Episode 12: Make me lose control

I return after a week away at “fitness camp,” during which time I really thought I would be able to watch an episode or two and write about it. Fitness camp was great, really great, but it left no time for watching DVDs or writing. The schedule was a 6 AM stretch class followed by breakfast and two hours of hiking in the morning, followed by another class, usually on the cardio machines, followed lunch and three hours of classes (e.g., cardio circuit, kickboxing, swimming, etc) in the afternoon. Dinner was at five, after which there was often a lecture. If I wasn’t in bed by eight thirty, I was hurting the next day.

Add to this that I had to decompress after dinner with my friend Tracy. Our after-dinner conversations weren’t that deep, but they did take away from my blogging time. Mostly, we reviewed the funniest events of the day. For example, on Wednesday, an older woman who was sitting next to me in the hot tub put her arm around my shoulder and said, “You’re such a darling that I want to give you a tip. You really should consider getting your asshole waxed because I just did and it felt amazing. I know you’ll really love the way it feels.” Of note, I was mortified and did not proceed with this suggestion.

Waxing recommendations aside, I feel good about the social connections I made with people there, and as the week progressed, I actually noticed that my exercise tolerance improved a lot. In our last cardio circuit class, I ran at 7.5 on the treadmill for several of the rotations. It felt great to have made such progress during the week.

I have now returned home to pages and pages of unanswered work emails, but I am making my commitment to Grey’s my first priority.

This episode is one of the best yet. The writing is snappy and concise. The plot is clear and well-thought out. The first scene opens with our two favorite interns, Drs. Grey and Yang, out for a jog. They’re clearly already out of shape and struggling with their run. This is not all that surprising, seeing as they’ve been working what appears to be a “pre-work hours rules” schedule (maybe 120 hours a week?) and they seem to spend all their free time having sex with attendings, hosting wild parties, and, occasionally, caring for a demented parent. They are lamenting their situation in the first scene when they berate each other with this exchange:

“Slutty mistress.”

“Pregnant whore”

“Sleeping with our bosses was a great idea.”

The episode centers on several plot lines: Izzie and Alex are becoming friends, consistent with the “douche with a heart of gold theme” the writers seem to be forcing on Alex. Seeing their connection from afar, George announces:

“Make the lambs stop screaming.”

                             Douche with a heart of gold.

The McDreamies (Derek and Addison) are still not getting along:

McDreamy to Chief: “Maybe you should have thought of that before you gave chief to Burke and invited Satan to Seattle.”

Chief: “Satan?”

Addison: “Good morning.”

McDreamy: “Satan speaks.”

Addison: “Actually, I prefer to be called ruler of all that is evil. But I will answer to Satan.”

                       Is Satan a redhead? McDreamy seems to think so.

Despite this, they are forced to work together on a case in which a newborn who was born premature and addicted to narcotics also happens to have a spinal tumor. Derek doesn’t want to operate, but Addison is trying to convince him it’s the right thing to do:

(arguing over neonate that may need spinal surgery)

Addison: “Derek, you’re not God.”

McDreamy: “Excuse me?

Addison: “I’m sorry, honey, but you’re not…you don’t get to decide…”

McDreamy: “Did you just call me honey? Don’t call me honey.”

Addison: “Fine, you’re not God, Dr. Shepard, but you have a responsibility…”

McDreamy: “Don’t talk to me about responsibility.”

Addison: “You took an oath, Derek.”

McDreamy: “Don’t you dare talk to me about oaths.”

Addison: “Derek, I messed up. People mess up.”

McDreamy: “You slept with my best friend on my favorite sheets.”

Addison: “You hate those sheets! Derek please, she has nobody. She needs someone to fight for her.”

McDreamy: “She’s too far gone. Let her rest in peace.”

Addison: “Fine, walk away. It’s what you do best.”

The big news, though, is 1.) Cristina Yang’s pregnancy is ectopic, and she needs urgent surgery to save her life, which means that she loses a fallopian tube and, oh, yeah, the entire hospital knows that she was pregnant; and 2.) Meredith’s mother is finally admitted to Seattle Grace. It was clearly just a matter of time before this happened-and it’s pretty realistic, actually, seeing as demented nursing home residents tend to be frequent flyers. She’s a little bit too healthy-looking for the diverticulitis and the liver mass they find, but other than that, it could totally happen.

Bailey, as promised, is emerging as the moral center of the show, which is made clear when she keeps Meredith from barging in on Cristina’s surgery:

                                               

Meredith: “I’m coming in.”

Bailey: “No, you’re not. She’s lying on the operating table. Naked. Exposed. She’s not a doctor. She’s not your friend. She’s a patient, and she deserves to have all the privacy I can give her.”

Meredith: “You have to let me in there.”

Bailey: “You can try, but I’ll have to take you down.”

Meredith: “In this moment, I hate you.”

Bailey: “I can take it.”

Oh, later in the episode and right on cue, the McDreamies appear to be reconciling. He called her Satan in the morning, but they were kissing by the 7 PM nursing shift change.

   Now this is actually interesting. How is it that I'm weirdly rooting for Satan?

Through it all, Meredith holds it together, saying repeatedly, “I’m fine. Just fine.”

At the end of the episode, after a day of “I’m fines” to everyone who will listen, Meredith is finally crying. She says to McDreamy: “I’m just exhausted. My mother is exhausting. What happened to Cristina is exhausting. And hating you is the most exhausting. I don’t want to do it anymore.”

And so, my friends, I have learned my first real relationship lesson from Grey’s. After weeks of putting myself through the wringer, I'm exhausted and I don’t want to do it anymore. And I’m not going to.

Thank you, fitness camp. Thank you, Grey’s Anatomy.

BTW: not cured yet. But better. Definitely better.