Grey’s Anatomy“Rise Up”
Original Airdate: Nov 06, 2008
Thomas Nikl – TwoCents Reviewer
thomas@twocentscorps.com
I think we were treated to a pretty good episode of Grey’s Anatomy last night. It had a good blend of drama, a little comedy, and some good outbursts. Let’s review the major and minor plot lines with clever titles that I’ve come up with to try and organize these posts!
Continue Reading...
[photo: ABC.com]
Posts
Grey’s Anatomy
ReplyDelete“Rise Up”
Original Airdate: Nov 06, 2008
Thomas Nikl – TwoCents Reviewer
thomas@twocentscorps.com
I think we were treated to a pretty good episode of Grey’s Anatomy last night. It had a good blend of drama, a little comedy, and some good outbursts. Let’s review the major and minor plot lines with clever titles that I’ve come up with to try and organize these posts!
Izzie, Erica, Denny, Mike & the Heart
This episode revolves primarily around one of Erica’s patients – Mike- who is having another procedure done to help him survive longer with his heart issues. Hahn recruits Izzie for her team because of Izzie’s (supposedly) strong ability to make connections with her patients. We soon come to realize that Mike was the patient who was going to get a heart transplant- until Izzie stole it for her fiancé at the time, Denny. Denny, as we all know, still died from a blood clot, and of course, the heart was lost.
Izzie sees hallucinations of Denny throughout the entire episode- including during Mike’s surgery. Instead of helping Mike through his surgery Izzie is spacing out staring at an apparition of Denny. Erica eventually catches wind of the fact that Izzie is the one who stole Mike’s heart years ago and confronts the Chief about the situation. Erica lambastes the chief and threatens to go to an ethics committee but the Chief insists she not dig up an issue that’s otherwise dormant. Erica is pissed and seeing her scream at the Chief is one of the cooler scenes in the episode.
Erica has another cool scene where Izzie requests to be taken off the case, and Erica basically says “hell no- you caused this and you’re going to help fix it or watch him die”. In the next procedure, Izzie goes all space-cadet on us again, but eventually snaps out of it and helps Mike get through the surgery with an uplifting speech about how Mike’s wife will never move on if he doesn’t make it.
Mike survives.
Yang, Hunt, John-Doe & the Contest
The Chief introduces a new tool for the surgeons- a computerized patient that bleeds, talks, coughs, etc. It’s basically The Terminator without the blood lust- a computer that looks human that the surgeons can cut open and practice on. The Chief also announces a contest going where the winner will get to perform a solo surgery and have an intern of their choice assist.
This is all cut short, however, when a man who is badly beaten up (a John-Doe) is brought in with serious injuries. Hunt takes point and Yang assists. Hunt- who as you recall is used to working on his fellow soldiers- is unhappy with the appearance that Yang and the other surgeons treat patients, in some degree, like emotionless objects and not like human beings. The friction between Yang and Hunt continues throughout the episode.
Amidst all this the Chief asks Hunt to help him choose who will win the solo surgery contest. As Hunt considers this he continues to grow disappointed in his fellow surgeons and their lack of emotion towards patients. At one point, when Chief asks for an update, he expresses this and says he may not be staying much longer.
All this culminates when Alex and Yang appear to fight over procedures that will need to be performed over the John-Doe. Hunt explains- via yelling- that patients are people, not props or tools, and that they should treat the patients accordingly.
Later we see Hunt sitting reclusively in one of the break rooms thinking about, no doubt, what has transpired.
Yang enters to tell him that the John-Doe’s wife has arrived. Hunt tells Yang she’s a great surgeon but that if she’s doing this for contests she’s in it for the wrong reason. Yang walks over calmly and sits down and tells Hunt the story of how her father died. She explains that at nine years old, they were in a car wreck, and in the ambulance she desperately tried to keep his chest closed on the way to the hospital, but that her dad’s heart stopped while it was in her hands. “That’s why I do this- and that’s why I win all the contests”, she explains to Hunt. This was probably my favorite scene.
Rosie
The first of a few minor plot lines is a lovely old woman named Rosie and her husband (whose name I confess I never once caught). Rosie is in for another surgery (clearly not her first) and her and her husband were just really cute when they said their goodbye before the surgery. They make it a point that Rosie is signed a DNR- Do Not Resuscitate- form. Gee, I wonder what’s going to happen.
Derek performs the surgery with some complication and explains to the husband that Rosie may not make it through this time. When Rosie eventually begins to flat line, her husband asks why no one is doing anything, and Derek explains this is what the DNR form means. The husband tries to perform his own CPR saying “I can’t be the one to give up on her”. Bailey and Derek know that Rosie is not coming back, so Bailey begins to perform CPR so that the husband can sit back down.
Rosie doesn’t make it- and the husband leaves alone.
George & the Dummy
Remember the dummy I mentioned earlier? The weird computer body thing? George is tasked with keeping it alive, through complication after complication. Through this we find out that the Chief is in a control room dictating exactly what complications the dummy executes, and is even the voice of the dummy!! For comedy value, this was the scene to enjoy, watching the Chief mess with George from the comfort of a control room!
Yang & McSteamy
It is also worth mentioning that early in the episode, Derek tells Mark that he can’t handle Yang monopolizing Meredith’s time anymore and insists that Mark, to take Yang away, sleep with her. Mark resists at first but agrees when Derek reminds him that Mark slept with his wife! A few times throughout the episode we see Mark flirting with Yang- and Yang is 100% oblivious. Mark, clearly not used to his affections going unnoticed, brings his flirting to Yang’s attention at the end of the episode- where she has a hearty laugh and walks away to Mark’s amazement!
Erica & Callie
The episode concludes with a dialogue between Erica and Callie. Erica expresses to Callie her intention to take Izzie to the ethics board. When Callie objects, Erica clearly pops a gasket in disbelief, and accuses Callie of being a half lesbian before she walks into the sunset. I suspect Erica may not be coming back to Grey’s.
Good recap. I thought the episode was great and I love towards the end when Derrek comes home and finds Christina and Meredith in their room and he says, "I'm gonna take my pants off now". Then Meredith laughs about him trying to get Mark to sleep with Christina. :P
ReplyDeleteYou're suspicion is correct, although I'm not sure about the timing. Erica will be leaving Grey's. There were reports all over the internet last week that the writers don't feel they can do anything more with her character.
ReplyDeleteWell, the situation with the 'Callica' relationship is that, ABC executives chose to discontinue the storyline due to its lesbian content, not to to its artistic merit.
ReplyDeleteNice recap!