Dissecting Grey's Anatomy: Bah Humbug Edition
Well, folks, judging by the lack of scenes from next week's Grey's Anatomy at the end of this holiday-filled episode, we don't anticipate a new show next Sunday. Or, presumably, the Sunday after that. But lucky for us, this episode included lots o' tide-us-over bombshell dropping. Well, not so much bombshell dropping as long-coming revelations we've known for awhile. Plus, some comeuppance for George, which Seattlest never really thought he needed, but after careful consideration of the matter (read: thought about it during a commercial break), we wholeheartedly endorse the move.
Meredith kicks off the show in all her trademark clichéd voice-over glory, telling us that the urban myth of suicide rates spiking at the holidays? Not really true. They actually go down. Experts attribute this to the fact that people are less inclined to off themselves when family's around. Gee, thanks for that info, Debbie Downer. You sure know how to spread that holiday cheer.
We kick off the action with Meredith and Georgie staring at what was once their living room, but now more closely resembles Santa's workshop. If Santa went deranged and threw up tinsel and ornaments and those annoying blinking lights (really, people, the non-blinkers are the way to go), and everything that was red or green or holiday-related all converged on one home in Queen Anne. It's Izzie's doing, of course, and her roomies are good enough to pretend that they like it, what with her still getting over her cruel, adulterous, almost-boyfriend Alex.
Compare that with the festivities over at Casa Burke & Yang, which consists of a sole undecorated tabletop tree. Burke wants the lovebirds to decorate it together, but Cristina disapproves of it and anything even vaguely holiday- or religious-related. She is, after all, Jewish. Wait, really? Her ex-stepfather was Jewish? Okay, we'll go with it.
The fun continues as the duo tend to a boy in need of a heart transplant (his second) at the hospital. His mama keeps telling him what a miracle it is, and that Santa brought the heart as a Christmas gift for him. She even decorates the hospital room with a tree and decorations. Trouble is, the little boy doesn't want the heart, doesn't believe in Santa and doesn't want anything to do with the tinsel fiasco that's threatening to take over his room. Ah, a boy after holiday-hatin' Cristina's own heart. He knows that he only got the heart cause another kid had to die and he doesn't want that to happen.
So the docs perform the surgery, but in the O.R., when Burke is waxing philosophical about a mind-body-spirit connection between patients, his lady love way undermines his authoritay and incredulously announces to the staff that he not only believes in Christmas, but in Santa too? Ooh. Not a good move. She gets a one-way ticket out of that O.R.
The boy comes out of surgery and goes into a bit of a cardiac arrest. Cristina brings him back and gives him a bit of a heart-to-heart talking to, telling him that she doesn't believe in Santa or Christmas either, but she does believe in medicine and surgery, and he should too. Cause dying is not the best revenge and so he should choose to live. Aw. See, that's all Burke meant. He has to believe in something more powerful than himself, cause otherwise, when there's nothing more he can do for a patient, he has to believe in something.
So Cristina goes home and finds both a fully decorated tree and a menorah. Cuteness. They cuddle.
Izzie, meanwhile, teams up with McDreamy (for once, not the missus) to treat a man who fell off his roof while hanging lights and now has a wicked headache. He's all jolly and surrounded by (in Seattlest's opinion) his really annoying kids who won't stop singing carols and jumping on his bed. He loves it, though, and doesn't want them to leave cause he doesn't want to miss out on their holiday cheer. Blech. The party is short-lived, though, when he goes into surgery for bleeding of the brain and comes out with a whole new, Cristina-approved bah humbug personality.
Prior to the surgery, the guy's family liked McDreamy (cause of his name...Shepherd, Jesus, flocks...get it) but now they hate him cause they broke their dad. Izzie's none too pleased herself, blaming the married docs' negative Christmas attitude on the shift. So, it's back to surgery they go, and this time around, they play Christmas carols during the operation. Professional. But apparently, it works.
Alex has been madly studying for his medical boards, which he needs to retake the next day. So Meredith, Georgie and Cristina rotate in as his study buddy, pretending to be patients so Alex can diagnose them. Problem is, Izzie walks in on their good-natured deed, blames them all for siding with him, or at the very least, not completely shunning him, and storms off. In her second completely absurd metaphor of the day, Meredith says it's just cause he's their Crazy Uncle Sal, the guy who no one likes but you have to invite him to family gatherings anyway, and he can't be left alone near the girls, but he is family. And that the hospital is Meredith's family. Touching enough, we suppose, but Izzie's not buying it.
'Course, she does go back and help Alex, despite her raging levels of pissed offness, cause, she says (well, screams), "It's what Jesus would freakin' do!" Ah, exactly how the Messiah wants him name invoked. But she can't handle it. Starts crying. Alex tries to comfort her, says he never wanted to hurt her, but she tells him to back off and that she's only crying as part of a "symptom" of her "character" that she's playing to "help him." Okay, so those last quote marks weren't necessary, but we got carried away in the moment.
She goes home, lies on the floor and stares up at the Christmas tree lights. Georgie and Meredith supportively follow suit.
Earlier, though, Georgie is assigned to a woman who has a stomach ulcer who has been awaiting surgery for quite some time. Several days, in fact, and her surgery keeps getting pushed back for more "pressing" matters (okay, we got the quotes right on that one). Georgie assures her the surgery will take place that morning, and—what...what's that? No...surely...really? Yep. He's forced to push it back again. By the way, this woman's family? Probably the ones who gave her the ulcer in the first place. We're just saying. Thank you Grey's Anatomy for giving us something else to be thankful for...that our family's not like that.
Well, they waited too long and the woman starts puking blood. Man, we hate it when that happens. They expedite her to surgery, it goes well aside from Nazi getting a bout of pregnant woman nausea and a healthy dose of kicking. And aside from Georgie making a crack about calling in Dr. Karevian (instead of Dr. Kavorkian) and getting on the real bad side of Nazi, who was undoubtedly feeling a surge of parental protection at the time. He gets a tongue lashing he (and we) won't soon forget.
Afterwards, he takes a cue from Nazi and issues a tongue lashing of his own to the family from hell, banning them from the recovery wing of the hospital. That's our Georgie, back in fighting form.
Meredith, after helping out with the surgery, and fetching extra-thick strawberry milkshakes for a craving-induced Nazi, heads out. She sees McDreamy on the way and they briefly commiserate on how neither cares too much for the holidays. Wow, sacks of joy, all of them.
McDreamy departs to Joe's bar (Joe!) and meets up with the wifey. She asks why he's not too thrilled about the holidays, this was always their favorite time of year, and he tells her (and this, folks, is the pseudo-bombshell) it's because the holidays make you want to be with the people you love. And that he, McDreamy, is in love with Meredith. What they had was not a fling, it was not revenge, and it doesn't just go away because he chose to give their marriage another try. Ouch. And a Merry Christmas to you, too, Derek.
Meredith wraps this tidy little episode package up, invoking the old proverb that you can't choose your family and that you take what the fates give you (she certainly has a way with the quotes, doesn't she folks?), like them or not, love them or not, understand them or not. But there's another school of thought, and that's that the family you're born into is simply a starting point and what you get strength from until you're ready to go out into the world and find your drive.
Until next year.
