Ohhh-kay. This week's Grey's Anatomy has left me confused, like I tumbled down the Seattle Grace rabbit hole and came up in a world where nothing made any sense. Whether it was the departure of Hahn, the arrival of Meredith's old backpacking buddy, the trouble everyone had relating to the new heart surgeon, or Izzie's struggles with Denny's memory, there's a lot to try to make sense of. Want to try to puzzle through it with me? Just read more.

Gotta start with Izzie. She's still seeing the ghost of Denny, and not least because she's working on her second heart transplant patient in a row. This one, at least, is a man who knows from ghosts: He's a Native American who believes his body is being haunted by the spirit of his first heart donor. While he kicks Izzie off his case (he's got enough ghosts of his own), he also advises Izzie to get rid of anything she still has of Denny's, which is how Alex comes to burn that maroon sweater in the fireplace. And yet . . . when Izzie retreats to her room, Denny's still there, and when she touches him, he's real. Now, there was a little part of me thinking, "Denny's real! Izzie and Denny! Love forever!" But the much bigger part of me was thinking, "Huh?" Leaving aside the rumors that might have been bandied about and squarely denied — if Izzie can touch Denny, then there's something wrong with Izzie, right? She says so herself in this episode. Is she dead? Dying? Going through some kind of prolonged mental breakdown?

Then, we have our newbies. Starting with Virginia Dixon: I get that these are surgeons, not mental health professionals, but really, nobody recognizes the symptoms of Asperger's? I loved the way she sticks it to Bailey in the end, saying she knows she was manipulated. And I appreciate that Grey's is trying to do a story about a disorder that affects so many people, but I'm afraid this could be one of the things the show thinks it can do better than it actually can. And besides that, if Dixon is a character whose central trait is her inability to connect, will we be able to connect with her?

Then there's Sadie. First of all, Melissa George looks a lot like Katherine Heigl, which the Grey's conspiracy theorist in me couldn't help but focus on. Second, I do want to know what Meredith was like before she became the whiny, lovestruck surgeon we've come to love/loathe, so I'll be curious to learn about the "adventures of Death and Die" (er, I assume Meredith and Sadie). But that whole thing with her taking off her top and slicing open her shoulder? Not sure I'm liking where that's going. Also, does it make any sense that an intern would just show up in the middle of a year?

Some other stuff happened, too:

  • Hahn's departure is certainly not explained. All we really get is Callie sobbing in the ER because she's been channeling all her psychic pain into reconstructing legs for a man who will never get to use them. I wash my hands of that story.
  • Owen Hunt continues to be a redeeming factor, but he's also . . . a little scary? Talk about psychic pain. That kiss with Cristina was both incredibly hot and borderline violent.
  • The sketchy intern surgery clinic is more or less found out, thanks to Lexie's multitude of band-aids that lead people to believe she's "a secret cutter."
  • Derek's dispatched to tell Sloan not to put "Little Sloan" in "Little Grey," which is best for Mark's response: "OK, that's just creepy. And inaccurate. Big Sloan!"

Lots to discuss, so let's get to it. What's wrong with Izzie? Are Dixon and Sadie good additions? And wouldn't burning Denny's sweater in the fireplace just make the whole house haunted?

Photos copyright 2008 ABC, Inc.

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