Review: Everyone’s Out of Sorts in Grey’s Anatomy’s “Someone That I Used to Know”

By Lisa Casas (@Queenofmynerds)

In Grey’s Anatomy’s latest episode “Somebody That I Used to Know” all of our favorite characters are out of sorts, not really themselves, not very… likable.  They look like the characters we used to know and love (just last week) but morphed into whiny, backstabbing, bitter people. Grey’s tenth season opened struggling to interweave the story lines of the new interns with the original doctors, but has worked through those rough spots to push these interns down our throats leading straight to our hearts. This episode continued that trend showing new and old working together or at odds with each other, often portraying the interns in a more sympathetic light.

The episode opens with Bailey washing her hands over and over.  She’s continuing to struggle with the torn glove debacle. Ben notices and tries to get her to seek help for her “behaviors.”  Ben, don’t you know that no one wants to be told they have “behaviors?”  Are we going to have to sit in time out next?

Bailey reacts in the way any respectable woman would.  Deny, deny, deny.  Bailey rushes to work looking at Ben like he’s the crazy one.  Another effective way to deflect, blame shift.

Meanwhile, Owen’s amnesia continues.  He acts like he was never in love with Cristina Yang and continues to play lovey dovey with hot doc Emma.  This lady rubs me the wrong way. She bakes muffins and brings them into the hospital to win friends.  Just go away Dr. Vanilla Muffin. Cristina sees Owen and Betty Crocker bonding and it is not pretty. I think her laser death stare nuked a few of those muffins.

Yang lets her live for the moment because instead of baking muffins, she’s trying to save a baby with Alex Karev.  Why does the sight of Karev with a baby make me all weak in the knees?  The guy is like 70, but still hotter than any of the firemen in Chicago Fire.  Okay, back to the baby.  Cristina needs the 3-D printer again, and we know Meredith isn’t going to react well to this news.  Yang sends baby shark Shane to tell Meredith.  He sends Stephanie to tell her because he’s such a man. I think by episode’s end, the head custodian was ready to break the news.

Cristina also confesses to Alex that she hasn’t been getting any.  Alex says he can take out the new doctor.  Shane overhears all the sex talk and later offers to “service” her.  She turns him down, saying it would’ve been like having sex with a baby seal.

Meanwhile, Ben accidentally tells Derek that Bailey has OCD and performed unnecessary surgeries and might be crazy.  Oops!  Ben, you are pretty to look at, but you need to keep your mouth shut.  Bailey is not going to handle this well.

(ABC/Kelsey McNeal)
SANDRA OH, ELLEN POMPEO

Arizona and Callie are trying to work things out much to the disappointment of Leah.  It isn’t smooth sailing especially when Arizona confesses that she got together with someone while they were separated for three minutes. Callie wants to know if it was once? Twice?  124 times?  Yes, that was it.  Arizona continues to sleep on the couch while Leah continues  to pine away for her at work.

When Owen finds out about Bailey’s condition, he puts her in OCD hell by having Meredith move around the surgical instruments right before a surgery.  “Look what I’m moving aroooouuuund.  The scalpel!”  When Bailey freaks out, she’s officially benched.  She freaks even more at home throwing down a chair while screaming at Ben.  I don’t see this pair lasting much longer.

Meredith confronts Cristina and Shane at her new, shiny baby, the 3-D printer, telling them time is up.  She needs it for her research.  She’s channeling Yang when she tells her friend that she doesn’t walk on water and she’s hurting the baby.  Shane tells Mer to back off. “Stop!  You’ll get your printer tomorrow!” Shark just ate baby seal. Cristina plants a huge kiss on the young intern. We may get our Shang pairing after all.  It’s an odd couple, but could be interesting.

The episode ends with Meredith complaining to Derek that her best friend’s a mean girl. Owen comes in to say it’s okay to invite Yang to Thanksgiving dinner; Emma’s given her two oven mitts up. Meredith looks at him like he’s the dumbest man on the planet, and that’s pretty dumb considering Ben’s diarrhea of the mouth. Meredith does not invite her former best friend, her person. Meredith’s voice over says “nothing’s wrong, we’ll be fine.” Sadly, I don’t believe her.  I can’t help but feel that their breakup is permanent, and the best Meredith/Cristina scenes are in the past.

This episode had a sadness to it, long standing relationships looking irreparably damaged, new relationships on shaky ground.  Our favorites were not acting like our favorites.  I almost sense that Shonda Rhimes is pushing us to say goodbye to the ones we love.  We know that Sandra Oh’s Yang won’t be back next season.  Can Derek and Meredith be far behind?  What would Grey’s be without Meredith Grey? I’m anxious to see where the next few episodes take us.  Will Calzona come back all the way? Did Mer really lose her person?  Will Alex find lasting happiness with Jo?  Will Emma move onto croissants?  We’ll just have to wait and see what’s in store for these characters we love, and what  crazy story lines are coming our way. Nothing’s ever easy for anyone on Grey’s, but that makes the ride all the more fun.

Random Notes

• Webber is close to going home.  He can’t pass a stress test and even breaks a rib pushing too hard, but he is getting better.  He’ll be barking orders in no time. Wait, he’s already been doing that bedside.
• Kepner invites Jackson and Stephanie on separate invitations.  They take this as meaning she thinks they’ll bring other people as dates.  In an awkward moment, April says she needs Jackson’s blessing or she can’t go through with it.  Just say no!  Of course he says nothing.
• Funniest line of the night is Karev’s when he tells Jo she can come to Meredith’s for Thanksgiving. Jo says it’ll be weird.  Alex responds with, “Let’s get take out chicken and eat in the car like we were raised to.”
• Arizona tells Callie if I’m back I’m back. I’m not your whipping boy. I’m not sleeping on the couch. It’s about time, girl.
• Weird couple comes in, wife dying, and husband devastated.  They spend the whole episode trying to find a replacement gal for the wife’s long time lover.  What?  Near the end the husband and lover are hugging and crying over her illness. I’d say replacement found, gentlemen.