The Babies are Growing Up on Grey’s: 200th Episode Review

 By: Lisa Casas @queenofmynerds

In the landmark 200th episode of Grey’s Anatomy, “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” the grown ups are playing dress up at a fundraiser while the baby interns are left In the house alone.  Thankfully, they don’t throw a wild party or kill anyone.  Instead, there’s a definite shift with this episode serving as their coming out party.  Last season, who could even tell them apart?  I still don’t know the real name of the one that died.  She shall forever be “Mousy” to me with the one that lived being “long-haired Mousy.”  The only intern that has any traction is Jo, mainly because all of us who’ve watched the previous 199 episodes want Alex Karev to have a little happiness. But tonight all the interns were kicking ass and takin’ names.

The episode begins with the revelation that the hospital is out of money.  How does that even happen?  Who cares? It’s a perfect excuse for all our old faves to get dressed up in their sparkly best for a circus-themed fundraiser.  Avery turns all head football coach on us and says that ten percent of the money raised goes to the department of the surgeon who brings in the biggest donations.

It’s on…all the doctors up their game to bring in the big bucks. Callie spends the night trying to get donations by pulling the sympathy card saying she has a dead wife.  When she sees Arizona across the room, you can tell she does consider the wife she had, all their happiness, gone, dead.

Cristina is in her element flirting and raking in the donations all the while keeping a watchful eye on Owen, making sure he doesn’t get too friendly with any of the pretty donors.

Meredith and Derek want to outdo each other with Derek even juggling for some possible money contributors. Dance monkey, dance!

Alex is moping all evening, obviously shaken up by the appearance of an old heroin junkie brought into the hospital. He keeps checking on the injured man all night and eventually tells Jo that he suspects this is his father.  Can’t Karev catch a break?  Just once? He had one episode of happiness with Jo and her fancy black panties.  Now abusive dad is back in what is sure to be not a happy reunion.

In the funniest moments of the night, Arizona and April are holed up in a closet drinking champagne and waxing philosophical about life, love, and cheating. Kepner has the best line of the night when she asks if she can try on Arizona’s leg. April, you are one perky, twisted girl!

(ABC/Danny Feld)
PATRICK DEMPSEY

Cristina heads back to the hospital after getting a call from Stephanie, better known as Avery’s girlfriend.  She helps Shane in a surgery and gives him the compliment of a lifetime.  She says he’s a shark, like her, and sharks never apologize.  Yes, I’d say he is a shark.  He gets one intern killed in the premiere and kisses another in this eppy.  In the “oh crap” moment of the night, Shane kisses Stephanie just as Avery walks in.  Am I the only one hoping this is the end of Stephanie/Avery?  Doesn’t anyone else want him to move out of the friend zone with April, take her in such a way that she has to actually keep her mouth shut for more than five minutes?

In a forced scene that could have come out of a Nicholas Sparks’ novel, Webber finally decides to fight for his life when Bailey makes him room with a grumpy, dying, cancer patient.  This, after he knocked her to the ground pushing away a life saving mask she was trying to put on him.  The scenes between the two lacked authenticity, but they served the purpose of showing that Richard will be back.

The final scenes were classic Grey’s with Cristina asking Owen if he wants to go to Joe’s only to find a gorgeous doctor waiting for him in the wings. Yang, you told him to date others, but we can’t help but feel sad seeing that look in your eyes.

More heartstrings are pulled when Jo brings Alex the results of a paternity test to see if the junkie in the ER is in fact his dad.  Just as Karev says he doesn’t want to know, Jo blurts out that the man is his father. Alex storms off kicking a trash can, looking hotter than ever in his dress up clothes.

In the final scene, we see Meredith and Derek working the emergency room in the way we’ve seen them work it for the past nine years.  The scene rings a little bittersweet because we’re left realizing Grey’s is changing.  The wind has shifted and the interns are taking charge, all made season regulars. With Shonda’s writing, we will eventually learn their names and come to care about them. But in that final scene, I can’t help but long to see Alex come back in to work alongside Meredith and Derek.  I can almost make out George and Izzie joining in as well. Instead, we’re left with new sharks in the sea, old flames burning out, and new romances sparking. Who said change is ever easy?

Random Notes

At the fundraiser, Cristina tells Alex anything goes when getting donations, “Right and wrong don’t live here, son.  This is the Wild West. This is so much fun. It’s like when we were interns! Stealing surgeries, playing dirty.”

The Grey’s gross out moment we’ve all come to know and love came when one of the Cirque du Soleil meets America’s Got Talent performers at the fundraiser falls and breaks a bone so badly it almost comes through the TV screen.

The grumpy, dying, cancer patient drops the line, “What would Rosa Parks do?” on Bailey when she tells him he’s terminal and there’s nothing more that can be done.