Grey's Anatomy: Do You Know? (10x17)

What a strange episode. Interesting. Well acted. I'm still not sure if I loved it, though. Let's talk about what happened.

Christina encounters a patient that has the power to change her life forever. Christina does a very difficult surgery on this man's heart, repairing it. However, he is paralyzed from the neck down, and dependent on a ventilator to breathe. At his wife's insistence, Christina asks the man if he wants them to remove the ventilator, and thus die. We then see two divergent paths for Christina, based on this man's response.

In the first, the man says he wants to die. Christina, seeing the frailty of life, decides not to waste another second. She tells Owen that she wants to be with him for real. We then flash forward through their life together, as they get a dog and have kids. Christina takes a back seat in her clinical trial, with the result that Shane steps forward and takes over many aspects. In the end, we see Christina presenting a Harper Avery award to Shane.

The second path has the man agreeing to live. Christina still goes to Owen, and they still decide to get together, but as we look forward along their lives, we see them continually break up and then get back together, over Christina's unwillingness to have kids, and Owen's continued realizations that he needs kids to be happy. The paralyzed patient becomes part of a trial with Derek and Callie to try and get him to walk using robotics, but it doesn't really work, and the wife admits that their relationship has fallen completely apart, and is now filled with resentments. Owen is extremely unhappy and turns to drink, eventually resulting in the board deciding to let him go. Christina, meanwhile, rockets ahead and wins the Harper Avery award for an unprecedented four years in a row.

In both of these little scenarios, we see that Jackson ends up hurting his hand, which means he's unable to do surgery. After seeing both of these possibilities play out, we go back to the man on the ventilator. He chooses to die. Christina hesitates instead of going to talk to Owen at the elevator. As such, she is able to stop Jackson from hurting his hand, but she doesn't get the chance to talk to Owen.

So... problems?

Yeah. I have some problems. With the main setup, actually. Is it just me, or does the whole thing not really make sense? I mean, I love the idea of exploring Christina's future in different ways. But the trigger for the whole thing doesn't make any sense. In both circumstances, Christina immediately tells Owen that she wants a future with him. What the hell does the patient have to do with the fact that in one version, Christina has kids, and in the other she doesn't? It doesn't make any sense.

Then there's Jackson's hand thing. That part felt really forced. Like they decided they needed some sort of subplot, so they just jammed in a hand injury? It didn't add to the over-all feel of the episode, since this episode was Christina's. We didn't get to see Jackson's side of things, so it all felt rather pointless.

But, to be fair, I did love a lot of what was going on here.

Sandra Oh was killing it with the acting. She did a phenomenal job. I really felt her pain and her indecision. Her ambition and her resignation. This show will really be losing a phenomenal actress when she leaves.

Even though I didn't like the Jackson thing, I still thought a lot of the side moments were nice. For example, Bailey's hosting a TV show now. And the cell phones being just a bit more high tech, but nothing too over the top. Very nice near-future environment.

Meredith's relationship with Christina was interestingly explored here, as we see her determination to be there for her friend, even though Christina's life is still so much in flux, while her own is settled. Apparently, in the future she and Derek adopt another child!

And Owen and Christina. I'm not really sure what to expect now. If Christina sticks to her guns about not wanting kids and stays dedicated to her work, does that mean that Owen has to fall down this spiral of drinking and messing up until he gets fired? That doesn't seem okay! I'm really curious now about how Christina will be making her exit at the end of the season.

Well, there you have it! Interesting concept, even if I am a bit uncertain about the way they triggered the whole thing.

7.5/10