Grey’s Anatomy Review: Finally Some New Episodes!

After a lengthy holiday hiatus, Grey’s Anatomy is back in action. 

When we last saw the crew at Seattle Grace, things were looking dicey.   Meredith and Alex had been dispatched to transport an infant from a smaller hospital with less equipment to Seattle Grace.  Their ambulance stalled on a remote road in the rain, and when the driver went for help, the stationary ambulance was stuck by another vehicle.  Alex, Meredith and the baby girl emerge relatively unscathed, but when they exit the ambulance they see that five people have been thrown from the other vehicle.  Things have now gone from bad to impossibly worse. 

Each victim from the other car has varying injuries, except for a teenaged girl who seems largely unhurt.  While Alex and Meredith administer to her family, she is tasked with caring for the ailing infant.  It’s an intense scene as we survey the carnage.  We learn that one victim is unaccounted for, and I fear that he may have been ejected from the vehicle.  He’s actually pinned under the car, and Meredith tries desperately to free him as yet another vehicle approaches the blind turn.  Just when we think that they’ll be struck again, we see that it’s another ambulance arriving to the rescue.

Back at Seattle Grace, Teddy (Kim Raver) is still performing heart surgery on the patient that Torres and Avery nearly killed in their negligent orthopedic surgery.  No one has told her that Henry is dead, because she’s still in the middle of a delicate procedure and a patient is depending on her.  It seems cruel that she is carrying on cheerfully with her duties on what will end up being one of the worst days of her life.  She wants Cristina to assist in the procedure and won’t take no for an answer.  Owen asks Cristina to do the impossible.  He needs her to operate alongside Teddy knowing that her husband is dead.  In an amazing display of fortitude, Cristina does what is required. 

It’s almost sadistic to watch Teddy bop around happily in an effort to perk Cristina up for this “dream” surgery that’s on her bucket list.  She even asks Cristina about Henry periodically, which was painfully awkward.  When the surgery concludes, Cristina immediately pulls Teddy aside and breaks the news to her.  She did it compassionately but deliberately, and Teddy seemed to appreciate it.  If she had waited for Owen to tell Teddy (which is what he wanted), it would have been unnecessarily prolonging something that had gone on long enough.

This was an intense episode all around.  The people injured on the side of the road with Meredith and Alex were a family returning from a camping trip.  A grandmother and mother end up dying, leaving a 17 year old to tend to an injured younger brother and sister.  Her father is on life support, and she ultimately must grow up overnight and make some very adult decisions.  It was heart wrenching to watch someone so young endure so much tragedy in rapid succession, but I suppose it happens every day. 

One of the accident survivors ended up being treated by Mark’s new girlfriend, a gifted surgeon at a neighboring hospital.  She works with Derek to salvage the girl’s eye in a complicated procedure.  Begrudgingly, Lexie (Chyler Leigh) realizes that Mark’s new girlfriend is a good catch and actually very likable.  I wonder if Mark’s unavailability will make her regret her choices with Avery.

They saved the best for last, and at the end of the episode, after a long day – Derek and Meredith get the most wonderful surprise: Zola is back!  We’ll have to wait for an explanation, but it looks like the Sheperd family just got bigger.  What a great episode! I was beginning to have withdrawal.

Season 8, Episode 10: “Suddenly” (originally aired January 5, 2012).

Grey’s Anatomy airs Thursdays at 9/8c on ABC.

Images courtesy of Richard Foreman and ABC.