Deanie87

And if I honestly thought that they would remedy that after the (ridiculous) 2 month break then I would be okay with it. If I honestly thought that Penny and/or Martin Henderson weren't going to stay and that they and Maggie, Amelia, and even yes, Meredith at this point, would sit a few episodes out so that Alex, Jo, Arizona, etc. could have real in-depth storylines and make some sort of progress, then I would be okay with it. I may not enjoy many episodes, but I would be willing to bide my time, yet again, until those characters that I am most interested in got some screentime. But I just know that it isn't going to happen. Shonda is so in love with the Sisters and the Woman as Superhero Rising Above, that Alex will be nothing but someone to cheer them all on and those other women, Jo and Arizona (and even Stephanie, who also know something about rising above and overcoming obstacles, will once again take a back seat to Shonda's favorites. It happens every season.

Well the bad news is that the one scene that Jo had was her acting bratty (and of COURSE Alex's only scene was comforting Meredith), but the good news, hopefully, is that someone tweeted from the set that Jo and Callie have a scene together, so I am praying (or talking to Derek) that Jo is working her way back into Ortho. ETA - Alex and Maggie were also in the scene, so she may be with one of them, but I am really hoping she is working with Callie.

In other words, they truly are a match made in heaven.

I don't get it either, but maybe they will revisit it, because nothing else really makes sense. Not only is Ortho the only specialty with only one main character in it, it is a great fit for who Jo is supposed to be, or at least who she was introduced as. Jo is physically strong and not warm and fuzzy (again, at least initially) and she and Callie had a pretty good rapport and similar snarky sensibilities. Additionally, Stephanie and Ben seem to have found both specialties and mentors, while Jo rarely works on any medical cases. So unless Penny is going to go into ortho or SR and/or CL are leaving at the end of the season, it just doesn't make sense for Jo not to have some clue as to where she wants to specialize or why it wouldn't be ortho.

Yeah, I don't know what the hell is going on with Jo. I was pretty optimistic at the beginning of the season, but with each new episode that dwindles down to not much. I won't be surprised if Jo gets written off and they pair Alex up with Meredith, which I will completely hate because Alex deserves better than to be second choice for someone else and to give up having his own kids to raise Derek's (not a slam against step-parents or anything like that but it really isn't what I wanted for him.) As far as Meredith goes, I would like exactly one scene where Meredith apologizes for treating Jo like shit and then they never need to speak again. I find all of Mer's new found friendships to be completely forced and Jo doesn't need to add to that. Meredith didn't like Owen, she didn't like Burke, she didn't like any of Derek's sisters, she didn't want Alex to date Lexie, etc. She clearly isn't one to go along to get along or to even be polite to those people who are important in the lives of her loved ones. So I don't see her starting that now. In fact, Meredith barely gave the time of day to anyone other than Derek and her inner Fab 5 circle, so her behavior toward Jo doesn't really surprise me.

And I am completely okay with this, because I find pompous "Stephen" to be really, really funny, whoever he is. There is no part of me that doubts that family/friend/citizen Stephen is anything other than lovely, compassionate and very, very deep and I enjoy interviews and segments where that part of him comes out. But I also really enjoy the more arrogant and narcissistic side of him (that probably is a small part of his personality as well) because I find that it is a good vehicle for his wit and satire which I enjoy immensely. So after these few months of trial and error, if he has come to the conclusion that he needs a bit of "Stephen" to feel comfortable, then it works for me.

This show is about 75% less enjoyable without Niecy Nash, I hope that she plays a big role in the rest of the episode. On a shallow note, my god does Jamie Lee Curtis look great. I was struck by how well she pulls off that really, really short hair. How many women would look that good with such short, gray hair?

I also like to take every possible opportunity to remind everyone that Meredith's sister Lexie was EATEN BY WOLVES!!!! In other words, Meredith should avoid all woods and zoos now that local wolves have gotten a taste of the Grey meat. Which further reminds me of another Meredith experience: Lion on the Loose!

Whatever it is, I hope it is not what it seems to be. Meredith having yet another near death accident is just too, too, too much. Isn't being a widow with 3 kids, living in a house with two sex crazy adolescents enough of a tragedy? JFC, Zola's therapy bill is going to take every cent of that raise Meredith just got. Luckily, given the way they have her stashed in the basement or in some sort of off-site storage locker, she probably won't even see her mom injured, but still.

For me, Quinn has revitalized the show, just on his own and in his relationships. I find his interactions with Carrie, Saul, Dar Adal and Astrid to be so much more interesting than interactions between any other characters. While this is a good thing for the show, it may end up being a bit of a double-edged sword as well. In the past, I would have been riveted by a Saul and Carrie reunion, in this episode all I cared about was Quinn and I was downright annoyed when they kept cutting back to Saul and Carrie.

Oh my god, the peach cobbler. Bringing that cobbler over to Nate's place like she was Bree from Desperate Housewives may be the first thing that Annalise has done that has well and truly shocked me. Nate must have been like:

I am really loving this season! I am one who just somehow lost interest last season, I don't know if it was the actors or the storyline or what. I don't have a huge tolerance for the "ordinary person commits crime and then gets in over their head" scenario, even thought I love the original Fargo and that is kind of the whole plot to that and even though it fits with the hit and run plot here. Maybe because Rye was a criminal already, it just doesn't produce the anxiety in me that other situations like that do. And I have always loved Patrick Wilson, but we don't usually see him as a badass, but it looks great on him! As far as the gas lines, I was born in 1969 and I know that there were gas lines sometime in the Spring or Summer of 1979, at least where I lived. Without getting into the drama of it all, the gas lines figured prominently into my finding out that my parents were getting divorced when I was 10. Its the kind of thing you don't forget. Who knew it would eventually help me in my tv watching? Thanks Mom and Dad! :)

I was just thinking the same thing. I have no interest in watching yet another new character take over the show. If she isn't gone by the midseason finale, then its back to reading the forums to decide if the episode is even worth watching.

I don't think anything much will happen with Jo and Cross. The actors usually make more of their storyline than we see (either because stuff gets cut or because they are given such crumbs that they have to inflate it to make it worth talking about), so the fact that he says says slight development means that he will gaze at her across the room or something.

I also think that they way that they brought the last intern class in didn't work (and they realized that). They brought five new people in and used them in pretty much every single episode, gave them all biggish story arcs and hooked all or nearly all of them up with attendings. That clearly didn't work and Jo and Stephanie are still suffering the effects of it. This time out, they brought in a few interns but only two of them have been given anything to do (and thank god they are males at least), and they aren't in any episodes. DeLuca has hooked up already and we got a tiny bit of backstory on him, but it isn't taking over the show the way that the last intern group did or Maggie and now probably Penny will. So I don't mind them. I would like to see a bit more bonding between Steph, Jo and Ben, but that probably isn't going to happen now.

Part of the problem is that they have been shown to have a pretty decent friendship up until recently. Jo was there for Stephanie when she got dumped by Jackson, Stephanie confided in Jo about April and Jackson's baby, and Jo clearly feels comfortable enough with Stephanie to confide in her about Izzie's embryos. So, for Stephanie to now sort of act like Jo is just some girl that she knows from work doesn't ring true to me either. I get that maybe Stephanie doesn't trust her enough to tell her about her illness, but she clearly has participated in the friendship as much as Jo in the past. As for Stephanie's rant, I think that she has a point to a degree, in that Jo isn't really doing much to help herself, but I really don't think that Jo meant it in any way other than trying to further break the ice between them and find common ground. Despite having a point, Stephanie was really projecting. I do think that Jo needs to stop sulking and whining, but I hope that she just throws herself into her career and stops worrying about whether or not Alex's friends like her. If he is that concerned about it, then he can make the overtures to them about it. In watching parts of it again, the way that everyone fawned over Penny who is also "only" a resident compared to how rude they have been to Jo over episodes and episodes was ridiculous. I know that it was mostly for drama, but if they can be courteous to a stranger in deference to Callie, then surely they can be something other than dismissive and flat out mean to Alex's girlfriend of three years. Not to mention that fact that she lived with Arizona for at least a year and that two seasons ago, Callie was raving about her, but of course all of that is conveniently forgotten. With Jo's luck, she'll befriend Penny and then everyone will really hate her. I try my best to forget that season 11 ever happened, but it so thoroughly fucked up the storylines of the characters that I most care about, that it is really tough.

Ok, my last thoughts on Jo (for now of course). If and when the writers do decide to show her some mercy, I don't want there to be some big, dramatic scene where she tearfully confesses some horrible thing that happened to her in her childhood. The writers can be better than that when they try. We didn't need Meredith to speechify about her sad childhood because we saw first hand how venomous Ellis could be and how weak Thatcher is. Alex rarely disclosed anything about his childhood, but we saw him relate to the boy whose father was abusive, we saw his father get violent, and his brother showed up to spill the beans without Alex doing it. Same for many of the other characters. I think it comes off badly when a character goes on and on about how awful they had it, and I don't want Jo to do that. In other words, show me why Jo is the way she is rather than her specifically laying it out in some speech. I thought that they did a pretty good job in season 9 when she said "Not everyone is good." Its what wasn't said that made the impact, at least for me. Now, given the way she has been written and the lack of attention she has received, I don't expect them to actually bring in anyone from her past. But they could have her connect with a foster kid or a victim of sexual assault in a way that we understand her, but she isn't giving a monologue to her attending or Stephanie or even Alex. We, the audience would be privy to it and no one else. Here's hoping!

I think that has a lot more to do with Izzie than with Jo. Izzie was a favorite of Shonda's and so Alex's role was to serve in Izzie's orbit, just like his role now is to serve in Meredith's. So pretty much nearly every Alex/Izzie story was really about Izzie, and now the Alex/Meredith friendship is really about Meredith. I guess Shonda found someone that she is less interested in than Alex, so Jo's role is to serve in Alex's orbit. That seems to be a problem in her couples. One is the Alpha and stays that way throughout, and it is their point of view that is cultivated. Great question. They have completely taken away Jo's edge, as well as Alex's. She used to be snarky and funny and while she never quite pulled of the whole "kid of the streets" completely convincingly, it wasn't totally unbelievable either. Now she is a generic girlfriend and a doormat. As far as Alex, I feel like they are trying to "McDreamy" him and I hate it. He has usually been a good friend to Meredith and I get that he is growing up, but his edge is completely gone. He lets people walk over him (and his girlfriend), dishes out compliments to everyone rather than sarcastic remarks and never calls his friends on their assholery. Where is the guy who threatened and blackmailed Jo's boyfriend while he was in the hospital (which horrified Dudley Do Right Derek)? Personally, I miss that dysfunctional couple. They are even dressing Alex in boring old tucked in oxford shirts FFS. Becoming Meredith's person has been awful for his character. My issue with Jo is how they are writing her. Putting aside the fact that she has the right to be annoyed by Alex and his friends, SHE needs to either do something about it or stop complaining. She is being completely passive and reactive. Her reaction to Alex, to Stephanie, to the attendings' treatment of her is to complain and then do nothing about it. You feel like you are being disrespected by your attendings? Kick ass at the hospital and make them notice you. You feel like Alex's friends are mean to you? Don't just sit by with an annoyed look on your face when they talk down to you. Put them in their place or try to find some common interest. If they already don't respect you, what can it hurt? Alex is ignoring you? Get a fucking hobby so that you have something to talk about besides him! Go to Joe's with the interns, join a book club, something and let Alex see what it feels like when you don't have time for him. Ugh. I really like Jo, but this has to stop. She is one self-righteous speech away from becoming Izzie* and I just CANNOT have that. ETA - Okay, Jo isn't really becoming Izzie because she treats Alex 100x better but she is floundering and complaining the way that Izzie did in seasons 3 and 4.

She did get taken to task for her CERTAIN comment. I actually thought she was referring to that subsection that is just fucking crazy LOL! Yeah, I find that I am having a hard time with some of the actors on Twitter, and I should probably stop following them. They seem to take things a little more personally than they need to. I know it makes me sound old, but I think that it is some of the younger cast who are more comfortable with social media and have no problem letting the whole world in on their every thought and take every opportunity to promote themselves. It is weird to me, but then again, technology scares me.

Being asked to help is one thing. Having orders barked at you like you are a servant (at best) is a totally different story. And then being told that your help wasn't good enough, and very much not for the first time, is also something altogether different. Jo was whiny this episode, but she didn't want to come in the first place and I don't blame her. When she has reached out to some of these people she gets treated like dirt. I would have been hitting the bottle with Arizona, except Arizona probably wouldn't have shared, especially with Jo.

Oh, its not an exaggeration. I have seen some vile stuff tweeted to the actors and just tweeted out in general (because it fascinates and repels me and I just can't look away. And by look away, I mean actively seek it out LOL) Some of it is just stupid fan stuff, but some of it is downright sociopathic and these people should be banned from Twitter. This actress would be getting shit not just from Calzona fans, but angry Meredith, Derek and Amelia fans as well.

That's just it. Neither of these characters get sufficient screentime or development to make heads or tails of what the writers are trying to do here. Jo literally does nothing except talk about Alex or how she is being treated unfairly, which I do think she is. So she gets no professional development and then complains about the fact that she is floundering, giving her a bad attitude, which then leads to more dismissive attitudes by everyone she comes into contact with. She could do more to ingratiate herself to her superiors, but any attempt at that, gets thrown back in her face (her off er to babysit Mer's kids, her offer to help with dinner). Its a cycle and she just can't win. I like her as a character, but its starting to be an uphill battle. Cut to Stephanie, who gets the sympathetic treatment. Dumped at a wedding, betrayed by her friend, going after a high-schooler, helping Bailey cover up her trial nonsense, being called out by and then celebrated by Amelia. She gets shown in a much, much better light than Jo, which is fine, maybe she is better, but neither of them is given any nuance at all. I just hope that this is going somewhere and that Jo is going to get some kind of redemption. Otherwise have her go on some mad killing spree and be done with it.

I wanted to like this one so much more than I did. My main take away is that Penny is about to become the new Maggie - the character who appears absolutely out of nowhere and becomes the focus for god knows how many episodes, eating up screentime and getting development that some characters who have been here years are still waiting for. I am really, really not up for that and the thought is souring a season that I had been enjoying thus far. Maybe because I am very bad with second-hand embarrassment or maybe because I have just never cared that much about Derek, but some of this episode was just excruciating and overwrought. "Perfect Penny KILLED my husband!!!!" First off, no she didn't and secondly, really? And Amelia coming at Meredith like a roided up badger was ridiculous too. I get that it was a shock and they are all still dealing with their grief, but yeesh. The woman is a resident, and I realize that these surgeons are superhero gods now, but have they never lost a patient? Thank god for April's speech, too bad those that needed to hear it the most weren't there. I also have no clue what they are doing with Jo, but it is just painful now to watch. I mean they are having her haul trash and every single person (sometimes including Alex) either completely dismisses her or talks to her like she is not worthy of respect at all. Not just as a doctor but as a person. I could see someone like her getting paranoid that people treat her like dirt, but hey just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't out to get you. I don't think that they are going to go there with Mer and Alex, and I will stop watching before I see Alex try and fail to live up to St. McDreamy. I don't think Camilla Luddington is going anywhere either, but maybe they will have Jo have some kind of breakdown and breakup with Alex. I'm fine with it at this point. I think that this is kind of what they are going for, with Stephanie focuses on her career completely and Jo being distracted by her personal life. Complete with Jo taking absolutely non-stop about Alex like Meredith used to do about Derek in the earlier seasons. I like Jo, but she really isn't helping herself. I just hope that this is the kick in the ass she needs to focus on career and stop whining about Alex. Arizona was hands down the best thing about this episode, she was cracking up. And I also liked Jackson and Alex secret taco meeting. Its a shame that the Chief wasn't there.

Yeah, I think that if anyone was leaving, we would have heard by now, given how gracefully Sandra Oh left and gave a lot of notice. Unless Shonda is keeping it under wraps like she is most things this season. I have absolutely NO doubt that, at the very least, Shonda is aware of who is leaving and who is staying. The only one I could see maybe leaving at this point is SR. I have no proof of this and the only reason I say it is because of how some of Callie's storylines are being written. I am very surprised at how long that have kept Callie and Arizona apart, and how enthusiastic Callie is to date other people. Beyond that, they were setting up a great mentor relationship with Jo, and one that Callie was really into, and that got not only dropped, but completely erased with Jo's comments about how no attending is into her like Amelia is with Steph. Of course last season was a complete clusterfuck and stuff got pushed to the wayside and we are only 5 episodes into this season, but it wouldn't shock me if she left.

I initially took it to mean that Webber was asking Amelia to think about whether or not she subconsciously believed Jo because she is white. I don't know what else he could have meant, and no reasoning was really given. They have hit us over the head with the fact that Stephanie is a wonder resident and Jo is vastly inferior, and they haven't given either character enough development to think that it would be completely a personality issue, so that left the other difference between them. But, I don't think that we have seen any evidence that Amelia would think that way, and I have a hard time believing that Shonda or the writers would put that kind of thing on Amelia, who seems to be a favorite. They have given these characters a LOT of faults but prejudice hasn't really been one of them thus far. So while that was my initial thought, it just doesn't seem like something Grey's would do.