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Grey's Anatomy: The Heart of the Matter
(S04E04) You killed him. With your penmanship. --Izzie Stevens
Jonathan is traveling to a wedding tonight, so I am filling in for him. I have to admit something: I stopped watching Grey's Anatomy in earnest toward the beginning of Season Three. Oh, I know what's happening. It's sort of hard to live in this country and not know what's going on on Grey's Anatomy. I wasn't surprised to discover that nothing much has changed. Oh, except that the writing is worse.
Honestly, I don't know how the actors got through a read-through of this script without rioting in the writers' room, let alone saying the lines on national television in front of witnesses. The show started well enough, with a very calm Callie telling a shocked (and, dare I say, disappointed?) George that she forgives him for making a mistake, but they made vows. Whoops, so much for having an escape clause like infidelity. George races through the hospital looking for Izzie everywhere before Weber says, "She's at the third floor nurses' station. Oh, and tell her Dr. Torres is looking for her too." Uh oh.
Callie tells Izzie to meet her in the lunch room at noon. Soon, all of the interns are spreading the word that Callie is going to kick Izzie's ass-- yet, Alex of all people doesn't seem to know why Callie would be mad at Izzie. When Izzie tells him, vowing him to secrecy (because NOBODY will figure that out), Alex shakes his head in disgust: "I am embarrassed for you." Yeah, iGeorge, we all are. Of course, we later find out that Alex is furious with Izzie because she had told Alex she wasn't ready to date anyone after Denny, yet she fell in love with George.
The rivals for worst scenes were the scenes in which Meredith and Norman told the wrong patient that she was dying and the scene in which Izzie and Alex have to crike Weber's niece Camille. First, Meredith told Norman how detached he had to be about telling someone they were dying, and then their behavior made a huge joke about the patient's devastation (the entire show treated it as a joke, including the actress's over-the-top tears that nobody would take seriously), right before the patient left the hospital and they lost her. Before they could tell her that it was actually the old guy in the next room who is dying-- but they made an error due to reading the room number wrong. Oh, god. Izzie's cracks about penmanship came to fruition less than a half hour after her predictions. It's nice to know that the cliche about doctors' bad handwriting is actually what's wrong with our country's health care system. Edward Herrmann is trying to be so game as Shale, but he isn't given very good material, or a very good acting partner in Ellen Pompeo, to work with.
When Weber's niece came in, with Weber's wife, Alex said something to the effect of, "Holy crap, this is Weber's niece!" and Izzie got the worst line of the show: "Well, then I guess we better not screw it up." I don't even know how the writers wrote that line, let alone how she delivered it with a straight face. To quote Norman, "Seriously?" Weber got the second worst line in the show when he came in, as Izzie saved Camille's life with the crike, and bellowed, "What are you doing to my niece?" It's a hospital-- what the hell do you think they're doing?
Camille had the nicest scene on the episode when she refused treatment for the cancer that has returned, and which has plagued for for the past four years, since she was 14 years old. The young actress did a fine job, even if the actress who plays Adele was obnoxious throughout it. Weber's insistence on developing a treatment plan for Camille even in the face of her exhaustion was an exercise in selfishness. I can understand not wanting to let someone go, especially someone so young, but the scene was trite, especially because I doubt he would have been able to come up with a plan that involved that many experts so quickly. Regardless, Weber's complete lack of emotion and shifts between begging her for treatment and then telling her they'd get her home-- it's too bad the 18 year old was the best actress of the bunch.
Adele pretty much tells Weber that his refusal to put family before medicine one last time (in his refusal to bully Camille into more treatment just to satisfy Adele) is the last straw. If I were him, I'd heave a great sigh of relief.
Sara Ramirez really did a fine job in this episode too. Callie's pain was palpable. Last week, Jonathan talked about the coma guy being symbolic of how good the series was in the first two seasons, and now he's dead. The case of the woman whose bones have fragmented because she has abused herself in the name of love and not wanting to be alone is obviously a parallel for Callie. When Callie tells Ruthie's boyfriend that he didn't love her because you don't destroy the people you love, she was talking about George. But when she said that sometimes people just don't want to be alone, I think she was talking about herself. Obviously, she takes out on Ruthie's boyfriend her own rage about George. But it's also hard not to be furious with someone who has basically made his girlfriend starve herself to death, fracture her bones, and and vomit blood just to be a size 4 so her boyfriend will condescend to live with her. Bailey tells Callie that she almost lost her career over her upset toward the patient; ha ha ha. At Seattle Grace? What a joke. There seems to be nothing that will cause any of them to lose their careers.
George tells Callie that she can't just say that she forgives him, when everything in her behavior suggests that she hasn't. Of course, they are standing outside with rain pouring all over Callie when they are having this exchange. Good thing it's Seattle, or I might think that having pouring rain to show Callie's mood is trite.
Derek makes a series of stupid judgment calls about Lexie when Yang is actually right about correcting Lexie, particularly when Lexie, in sympathy, grasps the boy's hand, which could have killed him when he was supposed to be immobile. Derek comes in and tells YANG to leave the room? But apparently Derek was so focused on talking to Lexie about Meredith that medicine isn't that important. Derek tells Meredith what he wants from her and that he will wait for her to be ready, but he isn't sure what will happen if he meets someone in the meantime who can give him what he wants? He isn't sure what will happen then. Maybe he's already met her. Maybe her name is Lexie, and maybe she is less of an intern than Meredith is. But I have to wonder: It sounds like Derek has a plan. He wants marriage, kids, to build a house, to grow old. He has a vision. But is it really Meredith he wants? Or the plan?
| Izzie | |
|---|---|
| Callie: She breaks bones for a living. |
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