Grey’s Anatomy Recap: 5.01 “Dream a Little Dream of Me”

5.01 “Dream A Little Dream of Me”

Original airdate: September 25, 2008

 

The fifth season begins pretty much where the fourth season left off, with Meredith standing in her candlelit floor plan, waiting for Derek to return. Meredith is narrating about fairytales, “the stuff of dreams.” The problem with fairytales, as far as Meredith is concerned is that “they don’t come true,” and it’s all the other stories, the nightmarish ones, that do.

We then see a worried Cristina standing next to a worried Chief at the hospital. Meredith bursts through the doors asking what happened and we learn that Derek was in an accident. Bailey and Mark are trying to save Derek’s life but to no avail. Derek dies. Meredith cries hysterically.

And then we’re happy to learn that it was all a dream. Well, phew. Because we really all thought that they’d kill off McDreamy in the first fifty seconds of the show.

On to Reality in Seattle Grace, and Meredith wakes up from her bad dream and runs off to join everyone else.

Everyone Else is standing around Bailey, who’s sitting at a computer waiting for the hospital rankings to be posted. This appears to be a Matter of Great Importance as the rankings tell the world how awesome Seattle Grace is in relation to other teaching hospitals. The surgeons toss around their predictions as to where they’ll fall in the list. Derek doesn’t think they’ll manage to be number one, which will put them at number two. But Erica thinks they might go as low as number three. Derek calls her a pessimist. They bicker about rankings and how it’s not bad to be in the top five.

Eventually, the rankings go up. Seattle Grace is not in the top five.

“Twelve!” the Chief shouts and then rants about how this is not a number twelve teaching hospital. George, who’s walking with him, agrees.

And then we cut to the locker room where George is talking to Lexie about his internship exam. Lexie tells him he’ll be ready for the exam and starts to quiz him. At which point, Lexie stands closer to George and sniffs him. Not at all weird. And George sort of notices but sort of doesn’t at all and Lexie calls attention to the fact that it’s snowing outside (did I forget to mention that? sorry). This leads to George talking about apocalypses and global warming, which must sound terribly romantic because Lexie kinda looks like she’s swooning. George exits with melodramatic flair and Lexie whispers after him, “I adore you.”

We move on to Cristina and Meredith. Cristina’s interns trail behind them in dejected silence while Meredith tells Cristina about her Dead Derek dreams. Cristina doesn’t really care about the Dead Derek dreams, she’s more concerned with the whole Number Twelve Situation. Meredith continues on about Derek and Cristina goes on about how she’s too good for a number twelve hospital. They go back and forth like this until the conversation somehow leads to Meredith asking Derek to move in with her and how that’s a big step she doesn’t want to mess up. And then she goes into a laundry list of things she messed up before and includes the sleeping with George, which instantly catches Lexie’s attention. She tries to get details out of Cristina but fails.

Meanwhile, Derek and Mark are complaining about the Number Twelve Situation. And then Rose appears. Derek greets her as if nothing had ever happened and she sort of glares at him, says a friendly hi to Mark, and then walks off. Mark tells Derek that he’s going to have to break up with Rose professionally in addition to emotionally because Rose is harboring “delayed rage.”

Moving on to the Chief, who’s standing on the bridge, deep in thought (I’m guessing) about the Number Twelve Situation. He’s watching the apocalyptic snow when Erica approaches and asks him for a list on ways to improve her teaching methods. The Chief tells her “not right now” several times, because he’s pissed off that Seattle Grace has been downgraded to a number two level trauma center which means their ER is going to remain empty, even with all of the accidents that are sure to occur due to the black ice on the roads.

The Chief walks off and Erica starts walking until she spots Callie coming from the opposite direction. They look at each other awkwardly and then turn around and walk away from each other, in a very humorous, obvious way.

Meredith, Bailey, Izzie, Cristina and Alex are outside, praying for accidents so severe that people have no choice but to come for treatment at Seattle Grace. They argue back and forth about the logic of standing out in the cold when no one is going to come. But as they start to give up, someone does come. A banged up limo slides up carrying three injured women and a limo driver who’s very much near death.

We learn that the women were coming from a ball and that their husbands were riding in a different limousine. They keep trying to reach their husbands on their cell phones but have no luck.

One of the women starts to show signs of memory loss.

In Sapphic Awkwardville, Erica and Callie run into each other again and this time attempt that very foreign concept of conversation. Erica starts off with a very bold, “Hi,” and Callie returns a tentative, “Hey,” and they stare at each other and then walk together exchanging tales of being busy with research. What have they been researching so much, I wonder? They eventually reach the merciful presence of Bailey.

Callie walks off after learning there’s nothing for her to learn. Erica stays behind to get the lowdown on the limo driver. She ends up trying out her teaching on Bailey, which goes unappreciated. Sloan saunters over and imparts his wisdom on teaching style which pretty much consists of being a huge jerk. Or as Lexie puts it, “an ass.”

Meredith and Derek get a quick moment alone during which she asks him to move in with her. He says yes and asks if she’s ready. She says she’s “leaning into the fear to get a happy ending.” Derek has no idea what that means but it doesn’t matter because they’re distracted by the sounds of the limo driver flatlining. The limo driver didn’t make it. The Chief isn’t happy.

Meanwhile, Cristina and Bailey exchange laments about the Number Twelve Situation and Bailey says she has a dream of traumas one day coming into the hospital. She makes mention of three men in serious condition getting sent to Mercy West instead of Seattle Grace and Cristina’s lightbulb goes off. “You mean like three men that could be married to those ladies?”

Oh hey, what a coincidence. It is the husbands of the three ladies. And Bailey and Cristina hide their glee (sort of) as they inform the ladies that they can insist their husbands be brought to this hospital. The ladies insist of course and Bailey and Cristina practically skip away.

The husbands get brought in and we’re introduced to Kevin McKidd’s character, Dr. Hunt, who’s an army doctor with a very bold style. Cristina is impressed right away.

The ladies all reunite with their husbands, more or less. All the men are in critical condition and will need surgery. One of them, Phil, can’t feel his legs.

Meanwhile, Cristina gets assigned to stitch up Dr. Hunt’s leg which got cut up in the process of helping out the husbands.

Betty, the woman that showed signs of memory loss, is now experiencing a full memory reset every thirty seconds. Izzie takes the woman to get scanned and she and Alex finally get a moment to talk. Izzie asks him if he’s fine, he says he’s fine.

Elsewhere, one of the women, Anna, is confessing to Meredith that she was cheating on her husband with her best friend’s husband. Meredith tells her, “These things happen.” But really it’s just making Meredith panic about the whole thing with Derek and whether or not it’s a good idea to move in together.

In the OR, Callie pulls Derek out of surgery so he can take a look at Phil’s situation. Phil is the one who can’t feel his legs and who’s married to Anna (the one that’s cheating). They discuss the situation and it doesn’t look good for hope of him walking again, but Dr. Hunt appears out of the blue to suggest a radical treatment that involves freezing the patient. He says it will give Phil a chance to walk again. But Derek is set against it because he feels the patient isn’t fit for the procedure, making him a risky candidate. Callie, on the other hand, looks interested.

Meanwhile, Bailey is explaining to Sara Beth (she who’s husband, Michael, is sleeping with Anna) what’s going on with her husband. Alex walks over to join them and brings over a piece of paper that informs them that the lady’s insurance is expiring at midnight. Bailey asks if there’s another card or another policy. Sara Beth says her husband took care of all of those matters.

Cristina finally manages to wrangle Dr. Hunt and get him to sit down long enough to stitch up his leg. Dr. Hunt, the ever impressive one, begins stapling up his own cut without even being numbed. Cristina continues to be impressed. Callie walks in and asks Dr. Hunt to tell her about “the freezing thing.”

In the OR, Rose is being passive aggressive towards Derek. Delayed rage indeed!

Meredith takes a minute to catch Izzie and Cristina up on all the gossip and the cheating. She takes a moment to bring up Derek and her hesitation about the moving in thing, which makes Cristina run away because she’s sick of hearing about it. But Izzie tells Mer that it’s all about the man and goes on to point out the good men from the bad: George is a good man, Sloan isn’t, Alex is a good man. Meredith asks if Izzie and Alex are hooking up but Izzie waves it away under the guise of making a point.

In one of the ORs, the Chief is going on about how the Number Twelve Situation was a mistake and how he’s going to get on the phone and clear it up once he gets out of there. Cristina finally makes it there. Erica reveals that she’s been observing teaching styles. The Chief tells her that if she really wants to learn about teaching she should talk to her students. So Erica turns to Cristina and asks her how she likes to learn. Cristina says she learns best when she’s asked questions.

Then the patient starts to crash and the teaching conversation comes to a halt.

Sloan has a heart-to-heart with Lexie and plays matchmaker in his own, smooth way. Which earns him a couple of “shut ups” from Lexie.

Alex, meanwhile, is out and about trying to help out the lady with the insurance problems. He asks Meredith if she knows anything about that, and Meredith doesn’t, but comments about “the softer side of Alex,” and adds, “Izzie was right.” Which only serves to make Alex paranoid. “Did she say that I cried?” Overreacting surgeon is overreacting. He storms off.

Back in the OR, Cristina is – gasp – screwing up a stitch. Erica tells her that she’d know how to do the stitch if she weren’t allowed to clock so many hours in cardio. Cristina looks very unhappy about screwing up.

Meanwhile, the wives get the bad news: Phil is never going to walk again, and Michael is never going to talk again. Vincent made it through the surgery but is still in critical condition.

In Exes Awkwardville, Derek approaches Rose and they have a very unproductive conversation. Derek tells her she should switch to a different specialty. Rose says she’s not going anywhere.

Callie approaches the Chief and tells him she wants to try the freezing procedure on Phil. It will give him a chance to maybe walk again. The Chief tells her to go for it.

Meanwhile Lexie and George exchange an unproductive conversation in which Lexie sort of kinda looks like maybe she wants to confess to George that she lurves him but George doesn’t give her a chance.

Meredith is following Cristina around, talking about Derek and how she imagines their future together. Cristina tries to walk away from her, going all the way outside to do so, and eventually tells Meredith to shut up about the whole Derek thing because she’s tired of hearing about it. She tells Meredith that she and Derek will never work.

And then she slips on the ice and gets impaled by a falling icicle. She then has a vision of her and Meredith in the future. They’re very old and eating chicken. I’m not quite sure the point of this vision. To show that Cristina doesn’t want things to work out with Meredith and Derek because she wants Meredith to grow old with her instead? I don’t know. But I thought the makeup department did a good job there.

Thankfully, Dr. Hunt comes to the rescue and picks Cristina up, icicle and all. Cristina is impatient to get the icicle taken out but Dr. Hunt and the Chief insist it stays in until they know what’s going on inside. The Chief puts Meredith in charge of making sure Vincent (the critical patient) makes it through the night.

Derek is still in surgery, this time taking care of Betty, the woman with the memory loss problem. Rose is still being passive aggressive, only it suddenly turns aggressive when she hands Derek a scalpel and cuts up his hand. Rose at least looks like she knows she went too far there.

Eventually, Derek wanders in to check on Phil and finds that Callie, Bailey and the Chief have taken matters into their own hands with the freezing procedure. Derek is dead set against them doing it but the Chief says they’re going through with it. Derek storms off.

Meanwhile, Cristina is still impaled by the icicle and yelling at her interns because they’re not doing things right. Meredith comes in to talk more about Derek and to ask Cristina if she meant what she said about them not working out. Cristina says it doesn’t matter what she thinks, but Meredith says that of course it matters. Then Meredith walks away.

Izzie comes in to talk to Alex and Alex is pissed off at her and is all sorts of cruel and cold. Izzie figures out that Meredith must have said something.

In the land of experimental treatments, Callie, Bailey and the Chief begin the freezing procedure and are already patting each other on the back before they have even done anything. So you sort of know that things are not going to go perfectly well.

Meredith and Derek have found each other and Meredith is treating Derek’s hand. Meredith tells him that she’s not sure moving in together is a good idea. Derek says that’s fine, that he’s going to “move very slowly, baby steps.” They sort of then decide to move in together anyway. I think. It’s somewhat unclear and then Izzie comes over demanding to know what Meredith said to Alex. Izzie’s pissed and tells Meredith to mind her own business.

Back in Frostyland, things are going wrong. Callie starts to panic because she’s not as sure about what to do as she thought she was and everyone’s looking at her for answers and she says she doesn’t know what to do. Oops.

Anna confesses to Sara Beth that she’s having an affair with her husband and that her husband lost his job eight months before (which explains the issue with the insurance). He was fired and couldn’t bring himself to tell her. Sara Beth starts to process what it all means but Vincent, the guy in critical condition whose room they decided to chat in, starts to flatline and their conversation is cut short.

Back to Frostyland, Erica arrives to help. Callie is still panicking and things aren’t looking good. But Erica conjures up wisdom that manages to speak both about the situation at hand and the situation between them, and it seems to help Callie through the panic. Looks like the procedure might be a success after all.

Cristina still has the icicle in her side, but Dr. Hunt appears rather suddenly and yanks it right out.

Meredith comes by to tell Cristina that Vincent didn’t make it. And it cuts to the Chief looking pensive. He tells Derek that he’s been soft and blames it on the fact that Meredith is there. Right on cue, Meredith appears to give him the bad news about Vincent. The Chief yells at her and tells her she doesn’t know how to do anything. Not just her, but any of them. He says they should all try harder.

The ladies get the bad news about Vincent and Anna tries to get Sara Beth to forgive her but Sara Beth is too angry and walks away.

Dr. Hunt is stitching Cristina up. They have a conversation about trauma surgery. Cristina says that she killed a man because she didn’t know how to do a stitch. Dr. Hunt tells her that making mistakes are how you learn.

Betty comes out of the surgery but it doesn’t look like it did anything to fix her memory problem.

Rose finds Derek and apologizes to him about the hand incident. She says she’s transferring. And apologizes again about the hand.

Sloan continues to dispense love advice to Lexie.

In the OR, Bailey tells Alex to set the clock back to 11:58PM (even though it’s 2:30AM) so that the patient will still be covered by the insurance.

And back in the room with Cristina and Hunt, sparks are flying between them. Hunt tells Cristina she should leave the hospital and go out in search of adventure but Cristina is pretty happy where she is. Then the Chief comes by and offers Hunt a job. Random but expected. Hunt turns it down. I expect he’ll be changing his mind soon enough.

Then Hunt closes the blinds and kisses Cristina. Random but effective. Cristina looks positively smitten.

Elsewhere, Bailey, Derek, and Callie are congratulating themselves because Phil can wiggle his toes. They made a man walk! They’re rather pleased with themselves.

Lexie tries very unsuccessfully to reveal her feelings to George but George calls her his best friend and Lexie chickens out on revealing that what she feels is more romantic than that.

Callie spots Erica and approaches her, talking about experiments and their success and I kind of lost track of what she’s meant originally, but then it’s clear that they’re talking about their feelings for one another and the uncertainty of where to go next. Both confess that they have no experience with other women so they walk off joking about how that makes them virgins of a sort. I’m sure they’ll be doing a lot of “research.”

Back at home, Meredith helps Cristina into bed and then they have a big heart-to-heart about how Meredith needs Cristina to be on board with what she does with Derek, because she’s her person. So Cristina says that she and Derek will make it and that she’s on Meredith’s side.

Izzie walks out of her room to see Alex making out with another girl. And she suddenly has this weird fantasy about walking out of an elevator to find Denny waiting for her there. I felt this was the most random and pointless use of Jeffrey Dean Morgan ever. It’s like they threw this scene together. But I think it was trying to illustrate something about happy endings and how they only exist in people’s imagination.

Meredith appears at Derek’s and she’s putting boxes together and Derek is packing so it looks like the moving in together is a go.

And then it’s the next day, and it’s no longer snowing in Seattle, and the Chief has called a meeting. He lays out everything that’s gone wrong with their program, and that things need to change, because they have all failed. “It stops now. The surgical training protocol is officially changing.”

Narrator Meredith closes off the episode with, “Reality, it’s so much more interesting than living happily ever after.”

And…credits.

Overall, I thought the premiere was enjoyable enough. I feel like it was more of a setup of things to come than a particularly eventful episode, which I think makes sense being that it was a season premiere. I’m looking forward to seeing all of the couples develop and I’m excited about the changes in the training protocol. It was pretty clear throughout the episode that things need to change in that department. I think it was a nice wake-up call for Cristina to realize that she’s not all-knowing and that she can make mistakes. I’d love to see where they go with that.

There’s no new episode of Grey’s Anatomy (or Ugly Betty, for that matter), so we’ll have to wait another week before we get to see what happens next. But I’m looking forward to it.