Grey’s Anatomy: I’m Crying Again!

Sometimes the force of habit causes us to become de-sensitized.  Repetition can breed apathy.  Applying this to the doctors of Seattle Grace, it appears that the act of saving lives every day has caused them to view patients from a clinical rather than personal standpoint.  This is understandable, because a doctor needs to be dispassionate, and emotions frequently cloud our judgment.  On the other hand, you don’t want to start viewing patients as slabs of meat. They are living, breathing human beings, and their lives are precious.

With the exception of George and Izzie, the residents at Seattle Grace don’t exactly have good bedside manners.  They routinely quibble over patients, and in the last episode they bickered over a trauma patient, seemingly more concerned about getting a leg up on the competition than saving the man’s life.  This is when Dr. Hunt flips out, reminding Alex and Cristina that their focus should be on patients, going so far as to call them inconsiderate vultures.

He was right.  There is a middle ground between becoming inappropriately attached to patients (like Izzie) and being a total cold fish (like Cristina).  Later, Hunt and Cristina share a moment where she reveals her reasons for becoming a doctor.  She didn’t choose to practice medicine to flaunt her intelligence or become wealthy.  She’s wanted to save lives ever since she witnessed her father’s death after a car accident when she was 9 years old.  In a rare display of vulnerability, she and Hunt made a connection.  We’ll see if this is the first step towards something greater.

If the possibility of a Hunt/Cristina pairing seems likely, the idea of Erica and Callie is becoming a distant possibility.  Erica learns about Izzie’s relationship with Denny and that she was the one who swiped the heart her transplant patient needed two seasons ago. That patient is now at Seattle Grace, still suffering and in need of the heart that he rightfully should have already received. Izzie can tell from the patient’s charts that he’s the one who was supposed to get the heart, and she freezes up.  When Erica finds out the history of the situation, she’s understandably livid. She goes to the Chief with her complaint, threatening to go public. The Chief explains that Izzie was appropriately disciplined, and that the matter is resolved.  Erica is not satisfied, and Callie tries to explain that blowing the whistle would not actually help her patient, and that there is no reason to make a fuss over the matter at this point.  Erica wants to stand on principle, so alas the two are at an impasse.  Erica realizes that they are fundamentally different, and it looks like their prolonged dalliance may be over.

This episode gets a 10 on the tear meter. I was bawling, due in large part to a subplot involving an elderly couple and the husband’s inability to accept his wife’s death.  She signed a “do not resuscitate” form, but when she began to code her husband wanted the doctors to fight for her life.  In a heartbreaking scene, he began to perform chest compressions.  He couldn’t be the one to let her die, so Bailey took over.  Bailey didn’t want to let her die, so Shepard took over, and then he stopped and the woman expired.  It was a tough, painful scene. I thought to myself, damn it, I’m crying again! I laughed, I cried, I enjoyed another great episode.

Season 5, Episode 7: Rise Up (originally aired November, 6, 2008)

For another take on this episode, read Inisia Lewis’s review, Death Is Everywhere, here.

For more on Grey’s Anatomy, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC