Grey's Anatomy

As Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) discovered in last night's episode of Grey's Anatomy, so much has changed at Seattle Grace Hospital, and yet so little.

First, might I comment on how ravishing the newly raven-haired Addie is?

Addison's return last night did little to advance the plot of Grey's Anatomy. Her presence was more of a device that allowed us to stop for a moment and assess the season's current progress. I suppose after such a long hiatus, Shonda thought we needed a primer or something.

The things that are different mostly involve marriages or relationships breaking up. Bailey's (Chandra Wilson) and the Chief's (James Pickens Jr.) spouses left them. Derek (Patrick Dempsey) and Meredith broke up, and Derek is now engaging in heavy petting with lots of tongue with Rose McRebound. Callie (Sara Ramirez) and George (T.R. Knight) got divorced, leaving Callie to fill the lonely void with Hahn. And BFFs George and Izzie aren't really hanging out together anymore either because George has deigned to make friends of his own.

All of these things are ostensibly different than what Addison had seen prior to leaving for Private Practice, but are they really? Not really. Breaking up and getting back together is par for the course on Grey's Anatomy. It's as if there's a policy at the hospital that you're not allowed to work there if you have a healthy, stable relationship. So, in fact, nothing has changed at all.

For example, the medical professionals of Seattle Grace have done nothing to curtail the rampant epidemic of verbal diarrhea that seems to affect everyone. Someone should really get to work on that. Maybe start a clinical trial, even.

OK, but seriously, the people who have stayed absolutely the same are Alex (Justin Chambers) and McSteamy (Eric Dane). Alex is still the truth-teller, but now he's saddled with a psycho freak faking her own pregnancy to snare him. Um, General Hospital much? McSteamy is also exactly the same: yummy! He might be a class-A jerk, but the thing I love about him is that he's uncomplicated and doesn't try to manipulate anyone. He shows you up front exactly who he is (a slimy, horny, sexy man who just happens to be a brilliant and God-like plastic surgeon), and you can take it or leave it. Better yet, you can take Meredith's (Ellen Pompeo) advice to "screw boys like whores on tequila," just like Callie ended up doing at the end.

McSteamy also made the best scene in the episode even funnier, when he got onto the elevator with Derek, Meredith, Addison and Rose. Awkward!

I am saddened that one huge, glaring thing has not changed at all, and that is that feminism is still dead on Grey's Anatomy. I cannot fathom how a show created by a supposedly feminist woman could create fictional women who are so hateful to each other and so weak and wishy-washy in that stereotypically feminine way. The female characters on the show have every reason to be strong, confident, outspoken. Yet, at every turn, they are reduced to crazy, crying, psychotic bitches who always end up turning to the men in their lives to save them. Even Cristina who is arguably the strongest one of them all has been a shell of her former self, shuffling meekly around Hahn (Brooke Smith), who is some kind of crazy bitch – a crazy lesbian bitch, don'cha know? – who only seems to be acting out her own self-hatred by being insufferably rude to Cristina just because she reminds Hahn of herself.

I hope some things will change as the rest of the season progresses. I hope that Izzie (Katherine Heigl) learns how to become a good doctor because it's painful to watch her with her patients. (By the end, it still seemed like she was trying to strong-arm her HIV-patient out of having an abortion instead of just presenting her with the facts—another hit on feminism in my eyes.) I hope that Derek and Meredith will decide once and for all about how they feel about each other. I hope that Cristina will grow a spine and stop taking crap from Hahn. But I don't want everything to change. I hope awkward elevator scenes and tequila-fueled hookups and Meredith's and Cristina's friendship will remain a fixture on Grey's Anatomy forever.



-Debbie Chang, BuddyTV Staff Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)