Grey’s Anatomy – Manning up

Sure, the whole penis transplant thing could be construed as an awkward metaphor for a lot of things, like April Kepner’s virginity, Mark Sloan’s unrequited lust for Lexie, Miranda Bailey’s desire to swap boyfriends, Avery standing up for himself in the face of his mother’s public badgering and Derek feeling emasculated by what Meredith’s actions did to his clinical trial, his reputation and to the now-suspended custody of their daughter.

And yet the transplant storyline just seemed too much, too sledgehammer-ish even for Grey’s Anatomy, especially after last week’s erectile dysfunction jokes.

That being said, the appearance of Avery’s well known surgeon mother Catherine Avery (Debbie Allen) did add a much needed depth to his character, demonstrating that he’s more than just that guy who’s fond of shedding his clothing in order to flaunt his chest or the fact that he’s simply the latest bed mate for Little Grey.

Although he initially acted like a resentful child as his mother delivered her grandiose, showy on-stage reveal of her penis-less patient, Avery eventually displayed smooth confidence in his chosen specialty, as well as skill, even as his mother mocked him for being lazy for choosing plastics. However his mother’s right about one thing: He’s headed for heartbreak when his main squeeze eventually gets back together with Sloan, as we all know she will or at least wants to. If that doesn’t happen I will be shocked.

The other big storyline — other than Bailey dumping poor Eli because she obviously wants to be with Ben instead — was the impact that Zola being admitted to Seattle Grace had on the folks there. (Permit me a tangent: Did the social worker honestly believe that she could bring that child into Seattle Grace suffering from seizures and a bowel obstruction and not have Meredith and Derek find out about it? If she was so concerned about them attempting to meddle in Zola’s care or going to see her, she should’ve taken the baby to another hospital, so perhaps this was a test of some sort, or just naive stupidity.)

The baby’s surgery had a domino effect on three fronts: It prompted pompous Derek to finally, finally show some compassion for his wife and, for a tiny moment, stop blaming her for having a big heart and occasional poor judgment when that heart overrules her head.

The specter of being shut out of Sofia’s care taking because she’s not legally the baby’s mother freaked Arizona out. She insisted that Callie make her status as one of Sofia’s parents legally binding so she won’t have to endure anything like what Derek and Meredith were dealing with. Valid point. Wonder if the Grey’s Anatomy writers will make it a procedural paperwork kind of thing, perhaps something that’s never mentioned again, or have Arizona’s desire to be a legal custodian become a political issue.

Most ominous was the impact Zola’s presence had on Cristina and Owen, in the wake of Cristina’s decision to have an abortion even though Owen wanted to keep the baby. Cristina took it upon herself to look after Zola overnight in the hospital because her best friend couldn’t. (The “Itsy Bitsy Spider” over the phone scene was beautiful.) Surprisingly, the woman who swore up and down that she doesn’t want to be a mother, that she can’t be a mother, that she doesn’t have what it takes to be a mother was wonderful with Zola.

Seeing the sweet interaction between Cristina and Zola play out right in front of him proved to be too painful to Owen as he fled the hospital even though he’d planned to hang out for a while. On the surface, Owen seems to be handling his disappointment about the abortion a heck of a lot better than Derek is handling Meredith’s decision to help Adele and, in the process, screw up the clinical trial. But clearly Owen’s got a lot of unresolved issues there, ones that could fatally wound their marriage, even though they do enjoy hot sex on the kitchen floor and bond on the bathroom floor while they’re suffering from food poisoning. The floor’s apparently a big thing with this couple.

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on Oct 14, 2011 @ 12:42 EST5EDT