Quick thoughts on last night's "Grey's Anatomy" coming up just as soon as I order a salad... For an episode that was so Izzie-centric -- and, on top of that, for an episode that brought back the ghost of Denny again -- "What a Difference a Day Makes" worked surprisingly well for me. Part of it is that the stakes are much greater now; now we know a Denny appearance means Very Bad Things for Izzie (as opposed to VBT for the show itself), and it's also something Izzie can openly discuss with other people. And those higher stakes also encourage Meredith and Derek and Cristina -- three characters who can be likable at times and insufferably narcissistic at others -- to be at their most selfless. Meredith letting Izzie take over the wedding that Meredith never wanted in the first place and Izzie did was a great gesture, enough that I overlooked the unlikelihood of Katherine Heigl fitting into a dress that was tailored for Ellen Pompeo.
But part of it is that any kind of Izzie-centric episode means it's also going to be an Alex-centric episode, and Justin Chambers is acting on a really high level right now. When he gave that speech about how it's time to stop being the smart-aleck kid and become a man, I thought to myself, "You made that transition a couple of seasons ago, guy, but it's good for you to notice." Chandra Wilson is arguably the best actor in the ensemble, but because of how far Karev has come, Chambers' big moments always feel more surprising, and powerful.
I also really liked all the action in the pit, from Callie breaking down and telling Arizona the real reason their date went south to Hunt trying to help George deal with losing every patient that day. (For that matter, it was effective just to see a mass casualty like this where the doctors were able to accomplish so little.)
Only one (two-hour) episode left to go in the season, and before we have a better idea of Heigl and/or T.R. Knight's future employment on the show. One way or the other, I'll be glad to put those rumors to bed.
What did everybody else think?
20 comments:
Shonda's Twitter claims "They both actually fit into that size dress perfectly!" I have my doubts. Yes, both wear a similar dress size, but the chest size is quite different.
Cristina taking down the ceiling fan is PRICELESS
I really enjoyed the episode as well. I also liked the "fake-out" of how they did the bookend narration; how it wasn't an actual voice over, but Izzie telling Denny to go away. That worked well for me. I also was really touched by how they had George give Izzie away to Alex. I had complained a few seconds before that George didn't have a role at the wedding.
That said, I had a few observations (which my wife punched me for and told me to shut up when I mentioned them to her):
-So, did Derek not invite his Mom and all his sisters to the wedding? And if he did, how exactly did they feel when he didn't get married?
-None of the Private Practice crew was invited? Weren't they all best friends once?
-I got a chuckle out of the reverend saying that "all the people" at the wedding had helped get Alex and Izzie get to that point. Really? ALL of them? Even though they were actually there for Der & Mer?
-By the way, who realized Meredith and Derek had so many friends and knew so many people. Even though Derek just moved to Seattle a few years ago and spends all his time at the hospital and Meredith is a loner. They must have closed down the hospital and invited every doctor, nurse and janitor.
-Ok, I don't work in the medical profession, and it is a totally different reality for me. But how much would Callie's salary be as a top Orthopedic Surgical Resident at a fairly top notch hospital? Seattle Grace is paying her right? She's not a volunteer. Would she be THAT broke? I understand not affording a $75 dinner, but she can't pay rent?
How could Izzie & Meredith fit into the same dress! Loved the dress though. Liked George stepping in to give her away.
Were the guests there for Mer & Der? Would love to see the rest of his sisters. I agree with Ed, they must have been upset/disappointed he did not get married as well as any other family members. Who's ever friends they were, they filled a BIG church. No Izzie's mom? She would have wanted to be there..........and when are we going to find out more about Alex's past and family.
Callie is a surgeon.........how can she have NO MONEY?? She doesn't seem to live lavishly and has a roommate, she doesn't even have her own place. That really doesn't make sense.
Liked the scenes between Christina & McTrauma......when he tried to touch her hand it was so sweet. Hope they get back together, he is really trying. Good shot of her dismantaling the fan.....
@ED: My problem with Callie's money issues is not what she would get paid, but what she gets paid relative to everyone else. Presumably she gets paid more than, or at least the same as, the other less senior residents, but suddenly she can't afford to go out to dinner? I can understand her scaling back, but having no money for rent within two days of getting cut off seems ridiculous.
As for the wedding, I couldn't help roll my eyes at the number of guests and the show's complete ignorance of the fact that said guests were invited to a different wedding and apparently didn't include family members for either set of bride & groom who might be affected by the last-minute swap.
I think you all missed
-how did they get Izzie a marriage license for a wedding that had not even been proposed to her yet?
and
-how did Mer & Der know know that not one inhabitant of Meredith's frat house would drop in that night (in turmoil or not)?
Some people I know think we all knew how this ep was going to end. I didn't (thanks to you all! among others) though I accidentally heard Denny was coming back.
No way that dress fit tiny Ellen and Katie.
Note bouquets hiding Ellen's baby.
Chyler's little girl has arrived. I think she's Anniston.
What are they going to marry Mer in and hide her baby? If you know, don't tell me.
George HAS A STORYLINE! I'm thrilled and I hope he stays. It was great to see him proficient lately, even if everyone died.
Lexie noticed a lot of the "friends" by description.
Anvils flew over my head till the second viewing. (before Brothers & Sisters which was great)
I'm catching up on my backlog!
Alex, my Alex - I hated you till Izzie liked you and you and Mer got close. You were almost always fascinating and it's true: more Izzie = more Alex, which is far better than more Denny.
It does seem only the hospital was present - so "all these people got you here" fit both couples, but you have to wonder who was running the hospital.
I like Broke Callie. But she should be able to pay rent: Cristina can. And with Graduation here, end of residency can't be more than a month away. Nice to see Callie isn't worried where she will be working...
also, hopefully, unlike Prom, Shonda will notice her timestamp and proceed to R3 next year. We are never going to make it thru a 5 year residency at this rate unless she pulls a Private Practice and advances a few months during one ep - which I would hate.
I didn't care that Alex stole the valedictory speech - it was touching both times. Reminds me how I miss DEK Closing Arguments and Aaron Sorkin speeches. In a different way, maybe - but it was just so good. Points to Shonda for that (and for most of the season, except Denny and forgetting that "junior residents don't defacto specialize")
- Hiss on the Chief for hanging over Mer's shoulder. Good on Derek for the perfect "wedding present."
Kudos to Shonda, too, for making Mer not liking of big swishy weddings but managing to get one in there anyway. ;-)
SPOILERS FOR CHUCK FINALE
It was like Ellie's two weddings - pleased the ones who wanted simple, and the ones who love the frills (also how many bridal gowns does this make for Sarah Lancaster? What About Brian went downhill fast when she left)
Mer as best man.
Cristina and the fan.
George giving away the bride.
No one will nominate Justin for an Emmy and that will be sad. Katie will win again... and Sandra and Chandra still won't.
Justin can never complain he wasn't given a good storyline ;-)
Ellen should be big by Emmy time but no one will notice as there's never enough reason to nominate her, which is sad.
Did Shonda finally post?
Anyone see the wedding website? So cute - very Grey's, and not at abc.com. Wonder why.
this page was fun"Wedding Details" is spoiler free and written by "Meredith."
Hopefully no cliffhangers - such as Private Practice has recently gotten infested with. (it was odd to be spoilered on that - I didn't know anyone even watched that show!)
Happy, happy, good ep.
Thank you for recognizing Chandra Wilson.
I had mentioned it in your "21st century awards" column and I'll say it again here how spectacular her character is.
Good episode overall, but ever since you pointed out the music cues, thats all I can focus on! haha
I kept getting mad at everyone in the trauma room for identifying all the kids when the last thing George needed was to 'humanize' the situation.
The wedding stuff lost me... I was willing to overlook the ramafications of 'lets give our wedding to Izzy' (wedding dress/guests/etc) But it was so obvious that Izzy wouldn't make it down the isle that I called the George rescue and Karev's speech rip-off during the commercial break...
The best thing about the Izzy parts of this episode was when at one point Bailey is upset, and you can see her bottom lip quivering... fantastic acting and the only part of that storyline that really drew me in.
As for Callie, I was under the impression that her father cleaned out her accounts. I think she even said that flat out.
For as much as I hated the stupid Denny-Izzy storyline and often yelled at the tv at the beginning of this season, I can't believe this episode made me cry. Somehow, Shonda ended up making it work. (Although my main quibble was there was no way there'd be a marriage license.)
I have managed to stay relatively spoiler-free on Heigl and Knight's fates on the show, and at this point I could be happy with storylines that either kept them or had them leave. Next week will be interesting.
yeah, i think Callie said her account was emptied by her father which leads us to - why doesn't she have the sense to open an account of her own and move her parents stipend into it?
Rich and stupid?
I've hated Denny with a white hot passion since his ghostly reappearance way back when. But this time it wasn't so bad.
They've even managed to redeem Izzy and George, who I also hated during and after their ill-fated pairing. I'm grudgingly impressed by that feat.
As for Callie--yeah, if her dad cleaned out her bank accounts, sue him! Not ALL of that money was from her trust. Otherwise, I can only assume that perhaps Callie was living way beyond her means (even on a surgeon's income) because of the trust. If she's always had access to that money, then she'd probably come to depend on it. Suddenly losing it would likely put a serious crimp in her finances til she readjusts.
In the long run, yeah, her own income should be plenty. But it's going to be a rough ride for a while.
Shonda's Twitter claim notwithstanding, there's no way a dress fitted for Ellen Pompeio's frame would fit Heigl's breasts. NO WAY.
All the things ED pointed out crossed my mind too, but I think at this point w/ Grey's you have to just suspend disbelief and go with the flow, as much as is reasonable. I mean, Callie was running the ER with no admin staff or nurses anywhere near the admit desk?!?!? I've never seen an ER that sparse, and unfortunately I've been to many ERs in my 40yrs.
WRT to Alex & Izzie's lack of a marriage license, all that means is that the marriage isn't *legal*. It'll be interesting if they revisit that little detail later -- like if there are medical decisions that Izzie's next of kin has to make. Legally, Alex is NOT her next of kin after this wedding ceremony, and the hospital would get in trouble if they allowed him to make any decisions.
ooh! what a great point!
and yeah, the ER thing was a fiasco. but then, SGH only rarely seemed to have an ER *staff* at any time since episode 3 ("ER residents don't know their ass from their esophagus")
Hunt is a surgeon. I'm not sure what department Chief of Trauma is assigned to, but he's not going to be the one dealing with the random poisonings and other medical ER issues.
I miss the old head of surgery on Scrubs (where Turk should not have been made Chief)
and there's something else, but I forget now.
This was really an episode better left unexamined. It worked as long as you didn't think about it too hard. Izzie and Alex got married in front of...Derek and Meredith's guests? That bothered me much more than the obvious issue of the dress. The claim that they both fit "perfectly" into the dress is one of those things TV people say that might as well be accompanied by the statement, "Also, I assume you are stupid."
Not to mention: I'm pretty sure that arranging for a patient's surgery to be performed by one doctor rather than another because you want to give a gift to your fiancee is, like, *grotesquely* unethical. But as a story, it kinda worked.
It's possible that Mer was in line for the solo and it was just "presented" as a gift.
As for the rest, you're right.
I don't really let the errors spoil my enjoyment of the show (well not *these* errors at least. ask me another time) I just think of them afterwards.
As for the guest list - with no family members (except Lexie) in evidence, it looked like a Hospital Wedding and would therefore be interchangeable (and Izzie has issues with Mom, Alex with Dad (Mom unknown))
Are all the 5 only children, except George?
For a 100th episode, it did good.
It was Izzie's wedding and they took pains to emphasize that for Meredith, it was the marriage and not the weeding which mattered so it was emotionally satisfying when she handed it over to Izzie instead.
Brave thing to let all the students except one die and let the residents be affected by them. Such sad stories.
Not enough Christina and Owen because Sandra Oh and Kevin McKidd are amazing together.
The only really bad points were why was a surgical orthopedic resident running the ER (she shouldn't even have been working down there doing shifts much less running it) and how is it that Callie, who earns so much more than Cristina does and who has no loans to pay off, cannot afford her part of the rent?
And why wasn't Bailey working on the casualties when they really needed more help? All she was doing was twiddling her thumbs with Izzie.
Don't talk about an episode I haven't blogged about yet. I haven't even watched the "Grey's" finale at this point.
And if Callie were "running" the ER (a job which, I would think she's not trained for - can't they afford ER personnel??) then she should be working on patients, not just directing traffic (unless she's working as a Ward Clerk)
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