Grey's Anatomy: Invasion
by Michael Pascua, posted Oct 16th 2009 12:25AM
(S06E05) We've finally reached the big merger episode of Grey's Anatomy. The orange doctors of Mercy West have invaded Seattle Grace Hospital. I can't get warmed up to all of the new characters that this show is shoving down my throat in one episode. All of them seem too pushy in a place where they're foreigners. If the show wants me to warm up to these Mercy West characters, they shouldn't act like dumb jocks or pushy girls with low self esteem.
In the end, the only losers are the patients that were being fought over. All of them went through hell because of the competition.
I grew so close to Lexie in the past few weeks that I was automatically on her side when Lexie's doppelganger took over. Billy, the unsuccessful robber, was an interesting choice to parallel to Lexie. I secretly squealed when she broke the new girl. Everyone has those first days, but having to write a mantra is really odd. Wouldn't chanting a mantra be enough to get one mentally ready without having a book? As a patient, I would be upset if my doctor was jotting down notes that wasn't on my chart because of doctor/patient confidentiality not knowing the fact that she was writing about herself.
Christina's breakdown has been forthcoming, and it was great to reinforce the connection between Meredith and Christina. The fact that they really didn't speak after Christina cried showed how the two interact. I was happy that the show even referred to Burke; I thought it was taboo, but with George not being around, it must be okay. That was the only time that Christina shone as a surgeon.
You knew that they set up the whole Chief/Asian HR woman office meeting in the beginning of the episode for something dramatic at the end. I was happy to see that the hospital got sued for laying off a person via email; that was unprofessional. Then we found out the big cut: Izzie. Shame on her for attempting the cancer card. She basically killed two patients in the past two episodes. For an unknown reason (other than the fact that Katherine Heigl is taping a movie) she'll leave Alex for at least five episodes. I could at least imagine for the next few episodes what it would have been like if both Izzie and George died last week. Again, like Lexie, Alex being a squeamish little girl won me over last week, and with him being depressed at the end of the episode, I'm on his side.
Amidst all the merger drama, we get a really heavy storyline involving Callie and her father. Gay situations never get a lot of air time, and I'm very happy with the way that Grey's handled it. I've never supported religious cleansing and never thought it would work, and when Callie's father pummeled her with Bible quotes, I got scared. Luckily Callie had fire and countered by quoting from the Bible about Jesus loving everyone. It's nice to learn a quick background of Arizona's name origin and how she was always gay. Her speech to Callie's father ("Are you still who I raised you to be?") was beautiful and to the point. I loved how he got it in the end; it was a nice warm fuzzy feeling.
Final thoughts: I like how they hid Ellen Pompeo's pregnancy bump with a table most of the episode. I missed the musical ending montage which wasn't as strong as this week's song. Finally, I write notes about this show as I type this review, but hell, I couldn't even keep up with the new names. I know the dumb jock looking one was Charles Percy, the guy who tackled that patient was Jackson, and the girl against Alex was Reed. Will I remember that next week? Only if their doctor's jackets are legible.
Next week, we get the episode based off of Kurosawa's classic film Rashomon. All twelve doctors will have their point of views. How did you guys like the episode? Leave comments below. As always, if you missed any of the action catch full episodes on SlashControl.
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