Shiny Happy People – and I am a shiny happy person because this week’s episode is a vast improvement.
To start with, the episode takes off on a much less somber tone than recent eps, at Derek’s soirée he’s held for some unspecified reason. The ever horny docs are bored with the formalness of the gala and entertain themselves by swilling martinis and making out, except for Owen, who entertains himself by dodging Mer’s Meaningful Looks of Evil and asking Cristina to move in with him. Whoop.
Also, Mark takes Reed home with him, only for Teddy to walk in on the surgical Tinkerbell peeking out from underneath the sheets and Mark himself emerging from a steamy shower. Unabashed, Mark cheerily suggests a threesome.
Bailey and Ben also gets their rocks off, finally. Bailey is admant that she does not want her personal business to be the subject of hospital gossip “like every little resident ho” (hee), but ends up giving the game away herself the next day, when she steps into the elevator with Mark and Derek, humming a cheerful tune. After she gets off, Ben gets on, humming the same tune, before leaving too. Mark: “Go Bailey.” Derek: “Indeed.” Hee hee.
Teddy takes the Mark incident in good stride, and just laughs when Owen offers to defend her honor. Mer, however, narrows her Eyes of Meaningful Evil and cryptically tells Cristina that something is probably going on between Owen and Teddy, planting seeds of doubt in Cristina’s brain and messes with her head. It doesn’t help that they’re working on the cases of two old people who have been reunited after decades apart, and have loved each other ever since. With each utterance of “there was never another one I could love as much”, Cristina looks like she wants to spit on the floor. The last straw is when Richard observes Hunt and Altman working together and compares them to himself and Ellis Grey. Cristina realizes this makes her Thatcher. Cristina does not like being compared to her best friend’s cuckolded dad. Especially since he wears those really ugly cardigans.
Lexie is happy because she is now officially in a relationship (or as he puts it, “a thing, a whatever”) with Alex, but Meredith, cementing her evolved character into the role of the passive know-all, surmises that she still loves Mark.
But Mer’s tired of being the passive know-all when it comes to Cristina. Her burn victim patient has forced her best friend, another burn victim, to stop being so relentlessly positive and seek reassurance in realism as well, which inspires her. So Mer confronts Derek. He gives her a hug. Mer confronts Owen. He looks unnerved. She tells him to come clean to Cristina about Teddy or all 102 pounds of her is going to KICK his ass. So Owen tells Cristina that he doesn’t know what his feelings are for Teddy, but they’re strong enough to throw his PTSD out of whack. Cristina does not take this well; in fact, she balls him out and whoops, Teddy’s kind of overheard.
Poor Bailey is stunned after seeing Ben flirting with another doctor, and asks Mark why one woman isn’t enough for some men, prompting him to have a good think. Callie, who’s missing Arizona, also thinks Mark and Lexie still love one another, and tells him to tell her, for goshsakes.
Alex, whose speciality is treating crazy women, is trying to discover the true ailment of a teenager diagnosed with schizophrenia. The teenager is played by Demi Lovato, who thanks to a lesson from my little cousins, I know as a star of the Nickelodeon channel. With the help of Lexie’s encyclopedia memory, Alex correctly diagnoses Demi as having some kind of freakish hearing problem, and heals her. He tells Lexie that she rocks, and a beaming Lexie turns to find Mark behind her. Mark says that he still loves her. Lexie stammers, “I have a boyfriend.” And he’s young and cute and thinks I rock because I have a brain like velcro. Mark replies sadly that she could have a husband, and walks off leaving her stunned.
Wha – ? Did he just propose? Mark Sloan, man whore? (Or, to be more precise, man whore turned devoted lover turned man whore turned committed boyfriend turned papa wolf turned swingin’ bachelor turned grandpa turned man whore again?)
Callie and Arizona run into each other – oddly wearing hers ‘n hers style outfits – and share a confused kiss. Where is this going, I wonder?
Oh, and Ben and Bailey sort out their shit and are a-OK, which I like, because Bailey’s eyes are pretty when she’s happy.
As for the old couple, they defy the Narm Law (one of ’em has to die) and they kiss and make plans to live out the rest of their years in a nice little house with a view. This moment is sweet to all except, of course, Cristina.
Mer and Der are in bed making their own plans for the future when a miserable-looking Cristina barges in. Derek knows the drill and leaves. Cristina gets into bed and tells Meredith, “Well … I’m not living with Owen.” And thus concludes our episode.
Mer wraps it up: “We’re trying to be the happy people we wish we were [but the happiness] has been there all along … in the comfortable, the familiar.”
So why was this episode so great? Because it didn’t try to be all fake smiles or all dull gloom. It was realistic. It showed that you can have realistic, passionate negativity. Because like the burn victim said, false hope is not always the most comforting, but passionate realism can be.
