Dissecting Grey's Anatomy: Ain't Nothing Goin' On But the Rent Edition
Seriously folks—and by "folks" we mean the writer-producers of Grey's Anatomy who likely will never read one word of our caustic, bitter prose—seriously. You gotta give us something to work with here. A recapper's job is a lonely and not very exciting one, and is made exponentially lonelier and less exciting when the object of our recapping is, how should we say...devoid of any action. When the most captivating event to take place in an hourlong drama is a self-done haircut done by one of the characters, you know you're in for a long night. Not that we didn't enjoy the episode, cause we did. It's just...if you're really gonna resort to the theatrics of personal minutiae at least make them ones involving Burke busting a move. We're just saying. So here we go.
Meredith says that as doctors, patients are always telling them how to do their jobs. They just want you to stitch them up, slap on a band-aid, and send them home. They want the quick fix, but it's easy to prescribe when you don't know how deep and painful the wound is. Aww...someone seeing medical world-personal world parallels? Yeah. That's a switch.
So the episode starts off with Georgie-boy, still c/o Casa Burke-Yang, pondering how he can better the rut that is his life, and after eons—okay, a couple seconds—in front of a bathroom mirror, decides on a quick fix. It's the hair. It's gotta go. Now, you'd suspect that a trained surgeon—for whom manual dexterity ranks high on the list of necessary skills—would be able to handle a pair of clipping shears. But you'd be wrong. So he shows up at work looking all Frodo-like and becoming the object of his fellow interns' mockery. Again, that's a switch.
We would just like to take this opportunity to throw in here, without explanation or apology and because we're not much for transitions or set up these days, the following pun: Drop it like a bad hobbit. It popped in our heads apropos of nothing, and we just thought we'd share. Surely that non-sequitir fits in somewhere in the context of this recap. We're just not sure where.
Anyway. Georgie continues to bond with Burke, going for a manly early morning jog that Cristina finds disconcerting. And we do too. So he heads off to Seattle Grace, wherein he continues avoiding Meredith and sorta-flirting with the Latina nurse, whose name, for the life of us, we just can't catch. And don't bother referring us to any Websites, we won't start caring until something juicy goes down. In all fairness, though, they are sort of good together, her being the sort of take-charge, bossy-but-sweet gal Georgie just may need in his life. The anti-Meredith, if you will.
They team up on a bullheaded hockey player patient whose fractured his finger in several places yet refuses to not play in The Big Game. Talent scouts and the like. So he does what any able-minded jock would do: Since his glove won't fit over his Fred Flintstone-like finger, he cuts it off. Done and done. Of course, jamming his gaping wound into a sweaty bacteria-laden mitt causes such an infection that he will not be able to regain his hand functions and will never play again. We would feel sorry for the guy, but...he's a dumb ass.
Meanwhile, Meredith continues to be "just friends" with McDreamy, despite the fact that the missus knows nothing of their early morning dog walks. After he lulls her into believing that they are just good old fashioned platonic pals, she confides to him why exactly all her friends hate her: She slept with George. McDreamy shows a glimpse of heartbreak, but covers it up, telling her to corner him and apologize, apologize, apologize, using his own favored mode of transport/confrontation, the elevator. So she does.
On Georgie's way out, she slides into the lift with him, says she knows he hates her, but she's sorry and they're friends. She knows he'll get out of the elevator and take off without looking back, and that's okay, but when he does finally decide to glance back, she'll be there. Waiting. Aw. We still hate her though.
During the day, she's busy with McDreamy dealing with Natalie Cole. She's come in with a fork sticking out of her neck, a messy result of under the table naughtiness gone wrong, when her jaw snapped and her husband feared for his, uh, brain. Turns out she's got an aneurysm, a mighty big one, and thinks it's inoperable, and all she wants to do is die in peace and go to Paris. She likes her aneurysm, though. It woke her up from the past 15 years of sleepwalking. McDreamy, of course, successfully operates, but he gets something out of the deal, too. He gets inspired.
So he heads home, tells the wifey—who's been captivated all day by an elder papa-to-be who keeps telling her she looks like the beautiful actress of French stage and screen Catherine DeNeuve—that he's been sleepwalking in their marriage, and the fact that it all went to shambles is partly his fault too. So he promises to do his darndest to not be absent or indifferent and the wifey is shocked at the genuine change of heart. Wouldn't have anything to do with finding out your ex-mistress is a dirty whore, now would it? Regardless. Nice work, Derek.
Cristina, in between her bouts of contempt at George and Burke's bonding sessions, is forced to take care of Nazi's baby, whom she's brought to work but can't watch as she's needed in surgery. Needless to say, she doesn't do so well. George does, though, which leads Burke to comment on how well that speaks to his bedside manner. Uh oh. George is a better girlfriend than Cristina. Trouble is no doubt a-brewing. Especially when she comes home and finds the dudes in a de facto jam session in her living room. Oh lord.
As for Izzie and Alex, well, they are again paired up to look after Denny, who has morphed from the poor man's Javier Bardem into the poor man's Robert Downey Jr. Either way, not a shabby piece of eye candy. Izzie of course, still flirts like mad, while Alex has about had it. He goes behind her back and tells Denny that him and Izzie? They're a thing. So he should back off. Izzie finds out, denies it to Denny and yells at Alex for spouting off about their sex life. Hmm. More like former sex life. Alex retaliates by telling her she's getting too close to her patients and that Denny is just about and soon will be dead. Ouch. Sounds like he crossed the line.
Right after Izzie denies her horizontal prowess with Alex, Denny goes into a tailspin, or at least his heart does. She calls Burke, and the only option is to insert a battery-operated heart thang and keep him in the hospital until they can secure him a new organ. Not looking too good. But continued next week.
Meredith tidies up the episode by saying that as doctors, and friends, you do the best you can. The world is full of unexpected twists and turns and just when you get the lay of the land, the ground shifts and knocks you off your feet. If you're lucky, a band-aid's all you need. But some wounds need are deeper and need more time to heal and all you can do is rip off the bandage and let them breathe.
