BOOB TUBE REVIEW: Grey's Anatomy "This Is How We Do It" (Season 7, Episode 17)

SOURCE: ABC

In Episode 17, Arizona is still struggling with co-parenting with Mark as an unusually over bubbly and excited Callie experiences all the perks of motherhood.  Meanwhile the Chief comes to terms that Adele is ill and Teddy comes to terms that her marriage may not be just a mere convenient arrangement.  Finally, Lexie and Jackson continue their hot and steamy romance while Lucy stops toying with Alex long enough to see the great guy in him.

Husband and Wife
Despite her resistance, the Chief tries to get Adele admitted into Derek's Alzheimer's clinical trial, but Derek informs the Chief that pulling someone off of the waiting list could compromise the entire study.  However, when a woman decides to withdraw from the study to prevent her son from totally rearranging his life to take care of her, Derek agrees to test Adele to fill that open spot.

Derek, Meredith, Adele, and the Chief meet for the test results.  Adele is relieved and elated that she is one point shy from qualifying for the trial; however, the Chief breaks it to his wife that the one point deficit indicates that the disease has not advanced enough for her to qualify, but indicates that she has the disease.  Adele is in denial until Meredith elaborates on Adele's test results.  Adele said "pool" instead of "spoon" as one of the words she was asked to memorize and she told the Meredith that she and Richard went to Hawaii for their honeymoon when they stayed home.  Adele starts crying hysterically and tells Richard how unfair this fate is for them, especially when she and Richard are finally back on track and are in the kind of marriage they were meant to be in.  As the Chief holds and comforts Adele, Derek looks at Meredith--probably wondering to himself if one day he might also be in the same situation with Meredith.

Meanwhile, Teddy is starting to realize that her marriage to Henry might be something more than a convenient arrangement to maintain medical insurance coverage for him.  Henry is admitted to Seattle Grace complaining of chest pains.  While hopped up on morphine for the pain, Henry admits to Teddy, as the Chief and Cristina are in the next room, that he's gaga over her.  As a result, the Chief refuses to allow Teddy to perform surgery on Henry to remove his tumor.  Still in the hunt for Chief Resident, Cristina quickly volunteers to do the surgery herself.  A complication during surgery, throws Teddy into a panic, but Cristina saves Henry's life.  In recovery, Teddy tells Henry that their marriage is still a fiction.

Complicated Relationships
Lexie and Jackson are in the "honeymoon" stage of their relationship, which thoroughly tests April's patience as she can't seem to find a room in the house where the two lovebirds are not in making out with each other.  April, on the other hand, has her own concerns regarding what kind of relationship she has with Dr. Stark.  She likes spending time with him, but becomes confused when Alex drops hints that her friendship with Dr. Starks will become a sexual one.  As a result, April tells Dr. Starks that she just want to be friends with him to which Dr. Starks tells April that he wanted to more than just friends.  Back at home, April kicks out the kissing duo from the livingroom to watch the movie on cable that she and Dr. Starks were supposed to watch together.  April looks lonely as she eats her bowl of popcorn by herself.  Perhaps she is having second thoughts on wanting to be just friends with Dr. Starks?

Bailey is also trying to figure out how to handle her working and personal relationship with Eli, especially when a diabetic patient comes into the hospital that could be a good candidate for the Chief's new clinical trial.  However, the FDA has not approved the Chief's clinical trial yet and to make matters worse, her patient's husband is intolerable.  When Bailey introduces the idea of the participating in the new clinical trial to the patient, Eli steps in and ask about the associated risks before Bailey has a chance to get to them.  Bailey later confronts Eli about him questioning her in front of a patient to which Eli sarcastically admits that while he was only looking out for the patient's best interests, he understands that the relationship between him and Bailey is that he is the nurse and she is the doctor.

When things go from bad to worse for her patient, the Chief decides to perform a cell transplant to try to save the patient's life even though an FDA waiver has not come through yet.  The surgery goes well and the FDA approves the clinical trial after the fact.  When an exhausted Miranda leaves the hospital at the end of the day, Eli is waiting for her.  Eli soothes things over with Miranda by explaining that at work she can wear the pants as the doctor, but outside of the hospital, he is the man who wears the pants and he is taking her back to his place.  With that cleared up, Miranda follows her man home.

After being turned down numerous times by Lucy, Alex appears to focus his attention on becoming the next Chief Resident by parking his trailer outside of the hospital in order to get first dibs on surgeries.  Lucy is not impressed when Alex swipes food from Callie's baby shower, but wonders if she is not seeing something in Alex that all the others obviously see.  Meredith explains to Lucy the type of guy Alex is--the one whose girlfriend went nuts and the one who took care of his cancer stricken wife only leave him after.  Alex is fundamentally a good guy underneath his rough exterior.  Lucy decides to visit Alex at his trailer and joins him on a meal of swiped finger foods from the baby shower.  Looks like things may finally happen between these two.

Baby Triangle
Callie is now six months pregnant and loving all the attention impending motherhood brings, including a baby shower, which Mark has single-handed planned all the details down to the scrapbook station and glitter pens.  The baby shower was the funniest part of this episode.  To see all the doctors totally out of their element or totally and unexpectedly embracing it was a hoot!  Although Arizona was positive that Callie would not go for the whole girly-girl shower, Callie is totally embracing all the hoopla as payback for the all the baby showers she had to sit through and act like she was enjoying.  Unlike Mark and Callie, the rest of the gang are a bit remiss in their baby shower participation level, but gather to decorate onesies with glitter pens.  Too funny!  April decides to decorate her onesie by drawing a pie slice and spelling out "Cutie Pie" above it while Cristina is busy drawing a diagram of the heart, complete with the chambers and aorta.  Alex draws a blue surgical scrub shirt on his onesie while Meredith...well...she decides to tap into her inner Jackson Pollack and create abstract art.

Mark approaches Lexie at the shower and thanks her for coming.  Mark clearly still has feelings for Lexie, but she explains to her former lover that she has moved on and is seeing someone new.  Later, when Jackson asks Lexie if she could do a "consult" for him, Mark figures out who the new guy in Lexie's life is and is crushed.  After the shower, Callie thanks Arizona for putting up with Mark and the whole baby shower bit by inviting her to spend the weekend alone with her at a bed and breakfast.

In the car on their way to the bed and breakfast, Arizona is upset that Callie is receiving text messages from Mark.  Irritated with him disrupting their alone time together, Arizona flings Callie's cell phone in the backseat of the car she is driving.  Clearly annoyed by Arizona's behavior, Callie takes off her passenger side seatbelt to reach in the back to retrieve the phone.  In frustration, she tells Arizona that she will do anything to make things better; all Arizona has to do it ask.  Arizona responds by asking Callie to marry her.  At that second, Arizona suddenly sees a vehicle in front of her and slams on the breaks.

Next episode is the musical episode where Callie will have an out-of-body experience while her colleagues at Seattle Grace scramble to save her life.

BOOB TUBE REVIEW: Grey's Anatomy "Not Responsible" (Season 7, Episode 16)

SOURCE: ABC

I am already behind on my Boob Tube Reviews, but thankfully Grey's Anatomy is going through re-runs for the time being, which allows me time to play a little catch up.

In Episode 16, Meredith and Derek's baby plans hit a snag and Callie discovers that her baby plans aren't totally in sync with Mark's or Arizona's while Owen and Cristina reach an impasse on any future baby plans.  Meanwhile, Alex, Lexie, and April each learn lessons in love while the Chief is forced to come to terms that Adele may be sick.

Baby, baby, baby...
Meredith tells Alex that she is noticing the fertility drugs are affecting her vision, but brushes it off in hopes that her blurred vision will go away as she starts her day at work.  As the day progresses, she notices her vision becoming increasingly worse, but keeps silent about it until she admits to Derek in surgery that she can't operate because she can't see the patient's brain.  Meredith and Derek immediately see Lucy who tells the baby hopeful couple that Meredith needs to stop taking the fertility drugs or risk permanent vision loss.  Between her inhospitable uterus and blurred vision, Meredith starts to wonder if she and Derek will ever have a baby.

Lucy is also keeping tabs on the Callie-Mark-Arizona baby triangle and comments that the prenatal check-ups are getting a bit crowded.  Lucy asks the expectant triangle about performing an amniocentesis to check for any genetic defects.  While Arizona thinks the test is a good idea, Mark voices his concern that the test could raise the chances of miscarriage.  The decision is left to Callie who decides to go ahead with the procedures after much careful consideration.  Mark goes along with the decision, but makes it clear to Callie and Arizona that he is taking his fatherhood duties and responsibilities seriously and wants to be included in all decisions regarding the baby.  Callie is impressed with Mark stepping it up, but Arizona confides to her that she is still not thrilled with Mark's involvement.  She explains that Callie is getting her "bi-dream," but this situation is not what Arizona wanted.  She doesn't really care for Mark and the idea that she will need to work with Mark to raise the baby together with Callie is not part of her dream.

With all the baby talk going around, Cristina tells Owen that she is so glad that he is not trying to knock her up.  Owen tells her that maybe not know, but hopes to some time in the future.  Cristina reminds Owen that when they got engaged, she made clear that she never wanted children.  Remember when Cristina was pregnant with Burke's child and miscarried while in surgery?  Owen remembers Cristina saying that, but understood her statement in the context of a resident.  Once her residency is finished, he is hoping that Cristina will change her mind and they could start a family.  Cristina asks Owen when she has ever changed her mind and walk away.  Later on, Cristina tells Owen that perhaps they rushed into marriage, especially when she was still suffering from PTSD.  Owen makes it clear to Cristina that regardless of their quick wedding, they are now married and married people who love each other work through things.  Cristina doesn't get to cop out of their marriage when the going gets tough or they hit an impasse.

Lessons in Love
Concerned about Meredith's vision problems, Alex asks Lucy whether fertility drugs could be affecting his friend's vision problems.  Lucy sees Alex's question as an excuse to ask her out again and calls him out on his ulterior motives.  Alex asks her out one more time and is shut down again.  FAIL!

When Meredith treats Allison, a patient in Derek's Alzheimer's clinical trial, she notices Allison's son Kyle sporting a rather large bump on his neck.  Although Kyle may be young, he is an asset to his mother by helping her remember things and getting her through the day, especially while Kyle's dad is at work.  Meredith suggests a doctor take a look at Kyle's bump, which Kyle's dad apologetically admits they've been neglecting because they've been busy taking care of Allison.  The bump on Kyle's neck turns out to be serious and Dr. Stark wants Child Protective Services called.  April, Arizona, and Meredith balk at the mere suggestion of calling in CPS, but Dr. Stark is adamant as he questions how Allison and her husband can take care of Kyle when Kyle is clearly taking care of them.  April stands up to Dr. Stark and explains to him that a call to CPS would destroy a family that loves and supports each other fiercely, and that the call would be a huge mistake.  To April's surprise, Dr. Stark agrees and tells her to hold off on calling CPS.  After a little thought, he then asks April out on a date!  April is floored, but then surprises everyone when she accepts his date invitation.  Never saw that one coming, huh?

Meanwhile, Teddy, Lexie, and Avery are treating Ricky who suffers from cystic fibrosis and is a prospective lung transplant recipient.  In preparation for the transplant surgery, the team finds out that Ricky's girlfriend, Julia also suffers from cystic fibrosis, but kept her condition a secret in fear that Ricky would be taken off of the transplant list.  Teddy is livid when she finds out and worries that Ricky will squander his gift of new lungs if he continues to stay with Julia.  She gives Ricky and Julia an ultimatum--break up or no transplant.  They agree to break up, which Teddy doesn't buy, but agrees to go through with the transplant surgery.  Later, Lexie finds Julia sitting outside of the hospital.  Julia explains that she believes that everyone only gets one soul mate and Ricky is her one soul mate.  If she can't be with Ricky, she worries that she will never find love again.  As Avery listens from afar, Lexie tells Julia that she will find another soul mate because everyone has more than one in this world.  Lexie explains that Julia is lucky she found one of them, but there are more out there and she will find love again.  Julia decides to end her relationship with Ricky.  Later, Avery talks with Lexie and tells her that he overheard her conversation with Julia.  Avery tells Lexie that Mark is not her only soul mate in this world and there are a ton of guys out there who would kill for the opportunity to be with her, including himself.  One thing leads to another and those two wind up in the shower together!  See, I knew it!

The Chief finds out that Adele is back in the ER again.  This time she slipped and fell in the supermarket.  While she blames her fall on her new walking shoes that are supposed to tone up her derriere, the Chief starts to suspect that it is something more.  He asks Bailey to check out his wife, who in turn guns a gamut of tests, including one for substance abuse.  Bailey is stumped and seeks Meredith's insight about Adele's first visit to the ER.  Bailey admits to the Chief that she shares Meredith's concerns that Adele may be showing signs of Alzheimer's and suggests seeking the input from the best neurosurgeon in the country who happens to be at Seattle Grace.  The Chief finds Derek, Mark, and Owen on the rooftop hitting golf balls.  He asks Derek to please look at Adele to which Derek agrees.

Grey's Anatomy: The Musical?
I thought I was hallucinating when I heard that Grey's Anatomy was planning on a musical episode, but lo and behold, March 31 will be its premier.  Interesting...

BOOB TUBE REVIEW: Grey's Anatomy "Golden Hour" (Season 7, Episode 15)

It's been awhile since we've seen a fast-paced episode of Grey's that juggles several patient storylines, so this episode was a good diversion.  Don't get me wrong, I love the character storylines, which is the reason why I am so addicted to the show, but the anecdotal patient storylines keep things interesting and the episode going.

In this episode, Meredith volunteers to be in charge of the emergency room in hopes to bump herself up the list for Chief Resident consideration.  The race is still on and Meredith has her sights on this coveted position even if it means shifting her focus temporarily away from helping Derek with his Alzheimer's clinical trial.  Cristina thinks Meredith is crazy to volunteer for ER duty, and wonders why Meredith is acting rather giddy.  Meredith explains that her giddiness must be due to the hormone shots to help her and Derek to get pregnant.  This leads Cristina to admit to Meredith that Callie asked her to be her baby's godmother.  Meredith doesn't think that would be a good idea.

While in the ER, Meredith finds out how much can happen in one hour--from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.  First up for Meredith is Oliver who arrives at the ER complaining of chest pains.  Although he is in a rush to take his son to the big college basketball game, Meredith exercises all the necessary precautions and convinces Oliver to stay for tests to rule out any serious heart problems.  Unfortunately, the ER is busy that night and tests are taking a while to complete.

Meanwhile, Karev is in a rush too to get to the same basketball game because he has courtside tickets.  However, he is delayed when he has to stay at Seattle Grace to finish up his pile of incomplete charts.  Dr. Lucy Fields finds out about the tickets and helps Karev finish up his charts in hopes that her assistance will result in an invitation to the game.  After some obvious prodding from Lucy, Karev extends an invitation only to be shut down by her because she has to work.  It turns out that Lucy was just testing Karev.

Meredith is also juggling her commitments in the ER with a planned date with Derek at 6:30 pm.  Derek and Meredith are trying to get pregnant so timing is everything.  Derek drags her to the on-call room only to mistakenly interfere with Bailey's rendezvous with Eli.  I am so glad that Bailey is getting back into the swing of things!  Without anywhere else to go and Meredith desperate to get back to the ER, Derek drags her to the only other place he can think of...the elevator where he gives her a hormone shot.

Back in the ER, another patient who is also in rush to get to the basketball game arrives with a knife sticking out of his head.  The drunk patient and his equally drunk friend provide the ER some comical relief as the doctors try to figure out the proper course of action to remove the blade from his skull.  As the medical discussion continues in the next room, the patient's friend takes matters in his own hands and pulls out the knife without causing any damage to his friend's brain.  In fact, both are ready to go to the game.  With some stitches and bandages, the patient is released and both board a taxi cab to the basketball game.

As Meredith waits for Oliver's test results, she notices Nathan, a four-year-old boy with a broken femur that needs surgery.  Unfortunately, despite his parent's pleas and Nathan's cries of discomfort, an operating room is not available yet.  Meredith pleads with his parents to be patient, but is also side tracked when she notices Adele in the ER suffering from a sprained wrist.  Mrs. Webber asks Meredith not to say anything to the Chief.  She explains that she was taking Christmas decorations down and slipped and fell.  When Meredith comes back at a later time to check on her, she asks Adele again how she hurt her wrist.  Adele tells Meredith that she slipped and fell at home after coming from work.  Meredith grows suspicious and orders an head scan.

Lexie is also busy in the ER and releases her migraine patient when his scans come out negative.  Meredith takes a look at his chart and quickly runs out to the parking lot as the patient is just getting into his car.  she asks him to squint and raise both arms straight up.  Meredith makes a quick diagnosis that Lexie's patient is having a stroke and rushes him back to the ER where he is given blockers to stop the stroke from progressing further.  Meredith pulls Lexie aside and shows the differences in the patient's signature from when he was admitted and released.  The barely legible signature at the time of his release should have been a clear indicator for Lexie that her patient was having a stroke, but she was so caught up with the patient with the knife in his head that she missed the signs of this patient.  Thanks to Meredith, the patient makes a full recovery.

Meredith is also looking for signs in Adele, but when the Chief finds out that his wife is in the ER, he rushes to her side.  Adele's wrist is bandaged and is released before a head scan can be performed.  Meredith asks the Chief to keep Adele at the hospital to run a head scan, but the Chief refuses.  He doesn't want to hear what Meredith is suspecting, despite her explanations that Adele said she was taking down Christmas ornaments in February or fell down after she got home work even though she is retired.  The Chief tells Meredith to stop suspecting everyone is sick just because they are a little shaken up or confused.

Speaking of tests, Oliver is still waiting on the results of his tests as his son keeps calling his cell phone.  As Meredith consults with Teddy, Oliver suddenly codes in the ER with a dissecting aorta.  Teddy apologetically asks her date to wait while her faux husband Henry keeps her date company in the waiting room causing an awkward situation.  Teddy and Meredith rush Oliver to the operating room with no time to spare.  Meredith hands bottle of hand sanitizer to Teddy in the elevator because they don't even have time to scrub in.  Despite their quick actions, Oliver's aorta is completely shredded and he dies on the table.  Meredith is completely crest fallen.

After losing Oliver, Meredith visits the hospital nursery to admire the newborns and wonders when she and Derek will have their own newborn to admire.  Remember when Meredith and George used to escape to the nursery to look at the babies to make them feel better after a really rough shift?  Meredith tells Cristina that the reason she doesn't want Cristina to be godmother to Callie's baby is because if Christina agrees to be someone else's godmother, it would be like she's saying Meredith will never have a baby of her own.  To support Meredith, Cristina agrees not be a godmother for Callie's baby.

In all that has happened in one short hour, Meredith forgets about Nathan and inquires if an operating room is available.  Nathan's dad tells her that a doctor stepped up to take care of Nathan--Dr. Karev.  Karev is in the operating room with Nathan while Lucy is impressed with Karev's selfless act of giving up his courtside basketball tickets to take care of a young patient.  As it turns out, Karev gives his tickets to Avery who invites Lexie to join him.  Do I see a romance brewing in the horizon?

However, not everyone will be able to go to the basketball game.  Meredith hears Oliver's cell phone ring in the bag of his belongings and answers the call from Oliver's son.  After she relays the bad news, Meredith composes herself and goes back seeing patients.  It's 7:00 pm.

Next episode, Meredith's vision is compromised by the hormone treatments.

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.