Grey’s Anatomy – That’s one powerful heart in a box

I can’t remember the last time someone mentioned the name George O’Malley,  who was crushed by a bus in the season five finale and died during the season six premiere, virtually unrecognizable, in Seattle Grace as his best friend/former lover fought cancer.

There was certainly a lot of hub-bub about T.R. Knight’s departure from Grey’s Anatomy but since George’s funeral, not much else has been said about the poor, Good Samaritan. Until his mother turned up as a patient in the latest episode.

Having the characters talk about George again — and, pointedly, several characters saying they didn’t even know who George was — was refreshing, like a reminder of the old Grey’s days. It was a moment to remember that Callie, before having Sofia, before marrying Arizona, before getting mixed up with McSteamy, before dating Erica Hahn, had been living in the basement of the hospital, then moved into a pricey hotel with her brand new husband George.

There was something charming about putting Callie together with Louise O’Malley who, even though Callie and George divorced, still loves her one-time daughter-in-law. There was a period of time, many years ago, when Callie told George she wanted to have a baby with him (the same day she was appointed chief resident in fact) and Louise later started giving them all these hand-stitched baby and toddler clothes in giddy anticipation … anticipation for a moment that never arrived. In this current episode, once Callie confessed to her that she’s  married to Arizona and has a daughter, Louise’s big heart longingly opened up with desire to learn all about Sofia and the new life Callie was leading. That was unexpectedly touching, as were Louise’s statements about how comforting it was to be around George’s friends.

Speaking of opening hearts, the big metaphor here was obviously that heart in a box, that weird, pumping machine that Richard persuaded everyone to see as more than just a machine.

For Avery, the whole discussion about hearts and what’s important in life led him to dump Lexie so he could work, unencumbered, with Sloan on the “Plastics Posse.” His lamenting the fact that Lexie was still in love with Mark was getting in the way of Avery’s work, so Lexie had to go, he reasoned.

For Lexie, it was the recognition that Avery was right, that she, like the lead female character in the book series being written by her patient, was in a love triangle and that while she should pick Avery, she’s drawn to Mark. She just can’t help herself.

For Teddy, it was the jarring back-and-forth of her husband Henry’s life plans that was affected by all this “what’s important” talk around the hospital. One minute, Henry was talking about going to medical school because, now that he was healthy, he had his whole life ahead of him, then the next minute, he was  spitting up blood in the kitchen sink.

The Bailey “explanation,” if that’s what you could call it, about why she’s been so angry with Meredith regarding the Alzheimer’s trial business, didn’t really provide satisfactory justification for her prolonged snit this season. Saying that Meredith was “maddening” and likening her to a child was an unpersuasive rationalization for Bailey’s grumpiness, though I did find her noting that George was “her favorite” moving. I was surprised that she made no mention of how he had helped talked her through childbirth when she had initially refused to have the baby at the same time her husband was in surgery. (She was so grateful for his support that one of her son’s middle names is “George.”) But perhaps that close connection between Bailey and George was supposed to be implied.

I didn’t realize it, but I miss George.

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on Nov 04, 2011 @ 15:37 EST5EDT