Let’s start with what worked. Alex Karev provided the voice overs. Owen Hunt looked super-hot in a suit. Cristina channeled her Inner Sawyer (Ponytail McGee!). Torres and Webber hit the road. Best of all, in “The Face of Change”, there was an overall sense of fun and frivolity (plus some truly laugh-out-loud lines) that has been missing from Grey’s Anatomy lately. Having said that, I feel like the show is treading water with no sense of forward momentum …which is both worrisome and tedious. As for the Big Twist? More on that later!
“I Always Look Good!”
The hour opened with Alex Karev (the woefully underutilized Justin Chambers) enduring a photo shoot. He’s a candidate to become The Face of Seattle Grace, a “brand ambassador” for Pegasus Horizons, the behemoth set to swallow SGMW whole as they forge a path To A Brighter Tomorrow. Karev doesn’t much care about all of this nonsense. He’d rather take care of his patients in peace. Until he discovers that Jackson Avery is his competition…and then it’s ON! Jo and Stephanie get into the act as well as each intern coaches her candidate on how to achieve victory.
“No One Can Know About This”
Just as Jackson “Pretty Eyes” Avery is schmoozing the VIPS, he receives an urgent call from former squeeze, April. She was on a ride-along with Cutie Patootie Paramedic, Matthew, and they encountered a child who was the victim of a hit and run. They’re supposed to take the kid to a trauma center that’s over an hour away. And this boy doesn’t have an hour. Jackson and pretty much the entire SGMW team smuggle the kid into their shuttered ER and manage to save his life while avoiding (for most of the episode at least) Dr. Cahill’s prying eyes. I enjoyed the group dynamic of those scenes. GA is at its best when multiple doctors work together to save the day. This only reinforces my theory that the ER can’t possibly stay closed for long. If April thinks she’s bored without incoming trauma cases, what about the poor viewers?
“Walk With Purpose. Don’t Look Shifty!”
I have four words for you: Calliope and Julio Plantain. Hilarious. Due in large part to the endlessly engaging performances of Sara Ramirez and James Pickens Jr., I thoroughly enjoyed Callie and Richard’s road trip to Portland General. The plot was weak but their comedic timing was priceless as these two surgeons scouted the competition and got an all-too-accurate vision of what their future would likely be, should SGMW be absorbed by Pegasus. Tantalizing Twist of the night? Richard is considering an early retirement package. Noooooooo!
“You’ve Done Plenty.”
Any episode that has only 30 seconds of Miranda Bailey is the poorer for it. Still, even in that pitiful amount of screen time, she still managed to utter the absolute truth in one brutal sentence. The hospital is in this mess because of the money awarded in the wake of the lawsuit. Granted, the survivors are entitled to compensation after what happened to them. But if memory serves, way back in episode 906 or so, the group (at Derek’s urging) rejected the initial settlement offer because accepting it would effectively squelch the investigation, letting those responsible off-the-hook.
Their mantra was something along the lines of never allowing anything like this happen again…blah blah blah. This line of thought seems to have been entirely forgotten (and don’t get me started on why the hospital is bearing all of the responsibility and the terrible airline none, but I digress). Instead, they each got $15 million and bankrupted the hospital while (as much as I can tell at least) not a darn thing is being done to make sure that other people aren’t harmed in defective airplanes.
Convinced they had to DO something, Callie called a rooftop meeting with the gang (minus Cristina who was with Owen in the on call room…lucky girl) and proclaimed that they should buy the hospital themselves! I didn’t see THAT twist coming. Said nobody ever.
So what do you think? Will Richard retire? Will April hook up with the EMT? Will the surgeons buy the hospital? Will this bankruptcy storyline ever end? Sound off in the comments and vote in our poll!
Grey’s Anatomy returns next week with an all-new episode, “Hard Bargain” airing February 14 on ABC.
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(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
