BOOB TUBE REVIEW: Grey's Anatomy "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" (Season 7, Episode 14)

I missed watching Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice last week Thursday, so I have been playing a little catch-up before tomorrow night.  The writers of Grey's Anatomy have done a good job at slowly introducing new characters in the Seattle Grace fold as original cast members (i.e., Izzy Stevens and George O'Malley) have left the show.  In fact in the picture from last week's episode, only Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh) and Alex Karev (Justin Chambers) are part of the original cast.  The changes in cast can be good and bad.  Good because I am sure that hospitals change medical staff frequently and the fictional Seattle Grace should be no different.  Bad because as a dedicated viewer, such as myself, it's hard to say goodbye to a character that you have watched develop and grow and then introduce yourself to new character.  Fortunately, Shonda Rhimes does a good job at introducing new characters to her dedicated viewers.

The jury is still out for me on Grey's Anatomy's newest character, Dr. Lucy Fields (Rachael Taylor).  She seems like a tough cookie and we all know that Seattle Grace is in desperate need of an excellent OB/GYN since Addison packed up her Pucci scrub cap and left for sunny California.  It looks like her character may be a new love pursuit for Karev, but as usual, his personality and ego are preventing him from making a great first impression.  The complexities of Karev are endless and that's why he is one of the most intriguing characters on the show.

Speaking of the show, Episode 14 brings back Meredith's and Lexie's father, Thatcher Grey (Jeff Perry) who gets admitted to the hospital complaining of abdominal pain.  While Bailey tries to figure out the reason for the pain, Lexie finds out that her father has moved on from her mother's death and is in a relationship with a twenty-something woman named Danielle.  Lexie is livid that her father is dating someone younger than her, but through gorging herself on peanut butter cups (thanks to Avery), she realizes that she is mad at Mark for having a baby, which leaves her left behind again.  Bailey assures Thatcher that he is not rejecting Meredith's liver, but is instead suffering from a very treatable kidney stone.  After her peanut butter cup revelation, Lexie takes her sister's advice, and allows herself to be happy for her dad by extending an olive branch to Danielle.

Meanwhile, Meredith is torn between helping Derek with his clinical trial to cure Alzheimer's or the Chief's clinical trial to cure diabetes based on the research found in her mother's journals.  Meredith ultimately decides to stay on Derek's clinical trial by explaining to the Chief that her mother's research work is a side of her mother that the Chief knows, not her.  However, watching her mother suffer from Alzheimer's is a side that Meredith knows all too well and something that she wants to pursue to find the cure.

Karev's inability to think before he speaks lands him barred from the OR and NICU when Teddy, Arizona, and Cristina help to save a baby with a heart transplant from a brain dead infant.  While the team try to work a miracle in the operating room, Karev and Fields make amends in the observation room.  Do I sense a possible romance brewing?  Only time will tell...

Lastly, Owen, Callie, and April treat a young gentleman who acted as a human slingshot to be filmed and posted online.  Instead of successfully landing on the other side of the brick wall, he ends up with double hip dislocations and a fractured femur.  This case is right up Callie's alley, but she is extremely distracted by her lack of caffeine consumption thanks to Mark and Arizona forbidding her from drinking coffee due to her pregnancy.  Unable to get through to the guys of the idiocy of video taping such a ridiculous action for internet laughs, Owen lays into them by talking about a guy he knew who died from severe injuries because he threw himself onto a grenade to save the lives of six soldiers.  Callie asks for a another vote on her coffee consumption by stating that this time, the unborn baby and her vagina will each get separate votes.  Callie wins and she gets one cup of coffee per day.

Next episode looks like Meredith will be in over her head by volunteering to run the emergency room in hopes of proving she is Chief Resident material.