Grey's Anatomy - Episode 9.01 - Going Going Gone - Review

I nearly forgot to post this, just got it in in time before the leg comes off....

Season 9 of Grey’s Anatomy kicked off with a bang last week giving us heartbreak, humour and something just a little bit different from the standard Grey’s fair. As premieres go this one was a milestone.

Not since George’s death and Izzie’s ‘Dead Denny Brain’ during Seasons 5 and early 6 have we been subjected to such dark tragedy for multiple series regulars. Where we thought we’d seen the worst of the crash during 824, ‘Flight’ (though I think during hiatus we all knew we hadn’t), we really only saw the lesser part of it. 901, ‘Going Going Gone’ proved to be devastating, intriguing and a damn fine episode.

 

At the heart of ‘Going Going Gone’ was the untimely death of Mark Sloan with most of the episode’s stories circling around the 5pm switch-off deadline. I must admit to being very anxious about how Shonda Rhimes would exit Mark Sloan. As mentioned in my wish list of last week the one reasonable solution could only be character death, which closes both the ‘Mark and Lexie’ storyline neatly and reassures the viewer that Mark did not abandon Sofia. But I needn’t have worried. Shonda’s love affair with McSteamy matches my own and I can honestly say his demise was handled exceptionally well. As an established character since series two Mark Sloan’s impact at Seattle Grace Mercy West has been huge. As a side note, in Shonda’s post episode commentary she classed Mark Sloan as an original character. Often humorous, sometimes irritating, at one point controversial, but always loveable, in Season 8 we were treated to perhaps the most character growth since Meredith. This was clearly a tribute episode to him where the surrounding characters respectfully stepped back in their stories to make way.  That’s not to say the episode was all about him, it wasn’t but the careful writing of the episode allowed him to be centre with a lot going on around him.

The two people closest to Mark formed the inner circle and it was clear in the tone and delivery that Derek and Callie will be linked for some time to come. Press coverage prior to this episode took us on the path that Derek’s hand will bring these two together. I would venture a guess that it is the passing of Mark that forges this friendship; the hand is just a device for that. In the start of a series of McSteamy flashbacks we were reintroduced to Mark, the enduring best friend. Time will tell whether Derek will recover the use of his hand well enough for surgery but this episode was not the moment to dig further there. It was a moment to remember the strong and enduring friendship he had with Mark. Sometimes the writing over the last two seasons has allowed us to forget that these two go back a long way, to childhood.

In more recent times it is Mark’s friendship with Callie that has lead to many of his storylines and it’s with Callie that he leaves his legacy. In a ‘friends with benefits’ flashback sequence we’re reminded that, good friends they may be but good sex is equally important. The home video carefully inserted as a lasting reminder to us of his favourite hobby. And as Callie grew to love and understand herself more so she moved on and it is her relationship with Arizona that Mark had to navigate out of, firstly reluctantly and then finally with good grace and friendship, as we finally see in his wedding speech to camera. Perhaps by telling us the story of the grandparents and projecting that on to Arizona and Callie the writers can finally lay to rest some of the anger directed toward the character of Mark.

Throughout the 42 minutes we could feel the tension build with Callie. The obvious ‘past’ references to her wife, the arrival of a new paediatric attending and the uncontrolled sobbing triggered by his appearance, on this day of all days all led to the eventual confrontation scene with Arizona at the end. It turns out Arizona is not dead, but suffered a life changing injury for which she blames Callie. It was obvious quite early on that Jessica Capshaw would not take up much screen time during 901. Having been filmed only about three or four weeks after the birth of her third child she can be forgiven for asking Shonda to take it easy and let her rest in bed for a bit. Though I bet she didn’t bank on Shonda saying – “sure JCap, and I’ve got just the storyline to make that happen”. Bring it on I say. This story should be good.

It’s not known when a decision was made to remove Mark Sloan from Seattle Grace Mercy West. Did they know Eric was leaving when writing Lexie’s death? We may never know but what we do know now is that it is forever ‘Mark and Lexie’. And perhaps this goes down in the Grey’s history books as the only surviving romance of exiting characters. It may not be a happy ending but they are meant to be and are now together. There’s no Cristina & Burke. There’s no Izzie & Alex. There’s no George & Callie. There’s no George & Izzie. There’s no Callie & Erica. There’s no Meredith and Finn. There’s no Alex with Rebecca or Lucy or Morgan (thank God). There’s no Jackson & Lexie (even more grateful thanks to God). There’s no Mark and Teddy. There’s no Mark and Julia. There’s no Mark and Arizona (okay, my little joke). There’s no Callie & Mark. There is only Mark and Lexie. Whether this was by accident of the actors wanting to leave at the same time or design, this was a good call.

Perhaps the deathbed sequence that surprised me the most, positively, was Mark the teacher. Yes. You are right. This is a Jackson scene that only mildly irritated. In actual fact I think this was done very well. I’ve yet to be convinced that Jackson is fit to be a doctor. I sure wouldn’t want him messin’ with my boobs (oh, okay, in THAT way, not in the OTHER way, I mean...stop now before you get yourself into trouble Brou ::blushing::). Jackson Avery was quite tolerable and I’m putting it down to 70’s hair growth. Now, who thinks he’s growing it out into a Michael Jackson Afro?

Jackson?

In the end though, the moment of passing brings with it the lasting image of Mark as a father. Baby Sofia is his legacy.

But that’s not all that happened during Going Going Gone. In fact this episode was packed with new characters, new locations and even a pig. If I didn’t have Mark's death to completely ground me and have me sobbing in my sofa cushions I’d have lost myself in zooming around with Grey’s ADHD.

Medusa Meredith has turned into Bailey’s Nazi and Bailey’s turned into a hormone fuelled sex machine, Booty Call Bailey. It is very telling that Meredith abandons her husband just as his best friend is dying to go and rescue (?) her own best friend. Is this reasonable? No. But it is understandable. Meredith is carrying the heavy burden of unstructured, unpredictable and unfamiliar grief. What makes this all so juicy and exciting is to have two couples (including Callie and Arizona) losing people close to them and watch how they come to terms with their own pain and their partner’s.

Meredith - I see the resemblance - okay, maybe not

Considering the amount of content and the need to set a completely different tone this episode stood out as one of the best. However it was let down in two areas.

Alex, looking mighty fine in navy scrubs, started the episode with his feet firmly placed in man-whore-Mark’s almost empty, still slightly warm shoes, and still incapable of having an adult conversation with anyone other than Meredith. I was about to wipe my hands of him when he suddenly turned it around just at the end. But I expected this to be honest so this was not the let down. The problem lay with the contrasting interactions with Callie. First he is sensitive, clearly distressed himself on finding Callie upset and ultimately protective. In what must have been only hours later he is somewhat insensitively putting more weight on Callie’s shoulders apparently clueless of her angst. Was he the only one unaware of the enormity of her day at that moment?

The second disappointing storyline was with Cristina. Well, not with her per se but more with the Stepford hospital she’s ended up in. The very fact that she landed there is a mystery to me and an enormous failing on behalf of her for lack of research and her new employer for failing to read her file or see if she was a good cultural fit. That’s basic recruitment criteria. Grey’s is playing the melodrama with this and watching Cristina in Pleasantville is going to get very old very quickly.

And what of the rest...

Richard was a bit part player, the bad guy, and the one switching off the machines. Under the circumstances his minor appearances suited the episode. Someone had to and with Bailey in her happy place (yay!) this unenviable task was left to the Chief (the one and only Chief, not the interloper). Speaking of the interloper - Owen wandered around the corridors like a wounded child, whose Lego has been swiped by the big kids. He’s not very good at staff retention is he? Three Attendings and three Residents down, his wife has bolted and Kevin McKidd looks like he’s aged ten years during hiatus. And right at the end he hops on a plane to rescue Dorothy and Toto back from the farm. Or in this case April and Babe.

All in all, considering the volume of story the writers had to tell this was an excellent episode.  It also felt different. The tone was reflective, devastating, and not withstanding Alex, I would say it was grown up.

It was not the best episode technically but I will admit, that as a devoted McSteamy fan this will rate as my all time favourite episode. I loved it.

Written by brouhaha aka @pipmaxine.