Shellie

I like Katey Sagal in this part so far, but I'm with you on being on the fence and watching one more episode to decide. I tuned in because of the sheer star power. I couldn't keep track of all the characters, and the show was loud. Yelling and loud music. I kept thinking this episode was way over the top for my tastes. But often, pilots are somewhat dissimilar to the next episodes.

I never watch previews because I don't want to know something ahead of time, but last week, one of my friends had to go and blurt out that a woman with long dark hair and pale skin was on the beach with Meredith. I said that was probably Lexie, and then he remembered Lexie (he didn't watch the show much at all back then). But fortunately, I was able to be totally surprised by the appearance of Mark and I even let out a sob. Of everyone who has been killed off or otherwise left, I miss Mark most because I thought his friendship with Callie was really great.

This is what Koracik does so much better.

I guess I don't understand the problem of hair going down the drain when strainers can be purchased for $2 to $10.

I have long hair also and use an Oxo drain protector that works great. And like KaveDweller said, if hair is on your hand, stick your hand under the running water. Voila.

This is my theory too. IIRC, she and George didn't touch either, although they got a lot closer than she has been with Derek, I think.

This was classic Grey's. I have been missing this sort of thing.

This is essentially what I remember Robert saying in a book I read. One thing I found fascinating was his comment that he can easily tell which segments were at the beginning of the filming and which are toward the end. Because at the beginning, everyone is delighted to see each other and be back in the Shark Tank. By the end, they are all tired and crabby.

They film a ton of footage over a few days and then edit it into four segments for multiple shows. So the editors/producers can make sure there aren't any shows with no deals if they don't like that idea.

After this episode, I could be in favor of a Hayes & Jo pairing.

Even if the cooler was lame, Kevin and Robert were really harsh.

I would bring a travel mug.

This is exactly what I thought. I couldn't believe they were all so thrilled and that the products sell so well. My two roommates and I have three freezers and rely heavily on using Glad containers of several sizes to freeze leftovers. Lots of people don't even bother buying those, they just use containers that came with cottage cheese or sour cream.

I wish he would have rejected any claims of racism by saying he was once upon a time married to a Korean woman, for Pete's sake.

I'd like to try the mushroom jerky too. I eat mostly vegetarian, so that's very intriguing. It isn't sold anywhere around here though, so maybe I'll order it online. I also was surprised that Kevin got the deal when Daymond made the exact same offer. I got a kick out of Daymond talking about being a 'professional' griller because of his home neighborhood.

I was delighted to see Derek at first, but for me, the problem is that the communication has gotten boring. I'm sure for Meredith, it's beyond thrilling, but about all he does is stand there with a big toothy grin. I also don't understand the metaphor, "The sand isn't real." Did one of the doctors say something about dialysis for the woman with the baby attached to the liver? Dialysis??

So do we think that was an ad lib? It sure sounded like one.

I haven't managed to generate any interest in Hayes, so that part of the story was also of little interest to me. In fact, early on, I got confused as that flashback progressed, and wondered if I had switched channels somehow because I didn't even recognize him. For the first time in a long time, I liked Maggie and her story. I was very annoyed that Richard and Catherine would just get back together with such little fallout, so it was very surprising to discover that he was hallucinating. At first when she disappeared, I thought maybe he had been pretending she was there. It seems a little extreme no matter what illness he has that he could have such a long, sustained and consistent hallucination going on. The Teddy story was just a total WTF to me. They dropped that in here with zero foreshadowing whatsoever. I don't understand what the point of it is to Grey's in the big picture.

What does this mean? Who is the love of his life that left?

I got to thinking that the title really does refer to Alex and Izzie. Even though he sounded like he was done with her for good, that lovely fantasy life he created for her in his mind sounded quite affectionate. I could believe he never stopped loving her. He was frustrated and felt she didn't value him enough, but may be he always kind of hoped she would return once more. She also left a light on for him in case he ever wanted to search her out, which he finally did.

They may very well go that route, but I personally didn't see them as having flirty eyes for each other. Especially I didn't see Jo as suddenly having the desire to flirt right after reading that awful letter, and also not with a guy who is an old friend. I figured Linc was being supportive.

I had said earlier that I am pretty much on board with the way Alex's story wrapped up. I can believe he never really stopped loving Izzy and that he decided he wanted a life with her and the kids. After reading everyone's comments, though, I will say that I totally agree the writers should have had him tell Jo a different way. Not by letter or email. He should have told her in person or at the absolute minimum, by phone. We would not have needed to see him. She could have returned from meeting with him and looked devastated, just as she did when reading the letter. Would Alex really have been that much of a coward? Or is it that he would have felt too torn by his two lives if he came back to talk with Jo? Sending a letter with divorce papers, when just a few months before, everything was happy, that's harsh.

I wanted to write my opinion before reading anything here so my ideas wouldn't be affected by other comments yet. I'm glad they didn't kill Alex. First, because killing off characters is way overdone on this show. Second, because I think 99 percent of viewers expected that to happen. Way too predictable. IMO the writers did pretty well considering what the cards they were handed. I would never have believed Alex would go back to Izzy, but they made it believable with the flashbacks, new scenes, and his explanation about why he contacted her. It's almost like the writers had foreshadowed this a long time ago, with Jo's concerns about the embryos and how he didn't seem to want kids with her. Even though Alex supposedly wanted nothing to do with Izzy every again, he built up an elaborate happy fantasy life for her. As he said in Jo's letter, this is the worst thing he has ever done. I even repeated that back to the TV. "Yes, Alex, this IS the worst thing you have ever done." It creates the possibility of a more interesting story for Jo as how she will deal with this. The show has already done too much 'grieving partner' because of death.

In Wisconsin too. And DeLuca now says he grew up here. I don't remember him ever saying that before. Nevertheless, he figured it was OK to walk six miles in a snowstorm at that temperature with no gloves. I wonder why his face wasn't frostbitten too.

I don't get why there has to even be any drama over Alex. Numerous Grey's characters now live off-screen.