Grey’s Anatomy: Work together, Die alone

This “week” on Grey’s Anatomy, Grey’s finally reaches a goal they have been shooting for all season. They surprise us! No, not with Izzie’s illness or the fact that TR Knightly has a dramatic swan song in his near future, but our opening monologue is Grey free this week. We are treated to Alex telling us the crappy mentality of a surgeon as he watches over Izzie sleeping in the hospital.

Across town Torres gets the news that Izzie, the whore who slept with her husband and broke up her marriage, only to later dump him because the sex was bad, all before Torres became a lesbian, is dying.

In the same apartment, Yang and Major Redface lay in bed watching surgery. I can’t imagine why they haven’t had sex yet, this screams erotica. Yang falls asleep, so the Major turns off the lights and tries to follow suit. He drifts off watching the fan spin symbolically and the next thing we know he is literally strangling Yang. The scene gets scary and disturbing as Yang is ferociously fighting for her life, while the Major sleep strangles her. Torres, hearing the noise of Yang thrashing around like a banshee comes in and wakes the Major up. Yang flees to the bathroom hysterical.

The phone rings in Meredith’s apartment waking her up. She sees the caller ID, and annoyed tells Yang that it better be good. When she gets the news from Torres she is adequately freaked out and rushes to Yang’s apartment. Yang is still locked in the bathroom but lets Meredith in. Yang, who is calm now, assures Meredith that she’s fine but has massive bruises on her neck. Meredith is ready to kill the Major who is now knocking on the door. Yang opens it, and the Major has scratches all over his neck. He cries and apologizes, and Yang tells him he was sleeping and that it’s ok. She starts to hug and comfort him, because he is freaking out. Um…he’s freaking out? Maybe Yang, the person who was almost murdered in her sleep by her boyfriend should be freaked out. Torres and Meredith seem to mirror my thoughts.

The whole opening was really disturbing. I’d make jokes about it, but it was too freaky.

Morning comes and a still scruffy but non-inebriated Derek comes downstairs. Without a word he puts a ring in front of Meredith. Well the timing for an engagement couldn’t be better Derek. I mean, with Yang about to be sleep murdered and Izzie dying in the hospital….all of Grey’s friends will be ready for a celebration! Grey says no, and then proceeds to talk to Derek like a child. She speaks very slowly and over enunciates that today is his first day at the hospital, and he has to operate on Izzy’s brain and make it alllll better, and if he does, she’ll get him a happy meal.

At the hospital Yang is filling out paperwork wearing the “I have a hickey on my neck” staple, or in this case the “I have massive bruises from my disturbed boyfriend on my neck”staple, the turtleneck. Grey tells her that the turtleneck looks ugly and that she has to deal with her sick boyfriend. Speaking of sick boyfriends, Alex isn’t so sure that he wants Derek cutting into his girlfriend’s head so soon after his complete meltdown. Can’t really blame him on that one…I’m surprised that Izzie wants him to. Although neither of them saw him hit a family heirloom into the woods with a baseball bat or living in a trailer without showering, shaving or sobering for days.

The crew begins to head to Izzie’s room to brief her, the residents and the surgeons on her case. As they head one way, George heads the other. Torres is surprised to see him going the other way, but since he was the last to know about her sickness he doesn’t want to be involved. Way to make her dying all about you George. Outside of Izzie’s room, Bailey stops the other three residents to remind them to be Izzie’s friends today. She has enough doctors, so they need to be her support.

I know you guys are happy to be the only residents who aren’t about to get fired off the show, but try not to rub it in. Katherine is supposed to be acting like she’s dying…

They begin the rundown with Izzie, of the multiple and invasive surgeries she has in her future, including harvesting her eggs….just in case (spin off anyone?). The first surgery they will be conducting is on her brain. Derek is surprised this wasn’t caught sooner as this type of condition usually causes severe hallucinations. Perhaps if Izzie hadn’t been enjoying ghost sex so much, or relying on moronic interns to diagnose her with anemia, they would have found this sooner. Once Bailey and Derek have handled their portion of Izzie’s treatment the Cancer Doctor steps in. She tells Izzie that she better get used to the idea of being cut open a lot because there is about to be a lot of it. She seriously says it about that bitchy too. Cancer Bitch isn’t messing around. She reiterates that fact, when she tells everyone in the room that she is overseeing all of Izzie’s surgeries and that they all now answer to her.

After Cancer Bitch lays down the law, all the Doctors leave except for Izzie’s peeps-the three residents. They all stand there awkwardly, as none of them have ever had to be good friends before so they don’t really know what to do. After a couple seconds Izzie encourages them to all go back to work and save lives. Their more relieved then when a Charm school contestant gets a negative STD test back, and take off. Izzie is all alone with her knitting.

Later on Alex peeks in to Izzie’s room, as if she couldn’t see him standing there, but doesn’t enter. Derek and Bailey are coming to answer any final questions Izzie may have before taking her into surgery. Before they enter they ask Alex if he has any questions as if he were her husband or parents. Alex simply requests that Derek try to not f anything up this time and kill her, like he did his last patient. Ah, nice pep talk Alex.

As a side note, I missed the first season of Grey’s Anatomy. Did we learn at some point that Izzie has no family or other friends besides the people in the hospital? I mean, yea it’s crappy that her resident friends are avoiding her like stage 4 canc….I mean, the plague, but where is everyone else? No wonder she hallucinates friends.

In the obligatory side story, we meet Sloan’s patient for the day. It is a very old woman who he gives less than 24 hours to live. Her three visitors press Sloan for a timetable of how long exactly she has, because one has a meeting in the morning that he can’t miss and another has a plane he needs to catch that night. Who says that family unit is failing.

In a more nurturing story line, the Chief pages Alex to discuss Izzie’s eggs. I don’t know what’s going to get Alex more turned on this episode, talking about harvesting eggs or that puke green afghan Izzie is knitting. The Chief reminds Alex that they are harvesting eggs, but the eggs have a better chance at harvesting if they are fertilized. There is a lot of hemming and hawing from the Chief as he fumbles with a plastic cup, and a lot of WTF faces from Alex until Alex breaks the awkwardness by grabbing the gizz jar and stalking off.

Torres and Grey quietly talk about Yang, who is standing about 10 feet from them, discussing how she’s doing. As they are talking, Major RedFace begins to walk down the hall. See now is when they should play that creepy Victorian music. As he approaches Yang, Torres and Grey stand in front of him and stare him down. As intimidating as their wall isn’t the Major never has been good at staring contests so he retreats and walks away.

Up on the roof the Major and Derek wait for an incoming trauma coming via helicopter. When the helicopter lands, the Major gets momentarily paralyzed by the helicopter blades, similar to his reaction to the fan blades right before he strangled Christina. Derek notices that the Major looks like the remaining 4 eggs fell out of his basket. On another note, I’m not sure what Grey and Torres are so worried about. Is this the face of a crazy person?

In the on call room Alex is ready for sexy time with the cum cup.

And how could you not get turned on when your partner looks this good.

Alas he is blissfully interrupted by his pager and leaves the unfulfilled specimen jar semenless.

Grey tries to re-approach the “I think your boyfriend is a psychopath, turtleneck wearer” conversation with Yang. Yang tells Grey that whatever war wounds he has, she has to accept them as if they were actual physical wounds. I understand that this is a little different than a woman who puts up and defends abuse…but it’s still equally frustrating.

In other news, Sloan’s patient starts to flat line much to her family’s excitement, but they are able to revive her. They explain that they aren’t total assholes who are praying for her to die, and it’s not even that she has a lot of money they are waiting for. Apparently they have done this song and dance with her every month for a few years, and now they are all ready for her to just croak already.

After Owen’s meltdown, Derek tries to comfort him that he’s not crazy. Ah, I love when the pot calls the kettle black. It’s like when I try to tell my friends they have drinking problems. Owen, not really interested in someone barely off the ledge trying to give him advice, tells Derek to look in the mirror and share those words of wisdom. In case you are counting, the number of Doctors who have reminded Derek that he’s crazy before he cuts into Izzie’s brain is now up too two.

Back in the on call room, Alex is trying muster up his swimmers in round two with the cup. The Chief stands outside knocking asking how he’s doing. Well that’ll kill the process of ejaculation. You know what will kill it even faster? After the Chief leaves, Grey barges right in. Alex may never get hard again. Grey tries to comfort Alex who starts to lose it. He doesn’t understand why this is happening and insists that this isn’t the way him and Izzie are supposed to have a future together. He’s also pissed at himself for not realizing Izzie was sick when she told him about her hallucinations. I think it’s great that Alex and Grey are talking about this openly and comforting each other, but um…maybe go talk and open up to the girl who is dying in a hospital room all by herself?!?

In the air vent room, the Major is collecting his thoughts and looking at the fan blades when he’s interrupted by Christina. The Major tries to end things with Christina since he almost killed her with his bare hands, but Yang argues back. She’s pissed that he doesn’t believe her when she says that she’ll tell him when enough is enough.

In Izzie’s room, she’s still knitting her puke green scarf. Bailey asks who it’s for and Izzie’s answer is weighed down by her disappointment that nobody has come to visit her all day. Bailey, realizing she’ll have to give another “why you are all terrible people” speech to the residents begins to talk to Izzie about one of her other patients. Bailey doesn’t want Izzie to fall behind in her residency while she’s undergoing treatment. There’s the Bailey we grew to love!

Meanwhile a very nervous looking Derek prepares for Izzie’s surgery. He looks like he’s mentally walking through the steps of the procedure while reacquainting himself with his tools. It should be said, that Derek looks like total shit in this scene. I wouldn’t be afraid of him cutting into my brain because he just had a breakdown, I’d be afraid of him cutting in to my brain because he looks like he just left Burning Man.

Karev, having successfully cumtributed to Izzie’s eggs drops them off for the Chief. He didn’t talk to Izzie about it, but his part is done.

The SuperFriends gather for lunch and all ask one another how Izzie is. Upon realizing that none of them have visited her all day, they all jump up to rush to her side. Kidding, they just go on living their life normally. Didn’t this crew of sensitivity training rejects used to eat lunch in a room with a guy in a coma? They can’t just go chill with their friend for lunch?

And making its second cameo of the season, the church chapel! Torres and Arizona sit in the chapel as Torres beats herself up because she used to desperately wish Izzie would die. Arizona tells her that as long as she isn’t still wishing her to die, she should let herself off the hook. However the dance she did earlier might have been in poor taste.

Granny Dies-A-Lot begins to flat line again. Karev is not ready to let this old bag die, so they pound her with the paddles and revive her again! He tells Granny that he’ll give her a break from all the faux love being dished out by her crew. She stops him and says that they are her people, and no matter how many times they’ve had to come, they always come. She also reminds him that any people, are better than no people. Translation: Your girlfriend has had no people all day, because she apparently has no friends or family in the whole world who care about her other than the people in this hospital and even you assholes couldn’t be bothered to go and see her.

Before Izzie’s surgery, Derek has a momentary freak out. He asks Meredith if she’ll love him even if things go wrong, and she says no. She won’t validate Derek if he kills Izzie. But go get ‘em tiger! Alex rushes to Izzie’s room to find out that he’s too late, she’s already gone to surgery. Before they put Izzie under, she tells Bailey that the scarf was made for her. It probably would’ve been given to anyone who visited Izzie all day, which made the recipient decision ridiculously easy. Izzie could 100% die in the scene, and nobody could be bothered to hang out with her all day. I understand you don’t know what to say, or you feel hurt that she didn’t confide in you, but WTF. What if she died? This scene made me hate all the residents. And it also made me really hope that Izzie will live. (If only to keep her from coming back as a ghost).

During Izzie’s surgery, the residents and interns begin to anxiously wait for her in the hall. George, after having a complete meltdown to Torres, finally realizes that this isn’t about him, this is about the fact that his “best friend” could die In the OR Derek is mid-brain and Bailey reminds him to be calm they are all on his side. As she said this, Cancer bitch appears out of nowhere to question his surgical decisions. She begins to literally question every utensil he requests and every cut he makes. This is when I miss old school Derek who would’ve yelled “Get out of my OR Cancer bitch!” Instead, Bailey defends his decision.

Old lady dies. Heart keeps beating, but she’s really dead. When Sloan calls the time of death, the family finally begins to cry. I wrote this to remind myself to write about it later, but that about covers it.

After the surgery, the tons of people who were waiting out in the hall for her, but couldn’t give up two minutes to spend time with her in the hospital ask Bailey for an update. The surgery went well and the tumor in the brain has been completely removed. But this is only phase one of a very long process. And Bailey gives the speech she knew she’d have to give all day reminding Izzie’s “friends” to act like friends and not suck so much tomorrow.

The Chief finds Derek to congratulate him on a successful surgery. Derek is having trouble enjoying his success because after two failed marriage proposals to Meredith, and the fact that she’s been treating him like a 4 year old all day, he’s convinced its over between them. The Chief encourages him to hang tough. Meredith is pretty used to the dark and twisty sides of people, since that is the state in which she lives.

You know who does celebrate though? Yang and the Major. Apparently there is no better four-play than an almost murder and an almost loss of a best friend to cancer. They finally do it, and it’d probably be hot if he didn’t have scratches on his neck, she didn’t have bruises on her neck and he wasn’t all red everywhere.

Grey leaves and hits the button to call the elevator. The Chief comes out of nowhere and won’t allow her to get in. His wall between her and the elevator is way more entertaining than the Torres/Grey wall in between Yang and the Major. Despite Grey’s irritation, he stands firm and doesn’t let Grey through. The elevator leaves and he calls her another one. Grey is confused and annoyed but when the door opens, it’s McDreamy! He’s back!

He invites her into the elevator, ‘their” elevator, surrounded by charts and x-rays. He walks her through their relationship, documented through the surgeries he’s rocked that she somehow affected. It feels very old school, Meredith and Derek. He doesn’t get down on his knee, or really even propose, but he does give her a ring and after 5 seasons, they are finally engaged.

In the on call room, Yang and the Major lie together, and she calls uncle. She thought she could handle the relationship, but she can’t sleep next to him because she is too afraid she might not wake up. So she ends it. This realization scares the Major into an MRI machine to get McD to check out his knoggin for war wounds.

At the frat house, Yang lies in Meredith’s bed. Meredith tells her, “I’m engaged.” Yang says, “I broke up with Owen.” And the dynamics are back to normal in this relationship.

Overall, it was a good episode. It brought a couple tears, and made me actually hope that they keep Katherine Heigl around. I hated the Yang/Major story. I think they could’ve stressed how messed up he is from war without having this creepy strangling story. But that’s just me. Also, I’m glad to have the McDreamy of old back in action. But I did like seeing him show a little dark side these past few weeks forcing Grey to be the bigger person for once in their relationships. It has been a long hiatus for recap and new episode, but looks like we are back in action this Thursday with a new episode. And for the first time in awhile, I’m actually looking forward to it. I’d like to close the recap with the transition of Derek back to McD for your viewing pleasure.