Grey's Anatomy - Episode 8.10 - Suddenly - Review

The festive season is over, you’ve eaten too many mince pies, over dosed on martinis and you’ve finally gotten rid of the dodgy relatives. Hiatus is over and life has returned to normal because Grey’s is back. Well it’s not normal for our favourite doctors of course. We left them mid-drama, hearts breaking and in trouble. The second part of the mid season double header proved to be a highly watchable episode and worth the wait. It improved on 809 “Dark is the Night” (in fact it was noticeably better), gave us some important answers and was a brilliant portal to provide us with pitch perfect performances by the cast.

Those performances led of course by the wonderful Sandra Oh, who never fails to deliver a star quality performance. Seriously, never fails. Cristina was left in an impossible yet deeply unfair situation. Who amongst us could be so strong minded to operate under those circumstances? We know April wasn’t. But Cristina is a profound mix of steely cold exterior and immense yet highly complicated warmth. She could, because she can operate with a gun to her head if needed. Oh produced a first class performance switching effortlessly between anger, frivolity, dead pan severity, compassion and pain. It’s time she was recognised for this. However it would be remiss not to mention the strength of performance from Kim Raver as Teddy, whose playful attitude towards tiredness through a long surgery was complimented by her heart breaking as she discovers the love of her life has died. And the moment when she carefully takes off her scrub cap and places it neatly on the table was a beautiful and sensitive piece of direction.

It is apparent now that the writing for this working partnership just gets better and better as their mentor/mentee relationship is explored and deepened and the two actresses play off one another as each other’s foil. I look forward to the fall out of this immensely, especially when we consider Owen’s unintentionally destructive role. Grey’s likes it’s triad relationships, I can’t help but feel, with these brilliant performances from Oh and Raver, this will be an interesting one in the coming episodes.

Ellen Pompeo was also on form, as Meredith worked her ass off not only to save a family but also to comfort the now orphaned child/adult Lily. To lose a parent is devastating, particularly at such a young age. But to watch one parent, then a second parent die in front of you is an incalculable loss. This story was perhaps the most honest ‘patient’ story Grey’s has given us in a while. When the viewer is given enough by the producers to really feel stories, they’ve done an excellent job. Yes, Grey’s is about sex and surgery, but it’s also about the myriad of heartbreaking, uplifting and often complex stories of it’s patients. And this is a fine example. Having experienced a nasty accident, and coming to the rescue of the victims Meredith fights for this family as if it were her own and Meredith comes into her own, being an excellent doctor, and empathising with her patient and her family without over-sentimentality. And the sheer strength of this ‘patient’ story is further magnified when compared to the rather shallow ‘mistake’ arc.

The emotional volcano of feeling the viewer experienced with Lily dwarfed whatever the viewer may have felt for “spinal mistake lady” (whose name I did not pick up and could not be bothered to research, which is in itself a sign of plot weakness). This particular plot merely deteriorated the moment Avery opened his mouth and started speaking. I am bewildered by the motivation and the execution of it. To treat such a serious error of judgement by a character as a tactical tool to tell the story of others’ is flippant and cynical. To treat it so superficially as the start of a longer story arc for either Callie or Jackson is disrespectful to the characters and actors. The worst part of it was the conversation between Callie and Owen. Where Callie at least holds herself accountable for the error made by her resident, Owen fails to be accountable for his actions on an epic level. He is dictated to by his cardio thoracic surgeon and allows himself to be bullied into forcing Cristina to operate. We know, from the previous episode, that whilst the other cardio specialists might not be as good as Teddy, they do exist and presumably do a reasonable job. Why on earth did he not bring one of them into surgery and over-rule Teddy. He then accuses Callie of being the cause of the situation. The man has no backbone and is not a chief. The sooner this farcical appointment is reversed the better. I’m starting a twitter trend #bringbackchiefwebber. Join me. Time will tell what this story proves to be, and if it’s the start of something for Callie or Jackson then I hope they introduce depth to it pretty damn quickly.

Stacy McKee, the writer for this episode is a mass of contradictions. Often given the ‘special’ episodes to write, where the risk of failure is much higher, she scored a massive fail with 804, “All About Men”. Here, handed with a mix of brilliant (e.g. Cristina/Teddy/Henry) and dire stories (e.g. Callie/Avery) stories to continue she wrote “Suddenly” with sensitivity and truthfulness. And, unlike “All About Men” cliché free.

But if there is a major ‘continuity’ flaw in the story telling then it is surely the adoption tale. Given that the show runner herself has such direct experience with adoption I am continually amazed at the light touch approach she shows to the actual adoption process. Don’t get me wrong, I like a happy ending and I love the fact that Zola is back where she belongs. However becoming an adoptive parent is a long, intrusive process. The potential parent’s life is pulled apart, dissected and interrogated. I saw little of this for Meredith and Derek. (And I saw even less for Addison in Private Practice – but best not to start on that here!). The viewers must absolutely get a credible explanation for the return of Zola quickly. Although this development has prompted one thought in my head -  if I were a betting woman I would say that Meredith will be pregnant by the end of the season.

McKee comes into her own though by writing a complete episode for characters. She does not leave any lacking, which means this episode was full of little gems for those characters on the fringes of the big stories.

Having suffered his own trauma with the ambulance collision Alex becomes agitated through a delayed reaction to the accident. The beauty of this miniature plot provided the opportunity for his own mentor to ‘get his back’. Arizona steps in to help him deal with his manic episode, taking control compassionately yet firmly. And of course this is a direct homage to the reverse situation back in 718, when an injured Arizona was almost abandoned in her colleagues’ efforts to save Callie. This week we saw the heart and passion beating within Alex. And so did his boss. (I think I’ll start another hashtag #givealexthefellowshiparizona!). It was a shame however, that she was surgically absent. Given that two children were in surgery in the episode I was disappointed we didn’t see more of our paediatric super hero in action.

Another gem – Bailey and Ben in the cafeteria. I am still waiting for a full on Bailey story this season. Chandra Wilson continues to be under-used, but I have hopes for a romance that will not only finally stick but will be developed on screen and not off.

Mark’s romance has unsettled Lexie. Having illustrated her frustration at the situation she finds herself in by hurling a soft ball at her opponent she now comes face to face with her at work. And adding insult to injury, it turns out that Mark’s new girlfriend, Julia, is a nice person. With brilliant comic timing Chyler Leigh bounces off the situation with warm humour (golden moment answering Meredith’s question of ‘how’s she doing’), concluding, with irritation only aimed at herself “dammit...now I like her”

“Suddenly” provided enough entertainment, drama and heart ache to break the hiatus blues, with performances worthy of recognition and continued reassurance that Season 8 is shaping up very nicely indeed.

Moments worthy of mention...

“It’s ok. I can handle it”

My favourite scene of the entire episode may surprise you. It is a seemingly small moment for a relatively minor regular cast member in a huge emotional episode but it reminds us all of another story which is still unfolding slowly. April Kepner comes face to face with herself as she watches like a gargoyle, Cristina tear her up. We are left not knowing whether Cristina knows she’s been heard but we do know that Kepner listened. This is my favourite 30 seconds of the episode because with one facial expression we see April vulnerable, in pain and uncharacteristically very calm. I enjoy April’s character a great deal and am very much looking forward to how the writers unravel her insecurities and fears.

“Derek....isn’t that our baby?”
OK, so I don’t like how it happened but seriously who doesn’t like Derek in these moments. I forgive Patrick Dempsey his off screen will I won’t I ‘diva-ness’ (yes, he’s being a diva) and shout “give the man the money, as much money as he wants to return to our screens and hug baby Zola in every single episode of S9”.

Swoon

Girlie moment - rewind to the unstable pelvis patient - I just love Callie's hair

Written by brouhaha aka @pipmaxine.

Screen caps not available yet (although I made my own of Derek, don't ask me to do that too often, I am not technically gifted enough to do it quickly!)