Happy Harpy, it's like you're reading my mind.
I, too, resent Grace because, unlike Mike (for example), she doesn't mesh well at all with the other characters. In his case, he had the familial connection with Angus, obviously, he had a history and rapport with the other characters, he was immediately shown to be a great doctor and a good leader. In short, he fit.
Grace, on the other hand, is virtually an island unto herself. As you pointed out, Happy Harpy, she doesn't interact with the other core characters, save for Neal and Christa (more on that in a bit), she's endlessly propped by virtue of her altruism (with which we're beaten over the head in every episode); and her patients all love her and she immediately connects with them; and she's supposed to be such a great doctor that she immediately catches on to something (relatively obvious) that Christa missed, and also dresses Christa down in the most patronizing, hypocritical manner possible. How very quickly Ms. Keep It About the Medicine delves into her own personal life in the course of doing her job, but that's all fine and dandy. Of course.
We get the scarf scene last week which was inexcusably passive aggressive. We get her continually making moon eyes at Neal and reiterating whenever possible how well she "knows him" (the first time, of course, he set her straight on that score, unlike tonight). At a moment when he's down and second-guessing himself, she fully takes advantage of his state of his mind by touching him when she should know full well that would be overstepping some very important boundaries and saying yet again that she knows him.
The main problem with all of this crap - aside from the fact that we're supposed to love her, and she'll undoubtedly be back full-time if the show is renewed - is the sheer destruction her entrance onto the scene has done to Neal and Christa. The Neal we once knew wouldn't have let her get away with any of the crap she's pulled - he would have firmly put her into her place from the get-go and stuck to his guns about being over her and having happily moved on with Christa; when he started to notice that Grace was playing her mind games with Christa, he would've made sure to assuage any doubts or insecurities Christa may have had; he would've been 100% upfront with Christa *immediately* about his full history with Grace; and tonight, he wouldn't have confided in the ex, and he would've immediately taken his hand away from her and removed himself from the situation.
Instead, we've gotten....waffling. From Prince Charming. It's all well and good to reveal a flaw or two, because no one's perfect, but this? Is character assassination. He's become a noncommital, uncommunicative idiot, who is totally inattentive (at best) to his girlfriend.
Christa, too, has suffered thanks to the oh-so-wonderful writing, but thankfully, she at least returned to form tonight by demonstrating how self aware she is, and showing her strength and confidence in herself.
All of this unnecessary garbage has destroyed one of the main aspects of the show that many of us supported - vocally and passionately - from day one; the aspect that landed the show its best ratings, in fact. Yet the relationship that they took pains to build slowly, organically, and maturely, was made to fall victim to utter soapy dreck. There's so much potential for a story there without having to resort to garbage like this: Christa being afraid to fully love/open herself up again after her loss; Neal being wary of getting seriously involved with another colleague given his past; etc. etc. RJ and BS would've rocked solid, angsty material like that, but instead they were seemingly punished with this juvenile excrement that tore down what had been built up courtesy of their chemistry and hard work.
And the fact that the writers did this without knowing if they'd have the chance to fix anything really does feel like a big slap in the face.
They've also shown that they're fully willing to sacrifice the screentime for other characters - the characters who got people watching from the beginning, no less - in order to feature this crap and an utterly unnecessary fail of a character.
She needs to go immediately, but only after Neal tells her in no uncertain terms that he's well and truly done with her (like you pointed out, Happy Harpy, because one waste of space Ray Palmer character in the TV universe is one too many; we don't need another one).
The way I see it: get rid of her and give her screentime to Harbert, Guthrie, and Taylor. Them? I actually enjoy. The bit with Heather turning villainous - damn if it wasn't entertaining! LOL She does make a good villain/troublemaker.
