Grey's Anatomy: Scars and Souvenirs

(S03E18) Greetings and a myriad of salutations to all. I'll be covering Grey's Anatomy from here on out as Joel was recently pushed into a large body of water by a careless, mute child. He's currently residing in some sort of "not quite dead yet" limbo and from what I've been told, the internet access sucks. So you've got me in the meantime and after what we saw last night, it looks like Grey's is back on track following the conclusion of the "Meredith can't swim" story.

It was a very good episode I thought, but as with any Grey's installment, there were plenty of pros, plenty of cons, and plenty of things that just made no sense whatsoever to me. First off, and no exact time frame was mentioned, but does anyone else think that Meredith came back to work too early? We know she at least had time to have her mother's body cremated, but it felt like it had only been a few weeks since the ferry incident. If I were in her shoes, I'd be milking this for all it's worth. Sick days. Personal Days. I Almost Died Days. I'd take 'em all.

So the big three things the episode offered up was essentially the deterioration of all the relationships in the show - from three angles. We saw George and Callie reaching a tipping point. She's loaded apparently. "An heiress" as George called her. The family has quite the bank account and Callie just gets $2,500 a week for... whatever. That must be nice. It seems what most people (including Izzie) have predicted is playing out - they rushed into the marriage too fast. Of course the big bombshell was Callie's revelation to George regarding Izzie: she hates me because she wants you. Internet buzz travels fast and I believe people are already calling it "Gizzie."

Well it happened at the end of the episode. Izzie needed a release after her heart-to-heart with "bullet in my shoulder" man. George needed to feel good about himself. So they got drunk and had sex. As far as crazy episode endings go, this one wasn't all that surprising to me. We saw them getting drunk and you sort of knew what it was leading up to. It would have been smarter to just show George coming over with the booze, skip the getting drunk scene, then jump right to the empty bottle and the two of them in bed. It would have been a little more shocking I think. Anyone else notice the bottle of whiskey George had? It was a bottle of Knob Creek, but rather than endorse the brand, the art department got a little creative and gave it a fake label with a fake name: Door River. Hilarious.

Elsewhere, as the battle for Weber's approval grew, all the attendings got a little crazy. I like the addition of Roger Rees as Dr. Colin Marlowe, but I feel like he's playing the same character that he played on The West Wing (Lord John Marbury). Just a cocky, know-it-all Brit. Being an attractive male on Grey's Anatomy allows you the earning of a nickname though and while Marlowe's doesn't start with "Mc," he'll have to settle for The Cardio God.

As far as finding out that Cristina dated him for three years while she was his student? It's believable, but I'm not sure it's the act itself that matters. They could have done anything. It is, however, the first real roadblock faced by Yang and Burke. She likes fooling around, leeching off men with authority and knowledge. That and she hates marriage. I'm happy with this storyline though. There needed to be some tension between those two and this is the conduit for that to happen. The fact that Marlowe is a bit of an icon to Burke does makes it more compelling too.

Other things that caught my eye:

• The guest stint from Shohreh Aghdashloo as one of Derek's old colleagues from New York. I think we were supposed to really feel bad for Helen and what she was going through (brain tumor), but it didn't come across. She was just like any patient and the fact that her and Shepard shared a bond was lost in the fold I think.
• When the power went out during dinner at Meredith's. This was something little, but I liked it a lot. Derek and Thatcher were both in the laundry room and Thatcher had just flipped the circuit-breaker, turning the lights back on. Derek's beeper went off and Thatcher sort sarcastically said, "Gotta go back in?" You have to wonder, even though beepers weren't around yet, how many times must he have stood in that room with Ellis, heard the phone ring, and said those same words?

So as I said earlier, I was very satisfied with this episode. There were a few things I was hoping for. I don't think we'll be seeing any more Alex/Addison sparks with the spin-off on the horizon. But I did like his progression with Jane Doe. It's just going to be interesting to see what becomes the big story for the end of the season. Because right now, it's feeling strangely similar to the end of the last one and they can't have everyone just get in a fight or whatever and break up again. I don't want to go into the hiatus wondering who Meredith will choose or will Izzie be able to find herself again. It's a medical drama. ER and St. Elsewhere both balanced all the pieces when they needed to -- give me something serious with heart and I'll be happy.