Grey's Anatomy: Wishin' and Hopin'

(S03E14) As I listened to the suddenly-lucid Ellis Grey yell at her daughter Meredith, telling her how ordinary she's being and how being in love is making her soft, all I could think of was: "Boy, what a bitch!" I mean, she "wakes up" after five years, and she's already berating the only person who took the time to take care of her?

But then I saw the scene where Webber comforts Ellis and tries to tell her what their life together would have been like -- even though he knew it was never to be -- I could see where that disappointment came from. She wanted to be "ordinary" in the way her daughter was. But because she was more Yang and less Meredith, it just was never going to happen that way. This episode brought a bunch of relationships into focus, but the main one here is Meredith's "gift" of getting Ellis back, if only temporarily.

Before I go on, I just need to ask this: Did Ellen Pompeo have some work done? Lately, her face has been looking different... fuller, maybe a little smoother. For all I know, she decided to start eating again, or engagement agrees with her. Maybe it's because her character, Meredith, isn't frowning all the time and I forgot what a non-scowling Pompeo looks like. But she just seems different-looking somehow, and it's been distracting me for the last few episodes.

Moving on... remember when we left things off last week with two proposals? Looks like they both took, one more than the other. "Dude, she's Callie O'Malley!" grunted Alex when Callie and George ran into the new Denny Duquette Clinic and told everyone they got married in Vegas. Good for them! Man, does Callie look so much better when she's smiling instead of scrunching her brow in consternation over her squirrely intern/boy toy.

But she's still a bit touchy, isn't she? Not as much about George's "weird, judgy friends;" she's right about them.... God, are they catty. "So, are you moving in?" Izzie so tactfully asks her. But she's also touchy about the littlest anti-relationship reaction from Georgie boy. George gets sick from the patient with toxic blood, but because he at first thought it was an anxiety attack, she gets all pissy about it. But George saves the day by telling the judgy ones that "you can drive her away; you're good at that. But I'm going with her. She's my wife." The kid's got a sack on him after all. And now he knows Callie's middle name (can anyone spell it properly?).

As for the other couple, it took a while for Yang to figure it out, didn't it? Only she would take a proposal "under advisement." But Ellis was lucid long enough to set her straight, telling her she can have it all. It was nice to see Ellis acknowledge that she didn't try hard enough with Meredith's dad, even though she didn't acknowledge that to Meredith (by the way, I can't imagine how Ellis and the phumphering, clumsy, stuttering Thatcher ever got together... do you?). And, even though Cristina "doesn't do rings," she should still hold on to that thing; it was huge!

By the way, I want to heap praise on Kate Walsh for the second week in a row: no one on TV right now does the "horny look" better than Kate. Peering over the reading glasses, with her index finger perched on her lower lip... my, my, my. Callie was right; Addison did look at Alex like he was a turkey leg on an island full of coconuts, didn't she? And I guauran-freakin'-tee you that when she sexed up Sloan at the end of the episode, she was thinking of her own intern/boy toy and not the dingleberry that was in front of her.

Speaking of Sloan... what a weasel. Every attending -- and possible Chief candidate -- does their part to deal with Toxic Blood Girl and almost get poisoned as a result. Heck, Derek and Burke even donned space suits and did abdominal surgery -- not either of their specialties -- to keep the woman alive, and Addison and all the interns took their turns in there without protection. Sloan? The emeffer begs off. What are the odds that he's going to become Chief, by the way? Maybe Sloan and Dwight Schrute can get together and compare ass-kissing notes.

So, now we have the Duquette Clinic. How are the writers going to deal with this new setting? I mean, it was funny when Alex and Izzie tried to persuade an ER patient to come over to the clinic -- "Are you flirting with me?" the patient asked a too-smiley Izzie. But is Bailey now going to just hang around the clinic, talking to motherless girls about the perils of teenage sex? It's good to see this dimension to Bailey, but we need to see a balance of caring doctor and "Nazi" surgical resident. Right now, it veers back and forth too much. Don't get me wrong, though; I'm quickly becoming a big Chandra Wilson fan, because she's done a fantastic job with everything the writers have thrown at her this year.

What a strong, emotional episode. Can you feel it building? Just like last year, we're starting to see the writing tighten and the stories become more focused as we make the turn into February. And now that we have definitive closure to the Izzie/Denny story (she cashed the check and funded the clinic. There. All done), it's no longer in the writers' way. The next three weeks promise to be a heck of a ride, judging by the coming attractions. Looking forward to it.

Best line:
George: She's toxic.
Olivia: Callie? Yeah, that's how a lot of us feel.