Season 5 (Grey's Anatomy)

Season 5 began airing on Sunday, September 24, 2009.

Plots

 * Cristina deals with the new trauma surgeon, Dr. Owen Hunt with whom she has a hot and cold relationship.
 * Meredith and Derek move forward in their relationship.
 * The residents receive their first solo surgeries.
 * Callie starts to explore her sexuality.
 * Bailey takes an interest in peds.
 * Izzie gets worried when Denny starts appearing to her.
 * Richard deals with the hospital only being 12th best.

The season ends with a cliffhanger. Izzie codes and George is rushed into a dangerous surgery. While the doctors work to save their lives, Izzie exits an elevator in a dream of some sort and sees George.

Main Cast

 * Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey
 * Sandra Oh as Dr. Cristina Yang
 * Katherine Heigl as Dr. Isobel 'Izzie' Stevens
 * Justin Chambers as Dr. Alex Karev
 * T.R. Knight as Dr. George O'Malley
 * Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey
 * James Pickens Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber
 * Sara Ramirez as Dr. Callie Torres
 * Eric Dane as Dr. Mark Sloan
 * Chyler Leigh as Dr. Lexie Grey
 * Brooke Smith as Dr. Erica Hahn (departed as of Rise Up)
 * Kevin McKidd as Dr. Owen Hunt (promoted to a regular as of Beat Your Heart Out)
 * Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd

Recurring Cast & Prominent Guest Stars

 * Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Denny Duquette
 * Mary McDonnell as Dr. Virginia Dixon
 * Melissa George as Dr. Sadie Harris
 * Jessica Capshaw as Dr. Arizona Robbins
 * Eric Stoltz as William Dunn
 * Tyne Daly as Carolyn Shepherd
 * Kate Walsh as Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery
 * Taye Diggs as Dr. Sam Bennett
 * Audra McDonald as Dr. Naomi Bennett
 * Grant Show as Dr. Archer Forbes Montgomery
 * Aaron Refvem as Jackson Prescott
 * Jennifer Westfeldt as Jen Harmon
 * Ben Shenkman as Rob Harmon
 * Faye Dunaway as Dr. Margaret Campbell

DVD

 * More Details: Grey's Anatomy, Season 5:DVD

The production and cast and crew
The fifth season premiered with a two-hour episode on September 25, 2008. Regular one-hour episodes of the series began airing in the U.S. on October 9, 2008, following the October 2 coverage of the 2008 Vice Presidential Debate. OK! magazine reported that Katherine Heigl was remaining with Grey's Anatomy, and that Kevin McKidd and Melissa George were being added to the cast. On November 3, 2008 it was announced that Brooke Smith (Erica Hahn) had been written out of the show.Before the announcement of Smith's departure, it was announced that Mary McDonnell would appear as Virginia Dixon a cardiothoracic surgeon with Asperger's Syndrome.

On November 6, 2008, TV Guide reported that Grey’s Anatomy will feature a multi-episode crossover arc with spin-off Private Practice in time for February sweeps.

Unlike previous seasons, this season has not prominently featured the romance of Meredith and Derek until now. The season has focused on several different things—Derek's discovery of Meredith's mother's journals from when she was a resident; Meredith's reaction to the journals;Lexie and her fellow interns performing procedures on each other (from injections to surgeries) in an attempt to learn things they believe they are not learning from their residents; the appearance of Meredith's old friend, Sadie, back into Meredith's life and Cristina's reaction to this; the reappearance of Denny Duquette, who is appearing to Izzie Stevens as a hallucination of some sort; the intensity rising between the residents as an opportunity for a solo surgery comes into play; the new-found romances in other characters' lives such as McSteamy and Callie; and the increasing amount of involvement there is with the patients coming into Seattle Grace. Rhimes has announced that contrary to popular speculation,[25] the appearance of 'Dead Denny' is not due to a brain tumor.[26] In fact, recent episodes reveal what exactly he is doing back in Izzie's life and what is to happen in the next ones to come. After learning of her disease, she lets the interns diagnose a "patient x", unaware that it is her. The interns diagnose her with a malignant melanoma that has spread to the brain, skin and liver, giving her only a 5% survival rate.



A new romance for Dr. Calliope Torres was also a plotline on recent episodes, as she met new head of Pediatric Surgery, Dr. Arizona Robbins (Jessica Capshaw), who is apparently attracted by her. They both shared a kiss in Joe's bar, as they almost met for the very first time. However, Callie's lack of experience with homosexual relationships seemed to make Arizona hesitate in the following episodes, stating she didn't want to deal also with "babies" in her personal life.

It was announced[27] that Jessica Capshaw has made a deal with ABC, giving her the opportunity to be featured as Dr. Robbins on all Season 5 episodes to come, and to even become a series' regular next year.

Dr. Bailey also made new experiences this season. As the Chief announced her he had made the request to promote her as an attending in General Surgery, one of Dr. Dixon's comments about the way she cared about kids made her change her mind, choosing Pediatric Surgery as a specialty instead. Convinced by Dr. Robbins, she made an application for a Pediatric Surgery fellowship. However, she was unsatisfied of the Chief's recommendation letter.

Cristina had to deal with the reappearance of Dr. Hunt's old fiancée, with whom he had briefly broke up without telling her he was coming back from war. However, he showed her he would stick with her after a case they shared with an older surgeon who was asked to retire, saying he hoped to still be there for Cristina during the years to come.

The new relationship between Dr. Sloan and Lexie, Meredith's younger sister, was also a plotline. They kept the secret for a moment, Lexie being even covered by Sadie after Mark's "injury", but Lexie asked him to go public with her. During the last episode of the crossover between Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice, Mark told Derek about his new love, but the latter didn't quite appreciate it, especially after the rough day he had had and they had a physical fight because of it. Chyler Leigh fell pregnant with her third child and was visibly showing towards the end of production. As her character, Lexie, was not pregnant, shots of Leigh tended to be from above the chest, or her belly obscured by a chart, desk or lab coat. In the episode where Thatcher apologises to Lexie and Meredith, Ellen Pompeo kept her hands in her lab coat to make herself look bigger to distract from Leigh's pregnancy. According to Ask Ausiello, Shonda Rhimes also had Lexie comfort eating over her anxiety as a in-joke for her pregnancy.