Neither Izzie nor George are digging the sex—too many prostitute moves on Izzie’s part and too much “pecking” on George’s.

Callie can’t handle all the work the Chief is throwing at her and all she really wants is the day free for back-to-back surgeries. She asks Miranda to take over for the day. Let’s just say that Bailey shows an incredible amount of grace when she simply agrees to Callie’s request instead of ripping her a new one. She’s stifles her true feelings and takes one for the team. And you just know it’s gonna be good!

Christina can’t get a surgery with Hahn to save her life. Why she’s decided this is the specialty she wants to pursue isn’t quite clear yet. Could it be lingering feelings for Burke? Bailey, in her temporary role as chief resident, tells her she should explore other specialities and assigns her to the ER. Besides, Hahn has taken on Meredith for the day. Christina is especially bitter when a mom comes into the hospital after having fallen down the stairs with her baby and even though Christina was taking care of the mom, Hahn dismisses her from the room in favor of Meredith.

Lexie pages Alex on her case. Being Alex, he thinks it’s for sex but she really wants him to apologize to Meredith for her because she didn’t know Alex’s house was Meredith’s house. Later, Lexie confronts Meredith with an apology but they don’t get to play it all the way out to resolution. . . yet.

The sex gets even weirder between Izzie and George as they delve into the realm of fantasy. Something to do with the bathtub. Thank God they don't get more explicit than that. But it really doesn't work out. They begin to worry they don’t really have chemistry. It’s pretty hilarious but let’s hope they find that chemistry soon. I don’t want the Gizzie-haters to win here because I think they have great chemistry!!!

In fact, let me take a moment right now to give a shout out to all those Gizzie-lovers that commented on last week’s blog. You were heard and I shall not be ashamed and doubting any more!

Lexie, Alex, and Izzie all end up coming to Bailey for help when their patients are out of control. Bailey has already tried to get Callie’s attention on other administrative matters, but Callie’s ecstatic to be in surgery and brushes her off. Can we see what’s coming here? Callie’s meant to be a surgery cowboy—that’s who she was when we first met her. She gave up that personality when she married George. Seems she’s beginning to remember who she’s meant to be. And Bailey is being very understanding, handling all the problems and telling everyone to keep their mouth shut. But how long will it take the Chief to see he made the wrong decision for chief resident?

George’s young patient keeps swallowing things so his parents will take him seriously and agree to get a divorce – they fight all the time. Finally he swallows some magnets that start to shred his insides as they are attracted to each other, right through the walls of his various organs. Of course, Bailey saves the day. She’s starting to feel quite superior with herself.

McSteamy and Christina watch in total admiration as Dr. Hahn performs a beautiful heart surgery. They argue over what is the best kind of surgery, the most challenging. Clearly Christina wants in on heart surgery. I guess she really does love it for herself and not for the sake of Burke. But does McSteamy want in on Hahn?

Lexie is taking care of the baby that fell down the stairs, who turns out to be newly adopted. Unfortunately, the adoptive father seems to want nothing to do with her. He’s afraid that if his wife dies he can’t raise the child on his own. He doesn’t feel like a father. He doesn’t seem to feel anything for his daughter at all, as a matter of fact. As one might imagine, the whole topic of parents is tough for Lexie to think about.

George and Izzie are still trying to have all the good sex. This time they decide getting drunk would help the situation, to which I heartily concur. Unfortunately, neither the booze nor Izzie’s naughty toys work and they race away from each other in the morning. Maybe this “lack of chemistry thing” is for real. Say it ain’t so Shonda!!!!

Meredith decides Lexie can’t have sex with Alex. “Get your own friends. Get your own life. Stop living in mine,” she rants. Lexie basically tells her to screw off. Finally, the girl’s got some backbone. Go Lexie!! “You say you don’t want to know her, so why do you care?” Alex asks, before going off with Lexie.

Finally the Chief catches on to all that Bailey’s been doing. She backs Callie but he finally sees Bailey's been doing it all. He confronts Callie as she comes out of surgery and breaks the news that she won’t be doing the work of Chief Resident any more. Later, he confronts Bailey and admits he should have given her the Chief Resident position. “What you do and how you do it makes this hospital work,” he tells her. Her response is all Bailey—“Well it’s about time you noticed.” And then, in entirely un-Bailey-like fashion, she breaks out into sobs and hugs the Chief silly. Absolutely the strangest Miranda moment ever. Sooooo funny. Sooooo cute!

The adoptive father is waiting with Lexie while his wife is in surgery. Meredith comes out to give him an update on his wife’s progress and ends up giving him a pep talk on how much he actually knows about his adopted daughter. Lexie is impressed. But when the wife dies on the table, the father walks out of the hospital.

Lexie approaches Alex for an on-call room liaison. He tells her he can’t because he doesn’t want to have to choose sides between her and Meredith. She points out that he already has. Later, as Lexie’s sitting in the NICU, the adoptive father comes back to be with his daughter. He tells Lexie that he’s remembered another thing about his daughter, about how she hates the car seat unless you prop a small stuffed animal under her head. And in a grand moment of steppingp-up-to-the-plate, he finally he names her Keisha, as his wife wanted. She is his daughter at last.

“I’m not stalking you,” Lexie says as she walks up to Meredith. “I hate apples. I think they shouldn’t be a fruit. I draw really well on an Etch-A-sketch. Like I should be a professional if there was such a thing. I play the trombone,” and on she goes telling Meredith things about herself. “That’s five things that I hope it will make it a little bit harder to hate me.” Now Meredith knows as many things about Lexie as the adoptive dad knew about his little girl.

Later everyone is in the bar. McSteamy hits on Hahn. As you might expect, she’s friggin’ brilliant. “You’re attracted to me because I’m not attracted to you.” I love Brooke Smith!!!

Lexie is totally drunk at the bar. Meredith tells Alex to take her home safely. Alex tells Meredith that he won’t see Lexie anymore but Mer encourages him, "Take my sister home.". It’s always three steps back, one step forward with Meredith. How her friends or boyfriend have the patience to keep up with her is beyond me?

Callie gets back to Christina’s apartment (Burke’s old apartment). Christina announces she’s finally done repainting, making it her apartment now, not his. She’s moving on. Callie announces she’s been fired.

Alex brings the tipsy Lexie home. As they get out of the car, Lexie and Meredith’s father comes out of the house—totally trashed. He’s off to the store though he’s clearly in no state to drive. Alex derails him by saying he’ll go to the store for him to get the Scotch he wants. Lexie begs him not to tell Mer.

Finally George and Izzie have good sex . . . so they say. They go on and on about the great sex. Until finally Izzie says, “You’re lying.” “So are you,” replies George.

“You either have chemistry, or you don’t.”
--Meredith Grey

And so the scene is set for “Kung Fu Fighting.”

This eppie opens with Callie asleep on Christina’s couch and Meredith and Christina psychoanalyzing Mer in the bedroom. Christina actually suggests to Mer she stop having break-up sex with Derek. They look at each other with the ol’ “as if” look. Mer admits that the more available Derek becomes, the more she moves away.

Meanwhile, in a parallel story, Richard is living on Derek’s land, his trailer parked next to Derek’s. When Derek offers trout for breakfast because he’s been up fishing at 3:00am, again, Richard proposes a “Gentleman’s Evening” to take their mind off their women.

Izzie is watching George sleep, which is always creepy. George is apparently sleeping all over the hospital, now that Callie has given up their hotel room. Izzie tells George she’s tired of it and she wants all the sex. She will even be shaving her legs in honor of their first time (since their first time).

Emergency comes in—two women in a massive contest for the “wedding of their dreams” have beaten each other up in a serious way because whoever let’s go of a wedding dress first loses. Neither will let go, despite their battered states. The docs are having a hard time attending to the ladies. Callie’s upset because George’s patient is one of the women and hers is the other. Sloan suggests torturing George—he is an intern after all. Callie likes the idea. When one of the women needs to have her shoulder popped back into place, Sloan suggests George stand in proxy for her. George is heartily mocked. Callie is happy.

Another emergency comes in—a guy fell 12,000 feet when his parachute didn’t open. As one might expect, Christina’s psyched, given the surgery potential! How much do we love Christina?! But for whatever freaky reason, the skydiving guy can speak. He’s perfectly lucid. Turns out he only has appendicitis. The instructor busts into the emergency room, completely freaking out, having watched the terrible fall. The skydiver is about to say something tender to his instructor when she suddenly tells him she’ll destroy his jump video and runs out.

Izzie’s heart patient needs a catheter. He launches into a huge schpiel about how all he wants to do is get well so he can go see the Ivory-billed woodpecker. Suddenly, Christina appears in the door to tell Izzie about the parachuter so Izzie will give up her heart patient. Christina wants in on any cardio surgeries with the new cardio, Dr. Hahn. “I am married to cardio. . . . there is no way you are hardcore enough to handle cardio,” says Christina. Izzie is obviously insulted.

Alex finds Lexie working on charts in the closet, hiding from Yang. Alex warns her that every intern class has a runt of the litter and she is it. He brings her on rounds with him to help her back on her feet.

Turns out Izzie’s heart patient can’t tolerate the anesthesia and so Dr. Hahn can’t run a catheter up through his leg to alleviate the blockage. It also means she can’t do surgery and hence, he will die. Of course, he brings up not being able to see the dang bird, thereby playing on Izzie’s oversensitive heart strings.

Meanwhile, George is suffering total humiliation holding his end of the dress so the shoulder patient won’t lose the contest. Sloan keeps digging the knife in with horrible jabs. All the residents and interns are gathered around mocking George too until Christina turns up with a video of the skydiver. They all run off to watch this. The whole time he’s falling, he’s claiming his love for his instructor.

There are intermittent scenes of Mer and Yang psychoanalyzing Mer. As I’m sure you can guess, these scenes are boring because most of us are really OVER Mer/Der. Incredibly tiresome.

“Being aware of your crap and actually overcoming your crap are two very different things.”
—Christina Yang

Christina researches and finds a way Hahn can operate on the heart patient without anesthesia—he’d be wide awake though numb from the neck down. For 5-6 hours. Awake. With his chest open. When the patient balks, Izzie reminds him about the Ivory-billed woodpecker. And Hahn gives the surgery to Izzie, even though the solution came from Christine.

Sloan and Derek talk to Hahn about her awake-heart-surgery. Then, bizaarely, they ask her what she thinks a “Gentleman’s Evening” includes. They’ve been debating this since the chief announced wanting to have one. Prostitutes? Strippers? What could this mean? They want to know. As a result, best line of the show comes from Dr. Hahn: “Are you two a couple? Just checking.”

Izzie walks up to George while he’s being proxy for the dress to let him know they’ll have to push back all the sex because of the awake-heart surgery. She’s nervous that she’s not hardcore enough for this surgery compared to Christina. George tells her to be “hard core Izzie” with a little Billy Idol sneer. Really cute. Why don’t people like them as a couple? I think they’re adorable.

The Chief gets on Hahn for not running the awake-heart-surgery by him. She returns fire by asking him if Burke, Sloane, and Derek have to run their surgeries by him. Or is it just part of their “Gentleman’s Evening”? She notes this get-together she’s heard about sounds a lot like how in the old days law firms would have “get-togethers” at the country club. You know, she says understatedly. The one’s that didn’t allow blacks in. Point taken.

Post-coital, Mer reminds Derek about when he pulled her out of the water and how clear everything seemed then, as if she were washed clear. She really goes on and on. They are naked, just having had sex in some doctor’s sleeping lounge. Does anyone actually sleep in these lounges? Why don’t people ever get walked in on? I love this show but the sex-in-the-lounge thing is ridiculous!

George bonds with the woman on the other end of the wedding dress. All she can talk about is how much this means to her mother. It’s pretty sad really. Then she passes out and George calls for a crash cart. Into surgery she goes and George gets to be in on it. The whole time he talks about the humiliation she must have felt holding onto that dress. The chief notes that Sloan was hazing him but George says it’s all ok.

Izzie talks her patient through his heart surgery. She provides him with a picture of his bird and music to listen too. She’s our wonderful, sensitive Izzie. Then, he starts freaking out that people are watching him (the gallery is full of docs who want to see surgery on an un-anesthetized patient). As a birder, he’s usually the one watching and being watched is too much for him. He starts begging to be covered up because everyone is staring at him and finally starts screaming to stop the surgery. His heartbeat is going like gangbusters in the background. Izzie tells him to imagine all the watching surgeons as birds. So he describes all our favorite docs as birds by their personalities. Touching . . . not! It’s way over the top. But Izzie saves the day, which is the point. And she does it her own way, not by being “hard core.”

The wedding-contest chick with the shoulder out of place wakes from surgery and all she cares about is who won. Even after hearing that her competitor nearly died and is in surgery, all she can ask is, “Who won?” In one of the great old-Callie moments, she replies, “Sometimes you need to know when to let go. So just let go already. Just frickin’ let go.” Obviously she’s speaking to herself as well. Subtlety—not a strong suit of Shonda’s.

Up in the gallery of the awake-heart-surgery, Christina and Derek are sitting together. Christina notes all the wonderful things Izzie did in the surgery. Derek notes that Mer won’t let him take care of her anymore. Both are at loose ends in their respective ways.

After their surgeries, Callie and George meet in the hall. Callie tells George she’s letting go. Seems they may be able to interact like normal folks now.

The parachuter is disappointed that after his crazy fall all he has to show is an appendix scar. It’s almost embarrassing. Mer tells him the feeling goes away—the feeling of clarity and invincibility that he’s high on right now. It goes away and the fear and worry comes back. She tells him she saw his tape, knows he loves his instructor, and encourages him to tell her how he feels because if he doesn’t, the appendix scar won’t be his only scar. Once again, doctor advice that’s self-referential. Except I think by know we know Mer won’t tell Der this herself. She’ll just settle for passing on the advice to her patient, moaning to Christina about it in future episodes, and talking about it in her voice-over.

Finally, the “Gentleman’s Evening” is on. Sloan and Derek have been speculating all day about what’s involved. They are waiting at Derek’s trailer almost nervously. The chief walks up and they grill him. He replies simply that this is it. A “Gentleman’s Evening” is an evening without women. Until, of course, Dr. Hahn walks into the campfire light as well. They have a rip-roaring evening of Monopoly, far away from their real-life crap and Dr. Hahn becomes “one of the boys.”

In one of the closing scenes, Lexie propositions Alex, who she has been shadowing all day. He replies, “I’m not a nice guy. I’m not looking for a relationship, cuz I’m not good at them. I’m kind of hung up on someone else anyway. The only thing I can give you is sex and that’s never enough for girls like you.” And off he walks into the night.

Izzie and George are on her bed, ready to do the deed for the first time since their first encounter. But suddenly Izzie is crying like a baby about how exhausted she is from her day, from the surgery, from everything. I mean the girl’s a sobbing mess all of a sudden. George tells her its fine but quite frankly, he looks kind of pissed off. They go to sleep. Or at least they lay down and Izzie goes to sleep, snuffling to herself. George is tragically wide awake and unhappy looking. Is he just tired of all the women in his life or is he suddenly seeing Izzie in a new light, compared to the tough-as-nails Callie? Only future episodes will tell.

“Sometimes, you have to give yourself permission for not being hardcore.”
—Meredith Grey

Mer tells Christina she can’t stop seeing Derek. It’s not about the sex, she says. It’s about the moment afterwards, when the world stops and she feels safe. She’s not ready to give that up. The fact that Mer’s best moment with Derek is not during sex but after confirms that she needs to walk away from him and leave him to me. The girl just does not have the proper appreciation. I mean really!!!

Just as she’s trying to sleep, however, Mer is disturbed by laughing. She goes into the hallway to catch Lexie and Alex half-clothed in the doorway to his room. Now let me just point out that Mer was just in the same bed with Christina, which would suggest they were at Christina’s apartment. But apparently not. Apparently they are having a sleep-over at Meredith’s house. And why Lexie and Alex are standing the doorway to his room scantily clad, who knows. Who cares? Fantasies of Alex with his shirt off will wing me off to sleep.

-- Tracy Blanchard

Elsewhere, some guy has to decide to take his daughter off life support because she’s brain dead . . . . and oh, by the way, he has to decide who gets her organs and he happens to be in the hospital because he needs a heart. So he has to approve the removal of her heart so that he can get it himself. How the heck do you live with that one? He tells Derek to give the heart to someone else. Finally, George convinces him to take the heart by sharing that if he could have given his dying father his heart, he would have. Thus, once again, George saves the day and the patient. He’s getting pretty good at that.

Meanwhile, Meredith strongarms Bailey into participating on an ear surgery – as in the kid has no ears. I don’t really know the back story here because I came in late, but I like watching Meredith strongarm Bailey. Seems Meredith is trying to put together a massive team in order to get this surgery done. I never really figure out the ear storyline. Frankly, it doesn’t seem to matter much.

Speaking of Meredith, if we must, she is on a mission to put her mother to rest by doing something with her ashes. Seems she’s got some fears about becoming her mother. That’s a reasonably legitimate fear, if you ask me. No one should ever become Meredith’s mother, horrible as she was, though I have to wonder if Meredith would be much more interesting if she picked up someone else’s personality . . . Luckily, Sloane tells her the apple fell far from the tree and she feels better. Every once-in-a-while, he can be a sweetie. I’m sure he’ll ruin it soon. And Lexie comes through too. She tells Meredith a story about her mother’s cat dying and burying it by her mother because it would have made her happy. Schmaltzy, but a good bonding moment for the Grey sisters.

As we knew it would, it gets around that Izzie and George are an item. It’s all insanely awkward. I’ve been a proponent of Gizzie all along, just about the only one out there, but even I found their scenes awkward, except for the very last one. Strangely, Christina can’t cut Izzie any slack for sleeping with George while Izzie can’t figure out where Christina gets off – her best friend Meredith slept with a married man and Christina cut her slack. Later, Christina and Callie get hysterical in surgery over the sucky-ness of their love lives. George and Bailey have a Bailey kind of heart-to-heart about the demise of his marriage. Bailey scolds him for his actions but tells him he’s not a bad guy. Things aren’t black-and-white she tells him, referring to the troubles in her own marriage (she just missed her son’s first Halloween to help with the ear surgery). Marriage, she notes, is a two-way street, it’s not black or white, and he is not a bad guy, she says. Though I think we all agree that, in the immortal words of Chris Issak, he did a BAD, BAD thing . . .

Ok, I can’t believe I missed Alex and Ava getting together. How could I miss that?! It was the only thing I was waiting to see all week. How could I miss that? But now here they are snuggling in the bottom bunk of what I have to assume is some place interns and residents sleep – what if someone walks in? I can’t believe I missed the get-together. How long do I have to wait until the episode is available on ABC.com? I need to see that scene. Anyway, Ava obviously wants to talk about where it is all going, but at that moment, Karev gets paged because Norman passed out in surgery. He has to run off and she, like anyone in love with a doctor, has to sit and wait for his return.

By the way, turns out Norman threw a clot and ends up in surgery. Though I missed the first few scenes, I gather Norman was complaining about feeling lousy and Alex ignored a page from him. It’s touching to see how much Alex really cares, beneath his gruff exterior. In fact, that’s why we girls are in love with him, isn’t it? He fulfills our “our love will change him” fantasy. It’s a sick thing with women. We can’t help it. Anyway, Norman, once he gets through surgery, decides to go into what he really wanted to go into – psychology. He can see he would have a lot of patients just among the surgeons of Seattle Grace.

By the way, looks like Dr. Hahn, the heart transplant surgeon that takes the heart from daughter and puts it into father, will be joining the team as the new head of cardio-thorasic surgery. I forget the actresses name but she’s been on the show before and just wrapped up a stint as an annoying personality on “Crossing Jordan”. Looks like she’ll be playing the same character on “GA”. The future Christina-nemesis I’m guessing.

And in the end, Ava disappears. She just couldn’t wait for Alex. Frankly, that’s just about the shortest attention span I’ve every seen since she couldn’t even wait a few hours, through Norman’s surgery.

“The only way we can clear out the cobwebs is to turn a new page”
-- Meredith Grey

Christina gets a new roommate – Callie.

“Or put an old one to rest.”
-- Meredith Grey

Mer washes her mother’s ashes down the sink of the surgery scrub room because she thinks that’s where her mother would want to be. The chief helps her.

“Finally, finally to rest.”
-- Meredith Grey

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
-- The Chief

Both Joshua Jackson and Seth Green will be making appearances on "Grey's Anatomy" in upcoming episodes. Both are famous for teen cult classics -- Jackson for the role of "Pacey" on "Dawson's Creek" and Green for the role of "Oz" on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". How are these two old enough to be playing doctors at Seattle Grace?

Ellen Pompeo won a special achievement award at the National Italian American Foundation gala last week Pompeo, who is of Italian decent, travels to Italy several times a year and said she loves Italian food (though you can't convince me she actually eats).

Patrick Dempsey may be branching out into the beauty product market . As you can see from the latest "Entertainment Weekly" he's an expert on beauty.

Katherine Heigl is also keeping her career moving forward by optioning movie rights to "Lost & Found" and launching her own line of scrubs.

Sandra Oh's divorce to Alexander Payne was finalized last week and now she's dating Andrew Featherston.

T.R. Knight and Sara Ramirez have put their characters' differences aside to hoof it around L.A. in support of the AIDS walk.

And finally, Justin Chambers is getting photographed a lot lately -- first for "TV Guide" in one of the great spoilers of the year and later, with his wife, at the premiere of "Rendition."

-- Tracy Blanchard

In the elevator at the hospital (where else?), Derek asks Meredith away for the weekend. She balks. They didn’t go away when they were a couple, why now when they aren’t a couple? There are a lot of sly looks and making out—they are in the elevator, makeout capital of Seattle—and finally Meredith relents. Later, Alex agrees to take Meredith’s shift so she can go away if she will take Norman, the old intern.

George runs around like a crazy man looking for Izzie so that he can tell her what’s happened. Eventually he hears that Callie is also looking for Izzie. Of course, Callie gets to Izzie first. “George told me. Everything . . . . Cafeteria. Noon. You and me. Be there.” Of course, all her interns overhear this and the rumor mill begins as Izzie tries to prep for a showdown in the OK Corral.

Lexie and Christina help Derek work on an injured football player. Lexie is getting lots of Derek’s questions right,. Impress him and ticking off Christina. Derek and Lexie start talking about Mereith. Christina starts to get really ticked off, so Derek sends her away to change the patient’s bandages, guaranteed to put Christina into deep rage. Later, she alerts Meredith to the fact that Lexie and Derek are bonding by talking about her. Meredith is very far from pleased. It’s pretty much outraged chick day at Seattle Grace.

Norman (Edward Hermann) turns out to be pretty funny, especially when he teases Meredith about what they call Dr. Sloane—McSleazy is it? However, he’s not doing so well as an intern when he makes a patient completely break down by telling a patient she’s dying in an overly emotional way, despite Meredith’s pep talk on being professional and detached. What’s worse, Norman read the room number wrong on the chart and told the wrong patient she was dying. When they go to rectify the situation, they find out she’s left the hospital. Sloane, the attending, yells at Meredith and she and Norman begin trying to track the woman down to let her know about their mistake. Meredith tells Sloane that only she should be written up because Norman is her responsibility and she should have checked the chart. She knows she wasn’t paying enough attention because she’s been too focused on what Derek and Lexie might be saying about her.

Izzie goes to ask Alex for a favor. Before we hear what it is, he lets her know he’s heard about the showdown in the cafeteria with Callie. Suddenly they are called in to help the Chief’s niece, who is coding and can’t breathe. Izzie gives her an emergency tracheotomy. The niece is there because she’s had cancer multiple times (at 14 she had a total hysterectomy) and now she’s got it again. Remember, they held the prom at the hospital for her two seasons ago, the prom at which Denny died?

Derek and Lexie are having lots of laughs and it’s really pissing Christina and Meredith off. Christina tells her to hug the wall and stay out of the way for the rest of the day, though when she calls Lexie #3 (she calls all her interns by number), Lexie fights back and demands to be called by name. Later, when Derek is putting the football patient in traction, he won’t let Christina shut Lexie out, reminding her it’s a teaching hospital. Lexie is making some serious enemies.

Dr. Bailey’s patient fractured her ankle working out. The reason she fractured her ankle instead of just twisting it or something is because she’s too thin, not eating enough, working out too much, and lost 40 pounds because her boyfriend said he would move in with her if she did. Bailey is furious with the boyfriend and confused as to why Callie seems to be completely uninvolved in the conversation. Callie is just staring off into space while George shuffles around in his hangdog way. Bailey asks Callie what’s wrong but Callie shrugs her off. This is not the Callie we knew last season.

Alex teases Izzie about fighting Callie. Izzie tells Alex that she slept with George. He tells her he’s embarrassed for her and can’t believe she slept with a married man. The wounded look on his face is terrible.

When the Chief tells his niece her cancer has returned, she decides it’s time to stop fighting. No more radiation, no more treatment. She wants to go home and die with dignity, with her friends, etc. The chief’s wife, Adele, tells her she’s not old enough to decide, though she’s 18. Camille, the niece, begs the Chief to be her doctor, not her uncle. Adele begs Richard to force their niece to stay in the hospital and get treatment, pulling out the guilt by saying that she is like the child they never had. Will the chief give into Adele in his effort to get her back?

In an attempt to comfort him while the weights are being added to his traction, Lexie picks up the hand of the football patient even though Christina told her not too because he cannot be moved. Christina really rips into her, telling her to get out of the room. Derek witnesses this and chews Christina out. “This is a teaching hospital,” he reminds her, telling her she’s self-centered. Well yeah, but she was trained by Bailey and we all know that training includes yelling at interns. Especially when they move a traction patient after they’ve been specifically told not to!

The interns begin to gather in the cafeteria, moaning about everything that’s going wrong. Izzie is psyching up for her fight with Callie. Everyone in the hospital is talking about it and Izzie is getting herself all worked up because she grew up in a trailer park and feels confident about being able to take Callie. Callie shows up at high noon and everyone in the cafeteria starts to gathering around. Of course, Callie isn’t there to fight. She just wants to talk. She looks around and sees that everyone in the cafeteria gathered around and realizes that everyone knows. She’s totally humiliated but walks out with as much dignity as possible. George runs in at the last minute, asking if there was a fight and Alex snidely remarks, “Guess they didn’t think there was anything worth fighting over.” Ouch. Almost seems like the more good parts we see of Alex, the nastier his nasty parts get.

Meredith and Norman are trying desperately to find the patient who left the hospital, to no avail. McSteamy is not excited about what’s going on with Meredith and Norman. He really does not want to have to be paying attention to them mostly because he does not want to have to spend time teaching. It bores him. He tells Derek his girlfriend is still just an intern, no better than Norman.

Ruth, the patient with the smashed ankle, begins barfing blood. The great thing about this scene is the old Callie comes back, fighting mad and chewing out the boyfriend about pressuring his girlfriend to be insanely thin. She’s got a bleeding ulcer between barely eating and taking a lot of ibuprofen cuz she works out so much. “All for love,” Bailey points out, while Callie and George look at each other significantly over the surgery table. Unfortunately, Ruthie dies on the table and Callie rips the boyfriend a new one for not loving her just as she was. Clearly a huge part of Callie’s rant is about what’s happening between her and George. Bailey keeps asking Callie what’s wrong but Callie won’t share.

Norman finds the patient who has, in the meantime, dumped her boyfriend, quit her job, and bought a one way ticket to Iceland where the sun never sets. She even gave up her apartment. Of course, once she finds out she’s not dying, she falls apart again.

The Chief tells his niece Camille that the tumor they removed from her throat was enormous and asks why she took so long to come back to the hospital. Camille admits she knew the cancer wasn’t gone and she was hoping the cancer would kill her before she had to go back to the hospital. She begs Richard to let her die. He tells her about a whole new plan of attach, with new doctors and new meds, begging her to fight because he loves her so much. However, he promises, as her doctor, to do whatever she wants. She tells him she wants to go home and he agrees.

Izzie tracks Callie down and apologizes. Callie replies, “You feel terrible? You took advantage of me. . . .I tried to convince myself it was all in my head. . . . . I may have forgiven George but you did this to another woman. You took something from me. You stole something from me like a petty little thief. You are the one who should be ashamed. . . . . Don’t you dare come to me for forgiveness you traitorous bitch.” Afterwards, Izzie sits in the hallway feeling pretty bad about herself when Alex comes by. He lays into for sleeping with a married man. She tries to defend herself when suddenly Alex reveals why he’s really upset. When he made a move on her last season, she told him she wasn’t over Denny. Well apparently she was, he points out. The poor wounded puppy dog in Alex is revealed and you really feel for him. His parting shot is that it hurt him when she told him about sleeping with George: “And then you tell me like one of your chick friends. Come on!” He stomps off with his wounded male pride.

When Adele finds out that Richard is letting Camille go home to die, she really lays into him. “I’ve already lost one child now I have to lose Camille?” He tells Adele he can’t make Camille stay if she doesn’t want to. “After all these years of choosing your job over your marriage . . .” replies Adele. Personally, I think she’s being way too hard on Richard here and using pretty horrible guilt tactics. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her be nice to him. What did she not get about marrying a doctor, particularly a Chief of Surgery? The Chief says he’s sorry. Adele replies that she is to, with a significant look in her eyes like you just lost me buddy.

George tells Callie she can’t just “forgive him.” She says that’s what forgiveness means. But he points out she can’t even look at him, won’t even talk to him, which means she doesn’t really forgive him. They can’t just pretend it didn’t happen. “You’re right. I don’t.” And off she walks. The old Callie is back in the saddle!

Meredith tells Derek she got Alex to cover for her for the weekend. Derek says it’s not a good weekend any more. Meredith instantly assumes it’s because Lexie said something about her and asks what she and Derek have been talking about. Derek replies, “I talked to the other Grey about all the things I can’t talk to this Grey about.” He tells her he wants to marry her, have kids with her, that he doesn’t just want a weekend but a lifetime. And then he points out that when he says things like that, she fights the urge to run away (you can literally see her back away a step or two). “I’ve been doing this for a long time [he’s talking about being a doctor], and you’ve just begun. You’re still an intern.” Mer responds, “I can get ready, things can stay the way they are.” Derek, being Derek, tells her “I’ll wait.” Mer looks relieved: “Ok.” Derek points out, “But what if while I’m waiting I meet someone who is ready.” Now Mer looks worried: “What if you do?” Derek gets on the elevator and as the door is closing, releases this parting shot: “I don’t know.”

“Forgive and forget. That’s what they say.”
-- Meredith Grey

Lexie thanks Christina for saving her in surgery and teaching her how to do something. Christina responds by calling her #3 and Lexie takes it. For now they are back on less shaky ground.

“When someone hurts us, we want to hurt them back.”
-- Meredith Grey

Izzie’s crying in her room back at the house and Alex brings her tissues. I totally forgot they live together with Meredith. That is just sex waiting to happen if you ask me.

“When someone wrongs us we want to be right. . . . Old wounds never heal. And the most we can hope for is that one day we’ll be lucky enough to forget.”
-- Meredith Grey

Fade on Callie sitting in the dark.

Katherine Heigl recently played bride's maid again, this time to her sister. What a gorgeous gown and bride!

Ellen Pompeo lauds my hometown Boston in this American Way interview.

T.R. Knight's GLAAD ad hit the airwaves in time for National Coming Out Day.

Sara Ramirez has been checking out the fashion shows.

And finally, Eric Dane has his hands full with wife Rebecca Grayheart (or rather, she has her hands full of him)

.
-- Tracy Blanchard

The interns are all aflutter at the fabulous skills of one George O’Malley –- the way he delivered a baby and saved a guy. Karev, overhearing them in the elevator, is not thrilled but does not blow George’s secret –- that he’s a repeater. Karev is even less thrilled when the chief assigns him a new intern, Norman (played by Edward Hermann), who Karev considers waaaaay toooo old. Together they tackle a teenage patient whose mother thinks he’s on drugs. Norman tells stories of his own children and humors the mother, ordering up a bunch of tests. Karev doesn’t like his style any more than his age.

Meredith is being all secretive about having sex with McDreamy again because she’s afraid of hurting Christina, who she presumes is still mourning the loss of Burke. Christina is, of course, onto her and playing it for all it’s worth. Weaving out a sob story and playing on Meredith’s guilt, she convinces Meredith to give up a surgery for her. I just really love Christina.

Izzie is desperate to know from George what he said to Callie. I mean DESPERATE. It’s really not attractive. She keeps following him around until she’s able to pull him into a patient’s room –- the comatose patient whose room they used to gather in for lunch and gossip during their intern year. George explains he wasn’t able to talk to Callie yet just as coma-patient wakes up. His name is Charlie and he promptly announces that he’ll be dying today, thank you very much. Now I generally don’t challenge the medicine on this show because . . . well we all know it’s not really about medicine. But a patient whose been in a coma for a year and wakes up to announce he’ll be dying shortly is just beyond stupid! Is that really the best the writers can do?

Meanwhile, McSteamy & the Chief have a patient with tongue cancer who loves to talk but who is going to have to learn to live without. Until George challenges them to find a way, with a new technique, to leave the woman chatty. Sloane and the Chief take up the gauntlet that's been thrown, worried that they are being seen as old and set in their ways. You just know this can’t be good.

Meredith and Lexie have their dose of daily friction until an emergency comes and Mer brings Lexie into the trauma room. Lexie is trying to intabate the patient and is freaking out while Mer tries to keep her calm and talk her through it. Thing is, he was dead on arrival. When he doesn’t revive, Lexie thinks it’s her fault regardless of Mer’s reassurances. Then, for some bizarre reason, Lexie turns on Mer and blames her for not saving him, for not doing everything possible, for being cavalier about the fact that he was dead on arrival, etc. Really not the best way to handle the situation, but then again, she is a Grey. Meredith kicks her out of the pit and sends her to the clinic.

Izzie freaks out on George for not telling Callie. George turns right back on her and tells her to stop pushing him so hard. Later, clearly feeling guilty, George encourages the woman about to lose her tongue to say everything she needs to say before the surgery, just in case. Taking his advice she turns to her friends and unloads everything she’s ever kept to herself -- your butt is fat in those pants, your breath really stinks, etc. This is what you get when you take advice from George.

Charlie, the ex-coma patient, is getting on Izzie’s last nerve. He figures he’s got the right to be high maintenance on his last day –- demanding a last meal of lobster, etc. Finally, he feels ready to go and starts pulling wires out of himself. This is the last straw for Izzie and to teach him a lesson, she starts pulling wires too (lamp wire, bedwarmer wire, etc.), trying to shock some sense into him. Of course, he promptly codes. Izzie uses the paddles and brings him back. The first thing he does is yell at her for saving his life. Izzie is having a fairly crap-a-licious day

After hearing Lexie’s whiny tale of woe, Baily prepares to return her to Mer, telling her, “We are not the island of broken interns.” Lexie begs not to be sent back because she can’t handle the bad family blood. Bailey gives her a patient and then goes to complain to Callie about all the cacked-up stuff going on between interns and residents. Callie, looking tired way beyond her years, replies that she just doesn’t feel like fighting anymore, with Bailey or anyone else. She’s plum wore out and she knows at the end of the day that George is going to leave her.

Meredith finally catches on to Christina’s fake sadness to get surgeries. Christina tells Mer that she’s not responsible for taking care of Christina, who is healing in her own time and in her own way. She admonishes Mer for not revealing that she and Derek are sleeping together –- Christina doesn’t need to be protected from stuff like that. They are each other’s go-to person once again.

Funny quote of the evening:
Charlie: “I don’t like you.”
Izzie: “Really? Cuz I thought we were BFFs.”
Charlie: “That’s it. I’m going to die.” Scrunches his eyes closed, purses his lips, and tries to die.

Finally, George and Izzie have it out. George tells her she doesn’t get to be mad. “This isn’t about you. I’m ending a marriage to a wonderful woman. Me. Not you. It’s not something you just blurt out. I’ll do it. You have to let me do it.”

Bailey chews Meredith out for her treatment of Lexie. Will things start to turn around in that relationship? Do we care? They are both just big whiners!

Turns out Alex’s patient is not hooked on drugs but is having some kind of neurological problems. All of a sudden, the kid’s brain herniates. Karev needs Shephard but he’s been pulled into the tongue-cancer operation because Sloane and the Chief are in way over their heads. Derek tells Karev what to do. Norman is trying to calm the mother by telling Karev that he should be talking to her, soothing her. But Karev doesn’t have time for this since he’s trying to save the kid’s dang life, and he throws Norman and the mother out. Karev does absolutely crazy things with a needle through the kid’s eye and saves him.

Later, Karev apologizes to Norman for yelling at him. In turn, Bailey yells at Karev for his apology. She tells him that interns need to be yelled at, not hand-held, when they mess up or get in the way. That’s how they learn, regardless of how old they are. Can I just point out that there has been a much older doctor trying to get into Greg House’s program on “House” since the beginning of the season so Ed Hermann coming in as an older intern is kind of passé at this point.

When Izzie hears that Charlie is checking out of the hospital, she goes to his room and tells him he can’t go and his life isn’t over and that she’s messing everything up and who else is she going to talk to and that she needs someone to tell her what to do. Of course, Charlie is dead in his wheelchair. We could have seen that coming a mile away for Christ’s sake.

In the end, our favorite residents gather in Charlie’s room, where they ate lunch for a year while Charlie was in a coma, as Izzie forces them to pay homage. In one of those great moments we missed in Season Three, the residents are at their comic best: Alex commends him for not farting too loud and Christina thanks him for letting her get to practice a lot of stuff like central lines, etc. Izzie thanks him for being patient enough to get what he truly wanted -- while looking longingly and pointedly at George. Oy!

“Deep down, nobody wants to hear it.”
-- Meredith Grey

Tongue lady comes through her surgery and her friends are there waiting for her. With a little bit of truth she doesn’t necessary want to here.

“Sometimes we tell the truth because the truth is all we have to give.”
-- Meredith Grey

Meredith brings Lexie her mother’s medical file and tells her step-by-step what happened the day she died.

“Sometimes we just have to say the truth out loud.”
-- Meredith Grey

Bailey finally goes to Callie, ashamed at the way she’s been acting, and admits that she’s having trouble with Callie being named Chief Resident -- Miranda’s used to being number one. But she agrees to be Callie’s #2. She tells Callie they’ll be a team because, “look girl, you just seem to be having a hard time. I just think we can do this together.”

“And sometimes we tell the truth because we just can’t help ourselves.”
-- Meredith Grey

When Karev again overhears the interns lauding the great George O’Malley, he can’t stand it anymore and finally tells them that George knows what he’s doing because he’s a repeater. It’s a very low moment for both George and Alex.

“And sometimes we tell them because we owe them just that much.”
-- Meredith Grey

Callie tells George to just tell her already and he admits that he slept with Izzie.

For one thing, who is Lauren Stamile, the newest addition to the OR?

Right Celebrity has links to photos, videos, biography and more. I remember her now from "Crossing Jordan". She shows nice range in that clip. Check it out.

Also, check out a clip of Lauren on "Boston Legal" posted on Random Stuff of Interest.

Inside Grey's Anatomy has five fun facts about Ellen Pompeo, whom I admit to liking WAY better than her character Meredith Grey. I think this woman has serious class and seems pretty down-to-earth. For example, Ellen takes her pooch for walks on the beach just like us.

Patrick Dempsey has always been a loving father. Grey's Anatomy News has some great photos of Patrick taking Tallulah to her riding lessons. Not quite the speed junky her father. And speaking of racing, Exotic Car Rental has an interview with Dempsey on his love of racing.

Sandra Oh was on Jimmy Kimmel Live again on Sunday. Love her! And she's keeping busy with some women's history -- sometimes it helps to have a famous person shine the light.

Katherine Heigl is on the cover of his month's InStyle. And check here for a preview of Katherine's new movie 27 Dresses.

Here are some shots of T.R. Knight's new digs. Also, he was on "Ellen" recently. Totally adorable!

Justin Chambers hangs with his kids a lot too and pumpkin hunting season makes for some fun outings. Meanwhile, Chandra's busy with Habitat for Humanity. Eric Dane's need for speed comes more from caffeine than cars. Though this interview is a bit older, I liked it because you rarely find anything too in-depth on Dane. It's usually just photos of him without his shirt. Not that I mind those . . . .

Unfortunately, there just isn't much out there right now about Sara Ramirez and James Pickens.

-- Tracy Blanchard

Throng

TV Guide

Perez Hilton

Newsday

Silver Chips

At least Shonda sounds happy about the way things are going. But she kind of has to, doesn't she?

And finally, a sneak peak at behind the cameras shows another new addition to the cast. Because there aren't already enough characters, some of which (Karev, McSteamy) do not get enough airtime and good storylines as it is . . .

-- Tracy Blanchard

“The hardest part of addiction is letting go . . . it’s the high we’re chasing.”
-- Meredith Grey

Christina’s wedding is over and she’s swamped by presents. George’s marriage is over and he’s decided to finally get with Izzie and tell Callie it’s over. Mer and Der are over . . . they’re just in it for the “sex and mockery” now. This episode is all about the millions of ways addiction can manifest itself.

Christina’s purging her addiction by purging wedding gifts in exchange for surgeries. She’s pure career again. “Carnage always trumps rounds,” she tells her interns.

George is purging his addictions by telling Callie’s he’s gotta talk to her (about his love for Izzie and the failure of their marriage) but they are interrupted by a big influx of patients from an apartment building explosion.

And Mer/Der are trying to purge their addiction to each other by breaking up and only being about S&M (sex and mockery).

Callie’s having a tough time getting into the Chief Resident role but when there is a huge apartment explosion, the arrival of the ambulances helps her get into the swing of things. Especially when she gets to slap down Izzie by not giving her a patient and when she tells Bailey she can’t have any residents for the clinic.

Karev takes care of the baby from the explosion and handles him like a pro – it’s great to see Alex balancing his bad boy and his new warmer side. We wouldn’t want the bad boy to entirely disappear but we do love to dream about his redemption, eh girls?

Through all the chaos, who should arrive but Burke’s mother, the indomitable Diane Carroll. Christina sends Meredith out to try to deflect Mama Burke but Mama just rips Meredith a new one for the way she acted at the wedding by telling everyone, “It’s over, it’s so over.” She asks Meredith whether she was just announcing the obvious in an incredibly tactless way or whether she was trying to use the moment to impart something to her erstwhile lover. Either way, Mama was not impressed and she lets Mer know.

Izzie ends up helping Callie and McSteamy work on Ben Vareen, who’s playing the neighbor of the folks in the apartment that blew up. She keeps knocking things over, she’s so nervous around Callie. Finally, Izzie tells George he can’t tell Callie about them because Callie is her boss and, well, she’s very, very afraid. So they’re just going to have to swallow their sexual tension. Now I know most folks don’t like Gizzie, but I think the sexual tension at this moment is enormous and that they make a great couple. So sue me!

Bailey begs Meredith to help her in the clinic where the interns are making her crazy (remember, Callie has told her she can’t have any residents). Bailey shamelessly pulls out the old I-saved-your-life card. To suddenly see Bailey begging . . . strange, but absolutely adorable.

Of course Lexie is one of the interns driving Miranda crazy in the clinic. Lexie decides that when Meredith shows up, it’s the right time to bond. Cuz those Grey girls have such an excellent sense of timing.

Alex gets the test results on the baby and tells the nurse not to leave the father alone with the him.

George has a philosophical moment with his patient about new paths in life and while he’s obviously talking about Callie and his marriage, the patient’s heart stops beating on the MRI table. Something is very amiss here! George uses the paddles and brings him back just as Alex bursts into the chief’s surgery to let him know the baby is strung out on meth and the explosion happened because the mother and father were running a meth lab out of their apartment.

The chief this whole time is trying to learn to delegate responsibility in order to impress Adele. Let's just say he's not doing very well.

Callie finds out that Bailey convinced Meredith to work in the clinic. Callie is upset. Bailey is upset. And George has two women walk off on him as he’s the one who ratted. It's just does not pay to be in the middle of any of these women!

George talks to Mama and ends up telling her Burke dodged a bullet by avoiding marriage. “Once you’re in, you’re in. No going back on that.” Mama questions him for staying in a marriage from a sense of obligation. “No way to live. No way to love.” George just doesn’t know what to do. He doesn’t want to be with Callie anymore but he wants to respect Izzie’s request.

Alex is trying to save the baby and deal with the husband who is obviously strung out. The baby won’t stop screaming and the father is freaking out and starts screaming at the baby to stop crying. Finally, Alex loses it and screams at the father, revealing that the baby is detoxing from meth and that he knows the father was running a lab. The father, drugged out as he is, knocks Alex unconscious and steals the baby.

Callie and Izzie are doing the surgery on Ben Vareen when the chief comes in to yell at Callie because a baby has just been stolen on her watch. Izzie, in a moment of what some might call generosity and other stupidity, tells Callie that she’s doing a good job as Chief Resident. Callie tells Izzie to get the hell out of her OR.

Meanwhile Karev is in the clinic getting stitches and admiring Lexie’s physique. Meredith boots him out.

Derek sits down with Mama, wondering why Burke isn’t returning his calls. Derek tells Mama that Christina loved him in her way. Mama tells Derek that isn’t always enough for an honorable man. She asks Derek if he could walk away from a woman who wasn’t giving him what he deserved. He says he and Burke are built differently. Mama replies that all honorable men are the same and should stand up for what they deserve. Of course, Derek looks pensive since he’s thinking about the fact that his girlfriend, Meredith, has just relegated him to “sex and mockery”.

Callie looks frantically for the missing baby, running into McSteamy who sees she’s freaking out. She says she’s worried about her husband is having an affair. Why she reveals this to him in this moment, I couldn’t say, but she does. It seems to me like a set-up for future sex between these two, which I like a lot more than future sex with George. But apparently, that’s just me.

Meredith totally bitch-slaps Lexie. You see, Lexie has been staring at her throughout the entire episode. It freaks out a patient. It freaks out Christina. Finally, when Lexie asks where the thermometers are, Meredith replies by asking her if she’s is an idiot or a stalker. Realizing she’s just been a supreme BI-ATCH, Meredith apologizes, telling Lexie she just doesn’t want to know her. It’s unclear to me here why Meredith is having such a problem. Her parents have been divorced for a very long time. It’s been at least a year since her father came back into her life and she found out he had a new family. Why hasn’t she adjusted to this yet? Why has she been through medical school and her intern year and still acting like a 12-year-old? Why is this such a big f*$^#ing deal for Meredith? I’m so very, very over Meredith Grey!! Derek, dump her. She’s not worthy!!!

Bailey and Karev are watching the baby’s surgery. Karev tells Bailey to go ahead and yell at him for confronting the drug dealer cuz he knows she wants to. And she does. She completely let's him have it in that fantastic Bailey wayr. It’s great to see and Karev thanks her for dressing him down. And in a hilarious turn, she thanks him for letting her. It’s possibly one of the best, most hilarious, most endearing moments of the show.

Lexie tells Meredith that they should be friends because they have the same dad. Meredith tells her they don’t have the same dad because her dad left her when she was five and Lexie’s dad didn’t. And then she admits she kicked Derek out of bed because her dad left her and now she can’t trust men. So it’s finally it’s been said out loud. Thank God!

Eventually, Christine goes to talk to Mama Burke. Turns out Mama wants the keys to the apartment so she can pick up Preston’s things and the necklace she gave Christina. And she also came to say, “I’m sorry you lost the man you love. But more than that, I’m sorry you lost your teacher. With him by your side you could have become a brilliant teacher.” She admires Christina’s strength. Christina allows herself to be vulnerable and asks Mama to take the gifts away. She admits that she knows Preston is never coming back, not even to say goodbye. Mama confirms this by telling Christina she’s a strong woman and she’ll be alright. So now Shonda has confirmed that there will be no return of Isaiah, which quite frankly would be more than I could take. I’m so glad the controversy is over I don’t ever want the return of that character. God bless him on “Bionic Woman” but I don’t want to hear another word about that controversy.

George’s meth patient dies and it’s enough to convince George to confront Callie.

The chief is furious with Callie because he’s got a night’s worth of paperwork, due to the baby stealing. She offers to do it for him but he declines, obviously not rushing over to Adele.

The mother of the family finally wakes up after surgery and Christina reveals they know the explosion was from the meth lab and her baby’s had a stroke, etc. In a rare turn, Christina comforts her.

“The thing about addiction – it never ends well because eventually whatever it was that was getting us high stops feeling good and starts to hurt.”
-- Meredith Grey

Derek admits to McSteamy that he -- like someone in a 12 Step Program -- has a problem. It's understood that that problem begins with M and ends with Grey.

“Still, they say you don’t kick the habit until you hit rock bottom. But how do you know you’re there?”
-- Meredith Grey

When George confronts Callie at the end of this interminable shift, Callie begs him not to say anything. Somehow she knows what he’s going to say but she’s just had one of the worst days of her life. “I am your wife. Do this for me.” He agrees and they go home together.

McSteamy asks Meredith out for a drink. She says she waiting for someone and McSteamy tells her that Derek asked him to tell her he’s busy. She declines the offer of a drink. As she’s walking out of the hospital, Derek, who’s been watching from above, calls out to her to wait and they leave together, Meredith none the wiser that Derek has been talking to McSteamy about getting out of this relationship. In the end, it seems, he just can’t let go.

“Sometimes, letting it go hurts even worse.”
-- Meredith Grey

In the final scene, Christina walks into an empty apartment and we close on her sad face.

I discovered a great cache of video interviews and knew I had to post them right away for my fellow "GA" fans. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/v/WMuFmSNA1d0
http://www.youtube.com/v/3c4_cCqDj_M
http://www.youtube.com/v/PQ408G7hpRo
http://www.youtube.com/v/zUtFKJ7OUxI
http://www.youtube.com/v/rNFLdOFG0OU
http://www.youtube.com/v/rFTlVsBkOrs

And here are some upcoming scenes. Those of you praying for the demise of Gizzie, guess you're going to have to wait a while . . .
http://www.youtube.com/v/bfwpJxLdcpo

And Christina's purging the remnants of her relationship with Burke in an entirely Christina-sort-of-way. Shonda wasn't kidding when she said she's bringing the fun back!
http://www.youtube.com/v/nXvdyfm6N4k

Thing is, Bailey still kicks ass, despite not winning Chief Resident! In fact, Callie can’t really keep control of her residents. They don’t respond at a run, the way they did with Bailey. And they seem to be taking over her surgeries, as happens when Alex’s patient, who has a tendency to eat everything in sight, ends up in surgery and Callie finds out about it too late, after Bailey has scrubbed in.

In some ways, it was an episode full of paranoia. Paranoia between the residents to live up to the example Bailey set. I absolutely love that the eppie started with Izzie, Meredith, Christina, and Alex giving out Bailey’s “five rules” just as Bailey gave them out 3 years (or really 1 year) ago. Of course, none of them quite live up to the Nazi. Even when Christina swaggers, she can’t quite recapture Miranda.

It was an episode full of paranoia. Paranoia between the couples – Mer/Der and Christina/Burke even though Burke wasn’t there. Meredith and Derek haven’t seen each other for the 17 days that supposedly have elapsed since last season’s finale. The 17 days that everyone, from interns to doctors, have been on vacation (did the entire hospital shut down?). During that time, Meredith and Christina went on Christina’s honeymoon together; Alex went trailing after Rebecca without ever catching up to her; and George is silent on what he and Callie have been up to. Clearly Izzie has just been thinking about George. None of the issues left on hold at the season finale are actually resolved, except that Christina is finally told that Burke handed in his resignation. The eppie ends with Meredith and Derek breaking up, but not before one last nookie-session in the hospital (because no one actually has sex at home on this show). So are they really broken up? And George shows up at Izzie’s to tell her that, in fact, he loves her too. No one else likes Gizzie, but I think they have a lot of potential to be a great, totally hilarious couple, and though I like Callie as a character, I don’t think she belongs with George. I personally think she should conquer Mc Steamy. She needs someone tougher than George. But that’s just me.

There is a fair amount of tension between Bailey and Callie as Callie tries to command the same respect as Miranda did. Alas, the interns have already been trained Bailey-style and Callie is struggling to get them to perform. As we knew, and expected she would, Miranda doesn’t have much sympathy. The satisfaction comes when she finally confronts the chief and the chief basically tells her she’s too fine of a surgeon to waste on administration. Miranda is not appeased in the moment, but it is likely to grow on her . . . .

Quotes of the night:

The residents about the new interns: “007s in training”. Do you remember what 007 stands for? License to kill.

Callie to George: "Maybe they’ll see you as the daddy intern . . . my boobs are sore . . . “

Meredith: “Spiritually, Bailey’s over everyone’s head.”

Lexie: “You delivered a baby today. So stop feeling sorry for yourself. You are kind of awesome.”
George: “ I know.”

Izzie to her interns: “Like it or not, I’m the kind of doctor who lets a little kid convince her to save a deer. Oh, and when I woke up this morning, I didn’t know I’d get stuck with the duds So I have to adjust my expectations as well.”

First, in case you're worried about where MerDer are going, check out SpoilerBuzz.

"USA Today" has some great behind-the-scenes peeks at all your fave docs on the set.

Nothing will get you in the mood like some GA music so check that out on the Grey's Anatomy Insider site.

Slate has an interesting article on the recent trend towards over-cast-population, which I think GA is really on the verge of.

TV Squad can catch you up on spoilers.

Finally, read some good news about being able to keep up on any missed episodes on BroadcastingCable.com.

-- Tracy Blanchard

So this is the end of Season 3. As sad as we are to see the gang go, we are so NOT sad to see the end of Season 3, am I right? We’ve all lamented how far off track Shonda and the writers went last spring and in seven days time, we get to see if they got their hootchie back.

In the meantime, the recap:

At this point in the wedding preparations, Christina has gone to a deeply crazy place and Miranda has to order her to go home, like any other normal woman on her wedding day. Unfortunately, this sends Christina into the path of Burke’s mother, who gives her a family choker to wear at the wedding. What a fine and ironic metaphor this is since she then tells Christina that although she was unsure of her first, she likes Christina now because she’s been giving into all of Burke’s wishes. Then, as all loving mother-in-laws are wont to do, she chides Christina on her eyebrows. When next we see Christina, she has none left.

When we finally get to the wedding, Christina’s on the verge of an aneurysm at losing her identity in this relationship. Her wedding vows, which were written on her hand, were scrubbed off when she prepped for surgery, and now she’s got no idea what to say. After a prolonged delay, Burke walks down the aisle to find Christina—although she swears she’s ready, he knows she’s not. He releases her from the wedding and from their relationship, and in one of the great Sandra Oh scenes, of which there are many, Christina tells Meredith that she is finally free! As Meredith zipped Izzie out of her prom dress in the first eppie of the season, she now cuts Christina out of her wedding dress in the last.

Richard finds out that Adele is knocked up and comes to her bedside, clearly still crazy in love with her in the sweetest, most disgustingly-cute husband sort of way. He takes a stand at her bedside and won’t waiver. Later, she starts to crash due to a placental tear. Addie saves her, though not the baby. Adele has to tell Richard that the father doesn’t even know she was pregnant. Eventually it comes out that, of course, Richard was the father and they embrace.

Rina needs to deliver immediately even though she still hasn’t decided on whom to give the twins. Good god woman, what the heck is that about?! This is the one ridiculous storyline in this episode. Just too dumb. Not to diss Joe, but why exactly are we expected to care about this?

The other random storyline is more interesting—that of the hikers who have apparently been keeping secrets regarding the fourth friend on the trip, who shows up alive and with an axe in his head. As Derek discovers during surgery, the axe wound is clean, which means it was deliberate. Turns out his “friends” tried to put him out of his misery.

Jane Doe/Ava/Rebecca’s husband turns up. The reason he hasn’t been looking for her is that he thought she left him, which in fact, we know, she did. She asks Alex to give her a reason to stay in Seattle instead of going back to her husband, but he won’t. Later, in a scene that reveals the lighter side of Alex, he runs back to the hospital to get her, but it’s too late.

Derek might as well throw a drink in Meredith’s face when he throws the “girl at the bar” story at her. He tells she should be worried. Now quite frankly, I’m torn on this one. It’s true that Meredith has been keeping him at bay. But wasn’t he shrugging her off when he was worried that she was ruining his chances of becoming chief? Both of them have been less-than-stellar examples of what anyone might hope to find in a love-of-their-life. Neither one of them has been doing anything to recommend themselves as a worthy lover and we have to ask why we still care about them as a couple. Do we?

Anyway, Meredith tells him to take off if he doesn’t love her anymore. He, of course, rebuts with the old love-of-his-life line. Why? Why is she the love of his life? This is a question best left to Shonda I suppose. He turns it on her when he says he’s tired of her always “leaving” him and that if she wants to end it, she should walk away because he can’t. She uses Christina’s wedding as an excuse to avoid the ultimatum until Season 4. I mean, we’ve got to have some cliff-hangers, right. Of course, it can only be a cliff-hanger if we decide we care about them.

George and Callie start trying for children. Literally. Right there in the hospital. Did you ever notice how much sex goes on in TV hospitals? And does their trying for children, after all the difficulties they’ve been through in their very brief marriage, seem like such a good idea to you? Later, Izzie tells George that if he’s crazy about Callie then she’ll support him. But, you know, just in case he’s in love with her instead, well that would work out better. Tragically, George can’t contemplate these weighty issues since he’s just failed his exam and has to decide if he’s going to walk away or if he’s willing to repeat his intern year. Callie does make sure that Izzie finds out that they are trying for a child however, because she’s not stupid. Which is maybe why she gets Chief Resident over Bailey.

And oh yeah, the Chief of Surgery thing . . . who cares?! Well . . . if you insist . . .Richard offers Derek the job. Derek turns it down and instead tells Richard he’s the best man for the job and shouldn’t walk away.

In a season finale scene to end all finale scenes, almost as good as J.R. getting shot, George meets one of the new interns. She’s the girl who was flirting with Derek in the bar. Turns out her name is Lexie Grey.

Bring it on Shonda!

I saw a few scenes I'd missed the first time around, so that was good. I always love to re-watch "Grey's Anatomy," so that was good. I absolutely love the evolution of the character of Addison Montgomery. So to watch that, all of piece, that was good.

McSteamy -- a "big wheelbarrel full of testosterone?" Well, ok. I would agree with that . . . especially when he walks out in nothing but a towel and some steam.

And remember that great moment when Derek and Addie finally laugh over her poison oak-filled crotch. You sure do start to see her differently. As a women who's not made of steel but flesh. A woman who can see the humor of being herself. And we all start to change how we feel about her.

And that extremely painful moment when Karev so harshly blows her off after boffing her in the closet?

Yes, we love Addison by the time that all this happens and are hooked on her, until of course, we see the pilot for "Private Practice," which is just so unbelievably bad we re-think the entire prospect of following Addie to L.A.

I mean, ultimately, wasn't this just an hour-long ad for "Private Practice"?

Based on the pilot, I'd say, "no freakin' way"! Based on "Grey's Anatomy to Private Practice", I guess I'll give it a shot. Especially with the introduction of Audra MacDonald (as if we'd never seen Merrin Dungey).

-- Tracy Blanchard