Grey's Anatomy 3.17: Some Kind of Miracle

"You are anything but ordinary."

Oh, yes you are, Grey's Anatomy episode. Yes, you are.

As the finale to the huge three-parter of this season, this episode is a wonderfully surreal and symbolic ending to a few weeks of total hell for all involved at Seattle Grace, penned by Shonda and Marti Noxon (aka TV's Marti Noxon, as she is apparently known in the Grey's offices). Apparently a lot of people hated this episode, but then again, I'm judging based on the feedback on TWoP, and that's the worst place to judge reactions since it's an absolute rule to hate all TV on there. Judging from the Grey's writers blog page, a lot of people loved this episode, so who knows.

I am one of the latter. I think this is one of the best, if not the best, episode the show has done thusfar. It wasn't without its flaws, of course, but on a completely emotional level, this episode is fairly unsurpassed. The Super Bowl extravaganza, "It's the End of the World" and "(As We Know It)," was great in introducing a new level of intensity that the show hadn't had previously shown, but I think it was then topped by the three-part finale ("17 Seconds," "Deterioration of the Flight or Fight Response," and "Losing My Religion," respectively... I just love this show's episode title gimmicks... I want to write a show where I have episode title gimmicks), which in turn has been topped by this three parter.

Mostly because of the stuff between Meredith and Ellis. Their story, which started in the pilot, has been a really subtle thing that has explained a good chunk of Meredith's psychology. Meredith is "dark and twisty" and "sleeps with inappropriate men," according to the other characters on the show, all of which is completely true. She does this stuff because Ellis is the perfect surgeon and has always considered her daughter to be ordinary, plus the really cool stuff with Meredith following Ellis' footsteps, what with both getting involved with another married doctor while being a surgical intern (the main difference, however, is that Ellis' affair with Richard was doomed, while Derek ended up leaving Addison for Meredith). Anyways, with Meredith hanging out with Doc the dog, Denny, Dylan who turned into pink mist, Bonnie the train girl, and Liz, Ellis' scrub nurse, in the afterlife, she has time to contemplate things about life and determines that she's been borderline-suicidal in the last few days (which makes sense, seeing as how she tried to drown herself in the tub a few episodes ago). When she senses that she might die, she is urged by Ellis (who dies from cardiac arrest brought on by a tirade against her by Derek) to go back to life, and they share a truly poignant good-bye, which is really tragic, but strangely fitting.

Now, of course, it sounds sappy on paper, and it totally is. But nobody does sappy like Grey's, so it works. And it works within the Grey's universe on a completely symbolic level. Realistically, Meredith would not be able to sit up and talk a few hours after being clinically dead, and "coming back from the light" stories are told to death, but I argue that without the soapy relationship stuff that makes up most of the show, these really intense episodes wouldn't work because we need those relationships and connections to get an emotional core to the stories, and that's what this show does exceptionally well.

Briefly elsewhere, Izzie confronts Callie in a truly bitchy way about how the George-Callie union is a sham, and George symbolically smacks Izzie by sticking with Callie at the end of the crisis. Izzie is a dumb bitch, really, even though she is visited by Denny's ghost in a sweet closing shot, though it wasn't nearly as affecting since Izzie has been a BIG BITCH all episode long. Alex helps his Jane Doe through her face-melting crisis (the prosthetics for the character are amazing), and Addison selfelssly counsels Derek through the Meredith stuff. Addison rocks... but enough for her own spin-off? I don't know about that.

All in all: A+

Until next time, same bat time, same bat channel.