Episode 17: Let It Be

Recently, I’ve had the problem understanding the concept of a “blog.” A blog indicates frequent posts, generally at least daily, yet I’m only posting once a week, I’m still pretty early in season 2, and it’s almost been three months. That’s one-fourth of a year. I know. This is rapidly spiraling into trouble.

In my defense, I was sick and I was busy. Even more than busy, I’ve been exhausted somewhere deep down. It’s been a long few months and it’s all catching up with me. But still, it’s no excuse. I said I would do this and I will. And I will shut up about it because, for the most part, whiners are no fun.

Speaking of whiners that are no fun, this episode opens with a very long Meredith whine. She is still kicking herself for falling for and subsequently being dumped by McDreamy (and even though this probably for the best given his all around douchiness, Meredith’s going to have complain about it for a least another twenty episodes, I’m sure) Her voice-over intro:

“When fate comes into play, choice sometimes goes out the window. At the ripe old age of 13 I was very clear that love, like life, is about making choices, and fate has nothing to do with it. Everyone thinks it's so romantic. Romeo and Juliet, true love, how sad. If Juliet was stupid enough to fall for the enemy, drink the bottle of the poison and go to sleep in a mausoleum, she deserved whatever she got!”

In other news, a woman with a “genetic mutation” (most likely BRCA 1 or 2) presents to Addison for a prophylactic mastectomy, hysterectomy, and oophorectomy. Although there’s a lot of painful back and forth (The discussion somehow involves the entire hospital. Inappropriate.), and the woman’s husband is very upset, there is evidence that prophylactic mastectomy may be an appropriate choice for certain very high-risk patients (reducing risk of breast cancer by 90%), so I don’t know why they’re giving this woman such a hard time about this decision. At one point Izzie advises her, “Take your chances, get cancer, and fight like hell to survive.” I’m not sure that’s sound medical advice if this woman is really this high risk, particularly when ovarian cancer is so likely to be deadly. Also, it’s the patient’s body, and this is what she wants, and it’s supported by evidence. Therefore, I don’t think the surgeons’ level of angst is realistic.

Cristina and Burke are going a date.

Cristina in shiny lavender dress: “I can do hot in my sleep. I look hot in scrubs. I’m a hot person.”

Their date is quite hilarious, in part because it reminds me of some of the more awkward Internet dates I’ve been on:

Cristina: "I’m having steak."

Burke (looking horrified): "You eat red meat?"

Cristina: "You don’t?"

First Dates: Really, can you think of anything more fun?

Of course, the irony is that these two have been sleeping together for some time, but have somehow never seen each other “outside of the hospital” and thus never had a conversation like normal people. They don’t have a relationship. They’ve been hooking up in a call room for months. This little revelation is creepy and awful for whoever uses the call room on the other days. I’ve seen my share of call rooms my day, and the only thing I can recommend is to try not to think about it.

After a few more awkward glances, the two socially-challenged surgeons are graced by fate: a Marfan’s patient happens to develop an aortic dissection in the middle of the restaurant where Burke and Cristina’s date is bombing so fabulously. They leap from their table, diagnose the patient (by determining that the joints are hyperextensible, observing the patient’s long arms, and noting that the palate that “meets the definition of high arched”) and rush the patient straight to the OR. Suddenly, all the awkwardness falls away and they are back in the hospital, doing surgery together with Nouvelle Vague’s remake of Modern English’s “I Melt with You” playing in the background. This is a great version of a song that is entirely about sex, indicating that for Cristina and Burke, cardiac surgery is sex.

Bailey and Meredith are caring for a patient who presents with cholecystitis but when attempting to remove her gall bladder, they find it is “porcelain.” This finding indicates “an increased risk of gall bladder cancer” but is not, in fact, diagnostic for it, as they claim in this episode. After closing the woman up, they go to the waiting room and announce to her husband that she has 4-6 months to live. Pretty good prognostication skills, Dr. Bailey, given that there’s no way to know it was actually cancer.

The episode ends with Meredith in an elevator with McDreamy. She whispers, “I miss you.” And then he walks up behind her, breathes in her ear for a minute, and then says something like “I can’t.” Oh, for God’s sake. Do it or get the hell off the elevator. Don’t be such an asshole, McDreamy.

Seriously? Meredith: do yourself and the rest of us a favor and start using only the service elevators. The wait is usually shorter, anyway.

Meredith’s final voice-over:

“Even now, I believe for the most part that love is about choices. It's about putting down the poison and the dagger and making your own happy ending most of the time, and that sometimes despite all your best choices and all your best intentions, fate wins anyway.”

I guess I’m on board with making your own happy ending business, but I think the experience of the process of finding happiness is closer to something I learned at fitness camp. It was often hard to start a long hike. Those first steps are scary because it was just the beginning of something potentially difficult. Still, it was just a matter of putting one foot in front of the other again and again. It was steep and sometimes painful, but eventually, after staring at my feet, one in front of another, for hours, I would finally open my eyes to find I was in a whole new place, one that was more beautiful than I ever expected it could be. And I didn’t even know exactly how I got there.

Oh, last point: Bailey is pregnant. She seems angry about it. But this is going to be fun.

Chief: “Fine, go be a hotshot somewhere else.”

Bailey: “I’m not leaving. I’m pregnant, you blind moron.”

Interesting!