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Grey's Anatomy: Begin the Begin
Despite some
really good material, oh, the set-up was awkward today. "In the spirit of the new year," says Burke. Uhhh...
no one talks like that. And the opening line wasn't the only awkward thing: Burke and Cristina seem to be destined for
a continuing relationship rife with awkward-ocity.
The Chief is enforcing the rules for the new year: no doctors work more than 80 hours a week. Aww, shucks! That sends Meredith home to fold laundry and visit her mom. Who, it appears, is still playing intern with the Chief. Oh, and the dog is acting up. *yawn*
But all that isn't so important. For once, I'm finding the cases more fun than the inter-personal dramas. And so are the doctors. Everyone, this week, is invested.
Izzie, still burning a bit from Alex' indiscretions, is sure on the list of the involved. She's assigned to a heart patient. A hot heart patient who flirts with her outrageously. He's charming, he's good looking, he's smart, he's witty. What's not to like?
George finds a connection in a still hormonal but far less flirtatious place. His is with a 14-year-old patient who calls herself a "freak" and has clearly had suicidal issues in the past. She's secretly taking birth control pills in a vain attempt to get her breasts to grow. And to top it all off, a tumor? George relates to her; he was so uncool in high school that he was president and treasurer of the Mathletes.
The tumor turns out to be benign. Not so benign: the thing the tumor is growing on. A testes. "Becs," as she likes to be called, is a hermaphrodite. While that explains a lot of her issues, it doesn't smack of good news to the parents, who would just love to have this little problem go away. And request that it be made so, surgically, without Becs' knowledge.
You know what's coming, right? I did, too, but it was nice to see that her parents, after their initial tongue-lashing when George won't go along with the lie (he doesn't tell the truth, but "forces their hand" - what is this, mom? an intra-family poker game?), end up being accepting and supportive of her eventual decision on which gender to embrace.
The medical part of the heart transplant is a little dull, but Cristina's rule-breaking ride-along to harvest the organ isn't. She looks curiously at Dr. Bailey's pregnant self. "Why are you staring at my fat pregnant belly?" asks the Nazi in her trademark sarcastic manner. Finally, Cristina is out with it: she wonders what she should have done with the baby she lost, whether or not she was on the road to the right decision before the ectopic pregnancy was discovered.
And in the end, Cristina finally has the courage to tell Burke: she was planning to abort. That's out, and we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Relationship awkwardness, be gone! Well, this is Cristina and Burke, it will likely never go away. But for the moment: complete comfort.
Not so much with the McDreamy-Meredith-Addison love triangle. Addison's had enough with the trailer and the trout Derek is catching! Or, she's ok with it all, and can learn to live and love. Meredith's over Derek! Or, she isn't at all, and she's majorly affected when she learns he's been visiting her mom (sent on a diagnostic mission from the Chief, it turns out, later).
For an instant, all is well. Derek and Addison, Cristina and Burke, nuthin' but love. Alex "feels good" about his exam. Izzie and George have each other. Meredith, well, she has both of them. As the music plays behind Meredith's voice-over, I feel some small sense of closure.
Until, of course, the previews for next week. The awkwardness, it will return. And I'll surely be back to report every uncomfortable instant.
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