Grey's Anatomy: Feeling Optimistic

God help me, I think this show is actually getting back on track. In some ways. Kind of. Plus, you know, Grandpa from Gilmore Girls! You can't hate on a show that guest stars Grandpa--it would be like hating on an adorable, well-educated puppy. But seriously, I feel like many of the characters regressed to their pre-third season selves tonight, which is a fantastic development as far as I'm concerned. Now if we could just burn this Gizzie thing at the stake, then we'd really be rockin'. (I know, I know, Gizzie-lovers, or "Gizzards." I just found their platonic friendship so perfect that I refuse to idly stand by and watch it ruined. Refuse!)

Our Meredith Grey Thematic Voice Over kicks off the episode with, "Doctors give patients a number of things." Um, sure. And these doctors give each other a number of things. Like syphilis, for example. But that's neither here nor there. Much like Meredith's opening narration. Let's move on to the main plots:

Really Old Guy: You know that comatose dude whose room the crew's been eating in for the past year? Turns out, he's been not so much comatose as semi-comatose, and able to understand everything they've been saying. Oh, and he's awake now, and ready to die. I kind of can't believe that everyone wasn't more freaked out about his having eavesdropped on all their conversations for the past year. I mean, was Izzie not afraid that he'd tell Callie about her and George? I'm also a bit confused as to how Izzie was able to perform lifesaving measures when he wanted to die--has ER steered me wrong about the existence of "Do Not Resuscitate" orders?

At any rate, raise your hand if you knew that he was dead when Izzie gave him her giant needy speech. Everyone? Yeah, that's what I thought. Go make some friends your own age, Izzie. Live ones. I loved his wake, though. It's exactly the kind of thing that old-school Izzie would have made everyone do. Yay for a return to normality! (Boo for her turning it into a lesson about how if you wish and hope long enough, things will come out your way. I've been wishing and hoping for her and George to go back to being friends, but that doesn't seem to have come true yet...)

Tongue-ectomy: A very talkative woman has tongue cancer (which for my sake I hope isn't linked to being a loudmouth, because if so, I'm screwed), and her only chance of retaining the ability to speak well is a crazy experimental nerve surgery, which the Chief and McSteamy decide to perform for the first time without the help of a neurosurgeon. Because, you know, there's no way that could ever go wrong. It was totally predictable that her "last words" to her friends would be mean, but I found it entertaining all the same. I also loved George's "I'm reeeeally sorry" reaction to her when she got pissed at him for encouraging her to tell her friends how she felt. Derek's mini-rant to the Chief and McSteamy for trying to be surgical cowboys was pretty fantastic too, and reminded me why I liked him in the first place.

Meredith: When Meredith tries to teach Lexie by having her intubate an emergency patient who's pretty much already dead (possibly furthering her secret evil plan to sabotage Lexie, thereby causing her to lose her confidence and drop out of the program), Lexie has a total freakout about the situation and her relationship with Meredith, and Meredith sends her to the clinic rather than deal with it. Thankfully, it seems like the two will be on better footing after this episode, since Bailey convinces Meredith to make an effort with Lexie. How traumatic would it be to pore over the records concerning your mother's death, though? Yeesh. I'm still not sold on Lexie, but I'm liking Meredith a lot more after their last interaction.

I'm also not sold on Meredith's "secret breakup sex" relationship with Derek. It's getting pretty hard to follow (He thinks that McSteamy thinks that she wants to get back together with him...? I have a headache already!), and I'd rather have the two of them fly solo for a while. I'd love to see Meredith as someone other than the codependent whiner she's been lately, and though this episode was a step in the right direction, she'll need to break it off with Derek completely if she's really going to make things interesting again. Where's the interest in "on again, off again" if you're always pretty much on again? Also, I love her "Let's talk and cry together" response to Cristina guilting her out of surgeries. So emblematic of what I love about both of them, and so representative of the lighthearted banter that this show has been missing lately.

Alex: Giant needle in the eye! GIANT NEEDLE IN THE EYE!!!!!!! Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system, I can say that I'm glad Alex is finally yelling at Grandpa. Because basically pretending to be a senior doctor is not legit when it comes to patients taking your word over your resident's. And of all characters, Alex shouldn't be putting up with it. And at the end, when he busted George on being a "repeater" in front of all his admiring fans (who are apparently the dumbest crop of new interns in Seattle Grace history, if they couldn't figure that one out), Alex is proving that he's still the same old Alex we know and sort of love.

Bailey: How great was that moment when Bailey clearly saw that Callie was worrying about or struggling with something, paused, and then went on her merry, butt-kicking way? So Great! And she waits the perfect amount of time before coming back to Callie and promising to be the best Number Two she can be. Because God knows Callie needs the help. Oh, Bailey. You rock. She was mad for the exact right amount of time, but then came around because she's fundamentally a good person.

George/Izzie/Callie: Sigh. So, as George points out, Izzie goes from not wanting him to tell Callie to freaking out about him not telling Callie overnight? What?! And yeah, it IS about him and Callie, and breaking up a marriage is a Big Deal, even if the marriage was made hastily. George is such a standup guy that even when he's doing the wrong thing, he tries to do the right thing. If that makes sense. And thus, that brings him to the end of the episode, when Callie finally gives him permission to tell her. "I slept with Izzie." Bam. Nothing like ripping off the Band-Aid quickly, right? Here's hoping Callie regains some of her former fire in response. We won't know until next week, though, 'cause that's all she wrote.

So okay, my initial reaction is that I'm feeling a lot better about the show this week then I was last week. Though you could probably draw a graph of some sort negatively correlating my enjoyment of Grey's Anatomy with the percentage of the show devoted to Meredith being a downer and George and Izzie flushing a marvelous friendship down the tubes. Just sayin'.