"Grey's Anatomy": Time and Time Again
By Sarah Carlson
April 20, 2007
A more appropriate title for "Grey's Anatomy" might be "Stevens' Anatomy," making official what has gradually become apparent for the drama: Izzie Stevens is, in many ways, the star. Since Denny's untimely, blood-clot induced death last season, Izzie (Katherine Heigl) has steadily received more airtime, stealing scenes away from suicidal Meredith, easily the most waif-like and annoying heroine on TV. She's had her clumsy, overly idealistic moments -- her "I believe" speech to George when Meredith was frozen stiff comes to mind -- but Heigl's wounded Izzie always wins back fans, and last night's episode "Time After Time" was no exception.
Still reeling from her drunken night with George (T.R. Knight), Izzie tried confessing as a way to clear her guilty mind and move past her hurt feelings when George refused to deal with the issue. The encounter wasn't a mistake to her, and while her developing feelings for George seem contrived -- is every castmate going to sleep with everyone else by the end of this thing? -- last night almost had me convinced that a George-Izzie relationship isn't a bad idea. Except for that whole "George is already married to a woman who could crush Izzie" thing, but that's for a later episode. Last night Izzie was seeking atonement, but what she received was more pain: The adoptive parents of the 11-year-old child she gave up came to Seattle Grace looking for her. The child, Hannah, has leukemia, and she needed a bone marrow transplant from her birth mother to have a fighting chance. Izzie confided in Bailey, who dropped her clinic duties to help her, and after swallowing the blow that her daughter didn't want to meet her, she decided to give Hannah the transplant. George found out about the transplant just in time to trade places with Bailey in the procedure room and make amends.
He dropped everything -- including a coffee date with wife Callie -- to be with Izzie, even though he tried to run away again when she brought up their indiscretion. Their friendship means too much to each of them, but their past will eventually catch up with them. That's what season finales are for. The show's writers often do their characters a disservice in the plot devices they come up with, but Heigl and Knight each saved their scenes from descending into melodrama.
Meanwhile, Cristina played a game of mind chess with ex-boyfriend and visiting surgeon Colin Marlow (Roger Rees), driving home the point that she's happy as the soon-to-be Mrs. Burke; Derek realized his relationship with Meredith might hurt his chances of being chief, seeing that Richard promised Ellis he'd look after Meredith and doesn't want to see her hurt like his wife was; Meredith was rude to her stepmother, rebuffing her desire to take care of her, but eventually had her cold heart warmed by the attention; Richard tried to get back in the dating game with Mark as his wingman; and Alex grew closer to Eva, the injured amnesiac, who had her bandages removed and found a family that mistook her for their long-lost daughter.
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Posted by: Pete's Zah on April 21, 2007 5:12 PM
Izzie is so much cuter than Meredith too. I figured they'd kill Meredith off and call it Grey's Autopsy.
Am I the only one waiting for Doug Ross and Carole Hathaway to show up on this show? C'mon NBC, release the rights to those characters.
Of course, for the last episode of Friends, I thought it would've been cool to have the Friends moving out of their apartments as the cast from Seinfeld was moving in.
TeeVee writers are never that smart. Except when it comes to professional wrestling, or Tom Goes to the Mayor. Cal-Q-Corn? Now that rules.