Episode Title: "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"

Synopsis: Derek decides to quit after learning of a high mortality rate among his patients; Bailey and the chief continue to spar over her pediatrics fellowship until Adele steps in to mediate; Izzie's interns find something disturbing about Patient X.

Guest Star: Loretta Devine

Discuss.

I wasn't a big fan of Bailey and Chief's stuff. Loretta Devine had a great scene, but it seems ridiculous (and against everything that we know) that Bailey would call her because the Chief was mean to her.
I'm still not a fan of Sloane and Lexie, and the writers are really going to have to give Jessica Capshaw something to do soon if they want the audience to develop any kind of attachment to her or else she'll just be another Melissa George.

But the rest was pretty awesome...especially the last 15 minutes or so.
Heigl was very good here. Heartbreaking. My god, if the writers do this properly, she could end up being an Emmy contender again.
But the scene with Lexie, then with Alex, and then with Christina were just awesome. Seriously, how good is Sandra Oh? Even with no lines, first in the locker room, then in the vent room...she conveys so much.

And then the freakin AMAZING scene between Meredith and Derek at the trailer. LOVED that Meredith stood her ground. Pompeo and Dempsey played it extremely well. Bravo to both.
B

That's really sad what they're doing with Izzie. Storyline wise, it could be great for Katherine Heigl, and it can/should give her enough material to be an Emmy contender again, but to see this happen to a character that's been with the show since day 1 is bittersweet. It's likely what she wants and all to leave the show, but still. This whole "Patient X" angle that they took with the interns was interesting, and I didn't think I'd like them using that steam room again for another big scene, but both Heigl and Sandra Oh made that work out in the end. I was hoping that Izzie would have confided in George instead of Cristina, just to give T.R. Knight some material and a reason to still be around, but maybe that's coming next week when it seems like everyone finds out about Izzie's condition. I'm ready for them to get to the bottom of Owen's PTSD now, b/c it feels like he's been on the same plane for weeks now. Every scene that Kevin McKidd has with Sandra Oh is excellent though.

Derek lashing out over his high patient mortality rate was some of the best material they've given Patrick Dempsey in a while now. That last scene between Derek and Meredith shows how much Meredith has grown since the beginning of the show. Back then, this would have been the perfect out for her to leave again and go through one of their classic breakups, but now she's sticking by him regardless. The scenes with Bailey and Webber feuding over Bailey going over to pediatrics came off as childish, but the scene with Loretta Devine almost made up for that. I wish that they gave Sara Ramirez a better storyline than this one with Jessica Capshaw. Brooke Smith shouldn't have been replaced if this is all they're capable of doing with her lesbian storyline. I don't care too much about Lexie and Sloan. Sloan has far better chemistry with Callie and always has. I felt bad for the way everyone treated the "J/V" neurosurgeon guy when Derek was away. He didn't deserve that! LoL.

Grade for "I Will Follow You Into the Dark": B

GM Blog:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Jenna Bans on "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"
Original Airdate: 3-12-09

Okay, people . . . step away from the comment section . . . step away from the phone (no one at ABC’s gonna answer at this hour anyway, trust me) . . . and hear a writer out. I know what you’re all thinking – HOW COULD THEY HUMILIATE SHADOW SHEPHERD LIKE THAT!? Just kidding. We’ll talk Mer/Der and the bat and the ring, we will, but first I would actually like to start with Shadow Shepherd, ‘cause he’s part of the bigger issue here which is . . .

Derek Shepherd is not in a good place right now. In fact, dude’s pretty much at his worst. Remember when our friendly neighborhood serial killer Eric Stolz told him they had a lot in common? Derek’s started to believe him. What I love about this storyline, besides that it gives the talented Patrick Dempsey a chance to show us just how big his acting range is, is that you’d never think it would happen to Shepherd. Shepherd knows brains like I know . . . well, nothing. Maybe chocolate. But the point is, he’s not just a star in his field, he runs his field. It’s like the Pope having a crisis of faith. And everyone’s feeling it – Mark, literally with his maimed hand, Richard, who can’t possibly run his surgical floor without his star neurosurgeon . . . and sad little Shadow Shepherd, who finally gets his shot to impress his colleagues, and not one of them can even remember his name. (Even writing the script, I couldn’t keep it straight. When Darren, our script coordinator, was clearing the names, he’d call me and be like – so, it’s John, but everyone keeps calling him Jim, right? And I’d be all, yes. Wait, no. Wait, yes.) And it’s not because he’s not a good surgeon, it’s just with Shepherd around, who pays attention to the bald dude in glasses? In the end, Derek’s legendary status ends up hurting Derek the most. Because when people expect greatness out of you 24/7, it’s damn near impossible to live up to. You’re bound to take a big fall.

Like the interns do, I’d like you to ask yourselves – if you were handed a death sentence today, couple of months to live, what’s the first thing you’d do? Personally, I wouldn’t waste any time. I’d immediately re-introduce trans fats into my diet and then hop a plane to one of those huts over the ocean in Bali where the floor is glass so you can experience all the marine life without actually having to get wet. But that’s me. Izzie’s clearly a better person. Just when she’s found her niche at SGH, teaching the interns, she gets slapped with cancer. Wear sunscreen. But instead of hightailing it to a Balinese paradise (seriously, those huts look COOL) she takes her devastating diagnosis and channels it into an educational - albeit macabre - game for her interns, who are sorely in need of some attention. Shonda’s had this Patient X thing in her head for a long, long time – and when she first pitched it out, I immediately loved it. And hated it. I still love and hate it. Because it’s so totally messed up and unfair. What Izzie’s doing, teaching the interns, is a selfless, meaningful endeavor that no one else, even Alex, will ever give her credit for. Everyone’s been busy clamoring for surgeries while Izzie’s quietly achieved the impossible – she’s turned the gaggle of morons we met in season 4 into doctors. And now she’s DYING. And no one gets her, and no one knows it, and it’s seriously UNFAIR. Wear sunscreen.

Except Cristina. Now A LOT of thought and discussion went into the decision that the person Izzie goes to first should be Cristina. And some of you were probably thinking, why not Alex? Why not George? Hell, why not Mer? And that’s what Izzie was thinking too, in the end when she’s standing in the resident lounge, eyeing all of her friends, wondering whose evening to ruin. And she decides on Cristina. Because at the end of the day, even though they’ve never gotten along that well, Izzie knows Cristina’s strong enough to take news like that. She’s not gonna crumple, she’s gonna take the news like a hard, cold scientist and that’s what Izzie wants right now. It’s what she needs. ‘Cause she’s got a hell of a fight on her hands and the odds are stacked. I’d want Cristina Yang on my case too.

So my Mom – she really loves "Grey’s Anatomy." In fact, she calls me after every episode, thrilled and excited to tell me what scenes she loved, what lines made her laugh, whose performance made her cry . . .Tonight I asked her what she thought and there was a long silence. And then: HE HIT THE RING WITH THE BAT!? I know many of you are equally as shocked, maybe a little horrified, and I’m with you. It was brutal to watch. But here’s what I really want you to take from it – Meredith’s reaction to it all was infused with a maturity and strength that was five seasons in the making. She didn’t crumple to the ground sobbing, she told him to do his worst, because she’s not going anywhere. She knows he’s drunk and angry, she knows he’s lashing out at her because that’s what you do when you’re drunk and angry and filled with self-loathing, you lash out at the last people in the world you should be lashing out at, the people you love and most importantly, she knows Derek doesn’t mean it. She knows he’s at his lowest, professionally, personally . . . so she’s not gonna bail on him. She’s gonna let him have his little “the world is a better place without me operating in it” tantrum and when the dust settles, Mer’s still gonna be standing there, supporting him. Because that’s what you do in a relationship. That’s what you do in a marriage. For better or for worse, right? So you can choose to see the end of this episode as a MerDer nuclear holocaust, but I really hope you don’t. I hope you can see it as I do – as progress. Twisted progress, yes, but hopeful all the same. For better or for worse, people.

And with that . . . let the discussion begin!

EW's recap:
-----------------------------------------------
"Grey's Anatomy" Recap: Commit to It

Derek's funk over losing a patient and being sued tests Meredith's staying power, while Izzie has to face the reality of her medical situation.

by Jennifer Armstrong

I cried tonight, and that is how I like it. "Grey's Anatomy" was back in full, moody force — I'd even go so far as to say the best it's been this season. Every show's got to have highs and lows and middles, of course, but there's been an abnormal amount of dipping below the axis this season. But this great wallow of an episode hit its emotional highs — that's when "Grey's" is at its best, when its wonderfully sad — with no trick guest stars, no random new docs (except Jim! but I love Jim!) . . . just our trusty core cast (which is big enough, thanks) and some decent, but not-too-distracting, patient stories.

Let us count the downers that elevated tonight's installment:

Depressed Derek What do we think about this, "Grey's" fans? I went into this episode dreading Derek's descent after watching him talk on "The View" about how awesome it was that he was getting to actually act within actual story lines that did not strictly involve him wooing a crazy commitmentphobe. I thought I liked my McDreamy McSane and McTogether. But I started to turn around on that from the very first scene, when he was moping on the sofa eating cereal out of the box — though, admittedly, my positive feelings sprouted mainly from his wild depression hair. And his casual depression sweater. What I'm saying is Depressed Derek is hot. In fact, he seemed to be taking style cues from a fair number of men I've dated, which helped explain some things.

Sick Izzie I felt totally opposite about knowing we were likely to finally diagnose Izzie's terminal whatever this week: Psyched. And in this case, the story line delivered. I'll even go one step farther: It exceeded my expectations. I liked Dying Izzie. Way more than I've ever liked Living Izzie. Starting with her newfound penchant for gleefully imagining those she cares about carrying on without her, from Alex becoming a distinguished doctor with salt and pepper hair to Mer and Cristina bantering in the nursing home. (Cristina: ''If you have a problem, you don't ignore it.'' Meredith: ''Sometimes if you have to pee and ignore it, it does go away.'') Incidentally, Alex started proving her fantasy right immediately by sticking to his risky diagnosis of a teen girl who'd been having seizures mid-band march, and saving her life because of it. Upbeat Alex — also hot.

The Sucktastic Interns The worst intern class in medical history, on the other hand, at least finally served a narrative purpose when Izzie pretended to be teaching them with a fake case — ''Patient X'' — when she was really making them diagnose her. I personally wouldn't go this route, since I would want, I don't know, a correct diagnosis — and I'd also like to learn what was wrong with me from people with a soul. But it's a TV show, so I'll go with it, and God knows she was doing the rest of the hospital a service by occupying the idiots. (T.R. Knight sighting of the week: George asking Izzie about Patient X before the interns pulled her away for a diagnosis!) They did, however, get it right (presumably), even if it did take a while. Patient X, they said, has metastatic melanoma (which, incidentally, is very bad indeed and happens to be related to how we're killing the earth and should wear a lot of sunscreen) that's spread to her liver and brain. (That also makes that mole check she got last episode make more sense.) Now to the important part: With chemo and radiation, she likely has only a few months to live; the survival rate is 5 percent. As one insensitive intern quipped, ''girl's pretty much toast.'' That didn't make the next part — where another insensitive intern asked, ''what's our prize?'' — go over very well. ''The prize is you didn't screw up this time,'' Izzie snapped. ''You are doctors. That is the prize.''

In fact, as a side note, I have to say that after witnessing the incredible job security at Seattle Grace, I'm considering becoming an intern there; it seems like the only place in the world right now where you can repeatedly screw up and fail to show up without worrying for your very livelihood. Even when Derek walked out of the hospital while the Chief begged him to do surgery, the Chief only half threatened him with being fired. Which brings us to . . . .

Jim the Neurosurgeon How heartbreaking is this guy? We've never seen him before, but apparently he's the second-string Derek who gets to do surgery only when Derek isn't around. Lucky for him, Derek was refusing to come to work since he killed Jen the pregnant aneurism patient and got sued for it. Go Jim.

The Cancer Siblings Two sisters and a brother came in to get their stomachs removed because most people in their family die of this horrible genetic cancer deal. Whatever. The important thing is that the brother was the delicious Michael Rady — that is, Kostas from "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," Max from "Greek," and now, the lead in The CW's increasingly intriguing "Melrose Place" remake. Anyway, he didn't want to get the operation because, honestly, it did sound like it'd suck as much as you think it would not to have a stomach. So his one sister had hers removed and it turned out she did have cancer, so the other one . . . oh, who cares? How cute is he gonna be on "Melrose"? With Ashlee Simpson-Wentz! Okay, sorry, back on track: The oldest sister — the one with cancer — actually did have a pretty great insight that lit something up in Meredith when she said, ''You don't leave the people you love alone.''

That turned out to be the theme of the night — not letting people's icy-cool exteriors stop you from giving them a piece of your mind or heart. Miranda, fed up with the Chief sniping at her under pressure, called Adele in to give him a talking to, which she did. ''Hospital or playground, Richard?'' she demanded before turning her scolding on Miranda: ''You're no better, tattling on a man to his wife.'' But then Miranda gave him some good advice after dressing him down for scoffing at her ''soft'' choice to go into peds: ''Maybe you need a little soft.'' Lexie, meanwhile, seemed like she may — or may not — have wisened up to the fact that Izzie had a personal stake in Patient X. ''Screw the odds,'' she said, then brought up her own mother's demise: ''People die of the hiccups.'' Alex, on a lifesaving high, begged Izzie to get back to surgery. ''I don't want to be the future of this hospital if you're not with me,'' he gushed. Cristina assured Hunt she didn't mind his post-traumatic nightmares: ''It's gonna take more than a bad dream to scare me off.'' Izzie chose Cristina as her first post-diagnosis confidante because, ''You're a robot. You can take it.''

Callie and Arizona finally made a date. But — awww — Mark still turned Neurosurgeon Jim down for an after-work drink.

Which left only Dark & Twisty Derek to attend to. The Chief took Miranda's advice and went ''soft,'' begging Meredith to get Derek to come back to work — he even dropped Derek's planned engagement on her. ''He's planning to propose,'' he said. ''He's been carrying around a big ring for weeks. That's not a man who wants to be left alone.'' She took that to heart and tracked Derek down at his trailer, where he was smashing beer cans with a baseball bat and being generally snarly. I couldn't have been more proud of a character than when she took all his abuse, about how damaged and awful and commitmentphobic she is — ''There's no fixing you. You're a lemon.'' — and simply told him she'd be there for him no matter what.

Yep, I was crying. "Grey's" was back, cancer, heartbreak, more cancer and all.

What did you think of dark-and-twisty "Grey's"? Do you like your Derek depressed and your Izzie sick? What can we do to get rid of these interns? Or do they deserve a reprieve for diagnosing Izzie? Will you miss Jim the Neurosurgeon when he's gone?

This episode really felt like classic Grey's to me and hopefully signaling better things to come. I really liked all of the story lines tonight. I thought Heigel's was the best, but Meredith/Derek, Alex, Chief/Bailey all had interesting stuff. I would have liked a little more of Oh, but I really like the fact that Izzie chose to tell her. Even Sloane & Lexie weren't annoying.

I really like what they have done with Meredith. She has grown so much as a person she can stand there and take that abuse from Derek. Pompeo really deserves some love for her work, but lead actress is so crowded.

I think this would be an excellent tape for Heigel and she is probably only going to get better stuff. I think she has to be considered a real Emmy frontrunner. Do you think her behavior last year will hurt her in the popular vote?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jss0058,

Didn't think this episode was all that great.

Derek needs to grow the hell up. He should know damn well that he's going to have a lot of patients who die on him. He's just mad someone called him a liar.

The stuff with Bailey and the Chief was stupid. The two of them get more annoying by the second. And I can't believe she called his wife. These two also need to grow up.

If Izzie survives this cancer battle, I'll throw up.

Still not a fan of Arizona, or Lexie/Sloan. They continue to waste space that could be given to Alex or Cristina/Owen.

Those writer blogs continue to be the worst things I have ever read. God, they are so bad.

C+

Alright guys, I'm gonna say it: Katherine Heigl is the only one deserving of a Supporting Actress nod on this show! (I make the supporting caveat because I think Pompeo deserves her first Lead bid.) She has been consistently compelling through wherever this storyline has taken her, and Shonda Rhimes was right-it's really paying off. She's been Emmy nod worthy already, and I'm sure her best material is still to come.

Justin Chambers has also been consistently turning in outstanding work this season. And while I find this Dr. Shepard to be whiny and annoying, it's still nice to see Patrick Dempsey actually have to act for once.

One last thing: IF we were giving out awards for acting without words, Sandra Oh wins hands down. Her scene in the vent room with Heigl was wrenching. Still, I don't think she's been given enough of a story or an opportunity to show off what we know she can do this season.


P.S. I LOVE LORETTA DEVINE.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: sirkevin,

This is one of the first episodes in a long time that I really liked. It wasn't perfect, but certain scenes were. All the Izzie stuff was excellent and MADE this episode. As of right now, I'm with sirkevin on the fact that the two people who should be nominated for this season of Grey's Anatomy are Katherine Heigl for Drama Supporting Actress (her material is only going to get better from here until the end of the season) and Ellen Pompeo for Drama Lead Actress (She has tons of amazing scenes in multiple episodes this season, she just needs that ONE episode that kind of centers on her character and gives her the money scenes to be a contender). Also, Justin Chambers was really great in this episode and seeing as how we all know how Izzie's storyline will go down, he has some pretty great material coming up.

Grey's hasn't really been delivering as a series or with its writing, but the one thing that keeps me watching this show is its acting, which continues to impress me. BTW...Grey's Anatomy is always at its best when it focuses on its original cast members (i.e. not Sloan, Little Grey, or lesbian of the week).

Great work! This is the type of episode that sort of epitomizes what makes Grey's work IMO...pure, simple, genuine.

ITA with the notion that the show thrives when focusing on the original cast...that is what made the show to begin with. There were several small scenes with just the original 'interns' which really elevated the overall impact. And the chemistry between the originals (and the actors portraying them) is so great and apparent.

And no Denny or Jeffrey Dean Morgan is always good!

quote:

Originally posted by sirkevin:
Alright guys, I'm gonna say it: Katherine Heigl is the only one deserving of a Supporting Actress nod on this show!...One last thing: IF we were giving out awards for acting without words, Sandra Oh wins hands down. Her scene in the vent room with Heigl was wrenching. Still, I don't think she's been given enough of a story or an opportunity to show off what we know she can do this season.

Have you watched the whole season? While Heigl might deserve a nomination (IMO, she's done great work but I can think of more than 6 supporting actresses who have done better), Sandra Oh has had one of the best seasons she has ever had on this show. In the episodes "Dream a Little Dream of Me" (Part 1 & 2), "In the Midnight Hour", "All By Myself", just to name a few she has been outstanding and Emmy worthy. She has been fantastic all season long and we still have around 9 episodes left.

I think Izzie and Heigl are getting a very nice exit, it almost seems as if the whole thing was mutual and amicable between her and the writers...maybe it actually is, I don't know. It's been really great these last few episodes, thank God! for this after the ridiculous Denny stuff...

Dempsey has been amazing and I think that the whole Izzie thing might bring much better from Chambers...

The show needs to pick up and drop some stuff or either make them good enough to stay, this is mainly for the Lexie and Marc thing and SPECIALLY! this "Callie is a Lesbian season"...

Again, Private Practice has become the better show.