(S03E11) It's funny. It seems like these past two full seasons of Grey's have played out the same way: a kind of shaky beginning, then something clicks in and the show begins to pick up speed somewhere around the holidays, then runs like a freight train from then all the way to the finale.

It really does feel like this season is shaping up the same way last year did, doesn't it? We're back from the long holiday break and the folks at Seattle Grace are right back where we left off in November; George is dealing with his dad's health problems, Cristina and Burke aren't speaking to each other; Meredith is dealing with her dad's other family and what that means for her; and Alex and Addison are dancing around the fact that they're kind of sweet on each other.

First, let's talk about Papa O'Malley. He's a bull of a man, isn't he? It doesn't matter if the cancer has spread around his body; he wants Webber and Bailey to take the tumor out of his esophagus. He's got a great family around him, as we saw by the party they threw for him while Team Intern did rounds. Of course, none of the surgeons involved, including Grey, can tell George that his dad requested that they take the tumor out no matter what. That's bound to a wedge between Georgie boy and the team that worked on his dad, especially when Mr. O takes that inevitable turn for the worse.

At least O'Malley Sr. likes Callie. "She gets you, even more than we ever could," he tells George as part of "The Speech". Good to see a lot of Callie in this episode, staring down Derek to get him to help with a patient with a severe spinal curvature, and finally connecting with George, even if it's to celebrate the amount of pee Mr. O'Malley was producing.

That spinal patient was one of those cases that seems to get a bunch of people going. She walks bent over at a right angle, and nothing doctors have done has been able to help. She's not one of those stoic "handicapable" people; she's bitter, angry, and think doctors lie to her all the time. Quite a refreshing change, don't you think? I was trying to place who played her... the face looked so familiar... a little check of IMDb revealed that it was Mae Whitman, who played George Michael Bluth's dull girlfriend Ann on Arrested Development.

Anyway, the case not only got Callie involved, but it also spurred Izzie to finally -- yes, kids, it's almost over -- deposit the $8.7 million check from Denny's estate. She wants to be in on the surgery, but she's still not cleared, mainly because she still had that food-stained check hanging from the fridge, freaking George out every time he sees it. But, near the end of the episode, right after she sobs through depositing the check with an unbelieving bank manager, the spinal patient's mom finds out insurance won't cover the surgery that might help her stand up straight. Hmm... guess where some of that money might end up going?

It was family day at SGH, as Thatcher Grey was on hand to see his new granddaughter. Mer keeps trying to avoid him. She'd rather deal with silly stuff, like how Derek has to sleep apart from her because she snores ever-so-cutely. Webber, of all people, broke the ice, as Mer's watches Addie operate on her new half-niece. He tells her that she doesn't know the whole story about how ol' Thatch, and that Ellis might have contributed as much to his absenteeism as he did. Will there be a thaw in the ice between Mer and Thatch? Hope so; she needs some sort of family, especially as her mother's Alzheimer's gets worse.

We've got the cold war going on between Yang and Burke, which lasted the entire episode. Not much to say here, except that we kind of know this is going to end pretty well, don't we? And we didn't need a forced discussion about it between Burke and Addison to figure that out. Good way to work Olivia the sweet/slutty nurse back into the picture, though, as Cristina used her as one of the sneaky ways to find about the condition of Burke's newly-repaired hand.

Then there's Addie and Alex. Apparently, Sloan's all hurt by her rejection of him, but you can't tell because he's always a dick. You knew that she and Alex were starting to drift together, but almost smooching next to Mer's struggling preemie half-niece? Not cool. Cute, but not cool. So, will Alex go back to OB/GYN to work under Addie or will he just be under her in the biblical sense? Maybe both? Anything can happen at SGH.

So, like I said, this was a pretty good episode, even the part with Izzie. It was mostly serious this time around, but there were a few light moments, like the snoring bit, and snappy cute banter between all the interns. I wonder, though, if the montage near the end where everyone looks wistfully into space was a bit of filler, as this is the first of two parts (a two-parter? Isn't every episode a continuation of the previous one on this show?). But I'm curious to see what happens next week. Unfortunately, I'll be in Los Angeles, covering the TCA press tour for you fine folks. Someone will take over this space next week. But I'll be watching somewhere. How could I miss it?