Grey's Anatomy 7.04 - "Can't Fight Biology"
I started writing this review last night, but I was getting so worked up about the things that bothered me in this episode, that I just couldn't write a coherent review. My mind is also rather occupied with the on-going move from this flat to the new one. I've also been quite busy with this on-going move all weekend, so I didn't even had the time to watch the episode for a second time, like I usually do. Not that I really want to watch this episode for a second time, because to me this episode was a let-down in many ways. Maybe because I still have high expectations (even though I should know better), maybe because I obviously misinterpreted some of the spoilers I've read and thus was disappointed by the way the story is going. Maybe... I don't know. This episode just didn't work for me. I might watch it again (or at least parts of it) later tonight, but I'll try once more to put my thoughts together first.
There were a few things I liked a lot, but I felt rather indifferent to quite a few more and was annoyed by at least as many other things just as much.This review will be 80% about MerDer and 20% or less about the rest, just to give you a fair warning :-)
I'm all for a McBaby storyline for several reasons. I think they've been through all possible drama for a couple so far. Life & death situations, problems at work situtations and we definitely had our share of relationship problems. What other storylines are there for a happy couple, if you don't want continue with the relationship problems and make one of them a cheater or make them grow apart? Things I definitely don't want to see And yes, I'm a MerDer shipper. I think a McBaby story could provide a lot of wonderful, cute, fluffy MerDer moments, even if the obviously necessary drama in form of infertility or any other kind of pregnancy problem is added to the mix. "Could" being the keyword. Because Shonda obviously thinks rushing through this storyline is the adequate way to tell this story.
I read the spoiler, that Meredith will get tested for the Alzheimers gene in episode 7.04 and I've also read about the "hostile uterus" in the TV Guide. There was no timeline to this diagnosis, so I assumed it would come after the Alzheimers thing. I don't know why, it just made more sense to me. Like Meredith worries she might have the Alzheimers gene and pass it on to a baby. She consults an OB / Reproduction Specialist to inquire if she should consider PID and in this process the "hostile uterus" condition is discovered. In my mind this order of events made sense, while the way it happened on the show did not!
When we saw the promo for this week's episode during our vacation last week, my friends and I had very different opinions about it and with my assumed knowledge of what would happen I defended the rather typical for Shonda over-the-top drama of the McBaby storyline. I guess I was wrong and I admit that the way this story is progressing is rather unrealistic and just written for the drama's sake.
I hope none of the new or soon-to-be or any other kind of moms reading this will deem me insensitive but: according to wikipedia 25% of pregnancies are miscarried before the 6th week. Meredith was five weeks along, so as sad as it was for her and Derek, does it realy warrant a extensive OB checkup later on in which her infertility problems are discovered? Especially when Meredith just now realized that she actually wants to have a baby. Wouldn't be the normal next step for them to just have lots of sex and try to get pregnant again? I might be wrong and if I am, please let me know. Like I said, I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings with this rather matter-of-factly view of these events. It would be a different matter if they had actually tried to conceive for a looong time and she either didn't get pregnant or had another miscarriage. But of course a at least somewhat realistic and still dramatic storyline takes some time to unfold. Time Shonda obviously doesn't have. See the stupid time jump between season 6 and 7.
Like I said, the OB checkup made sense to me, when I thought it would be triggered by the Alzheimers thing. Which in my mind could be another very interesting and promising storyline for this couple. "Could" being the key word again. I enjoyed the last scene in their bed and Derek was cute and caring and adorable, but I'm afraid this topic might not be explored in any more depths later on in the show. And I'm worried that the writers won't even manage to explore the McBaby storyline in any more depth or at least realistic way.
Derek's reaction to the OBs diagnosis seemed a bit out of character to me as well. Yes, Meredith is healthy all in all, but I'd think a hostile uterus is quite an obstacle on your way to having a baby. He mentions there is a treatment, but he still considers having lots of sex and just wait and see what happens as a strategy to deal with this? I thought he wanted a baby. Having sex, conceiving, miscarrying (and repeat) is not a way to reach that goal. I'm all for staying relaxed and to not stress about things, but you just can't ignore a diagnosis like this. So.... yes, actually both MerDer scenes rubbed me wrong this time. Not to mention the fact, that these bookend scenes were the only MerDer moments we got! I know Paddy was shooting a movie at the time, but it still sucked. Especially as the spoilers made me believe that this could be a a great storyline for my favourite couple. Silly me, that I'm still expecting something like that from this show :-)
My thoughts about the rest of the episode? Even I, who usually kind of likes April, was annoyed by her this time. I was also annoyed by the way Meredith shut out Lexie and talked more to April than to her sister. There still was no explaination why April & Jackson moved into the house and the bathroom scenes were so... ugh, lame? It felt so forced to me.
The Teddy and Jackson story? Ugh! Go away, Teddy, GO AWAY, just GOOOOOOOO AWAY!!! She is getting on my nerves like no other character before. And there is something wrong in the Grey's world, when Teddy gets more screentime than my favourite couple ;-) Shirtless Jackon is very nice to look at though.
I still don't care about the chief. Wanting to be back at the top rank of hospitals? Didn't we have that storyline in season 5 already? And I'm with Bailey: Don't he dare to touch the Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic. That's the last good memory of Denny there is, since he turned a ghost and had sex with his cancer-ridden fiance.
I admit I'm fast-forwarding through this episode while I'm writing this and found something else that bothered me: I'm pretty sure canon established that Ellis and Meredith left Seattle for Boston 25 years ago. I thought Ellis never returned to SGH, because otherwise she would have run into and worked with Richard again, which I think Richard would have mentioned. Now Meredith asks Richard if Ellis showed Alzheimers symptoms when they worked together? Back when Ellis was in her late twenties herself? Am I missing something or is this crappy writing again?
Callie / Arizona / Mark. In the beginning I had a strange deja vu feeling, like we've been through this kind of friendship/relationship drama before, but it was ok and had some very nice moments and the boobs talk in the OR was hilarious. At least I laughed a lot.
Alex was awesome in pediatrics again. I love Alex! And this was finally a patient you could care about again. At least I did.I loved that his parents were so supportive of his dancing. Because how many fathers would support a son who choose to be a dancer instead of a football player?
I still don't care for Owen. Not much at least. Maybe even less than "not much". I still think he doesn't really understand Cristina and doesn't know how to really make her open up and talk about her fears. But maybe Cristina really doesn't want to talk about her innermost fears or she is not able to and there is nothing Owen can do about it. I don't know. But I still think he is trying and pushing too hard. But I'm slightly anti-Owen biased, I know.
My heart breaks for Cristina every week this season. She GETS Owen and knows him and knows what to do to make him happy. It's so sad, that she is still miserable herself. I have to admit, I like their new place "Our house has a fire pole in it. What more is there to say?" Indeed!
I want to keep hoping that the next episode will be better, but to keep hoping is really not easy...
There were a few things I liked a lot, but I felt rather indifferent to quite a few more and was annoyed by at least as many other things just as much.This review will be 80% about MerDer and 20% or less about the rest, just to give you a fair warning :-)
I'm all for a McBaby storyline for several reasons. I think they've been through all possible drama for a couple so far. Life & death situations, problems at work situtations and we definitely had our share of relationship problems. What other storylines are there for a happy couple, if you don't want continue with the relationship problems and make one of them a cheater or make them grow apart? Things I definitely don't want to see And yes, I'm a MerDer shipper. I think a McBaby story could provide a lot of wonderful, cute, fluffy MerDer moments, even if the obviously necessary drama in form of infertility or any other kind of pregnancy problem is added to the mix. "Could" being the keyword. Because Shonda obviously thinks rushing through this storyline is the adequate way to tell this story.
I read the spoiler, that Meredith will get tested for the Alzheimers gene in episode 7.04 and I've also read about the "hostile uterus" in the TV Guide. There was no timeline to this diagnosis, so I assumed it would come after the Alzheimers thing. I don't know why, it just made more sense to me. Like Meredith worries she might have the Alzheimers gene and pass it on to a baby. She consults an OB / Reproduction Specialist to inquire if she should consider PID and in this process the "hostile uterus" condition is discovered. In my mind this order of events made sense, while the way it happened on the show did not!
When we saw the promo for this week's episode during our vacation last week, my friends and I had very different opinions about it and with my assumed knowledge of what would happen I defended the rather typical for Shonda over-the-top drama of the McBaby storyline. I guess I was wrong and I admit that the way this story is progressing is rather unrealistic and just written for the drama's sake.
I hope none of the new or soon-to-be or any other kind of moms reading this will deem me insensitive but: according to wikipedia 25% of pregnancies are miscarried before the 6th week. Meredith was five weeks along, so as sad as it was for her and Derek, does it realy warrant a extensive OB checkup later on in which her infertility problems are discovered? Especially when Meredith just now realized that she actually wants to have a baby. Wouldn't be the normal next step for them to just have lots of sex and try to get pregnant again? I might be wrong and if I am, please let me know. Like I said, I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings with this rather matter-of-factly view of these events. It would be a different matter if they had actually tried to conceive for a looong time and she either didn't get pregnant or had another miscarriage. But of course a at least somewhat realistic and still dramatic storyline takes some time to unfold. Time Shonda obviously doesn't have. See the stupid time jump between season 6 and 7.
Like I said, the OB checkup made sense to me, when I thought it would be triggered by the Alzheimers thing. Which in my mind could be another very interesting and promising storyline for this couple. "Could" being the key word again. I enjoyed the last scene in their bed and Derek was cute and caring and adorable, but I'm afraid this topic might not be explored in any more depths later on in the show. And I'm worried that the writers won't even manage to explore the McBaby storyline in any more depth or at least realistic way.
Derek's reaction to the OBs diagnosis seemed a bit out of character to me as well. Yes, Meredith is healthy all in all, but I'd think a hostile uterus is quite an obstacle on your way to having a baby. He mentions there is a treatment, but he still considers having lots of sex and just wait and see what happens as a strategy to deal with this? I thought he wanted a baby. Having sex, conceiving, miscarrying (and repeat) is not a way to reach that goal. I'm all for staying relaxed and to not stress about things, but you just can't ignore a diagnosis like this. So.... yes, actually both MerDer scenes rubbed me wrong this time. Not to mention the fact, that these bookend scenes were the only MerDer moments we got! I know Paddy was shooting a movie at the time, but it still sucked. Especially as the spoilers made me believe that this could be a a great storyline for my favourite couple. Silly me, that I'm still expecting something like that from this show :-)
My thoughts about the rest of the episode? Even I, who usually kind of likes April, was annoyed by her this time. I was also annoyed by the way Meredith shut out Lexie and talked more to April than to her sister. There still was no explaination why April & Jackson moved into the house and the bathroom scenes were so... ugh, lame? It felt so forced to me.
The Teddy and Jackson story? Ugh! Go away, Teddy, GO AWAY, just GOOOOOOOO AWAY!!! She is getting on my nerves like no other character before. And there is something wrong in the Grey's world, when Teddy gets more screentime than my favourite couple ;-) Shirtless Jackon is very nice to look at though.
I still don't care about the chief. Wanting to be back at the top rank of hospitals? Didn't we have that storyline in season 5 already? And I'm with Bailey: Don't he dare to touch the Denny Duquette Memorial Clinic. That's the last good memory of Denny there is, since he turned a ghost and had sex with his cancer-ridden fiance.
I admit I'm fast-forwarding through this episode while I'm writing this and found something else that bothered me: I'm pretty sure canon established that Ellis and Meredith left Seattle for Boston 25 years ago. I thought Ellis never returned to SGH, because otherwise she would have run into and worked with Richard again, which I think Richard would have mentioned. Now Meredith asks Richard if Ellis showed Alzheimers symptoms when they worked together? Back when Ellis was in her late twenties herself? Am I missing something or is this crappy writing again?
Callie / Arizona / Mark. In the beginning I had a strange deja vu feeling, like we've been through this kind of friendship/relationship drama before, but it was ok and had some very nice moments and the boobs talk in the OR was hilarious. At least I laughed a lot.
Alex was awesome in pediatrics again. I love Alex! And this was finally a patient you could care about again. At least I did.I loved that his parents were so supportive of his dancing. Because how many fathers would support a son who choose to be a dancer instead of a football player?
I still don't care for Owen. Not much at least. Maybe even less than "not much". I still think he doesn't really understand Cristina and doesn't know how to really make her open up and talk about her fears. But maybe Cristina really doesn't want to talk about her innermost fears or she is not able to and there is nothing Owen can do about it. I don't know. But I still think he is trying and pushing too hard. But I'm slightly anti-Owen biased, I know.
My heart breaks for Cristina every week this season. She GETS Owen and knows him and knows what to do to make him happy. It's so sad, that she is still miserable herself. I have to admit, I like their new place "Our house has a fire pole in it. What more is there to say?" Indeed!
I want to keep hoping that the next episode will be better, but to keep hoping is really not easy...