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Link Time!

BuzzSugar — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:50:10 -0700

Bradley Whitford is heading back to TV in Jack and Dan - TV Squad
A few early predictions for the 2010 Oscars - Vulture
The release date of Nine has been moved from Thanksgiving to Christmas - Cinematical
Ellen Pompeo may not miss any episodes of Grey's Anatomy for maternity leave after all - Watch With Kristin
A countdown of Vince Vaughn's funniest moments (including video clips!) - Moviefone
Daniel Radcliffe will return to Broadway in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - MTV Movies Blog
Amazon has New Moon soundtrack snippets! - Pitchfork
Desperate Housewives' creator Marc Cherry is working on a new show for ABC - Hollywood Reporter
ABC picks up The Middle, Cougar Town, and Modern Family for full seasons - HitFix
Fine Living Network is changing over to the Cooking Channel - Yum Sugar
The Top 15: Greatest Opening Title Sequences - TV.com

Grey's Anatomy Rundown: Episode 23, "Here's to the Future," and Episode 24, "Now or Never"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:30:34 -0700

Grey's Anatomy just wouldn't be the same without an intense season finale. After all, this is the show that had Burke shot, killed Denny, and had Meredith build a house of candles. But even by Grey's standards, Thursday's finale was a doozy. Partially because of the behind-the-scenes drama and partially because of the storylines it set up, we had a lot of questions going into these final two episodes. Were any of them answered? To talk about it, read more.

George might be dying! Izzie might be dying! As the episode fades to black, the two of them are meeting - in an elevator, natch - with Izzie in her pink prom dress and George in his army uniform, while back on earth, their colleagues try furiously to save them. I suppose those of us who wanted answers about whether Katherine Heigl and TR Knight are leaving are out of luck - but wow, what an ending.

Maybe I should have seen it coming, just like last week's wedding. But when George finally managed to sign "007" into Meredith's hand, I screamed. I don't know if it was the twist itself or the the look on Meredith's face, the horror when she sees (and we see) that it's sweet little George there in the bed. George, who's signed up for the army, who saves a total stranger on his way home by throwing himself in front of a bus. He throws himself in front of a bus! And now he's hurt and maybe dying. If he goes out, at least he goes out with an act of kindness - and I'm glad the woman he saved insisted on being with him, because at least he had someone to hold his hand through the pain.

That struggle is the episode's bigger shocker; we knew Izzie's path wouldn't be easy. But I don't think I anticipated how hard it would be for Alex. Should he convince her to have the surgery? Should he let her decide on her own even when she begs for help? And when she comes back, with her long-term memory intact but her short-term recall in pieces, how is he supposed to deal with that? I actually found Izzie's story slow to unravel - until the second half of the second hour, anyway - but several scenes were just heartbreaking, including Alex pushing to get Izzie to remember things. The post-its, the potassium levels - I wanted to shake him, tell him to give her time, but I'm sure he was afraid there wasn't any. It's sad that the only thing she remembers is their fight - but sweet that she remembers anything at all. And yet, just like with Denny, the second you think Izzie's really back, she crashes, and maybe for good.

Speaking for a second of post-its, that's what Meredith and Derek's wedding turns out to be: a little sticky square of paper with vows written and signed. I'm curious to know how the hardcore Mere-Der fans take this, but I thought the whole act was touching (not to mention their actual vows: to love each other even when they hate each other, to never walk out even when they're smelly and senile). Probably they should get around to having an actual legal marriage one of these days, but for now, that post-it is enough for me.

And as for the episode's other great love story: every scene with Cristina and Owen feels so tense I can barely breathe - so I guess I know some semblance of what Cristina's feeling. Talk about hating someone and loving them still: he strangled her, he's horribly damaged, he just told his mom he's back from war, and that's a lot of burden for Cristina - but she still wants Owen. Her tortured "I love you" in the hot vent room is hard to watch, but when she finally marches up and kisses him, it's sweet relief.

So much more to say:

When Bailey cries, I cry, so that scene with her telling the Chief that she's sticking with general surgery because she can't be a single mom starting a new specialty made me lose it. Yes, it might have had more punch if we'd explored her problems with Tucker a bit more this season, but her cry of "we're all scared" is chilling.
Mark has grown up so much! I wish we could have seen more of him with Lexie these past few weeks (I assume Chyler Leigh's pregnancy had something to do with that), but it's good to see him talking about houses and creating his own future.
I hope Arizona's back next season, but I also hope they take her quirk level down just a touch. Wheelie shoes? Fine. Crying in front of authority figures when she's mad? Not fine. But her fight with Callie about George joining the army gave us some insight into her backstory, and I think there's a lot more to do with her.
The story of the patient whose healthy leg gets amputated gets lost in the grand scheme of the two hours, but wow, Zach Gilford is so much less mumbly here than he is on Friday Night Lights.
I'm glad Alex pointed out that Izzie's memory loss is just like that case earlier this season.
How do you imagine the George intervention would have gone down?
Shouldn't Owen and Cristina be meeting someplace without a whapping fan blade?

I could talk about this episode for hours, but I'll turn it over to you now. It's going to be a long Summer with a cliffhanger like that!

Grey's Anatomy Rundown: Episode 22, "What a Difference a Day Makes"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:30:50 -0700

The 100th episode of Grey's Anatomy has all the elements of a classic: there's a big tragedy that brings a lot of the doctors together, a few sweeping speeches, and a wedding that makes me cry despite lots of lapses of logic. It's not my favorite Grey's of the season, but if a measure of a good episode is whether I was a weepy mess by the end, then "What a Difference a Day Makes" is certainly good. Ready to talk about it? Just read more.

I'm the first to admit I should have seen the Izzie/Alex wedding twist coming from a mile away. Meredith and Derek don't actually need a wedding, but Izzie does. She planned it to be exactly the wedding she'd want if only she'd live long enough to have a wedding, and Meredith and Derek (and Alex) ensure that she gets it. Sure, if I look too hard, there's a lot that makes no sense (like Meredith's dress fitting Izzie, or the church being full of Meredith and Derek's guests). But I don't really care, because Izzie gets a moment of happiness in an episode that's full of signs of death, and Alex gets to give that speech about becoming a man. We've watched Alex cope with so much tragedy - and watched Justin Chambers grow so much as an actor through those scenes - that his "I become accountable to you" speech rings true. Really, the biggest reason I want Izzie to live is that poor Alex deserves a break.

Meanwhile, the nice, light-hearted plotline we get to go along with Izzie's predeath wedding is . . . a car crash that kills a bunch of college kids on their way to graduation. Oof. I'm still really enjoying the whole George-as-a-trauma-surgeon story, but I think it's going to be a while before George believes he's cut out for it. Not surprising for a guy who started his career branded 007, he takes it personally when patients die. It's going to take a lot of coaching on Owen's part to get George to believe that saving some people sometimes requires losing others. Also, while it was a little too on the nose, the graduation speech - with the kids being zipped up in body bags - also made me cry. Dammit, Grey's.

I'm a little confused about why Arizona thought the middle of a huge trauma that her girlfriend was running would be the best time to confront Callie about the weirdness of their date. Her whole "So I'm not fun? You can get enough of me?" speech made me want to slap her, and I have to imagine that the only reason Callie didn't is that she was too tired from, you know, saving lives. The resolution was fine - Callie's money troubles are out in the open and she and Arizona have happy, pizza-eating naked time - but wow, Arizona was a pest.

Some other thoughts:

Denny Duquette's appearance didn't bother me much this time around, mostly because Izzie now knows what it means and can talk about it with people. (Though I keep thinking that maybe if she'd realized that hallucinating her dead ex was a Very Bad Thing from the start, we wouldn't be in this situation.) The moment when she asked Denny to please step aside so she could spend some time with her husband was sweet.
Yeah, Katherine Heigl's still pretty bald. (Or, I know, "bald.")
You know what was really making me lose it in the episode? The way Bailey kept almost losing it. When Bailey's crying, you know it's bad. Same with Derek basically giving up on Izzie with "She's one of the good ones."
Love that Derek's wedding present to Meredith is a solo surgery.
Do you think Derek and Meredith will ever actually get married now? I could see them just going to the courthouse - but would it drive you crazy to never see their day or hear their vows?

One more episode till we know better what the Grey's cast will look like next season. What are your hopes for the finale?

Grey's Anatomy Rundown: Episode 21, "No Good at Saying Sorry (One More Chance)"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 01 May 2009 08:30:17 -0700

It's Take Your Family Issues to Work Day on Grey's Anatomy this week, as Izzie, Meredith, and Lexie all have to deal with parents showing up at Seattle Grace unexpectedly and Callie works through family strife of her own after her father's tumultuous visit. Meanwhile, Owen and Cristina attempt to have a normal working relationship, with frustrating results. To chat about it, just read more.

Izzie has never talked much about her family. We know her mom called her Cricket and spent money on psychic hotlines, but that's about it. So it's a little crazy for Izzie's mom to suddenly show up in Seattle, all dressed in too-young clothing and flirting with Alex. Izzie didn't even want her there; that was Bailey's doing, but even someone with a maternal instinct as strong as Bailey's soon realizes she's made a mistake. Izzie's just started to come to terms with her illness; the last thing she needs is for her mother to 1) act like it's no big deal, because after all, that woman with the mole on her privates on Tyra survived, or 2) weep hysterically because Izzie's going to die just like her grandma. I'm a little surprised Bailey was so willing to lie to Robbie, but it did get the job done: Izzie and her mom are just better off "loving each other from a distance."

If only Robbie Stevens had crossed paths with Thatcher Grey! Thatcher turns up at Seattle Grace, sober and working his steps; he's there to make amends for everything he did to make Meredith and Lexie's lives harder. I'm a little surprised Lexie accepts his apology so quickly, but she's also always been the Grey sister who believed in the bonds of family. Meredith's cold reaction doesn't surprise me at all, but I did like seeing her complicated relationship with the Chief finally come to a head. She's been working for years now under the guidance of the man who disrupted her childhood. And he does treat her differently; he's probably both tougher on her and kinder to her than he is with any other doctor. In the end, he, too, is making amends: He saw what Ellis was doing to Meredith, and he chose not to fight. It's only now that he seems to be realizing that if he wasn't going to be a dad to her, nobody was.

Though it didn't get much screen time, I was sucked in by Owen and Cristina's story. The two of them are intense people on their own, and that doubles when they're together, so the tension right now is through the roof. Owen tries to treat her like a casual acquaintance - "take care now" - and has her do menial tasks while George gets the big jobs on the trauma team. And she's mad: "What are you, just a 'choke 'em and forget 'em' kind of guy?" But it's not that at all. What Owen wants to do is say he loves her, and that hurts.

Meanwhile:

The story of the little girl, her mother, and the abusive father gets tied up neatly, but I couldn't help feeling somewhat moved by it anyway. Meredith oversteps her boundaries, bigtime, but given her mindset during this episode, she's not willing to see another child hurt. "Your 6-year-old daughter is stronger than you" can't be an easy (or even appropriate) message to hear, but in this case, it inspires someone to get out of a bad situation.
Callie's reaction to her tree-sitting patient and her buttoned-up sister is interesting: She wishes her family could be screaming at her, but instead she's getting stony silence.
Even though dads never like him, Mark agrees to daddy dinner with Lexie and Thatcher! Even Mark Sloan has to grow up sometime.
Sweetest/saddest scene: Alex describing the food to Izzie for Meredith and Derek's wedding site, then clutching the little stuffed animal Izzie's mom brought while Izzie's wheeled off to surgery.
I wonder if Richard will ever read Ellis's journals.

Just a couple of weeks to go for the season! Do you like how Grey's is going these days?

Grey's Anatomy Rundown: Episode 20, "Sweet Surrender"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:30:32 -0700

A whole lot happens on this week's return of Grey's Anatomy. Izzie starts chemo and wants to take her mind off her illness by planning an elaborate wedding for Meredith and Derek. Owen follows up on his promise to get help for his PTSD. Callie's dad comes to visit and isn't too impressed with some of the choices his daughter is making. A bunch of relationships (Mark and Derek's, Izzie and Cristina's, George and Alex's) start to evolve and Bailey gets to be awesome. To chat about it all, just read more.

This episode of Grey's is largely about respect. Izzie doesn't respect her illness; Alex doesn't respect George; Bailey doesn't respect the seriousness of pediatrics. And by the end of the episode, that's all changed.

For the first half of this episode, Izzie's doing everything she can to prove to her friends that she's still the same person she was precancer. I mean, she's overdoing it, clearly, because fake-choking and fake-coding are pretty extreme. But it's actually kind of cute to see her working the "I have cancer; now you must bend to my will" angle. But then chemo takes hold, and suddenly she gets it: she's sick. It's interesting that Cristina is the one who's there for that epiphany - suddenly, the person who liked Izzie least is the one mopping her brow.

How funny is it to see Meredith in some of those poofy wedding dresses? Of course Mere just wants a simple wedding, but she knows the right thing to do for now is to let Izzie get her way. And that's not the only big thing she does in this episode: she also finally accepts Lexie as family. (Now, accepting the Chief as best man, on the other hand? That's a place she's just not willing to go, so it's a good thing Mark and Derek's bromance is back on.)

It's a little jarring to have Callie's dad show up out of nowhere, but his arrival helps us see how far she's come. Loved her response to her dad throwing George against the wall and yelling that he committed adultery ("Who hasn't?") and the way she bravely announced she was dating Arizona. (And thank goodness. I couldn't have taken a whole episode of Callie hiding behind messed-up pronouns - "they're pretty busy because they're a doctor here.") Her dad clearly thinks she's lost it and wants to take her home, to the tune of paying the Chief to transfer Callie to Miami. And she won't have it: he threatens to cut her off from her trust fund if she doesn't obey, so she cuts him off first.

So much more to talk about:

Bailey's pediatrics decision is clearly weighing on her, both because she has to tell her husband what she's doing and because she spends the day doing one of the hardest things anyone could do: holding a dying child. Initially, in her chat with Arizona, she dismisses this; it wasn't medical, she says, and if she wanted to hold a kid she could have spent time with her own son. But Arizona points out something she's been saying from the start: this is a specialty about more than cutting.
George (in an actual storyline!) manages to prove himself as a doctor in this episode. For all his faults, he's good at working under pressure - I mean, he's heart-in-an-elevator guy - and with Owen's help he realizes maybe trauma is his place. It's a tough thing for Alex to see: he doesn't respect George as a person or a doctor, but he has to admit George has a skill he doesn't and may never have.
Chyler Leigh looks so pregnant! I love how they justified it by making Lexie eat all the time.
Owen in therapy is going to be interesting. I'm not sure he believes at all in what he's doing, and yet he has so much repressed that he's got to get it out somehow.
I love Callie ranting in Spanish and Mark telling her he doesn't have time to try to decipher her problems in a language he doesn't understand.

Happy to see Grey's back? Where do you stand now on Izzie living vs. Izzie dying?

TV Tonight: Grey's Anatomy

BuzzSugar — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:30:58 -0700

After an extremely satisfying episode followed by an extremely unsatisfying month-long break, Grey's Anatomy returns tonight. I'm curious to see how things at Seattle Grace have changed in the aftermath of Izzie's surgery and Derek's proposal.

One thing's clear from the clips I've seen: Izzie isn't content to just sit in her hospital room and knit. In fact, she's doing something I can definitely appreciate given the wedding planning mania on the Sugar network these days: She's devoting all her energy to planning the perfect wedding for Meredith and Derek. In one of the clips below, she's on the phone talking about dresses and flower arrangements - to the dismay of her doctors, who are afraid she's going to crash at any second. I hope she pulls through, though - we know Izzie can pull off a mean Thanksgiving dinner party, so I can only imagine a wedding she plans would be fantastic. (Also, spoiler alert: At at least one point in this episode, Meredith wears a wedding dress.)

Speaking of weddings - and of Izzie, sort of - Callie's dad is in town, and he wastes no time finding George and giving him a good, old-fashioned dressing-down for ruining his daughter's marriage. Also, Owen attempts to deal with his post-traumatic stress issues, and the war between Mark and Derek doesn't seem to have cooled off any. To check out a couple of clips from the episode, just read more.

Grey's Anatomy Rundown: Episode 19, "Elevator Love Letter"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:30:19 -0700

Well, if you think about that title, you might get a basic idea about what goes down on this week's Grey's Anatomy. Derek returns to the hospital to be one link in the giant chain of doctors now trying to save Izzie's life. Meanwhile, Izzie tries adjusting to being a patient instead of a doctor, some disturbing things happen with Owen, and George . . . has a couple of lines. Ready to chat? Just read more.

Let's talk about Derek's Elevator o' Love, wallpapered with brain scans of patients whose lives he and Meredith have saved together. It's his grand gesture, his giant candle house in the woods. And, like the candle house was for Meredith, this is Derek's way of communicating that he's OK. Meredith doesn't have to worry about him wasting his talent on drinking and can batting in the woods; he's going to be fine. And with that, he doesn't need to ask a question; he simply tells her he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. It's not the proposal I was expecting from Derek, but I actually like it better than a room full of roses and candles.

They're engaged, but they're not celebrating - at least not right away - because they both have some work to do helping Owen and Cristina. Speaking of things I wasn't expecting: I knew the writers had been building up to something with Owen's PTSD, but strangling Cristina during a nightmare? That's big. And Cristina wants to pretend it's not. She wants it to be OK, even if that means she's wearing a turtleneck under her scrubs, even if her friends are standing guard to keep Owen away. Owen is terrified he'll really hurt her, but Cristina says again that she'll decide how much she can handle. And later in the episode, she does: After television's longest sex scene (I mean . . . they're good-looking folks, but that was a while), she tells him she's afraid to fall asleep. That's how postengagement Meredith ends up crawling into bed with Cristina; that's why Derek stays at the hospital to get a scan of Owen's brain. It took a while, but Owen finally realizes he needs help.

Meanwhile, Izzie Stevens is still alive - no thanks, as Bailey says, to the friends who didn't bother to visit her. Yeah, Izzie told them to go save lives; sure, she has her knitting. But guys, she's having brain surgery. At least stop by? Bailey won't let Izzie down, though, even quizzing her on surgical skills in between medical procedures - probably the vote of confidence Izzie needed, especially when her new oncologist is so brutally honest (and sometimes downright negative) about the whole endeavor. Callie won't visit because she feels bad about wishing Izzie dead; George won't visit because Izzie didn't tell him first and because he really doesn't want to lose his best friend. But the saddest story of all is Alex's. He's so used to crazy girlfriends that he didn't even contemplate that something could be seriously wrong with Iz. And now he's conceiving lab babies and wondering if he and Izzie have gotten together just in time for her to die. Karev is still Karev, though: His first line post surgery - well, after "I'm here" - is about his cup of "swimmers." Nice.

Some other thoughts:

Now every time I see Owen, I'm looking out for helicopter noises. Was there always that "whap-whap-whap" in the room with the hot vent?
"People are better than no people" is such a classic Grey's line, and I loved the old woman who just wouldn't die.
Also love Karev delivering his cup to the Chief in the middle of lunch. "I'm eating here, Karev." "I washed my hands."
How cute was Bailey wearing Izzie's scarf?

So Izzie's through surgery one, but she's got of fighting left to do. So does Owen, if he wants Cristina back. And do you think we'll see a Mer-Der wedding before the end of the season, or can they stretch that out another year?

TV Tonight: Izzie's the Patient on Grey's Anatomy

BuzzSugar — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:30:51 -0700

I still don't forgive Grey's Anatomy for its missteps earlier this season, but there's no denying the show has been working for me lately. And tonight's episode looks like it could be another strong, intense outing, as Izzie starts a new chapter of her life as a Seattle Grace patient instead of a surgeon.

Izzie's case not only gets Derek back in the ER, it also introduces a tough new doctor to the team, an oncologist who can be seen in one of the clips below preparing Izzie for the worst. But Izzie's not the only character in crisis in this episode. Owen and Cristina - especially Owen - also go through some tough times.

There are a few minor spoilers in the clips below - one might or might not involve a r-i-n-g - so watch at your own peril. If you want a taste of what's happening tonight, just read more.

Grey's Anatomy Rundown: Episode 18, "Stand By Me"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:30:47 -0700

When something horrible happens to you, do you stare it down? Or do you run away? That's the question on this week's Grey's Anatomy, as Izzie deals with her diagnosis and Derek remains in the woods, unable to face the hospital where his last mistake took a life. I loved the way this episode brings the characters together in botched but earnest efforts to support each other. Ready to talk about it? Just read more.

Oh, Izzie! This week, her decision to confide in Cristina - and only Cristina - starts to backfire. Cristina's just doing what she does best: She collects data and makes calls and suggests treatments. But the thing is, as a surgeon, Izzie knows too much. She knows that surgery is messy, and she knows it fails. She knows the way doctors talk about patients behind their backs. Izzie's seen the worst happen; heck, she's helped cause the worst to happen. So Cristina does the only thing she can do: She tells everyone. Or, more accurately, she tells Alex and Bailey, right before she's about to make the first incision for her first solo surgery; she can't keep the secret and do her job. But then, after the surgery, she takes Izzie's hand and tells her to fight. That final scene with Izzie in the hospital gown, surrounded by her friends, is classic Grey's.

Derek, meanwhile, still isn't sure how to approach his own fight. He's off in the woods, drinking and wallowing. Bailey sends Callie out to swap horror stories and coping strategies with him, but she ends up staring into the exact same pit of despair, finding herself wondering how she does get up in the morning. Then Owen heads out, and he shares his own medical mistakes, but he won't touch his war stories - that's where the real pain is. Finally, the Chief arrives, and he and Derek have it out: Derek says it's ridiculous for him to have sent Meredith out to him expecting a proposal; the Chief says he just wanted Derek to have someone to help him climb out of his hole. And in the end, it is Meredith who saves him - because she arrives not with baggage but with a medical case to solve. Izzie needs Derek, and, just as much right now, Derek needs Izzie. He needs a patient he can fix.

All of that gets paralleled in the story of the patient getting the face transplant. It's a fairly typical Grey's story of heavy-handed metaphors (orchids, lines about being ugly on the outside but beautiful inside because they're fighters, etc.) but there are some nice moments, including Lexie stepping up and giving the guy the talking-to he needs to let his friends into his life. He's so convinced that people will turn away from him that he's chosen to turn away first, and at last, he realizes he needs to open up and let them help, no matter how he looks.

Some other thoughts:

Is there a sadder image in the world than Alex's eyes when he finds out Izzie has cancer?
Meredith and George's plotline with the interns cracked me up, both for the way it mirrored the larger stories (they really didn't want to face the fact that their interns were acting like fools . . . again) and for the fact that maybe, just maybe, they realize this is how ridiculous they looked when they were sex-crazed, angsty interns, too.
Why I Love Cristina Yang, No. 507: When Izzie suggests that the residents and interns will soon be calling her "swiss cheese for brains," Cristina says they won't, because "that's awkward and long."
Love that the writers slipped in a quick Cristina/Owen update: "It's like friends with benefits, except without the benefits."
Also love Bailey's panic over her disappearing surgeons: "I'm half convinced they're on a spit with a one-armed man turning them into shish kabobs."
Did anyone else catch Izzie drinking an Izze soda?

So, that was all pretty emotional by the end, eh? Are you satisfied with the direction these stories are taking? Ready for next week's "episode that defines good television"?

Grey's Anatomy Rundown: Episode 17, "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"

BuzzSugar — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 09:30:21 -0700

This week's Grey's Anatomy is all about the things that haunt us - not actual ghosts this time, but more the psychic wounds that follow us around. For Derek, it's the fear that his medicine is doing more harm than good. For Owen, it's the things he saw in war that make it hard to live a normal life back home. And for Izzie, it's the thing in her brain - a thing that finally gets a name in this episode. Ready to talk about it? Just read more.

The big news of this episode is ~~Patient X's~~ Izzie's diagnosis: stage IV metastatic melanoma, which has spread to her liver and brain, and which comes with a five percent survival rate. It's trendy to rag on Katherine Heigl for her comments about the writing - heck, I've done my share of it - but she does some great work here. Izzie's stern with the interns when they say Patient X is fine; she doesn't want her legacy to be that she didn't teach them anything. She's tender with Alex when he tells her he wants them to take over the hospital together. And with Cristina, standing on that vent and confessing her disease, she's vulnerable. But my favorite scenes were the ones with Lexie, who's actually growing into a good doctor. The way she delivers the news about Patient X, with her speech about odds being meaningless, is exactly what Izzie needs to hear.

Meanwhile, Derek's an even bigger mess than Izzie. He's traumatized by being called a murderer, and moreso after he sees how many patients he's killed. Meredith's urging him to see the big picture - of course he had a lot of deaths, he ran a clinical trial that took a long time to get positive results - but he's a messy-haired, cereal-eating wreck. And he's quitting, or so he says when he's sucking down beers in the woods. Meredith tells him not to run away; Derek thinks that's hilarious coming from the queen of running away. Of course, by that point Meredith knows about the ring. Which the Chief told her about. Which makes no sense. And the ring's just lying there in the grass now anyway. But Meredith's not leaving. Maybe our girl's growing up after all.

Alex also has some great moments in this episode - and one that goes frustratingly unexplored. He, too, is struggling with something from his past: the idea that he's a dumb wrestler who will never be great at anything. But he catches something about his teenage patient that no other doctor has ever caught, and suddenly, he's being touted as the future of Seattle Grace. But why didn't anyone talk about the apparent panic attack he had holding the paddles? We've never seen Alex freeze like that before, and it's odd to just drop it.

Some other thoughts:

Owen's suffering is so deep, and it keeps rearing its head in ugly ways these days - like when he wakes up from a nightmare and shoves Cristina so hard she gets hurt. He seems to want to protect her by keeping them far away from each other, but Cristina insists that she'll decide when she's had too much.
One of the night's more improbable plotlines is Bailey tattling on the Chief to Adele, but I like the resolution that comes of it: Bailey tells the Chief that she's tired of him getting angry at her because he's afraid of going soft; in fact, maybe being a little softer with his staff is just the thing they need.
The story of the siblings with stomach cancer didn't do much on its own for me, though it was a fine reflection of everything else that was going on, but it's worth mentioning who the three were: Michael Rady of Greek; Erin Cahill, who was Ted's baby sister on How I Met Your Mother; and Wendy Hoopes, who was Jane Lane on Daria!
Lexie and Mark get about two seconds per episode together, but they make them count: "You think you broke me, Little Grey? You're the one who put me back together."
Can you believe we got an honest-to-goodness scene with George and Izzie?

What do you make of Izzie's diagnosis? What will get Derek back in the OR? And do you like Callie and Arizona more than Callie and Erica?