I know it’s early but I wanted to start things off with an amusing anecdote. I was in the quilt shop and the women there were talking about crying all the way through last week’s ep and hoping that Meredith would make it.
The parting line as I left? “She got energy all around the world pulling for her!”
Um, you do know this is a fictional character, don’t you!?
Will they, won’t they. How much of the cutiepies bomb guy and Denny will we get to enjoy looking at?
I am teaching a college-level seminar class on Traumatic Brian Injury and we were discussing Persistent Vegetative States today… in my schzo-like tangential approach, many topics like Alzheimer’s disease, non-responsive patients, CPR, and brain surgery came up, and in each case a ridiculous example from Grey’s Anatomy was helpful. Who knew this show would be such a good mechanism for communicating with college students about brain functioning?!?
For my own sich and self-interested socio-political interests, I would LOVE it if Meredith was revived only to exist in a PVS, and the show could mirror the recent mess that was the Terri Schaivo case…
There’s a hospital here that advertises on the radio that they are pioneers in Deep Brain Stimulation (“or DBS” as it says 16 times in the commercial). Everytime I hear it I think of the season 1 episode with Bruce Weitz…
My energy’s not pulling for her. I have a personal policy against wishing anyone dead. She is however, fictional and I wouldn’t be sad if she ceased to exist on the show that bears her name (realizing how unlikely that is). Maybe she’ll live, but require enough care that she’ll need to room with Ellis in the nursing home, then Richard and Derek could meet awkwardly as they come and go.
They’re hyping it up saying that it’s not clear whether Meredith will die, but someone else will die for sure. My money’s on the smushed pregnant woman; Alex will have to adopt the baby when she is not identified.
OR, Meredith will die, so will Smushed Mom, and Meredith’s spirit will enter the baby. Looking Who’s Talking, Grey’s-Anatomy-style!
Hi, gwendee! I’m always happy to see you since I go by Gwen and my middle intial is D. 
My guess: And yes, I know we don’t have to spoiler speculation, but I am so rarely wrong when it comes to predicting nighttime medical dramedys, that this clearly operates as a spoiler. 
I’m warning you - don’t read this unless you’re prepared to go “Dammit Doctor Who! How did you know that was going to happen?!” Now with no further ado:
Meredith lives. Meredith’s mom dies in surgery. You heard it here first! Unless I’m wrong, then I’ll start lobbying for a 5 DAY editing window.
Ah! Very good speculation. Could the dying person’s spirit swoop into the living one and multiple personality ensue? Greys’ Anatomy?
Ugh, that was terrible. Then they compounded a terrible episode by pulling out a few extra cliches at the end. If that was an episode of Studio 60, we’d (rightfully) have a two page thread bashing everything about it. One less thread for me to post on from here on out, I think.
Also, nice call, Doctor Who (close enough for me, certainly).
Yes it was predictable, yes it was cheesy… I still bawled my eyes out. I like this crap!
I hated it.
It hit a low point for me when the mother flatlined in order to have her little talk with Merideth.
I’m really beginning to dislike Dr. Stevens. I don’t know, maybe you’re supposed to…
They better pull something out of their bag of tricks awfully quick if they want to keep me. A lot of television shows have fallen by the wayside this year for me. I have no trouble pulling it out of the rotation.
Jeez, talk about self-absorbed. Your mother just died but “It’s okay”. You know, 'cause I’M still here.
And again, the drama is undercut by the sappy vocal music of whatever new artist ABC is pimping this week. Horrible.
She was on bypass, right? Doesn’t that involve cutting the patient’s chest open? Do you get to spoon with your boyfriend an hour after that?
The rosy spots breaking through Meredith’s death palor in the opening scene were distracting.
Even Sandra Oh couldn’t save this for me, though I do appreciate her effort.
And are all the ferry patients suddenly healing themselves?
The “deal” Addison made with Mark was pretty much the nail in the coffin of my loyalty to this show.
Thursday nights are for Iron Chef from now on.
God, that sucked. They bring back the glory that is JD Morgan, and then give him all that *crap * to say? Blech.
The scene with Christina saying, “Thank you for not dying” was the best moment of the ep.
I don’t think that’s why it was OK that her mom died. It was OK because they reconciled. She had closure. Her mom had Alzheimer’s and Meredith had essentially lost her anyway, though in her brief moment of lucidity Ellis went ahead and fucked up Meredith’s head. The fact that Meredith got that last moment with her mom is what saved her. Was it supposed to be a metaphor about healing, or were we literally supposed to believe that Meredith saw her mom in the Afterlife Waiting Room? I dunno, I guess it’s up for interpretation.
I kinda didn’t buy it when Addison said of Derek, “We never had that. He never felt that way about me.” From everything that was said of their relationship, at one time, he thought she was his one true love. I don’t see what he was doing for/with Meredith that he wouldn’t have done with Addison when their relationship was in its prime. Maybe she needs to tell herself that to let go.
But McSteamy believe he loves Addison that much. Can’t keep it in his pants for anything, but he loves her truly. Suuuure. Obviously the McSteamy plot is going to be complicated by Alex. That kinda gets the ol’ :rolleyes: from me.
I kind of think it is more interesting to think of the afterlife part as literal and not just “Meredith’s brain on death”.
I had a suspicion that Meredith’s mom might die. I admit it was sappy and cliched but I also cried during the scenes when Meredith and her mom passed in the hallway and Christina begged them to try again. I cried for two reasons Sandra Ok was incredible and my mother has Alzheimer’s, too.
Still, I really think Meredith needed to have some lasting (for at least an couple episodes) issues from being mostly dead for a few hours.
I would willingly suspend all belief and suck up whatever sappiness would ensue if they were to have periodic ‘dead Denny and Izzie’ moments just so I could see Denny.
I liked it, dammit. I was sobbing at the end.
Every ep has a theme; this one was Life Lessons; treasure people you love, don’t quit on life, people need you - stuff like that.
These are characters that don’t wear white or black hats; they’re complicated. I like that. Meredith’s supposed to be screwed up - the Life Lesson from her is that ‘screwed up people can still make it’ as George said.
It’s sounding like a lot of the critics here want very simplistic shows; shows where good guys always behave in an exemplary manner; bad guys are irredeemable, and nobody ever acts like an actual human.
Crappy MacCrapperson, Mayor of Craptown. :mad:
Thank you. Dangit, I was SOOOO close!
The episode “themes” are the simplistic portion of this show. I’d love it to move beyond the soapopeera world it lives in.
That was nauseating.
And I’m still going to watch because it’s kind of fun how pathetic it is.
No, I don’t mind at all that the characters are flawed. I just think it would be a more interesting show if they occasionally faced some actual consequences for their behavior. As it is, everyone just “learns their lesson” and everyone else hugs them. It’s Full House with sex and blood.