The thing they changed: Ellis never got sick and was
still in the hospital, running things. In Meredith’s words, she wants to be
extraordinary, so she has to crush everyone and keep them ordinary. Yep, that
sounds like Ellis AND it brings back memories of an episode where Ellis called
Meredith “ordinary.” Also, Meredith wondered if she had a good dad, would
things be different? At this point, we thought that this entire thing was a
fantasy in Meredith’s head, or a dream, especially when her “good dad” came in the
form of a stepdad, Dr. Weber. But as the episode went on, we decided to take it
not as a Meredith fantasy, but as a picture of what really would have happened,
from the writers to us.
Because Meredith would never make her sister a drug
addict or have Alex cheat on her in a fantasy, right? One thing that didn’t
make sense at first: Why would Ellis Grey being alive mean that Owen and Callie
would have married years ago and had lots of babies? We traced it all back like
this. In season five, when Owen showed up, Callie and Arizona were not
together. Because Cristina was an even bigger bitch than she is in our usual
reality, Owen went right for Callie, who shares his love of making babies. Why
wasn't Cristina desirable? Because Meredith wasn’t twisted enough to go for
Cristina as a best friend, because she had a living mommy teaching her and a
good dad. Meredith must soften Cristina.
Also, Cristina was a pariah for sleeping with Burke. Since
Meredith wasn’t twisty, she didn’t go for Derek so that a good guy could save
her. Instead, she went for Alex so that she could save and change the bad boy,
like a normal woman would. That means only Cristina slept with an attending. In
both realities, Burke leaves Cristina. In this new reality, Meredith ratted out
Izzie over the Denny situation (which means Izzie probably died of cancer
because Cristina wasn’t around to save her), and George left after failing his
boards. Presumably, he would still be alive.
We loved cutesy Meredith and Alex in the first half of
this episode. Their alternate selves were hilarious. Callie looks great with
that alternate hair and makeup. We even liked Lexie’s dreds. Now, if Ellis had
ended up happy and with the chief, Thatcher Grey would have killed himself.
Man, that guy is the worst. Without her good daddy, Lexie would end up on drugs
and not a doctor. In any reality, April is annoying, but in this one, she is
also a crappy friend. Jackson is still competent and nice. Bailey was always
meant to be a bad ass, but she doesn’t do well under Ellis. She still ends up a
teacher when she chews Alex out in the elevator.
Addison still cheats on Derek, but this time, she has
Mark’s baby. Ellis makes Derek suck as a surgeon and his nickname is “McDreary.”
There was a little dark humor when Charles was still alive and said, “Shoot me
now” in disgust. So….Ellis’ presence scared off the shooter? Or maybe she just
would not have unplugged the shooter’s wife? We loved watching Meredith and
Cristina as enemies in the episode. They are just electric together, no matter
the relationship. We were so happy when they ended up friends, using the same
lines they said in the pilot when they made up after a fight. That warmed our
little hearts. We swooned like ninnies when Mark found Lexie and carried her
into the hospital. So romantic. We know those two aren’t over yet.
Without Cristina, Owen never got treated for is PTSD or
faced down those issues. Three years and a bunch of babies with Callie later,
he is miserable and probably about to cheat with Teddy. A mutual love of babies
is not enough. Cristina is only nice to Owen, helping him when he hurts his
hand due to his illness and advising him to get help. This sort of shows us
that the writers think Cristina and Owen were meant to be too, if only for a
short time in order to help him get healthy. It also shows us that kids would
not make him happy by themselves, no matter how much those twins looked like
Owen. Does this mean that the writers believe in C/O as a couple in the same
way that the think MerDer and Meredith/Cristina were meant to be? Either way,
it looks like Cristina is going to fix Owen, whether he is married to Callie or
not. Callie and Arizona were looking a little friendly anyway.
The episode used music from season one of this show, and
that was fantastic. It started with "Portions for Foxes". Even though Meredith’s
life was cozier and she had a better relationship with her mom, Meredith saw
Ellis for who she really was in the end. Meredith is always supposed to be a
deep, rebellious, twisty, fearless girl. We think, in having these characters
become who they are despite changed circumstances, this episode reminded us of
all the things we love about the characters and all of their best moments.
Finally, of course, Meredith and Derek ended up single, heartbroken and in a
bar together, about to get wasted and hook up. Yessssss.
Episode grade: B+
This episode was definetly filler, but it was enjoyable filler. It was fun to see how things would have turned out if only...It (obviously) didn't move the current storylines forward at all, and that was a bit annoying to me. But overall, it was a pretty ok episode
ReplyDeleteYeah, if you were looking for plot progression, this would annoy you. It didn't help that this episode came after the Cristina/Owen cliffhanger. If you care about them, you at least got to see that they were still sharing a bed after the fight (they showed that before they went into the fantasy), even though they still look mad.
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