izzie killed her boyfriend and the rightful recipient of the that heart. No jail-time? Just probation, and then whoops not so much? And the hating on Callie..
Yes, I know. It’s television, and I should calm down.
I don’t think it was a genius episode or a complete disaster. It was just weird and totally out there. I loved the parts with the deadies, especially Coach Taylor and Denny. However it was all just a little too odd for me. When it ended I just sat there thinking what the hell did I just watch?
I totally agree with you about Katherine Heigl. I’ve never been a big fan of Izzie, and I think I’m the only one who didn’t cry at her trying to save Denny. (and I cry at everything!) She was just too over the top for me in that scene. I can’t believe she told George what she did while they were all standing there waiting to find out if Meredith was going to survive. Timing is everything and Izzie doesn’t have it.
Another thing that is bugging me about GA is all of the interns except for maybe George and Alex are coming across as very selfish. I have a hard time finding compassion for selfish characters.
I also think of Ronald Miller whenever Patrick Dempsey does the squinty eyes.
Wow sorry about the rant! I’m done now.
I totally agree with you on your points and I feel they have jumped the shark a little bit…and PD agrees as well: http://www.accesshollywood.com/news/…%7cgeneral_rss
I don’t think its jumped the shark–that seems too harsh. However, I completely agree with you GMMR about Mer being down for so long and just coming back like nothing–I excepted a coma a least! I mean, she just had a cardio pulmonary bypass something! She got like seven eppies! I don’t know what these mean, but I’m not buying that they’re just pulling out the tube and she’s fine and able to talk. Why not just have her go back to work, since she’s fine? I need a medical consult to determine if this is possible. That will determine for me whether the episode was a disaster or brilliant.
I’m pretty sure pink mist’s name was Dillon. I have many more conflicting thoughts, but i should go back to work. =)
I agree that Meredith should have had a harder time waking up and talking and everything. On the podcast Shonda and Betsey said the nest episode (which airs March 15) will be after a little time has passed and that kind of pisses me off cause I want there to be some recovery time after the accident.
I think it was good that Ellis died even though it was really sad (I wanted someone too cause I would have been mad if everything turned out fine). I cried when Richard talked to her at the end.
I loved the deadies! As weird as the whole between death and life thing was, I really enjoyed it. Good acting all around!
I personally hated the episode. Way too much created drama down to the Cristina “try it once more” and the incredibly predictable moment when Mer’s heart monitor would blip. I felt like this was a complete ratings stunt that did not advance the plot in the slightest. I also thought that this was an Emmy pimpage, but I got the vibe it was to spotlight Mr. McDreamy himself. I admit that the words jump and shark may have exited my mouth last night.
Where does Izzie get off judging George and Callie? One of the biggest problems I’ve always had with this show is how in love Mer and Der were after season 1, when they’d known each other all of about 2 weeks. There were only 9 eps that season, and they didn’t even date till like ep 6. Yet they completely and utterly couldn’t live without each other, even though it meant endangering their careers and home lives. I have always called BS on that. And Izzie goes on and on (and on) about the love of her life Denny, whom she never saw outside the hospital and whom she knew for maybe a month. And yet she wants to criticize George and tell him he doesn’t even know Callie? She wants to play by her rules and dictate who can be friends and who can’t. I hope Shonda redeems the disaster of this episode by showing Izzie getting her hypocritical ass smacked down as she deserves.
Hated it! Patrick Dempsey was incredible in this episode, but I hated the “I see dead people” scenes, and all the George/Izzie/Callie scenes felt like deja vu. Either move that conflict along or focus on other aspects of those characters’ lives!
the reason there was no brain damage is because she was hypothermic, hypothermia preserves the organs during drowning and a hypothermic person can therefore NOT suffer from any significant damage if they can be resusciated following drowning. Bailey said so herself last night.
I’ve never posted on here or anything, but I found this and decided I should leave something. A lot of you guys have made excellent points, but I disagree with most of them.
Although last night may have been slightly different from a regular Grey’s episode, it was needed.
Meredith has some serious issues that she’s never dealt with before. She refuses to admit to most of her emotions. We don’t really know if that was “heaven” or the “afterlife.” for all we know, it could just have been Meredith’s subconscious. We don’t know those things about the brain in general. What I do know is that Meredith had to force herself to admit that she let go of fighting and gave in. She gave up on herself, on Derek, on Cristina, and on everyone. Only by admitting that can there be any character development and therefore plot development. Also, Ellen Pompeo was amazing. Those scenes were hard to pull off because Meredith didn’t want to admit to the fact that she could actually be dead or deal with the consequences.
Patrick Dempsey also was amazing. Derek is an optimist and he’s tried to believe that everything could work out perfectly between him and Meredith. He doesn’t know or understand Meredith’s past. A few episodes ago when Thatcher came, he asked if he was there for her. That right there shows how little McDreamy knows about her dark and twisty side. This episode showed him that side of Meredith and by him accepting it, it gives them a real chance.
I understand the criticism of Meredith and Derek’s love, but love cannot be measured by anything other than the people feeling it. Love is different for everyone. It may seem unrealistic that they fell so hard so fast, but it took bot of them a long time to realize it because they thought it had been too fast. Derek kind of believed what you guys seem to believe. He thought it would go away, but love is something greater than anything. It’s obvious that their relationship needs a great amount of work and they both have to grow up, but that doesn’t mean that their love isn’t true or that it won’t last.
I do agree that Izzie had horrible timing with George and it is completely understandable to call her on it, you have to realize that she’s human (fictionally human…) and humans make mistakes. All of these characters are flawed and that is what makes so many people addicted to this show.
The only way to understand what Izzie is dealing with and her reasonings for her actions when it comes to Callie or George or even her “I believe” speech, you have to have lost some one that you felt true love for. Otherwise, it is slightly difficult.
Remember that she believes she’s disappearing. That’s because no one needs her anymore. Denny doesn’t need her. Meredith has Derek. Cristina never will admit to needing anything and now George has Callie. She feels like everyone is moving on while she’s just stuck. She’s afraid of losing George. The way she reacts to these emotions is obvious flawed, but it’s Izzie. That last moment of the show gave Denny closure and allowed him to move on into the light. Now it’s Izzie’s turn to move on.
Basically, I loved the episode because it gives the characters room to grow. George still has grudge issues that are going to have to be dealt with and Derek isn’t going to completely want to believe Meredith really is as dark and twisty as she is. These characters have much farther places they’ve still yet to go and personally, I can’t wait to see where Shonda Rhimes takes them
I’m afraid I thought it was genius. I’m kind of a sucker for the whole “afterlife” angle, as well as being a huge fan for anything involving Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Izzie, of course, has been getting on my nerves with the Callie-hating, but I think last night she got a well-deserved smackdown, which hopefully will turn things around for her appalling behavior lately.
Even though I knew Meredith was going to live, I loved getting to see the rest of the cast’s reaction to that situation and Meredith’s own reaction. It may have been my favorite episode this season, and it makes me sad to see “jump” and “shark” so many times on the internet this morning. I never claim to have good taste in television, so maybe I’m wrong and it was awful, but I loved it.
poor abby morgan. she just cant catch a break.
“Unfortunately for him (and me) every time he gets emotionally I can’t help but think of the “you wrecked me” scene from Can’t Buy Me Love. Sorry, but it’s true.”
I thought the exact same thing when he was all sad in the hallway. Ronald Miller was in the house. But if a hot 40 year old guy can make himself look like his hot 20 year old self again just by crying and messing up his hair, then sign me up. Plus ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is one of my favorite movies.
Izzie is bugging me with the hating Callie thing.
I liked the ep, but it was really weird. I just hope McDreamy won’t wreck his relationship with Meredith because he feels responsible for her mom’s death (from yelling at her).
As an occasional but not devoted viewer, I felt like they had a chance to make this show deeper this sweeps, by taking the drowning and possible suicide seriously. But that went out the window with the cheesy afterlife silliness. Really, that was all they had? But for a few minutes there a few weeks ago it looked like this show was going to get higher quality and deep.
Also, anyone else think there is something bizarre a bout a hospital where in the middle of taking care of many patients from a disaster, all the main doctors are spending time on one patient, Meredith? It’s like, uhh there’s dozens of other people near death guys.
I was rather meh on this epi, myself. I had some tears(mostly due to the stellar acting rather than the plot) but it just didn’t connect with me for the most part. I wish they would stop putting the main cast in peril. Yes, suspension of belief and all that, but it’s getting a little egregious at this point.
For me personal, some of the most heart wrenching stories had nothing to do with regular characters(for instance during the Bonnie and the pole episode, I practically had to mop up the floor in front of me)
And add me to the ‘Izzie needs a good smack’ group. My god woman, you act like Callie stole your puppy or your favorite toy; George is a PERSON, with his own mind and feelings. Get behind him or get out of the way.
Also, looooving how Dylan(aka Bomb guy) is being referred to as Coach Taylor. Hell yeah, anything that might turn new viewers to FNL!
Great acting and drama, but the whole being “down” for over 2 hours (counting how long it took Derrick to drag her out of the water, to the ride to the hospital and all that) was just a little too far-fetched for me.
I know, I know, most medical dramas are pretty far-fetched, but this was just too much. 2-hours = brain dead for sure. No reputable doctor would’ve even gone past an hour (if that), even if it was a loved one. If they had her down for like 30 minutes, it would’ve all been plausible to me.
Good episode, but the build-up was a lot better.
I liked the episode. I watched it twice. The first time I was good. The second time I cried at the end. I hate those scenes. So I was a wreck the second time around.
But Izzy’s long speechs are getting, uh yeah okay, move on. I still love her though.
I would of thought Meredith had brain damage. But you can never do something horribly life threatening to the main character.
I agree, the whole episode i was just waiting for her to suddenly, miraculously come back to life and unfortunately i had to wait the whole episode for that to happen. I knew from the very beginning when her narrative said “medical miracles do happen”. It seemed like a cheap excuse for suspense
All I have to say about Meredith being down for two hours is that even though, within reason, it’s hard to believe that she’d come out of it fine, I think they did not set this up as a situation where Meredith comes out of it because of her medical treatment. I think the point is that she survived and is doing really well in recovery because it was a MIRACLE. This means that despite all the probability for her to either die or have some brain damage, she came out fine- this was not really due to her medical treatment. Miracles happen all the time and sometimes there are no “reasonable” explanations of why someone survives and/or completely heals from a sickness, injury, or tragedy. I think the point is that despite their belief in science and medicine as the only ways of curing and saving others, sometimes miracles that defy explanation occur. A few months ago, the dad of one of the youth pastors at my church was diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer (I can’t remember what kind) and, word spread to our church and many other people and a sort of prayer chain started and about one month after he was diagnosed, he went to an appointment at the oncologist’s office and they found no traces of cancer in his body- he is completely healthy and cancer free and there is NO logical explanation. So, yeah, I just think that we need to look at Meredith’s recovery in this light.
Is this too far back to get read?????? Well I agree with you on every single count.
Except maybe the why isn’t she braindead thing…the whold point was that there are things in medicine that happen that can’t be explained right?