I Will Survive/Grey Matter

Zoanne Clack on "I Will Survive"...

Original Airdate: 5-12-11

Doh! What is Alex doing? Mer is his trusted friend, his confidante… she’s his landlord for godssakes! You don’t just, well, tell on her! But that’s exactly what he does. He’s tired of women tromping all over him, tired of always getting leftovers (wasn’t sure if tromping was really a word but I looked it up and it is). He’s gonna take what’s his for a change. Let’s go through his relationships, shall we? When we first met him, he was a total jerk to Mer. Despite that, despite being foul, she let him in to her inner sanctum, sometimes admitting things to him that she wouldn’t admit to most people. And he returned the favor. It is/was a true friendship, without the turmoil of love and physical wanting invading it. So let’s move on from that one. There was Nurse Olivia, and there was syphilis… wait, those were one in the same. Then there was Izzie who was kind of the love of his life. The first time their relationship fizzled because he took a backseat to Denny, a freakin’ dying patient. And even then he was there to pick up the pieces for her. The second time he actually married her, kind of hastily, but he would’ve done anything for her. He’d opened his heart to her. This time, she was the freakin’ dying patient. And what happened? She left him. She, the dying one, left him, the strong one. The man who was in love with her. And would’ve done whatever needed to be done to keep her safe and comfortable. But she left him anyway. Boom. Another one bites the dust. And in between? Jane Doe/Ava/Rebecca? Remember her? All bashed up from the wreckage, Alex gave her an identity, gave her hope, gave himself hope, only to realize she had a husband underneath it all, and she picked her old life. He opened his heart to her again when she came back, but no matter how much love he gave her, it could not prevail over he mental illness. He had to let go. The constant heartache has got to gnaw on a person. And this time? This time Lucy dealt the backbreaker. He was vulnerable and open with yet another woman and he got the rug pulled from beneath his feet. Open heart? Meet foot. He can’t just sit around and let his potential chances get ruined. Yes he loves Meredith Grey as a friend, truly and deeply. But is he going to let his heart prevail this time? Is he going to risk keeping it open by keeping her secret only for it to be stomped on yet again and potentially miss getting Chief Resident because of it? In his head, he’s yelling at Meredith, he’s getting what’s due him, he’s not going down without a fight. In his head. But then there was the drinking. And the defenses went down. And the inhibitions were released. Along with the filters. The things in his head came out through his mouth and… oops. What just happened?

What happened was people got their feelings hurt. Over and over in this episode. Henry for instance. I happen to love little Henry. And his love for Teddy. He spent the whole episode trying to be a better man, trying to be someone worthy of her love, only to get his little heart stepped on at the end. But like a man, he stepped up to the plate, didn’t whine to get her back or pout, just asked for a divorce instead of a relationship. I think it might’ve been the saddest moment of the show for me, when Teddy walked away and stood there, unable to watch her go.

It’s almost more sad than Jackson nobly stepping off the Chief’s study to make sure the clinical trial had a chance to be considered for a Harper-Avery. He realized there would be a conflict of interest if he stayed on, he couldn’t let that happen. This is a chance for real groundbreaking research to be recognized, and Jackson wasn’t going to stand in the way. And besides, he’s got Lexie to fill the void… right?

And Mer/Der? They’ve got Baby Zola to fill their void. They’ve been struggling and struggling to have a baby but so far? Nothing. Then there’s this orphan. This adorable, sweet, beautiful little orphan. Mer’s scared, and deep inside Der is, too, but they’re willing to forego their doubts to give this baby a home. And if anyone read Shonda’s blog on the musical, you’ll know that Patrick Dempsey is the McDreamy BabyWhisperer. Couldn’t have been truer. It was so hard to get scenes with that baby crying because she was just a happy, happy baby (they’re twins actually, and they were both very, very happy – all the time), but when PDemp aka Derek Shepherd aka McDreamy was on the scene, fuhgetaboudit. Smiling, happy, laughing baby is what we got. Not that we’re complaining.

I think my favorite part of the episode was Callie sniffing Sofia’s little head and wanting to eat Sofia’s little foot before she gave her up to go work. Couldn’t have been cuter.

I guess I should also say, Welcome Back, Cristina Yang. She was Cristina with a vengeance today, wouldn’t you say? She took charge and made things happen, but I’m pretty proud of April for standing up to her – over and over. She’s coming into her own also. Good for her.

And just a little medical note since I’m the doc on board: yes, abdominal pregnancies can happen. Extremely, extremely rare, but not impossible. And yes, they can go undetected, even with an ultrasound. And the tree? Real case from Russia. It may have happened only once that we can find (with a tree), but it happened in Russia, and it happened at Seattle Grace. So technically, that’s twice, right? And sickle cell was the motivation for the theme of adaptation. I find it fascinating that Sickle Cell trait developed as an adaptation to protect people from malaria. You can follow maps of malaria and maps of Sickle Cell and they fall together perfectly. We know what gene mutated, how it adapted, what it does, yet we are still working hard to make it stop. Having the trait can help, but having the disease can be deadly. They’re working hard to make it a thing of the past though.

Okay, had to do just a little medical. It’s out of my system.