I know I know. If I was on a copy deadline my editor would have sacked me by now. But I’m not so I get to submit my review late. Sorry for that. I was struck down by writers block (is there such a thing for critique?) and, well, life in general.
Who’d a thunk it? Grey’s is well and truly back on form. I feel confident to say that, because despite the downer that was 804, this season is winning. 807 Put Me In Coach serves up a home run, knocking it out of the park with a beautiful slugger, sealing the deal for a series win. OK OK. I’ll stop with the crappy, misguided and incomprehensible baseball metaphors. What do I know about baseball? I’m English. Our slugging is with a cricket bat.
It feels like Shonda and her writing team have remembered how good they can be, consistently. Perhaps they spent the hiatus watching re-runs of seasons 1-3? Perhaps they listened to fan feedback? Or perhaps they just told themselves – let’s get back to the basics of what this show was all about – sex and sexy surgery.
Although this was not the greatest episode, I struggled to find any negative comments, and the ones I did find, are rather criticisms of the season so far not just this episode; how they’re dealing with Bailey and that rather tiresome Jaxie romance. So I will get to the episode review, but because I can only write nice things about the episode I’m going indulge myself in a bit of moaning first...
Miranda Bailey has always been someone to love, even when she’s been someone to hate. She spent early seasons, as a senior resident, raising her babies, never being easy on them, always busting their balls. But she’s also been proud of them, stuck up for them, nurtured, guided and taught them. What happened to her? More often now she’s fractious, irritable and I might say intolerant. Sitting on her high horse it even seems she’s jealous of Meredith (which makes no sense as she has nothing to be jealous about). In addition I struggle to find reasons for her surly attitude (intolerance) towards April, who is one resident in desperate need of guidance (although I am pleased Callie’s stepped up – more on that later). Even Richard hasn’t escaped Bailey’s belligerence.
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| "Someday they'll find me someone to love" |
Romantically she’s not been given too much of a storyline at all. A messy divorce and two underplayed and largely off screen affairs later and she’s unhappy and, in Season 8, somewhat friendless. Channel surfing last week whilst sick I came across the Season 6 finale on Sky. Watching it, my overwhelming thoughts were, what a brilliant, heartbreaking story arc for Bailey, superbly and sensitively executed by Chandra Wilson; I miss THAT Bailey. On the baseball field we saw a continuation of grumpy solitary Bailey who finally let rip at Meredith, the latter, quite rightly telling her to ‘mind her own business!’ In my opinion Chandra Wilson has not been given a decent storyline since that S6 finale and it would not surprise me in the least if she hangs up her scalpels this season and switches over to a show more appreciative of her talent.
Jaxie – it just doesn’t quite have the same sexy ring to it as Slexie does it? What is this couple all about? – seriously, answers below please. I’ve said this before but I remind you of just how developed the romance was between Mark and Lexie. It was nurtured by the writers; story was explored in the hospital and out. Remember Mrs Shepherd’s visit, Lexie trying to donate the liver, the merger with Mercy West, the ‘on a scale of 1 to gay, how gay are you’ jealousy. Remember when Derek forbade Mark from seeing Lexie, when Mark wanted Lexie to move in, when Sloane Sloan arrived, when the hand and penis broke. Remember the chance of survival at 3%. All of this led us to believe in this couple. I utterly dismiss moans about ‘age appropriateness’, not only is this ageism but it is unnecessary. Love is love; comments like that are spoken by people too immature to understand the complexities of life, too shallow to see beneath the surface, or who have never experienced unconditional romantic love (sorry, if you’re one of them, I mean no disrespect, my message to you is: open your eyes).
In contrast Lexie and her apparently more ‘age appropriate’ romance with pretty boy ‘lets get my shirt off at every possible moment’ Jackson is trite and superficial. It has been constrained merely to sex and jealousy over Mark. Almost every episode since they hooked up has had some kind of reference to Mark. We know, love triangles are a well used device in Greys but they’ve done it well in the past – remember the vet? Even the most ardent hardcore Meredith/Derek fans could probably see that Finn had some depth to him. This is not the epic romance we’ve seen with Meredith and Derek, Callie and Arizona, or Cristina and Owen. And it’s not the fault of the actors; so I harbour no ill will towards Jessie Williams, who I’m sure is very nice and probably as frustrated at his characters lack of depth as I am. The writers have left too much of this story off screen. Those who complain about lack of Calzona or MerDer should count themselves lucky that they get the story development they get. If you are a Jaxie fan you’ve been done a big disservice. This week out on the baseball field we saw the outward manifestation of Lexie’s feelings. She could give a crap about Jackson. A girl who can throw a ball deliberately at the opposition’s boob is not a girl in a stable relationship, ‘cause every girl knows just how painful that is - look at Callie’s reaction! And by opposition I’m not talking about baseball.
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| Lexie: "Hey Derek! Mark fixes boobs, right?" Owen: "Someone get Debbie, this set feels about as real as astroturf" |
Now I don’t live in cuckoo land. A lot of this season is a mystery for even the writers until the old timers re-negotiate their deals. In my opinion there will not be any kind of Slexie resolution until the future of Meredith Grey is confirmed. The writers will not send Mark and Lexie off into the sunset in S8 if their principle Grey departs. They will want to leave Lexie’s romantic life open to be explored in a S9 without Meredith.
So, onto the episode proper. Now, tell me, who doesn’t love a drunk Meredith and Cristina?
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| "Just let me have one more shot of tequila Bailey and I'm all yours, no I'm all the mices, no, the mouses, the rodents....whatever" |
I didn’t realised I missed this until I saw their antics on the baseball field.
I was reminded of Mrs Shepherd’s visit to SGMW. Meredith, drunk and panicking on tequila as ‘mothers love Izzie’ cleans house and ‘George, my mum’s house smells like peppermint’ and Alex provide moral support. Meredith went back to basics herself this week by taking a hint from Teddy. Given that she quickly told Bailey to mind her own business she had a bit of a cheek questioning Teddy about Cristina. And back to basics meant back to the journals and back to her Mother. One of my favourite ongoing plot lines is the relationship Meredith had with her Mother and the constant tension existing when she pops up in an episode. We now get to see Meredith surpassing her brilliant Mother by correcting her mistakes, taking the work further. She might be in pink scrubs still but she’s rocking it with this trial, much to Bailey’s annoyance. I am so looking forward to them working together!
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| I'm posting this 'cause the soppy sappy in me loves it. |
It seems that Meredith and Derek are back to couple-dom sans Zola although given the uncertainty of who’s staying and who’s leaving I maintain that there is enough tension in this relationship still for the writers to take this story in a number of directions depending on who signs on the dotted line.
Meredith’s scene with Teddy reminds us that she is indeed trying to humble Cristina. I expected a slightly bigger story for the crescendo for this story arc and again can’t help feeling that although Cristina has been given the opportunity to create the bucket list, there is more to this than meets the eye. It was a nice touch to have Cristina coaching April through the procedure though and I enjoyed the dynamic in the OR. Drunk Cristina and Coach Owen continue to give the appearance of the happy, healthy couple, but we all know, storm clouds are gathering.
Stealing the show this week however was Callie. The poor girl is in a specialty that rarely involves life or death (directly) and is seemingly dismissed by Cristina, last week and Owen this week. But we all know that Callie is an ortho god. She is a surgical carpenter genius. And I’ve missed her OR bad-ass-ness. We’ve been treated to it 2 episodes in a row and I am loving it. On the out-field Callie could be found flirting and smooching with her wife in a continuation of the story arc that all is well in the Torres-Robbins marriage now that Mark has finally returned to his previous hobby, the aforementioned ‘opposition’! Being the only long term stable happy couple on the show (I’m not counting Teddy/Henry yet) at the moment such flirtatious banter provides us with that lovely warm, cosy, reassuring feeling that watching the other couples simply doesn’t give us.
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| I'm posting this also 'cause the soppy sappy in me loves this too! |
Callie is also providing some really positive guidance for April, whose specialty is currently undefined and is the one resident lacking a mentor. Well, OK, Meredith is also, but we all know it’s only a matter of time before she’s competing with Derek for brain surgeries again. It’s probably safe to say that Ortho will not be Aprils choice. But it could well be trauma...
And Alex. He did good this week. And although it was highly illegal (the attempting to influence the judge part), it was typical Alex. Heart is in the right place, his ethics might not be. This is so true to form when you remember his past indiscretions as a child, stealing food to feed his family. I still maintain that he has not moved on in the way that Meredith or Cristina have, but it is during moments like this that we remember that underneath he is a decent guy.
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| And I'm posting this 'cause he's just loverrrrrly this week. |
Overall, this was a cracking episode, keeping up the Season 8 quality and enjoyable.
Highlights:
Who did I fall in love with? This week I had a serious girl crush on the fabulous badass Callie, who was uber hot, and an ‘I desperately want to marry you and have your babies’ crush on Henry. The moment Scott Foley gets his own show I’m outta here. Grey’s will be history. Bring it!
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| If I could be anyone in the world today I'd be Callie and I'd steal that Henry and elope. (Yes yes, I know, they're both married, but it's only fiction!) |
Funniest moment – Drunk Meredith and Cristina but most especially Cristina sneaking a sup on the flask in secret
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| Alcohol and a front seat view of all the |
Most satisfying story arc –Teddy and Cristina had a lovely moment.
Cringing moment – the boob throw. Girl, that's gotta hurt.
Posted by: Brouhaha aka @pipmaxine
I haven't really focussed on the music this season so far and that's mostly due to time. However during hiatus I'll post a review looking at the best of...
