Dissecting Grey's Anatomy: McVet is the New George Edition
If the last new episode christened George as the new McDreamy (we know, kids—you're gonna have to dig deep to recollect it...or, you know, go here) then this week by virtue of the transitive property, or whatever whim fits our capricious mood, McVet is the new George. Or wait, would that be McVet is the new McDreamy? Well, forget the transitive property then. McVet is the new bedfellow, which, when you take into account the whole George-Meredith-McDreamy triangle (now nearing dangerous and exponentially more confusing pentagonal—hexagonal?—proportions), the bedfellow thing makes sense too.
Oh, voice-over, what life-lesson gems hath thou forced upon...er, "gifted" us with today? Sacrifice? Alright, we can apply that to ourselves. Apparently the key to being a successful intern (us: journalist) is what you give up—a normal life (us: money). Okay, we don't like that game anymore. Meredith, though, continues to wax on about how you sacrifice it all for that moment when you can officially call yourself a surgeon, and how there are days when everything seems like a sacrifice, and days when there are sacrifices you can't even figure out why you're making.
Like us, writing this, knowing it will only result in this being stuck in our heads. Damn you, Elton.
The episode kicks off with a little boot knocking from all the usual suspects: George & Callie, Cristina & Burke—in theory, anyway, cause this one we don't see—and Addison & McDreamy, who's between-the-sheets session has the distinction of being "the most boring sex ever," a description the missus unknowingly tells Meredith over the phone. Not something a wife wants to broadcast to her hubby's ex-mistress.
Meredith is with her joint custody dog, Doc, at McVet's office. She does a little awkward flirting at which time she tells McVet that she and McDreamy are not together and that she's abstinent. He asks her out anyway. She says she'll think it over.
She heads to Seattle Grace at which time she pairs up with the mommy-tracked Nazi to tend to Denny, Izzie's patient paramour (see? We do single entendre, or, if you prefer, we double that up for you—cause he's a patient, see, but he also ain't gettin' any—there's your twofer right there!). Anyway, Nazi gives him her medical opinion which happens to differ from Izzie's. He's hesitant to take Nazi's, despite her greater breadth of experience cause, you know, he hasn't made out with her. (Has he made out with Izzie? We can't remember, that's what happens when you're forced to wait nearly a month in between new episodes, but if it hasn't happened yet, it's bound to.) Nazi no likey the line-crossing and tells Meredith to relay the no-macking-on-patients rule to her blonde roomie.
Regardless, Denny takes Nazi's advice and, despite being touch and go for a moment, is no longer bed-ridden. He also chooses not to heed Meredith's cautionary tale of not getting involved with Dr. Model and heads over to Izzie as part of his victory lap. Unfortunately, they're spotted mid-embrace by Nazi.
Izzie, meanwhile, has paired up with George and McDreamy, whose ill-fated sex romp has quickly become the stuff of legend, to treat Seattle's top divorce lawyer who just so happens to have seizures. They decide to do some brain mapping so as to know which part of the brain to operate on, which leaves Izzie and George to figure out a way to induce seizing. Fifty-three level video game? Check. Peer-pressured succession of espresso shots? She kicked that crema's ass. Still, what induces her seize is the sight of Izzie and George bickering over where Georgie-boy currently resides. Cause it sure ain't at Casa Grey.
After all that, the lawyer, after insulting McDreamy's bedtime prowess a few more times, decides not to go through with the operation and instead is simply gonna quit her job.
Addison, though, has much bigger fish to fry. She's teamed up with Alex, lord help her, on a c-section for a woman who's on baby number seven. Her hubby's über-religious, doesn't believe in birth control, so she asks Mrs. McDreamy to tie her tubes during the surgery without her husband knowing and without writing down the reason why on her notes—the bill will show the procedure, she reckons, and her husband will see the bill.
After hemming and hawing on ethics and the like, Addison does in fact tie the woman's tubes, a decision which back-talking Alex heartily disagrees with. During the operation, Addison voices concern over some abnormal bleeding and uses that as a cover-up to do the covert deed. After the fact, Alex's disdain is so strong—and his attitude such that of an ass—that he advises the disconcerted religious hubby to get a lawyer and that the "blessing" of not being able to have more kids may not be that at all. Needless to say, Addison is in big trouble. Lawsuits, investigations, career-wreckage to come, particularly since the now-infertile mama refuses to admit that she requested the procedure.
Alex's punishment? He's being assigned to va-jay-jay patrol full-time.
Burke meanwhile is facing problems of his own. First of all, he's suffering from empty nest syndrome on account of his new BFF Georgie has been unceremoniously kicked out of the apartment. He forsakes Cristina's latte for George's cappuccino. He invites his little buddy into a surgery before his lady love. He's in all sorts of despondent messes. And it only gets worse.
His hero, a San Francisco genius violinist, has been admitted to the hospital to get his pacemaker, installed by Burke himself, removed on account of it throwing off his natural rhythm. It just ain't jivin' with his string playing, and if he can't express himself properly on his instrument, he'd just as soon risk the heart failure. Burke doesn't know if he can do it, but eventually acquiesces after a bit of a pep talk from Cristina. See? Girlfriends are good for something after all.
He tells her that he was never like she was in school—he wasn't the smartest or the bearer of the most natural talent but he was the best because he worked at it. Just like his hero. He performs the surgery, but unfortunately it does not go well. The violinist dies on the operating table.
George, who has been shacking up at Callie's hospital abode, decides to move back in to the Grey manor. He is, after all, paying rent. And Izzie clearly misses him, a point brought to his attention by the divorce lawyer. So he comes back home and brings Callie with him (though just for the night) much to the delight of his bestest friend. Who, as an aside, he apparently blames for his falling out with Meredith.
Speaking of whom (you want transitions, we'll give you transitions), decides to take McVet up on his offer of a date. She shows up just as he's running out to do an errand, so she accompanies him only to find out that said errand entails him birthing a horse. Luckily, it's something Meredith is very much into. Not in that way, though. Dirty. Once the deed is done (again, not that one—dirty) there's much talk about getting that date underway, something which Meredith is suddenly very averse to seeing as how it was suggested they go back to McVet's apartment so he can cook for them.
Meredith is anti-apartment because she doesn't trust herself, a message she gets across by telling McVet she's a knitter about six times (hmmm...knitting is the new celibacy?) and telling him she absolutely won't sleep with him. He retaliates by saying he won't even try and sleep with her if she comes over, so she does.
Of course, what's a love quadrangle (is that what it's up to now?) without a little contrivance. As she's showering off the horse, um, fluids, who should arrive at Casa McVet but McDreamy himself? Doc has not stopped getting sick and needs immediate tending to, and just as he's being ushered in the door, who should come down the stairs all freshly-showered and donning a McVet t-shirt? That's right.
McDreamy goes home and finally—for whatever reason—makes some good shower loving to the missus.
The paraphrased last words (by request and out of fear of copyright): As someone once said, you can have anything in life if you sacrifice everything else for it. Nothing comes without a price, so before you go into battle you should decide how much you're willing to lose. Going after what feels good sometimes means letting go of what's right. And when we choose to go into battle, we can handle the sacrifice. When the battle chooses us, the sacrifice is often more than we can bear.
