Grey’s Anatomy: These Ties That Bind

This was the first Grey’s Anatomy episode that I felt extremely aware of how far each character has come since we fell in love with a crazy, new bunch of Seattle Grace interns.  They’ve grown in skill and maturity, but they’ve also grown apart.  While everyone’s still one big group of chummy coworkers, there’s so little time spent talking out or about their problems.  Remember when they used to help each other deal with their issues?  And when they weren’t dealing, there was fun hospital-wide gossip.  Oh, how I miss the gossip.  I know things can’t remain this way for long as tensions continue to bubble under the surface.  A volcano of drama is about to explode!  I can feel it.

During this week’s episode, Bailey woos new doctor Virginia Dixon, Izzie’s Denny-haunting intensifies, Christina demonstrates jealousy over the reappearance of Meredith’s old friend and Callie, finally, feels the ramifications of Hahn’s disappearance.

Tonight’s drama centered around two hospital patients.  Izzie and Alex are assigned to a Navajo man who’s haunted after he received a heart transplant from a girl who was hit by a car while she’s hitchhiking. (At least there’s one person in the hospital that wouldn’t find Izzie’s Denny sighting crazy!) Almost everyone else rallies to save a man crushed in a garbage truck and self-impaled. (If you didn’t believe it possible, apparently, it is feasible to become a human pretzel and escape instant death.)

While most of our doctors were dealing with powerful emotions, Bailey sees to a visitor who appears emotionless.  Dixon, a well-known heart surgeon with Asperger’s Syndrome, performs the above surgery that was left behind by Hahn’s quick exit.  Imagine Dixon as a prospective athlete and Bailey as the scout.  Now imagine wooing a prospie who doesn’t pay attention to a word you say, randomly spouts medical facts and is a stickler for every single rule ever created.  Feels like a lost cause, right?  Though Bailey never gives up and even convinces the Chief to create a new rule that allows Dixon to perform the Navajo man’s operation, the new doc isn’t convinced that Seattle Grace is the kind of work environment she’d enjoy.  I guess it’s all those rules being bent and recreated on a whim.

Speaking of failed tasks, Izzie failed at last week’s goodbye to Denny, and his reappearance clarifies that he won’t be leaving her anytime soon.  Izzie responds like anyone who’s stalked by a dead lover would, by pulling away and accepting the impossibility of it all.  Yet, it’s not enough to distance her nouveau-lover Alex who repeatedly asks to be let in. (When did you get so perceptive hottie!) In the end, she fully opens up to the Navajo patient, and he advises her to burn all ex-fiancé keepsakes.  Now, is it over?!  Not even close.  With a kiss from Denny, she begins to accept that he may be real or if he isn’t, who cares?!  He’s real enough to her.

What wasn’t real was Callie’s behavior after her pseudo-girlfriend left her without even a Dear Jane letter.  She’d rather throw herself into the most gruesome surgery she can find than deal with any true feelings.  Luckily, pretzel man needs a new leg to be rebuilt and pronto.  The man is homeless and life without walking isn’t a life at all.  It is bittersweet that Callie succeeds at creating the leg, but the homeless man doesn’t survive the surgery, providing Callie’s breaking point.  She goes postal on her fellow surgeons for their inability to keep the patient alive, bawling uncontrollably in the OR in one of the best scenes Mark and Callie have been given all season.

There are a few other doctors who couldn’t hold back their emotions this week:

• Christina can’t control her feelings of loathing for Meredith’s backpacking pal Sadie when she becomes the new hospital intern.  And she won’t let her forget that they’re not on the same level when it comes to hospital hierarchy.
• Owen can’t control his PTSD-like symptoms when he’d rather let the homeless man die with dignity than convince him to get surgery.  Luckily, Derek and Sloan are there to check him and passionate Christina Kiss No. 2 allows him to burn off some steam.
• Lexie can’t control her desire to practice her surgical skills on herself and the other interns in the “Secret Intern Society.”
• Meredith can’t control behaving “sisterly” toward Lexie even if it’s with a nudge from Derek.

This episode introduced two new characters out of the blue.  Meanwhile, we barely mourned the loss of Hahn.  Things have definitely been set up to set off some major fireworks in the future.  What’s up with Izzie being able to feel Denny?  Will Sadie turn from friend to foe?  Will Hunt be able move on mentally and emotionally and stop the spastic, sporadic kissing?  Has Hahn really just disappeared without any further discussion, and how will the possible addition of Dr. Dixon change the soapy Seattle Grace dynamic?  The zenith of sweeps viewing is right around the corner.  Shonda, don’t let me down!

QUOTABLES:

“Maybe you were a once-bian.” – Mark

“I need you tell Mark to keep his little Sloan out of Little Grey…not my Little Grey!  Lexie’s little Grey.” – Meredith to Derek

“Did you just say?  Okay’s that’s just creepy and inaccurate.  Big Sloan.” – Sloan to Derek

Season 5, Episode 8: These Ties That Bind (originally aired November 13, 2008)

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Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC