S11.E12: The Great Pretender

[windsprints]

The worst part is that Derek will have to give in and make the compromises once again.

 

Of course.  That's been a given ever since Meredith said "I'm the freaking sun!".  She'll avoid/ignore then he'll return professing how she is the most important thing in the universe. Cue reunion, sex scene and Patrick holding babies. Derek's POV will never be shown because its the season of Meredith. By season's end I don't doubt the sun will eclipse him professionally as well.  Meredith can do no wrong and always wins. Its always been that way.

[mojito]

As I was watching this episode, it occurred to me that I like all the characters on the show (except Catherine) as doctors and as friends. It's the romantic pairings that I generally don't care for. A couple anchor couples is fine, but having someone always being on the verge of hooking up with someone else in the hospital is tiresome. I prefer conversations like Callie's with Amanda, antics like AZ and Herman stealing furniture, Callie signaling to the patient to break up with her boyfriend, etc. Aside from the occasional gatherings at the bar, I'd just as soon keep the show in the hospital. It's where most of the characters are more interesting.

[candall]

Oh no, please don't make Grey's spend time showing everyone parenting their kids.  Unless Derek comes stomping in to report that Zola's crying because she can't remember Mommy, I'm assuming the kids are all just fine, offscreen, where they belong.

 

If you want a show where the kids' issues rate right up there with the personal and professional interaction of the adults, there's Nashville.

************************

Watching Ben listen to Bailey's revelation, I was really hoping his response was going to be anything except me, me, me, me outrage.  When he laughed, I was so happy that his first impulse was relief.  "You mean he's not a drug addict/terminally ill with cancer?!"  Sigh. 

 

And where are all these other shows with transitioning plots?

*******************

I turned some kind of corner this week and suddenly Selfish Bitch Meredith is cracking me up.  How loooow can you goooo?

"I'm going to MARRY that girl!!!"

"[As I, the sun, was saying. . .] I don't think Derek and I are going to make it."

 

Meredith really blows at being someone else's person. Yang would probably just slap her around until she paid attention.

[izabella]

And, considering what Pierce said last week about loving to be alone, why was she so so upset thinking poor poor Mer had to spend a weekend alone in a motel? It's like everything went upside down in a single week. 180 degree character changes.

 

The only spin I can come up with, is if Maggie thought Meredith didn't get on the plane and hid out in the hotel because she was having PTSD flashbacks and fears from the plane crash. 

 

I have no interest in the kids on this show being a huge part of this show.  However, the thing with Meredith and the kids is that 'mommyhood' issues are part of her storyline - she doesn't want to be like Ellis, she worries about managing career and babies, etc.  And I'm annoyed because they showed her interviewing for nannies (sort of)!  Why didn't they just have Meredith HIRE then nanny and then we'd be done with all this.  We'll know that kids are with the nanny and won't care about asking more questions. 

 

But they didn't actually have her hire the nanny, yet the kids are still the last thing on her mind, so yeah, where the hell does she hide them when she wants to visit Alex?  Right, the 24/7, 365 magical day care at the hospital.  Well, to me, that sounds like a shitty childhood!

[candall]

Ehh.

 

Meredith doesn't have a nanny for the same reason all these seven figure per annum surgeons are jostling for shower space.

[photo fox]

I'm boarding the Owen/Amelia ship. I liked what I saw in this episode. I liked that he was flustered, not in control. I liked that she made the first step but felt awkward still. I found their scenes cute, and their kiss hot.

 

I actually didn't have a problem with Amelia and Owen. He has PTSD and Amelia is an addict. Nothing will be the chemistry that was Christina and Owen, but this quieter, kind of boring romance is better suited for two people who can barely keep their issues under control.

I agree with both of you. I like Amelia/Owen. They're both kind of broken, and I think they have a nice, quiet chemistry that suits their personalities. It's nice to see Owen get a storyline that's not about moping for Cristina. And Amelia's short-girl insecurity about Herman's height was hilarious (and spot on, I say as a short girl).

 

I didn't mind Arizona getting upset about Jo getting in the shower. Arizona/Jo have had such few interactions over the last few seasons the only one that I remember that had anything to do with Alex was when Jo went to Arizona about how she thought Alex set her up to fail in surgery.  Now, Meredith being rude to Jo really bugs me. I really hope she doesn't cause problems between Alex/Jo because this is the happiest he has been.

I agree with this, too. I'd have been fine with Jo's actions if it were Meredith, because we've seen her be rude to Jo multiple times in the past several episodes. But IIRC Arizona and Jo haven't had any interaction - positive or negative - since Arizona moved in with Alex.

Can someone clarify something for me? I was on a break from the show when Alex and Jo got together. Did he actually ask her to move in, like officially, splitting the bills, etc.? Or did she just start staying over and never went home? Because if it's the second, she's every bit as much a guest as Arizona is.

[AnitaM86]

Right, the 24/7, 365 magical day care at the hospital.  Well, to me, that sounds like a shitty childhood!

 

To us normal people, and probably Derek too, but I am starting to believe that to Meredith, that's a justifiable place to have your kids at because she was brought up like that. For her it's a normal thing to not have fixed schedules and be in someone else's care as Ellis was like that and she may not be willing to be like Ellis, but unwillingly, she is being Ellis. Those kids never see their mother or randomly because either she's at Alex's (as she was most of the first half) or at the hospital or at their father's care. Which is why I don't understand why can't she just give the kids to Derek. Surely he has a terribly awful schedule too, but seems that at least he would attempt to give them a more normal life and try to be more involved as he already was. Didn't he want to take Bailey to a music class or something? Not even my stay at home mom did that to me as a baby. 

 

I'm generally OK with kids storylines, if they're treating the kids as actual important persons to the ones that delivered them, but this show should've just stayed away from them, given the result. 

 

I was on a break from the show when Alex and Jo got together. Did he actually ask her to move in, like officially, splitting the bills, etc.? Or did she just start staying over and never went home?

 

Now I'm curious about this but I think that she lived there and paid rent with the other interns and then stayed. Alex keeps telling her it's her home too. That's all I recall.

 

Meredith doesn't have a nanny for the same reason all these seven figure per annum surgeons are jostling for shower space.

 

Win. 

[CED9]

I agree with this, too. I'd have been fine with Jo's actions if it were Meredith, because we've seen her be rude to Jo multiple times in the past several episodes. But IIRC Arizona and Jo haven't had any interaction - positive or negative - since Arizona moved in with Alex.

From what I've seen on twitter, I'm 99.9% sure Arizona shacking up with Alex and Jo has nothing to do with anything actually on the show, and everything to do with Jessica Capshaw and Camilla Luddington being best friends off screen.

[Starscream]

Can someone clarify something for me? I was on a break from the show when Alex and Jo got together. Did he actually ask her to move in, like officially, splitting the bills, etc.? Or did she just start staying over and never went home? Because if it's the second, she's every bit as much a guest as Arizona is.

It was more like she slept over and never left.  Then, after a homeless vet living in her car was admitted to the hospital, Jo freaked out about not really having a place of her own, but Alex said he thought she knew it was just as much her place as his.  Something like that.

[kingshearte]

I agree that Ben's brother seemed too masculine for what he was doing. Wouldn't he change his hairstyle and clothing? The story didn't play out quite right.

Agreed. Full disclosure: I'm speaking as a cisgendered person who only knows a few transgendered people (as far as I know). But in the experience I have had, it seems to mostly only come as a complete, 100% surprise if your head is stuck in the sand. I feel like this might have made more sense if Bailey at least had possibly had some inkling for a while, even if Ben didn't. Also, as someone else pointed out, there's so much information out there that having this person not telling anyone or making any visible changes, but taking these off-brand hormones was just weird. And how are we supposed to think she was planning on having this play out? Are we supposed to think that she thought she would just wake up one morning after enough time on the shitty hormones and she'd look completely like a woman, and that's when she would come out to everybody? I'm not saying it's super easy or straightforward, and presumably there are as many different thought processes and experiences with it as there are trans people, but this one just seemed so out of left field as to be written by someone who had absolutely no clue about any of the issues involved. It was weird, and I feel like they tried to cram a lot of stuff into this one character we've never met before.

 

Man, I love how often the doctors at this hospital completely ignore HIPAA and patient confidentiality. Between Bailey telling Ben that his brother was transitioning and Callie telling the petting boyfriend that his girlfriend wasn't really fainting, good lord. I know that Bailey and Callie's intentions were good but that's still not cool, guys.

Agreed on the second one, but Bailey was not speaking to Ben as a doctor covered by HIPAA; she was speaking as Rosalyn's sister-in-law and Ben's wife. There are no laws preventing that. And in fact, I was relatively impressed with how Meredith handled Bailey's questions about it. "Is he doing what I think he's doing?" "What is it you think he's doing?" And then telling her that her questions should be directed to Curt, not her.

 

Face it: we spend more time thinking about these plot points than the writers do. Derek obviously checks in with Meredith and the kids every day (3 times while Maggie was babysitting), so why did Meredith not expect Maggie to have to deal with that? She should have had - at least - a cover story or a lie ready. It's stupid. And why (when she was supposed to be working) did she plan to go see him anyway, since she apparently didn't want to?

Well, she did originally intend to go see Derek, so she would have had no reason to prepare a cover story in advance. But that probably should have occurred to her once she didn't go, and I fully agree that she absolutely did, in fact, owe Maggie an explanation. And as for why she planned to go, she did want to initially, or thought she did. Feelings are complicated sometimes. I still think her behaviour and actions about the whole thing, from the pre-shenanigans last week, through the actual weekend, all the way to the post-weekend crap, were appallingly self-centred and inexcusable, but not entirely incomprehensible.

 

I thought his reaction was more realistic than Bailey's.  Most people require more than five minutes to totally change how they refer to that person's gender.  As right as it was, it became increasingly irritating for Bailey to keep up with the "her" and "she".

That was the part about this story that actually made sense. Speaking from my own experience, it's a lot easier for someone who's less close to make that transition than it is for the one who's known the person for years — or decades. A long-time close friend of my husband's transitioned quite a few years ago, and I was able to flip more or less instantly. My husband, despite being fully accepting of it all, still occasionally uses the wrong pronoun.

 

I agree with both of you. I like Amelia/Owen. They're both kind of broken, and I think they have a nice, quiet chemistry that suits their personalities. It's nice to see Owen get a storyline that's not about moping for Cristina.

Me too. I get the perspective that everyone doesn't always have to be paired up with everyone else all the time, but it does work better for storytelling purposes, so I figure it's best to just accept that it's going to happen. And I'm finding that I really don't hate this. Owen's "I'm going to kiss you now" was a nice flash of his old self-assuredness (while still giving her plenty of opportunity to say no or back off, or give some other indication of non-consent, which is more than Cristina got in the beginning — about which I still I have very conflicted feelings). Mostly I'm not looking forward to Derek coming back and getting all "rawr protective brother" about it.

[lovedoldGreys]

This is true CED9, I forget it's just tv because for years Greys has been my escape. It sucks when the writers mess up the characters. Honestly I always wonder why I go back. I can't even watch Scandal anymore. After the second season it was ruined. The problem is Shonda wants a long running show rather than a quality storyline. :(

[LeGrandElephant]

On an even shallower note I was convinced that wasn't even Ellen Pompeo in the long shots because no way a woman who has had two children has abs/stomach that looks like that.  If it really was her I hate her. I haven't given birth and I don't look that good. 

 

I always figure its part of an actor's actual job to stay in shape, so they probably have personal trainers as a business expense, and the rest of us don't have that and can't justify the time/expense as part of our daily lives, so it isn't a fair comparison. 

[dr pepper]

Well lets see.

Why are they destroying Meredith's character? Isn't the central character of a show supposed to be someone we love? Or at least love to hate?

They have a transsexual patient, yay! I wish they could have done a fresh angle, though. Like, speculating that that's what's going on with the anomalous estrogen reading while he's unconscious; then when he wakes up he indignatly denies it, and it turns out to be some exotic tumor or metabolic glitch.

But, nope, they have a transsexual patient ore or less by accident. Time to really put that 3d organ printer to the test.

Nude follies at Chez Ellis. I'm beginning to think there's some sort of quota. But they could follow it up next week with Alex trying to show Jo that it's uncool by letting it all hang out himself. Then when Meredith shows up, Jo surprises herself by decking her in a flash of jealous rage. This will lead to the two of them becoming better friends, of course.

[Greysaddict]

this episode was better than I thought it would be. I'm not against the Amelia/Owen pairing and I just realized Callie and Arizona are much more like able apart than they are together (sorry Calzona shippers). Dr. Herman was actually funny, so obviously she isn't going to be around much longer.

I still don't get what the writers are doing to Meredith the past few episodes. I totally get the need to be alone once in a while and don't even fault her for that, but to have her spend the entire last episode looking for people to cover for her "emergency sex" and than to not even go to DC was just strange. It makes me wonder if they had to re-write some of storylines due to Patrick's personal issues. The backend of this season is definitely not following the "season of Meredith" (per Shonda).

[Chewy101]

I still don't get what the writers are doing to Meredith the past few episodes. I totally get the need to be alone once in a while and don't even fault her for that, but to have her spend the entire last episode looking for people to cover for her "emergency sex" and than to not even go to DC was just strange.

 

 

She planned on going but chickened out and ran away like she always does. She has been a runner from the start. And if she isn't running, Derek is. They constantly have to reconnect because they are both too immature and selfish to think of others for longer than a moment so they push one another away and wedge their careers and friends into the gap. She chickened out of getting on the plane and dealing with her marriage and then hid out, embarrassed, for the weekend. That is NOT taking a weekend alone for herself. Its was impulsive, prideful, irrational and selfish. She didn't plan it, nor did she think of her husband, kids, OR sister and tell them what was up when she did it. It's like she is still 12. Last week she didn't give a crap about Kepner and Avery losing their baby (even though she, too, lost a baby AND Zola, and had complication with Bailey) in some desperate attempt to get to her husband, only to hide out in a motel all weekend and jump on the bed and eat junk food and drink alone. No part of that was healthy on her part.

 

So, I just saw the episode called Sympathy for the Parents from back in  season 6, and she is whining to Alex that Derek just said he wants to have a baby. Her response about it to Alex was, "I can't have a baby! I had the worst mom in the world. I would BE the worst mom in the world."

Well, WTG, Mer. This is called self- fulfilling prophesy.

 

Wouldn't it be grand if they could get Christina to come back and kick her ass, and makes Meredith whine that she is only being the Sun because Christina TOLD her she was. And then that's when Christina smacks her and says, "When I told you that, I didn't mean it as a GOOD thing!"

 

Meredith ALMOST did the right thing by her family and hired a nanny. For a brief moment she noticed she was in over her head and reached out to make healthy decisions so her family did not fall through the cracks. Then she went back to brat mode. It was like the groundhog sighting. So maybe this is an arc of self-destruction that leads to a breakthrough and her becoming a decent human being more often than not, instead of the other way around like she is now? 

 

I doubt it, though. Meredith has always been ruthless and cold. I guess it is just less charming to watch now that it's not just her.

[AnitaM86]

Wouldn't it be grand if they could get Christina to come back and kick her ass, and makes Meredith whine that she is only being the Sun because Christina TOLD her she was. And then that's when Christina smacks her and says, "When I told you that, I didn't mean it as a GOOD thing!"

 

IT would be grand if ANYONE told her that being the sun isn't a good thing. At this point, I'll take Stephanie telling her. Anyone. 

 

Then again, it would mean that Shonda would have to recognize that that line is the worst thing she has created since Ghost Denny and we all know she won't. 

 

It makes me wonder if they had to re-write some of storylines due to Patrick's personal issues.

I believe that this SL was set to be as it's happening. I assumed that PD had also asked for some time off when his contract was negotiated. But who knows. Although I have to say, if they had to be rewritten, these writers need new jobs because they're doing a terrible job at it. It doesn't excuse their laziness to destroy (or what they assume is humanize) their lead character for not knowing how to write. 

[KnitsWithRaceCars]

IT would be grand if ANYONE told her that being the sun isn't a good thing. At this point, I'll take Stephanie telling her. Anyone. 

 

Then again, it would mean that Shonda would have to recognize that that line is the worst thing she has created since Ghost Denny and we all know she won't. 

 

 

I sure wish wish people would start telling Mere that she's not the sun!  Unfortunately, I suspect that the only person that there's even the slightest chance she would listen to is Cristina.  And, unfortunately, I think hell will freeze over before Shonda will admit how bad that line was.  Is it too much to hope that, since the sun is a giant ball of gas, Mere will explode into pink mist and we can be rid of her?

[betsyboo]

I didn't see Meredith taking a time out. That wasn't ever her plan. She  just got cowardly about facing up to her vows and responsibilities and then said she was too embarrassed and proud to go slinking home from the airport when she chickened out with getting on the plane. Then she ended up having so much fun hanging out alone that she now justifies standing up her husband and their plans. It's wretched.

 

The only spin I can come up with, is if Maggie thought Meredith didn't get on the plane and hid out in the hotel because she was having PTSD flashbacks and fears from the plane crash.

In my opinion, this is how I interpreted Mere's disappearing act. She goes to airport with every intention of going to DC. She panics. Goes to hotel to regroup. Realizes she likes it and stays. However, as she related that she couldn't get on the plane to Maggie, I took it to mean PTSD plane crash panic. So for the next several minutes I was very confused as to why she had to hide that from Derek because surely he would understand. Then she tells Alex she couldn't go because she didn't want to fight. I think she intentionally misled Maggie with the "i'm afraid to fly" story to engender some sympathy. She told her true person the truth.

 

Which doesn't make any of it right. I have been enjoying this season, even without Cristina, and thought Meredith was great the past several episodes. But this one has me shaking my head.

[Chewy101]

The only spin I can come up with, is if Maggie thought Meredith didn't get on the plane and hid out in the hotel because she was having PTSD flashbacks and fears from the plane crash.

 

In my opinion, this is how I interpreted Mere's disappearing act. She goes to airport with every intention of going to DC. She panics. Goes to hotel to regroup. Realizes she likes it and stays. However, as she related that she couldn't get on the plane to Maggie, I took it to mean PTSD plane crash panic. So for the next several minutes I was very confused as to why she had to hide that from Derek because surely he would understand. Then she tells Alex she couldn't go because she didn't want to fight. I think she intentionally misled Maggie with the "i'm afraid to fly" story to engender some sympathy. She told her true person the truth.

 

Which doesn't make any of it right. I have been enjoying this season, even without Cristina, and thought Meredith was great the past several episodes. But this one has me shaking my head.

 

Respectfully, I don't think this is it. I don't think her not getting on the plane had anything to do with the plane crash. She went through that and then finally did get on a plane to go get an organ donation, so bringing that back now would be silly. Plus, we know she still talks to Christina and she never lies to Alex. If she bothered to go see Alex at all, it was to get the truth off her chest because she knows he will always take her side anyway. I really think blaming some PTST that the show has clarified already she does not have, is cutting Meredith waaaaay too much slack. Really, she has been known to have a death wish time and time again. The thing she fears is intimacy, not danger. 

[betsyboo]

Respectfully, I don't think this is it. I don't think her not getting on the plane had anything to do with the plane crash. She went through that and then finally did get on a plane to go get an organ donation, so bringing that back now would be silly. Plus, we know she still talks to Christina and she never lies to Alex. If she bothered to go see Alex at all, it was to get the truth off her chest because she knows he will always take her side anyway. I really think blaming some PTST that the show has clarified already she does not have, is cutting Meredith waaaaay too much slack. Really, she has been known to have a death wish time and time again. The thing she fears is intimacy, not danger. 

^^^ agreed. I think my comment wasn't clear. I agree that she chickened out from seeing Derek because she didn't want to fight and has trouble talking things out. But I think she let Maggie *think she chickened out because of plane crash flashback.

[Eolivet]

I should've known this would be the episode where they got Amelia and Owen together because they stopped giving Amelia "realistic surgeon hair" (ratty ponytail) and started giving her "girlfriend hair" (luxurious, conditioned mane). She bugged less in this episode, maybe because there was less of her.

 

My interpretation of Cristina's speech to Meredith was not "You are the most important person in the whole world and everything revolves around you" so much as "Don't give up on your dreams and goals so Derek can chase his -- your dreams are just as valid and important." I felt for Meredith, and maybe this makes me a terrible person -- but I 100% understood wanting a weekend alone from kids, a busy job and a stressful marriage. I actually predicted that's what ended up happening, so I don't know if I know this show speaks to me too well or Grey's is just that predictable. .

 

I also give this show a lot of latitude with the kid scenes -- out of sight, out of mind. It's not a "family drama," so it doesn't bother me not to see the kids for ages. That's not why I tune in to this show (or any show). If I want to see kids, I've got life for that.

 

And I just love Geena Davis as Herman. I will miss her so much when Amelia inevitably kills her (no spoilers, just speculation).

[AnitaM86]

My interpretation of Cristina's speech to Meredith was not "You are the most important person in the whole world and everything revolves around you" so much as "Don't give up on your dreams and goals so Derek can chase his -- your dreams are just as valid and important."

I interpreted it the same way and the sentiment is absolutely true, but the show has interpreted it awfully and essentially, making Derek miserable for doing something that she wouldn't do for him until she backed him into the corner of leaving. 

 

She doesn't have goals and dreams that need for her to be rooted in Seattle. None whatsover. She has emotional reasons, which is perfectly fine and valid reasons to stay, but none that involve her career. Also, she doesn't seem to have very well established goals. She wanted to make history with the printed portable veins (?). Perfect. What has happened since then? She goes to Alex to drink after work. Doesn't go home to her kids or her husband, who actually gave up his dreams to stay with her. Instead of staying at the hospital doing research, or at home researching useful info, she's not doing anything. 

 

Honestly talking, what are her goals & dreams? We all know everyone in this hospital wants to be the best surgeon in history but...Derek has brain mapping, Bailey has her gene mapping program, Arizona is specializing in fetal surgery, Callie has her own projects...

 

The thing she fears is intimacy, not danger.

 

This is the truest description of Meredith, ever. 

[Chas411]

I'm miles behind clearly but I'm still going to watch despite knowing where it all goes.

 

I really enjoyed this episode. I thought the Hermann/Arizona plot was hilarious along with the naked Jo/Arizona/Alex sideplot. Alex saying he's going to marry that girl at the end of the episode was sweet and really makes me hope that the two of them make it. I like them as a couple. They've come along way but the two of them click in a way that I haven't seen him do with anybody else including Izzie.

 

Also thought that the story with Amelia/Callie/Jo and the clingy boyfriend was funny. I was feeling smothered just watching him and the reaction of the three women was hilarious.

 

I always enjoy episodes where Bailey feels like old school Bailey. This was one of them. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy her when she's not all riled up and ridiculous. Ben's reaction to his brother/sister surprised me and I thought he'd come around by the end.