Ooh, remember when Derek Shepherd was just another hot doctor at Seattle Grace, making eyes at a certain intern and going about his neurological business?

Now he's the big, bad chief who has to make the hard decisions, whether it's ordering a patient to abide by his wishes or telling the former chief that he'll do that surgery, gosh darnit, and Bailey will assist.

It's ok, though. We know that underneath that snarly business persona beats the heart of a hot doc with great hair on 'Grey's Anatomy' (Thu., 9PM ET on ABC).

Watch the video after the jump.

(S03E17) So, I'm watching this climactic ferry-accident-arc episode, and there's a lot of stuff going on. Meredith is still cold and dead. She's also dealing with patients from her past in some sort of afterlife, all of whom are encouraging to fight for life. Izzie and her passive-aggressiveness is called on the carpet yet again by Callie. They start a bypass on Meredith to warm her up, since according to Webber, she's not dead until she's warm and dead. She's still in limbo. Derek is yelling at, then trying to save Ellis. At one of the commercial breaks, I thought to myself, "Whew. Glad this is almost over."

Then I looked at the clock on my microwave, and it said it was 9:38.

This was not a good thing.

(S03E16) Oh, for Christ's sake.

I thought this arc was going to go somewhere. I figured that last week's episode was good, so the middle of the arc was going to ramp up the drama. I also heard that someone was going to die, and I spent the entire episode wondering who Shonda Rhimes would knock off.

And, to be honest, all I got was a bad cross between, ER, Emergency!, and Magnum, P.I.

(S03E15) As Al Bundy used to say, "Great Lucifer's ghost!"

This is going to be a pretty intense arc, isn't it? Sandwiched in between a ferry wreck and lots of oddball traumas are the interpersonal issues of the entire SGH staff. Oh, and water. Lots and lots of water.

(S03E13) Many thanks to Keith for covering the show while I was in L.A. The other day, I caught the episode I missed; looks like Shonda Rhimes and company did a great job of dealing with Mr. O'Malley's death, the Burke-Yang cold war, and the cutsey fighting of Meredith and Derek. Oh, and they even briefly hooked Addison up with Alex again. Nice.

But the biggest revelation, at least to me, is how personally involved Bailey got with the O'Malleys, and how she actually took a cue from the always-involved Izzie. That carries over to this week's fairly straightforward episode. "The Nazi is back," says Derek when she forces the four potential Chiefs of Surgery to sign off on her free clinic idea. But it's a different Nazi... one that feels more than she used to, while being ballsier at the same time (note how she told Burke that he owed her after sandbagging her during the whole tremor period).

(S03E10) Tension's running high at Seattle Grace this week, isn't it? Bailey's all pissed because Yang and Burke are seemingly getting away with their tremor-induced "teamwork," and pissed at herself because yet another intern misbehaved under her watch. Burke and Yang are of course pissed at each other. Shepherd is pissed because Burke won't let him fix that tremor. George is pissed at everyone because he feels powerless over what's going on with his dad. Addison is pissed at Meredith for freezing during surgery. The other interns are pissed at Yang because she got to do all those neato procedures. Webber is pissed at Burke for not letting him retire. And the Sklar brothers are pissed at each other because they're conjoined and like to touch the same woman while naked.

Ok, let me explain that one...

Grey's Anatomy really took off this year after that sex-filled episode following the Super Bowl. So, ABC showed its gratitude by giving the main cast members $200,000 bonuses. That's enough to take a super nice vacation, buy a really awesome car, or a decent house in Peoria, Illinois.

The cast members receiving $200,000 bonuses are: Ellen Pompeo, Patrick Dempsey, James Pickens Jr., T.R. Knight, Sandra Oh, Katherine Heigl, Chandra Wilson, Isaiah Washington, Justin Chambers and Kate Walsh. Pretty much the entire cast of regulars.

Despite the sizable bonuses, the actors are reportedly still pushing Disney to re-negotiate their contracts since they went from small-time to mega-hit last season. It's a reasonable request (or, perhaps, an omen). The four main actors in Desperate Housewives also received $200,000+ bonuses and raises after the first season.

During Tuesday's fall schedule presentation, ABC did some pimping of Grey's Anatomy and it also played a clip making fun of the hit show (it's currently up on YouTube). The clip is a spoof from a scene during the big Grey's episode that aired after the Super Bowl. You may remember, in that episode, Dr. George O'Malley has a fantasy about Meredith, Cristina and Izzie taking a shower together. The spoof video is of Patrick Dempsey, Isaiah Washington, and James Pickens Jr. taking a steamy shower together-- it's somebody else's fantasy and you find out who at the end of the scene.

The video is after the jump and the McSteamy shower scene is about 3 minutes in.

The next new episode of Lost isn't until Wednesday, January 11th, so ABC is kindly airing a recap of the season so far. It airs at 8 pm on January 11th, and is called "Revelations," and then the new episode about Eko and his stick, called "The 23rd Psalm", airs at 9 pm the same night. By then, we will have gone for six whole weeks without a new episode of Lost! If you've never seen Lost, but you want to get in on the excitement, I would recommend watching the DVDs for Season One and then watching the recap. You can also read recaps of all this season's episodes here.

And, if you're like Ryan, and you're wondering what all the excitment is over Grey's Anatomy, ABC is also airing a recap episode of that show on Sunday, Jan. 8th at 10 pm. The next new episode of Grey's is a week later. This won't be nearly as hard to catch up on as it will be to catch up on Lost. Basically, Meredith Grey is a really skinny surgical intern in Seattle who had an affair with another surgeon who is married. She has pretty much spent this whole season pouting about it. Yet, I can't stop watching...

Not only is Christina Ricci making a guest appearance on Grey's Anatomy, she's doing it on the most important night of the year for the hospital drama. ABC is airing her episode directly after the Super Bowl on February 5th. It's a huge opportunity for Grey's Anatomy. Obviously, ABC wants the episode to not only hold onto some of the huge audience from the big game, but also to create new, regular viewers of the show. ABC is keeping the plot of the program under wraps, only saying that Ricci arrives at Seattle Grace Hospital "not as a patient, but as someone in a life-and-death situation." O-kay. February's appearance marks the third television acting appearance for Ricci in recent memory, including a stint on Ally McBeal and a guest spot on Joey.

Personally, I think ABC is holding a contest to see who is tinier, Ellen Pompeo or Christina Ricci? I'm going to have to go with Ellen Pompeo on this one, since Christina Ricci still looks like a healthy person.