Grey's Anatomy: Go It Alone (10x20)

O....kay then. Not really sure what I think of this episode. There were some awesome things going on here, but some things just seemed pointless. Let us talk about it.

It's the day before the Harper Avery Award is announced. Christina is acting like it's all not a big deal, but Meredith and Owen are both asking her again and again if they should go with her. Meredith and Christina were supposed to go out drinking and write Christina's acceptance speech, but instead Meredith gets stuck pulling an all-nighter, and she's not the only one. The interns are stuck working with Derek, who pawns the kids off on Callie and Arizona but forgets to tell Meredith. Ben, while working with the interns, falls asleep and doesn't get to participate in a cool surgery. Miranda Bailey goes home and gets some much needed rest, at her husband's insistence, while her gene project rests. It looks like Bailey is going to be able to help the kid with no immune system!

Meanwhile, Jackson and April work on a Deaf kid, and Jackson says he can't understand why the parents don't want a cochlear implant. April says she feels differently, and the two of them get into a big argument - April says that she feels about religion the way that these parents feel about Deaf culture, and Jackson being dismissive of it is not okay. Things escalate until finally Jackson bursts out that God isn't real. April says that she pities Jackson for his lack of faith. Then, she goes to stay with Callie and Arizona.

Callie and Arizona have been trying to decide who will carry their next child. Arizona is hesitant about it, but thinks she might want to. Then, right when they're flipping a coin to decide, Arizona admits that she wants Callie to do it, and Callie says she'd be happy to. Alex has been working with the private practice people but he hasn't stopped working at the hospital, either. He doesn't know how to tell Arizona about his pending career change. However, as he is working two jobs, he's completely exhausted.

The three kids with heart defects are all not doing so well. All three of them are on the transplant list. Their parents are starting to buckle under the strain of being in the hospital all the time. They get into a big fight, but eventually reconcile.

In the end, Christian goes to the awards, and she panics about being there on her own. When she walks into the hall, she finds Meredith and Owen waiting at the table for her. Aww! Unfortunately, Christina doesn't win.

I think that was the most succinct plot summary of this show that I've given in a long while. I'm not feeling very verbose at the moment... so that's all you get. What do I like? What do I not like?

Well, the biggest problem here for me was that Christina didn't win the Harper Avery. Why did they spend two whole episodes on this award if she didn't get it? And more to the point... why do this now? When there are still four more episodes of the season, and thus four more episodes for Christina? The Harper Avery Award is as big as you get on this show, in terms of being rewarded for medical excellence. Where are they going to go from here, for Christina? How can they give her a proper sendoff when they've wasted this bullet? I guess I'm saying that I don't mind the plot thread, but I do mind the timing of it all.

Also I'm not sure about this whole Ben is "Gramps" thing. All of the other interns keep calling him that because he's older than them, but at the same time, what exactly are we learning about his character by watching him take a nap on the job? It wasn't fun to watch.

The rest of this episode, however, was. I love the idea that Christina wants to have Meredith and Owen with her. They're both her "person" in a sense. I love the fact that Callie is going to carry another baby, and that it's what both she and Arizona truly want. I love that Alex is trying to work two jobs, and doesn't know how to tell Arizona about it. I love the fact that Leah Murphy makes a terrible mistake in surgery but Derek uses it as a learning opportunity.

I love, love, love, the stuff with Jackson and April. Thank goodness we're finally taking this somewhere. I've been complaining about these two for a while, because I just couldn't figure out why we were seeing so many weird little fights between them with no real weight or purpose. Now, we're finally capitalizing on the real issue. See, Jackson was way out of line to yell at April that God wasn't real. But April was equally out of line to say that she pitied Jackson. I am angry with both of them. Honestly, as an atheist myself, I totally respect anyone who wants to believe anything, but I don't know if I could be compatible with someone who believed so strongly in something that I just couldn't share in. I really feel like this dilemma is a realistic one, and it's quite complicated too. I'm not sure how it'll work itself out.

Also, I love the fact that Derek is having to come up with new balances in his life. Now that he's working on his super important White House project (which I still think is stupid), he's needing to figure out how to balance teaching, surgeries, research, and his home life. In this episode, nothing big got missed, but he did forget to tell Meredith where the kids were, which did not make her too happy. I hope we see him continue to struggle for this balance in the future.

I'll stop there! Still not sure what they're doing with Christina, but this wasn't a bad one at all.

7/10