What time do you call this? Okay, so it’s a little late, but here goes a review of the mid season finale in preparation for mid season premiere...tonight. Sort of a “previously on Grey’s Anatomy”.
I enjoyed the episode very much. I did. I’m saying that right up front so that when you read me tear it to shreds below you know I do this out of love.
It’s January and winter hiatus is a hairsbreadth from ending. The painful drawn out wait is almost over. What a relief. We were left way back in November with a mid-season finale and two months of “Dear God what have they done?” and “ How could Shonda do this to us?” and “oh that was soooo good”. Well... we should’ve been left with these questions but let’s face it 11.08, Risk, was more episode filler than a mid season finale. “What!” I hear you cry, “but Derek walked out. He’s gone!”
Seriously, who didn’t see that coming?
Yes I did enjoy it. Honest.
Perhaps I’m being harsh and unfortunately hiatus hasn’t really softened me. Season eleven has shaken up the Grey’s Anatomy template and set the bar rather higher than normal, or at least what we had come to expect. I’ve become used to brilliant, entertaining episodes, full of story and character and with actors performing their butts off. The mid-season finale stood out from this not for being worthy of the pre-Christmas cliffhanger but for being rather unremarkable and, frankly, forgettable. There were good moments and indeed the beginning of a few good stories but they were buried deep in high school melodramatics and questionable ethics.
I expected more and got less.
The problem, and there is only one, did not lie in the stories themselves. I think the writers can be rightly proud that their story development is strong this season and though some may wish couples drift off into romatic bliss the entertainment of these dramas far outweigh the dull lifeless fluff.
The problem lay entirely in plot execution.
Our protagonist, Meredith, has finally come full circle with her mother’s past. It is reassuring that after ten and a half seasons we can still join the dots for this character. She is left at the end of the episode shouting Derek down, ordering to him to take the job, pushing him to the limit, hearing the echo of Richard’s words “I was jealous so I ruined us”. On the surface they neither of them really understand what’s going on. Underneath Meredith knows very well, hanging on to sound bites from her past. Hearing that made me think how true that is in life. Derek is rather damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. Having set himself up as the sacrificial lamb by turning down the President the first time he cannot do it twice. He has to go. “I gave up everything for you” sounds like his career is the ‘everything’ and that’s certainly how Meredith takes it. I suspect, however, that that line echos down all ten previous seasons. This story arc ended well but the high jinx and school yard crap we had to deal with to get to that point earlier in the episode was, frankly, embarrassing to watch. Sitting through Maggie, Meredith, Derek and later Richard play one off against the other and in front of patients was excruciating television. If I was that patient’s family I’d have moved her to Seattle Pres. Though to be fair to Richard he was an unwilling participant. Having established myself as a ‘Maggie’ fan so far in this season I was rather irritated by her by the end of episode eight. The writers could easily have brought us to the same conclusion with Meredith and Derek, and for that matter with Richard and Maggie, without putting us through that trauma.
And then we have Stephanie, who rather randomly is tasked by Webber to do April’s ultrasound. I try very hard to involve myself in the fantasy of the show and ignore possible issues with reality for the sake of creative license. However in this case it’s too glaring to miss. Does April not have a doctor? An OBGYN assigned to her pregnancy? Because why on earth would Stephanie roam the hospital searching for someone to talk to about a possible problem with April’s baby and not go to April’s own doctor? And the first person she goes to is Jo? I know that this entire story arc was designed to get us to the point where Arizona is involved and that Stephanie inadvertently tells Jackson something, and yes, artistic abandon can often fill inconvenient plot holes but this is not a daytime soap. It has to be at least remotely plausible.
Having said all that though, this story is wonderful. It will be an incredibly sad and painful journey but this is when things get good and when actors step up. I can’t wait to see what Sarah Drew, arguably one of the best and most underused actors on the show, does with this material.
We have doctors scrapping over patients, in front of them. We have a junior doctor who fails to understand that she should talk to the patient’s own doctor if she suspects something is wrong. And now in Arizona, lying to obtain medical records,
we were treated to yet another caper around the hospital skirting the border of ethical practice. Again, the story itself is good and I’m enjoying the unfolding of Geena Davis’ Dr Herman into a vibrant character. I even enjoyed Arizona’s gagging after seeing Herman banging the tool. But really it’s time to quit the unethical, fantastical soap style antics.
And really, there is huge irony in this episode. Owen accuses Callie of pushing a patient too hard and causing the head injury, really? Really Owen?
Now...I ask you all...which is worse:
• Maggie, Meredith and Derek squabbling and talking over one another about serious medical decisions IN FRONT OF THE PATIENT AND PATIENT’S FAMILY?
• Stephanie running around, like a headless chicken, with a patient’s scans, telling everyone but the patient’s doctor?
• Arizona lying to obtain someone’s medical records, records she has no right to?
• Or Callie helping a very determined soldier to walk who then steps too far?
While clearly the outcome for Callie’s patient is not good, she can barely be guilty of forcing the soldier to walk.
Shall we talk about Jo? What a missed opportunity! We could’ve seen so much depth from Jo’s character through the story of Meredith’s house. This is a journey she should have taken herself without being told by Alex “you should understand that more than anybody”. Why do the writers insist on TELLING us about Jo without writing her experience and showing us. This is my ongoing problem with how this character is developed. I don’t ‘hate on Jo’, but what I do hate is that the writers consistently fail to write her character depth. My worry is that the real issue is poor casting, that Camilla Luddington is not able to reach into this character. There was one fleeting moment when we saw ‘the edge’, the edge of someone who has had to survive the worst to get on in life and that was during the Chest Peckwell story arc. We haven’t seen it since and here with Meredith’s house we had the perfect opportunity to unravel what it’s like to have no place to go to and for her to have some self-discovery.
Dear Writers: I get it. Jo is here to stay whether I or we like it or not. She’s Alex’s person. Can you at least try to SHOW US she has the past that you keep TELLING us she has. Thank you.
Are you still with me? Or tired of my whining?
Okay, there was a scene that could well go unnoticed if you weren’t paying attention – though I suspect all the Calzona fans out there were. Callie and Arizona had a moment. And I think this moment said more about their relationship and where they are in their own heads than all the previous conversations, including those in therapy. It was pivotal, an executive summary of their relationship for those who have missed episodes one through to seven; Arizona needing Callie and also needing validation but not really seeing what is wrong; Callie spiraling into self defeat, “every single thing I am doing is wrong” and doubting all the decisions she’s making.
It stood out as one of the best scenes in the episode, not because it moved the story on but because it reminded us where they were before hiatus, quietly and efficiently, without the high jinx and melodrama.
I enjoyed the episode but I did feel relief when it ended.
So... we move on to the second half of the season. Actually it’s more than half – sixteen more episodes to go isn’t it? What will we get?
Will Derek ever come back?
Will Meredith realize she’s not her mother?
Will Callie fall into a bottle of wine?
Will Arizona become self-aware?
Will April and Jackson survive tragedy?
Will Owen get his groove on with Amelia?
Will Richard grow a pair?
Will Bailey ever get a storyline she deserves?
Will Maggie take a chill pill?
Will Stephanie still be around for season 12?
Will Dr Herman get pregnant by the Tool?
Will Alex beg Cristina to come back to get Meredith off his back?
All these and more important questions will be answered very soon...or not.
Enjoy!
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