| My Review of 6.15 - "Time Warp" |
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| Written by Admin |
| Sunday, 21 February 2010 23:45 |
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Grey's ratings, as expected, were not good this week as it was up against Olympics figure skating. We'll see how it does after the Olympics on March 4. Read on for my full review.
This episode was far by the biggest surprise of the season. My expectations going in were really quite low, and I have never been a fan of flashback episodes and was dreading the Chief/Ellis scenes in particular because I never cared about the characters. It turned out to be one of the strongest eps of the season. The characters and relationships were portrayed so honestly and without the usual melodrama and manufactured angst. There was slapstick humor but it also addressed real issues, particularly those prevalent in those times, that it gave the ep a degree of depth. So rarely have I appreciated a Grey's ep as a whole in the past few seasons. To top it off, we got nuggets of Callie & Arizona goodness throughout the episode.
And what do you know… it's another episode that deviates from the usual format. The alternating among the three flashback storylines, as well as between the present and the past, could've been a big jumble but it was well executed. It was fast-paced, and each flashback was never long enough to become tedious. Excellent job on the editing.
Naked shower sex and on-call make out scenes are always appreciated, but this episode offered just as much, if in a different way, for Callie & Arizona fans. It was peppered with little moments that made their relationship seem so real and so honest. It was wholly satisfying.
The episode starts off with the three people presenting at the lectures prepping in very different ways - Bailey's adjusting her spiffy fuchsia top and pumping herself up in front of the mirror while flirting with Ben, Callie's spending some quality time with the toilet bowl, and Richard.. well, he wasn't given any time to prepare as it was thrown in his lap at the last minute.
As the camera pans into Callie's bathroom, we see Callie, in hysterics, sitting on the floor and hugging the toilet, with Arizona sitting behind her on the edge of the shower stall, and combing her hair. Apparently, Callie has extreme stage fright and says that she can't do it. She is dreading the lecture with every fiber of her being, so much that she is about to hurl again. Arizona, in a no-nonsense fashion, tells Callie that "of course she can" and "please don't", as she has been fulfilling the unenviable girlfriend duty of cleaning the vomit out of her hair. At that, Callie stops her gagging as if on cue, not unlike a fretful child who stops wailing when she is told that it won't get her anywhere. Callie continues to whine, however…
Callie: Why do I have to do this? I'm not a public speaker. It's not my thing. God, I hate Derek Shepherd. Arizona: All you have to do is talk about being a great surgeon. Callie: To a giant roomful of people. From a giant stage. Oh god, with a microphone...
We get a sense that Arizona has probably been hearing it for days if not weeks. She's past the point of coddling Callie and just trying to talk some sense into her. In fact, she's close to losing her patience (evidenced by the pursing of her lips). I love this stage of their relationship they are in, where AZ can just be straight with Callie without fear ing that she might say the wrong thing and upset her.
On another note, I am very pleased to see that Arizona has gotten over her fear of not staying in the "sexy part of things", because there is nothing sexy about cleaning someone's vomit. On the unsexy meter, I would say that it ranks above chicken pox but below sharing a bed with your girlfriend's ex-sex buddy.
Interesting twist that Callie has such a phobia of public speaking. Sure, some of it is exaggerated for comic relief, but if you think about it, it is pretty in character. It's one thing to be outspoken and dominant with people you know well; it's totally different to be up on stage in front of a couple hundred people. Plus, she has never been someone who is completely comfortable with herself, so it's believable that public speaking is one of those things that would expose her insecurities. Plus, it gets Arizona involved in the storyline, which is always a bonus.
On stage in the lecture hall, Callie's nervousness is manifesting itself in bizarre ways, one of which is doing the "pee dance" while her backside is facing the audience. Callie fumbles with her powerpoint presentation while her feet continue tap away to their own tune. On screen pops up a somewhat intimate and insanely adorable picture of her and Arizona, taken while they were in their own little world. Oops. If people didn't know about the two of them, they do now. In any case, Callie's mistake is our gain because that picture is positively squeal-worthy as we see the two of them just glowing with happiness. Meanwhile, Arizona looks a little bewildered and embarrassed by the very public display of their affection on screen. Thankfully, Callie finds the file she is looking for and the screen changes to a pair of pretzel legs. Callie breathes a sigh of relief and says "Beautiful!" and proceeds to mumble her speech off of her cue cards. Little does she know, that was only the beginning of her mini disasters.
As we cut back to Callie, she has managed to scatter her cue cards all over the floor and on all fours, trying to gather them. Arizona, who is looking around at the disparaging audience and feeling increasingly stressed for her, hollers at her to just talk and to tell them what happened. So sweet that Arizona tries to help from afar. So typical… so loving. Callie snaps out of it and tries to recount the story.
The next time we see Callie again, she has seemingly lost the ability to behave like a normal person on stage, because now she is suckling her water bottle noisily while the audience looks on (including Arizona, in discomfort). All I could think about is that she is in for some serious hiccupping afterwards (no joke, I've seen it happen in real life).
A bit later, Callie gets stuck on recalling the details again, and Arizona turns around and pleads with Alex, "You were there. Help her."
In short, the flashback involves Callie, a new arrival at Seattle Grace, being on a polio case. Callie, as brash and overconfident as ever back then, promised Mr. Pretzel Legs that she could make him walk again. The Chief was not happy and called her arrogant due to her privileged upbringing. Callie made some incremental improvement on the pretzel legs, but the patient could not withstand being under anesthesia for too long. After the touching patient-speech-of-the-week, Callie and Alex tried again and in the end, succeeded in making Mr. Pretzel walk again.
As Callie, together with Alex, are reliving their triumphs, Callie's confidence continues to build, to the point that she is chatting about the case at ease while an increasingly proud Arizona looks on lovingly. During the lecture, she goes from being painfully aware of speaking in front of a large audience to reminiscing privately with Alex, having become completely oblivious to everyone else including her girlfriend. That's all good and dandy, unless you are a compulsive over-sharer like Callie, who, ever so tactfully, recalls her and Alex's apres-surgery "celebrations" fondly. With her girlfriend. Sitting. Right. There….Oops, again.
Arizona's expression tenses a little upon Callie's use of the word "celebration" and her hunch is confirmed when Callie tactlessly emphasizes "did they ever celebrate". She turns back and glances at Alex uncomfortably for a bit as she takes it in before turning back and looking up at Callie, looking a little stunned. Her expression, to me, is a little cryptic. Sort of like a mixture of unease and shock that Callie never told her before, and I can't imagine that she would be totally okay with the idea that Alex has seen her girlfriend naked. The thought of it is just icky especially since Alex is sort of her mentee in Peds now. However, she seems to be okay with Callie's history with Mark (who obviously meant more to her than Alex ever did) because she is sensible enough to understand that it's in the past and what she and Callie have is real. I would imagine that she's just mostly thrown off guard that Callie didn't share that with her. And from Callie's perspective, why would she bring it up since it meant nothing to her in the first place. In any case, I doubt the writers are going to take this further beyond his ep, except for maybe a quick one-liner in the next episode, if that. I have to mention that JCap nailed AZ's expression perfectly - I want to know if she practised that in front of the mirror.
That makes it two eps in a row that Callie has stuck her foot in her mouth. There should be rehab for this sort of behavior - she's careening out of control. Except this time, Callie realizes her mistake right away and looks down with some regret. Girl has some 'splaining to do when she gets home.
Aside from Callie's SNAFU, Callie & Arizona's relationship is portrayed as real as I've ever seen it in this ep. It's the fact that I could feel their connection communicated to us, be it when they are in the bathroom or separated by 20 feet in the lecture hall. In addition to the obvious encouragement from Arizona in the bathroom while she sits with hysterical Callie and cleans her up, it's subtle things like the way Arizona shares Callie's pain when she's struggling on stage, her efforts to help her by encouraging her to just talk and tell the story, pleading with Alex to help her, just doing everything within her ability to support her girlfriend. And of course, the loving and encouraging looks she gave Callie once she finally got on track. And from Callie, obviously wearing the heart necklace from Arizona and that picture of them being so readily accessible (clearly too accessible) on her work laptop. Everything combined, we get a strong sense that they truly are a couple, a team, and something that has been lacking in many of the eps, especially early on. All of the above makes me so warm and fuzzy.
Bailey, on the other hand, is an engaging speaker who commands attention on stage, partly because people are afraid of getting beaned by a chocolate. Cristina being nailed by that is one of the highlights of the ep. It reminds me of a squirrel being knocked on the head by a falling acorn. Bailey manages to get everyone excited about her case. She even gets the attendings vying to answer questions, though I'm not sure if Arizona is a fan of Hershey's kisses:
You really can't lose with this storyline when you put Bailey in braids and dorky plastic pink glasses. Bailey, or "Mandy", as a new intern at the pinnacle of nerd-dom, is the funniest thing I've ever seen. And Chandra sold it… boy did she ever, from her hiding behind the crowd to her shy whispering of the correct answer, to her pushing her glasses up the way nerds do, to her jean vest and purple sweatshirt… HI-larious.
Nice to see the Chief encouraging her. Particularly like this quote: "God made you short. Who made you quiet?" The Chief was actually inspiring back then. Though… she got a solo surgery in her intern year?
That is the quickest personality transformation I've ever seen. She goes from a little moppet and a minnow to yelling at her resident for a good 3 minutes. That is also the birth of the Bailey rant. Except now, she knows when to put a lid on it. Love it when people inject interesting words in their insults - "Supercilious fool!" I'm going to keep that one handy.. can't wait to whip it out when the situation calls for it, hee.
Richard/Ellis flashback:
This is the storyline that I was really dreading but was so pleasantly surprised by. I never cared for the whole Chief/Ellis/Meredith drama, but what's interesting is that aside from focusing on just the characters, they told the story within the context of that time period from a cultural perspective. The Chief takes us back to 1982, when he and Ellis Grey were trying to make a name for themselves in a surgery world dominated by the Old Boys Club. They were both on a case that was later diagnosed to be AIDS. Instead of shunning the patient like the other surgeons, they dedicated themselves to finding a solution but there was nothing they could do in the end. I am impressed that the writers managed to tackle so many issues of that era within the context of the Chief/Ellis storyline, at the same time depicting how all of those factors influenced them as individuals and the adversities that they had to overcome because of their skin color or gender.
Racism and Sexism
Really appreciate that the writers kept things realistic, depicting the kind of treatment that Richard got back then, with the attending saying that he would not have been allowed in the program 10 years ago. Ellis is in the same boat as a woman; it's quite poignant when one of her colleagues tries to take over reviving the patient and calling her a nurse. They were outcasts and had to fight hard, which is a big reason why they clung to each other over that common bond, plus the fact that they were brilliant surgeons. It's interesting that Ellis felt that to survive in the male dominated world, she had to give up her family in the process.
Homophobia and AIDS
Also interesting to be reminded of how taboo the topics of homosexuality and AIDS were back then (well, homosexuality is still taboo in many areas and still has a long way to go, but that is a discussion for another day). Can't believe that it used to be called GRID (gay-related immune deficiency). Anyway, also quite poignant because Richard/Ellis, being who they are, can relate to someone who is an outcast.
The entire flashback also ties neatly to Richard's current storyline with his alcoholism. The flashback helps him rediscover why he's a surgeon in the first place, and his speech is as much for himself as for the audience. In particular, reciting the hippocratic oath is sort of a reminder of why he is there, which is to do what is right for the patients, because sometimes people lose their way over the years. I am impressed by the depth of this storyline.
Random thoughts:
No Mark, Owen, or Teddy in this episode. How refreshing it is without the love triangle.
I kept confusing Lexie and Arizona whenever the shot quickly pans to the crowd. Guess Lexie is going to have blond hair for a while. Shonda tweeted that Chyler wanted to change her color half a year ago and Shonda wouldn't let her until the storyline called for it. And FYI, Chyler's a natural blond.
Continue to enjoy the flirting between Bailey and Ben. Who would've thought they would actually be cute together.
Excellent and interesting editing in this episode, especially when they transition between the different storylines. It's quite clever, actually. Below are some examples:
At the end of the scene with the polio patient pleading with Callie to fix his legs --> The Chief says, "No surgeon likes giving up on a patient". At the end of the scene with The Chief telling Callie that she'll live and die on the polio case --> Ellis saying "He's such an ass" to Richard, about Dr. Gracie. Off Callie's look of realization and regret after spilling about her and Alex --> Bailey's voice, "I knew I was in big trouble" as we see her in the Chief's office.
Callie telling the attending anesthesiologist to shush. Enough said.
When the Chief said "we're not allowed to beat you with sticks, so we punish you with scut", we can see AZ and Callie in the audience. AZ says something to Callie. Callie stifles a laugh while AZ throws her head back. Not sure if it was just Callie and Arizona sharing an inside joke at what the Chief said or JCap and Sara having fun on set. Either way, it's priceless:
Comments (39)
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LOVED the "pee dance" and the pic of her and Arizona was so adorable, i want it! I noticed that she kept playing with her necklace as she was talking, probably a nervous habit but i thought that was cute too. The whole Alex thing was kinda eh whatever ish to me, i mean its in the far past and she would never do it again i think. Her polio case was kinda badass though
I loved it!
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I want that "intimate and insanely adorable picture"..