'Grey’s Anatomy' Mid-Season Finale With Neve Campbell Stays True To Form
3.5/5
Medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy, came to a close for 2012 Thursday night. It revolved mostly around Bailey's (Chandra Wilson) pending nuptials. And, Meredith’s (Ellen Pompeo) opening voiceover is about stress – "The problem is the adrenal system can't tell what's a regular case of nerves and what's a real, impending disaster." It’s apparent from these early lines that the doctor's nerves are not going to be the only ones tested in the midseason finale. True to form, the nighttime soap delivered its well-honed balance of wit and drama.
The episode starts with Bailey having one of her classic rants. This time it’s about her wedding to Ben (Jason George). She's not too enthused about walking down the aisle for the second time in her life. It's characteristic of Bailey to be dragging her feet in romance, but it's frustrating to still see her act this way towards Ben. Although, it must be said that the way she asked her fellow doctors to serve as bridesmaids was quite perfect, "When you and Arizona get to the wedding, don't sit down."
Neve Campbell continued her role as Derek's (Patrick Dempsey) sister Lizzie again this week. The biggest issue I have with her character is her name; it's like a mashup between Izzy and Lexie and therefore confusing. Anyway, Lizzie is at Seattle Grace to donate a nerve in her calf for Derek's hand. Derek protests when he realizes that due to Lizzie's short calves (seriously), they'd need to cut into both of her legs to get the needed length of nerve. When Meredith seeks Lizzie out to see if she’ll still go through with the procedure, she's met with Lizzie’s desire for Meredith to try to be closer to her. Meredith quickly brushes off her familial advances. They eventually reconcile when Meredith shows Lizzie the picture from her ultrasound – not even Cristina (Sandra Oh) knows she’s pregnant.
Meanwhile, Cristina is attempting to have an amicable divorce from Owen (Kevin McKidd) despite being taken aback by his insistence. As things go in Seattle Grace, something was revealed in the following chain of command: Owen, Derek, Meredith, Cristina. What was revealed? Owen rushed the divorce papers for the sake of the settlement in the plane crash fiasco. With Owen (who is partially responsible for the crash) being married to Cristina (who was in the crash), there was a conflict of interest. This big reveal of Owen's motive was the biggest fail in an otherwise solid episode because it was so obvious. When Cristina asks Owen if what she's heard in relationship telephone was true they make out pressed up against a hospital door and we're back to Owen/Cristina take 1.
One couple that is not doing any making out is Callie (Sara Ramirez) and Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) who, according to Callie, sleep a foot a part these days. When Bailey comes to her for encouragement, her best shot is to tell her she can leave Ben at the altar for a clean break. Arizona doesn't even want to go to the wedding because she doesn't have the prosthetic foot for heels. Callie tries to sweet talk her about how she's so pretty that the world will feel better about itself if she's lacking a couple inches – to no avail but a cold shoulder. On the day of the wedding Arizona begins to protest again. There's no sweet talk this time. "Enough about the leg," Callie shouts. The look on her face when she's done blowing up at Arizona is all shock, but it seems to have done the trick. Arizona reaches down and slips her prosthetic foot into a bedazzled flat to a look of satisfaction on Callie's face.
Arizona also had to put her teaching hat back on at the hospital. Karev (Justin Chambers), while trying in earnest to teach his intern, ended up overseeing her puncturing a child's stomach. Wilson (Camilla Luddington), goes to Arizona to throw Alex under the bus for giving her a procedure she wasn’t ready to execute. Arizona talks to Karev and learns that he was trying to do for Wilson what she had done for him. It's a sweet moment between the two, in which Arizona tries to explain that he needs to build her confidence not "Throw her into the deep end and say 'swim'" Livid with Wilson, he tells her to stop being the wounded dog that bites when someone tries to feed them.
Little do Karev and Wilson know that they've been set up to double date for the wedding with Avery (Jesse Williams) and Stephanie (Jerrika Hinton) – a ruse that started because Kepner (Sarah Drew) and Avery were worried about falling into sex again at the wedding if they went dateless. This story line needs to end because as Alex said earlier, "Why do you talk to [Kepner], she ruins everything."
The Chief has been doing Ben's bidding with Bailey throughout the day, ending with picking her up in a limo to go her wedding. Their chemistry is adorable in the back of the limo, as it's apparent that Richard is the only one who can coax the wary Bailey. Then, in due Grey's fashion, there's a phone call that changes everything – Adele is at the hospital and coughing up blood. Back at the church, a worried Ben walks into the women's waiting area to hear them talking about Bailey's wedding jitters. "How nervous was she," he asks.
"Run, Baby, Run" was an episode that stayed true to theme and to its characters, but maybe too much so. Bailey was the ever resistant and cynical doctor that's been berating people through the halls of Seattle Grace for 9 seasons now. Cristina/Owen did their classic hate/love passionate kiss thing. Meredith was dark and twisty with a note of sunshine. And, another wedding was turned on its head. Despite that, however, the midseason finale had a satisfying mix of resolution and tumult to make the January 10 return something to look forward to.
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