GREY’S ANATOMY: ‘These Arms of Mine’

Wow. This is why we watch GREY’S ANATOMY, people. It may not be as “cool” a show as it used to be, and people seem to love to hate on it (though let’s be honest, you don’t hate on something so much if it means nothing to you), but there’s a reason that GREY’S is still one of ABC’s highest rated shows. It’s because they pull out episodes like this…

Richard wasn’t kidding last week when he told Bailey that things were going to be different for a little while. Seattle Grace is the subject of a TV special, and there are cameras all around to capture the doctors’ every move. The episode is shot mockumentary-style, complete with melodramatic captions, follow-up interviews, and misleading “coming up next” segments.

Because of the different style of the episode, more emphasis is put on the patients than usual, so let’s take a look at them, shall we? First up is Lily, a fourth grader with a recurring tumor that’s blocking her airway. She’s in a bad situation, but Arizona and Alex are on the case and come up with an experimental procedure to save her. Alex has been on a lot of pediatric cases lately and admits to the film crew that he’s considering a full-time pediatrics career. Because it’s challenging, you see, not because he likes kids or anything. No, he hates kids. Did he mention he hates kids? Now excuse him while he goes and sings a Justin Bieber song just to make Lily smile while she’s in the MRI machine, and sleeps in a cot in her room when her mom can’t be there. Oh, Alex. If this is you hating kids, feel free to hate me too. (Except no Justin Bieber songs please. I’m pissed enough that I had to spend time looking up how to spell the boy’s name. Is the “fever” over yet?)

Our next patient of the week is a familiar face. Mandy Moore returns as Mary, the woman whom Bailey was trapped with while the crazy gunman shot up Seattle Grace last May. She’s there to finally have her colostomy reversal surgery, the procedure she was going to have on the day of the shooting before all the, you know, shooting. Bailey performs the surgery herself and after it goes perfectly, she looks more relaxed and happy than we’ve seen her all season. You can tell she viewed this surgery as a way to finally start putting the past behind her. But sadly, Bailey doesn’t get her happy ending. In a tragic turn of events, Mary doesn’t wake up after the surgery. No reason, no logic, it’s just one of those rare medical events with no decipherable cause. In the end, Mary’s fiancé decides to take her off life support and I restrain myself from throwing things at my TV. You can’t kill Mandy Moore! She’s so cute and sunshine-y! And poor Bailey! Damn it GREY’S, why do you hurt me like this? I’m like an abused lover, I keep coming back for more…

Our final patient this week is a guy with no arms. And hey, his wife is Amanda Foreman, also known as crazy baby-stealing lady from PRIVATE PRACTICE, or (nearer to my heart) Meghan from FELICITY! No-arms guy is at Seattle Grace to get an arm transplant. (Wait, is that real? Can they do that?) It’s an incredibly complicated procedure that involves nearly all of the surgical staff, but after an exhausting day in the OR, they achieve success and the guy gets to go home with a brand new set of arms. But wait…what’s this…the arms have a mind of their own! They’re doing terrible things and he can’t stop them! Don’t do it, evil arms! No! Noooooooooooooo! …Okay, none of that happened, the arms are fine. Hey, it’s Halloween, I had to throw a little cheesy horror into the mix. <grin>

Other storylines: Richard spends every minute of his camera time overselling how awesome the hospital is and how safe they are with a brand new security system in place, nevermind that it keeps breaking down and preventing the doctors from doing their jobs. (It’s eventually uninstalled.) Meanwhile, Meredith spends every minute of her camera time covering for Cristina, who’s still far from okay. And finally, Callie and Arizona actually get a real problem to deal with. Arizona has been awarded an amazing research grant. The only catch? She has to move to Africa. After a lot of angst and arguing, Callie comes up with the perfect solution: she’ll move to Africa too! They both resign from the hospital and start packing. Well, so long kids, I guess we’ll see you in a couple of years. Either that or we’ll see you when Jessica Capshaw’s maternity leave is over. One of the two.

Without a doubt, this was an extremely well done episode. Easily the best episode of the season so far, and in my opinion one of the better episodes of the whole series. Some of my favorite moments:

• Lexie chewing out the security guard for not letting her in the building (again) even though he sees her every day.
• The fun little bromance moment between Derek and Mark. We don’t get to see much of their relationship anymore – it was nice.
• How adorable was Alex going to Lily’s fourth grade show-and-tell? Everybody say “awww” with me…

Now your turn! What moments did you like best? Who was your favorite patient of the week? Leave your comments below!

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