Grey’s Anatomy Discussion & Recap 5.10 “All By Myself”

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Last night’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy saw quite a few romantic storylines either develop or move forward. And I have to say I really enjoyed the episode overall.

“All By Myself” focuses mainly on the first solo surgery. Yang is picked by the attendings as the best possible candidate for the job, but due to last week’s mishap she’s forced to give up her spot to a fellow resident. The episode follows Yang as she struggles with the decision of who to pick.

Major storylines presented in this episode:

- Alex/Izzie/Denny: We’ve done a lot of discussing with regards to the whole Denny/Izzie thing. And now we know what’s causing it. In this episode Alex tells Izzie that he loves her. I thought his speech was really beautiful, about how she makes him want to be good, and how he’s never going to leave her. Meanwhile, Izzie is busy having “the best sex anyone’s ever had” with … well, herself, really … but in her mind, with Denny. I found it interesting that George is the only one that seems at all concerned about Izzie. Even Alex, who claims to love her, thinks that her bizarre behavior is all about him. Alex gets picked for the solo surgery and asks Izzie to scrub in. And she shows up, giving the impression that she loves him back. I am interested to see how all of that is going to play out, once Izzie’s health problems come to light and the Denny-hallucinations are uncovered.

- Mark/Lexie: The two of them have been circling each other for quite a few episodes and the sexual tension hits an ultimate high in this episode. Mark spends the whole episode being gruff with Lexie because he secretly wants her. And at the end, she shows up at his place, takes her clothes off and asks him to “teach” her. I’m not sure what she was asking him to teach her exactly, but I’m sure it’s too X-rated to air. I like Lexie a lot … but I think they also make her come across as desperate and needy. I hope they eventually allow her to have more of a backbone.

- Callie/Sadie: I admit I wasn’t really interested in this particular storyline, mostly because spoilers suggest it’s not going anywhere, and the whole Brooke Smith thing left me with a bad feeling. But I thought they did a good job with it in this episode. It was cute and flirty and light. It didn’t feel awkward or forced. I’d be surprised if it goes absolutely nowhere because it seems to want to go somewhere and it would be sloppy writing for the whole thing to just poof away. But then … that’s exactly what happened with Erica so who knows. Regardless, I enjoyed it.

- Cristina/Owen: Lots of progress with this couple. Hunt sort of pops up near Cristina all episode, giving her words of wisdom and so on. And at the end, when Cristina looks ready to break down from the whole solo surgery fiasco, he rescues her and takes her to experience the simple joy of standing on a vent. There we see Cristina laugh gleefully and eventually they kiss. I have to say, watching Cristina giggle like that was really fun. It really looks like Hunt might be exactly what Cristina needs.

- Meredith/Derek: Not much with our favorite McCouple in this episode. Their conversations the entire time have mainly to do with Cristina and the fact that she and Meredith are fighting. So really, not much to report at all here.

I really enjoyed this week’s patients, particularly the story with the two sisters. It was heartbreaking and I felt horrible for the little sister, who’ll have to live the rest of her life knowing that her last words to her older sister were, “I hope you die.” Awful and terribly sad.

Another major plot for the episode was Dr. Dixon’s reappearance. Yang is forced to babysit the doctor all day as part of her punishment and the Chief essentially makes Yang responsible for getting Dr. Dixon to come on staff as head of cardio.

Overall, I thought the episode was pretty solid and enjoyable. Probably one of my favorites of the season.

What did you think?