The Amazing Race: Frozen Assets

Remember when I said Kisha & Jen were mega-boring and devoid of personality? I tentatively but happily wish to strike my statements from the record in light of this week’s episode when the sisters found themselves receiving a bump in screen time thanks to their fast finish last week and subsequent early departure this time around. Maybe they’ve been the victims of poor editing, because I hadn’t suspected them of being able to crack off the snappy zingers that their further adventures in Siberia put on display. (“This country is beautiful.” “BEAUTIFUL MY ASS!”) Methinks it’s high time someone in the ivory towers of academia do a study on the effects of bitter cold to enhance sense of humor. They could leave Dane Cook in a meat locker for a few days and see if he ever gets as funny as he thinks he is. Digressing back to the point, this leg of the race had teams crossing paths with Russian war brides, anthropomorphic snow plows, and an underpants foot race, all of which provided more than ample distraction from the fact that I’m still living in weather apparently as cold and gross as Siberia.

A ride on the famous Trans-Siberian Railroad Krasnoyarsk to Novosibirsk (which a handy Googling reveals to be much further south than what I typically associate with “Siberia”…) leveled the playing field and led to much marveling over sleeper cars on a train. It was all very Goldilocks: too little bed for Keisha, more than enough bed for Mark, and just right for Margie. The detour meant choosing between finding a blushing bride in a Soviet era tenement maze before taking her through the mystery of cross town traffic to her waiting groom or dealing with the shorter distance higher hazard task of learning to operate a crazy freakin’ snowplow whose scooping mechanism reminded me of arms and a face. Wall*E, meet your Russian cousin. Teams who chose the plow (including Tammy & Victor, the latter of whom gets even more annoying by the week) seemed to finish much quicker while their competitors on wife delivery duty got hung up on finding exactly which church with ornate golden domes they had to find. Because looking for an ornate church in Russia is kinda like looking for a brewery in Milwaukee: you need to be very specific.

The Road Block this week required precisely two things: endurance and shamelessness. Maybe a third, extreme tolerance to cold. Whatever it takes to run over a mile in your unmentionables, these racers had it. Luke hit the course with reckless abandon, crossing the finish line to yet another inspiring 1^st place victory. Victor thoughtlessly pawned the challenge off on his poor sister, but she still held tough for 2^nd. The remainder of the field trickled in steadily with Cara resorting to walking, Mike regretting his choice of heavy duty footwear, and Christie really regretting her choice to wear a thong. Seriously? You’re in a million dollar race around the world and you’re worried about visible panty lines? Get over yourself. Not that I’m blaming the thong, but Christie & Jodie did wind up last. To their unfathomable relief, ’twas the first non-elimination leg. I wouldn’t have been bothered by their ouster, but life goes on and the race marches onward to an always entertaining India leg. Jai ho!

Season 14, Episode 5: She’s a Little Scared of Stick, But I Think She’ll Be Okay (originally aired March 15, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out That’s gotta chafe. by Alana D.

For more on The Amazing Race, click here.

Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS

Photographs courtesy of CBS

The Amazing Race: That’s gotta chafe.

We get a big bunch from the get-go, with all teams headed to Novosibirsk, Russia, on the same train.  They all ride in one of those sleeper cars, which rocks Margie to a peaceful sleep, but isn’t exactly the ideal sleeping arrangements for Jen or for Mike.  Mike tells us that after finding out that Margie and Luke yielded Amanda and Kris during the last leg, he realizes that this mother and son are power players.

And maybe they are.  After all, they did come in first this leg, which is noteworthy given that the teams, for all intents and purposes, started the leg at the same time.  The problem is, they insist on having an alliance with Jaime and Cara, and while it appears to be fruitful right now, it really doesn’t exactly put them in the most competitive light.  I mean, I like this particular foursome generally, because I think the connection between the team members is organic, but still. . .RACE!

Eventually, this foursome will have to take a page out of the Tammy/Victor playbook or get eliminated trying.  Tammy and Victor this week first said that there were no allegiances in this game, and they believed that. . .until they formed an allegiance.  The teams hit a detour at Punkt Technicheskogo Osmotra (which do you think Phil enjoys learning more – sign language or how to say Punkt Technicheskogo Osmotra?) giving them the option of Russian bride or Russian snowplow.  To me, easy choice, but instead of choosing on their own, Tammy and Victor ask the aforementioned foursome what they picked.  When both teams say snowplow, that’s what they do, figuring that if they stick with the pack, they are less likely to find themselves alone, lost, and last.  Smart.  But then when Luke and Margie have to pull over and ask a woman for directions, Tammy and Victor hear what the woman has to say and take off, without waiting for their new alliance members.  So that allegiance was pretty short-lived; picked up when it was helpful, and immediately dropped when it was not.

Luke and Margie, take note.  That’s how alliance building helps you in the race.

At the snowplow challenge, Tammy and Victor immediately find the proper machinery, but Teams Margie and Luke and Jaime and Cara walk around aimlessly for a bit before identifying the correct vehicle.  There’s an awesome moment when a man has to kick Margie out of his truck and direct her to the correct machine.  Tammy’s worried about being able to drive the stick vehicle.  As she pointed out earlier, she fits the typical Asian/bad driver stereotype.  I’m amused that the competitive overachiever who withholds her own opinions in deference to her older, male family member finds it necessary to point out that she fits this stereotype.  Actually, I’m waiting for Tammy and Victor to hit a roadblock where they have to form a violin/piano playing duo so they can really just cross all those pesky stereotypes off the list.

Anyway, the teams make it out of the snowplow course with little fanfare.  Same with Mike and Mark, who might be small, but don’t shrink at driving big vehicles. ( I feel like I should be embarrassed that I wrote that last sentence, but I’m not sure why.)  The other three teams, Kish and Jen, Mel and Mike, and Jodi and Christie, chose brides, in part because it sounds more fun.  They basically drive to an apartment building to pick up a bride, drive her to a church, and get a picture snapped.  Now, if you initially thought that sounds like too much driving, you pretty much figured out why I would’ve chosen snowplow.  Jodi and Christie get lost trying to find the church, and Kish and Jen don’t fare well trying to navigate a stick shift through Russian traffic in icy weather.

Yet, if they’d known what was in store for a member of their team, I’m sure that they would have appreciated those toasty cars more.  You see, the roadblock clue this episode asked, “Who has stamina and absolutely no shame?”   Hands down, the best reaction to this question was Jaime, who looked appropriately terrified at the question.  Cara says she’ll take it. . .before opening the clue and realizing that she’s going to have to run 1.4 miles in 27 degree weather. . .in her underwear.

Jaime totally owes Cara, y’all.

In case you’re keeping track, along with Cara, Luke, Tammy, Mike, and Mark have some shame.  I’m giving them some, because they actually were wearing full, backside-covering underwear.  Jen, not so much.  Luckily the producers were prepared, because no one needs an FCC fine, so Jen got some brightly colored lime green undies in which to run.  Christie was not so lucky.  When I realized that Christie was wearing a thong, I immediately pictured that guy in the editing room, who really wanted to work for Survivor so he could put his butt-blurring skills to maximal use, but instead got The Amazing Race, where his biggest responsibility is trying to find a way to make a 6-hour lapse between teams look like a 5 minute one.  But then he heard about this 1.4 mile run in the undies, and he wished fervently every night that maybe, just maybe, an attractive woman would wear a thong on this critical leg.  So for that guy, I say, Thank You, Christie.

As for me, I thank the DVR technology that gave me the ability to pause a frame of The Amazing Race this week so I can get a good belly laugh in at the sight of Phil Keoghan standing there in his skivvies and big black boots.  Kinda awesome, that was.

In the end, Jodi and Christie came in last, but were spared elimination.  These guys have shown me nothing that suggests that they will survive next week’s team-specific obstacle, but in this Welcome Back, Kotter season, who knows?  Maybe they’ll show remarkable perseverance in the traditionally difficult India leg next week.   They just have to show more heart than Kisha and Jen, who have yet to say a single positive thing about anything in the race so far.

Or maybe just form an allegiance of convenience with Margie and Luke?  Tammy and Victor can tell you, they’re open for it.

Season 14, Episode 5: She’s a Little Scared of Stick, But I Think She’ll Be Okay (originally aired March 15, 2009)

For another take on this episode, check out Frozen Assets by Paul Secrest.

For more on The Amazing Race, click here.

Sundays at 8pm ET/PT on CBS

Photographs courtesy of CBS

Grey’s Anatomy: Shepherd AWOL

This week’s episode of Grey’s finds a disillusioned Derek questioning his future at Seattle Grace. After losing a pregnant patient and facing the prospect of a lawsuit by the deceased’s husband, he’s confronted with a snapshot of his case history.  As the hospital’s resident rock star, he’s developed a reputation for taking on risky surgeries, but great risk doesn’t bring great reward alone. Despite being published and lauded for his work, he’s also compiled a lengthy list of corpses.  Sorry for the morbid characterization, but he’s basically being likened to a murderer. That’s certainly unfair, but Derek seems to have internalized the insult.  Sporting a 5 o’clock shadow and looking as bad as he probably smells, he refuses to budge from the sofa until he has to show up for the pre-trial deposition.  Meanwhile the Chief is going nuts trying to find someone to fill in for the AWOL Shepherd.

Izzie is also nuts, obsessed with diagnosing Patient X.  The interns finally come up with a prognosis, and it’s bleak for Patient X, er Izzie.  At least the writers have acknowledged that her character was hallucinating, and we are no longer expected to swallow the crap about Denny’s ghost. They score one redemptive point for that one.  If anyone is on the fast track to supplant Derek, it’s Alex. He correctly amends an epilepsy diagnosis for a patient, saving her life when more experienced eyes failed to notice. He and Izzie’s relationship is blossoming, just as her diagnosis seems to doom it.

This last episode ratcheted up the drama, as usual – introducing the startling possibility that Derek may no longer be one of Seattle Grace’s finest.  Between him quitting and Miranda leaving to pursue pediatrics, the Chief is unraveling.  It will be interesting to see where the writers take us next. We didn’t learn much more about Cristina and Owen’s developing romance, and O’Malley is fading into the background. His character is becoming a cruel joke of sorts, a whipping boy and punchline for the other residents to the point where a decline in competition and success is referred to as “pulling an O’Malley.” Ouch. If they are going to write TR Knight out of the show, at least send him off with some dignity and pride.

Season 5, Episode 17: I Will Follow You Into the Dark (originally aired March 12, 2009)

For another take on this episode, read Inisia Lewis’s review, Dark Derek, here.

For more Grey’s Anatomy reviews, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC

Life: Operation Fun in the Sun

Murder takes a vacation at the beach on this week’s episode, “Shelf Life,” as Crews investigates the stabbing of an unidentified suspect who is found dead on the boardwalk.  But first, Tidwell asks Crews to come into his office and shut the door and blinds for an exercise in the usual office hijinx.  Tidwell asks Crews to stomp on his foot, which is asleep.  After a few attempts, Tidwell tells Crews to stomp harder, adding that his ex-wife had the best technique likely because of her shoes.  As Tidwell begins to feel his foot again, Bobby, having recovered from the previous episode’s attack of the lethal homemade shroom pill, walks in with news that there’s a dead guy at the beach.

At the beach, Crews kneels over the dead guy’s body, pondering where he might have put his key since he had no pockets.  He pulls out a key to the motel, Sea Sprite, from under the victim’s hat.  Crews and Bobby find military gear, including a very small pair of boots that likely belong to a female, in the motel room.  They exit the room to find themselves surrounded by three people who had been lounging by the pool earlier.  Crews and Bobby take out their guns and order the three to put their hands up and get down on their knees.  The three suspects shared the motel room with the victim, Travis Slocum.  It turns out all four were soldiers who had served in Iraq and were supposedly in L.A. for Operation Fun in the Sun.  Tidwell and Crews are both suspicious about a woman sharing a motel room with three men, along with the fact the soldiers had left their dog tags behind.  All the clues point to a possible argument over the female soldier, which may have led to violence.  But video surveillance playback of Slocum’s stabbing on the boardwalk reveals that he was quickly stabbed after walking past people who were fighting and creating other distractions. The people on the boardwalk later turn out to be street performers who later admit they were paid $100 by an unidentifiable man in a hoodie who asked them to do performance art on the boardwalk timed perfectly with the stabbing.  To complicate matters, Crews and Bobby follow the female suspect, Marion, to her part time security job on a private jet for Chem Tech.  The dead body of a junkie and Desert Storm veteran found later and a bowl of mutated grapes found in his fridge lead to a murderer that is not a jilted lover, but a high tech game of military sabotage.

Reese, not completely MIA despite being holed up answering questions for the FBI, still manages to help Crews with his case by occasionally calling in.  Ms. Purrier returns to a rude awakening when she finds Crews has caught onto her little spy games with Ted.  With a little help from a techie geek also named Ted who helps hack into the Purrier database, Crews and Ted are able to convince Ms. Purrier to release the Rayborn records to them so that Crews can find out what happened.

Season 2, Episode 17: Shelf Life (originally aired March 11, 2009)

For another review of this episode, read No Day At The Beach by Cameron Cubbison here.

For more on Life, click here.

Wednesdays at 9/8c, NBC
Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal

Battlestar Galactica: Cutting Through the Red Tape

Call the village band out
Bid me good bye
Everybody stand outside and cry
Never thought so many
Thought me so dear
I’d be happy any place but here

In this the penultimate episode of Battlestar Galactica: The New Class, we are treated to glimpses of life in Caprica City at least two years before the Cylon attack that wiped out most of humanity.  In these snapshots we see Laura Roslin in a babydoll outfit celebrating her baby sister’s baby shower . . . only to learn that her two sisters and father are later killed in a car accident.  In this solitude she agrees to work on the Adar presidential campaign, which we all know led to her appointment as the Secretary of Education (and mistress to Adar).

We see the first time Lee meets Kara, who’s dating Lee’s very-much-alive brother Zak.  Lee, in turn, stumbles home still drunk and tries to shoo a pigeon out of his apartment while breaking a lot of things.  (Some would say this is symbolic of Adama and Lee’s breaking down of Galactica throughout the episode.)

Across town Gaius is hot and heavy with Caprica-Six in the back of a limousine, only he can’t remember her name (cute, writers).  He has to rush off, though, to see his aged father stab his nurse and get cranky because his son doesn’t care about him.  We learn that, not surprisingly, Gaius is from a farming family that does not comport with the image he wants to project.  In short, he’s ashamed of his background.  In his shame Gaius pushes Caprica-Six away and picks up a prostitute.  Yet Caprica-Six turns the tables and helps Gaius put his father in a proper retirement facility–at least until she turns around and kills everyone on the planet.  But that’s another story from four years ago.

Back on Galactica, the ship is being stripped down to nothing.  Lee is supervising the distribution of parts throughout the fleet.  Gaius approaches Lee about having his ministry/cult gaining representation in the government.  Lee dismisses him, rightfully, because he knows Gaius has never acted out of selflessness.  This gives Gaius something to ponder.

Adama has also been thinking whilst on his walks around the ship, looking at the abandoned photos of dead people that no one wants to claim.  Among the photos is one of Hera and Adama is moved.  This leads Adama to visit Kara, who is still trying to figure out the musical notes with Anders.  They plug in Anders so Adama can ask him a question.  We don’t hear the question but through piecemeal dialogue between other characters we learn that Anders knows where the Colony is.  With this new information, Adama organizes an all-volunteer force to go on the search mission to the Colony to recover Hera.  The scene is brilliantly done and just underscores some of the unfortunate mediocrities we’ve seen in this final season.

In Galactica’s deck, Adama and Kara place a piece of red tape down the middle.  Through a stirring speech Adama asks for volunteers on this “one-way trip” to step to the starboard side to crew Galactica.  And now we see who’s all in as one by one the characters we know enlist: Lee, Colonel and Mrs. Tigh, Caprica-Six, Galen, Tory, “Hot Dog,” and a bunch of extras (minus the Doc, who Adama sends back because they can’t afford to lose a doctor).

But then the crowd parts for our very own Moses as the dying leader Roslin stumbles forward to cross the line; she’s not letting Adama leave without her.  As Roslin holds on to Kara for support, Gaius looks on with doubt, as we see once again that he is a selfish coward.

A reconnaissance raptor locates the Colony in the middle of an asteroid belt in stable orbit around a black hole.  Back on Galactica the officers study the photos and find the single spot where Galactica can jump into safely; of course they know it will be heavily guarded by the Cylons.  They start to plan the mission and I consider getting misty-eyed about what’s going to happen.

Next week: The two-hour series finale.

Season 4, Episode 19: Daybreak Part 1 (originally aired March 13, 2009)

Listen to The J Factor with J.B. and Jaimie here or on iTunes.

For more on Battlestar Galactica, click here.

Sci Fi, Fridays at 10/9c

Photographs courtesy of Carol Segal, NBC Universal

Dollhouse: True Believer

The fifth episode of Dollhouse is the first to really come up with a scenario that explains the need for a Dollhouse active/operative/whatever they want to call them. A prominent senator who has provided ample funding for the Dollhouse comes calling because he needs an operative to infiltrate a compound in the Southwest teeming with religious nutjobs. These nutjobs are being investigated by the ATF, and the senator doesn’t want things to go awry because…wait for it…”It’s an election year.” Is it ever not an election year for politicians on television shows? Does anyone ever say “Do whatever you want…it’s not an election year.”

But anyway, the reason an operative is ideal for this job is because to infiltrate a religious whacko zone, you have to sell yourself as a true believer, and the senator and the ATF don’t think an agent would be able to fake believing at a level high enough to work. But, if you programmed someone to truly believe that they were a believer and that they had had a vision of Jonas Sparrow (the leader of the fanatics) telling them to come to the compound, then they wouldn’t be faking belief. They would have that doe-eyed, fresh-from-the-fields look.

Echo is chosen to be the operative, like she always is, because she is the protagonist of the show. (And DeWitt throws in some line about how Echo has shown lately that she can adapt to fluid situations with skill and that’s what this engagement requires). But since Echo is going to be programmed only to be a believer and not an agent, how is the ATF going to get intel from her? The answer is by turning Echo’s eyes into video cameras that the agents can monitor from their comfortable vans. The downside is that it makes Echo blind. Well you can’t have everything.

The ATF is after Sparrow and his…flock…because when Sparrow isn’t doing his messiah thing, he’s running guns. But none of his worshippers know he is a gunrunner because they’re too busy worshipping. That’s what happens when you allow yourself to get brainwashed and deluded by religious hokum. So Boyd gets Echo…or rather Esther, this time around, into the uh…holy land…and she tries to earnestly prove that she was led to them by a vision from the Invisible Man Who Lives in the Sky. The flock welcomes Esther immediately, but Sparrow is rightfully suspicious. He puts Esther through all of these tests to make sure she is on the level. Meanwhile, Echo/Esther’s nifty eyeball cams give the feds a nice view of the considerable arsenal Sparrow has stockpiled.

The ATF now have all the info they need to justify breaching the compound. Boyd calls the Dollhouse asking if he can extract Echo because she doesn’t have the programming to protect herself when the raid goes down. Honcho Dominic tells Boyd to leave her be, because, as the episodes have shown, he doesn’t trust Echo and wants her eliminated.

Everything from there goes as expected. The ATF botches the raid, complications ensue, Esther/Echo gets placed in danger, she somehow kicks a little ass, has one good line, then we get some flames and everything works out okay. Ballard continues to probe the Dollhouse, getting a little closer. There’s also a rather useless and maybe even tasteless subplot that has the Dollhouse labbies getting concerned because shower time between the male and female operatives isn’t going as smoothly as it should be. Why do they insist on having them shower together anyway? Even dolls shouldn’t be expected to use co-ed facilities.

It looks like next week we will get a big twist or at least things will get shaken up a bit. The show is very slowly growing on me, but to be a broken record, it has none of the fun or emotional resonance of Firefly. And speaking of Firefly, people should support Firefly star Nathan Fillion’s new ABC show Castle. It’s a little formulaic (what isn’t these days?), but based on the pilot, it looks like it is going to be a lot of fun.

Season 1, Episode 5: True Believer (originally aired March 13, 2009)

For more on Dollhouse, click here.

Fridays at 9/8C on Fox

Photographs courtesy of Fox and IMDbPro

Race to Witch Mountain: Eh

Here are just a few of the movies from which Race to Witch Mountain, the new remake of the Disney alien-children movie from 1975, borrows:

• Independence Day (obviously)
• E.T. (a lot)
• Robocop (or maybe Transformers)
• Iron Man (not the good parts)
• The Bourne Identity (yes, seriously)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (or so J.B. Perlow tells me; I haven’t seen that particular classic myself, sadly)

And probably other movies, too. I’m guessing there was also some influence from Spy Kids, and, presumably, the original Escape to Witch Mountain and its sequels (though I haven’t seen those either).

And that’s okay. You can’t remake a ‘70s Disney movie about alien children with The Rock and Violet Beauregarde without some hefty borrowing. The concept is as original as it can be, considering – two alien kids who look exactly like human kids hire a mafia-driver-turned-extremely-built-cabbie to take them back to their spaceship in the Nevada desert while they’re pursued by an evil Defense Department guy played by Caesar himself - but it’s a live Disney feature, and there are too many clichés in the premise to successfully avoid. So the movie embraces them, setting substantial portions of the action at a sci-fi convention inexplicably located at the product-placed Planet Hollywood and giving a good chunk of camera time to your standard array of geeky experts who know the schematics of all the local UFO haunts.

Race to Witch Mountain has an old-school Disney vibe mixed with attempts at contemporary humor (“Some of my best friends happen to be human!”; “Don’t go in the pimped-out fridge, Jack.”). It also, amusingly, is very aware of what happened last November 4, and drops in plenty of gratuitous liberal references – endorsing the environmental movement, blaming restrictive immigration laws for the movie’s weaker plot points, and lampooning the military (both American and extraterrestrial) at every opportunity.

It’s not a great movie. The dialogue is mostly dull. The acting, likewise. The plot drags on too long, with unnecessary chase sequences, lukewarm comedic interludes, and a painfully forced romantic subplot that doesn’t even start until the third act. None of the characters are engaging, except maybe the female alien, Sara, whose line delivery is consistently hilarious, although she predictably gets stuck with all the girly superpowers (she’s telepathic and communes with animals; her brother has super-strength and gets to play with all the fun techno-gadgets).

But it’s adequate. As kids’ movies go, I’d still rather see High School Musical 3 again. But there are worse ways to spend $6.50. And anything with The Rock Obama in it has built-in redeeming value.

Grey’s Anatomy: Dark Derek

Everyone’s been there. Sometimes it’s hard to face the things that we’re afraid of or even the things that we truly want, but for those of us who can rise above and not run away, we have the opportunity to reap the rewards.

This week Derek couldn’t face returning to the OR after the death of his last patient, but for once, Meredith could confront the idea of a real committed relationship. Izzie faced her bleak prognosis, but couldn’t face Alex. And Alex finally faced his feelings of inadequacy to rise to the top in the OR.

Izzie is still trying to “teach” the interns how to act like real doctors by having them diagnosis patient “X.” We in the audience already know the identity of the mystery patient, so it makes it all the more painful to watch Izzie listen to the interns misdiagnose and make mistakes over and over again. (This may possibly be the worse group of interns ever assembled.) Of course there’s one shining star in the bunch, Lexie, who figures out Izzie’s big problem, a metastatic melanoma with survival set at a mere 5% even with chemo and radiation.

Though I’m still a little put off by where they took Izzie and Denny this season, her acting during this episode is top notch. She’s emotional, morose and still so Izzie, a little erratic and sometimes bipolar. I understand why Shonda chose this path now even if I’m not 100% behind it. It gives Katherine Heigl material that she can work the shit out of, especially when she acts happy for Alex’s success although unable to share her sadness.

Alex, on the other hand, gets the best news of his life when he’s told by Arizona and Owen that he could be the next star surgeon of Seattle Grace. The patients took a big backseat this episode, while Alex took center stage. He stands up to Arizona when a teen is brought in with epileptic seizures. While she’s ready to release her, Alex discovers her severe heart condition. He not only saves her life, but improves it so she can be more like a regular teen.

There’s a moment during surgery where he’s given license to make a big call. If he makes the right choice, he proves to Arizona that he was right all along, but if he makes the wrong choice, a girl could die. This call includes shocking the heart of a girl with paddles which could possibly kill her. Though he doesn’t have to, it’s an incredibly intense seen, but at least he comes out on top in the end.

Elsewhere in the hospital, the Chief and Bailey come to blows. It’s clear the Chief still hasn’t gotten over the fact that Bailey doesn’t want to follow in his footsteps, but he takes it too far when he begins to ignore and disrespect her. Again Chandra Wilson is amazing with her mix of anger, annoyance and sadness, and downright hysterical when Bailey tattles on Richard to his wife.

Praise Adele, who is always fantastic when she’s on screen. The way she stormed into the hospital, shuffling the two bickering doctors into a conference room and ripping them a new one about acting like children. The finally face each other, and Bailey questions whether he’s angry that she chose something else or because he regards pediatrics as soft. In the end, of course the two make up, and the Chief even learns something when Bailey tell him that “maybe he needs a little soft” sometimes.

Owen and Christina butt heads as well. When Christina attempt to rouse him from a nap, he lashes out and ends up pushing her against a shelf and drawing blood. It’s clear he’s disgusted with himself and his PTSD, but he also clearly wants to protect her. We all know Christina is a tough bird though, and she won’t let him get away that easily.

But the doctors hit hardest by the problems they have to face are Meredith and Derek. Derek is not only being sued by the husband left behind last episode, but he’s even more angry at himself. When he stares at the much bigger pile of deaths versus the people he’s saved, it brought me to tears.

Derek ripped a page out of the Meredith book by being depressed, mopey, angry and standoffish. At first it seems like Meredith, knowing what she’d want, won’t support her man, instead choosing to give him he the space he asks for, but the Chief tells her, not only do he and the hospital need Derek, but as the woman Derek is planning to propose to, she can’t leave him alone.

This is echoed in a great patient story this week. Three siblings enter Seattle Grace to have an extremely invasive surgery to remove their stomachs. Basically everyone in their family has died of a specific kind of cancer, and this gives them better chances. However while the sisters choose to get the surgery, the brother wants to live his life enjoying it. Though they fight over the right thing to do and the brother doesn’t get the surgery, in the end the oldest sister and the protector of the family says you don’t leave the ones you love alone, not when it counts.

Although Meredith goes to Derek when she finds out he’s moved back to the motor home, telling him she’s there, and she won’t leave, Derek lashes back by telling her that this is what she’s always wanted. He even throws in her face that she’s broken, bringing up all her flaws instead of facing his own. “There’s no fixing you. You’re a lemon.” She does leave in the end, but not without taking it like a real woman and letting him know that no matter what, she’s there for him always even knowing he was going to propose.

I can’t imagine how the relationship between these two will lead to a proposal, especially after Derek chucked that ring, but since the show is back on track, I’m not to worried. Shonda, I have a little faith again!

P.S. Lexie and Mark are official, and Arizona and Callie plan a date.

Season 5, Episode 17: I Will Follow You Into the Dark (originally aired March 12, 2009)

For another take on this episode, read Tanya Lane’s review, Shepherd AWOL, here.

For more Grey’s Anatomy reviews, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC
Photographs courtesy of ABC

Podcast: The Jone Dome Episode 10

Episode #10 – March 15, 2009 – All New cutting room floor material.  The fellas poke fun at Joe the Plumber, Barack Obama, and the black guy from the last Survivor. Read more

Podcast: The J Factor Episode 7

Check out Episode #7 – March 15, 2009 – Jaimie and J.B. wrap up this season of Top Chef.  Was it whack or not?  Find out!!

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