The new Grey’s Anatomy episode, Invasion, shows us exactly that – the infection of Seattle Grace by the former doctors of Mercy West (boo and hiss). I say ‘infection’ because they lean pretty heavy on the Mercy Westers = invading germs metaphor. It was also revealed that a beloved doctor would be fired in this one, but we’ll cover that at the end.
It’s a rather weird episode, really – I’m not sure exactly why all the MW doctors were such meanies, or why the SG docs were so touchy about sharing their metaphorical toys. Each resident (except for Meredith, still laid up in bed after her liver transplant – a great baby-bump-hider) is appointed a MW playmate, and none of them are happy about this.
The new kids are shown to be obnoxious kiss-asses from the word go, except for (of course) Izzie’s companion, who later turns out to be the worst of them all. Lexie gets assigned to a perky teacher’s pet who wins a surgery with Derek and boils Lexie’s blood so much that she is persuaded by their patient – a petty thief – to nick the girl’s special notebook of secret thoughts (seriously) and use it against her. But, yeah, she soon feels bad and tells her little bacterium that she knows being the new kid is hard, and blah blah blah it’s just like high school with scalpels and be nice to the foreign exchange student.
The beautiful Callie Torres occupies the screen again as her father, who previously disowned her for her relationship with Arizona, returns with a priest in tow. Callie sees red and leaves, while hitting Torres Sr with the brilliant line: “YOU CAN’T PRAY AWAY THE GAY!”
Callie later confides in Arizona, who has a heart-to-heart with Callie’s dad in her usual endearingly timid way, telling him that how she was named for the WWII battleship on which her grandfather was killed, and how this has always been a symbol of strength for her. Cheesy? Yes. Effective? Most def. Torres Sr finally accepts that Callie is a lesbian and that he loves her anyway, and so do I. (Not that I have anything against lesbianism, but I always felt that Callie’s ‘turning’ was kind of a contrived transformation. This episode made it feel more natural, maybe because it showed Callie’s fidelity to her new sexuality and relationship rather than her awkwardness in accepting it.)
So, to wrap it up … who got fired?
(Drumroll … )
… Izzie Stevens! Was the beloved doctor in question to get the sack from the good ol’ Chief. I’ll admit I was surprised. I had no idea that Izzie was beloved.
After receiving a number of reports from attendings – and Alex Karev, though he had intended to acheive the opposite result – that post-cancer-battle Izzie was in an emotionally fragile state (what, for a change?.. sorry. I’ll stop now), and after Iz herself proved this by being so consumed with rage that her MW companion Charlie is a dickwad that she potentially killed a patient, the Chief finally saw fit to give her the boot. And Izzie, continuing the bizarre trend of creating and terminating marriages via post-it in the locker room, disappeared and told Alex it was over on the aformentioned locker-room note. What romantic fools these surgeons are.
Pretty good episode yet again, though edging back into Cheese Territory. On the bright side, we can look forward to 5 Izzie-free episodes, some interesting new characters who – fingers crossed – might reintroduce the habit of talking like normal people, and what looks like an explosive ep for next week.
Just one ongoing bitchitude – fix the motherfunking MUSIC, Shonda. The music MADE this show. Now? It stinks.
Thank you for your time. See you next week.
