By Michelle Lerner
Darn it GREY’S ANATOMY! Why must you do your best to make me cry? There I am, sitting happily on my couch, all critical and judgey, and you have to go and get me weeping like a baby. It’s not right, and not fair! If I am going to cry at least let it be over a dying baby, or love affair gone awry directed by Ang Lee. I don’t want to shed manipulated tears over a bunch of broken EMTs I’ve only just met. Sigh.
I noticed while I was watching the most recent episode of GREY’s, that I no longer pay any attention to a thing Meredith says in her voiceover at the beginning of the show. Seriously. For example, this time I was busy being amused by Christina’s dance moves, and irritated by Meredith’s dickering about Shepard, when I realized that there was still talking going on. Blah blah blah, something about making a difference. I hit fast forward.
To my chagrin, we are next in Bailey’s house where her saintly stay-at-home husband is giving her crap about never being home. He tells her they need to talk. I became scared for Bailey; I’ve always loved how her personal life was left alone. But now, like vultures, the writers- running out of love lives to mess with- have Bailey in their evil sights. And I have a sneaking feeling that missing her lunch with her lovely husband is going to cost her. Can’t they just let well enough alone?
No. They can’t. This week’s episode was filled yet again with too much plot-but it kind of worked. It was entertaining. Besides the wretched EMT’s, there was a man with an exposed carotid artery, played by a simpering Seth Green (celebrity guest stars always mean the patient is there for the long haul- am I right?) There was tension between Yang and Stevens, Shepard and O’Malley, Shepard and Grey, Shepard and nurse named Rose (who Shepard looks at like a piece of steak,) Sloane and Hahn, a neo-Nazi and Bailey and the Chief, Yang and Bailey. Am I missing anything…
YES! And finally there was tension between Karev, Grey the younger, and Jane Doe, who appears out of nowhere for a nooner. When she can’t have what she wants because Karev has a surgery, she convinces him to let her watch from the gallery, which is a big no-no for non-docs. I always loved the subplot with Jane Doe and Karev- it was romantic and melodramatic in a good soapy way. But this piece of intrigue was so contrived that it has almost spoiled it for me. And poor Lexie. She had started to believe that Karev was kind of her “guy,” to put it like Izzy. Well, he’s not, sweetheart. Ok, I’ll admit here, that secretly, after Lexie met Jane in the gallery, I got into the love triangle. It took my mind off the atrocities in the ambulance.
Taking a page from the E.R playbook never suits GREY’S, which is a much gentler show. How many various crashes have we seen in the parking lot of County General in Chicago? I think a helicopter even crashed there once! And the hanging upside down thing is also a little played. And yet, I still cried at the true friendship displayed by these two guys I’ve never noticed before. I think it was when the Chief kindly fed the dying man and his severely wounded partner the words to “I Can See Clearly Now” that put me over the edge. I’ll give the show credit- they did an admirable job of creating an oppressively close atmosphere around the crash. Every time they cut back into the hospital I gasped for air with relief. Lexie Grey’s love life became a salve.
The show ends rather abruptly. All day Seth Green, carotid artery boy, has been flirting shamelessly with Lexie. She tells him she has a sort of boyfriend. He doesn’t back off. She doesn’t seem to mind. After he comforts Lexie by making her laugh, he laughs himself. And BAM! His artery pops. All over poor stunned Lex. It’s not like it was a surprise- the thing had to blow- it’s just that Lexie’s face is priceless. She does a great job with “stunned/fuck what do I do.”
And irritatingly we won’t know the answer til next time! (But it does go back to my theory that celebrity guest starts get to stick around.) Curse you GREY’S for being so bad you’re good!