meredith grey

(S05E24) "If you're not scared, you're not paying attention." - Bailey

I took a few hours off in between last night's two hour Grey's Anatomy finale. I knew it was going to be two posts since it was two episodes and so I sat and watched the first one, wrote it up, grabbed a few hours of sleep, and woke up trying to figure just what was going to happen in this episode before I watched it. Everything was so nicely set up (the first hour really could have served as a finale too) and once again, Grey's Anatomy caught us all off guard with what's arguably its biggest cliffhanger yet.

(S05E23) "I'm your tumor. You're talking to yourself." - Denny

Just when I was finally starting to get sucked back into Grey's Anatomy, when I had finally come to terms with the ridiculous Denny/Izzie sex, when I had finally said, "hey, I actually like where they went with this," he had to come back one more time to ruin it all. After last week, I thought we had seen the last of Denny Duquette. Izzie told him to go and he went. But it's like Denny said - he's Izzie's tumor and as long as she still has the brain lump, Denny's gonna keep getting a tan down at Izzie's imaginary beach. I think I speak collectively for the entire population of Earth when I say thank god Izzie chose to get the surgery.

I appreciate a show that takes the time to have decently written dialogue, well timed music cues, and good use of set. A show like Grey's Anatomy needs a 100th episode celebration every week. When a show actually uses characters correctly, it can succeed.

I appreciate that this episode had characters that normally don't interact interacting. Seeing Mark/Meredith, Derek/Izzie, Lexie/George all interacting made me realize that the hospital is smaller than one thinks. You work with these people, you think you'd talk to them once in a while.

Clearly, the wedding was going to take a left turn. I was happy to see that the stress of work didn't affect anyone and they were all happily attending the wedding. So does every wedding end with sex after attending?

EW.com's Michael Ausiello posted this blind item yesterday: "A major female character on a popular and highly rated hour-long drama series will learn that she's pregnant next month."

Other tidbits: The expectant character isn't thrilled to be pregnant. The timing, both personally and professionally, is really bad. The baby daddy's going through some stuff. And the bun in her oven may have company.

Ok, let's speculate here. My first thought is that it's Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy, since her real-life alter-ego Ellen Pompeo actually IS pregnant. But the timing isn't all that bad. She and Derek are getting married. They can use a distraction with Izzie's cancer taking center stage. And although he's had some issues, Derek seems to have pulled it together.

(S05E20) "Someone will be singing 'Wind Beneath My Freaking Wings'" - Meredith

Why does ABC have to mention that Grey's Anatomy has some of the best storylines on television? If that is true, that must mean that Private Practice has the worst. The episode was good, but the long wait got me jaded.

The show does better when Meredith isn't the center of the show. Even with her as the narrator, she succeeded only as a model for Izzie and a mediator between Derek and Mark. Speaking of which, Lexie was hysterical the whole episode. I thought it was so obscene that she kept eating something different in every shot that she was in. Sure they mentioned that she broke out, but couldn't the makeup team add a lump or two? I didn't see one thing wrong with her face.

Is it just me or there seems to be a baby boom in Hollywood this TV season? This is probably the 73rd post we've written here at TV Squad this year about a TV actress being pregnant, wondering how it will affect the show she stars in.

When the two lead actresses of How I Met Your Mother announced they were pregnant, the writers decided not to write the pregnancies in and go for the "hiding the belly under big clothes or things" option instead. They even shot the season finale months before they would have usually done so they could have the two actresses in reasonable shape.

People announced that Grey's Anatomy lead actress Ellen Pompeo is pregnant with her first child, while reminding us that Chyler Leigh, who plays Pompeo's half-sister, is due in May. We know that Shonda Rhimes decided not to have Lexie be pregnant but what about Meredith?

Warning! The rest of this post contains spoilers about upcoming episodes.

Could Meredith be getting another half-sibling on Grey's Anatomy? According to Entertainment Weekly's Mike Ausiello, it's very likely.

In his latest installment of Ausiello TV, he notes that late last year, executive producer Shonda Rhimes began quietly looking for a male actor to play a mysterious new recurring role. The person had to be both bi-racial and in his late 20's.

Although we won't know for sure until next season, it seems likely that the character might be the product of the affair between Meredith's mother and the Chief, as their affair was 20-some years ago.

A few other things spring to mind:

Do doctors really sleep around this much? I mean, we know that Sloan, Callie, Izzie, and all the rest of the staff currently employed at Seattle Grace have bedded down pretty much everyone on the show. But apparently, that was happening 20 years ago, as well.

(S05E12) "You're wearing an alarmingly high pony tail." - Derek

At the most simplified level, Dunn is right, you know - a doctor isn't really that different than a serial killer. They both get to choose who dies. A doctor is likely driven by science while a serial killer gets his marching orders from a little voice in his head, but they're both making choices; doing what they think is the right move. Eric Stoltz has thus far been a shining point this season. William Dunn is one of the better characters we've seen on Grey's Anatomy in a while and I'm glad he'll be around for at least one more week.

(S05E11) "Sexed-up stalkers." - Sloan

I thought Grey's Anatomy had gone far enough with the Izzie/Denny mess - until this episode. Why you ask? Because they introduced a doctor who gets around on Heelys!! Do you have any idea how much I hate Heelys? Nine-year-olds come whipping by on those damn things when you're walking around the mall, and as much as you hate to wish bad things upon a 9-year-old, I'm just waiting for the headline "Local Sixth Grader Wearing Heelys Cracks Skull Open in Front of Orange Julius." Oh and that doctor (Dr. Arizona Robbins) that got introduced tonight? She's a pediatric surgeon. Great message to send to the youth of America.

(S05E10) Before I even start this review, I've got to vent about the absurd amount of commercials during this episode of Grey's Anatomy. Is it always this bad and I just haven't noticed? Are there always ads every two minutes or so? I found it extremely distracting to be constantly interrupted, especially when there were so many storylines going on tonight.

And we did have a lot to keep track of: Dr. Dixon's appearance, the Izzie / Denny / Alex love triangle, who would be awarded the first solo surgery, Callie's and Sadie's flirting, the medical cases of the week, Yang and Hunt, Sloan and Little Grey, Bailey and Sloan ... I can barely keep track of them all.

Let's break down this episode after the break and try to make some sense of "All By Myself."

(S05E09) "Who's making a porno movie in Izzie's room?" - Derek

I am an unashamed Grey's Anatomy fan. I've watched it since the very beginning. At this point, it'd be hard for me stop because I feel like I've invested too much time to just say the hell with it smack in the middle of the show's fifth season. A season which I went from loving, to hating, to loving, and now to absolutely despising. So for those of you who seem to think that I shouldn't be writing weekly reviews of this show because "I don't seem to like it very much, well, I assure you that's just not the case. I complain because I love. Based on that, I really loved this episode.

(S05E08) "It's too bad - she was really talented." - Shepherd

Snap! Well that didn't take long. Thirty seconds into the episode and Shonda Rhimes made it very clear how she feels about Brooke Smith's departure from the show. Even though I didn't like the whole Callie/Hahn romance and even though I thought Hahn's exit actually made a bit of sense (it was written well), I still don't see why it was necessary to fire Smith. There had to have been a better way to fix the story without removing her. Regardless, no sense in whining. She's gone and Seattle Grace Hospital now has two new faces for everyone to gossip about.

(S05E07) "It's like a bouquet... of corpses!" - Izzie

You know, for a guy that died, Denny Duquette somehow manages to get more screen-time on Grey's Anatomy than most of the characters who are still living. Seriously, it must be incredibly frustrating to be a minor character on this show and know that two or three times a season, some dead guy who most fans are sick of will get more time in front of the camera than you will.

(S05E06) "I am so gay." - Hahn

As much as I've been annoyed with how the Hahn/Callie courtship has gone thus far, I have to say - I think they won me over here. To see Hahn cry and blubber about how she's finally discovered herself, I couldn't help but feel bad for her. Granted she flipped the bitch-switch back on at the hospital, but you can't really blame her for that. She's gay. Callie's bi. And Major Owen Hunt likes to stab live pigs.

(S05E05) "Interns - the other white meat." - Alex

I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a kidney today! The rare opportunity of being able to perform a domino procedure has finally come to Seattle Grace (thanks to Bailey's efforts), and with the bad shape that SGH has been in lately, it couldn't have come at a better time. They need some good headlines.

But as with all in-depth Grey's Anatomy plots, there is no way you're going to get 12 kidney donors/recipients together without there being some drama. Hey, people with severe renal failure still have daddy issues and engage in extramarital sex too you know.