(S03E01) Season premieres are always a little bit of a letdown, aren't they? Those cliffhangers that were oh so effective at hooking you in and keeping you wanting more all through the summer end up looking a bit silly in retrospect when things start to play out the next season. The third-season premiere of Grey's Anatomy has elements of that. When we left off last May, Denny was dead, Izzie was a mess, and Meredeth just had prom sex with Derek and needed to choose between him and Finn.Now we're back, and of course, none of those issues get resolved. But at least by the end of this episode you have a feeling that things are going to be pretty interesting over at Seattle Grace this year.
Lots of flashbacks in this episode. We see the party the interns go to at the hospital before their first day three years ago. We see Meredith on a carousel as a child witnessing her mother get dumped by Webber. We also see Derek's reaction right after he finds out that Addison was cheating on him, and the scene where Mer and Der meet at Joe's bar when neither of them knew they'd be working together. The theme? Time. Everyone needs more time, but doesn't get it.
It's the day after the Denny Debacle is over, and everyone's feeling it. It was a good move to have Izzie lying on the floor in her prom dress, refusing to get up. Right now, she can't deal with how she ruined her medical career. All she can do is think of Denny. Everyone comes to her in turn, trying to get her to get up and get out of that dress. But the only one who seems to get what she's doing is Cristina. Somehow, I forgot that she's half-Jewish, and when she comes in to tell Izzie about sitting shiva, "Eating, not sitting on anything higher than a foot, no shaving... wearing dirty clothes..." she realizes that Izzie's doing her own form of shiva.
Everyone's feeling the effects, even Bailey. She deeply regrets not intervening in Denny's care sooner, and her despair is paralleled in how she reacts when she tells the husband of a head trauma victim, who happens to be in quarrantine because they were exposed to the plague, that she didn't make it. Steve Harris plays the husband, and he does a great job of playing the emotions and helplessness involved. But seeing Miranda's regret is a revelation; it shows that the toughness is starting to break down a little, as if becoming a mother is putting tiny cracks in that hard shell of hers.
It's an episode of parallels. An abandoned newborn comes in, and none of the four girls suspected of leaving the baby want to admit to it. Addison relates to Alex that she can understand that moment of panic, when you do something that you can't take back even if it's against your better judgement. Of course, we know why she understands. And we also realize that a) she knows what happened at the prom (she found Mer's underwear) and b) Derek's on the verge of dumping her. All it took was a quarrantine with O'Malley for Derek to realize that. He made a choice last year, but it was wrong. He loves Meredith. Well, duh!
But Meredith has a choice, too. Despite everything, Finn comes by and tells Mer that Der is bad for her, and "if there's a race, if there's a ring, my hat is in." even if she's "dark and twisty." But Derek comes in -- all "McGuilty," as Cristina called it -- and tells Mer he loves her. Jeez. I really hope we settle this soon, because I reeeeeaaaaallly can't take another season of Meredith going back and forth not knowing what she wants and frowning the entire time she tries to decide. Make choice and stick with it, woman!
Finally, there's Callie, the voice of reason. "We're all 17. It's high school with scalpels," she tells Finn while Meredith is talking to Izzie. She knows all of these doctors are emotionally underdeveloped, even her; she's at George's place cooking for him and he hasn't even told her he loves her. When he comes back from the quarrantine, after a heart-to-heart with Shepard, he still can't say it. We all know why, right? She's skinny, blondish, and can't riggin' decide already which mothereffin' guy she wants to be with. I swear she drives me crazy...
*Cough* sorry, where was I? Oh, in the last storyline, Webber ends up choosing the hospital over his wife. But, as usual, Shonda Rhimes and company pack in one too many storylines, and the Webber one gets the short end of the stick. That story is interesting, what with his involvement with Meredith's mother, but it's never given enough space to breathe and be explored. But it's better than not giving Webber anything to do. And we don't see Burke until the very end, where Cristina finally breaks down over what happened to him during the Debacle (hint: he got shot a little).
Nice job overall by Sandra Oh in this episode. She'll be a focus next week, when we finally find out what that role that Diahann Carroll was going to play during her guest stint: Burke's mother! Looking forward to that showdown.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
9-22-2006 @ 12:41AM
Jen said...
Well, you're right about the little letdown. I think catching every promo (whether I wanted to or not) led to part of the disappointment. There were no real surprises other than, I think they spent too much time on the quarantine and not enough on the balance of the show. I think Dr. Webber and Adele could have had a little more time/focus if the quarantine wasn't so prevalent.
I am about to sound like I am talking out of both sides of my face though because overall, I enjoyed it. I think Izzie was in exactly he state of mind that you would expect. I was impressed with Dr. Bailey. Her response to the whole situation overall was somewhat unexpected and I think that hindsight is 20/20. Not only do I think she feels like she let Denny down, but I think she feels that she let herself down. She holds herself to a higher standard and I think she realized that she could have taken better control of the situation and maybe the outcome would have been different.
There is some strange connection or something with Addison & Alex. I don't know what it is. But, it's something.
I'll be honest. I really didn't like Callie when she first appeared but she's growing on me and I think she is starting to blend a little without losing herself in the process. George...it's horrible to leave her hanging the way that he did when he knows how much she is putting herself out there and he is starting to know deep down how he feels about her.
I cried with Cristina. Someone asked me about this show yesterday and I told her that I cry at some point in every episode. Cristina's tears were my tears tonight.
Okay, enough rambling. Loved the flashbacks. Looking forward to next week. Looking forward to what everyone else has to say.
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9-22-2006 @ 7:10AM
the kookie said...
Spot on review. The opener was missing something, and you're right, everything was squished in together. I hope it doesn't become a total soap opera. We'll see.
But McDreamy is totally ruined for me now. He chose wrong? No shit! What a whiner!
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9-22-2006 @ 12:35AM
MrsEldubya said...
I think I read that ABC wanted another episode so this episode was done kind of last minute and next week's episode was the real first episode of the season. I might have misunderstood but I got the impression that's why we got all the flashbacks so we didn't move to far forward in time to mess up the next episode.
You are right, Steve Harris was excellent as the husband. Baily was very understated and excellent as well. Not sure if I want Grey and McDreamy together or not but I loved that he said "I love you". So how did Addison get the underwear if he never went home after the Prom?
Not the best first episode of a season but it was satisfying and makes you want more. Seriously!
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9-22-2006 @ 12:49AM
Jen said...
MrsEldubya, you are right about Addison and the panties...I wonder????
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9-22-2006 @ 1:36AM
Diana said...
CTV in Canada made a mistake and aired episode 2 instead of the premiere. No matter what Shonda wanted I can say that episode 2 confused the hell out of me without seeing the premiere. Maybe that was her intention, since after I caught the premiere on ABC the 2nd episode suddenly made sense.
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9-22-2006 @ 6:33AM
Larry G said...
Steve Harris was great. Wonder why he had no billing? He was not listed with the guest stars.
Sara Ramirez is beautiful. Glad to see Pompeo eating a sandwich. If only she ate one in real life. She has become totally anorexic & asexual. Another much too skinny Hollywood actress.
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9-22-2006 @ 7:51AM
tv junkie said...
Seriously, too much going on! this has to be the worst episode yet. I would have hope they didn't put all of those unnecessary flashbacks (or at least not put them all together in one episode.) Also, none of the storylines in this episode work, there's no progression from the incredibly well-done season finale whatsoever. for the first time watching "grey's anatomy", i felt bored and hoped the episode could have end sooner!
I think this is one of those case where things look great on papers, but just doesn't work in the final product. the kind of satisfying feeling that i get from watching "grey's" each week was gone because there were just too many plots running thru the episode that all of the emotional impacts the writers was trying to set up all fell short.
Webber's storyline was ridiculously short that it must have been only a couple of lines in the script. Izzie remembering wanting to be a surgeon in the end is obviously the only logical ending of this episode, but that flashback just doesn't do the work, in fact, none of the flashbacks in this episode did anything for me at all. Finn appeared for less than five minutes, it felt like the writers didn't know how to write him into this episode or something.
It was a great idea to put Derek and George together, but locked them together in quarantine zone was weird and unnecessary. The episode would have been much better without the whole quarantine thing. it just seems very out of place to put a storyline involve "quarantine" in the hospital in the first episode of the season. It felt like a stunt, a statement for the season premiere, but doesn't work.
Addison found out Derek cheating on her was good, but it was so out of character for her to pin that panties on the wall. I mean, she's not stupid, she knows Derek was sleeping with Meredith! And I think she's professional enough to not "display" a black panties in the hospital for people to see.
Lastly, the ending of the episode was weak. Why the hell was Derek telling Meredith to make a decision when he's the married one? Sure she has to choose between him and Finn, but shouldn't he make a decision about his marriage? why stay with Addison when clearly he doesn't love her at all? (perhaps the most effecting flashback was the one with Derek kicking out Addison...)
The only good parts of this episode are Christina, Bailey and Callie. They weren't involve in the main plot, but they serve their scenes well.
I will continue to watch despite this huge let down of a season opener. I didn't have a really high expectation that some might have. I just thought this show will never let me down because all the episodes so far were all very satisfying for me. But this episode really didn't work.
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9-22-2006 @ 8:03AM
Heather said...
Diana, I also saw episode 2 at 8pm on CTV in Canada and the whole time I was wondering..Did I miss something? Good thing I switched over to ABC at 9pm and realized the mistake CTV had made. I then watched episode 1 and it all made much more sense...now i'm going to email CTV to complain....sheesh.
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9-22-2006 @ 9:13AM
Jazzie said...
I enjoyed the episode, but I was disappointed. The first episode last year was Excellent, and I was expecting so much more this time. I thought maybe it was a let down because I anticipated it too much. Not enough Christina and Burke; however, when it came it was worth the wait. I cried with Christina too. Finn was right, Derek is bad and HE (Finn)is a good man. He deserves better than Meredith. In fact, he and Callie were nice together. Addison is the wronged wife this time and she's due some revenge. Unlike some, I agree with Addison posting the panties. Der and Mer should hope she doesnt go completely POSTAL on them. Derek is a cad, handsome, smart, but still an egomaniac cad. This time Meredith knew he was married, and slept with him anyway - I blame her. I hope she moves on and forgets Derek. The Chief was excellent as usual, and as usual, he doesn't get enough time. I look forward to his marriage ending. He doesn't seem happy with her. He doesn't want to leave the hospital to go home, that is an indication that home is not at all where he likes to be. Callie was better. The line about seventeen with scapels was GREAT. Of course Bailey and Steve Harris were so good together. I wondered why he wasn't listed as a guest star also. Izzy was distraught and miserable beautifully.
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9-22-2006 @ 9:32AM
Samuel McConnell said...
That CTV mistake makes me hope I'll see next week's episode up on torrents today!
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9-22-2006 @ 9:21AM
shanty said...
I have to admit, I am slightly above lukewarm on Grey's, but I am very interested to see Debora Cahn’s influence on the show. She was definitely a bright spot during the post Sorkin TWW. For obvious reasons, parts of this episode remind me of "No Exit" during the 5th season of TWW. That being said, this episode was pretty boring.
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9-22-2006 @ 9:26AM
Heather said...
CTV in Canada really screwed up and aired episode 2 last night at 8pm instead of episode 1. I was lucky enough to switch over to ABC at 9pm and caught episode 1 after seeing episode 2 but alot of people didn't. So many people are PISSED! For anyone who missed episode 1, ABC is airing it again tonight at 8pm.
Here is a press release from CTV:
Grey's Anatomy Season Premiere Alert
TORONTO, Sept. 21 /CNW/ - Due to a satellite feed error at the source, CTV was inadvertently delivered episode No. 2 of Grey's Anatomy Season 3 which was broadcast tonight at 8 p.m. As a result, CTV will broadcast Episode One in its entirety on a special day and time which will be announced shortly.
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9-22-2006 @ 9:57AM
Jamie said...
MrsEldubya,
I also read somewhere that they added an additional episode to the beginning of the season, but that episode was the one that aired right before the 9:00 Season Premiere. It was basically a recap by Joe - the bartender. They were originally going to air Episode 1 and Episode 2 (which isn't airing until Next Week) last night in one night. Therefore, the original season premiere we saw last night was written as the season premiere.
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9-22-2006 @ 11:35AM
MrsEldubya said...
Jamie:
Thanks for the info and now that makes me more disappointed in last nights episode. I liked thinking it was thrown together at the last minute and that explained it all. :) I figured I was confused.
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9-22-2006 @ 11:47AM
M said...
Love the show but sick the the Mer and Der thing... Der is a married man who continues to cheat on his wife and he asks Mer to choose? He needs to make a stinkin decision and stick with...if he would stop messing with Mer's head she might not seem so crazy!
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9-22-2006 @ 11:54AM
Blithe said...
MrsEldubya and Jen, Addison found the panties in McDreamy's coat. She was wearing it in the first shot where you see her with the panties.
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9-22-2006 @ 4:15PM
Christina Furtado said...
Personally, I liked the premiere. I thought it was a very moving meditation on the emotional state's of a lot of the characters. People complained last season that we didn't see *any* emotional fall out from the bomb going off, and now people are complaining that we're seeing too much fallout from Denny's death, etc. I really liked seeing how the characters got to where they are. I'm sure the rest of the season will be more eventful, for those of you who were bored.
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9-22-2006 @ 12:34PM
Beezus said...
I have to admit, Addison (formerly known as Salmon Scrubs) is growing on me, but I've got a serious girl-crush on Callie! She's so real, and lays it all out, and she's big and beautiful and powerful and vulnerable... Stop me. Anyway, Meredith continuously lets me down, and I think there should be a lot less of her whining about how bad her life is when obviously those around her are falling apart. If she's really that bad off, she should embrace her 'dark twistiness' and lend a hand. Glad to see her getting Izzy out of that dress.
BTW, I second the connection between Addison and Alex - could this be a story in the future? Or will Salmon Scrubs be gone when Derek dumps her?
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9-22-2006 @ 12:54PM
Dr. Funbags said...
I also saw Episode 2 - my my my - wasn't the hotel scene a lil steamy?
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9-22-2006 @ 1:05PM
JENNIFER said...
seriously!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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