GREY’S ANATOMY: ‘Slow Night, So Long’

I think I might be drunk by association after watching this week’s delightfully fluffy episode of GREY’S ANATOMY.

It’s nighttime at Seattle Grace, and we get an in-depth look at what the late shift is like for our favorite residents, who are somehow all on night duty at the same time. Meanwhile, across the street at Joe’s bar, the attendings test the upper limits of their alcohol tolerances.

Let’s start with the residents. Meredith and Alex watch over a patient of Dr. Stark’s (the horrible new pediatrics attending played by Peter MacNicol). It’s a little boy recovering from chest surgery who has now developed stomach pains. Meredith suspects it might be something serious, and when she calls Dr. Stark back to the hospital to check on the boy, he conducts a thorough examination and decides to stay to monitor the kid just in case something is wrong. Oh no wait, sorry – that’s what a GOOD doctor would do. Dr. Stark, however, spends a couple of minutes doing a superficial exam, dismisses the problem as gas, and hurries back to his plans for the evening after chewing Meredith out for making him miss his dessert. Ah, priorities.

Surprise, surprise – it turns out the boy does have a serious problem and needs surgery. Evil Dr. Stark is completely MIA at this point, so Meredith and Alex take matters into their own hands and do the surgery themselves. Stark shows up way after the fact and screams at them for I’m not even sure what. Something about not respecting hierarchy or whatever. At this point all I hear is the “wah wah wah” sounds that the adults make in Charlie Brown. Meredith and Alex tune him out as well, but Chief Webber witnesses the altercation and gives the two residents a nod of support. Meanwhile I frantically search the internet for ALLY MCBEAL clips to remind myself that Peter MacNicol is awesome, even though I want to punch his current character in the face.

In a separate storyline, Lexie and Jackson are on a trauma case: two brothers whose car got hit by a train because the older brother thought he could make it across the tracks in time. Because it’s always a super idea to compete with a train. In the end, the younger brother dies and Jackson seems to have a whole lot of insight into the guilt that the older brother will face. Jackson has also been screaming in his sleep every night, so something’s going on there. Lexie asks him about it but he’s all “Leave me alone, woman!” and that’s the end of that. (Sidenote: Am I the only one who’s hoping the Lexie/Jackson pairing doesn’t go anywhere?  I’m just not feeling it, anyone else? Anyone? …Bueller?)

Now for the fun part of the episode…the part with enough alcohol to fill the Pacific Ocean. After ditching the residents, all of the attendings hop over to Joe’s bar, where they meet the newest bartender…Cristina! We might have to call her Anti-Cristina this week, because she’s about a hundred and eighty degrees from normal, pouring drinks and partying it up. Also, she looks hot! Now THIS Cristina I might have trusted with Callie’s haircut from last week. Well, maybe not, because there’s a crazy undercurrent to her carefree attitude. Hours after Joe fires her, she’s still at the bar taking shots and giving lap dances to a bachelor party. Derek, her guardian angel these days, stays to make sure she doesn’t do anything stupid. Finally Owen comes to carry her home and hold her hair back while she makes friends with the toilet.

Bailey and Teddy also get pretty tanked, thanks to a drink Cristina invents called “Early Onset Alzheimer’s” – because you won’t remember anything. Teddy moans all night about how pathetic her love life is, and how she’s turned to online dating where all the guys lie about living with their moms. Meanwhile Bailey ends up wandering back to the hospital where April finds her and takes care of her, and Bailey tells a very embarrassed April that Alex does not deserve to be the guy that pops her cherry. It’s a hilarious scene, made all the more amusing by the fact that we rarely get to see Bailey loosen up like this.

All in all, a pretty fun episode. A couple of other minor points: Alex is completely unrepentant for how he treated April last week. (Sorry, Alex, the whole “I have a messed up family” excuse is getting reeeeally tired after six and a half years. Sooner or later you’re just gonna have to grow up.) Also, in the least shocking development ever, Callie has sex with Mark to try and get over Arizona. She naturally regrets it afterwards. I regret that we didn’t get a better shot of Mark with no shirt on.

And that’s it for this week!  I’ll leave you with a couple of my favorite quotes (please slur the words in your mind when you read them):

• – Teddy: “My star student, my most promising resident that I have ever seen, is mixing Irish car bombs for a bachelor party over at Joe’s bar. I’m not even gonna mention that she’s letting the bachelors feel her up at will, ‘cause that just adds insult to injury. Crap, I’m—I’m really drunk.”

• – Bailey: “If the world had more love, we could get rid of wars. And fistulas.”

Thoughts? Comments? Should Chief Webber have fired Dr. Stark on the spot? And what’s up with Jackson and his night terrors? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!