Five Questions for Grey's Anatomy

The onset of Summer also means the return of my Five Questions series, in which I take a look back at the most recent seasons of some favorite TV shows and pose some hypothetical questions about their future. Today's questions are for Grey's Anatomy, which will start its fifth season in the Fall.

1. Mere and Der are together — now what? Executive producer Shonda Rhimes has said she wanted to get Meredith and Derek together (and permanently) by the fourth season finale. So, she did, with an elaborate Mere-in-a-field-with-candles stunt that could probably make even the stoniest skeptic weep. But if they're really together for good, where's the tension? The last time they were happy together, they did things like complain about snoring, and frankly, that doesn't make for very good television.
2. What's with Callie and Hahn? With a passionate kiss in the season four finale, Erica and Callie seemed destined to be the first same-sex couple to grace the Grey's screen. While I'm a little surprised the writers took Callie — an avowed lover of sex with men — in that direction so fast, the storyline could be a great opportunity for two characters who I think are often underused. As After Ellen pointed out, the two would be the only two lesbian or bisexual regular characters currently on network television. I'm curious to see where their relationship will go.

Three more questions, so read more.

3. Will the ratings rebound? Grey's started the year battling and occasionally beating CSI for the best ratings of any scripted show on TV, but after the writers' strike, the show's ratings took a hit. Granted, the show's drop wasn't much bigger from what other shows experienced; the strike hurt everyone. But Grey's seemed to lose some of its buzz along with the ratings. Was it just a blip that will lead the show to come back stronger than ever in the Fall — or is it a significant sign that interest is waning?
4. Will Izzie say farewell? Some have speculated that Katherine Heigl's recent negative comments about Grey's were an effort to get out of her contract, which is said to extend through 2009-10. And, indeed, giving Izzie control of the clinic in the fourth-season finale could be a way to get her out of the everyday surgical goings-on. Will Izzie be with the show till the end, or will season five be the end of Heigl's tenure at Seattle Grace?
5. Will this season set the stage for the show's eventual end? These days, a show that runs more than five seasons — much less more than six or seven — is a relative rarity on network television. And in the case of Grey's, the story has a natural end: whenever the core group of doctors wraps up the residency program. So, how quickly will that end come for Grey's? Will the fifth season just be another stop along the way, or will it set in motion the storylines and relationships that will help tie everything up a couple of years down the line?

Photo copyright 2008 ABC, Inc.