(Grey’s Anatomy): 1x05 - Shake Your Groove Thing
Just finished watching "Shake Your Groove Thing" (1x05) of Grey's Anatomy.
OMG!
First of all, I totally identify with Meredith's feeling of "When did we become adults? Can we stop?!" - so many times in my life, especially when I got my first job and started living independently, have I felt this exact same way! Being an adult sucks sometimes because being an adult means that you have to take responsibility for your actions and their consequences, both good AND bad. On the flip side, being adult also means that you are in charge (for the most part) of your destiny. What you will and will not do is completely in your control. Meredith learns both of these "lessons" this episode.
She is super stressed because of her mother's deteriorating condition (which she is still hiding from everyone) and accidentally pops a glove during a surgery... causing a tear in the patient's heart (which she was holding IN HER HANDS! I didn't even know this happened in surgeries! Greys has me looking up medicals terms left and right, lol). At first the patient seems fine, and George advises her not to mention it to anyone but then things start deteriorating and she blurts out what she did to Dr. Burke in front of everyone, INCLUDING THE PATIENT'S HUSBAND! Now she's in some deep legal shit. Even though Burke figures out that the patient's heart walls are abnormally thin, so it shouldn't have been damaged that much, the "damage", so to speak, is already done. The husband is ready to sue and the hospital needs to consult their lawyer to figure out their liability.
As this plays out, elsewhere in the hospital Cristina, George, Dr. Webber, and Dr. Bailey are in a surgery where they pull out a freaking TOWEL out of a patient’s chest cavity (which was causing lung problems). Following the legal problems theme, we find out that the only way for the towel to end up there was during a surgery she had at this same hospital! Webber is furious and wants to know who did the previous surgery, Cristina is handed the task and finds out... that it was Dr. Burke.Â
Let me add an aside here: this episode starts with Burke bringing Cristina coffee, to which she stares at him in a deadpan “What the heck” kinda way that is so very Cristina and he says “it’s just coffee” to which she says “good” and walks away. Remember last episode when I said I wouldn’t be surprised if something developed between these two? Well it’s definitely happening!
But then they’re thrown a wrench with this whole towel business. Cristina takes the info to Bailey who tells her she’ll handle it and not to breathe a word to anyone. Later, she sees Bailey talking to Burke and things seem shady. We think that they’re going to try to bury this.
But things come to head for both Burke and Meredith when during a meeting with the hospital lawyers, Burke uses his (and by association the hospital’s liability) in the towel-in-the-chest case to help get Meredith off with just a month’s probation. After the cheers, Bailey tells Cristina that Burke was always going to tell the hospital about his role in the goof-up, but just wanted to wait for the right time. “Information is power”, she says, and Cristina looks at Burke with a new sense of admiration, which, of course, culminates into her cornering Burke in the changing room and them hooking up. I was not surprised they hooked up, but I WAS surprised at how quickly it happened! I’m glad they didn’t drag it on like they’re doing with Derek/Meredith. The whole will they/won’t they is very Ross/Rachel, though it hasn’t reached that level of tiredness in this show... yet!
Other things that happened in this episode:
Izzie clearly does not enjoy hanging out with her LDR boyfriend (who’s coming to town) so she throws a massive party to “introduce him to her friends”, which of course, only ends up driving him away.
Karev shows a surprisingly human side (junkie father) during surgery, causing Izzie to see him in a new light. I really hope they don’t develop a romance here. He was such a pig to her. Just no.
Meredith get drunks, hooks up with Derek in a car and they get caught by Bailey
She shrugs her shoulders, gets her crap done, and appreciates the finer points of adulthood more after spending an entire episode complaining about being one
Oh, and she is now also the power of attorney for her mother.Â
So I recently started watching Grey's Anatomy, and I am surprised at how good it is. I mean, yes, there are some soap opera-y moments, but for the most part, it is surprisingly well written with fleshed out, strong characters, especially female characters, who are not relegated to their romantic desires or their good looks, but are whole, real people with hopes, dreams, ambitions, likes, dislikes, lust, and love. They are all flawed in their own way, but together, the cast really shines through.
I'm four episodes in right now. In the 4th episode, we see Cristina deal with a dying patient and Izzie confront Karev over his sexism towards her. It was so gratifying to see Cristina finally shook up by something - her character so far as been very cool and aloof, very detached and I think this experience of her having a patient that she initially took on just to get into OR but to whom she eventually becomes so attached... it is a nice step in the evolution for her character. I assume (hope!) we will see her become a more balanced person, a person more capable of empathy towards her patients.
I love Izzie's character not just because of how positive she is, but also because of her confidence and her refusal to feel ashamed about her modelling past. She did what she had to do to pay for med school. Like she reminds Karev after shaming him for putting photos of her in the locker room, "Just remember that while you're sitting on $200K of student loans, I'm out of debt!".
The theme of this episode was "Intimacy". The roommates deal with their intimacy issues - George is uncomfortable with the girls just walking around the washroom in their underwear and asking him to buy tampons when it's his turn to do the groceries. Cristina is uncomfortable with intimacy with her patient (and the love she sees her get from her former colleagues). Meredith is perennially toeing the line of intimacy with McDreamy and by the end of this episode, most of these issues are if not resolved, then accepted and progressed. George learns that he can't change his roommates and just asks Izzie "I hope you're not using my toothbrush". Meredith finally accepts Dr. Shepherd's invitation to breakfast and most surprising of all, Dr. Burke helps Cristina let her patient go. I think there's definitely something brewing for these two in the future. Their last scene together, where is is shocked after calling the time of death and trying to figure out what to do for the patient next... then Burke comes in and holds her arms and says "Let her go!" ... they have an intense state-off, as if they've both just realized something shocking, as if that intimacy that has come from this shared experience has scared them a little bit and now they're unsure of how to proceed... So yes, I will definitely not be surprised if I see them hooking up in the future!
Gatsby believed in the green light,
The orgastic future that year by year recedes before us.
It eluded us then, but that's no matter
-- tomorrow we will run faster,
Stretch out our arms farther...
And then one fine morning --
So we beat on, boats against the current,
Borne back ceaselessly into the past
Turns out that no one can replace me
I'm permanent, you can't erase me
I'll help you remember me
One more kiss is all it takes
I'll leave you with the memory
And the aftertaste
I know people were worried when Danny and Mindy got together, but I think that the show just got more complicated and deepened our understanding of the characters. This is like that only better, because it’s like Mindy and Danny are collaborating on the most worthy project now. Parenting brings out sides in them we have not seen, and we get to learn more about their families as a result.
Mindy Kaling, proving that we shouldn’t be worried
