We're back! I always miss this show when it's away. I'm not going to waste time with an intro - let's just jump right in to discussing the opening of act two.
Cons:
This is a teeny little nitpick, but I really hate it when this show tries to make references to its location in "Seattle." Mostly because they so very rarely do a good job with referencing the city that I've lived in (or rather right outside of) my whole life. The patient who ends up attacking Meredith refers to Pike Place Market as "Pike's market." Nobody calls it that. Everybody just calls it "Pike Place."
But setting that aside, the main plot of the episode was all about Meredith being violently attacked by a patient, and dealing with her recovery from that point forward. I loved almost everything at work here. I felt that we got a good balance of seeing different people's relationships with her... with one exception. Maggie was barely in this episode, and her sisterly bond with Meredith was completely set aside. If you were to watch this episode and not know that Maggie and Meredith were sisters, you would think that Maggie had a relationship no different than her relationship to Owen or Arizona or one of the other characters who only had a small amount of screen time. I understand the need to prioritize the relationships being put on display here, but while Amelia, Alex, and Penny get time to sort of parse through their relationships with Meredith, Maggie was notably absent from such consideration.
Pros:
This episode did something very smart, in that it maintained focus on Meredith the whole way through. There were a lot of other things going on, sure, but there were no subplots to detract from the main story. As such, we experienced Meredith's terror, pain, frustration, and ultimate peace and acceptance, right along with her. The editing during the first third of this episode was excellent. While perhaps not original to use the effect of sound and motion blurring around a disoriented individual, I really loved the way Meredith, post-attack, was unable to hear - and so we were unable to hear as well. She was disoriented by bright lights and constant motion, and so were we. And then we would cut out of Meredith's viewpoint and see everybody else around her, and we could feel the frustration that Meredith felt in that we could not explain to them that she couldn't hear. Very effective. I also loved the buildup to the actual attack. Everything was very quiet and peaceful, and we focused on Meredith for a long time as she just went about her work. And the attack itself wasn't something out of an action movie. It was a confused scuffle that was difficult to get a grasp on.
All of the atmosphere of this episode was excellent, but what really kept me coming back and wanting more was the character work, which was (as almost always on this show) superb.
Like I mentioned above, we really got to see Meredith's struggles through the recovery process. She was confused and annoyed and in pain and scared and all of these things at once. I think the moment that really solidified Meredith's experience for me was when she got to see her kids for the first time since the attack. Zola was afraid of her mother's battered appearance, and didn't want to see her. It was so heartbreaking to see Meredith try to put on a brave face for her kids, while you could tell that her heart was breaking. As an aside, I want to give kudos to the makeup department for not shying away from the physical trauma of Meredith's experiences. It's one of the coolest things about this show, that when people are hurt or sick, they look hurt or sick. There's no shying away from it, no graceful, beautiful weaklings lying in their hospital beds. The trauma is visible.
The theme of silence here was obviously enforced by Meredith's jaw being wired shut. She was unable to talk for most of the episode, which caused her a great deal of frustration. But Penny, due to Meredith's silence, was able to find her own voice. One of the most memorable parts of the episode comes when Meredith is having a panic attack and thus is having trouble breathing. Penny cuts through the wires that are holding Meredith's jaw shut. Jackson is angry that his work and Meredith's healing are being tampered with, but Penny stands up for her decision, angrily declaring that Meredith has been through enough pain. Penny knows what she's doing - Meredith needed some air, and so she got her some air! The episode is bookended by Meredith teaching classes. At the beginning, we see that Penny does not raise her hand and volunteer an answer. In the end, she does raise her hand. She has finally found her voice.
I haven't been a big fan of Penny's character thus far, since we weren't given a chance to know her separately from the drama that she brings into Meredith's life. But this episode showed some real growth. Meredith is never going to be Penny's biggest fan, but a lot of Meredith's personal journey in this episode was about forgiveness. Maybe seeing Penny stand up for herself and prove herself as a capable doctor is what's going to cause some forgiveness between these two women. After all, Derek died in part because Penny didn't speak up and demand attention. Now she won't make that same mistake again.
Speaking of forgiveness, Meredith and Amelia have a few scenes in this episode to deal with their recent relationship woes. Amelia was horrified and traumatized by what happened to Meredith, and she goes out and gets drunk afterwards. She works her way back to being sober, and tries to talk to Meredith about mending fences. Towards the end of the episode, Richard talks to Meredith, saying that she needs to forgive Amelia for reminding her of Derek. Meredith, her ability to talk newly restored, tells Amelia that she knows she's trying, but that she's not quite ready to forgive her yet.
There are a lot of complexities going on here - I really adore the relationship between these two women, with all of its problems and strangeness. They don't really get along all that well, and yet they love each other deeply. It's a rather interesting type of bond. I admire Meredith for not forgiving Amelia just yet. She's an honest person, and she wouldn't lie just to smooth things over and move forward. She wants to be really ready before she puts aside her resentment of Amelia. I loved the way that Richard played a fatherly sort of role to Meredith, in encouraging her to let go of some of her pain. Meredith will have to come to that decision on her own, but Richard is still a big part of that.
And there's another person who Meredith is willing to forgive - Lou, the patient who attacked her. He didn't know what he was doing when he struck out, and after the attack he reaches out to Meredith and wants to apologize. Meredith allows this, and she forgives him with the simple action of taking his hand. That was so sweet and beautiful and it was such a nice way to close up Meredith's journey in the episode from anger and fear to peace and forgiveness.
I've saved my absolute favorite part of this whole episode for last: Alex Karev. I am such a sucker for emotional angsty scenes where we see somebody react to their loved ones in pain or danger. I mean... that's part of what makes Grey's Anatomy a good show for me. Alex's love for Meredith in this episode was so beautiful and powerful and it made me so happy. When he sees Meredith immediately after the attack, when everybody is still scrambling to intubate her and deal with her injuries, he comes very close to bursting into tears multiple times. He's really, really torn up by it. Alex is the one who realizes that Meredith can't hear them, too, which was obviously very important. He takes her hand as they transfer her to her room, and actually climbs into the hospital bed with her as she cries in order to comfort her.
There's something so amazing about Meredith and Alex's friendship. It's allowed to be really affectionate, even physically affectionate, without it ever being about romance or sex. It's so rare to see a relationship like that between a man and a woman on television. Meredith tells Alex at the end of the episode that she'll be okay and that it's okay for Alex to have more than one "person." He should go be with Jo. Alex goes to his and Jo's place (he had been staying at Meredith's), and we see Jo open the door. We don't know where things stand with them as of yet, but Meredith gave Alex the strength (and perhaps the permission) to try and make things work with her.
I love that this episode managed to be so fully about Meredith, and yet there were hints of the other stories going on as well. Not just Jo and Alex, but April and Jackson too. Meredith overhears them arguing because Jackson served her papers and says it's time to get a divorce. I have complained constantly about their story line this season, but we'll have to see if things can make an improvement.
I'll stop there - this was a sort of surprisingly great episode of Grey's Anatomy. I wasn't expecting much from it, but it managed to be unique and powerful on its own, while at the same time it moved the story forward and set the stage for many interesting things to come.
9/10
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