Grey's Days are Here Again!
Much like Izzy, Seattlest was curled up in a ball(gown) throughout most of the Grey's Anatomy summer break. Now, Sunday is the new thursday and it's just Grey's, OK? Saying the full name is so last season.
Episode one kicks off with Meredith riffing on time. It's elastic, like your momma's pants. We return to find Izzy on the floor, and Meredith wondering why she's called to console her--because she's the "president of people with crappy lives"? No Mere, because you need to kick the narcissism thing and learn empathy. It's looking like Ellen Pompeo is the new Calista Flockhart. We're treated to the first of a series of flashbacks of the new intern mixer, wherein Karev mocks Izzy's suitability as a surgeon. Eyecandy Izzy won't cut it, Alex insists. You've got to be hardcore, he sez.
I am hardcore, she replies. "You won't last the first year, babe," he mutters, presciently. See, because time being elastic and all, you can contract it to see the characters' bold foreshadowing. Oh, what a neat trick!
Meanwhile, Doc Bailey ID's Denny's body, apologizes to the corpse, and back at Meredith's pad, Cristina ferrets out why self-described "dark and twisty" Meredith is making so many sandwiches for grief-stricken Izzy: 'Cause she's got other probs, namely, that she 'lost her panties' at the prom last night (which was last season--see how elastic time is?)
Cut to Addison (gasp!) taking said black panties (boy-cut hipster briefs, fyi) out of the dryer (everyone knows lingerie is air-dried, but whatev) and popping them in a Ziploc, as if they were evidence, or a snack. The efficiency with which Addison does this is a little gem of good acting, by the way.
Back at Seattle Grace, there's a subplot of car accident victim couple Omar and Giselle, who are not just injured but possibly fighting the plague?
At Meredith's, as Cristina peppers Mere with the outcome of her ever-wretched scenario, Meredith's mind drifts off to a flashback in which she's on a merry-go-round, and her mom is arguing with illicit love, the Seattle Grace Chief. Like mother, like daughter? Is Meredith doomed to mess up relationships just like mama?
In the ER, a baby found in a trash can is brought in, kicking off a spiraling, if pedantic subplot in which Addision plays doctor, detective, and moral authority, even as she's wracked with guilt (via flashbacks, of course) over her own moral lapse when, years ago, she cheated on McDreamy. Did Addison trash her marriage much like this 14 year-old trashed her newborn?
And just where is said hottie doctor/hubby? Why, he's locked in the locker room with George, quarantined while others fight the possible plague. George's new much more fetching haircut appears to have done nothing for his confidence. Derek, all confident and smug despite his screwed up personal life, is certain they'll be released soon. But George can't stop sweating and pacing. McDreamy isn't worried as he's already lived, George whines. He's got "the hair, the hot wife" and Meredith 'pining" for him while George has only got...wait, what has Georgie got? Oh yeah, Callie....
whom he can't even return the L word to. Derek tells him to do so pronto, but Georgie can only muster 'soonish.' Clearly, it isn't just looks and rank that separate McDreamy from Georgie. It's cojones, hermano.
Somewhere in there, Korean Jew Cristina tells the still floor-bound Izzy about the Jewish traditon of shiva, where you don't even get to change your clothes. Hey, Izzy's observant and she didn't even know it.
We're also treated to a FB of Mere and McDreamy (then McStranger Danger) when they met at the bar and first hooked up, not knowing whom the other was.
In present time, Richard's wife, Adele, threatens to leave him if he doesn't retire. Time, for her, has run out. But how can he leave when an apparent plague has seized Seattle Grace?
Cut to Georgie and McDreamy, released from the locker room, showing up at Chez Grey. Callie is ecstatic, professing her love YET AGAIN! (didn't this girl read The Rules?), while McDreamy finds Meredith to tell her that their hookup meant that she's free to choose him, if she wants, but she should take all the time she needs. Cause, you know, that's the theme of the episode.
But wait- in another scene Finn (Chris O'Donnell) does pretty much the same. If there's a ring, he tells her, his hat is in it. Showdown!
Meanwhile what Meredith has in time and suitors, she lacks in undergarments, as Addison pins up the wayward panties on the hospital bulletin board under "lost and found." Touche. No, three-shay on Ms. Grey. Cristina breaks down in front of Burke. "Don't ever die," she tells him. "I'll do my best," he answers. Awww... But what of Izzy, still on the floor, still in the strapless mauve confection? Time is messing with her mind, but it is time, she finds, to change. And with that, Meredith turns to help her out of her dress. No, it's not Georgie's dirty mind, this is the real deal, people. Izzy is back. Time isn't elastic after all. It's strapless. And like the last scene in this first episode, it comes off like a prom dress.
