TVSquad

(S02E24) This is one of those Grey's episodes where, instead of giving everyone separate story lines, we see how the doctors' lives are progressing in their reactions to the cases that come through Seattle Grace. It's the little things; gestures, looks, actions. This is an episode that follows the axiom that newbie writers are given the first time their work is critiqued: "Show, don't tell."

The main story is pretty simple. Five victims come in from an MVC: four family members (three of whom have accents that make you think they're in the same family as Joy from My Name Is Earl) and the driver of the car that T-boned them. The most seriously injured is the daughter, who is pregnant. At first she's awake and concerned for her family; the main focus of the docs is her unborn fetus. But when she goes to CT and her body relaxes, it's discovered that she's suffered massive internal injuries, which send her crashing. She goes into surgery, with everyone from Burke to Webber to both Shepards involved.

The person who caused the accident isn't a drunk driver or some other careless driver, though; Marshall's a surgical resident at another hospital in town. He tacked 12 hours on his 30-hour shift just to scrub in on an operation he's never seen before, making him fall asleep behind the wheel just long enough to cause the accident. Funny, who among the crew did the same thing? Oh, yeah, Cristina did... only she didn't fall asleep in the car, she fell asleep on top of Burke... while they were having sex.

Cristina's such a guy, isn't she? She's tells Burke that, hey she was tired, and after all, she did finish, twice! So what's the problem? Only thing was, Burke wasn't done (what, is he learning Tantric sex from Sting?), and guess what? He's not all that happy about it, which Cristina doesn't really see until Meredith points it out to her.

At least in her efforts to save a life (and to advance her career, of course), she only ticked off her boyfriend; Marshall (the male Cristina?) did a whole lot worse.

On to Meredith. You've got something good with McVet, Mer... the guy's not even kissing you or expecting you to cook! But you can't be with him because you're scary and damaged and he seems so normal, right? But you still somehow need Derek's approval; until, of course, he bitches you out for accidentally allowing Marshall to enter the surgical gallery where his pregnant victim is being worked on. "When are you going to take responsibility for once in your life!?" he yells to you. We all know he's not really talking about Marshall, right kids?

Anyway, the stairway confrontation is classic... Derek is visibly pissed and jealous, starting to tell Meredith how slutty she's being. She FINALLY stands up to him, saying "You don't get to call me a whore," since he was the one who hid the whole Addison thing from her. "This is done, you and me," says Derek. But is it really? I mean, can Grey's sustain without the whole Meredith-Derek flirtation? Probably. I'm just glad they're not saying the word "Friends" anymore.

More subtleties: Izzy leaving her assignment, which is with Callie, to be by Denny's side as he has an episode where he expresses how emasculated he feels with the LVAD, and that Izzy forced him into it. Izzy's definitely getting to close, which is going to be devestating if (when) Denny kicks it. She cuddles with Denny to show him that he's still pretty manly.

Even more subtleties: After Callie stumbles into the Grey household bathroom and pees topless in front of Mer and Izzy, she leaves without washing her hands, or so the girls think. So, because both women seemingly disapprove of Callie, Izzie actually gets George to ask her if she did. Of course the answer is yes. But the fact that George had to ask means he's not taking Callie's side. Bad move, George.

Ok, back to the car accident. The pregnant woman, who is taken off the table -- with her body still open -- to stabilize, ends up not making it off the table when she goes back in. Alex, who is still in Addison's doghouse, ends up saving the baby's life after spending the whole hour bitching about being the "captain of the vagina squad." Bailey -- who's still a new mom, remember -- stands dazed over the woman's body, realizing that there will be a baby who will have no idea who his mother is. And the George/Meredith feud begins to thaw when he brings the woman's dad, Big Jim,  in to Marshall's room to let Marshall express his deepest regrets, something Mer sold to George by saying, "He's one of us." How do we know things are getting better? George says, "See you at home?" See what I mean by the little things?

Oh, and the ending is not-so-subtle. McVet isn't so normal after all. In fact his scary and damaged blows Meredith's scary and damaged out of the water. So, now that they can be scary and damaged together, they can now kiss. Let the healing begin.

So, you think I might have liked this episode? How could you tell? Oh, and it was good to see Frances Fisher, who played the doomed pregnant woman's mother; the last time I saw her was on Becker (yes, I was the one person who watched that show). And, who doesn't like seeing John Cho, who played Marshall? He showed that he could do a whole hell of a lot more than play a stoner who hankers for tiny burgers. The two-day season finale is next week; better stock up, because I won't be going anywhere for a while.