The Dope Box TV Blog

Grey’s Anatomy, In the Midnight Hour, ABC TV series

Izzie is trying to talk herself out of what she’s seeing. It’s residual grief…it’s not real. To prove that she’s not merely reliving old memories, Denny suggests they do something they never got the chance to do while he was alive (if you know what I’m sayin’). For a dead guy, he really knows how to make a girl groan. Derek, Meredith, and Alex all hear Izzie’s orgasmic loudness. She pops her head out the door, looking sweaty with soccer-mom hairdo mussed, to tell Alex she’s feeling under the weather and can’t go to work. After a bunch of awesome spirit/human sex, they cuddle, Izzie has a freak out, then she leaves him standing in her doorway to go hang out with Alex.

I can’t figure out how they’re going to explain his presence. If he’s a hallucination then why is she having it now? Just because it’s November sweeps? If he’s really supposed to be a ghost then why doesn’t he talk about any ghost-y stuff? Wouldn’t she have asked him what happened when he died? Where he went? All of their conversations have gone a little something like this:

Izzie: This isn’t happening.

Denny (in his sexiest gravelly voice): Yeah, it is.

Izzie: Nuh-uh. I’m crazy.

Denny: Touch me.

Izzie: But you’re dead.

Denny: Yeah, sorry about that. Seriously though. Touch me.

While I can’t deny the pleasantness of Jeffrey Dean Morgan (whether in a white t-shirt or nothing at all), I feel like the plotline is, well, wack. It will be especially wack if they lead us all along this hyper-emotional story and then don’t explain anything. My instincts are this: They’ll show she’s moving on with Alex and Denny will just magically disappear. Can someone please get JDM his own show? Maybe they’ll do a spinoff: Denny, Your Friendly Neighborhood Incubus.

In all things not supernatural…Seattle Grace has an underground society of unbalanced interns. They’ve moved on from practicing sutures and epidurals on each other to removing organs deemed unimportant. Sadie, the newest kook to join the cast, not only volunteers to have her appendix out, she cuts herself open with a scalpel when Lexi tries to back out. Seems like “Die” is an apt nickname for her. The visual of Lexi doing the surgery while reading a textbook was more than just a little unsettling. Actually, isn’t she supposed to have a photographic memory? Couldn’t she just have read up on the appendectomy before doing it? Anyway, turns out Sadie’s appendix is inflamed, several interns bail out of fear of jail time, and Lexi is forced to turn to big sis and Christina to clean up the mess.

The most creative treatment ever: FECAL TRANSPLANT. It also made way for a multitude of poop jokes, which really never stop being funny.

Callie’s nose is on the receiving end of night terror patient’s right hook. She can’t really seem to catch any sort of break. She got married, hubby cheated; she got a promotion, got demoted; she got a girlfriend, got abandoned. Now her nose is smushed and Eric won’t do her until she’s pretty again.

Speaking of Eric, he was largely in charge of the sad little girl who was determined to stay awake to babysit her night terror daddy. McSteamy shows his sensitive side while caring for the girl (letting her rest on his shoulder) and reveals some insight into his childhood. It seems he was regularly ignored by busy and uninterested parents, which probably explains his inherent need for attention. He also told Derek that being forbidden to date Little Grey (Lexi) has made him want to go after her. They’re really going to have to bring in more new people; they’re running out of relationship combinations.

On a positive note, Derek had a momentary return to his previous (and kinder) incarnation: He sees what a total mess Lexi is and brings her home with him. Maybe this will inspire Meredith to quit punishing her little sister for the mistakes of their father.

I have to say, I’m loving Dr. Hunt. He doesn’t go on long rants like most folks on the show but when he does say something it’s usually noteworthy. He’s conflicted about life, which is easy to relate to. Unsure how to negotiate his feelings for Christina, he’s a little awkward around her. Sitting on her doorstep, he struggles to find the right words. What he says is not flashy or particularly creative, which somehow makes it seem more genuine. “I think you’re beautiful.”

“I’m not going to crap into a bowl until you admit it was a pimple.”

-Boyfriend of hypochondriac girl

More Grey’s Anatomy articles available under “Thursdays” and “Grey’s Anatomy” in the category list.

It’s Coming Heroes, NBC TV series

Saving the day, Ando makes Hiro blink to escape the clutches of Arthur (who was momentarily distracted by the eclipse painting on the giant rock). Instead of having his powers completely removed, he has been mentally reverted to age ten. So he’s extra bratty, thinks about waffles a lot, and uses his control over the space time continuum for pranks (ketchup in some guy’s chair, tying shoelaces together, unscrewing salt shaker). Ando does his best to train Hiro to use his powers. They end up in a comic store where they find an issue of the magical comic book of prophecies: “9th Wonders!” An eclipse is coming, y’all!

Arthur tells Gabriel (which I will henceforth refer to him as…until he starts dissecting brains again) that his hunger is not about killing; it’s about power. Gabe is locked in a dark room with a disgruntled, sparking Elle who is chained to the wall and pissed about him murdering her dad. She does her best to fry his ass but he’s indestructible and…nice? He’s gone all psychotherapist on us, telling her she needs to get all her anger out. It’s obvious she is suffering since she can’t get control of her power. Using empathy as his tool, Gabriel touches Elle and she’s fixed. At first, I assumed he’d taken her powers away, until she starts giving him electro-slinging lessons. The way they were giggling and touching each other seems like clear foreshadowing of a blossoming romance. So, is she the mommy of his future little boy? Does this mean the demise of Sylar and emergence of pure Gabriel? Hopefully his wicked sense of humor survives the assimilation.  

Decapitated head guy, Usutu, appears to Parkman and leads him to comatose Angela. Parkman goes inside her mind but finds her unable to escape her mental imprisonment. Fake Daphne appears and gives him a stab in the gut which makes him bleed in reality (someone will have to explain that one to me). Real Daphne then transports inside Angela’s mind to save him and profess her love. The sappy scene inspires Angela to convince Arthur to free her on account of her being such a lovable gal. And he does (whuh?).

I guess it was inevitable that Peter and Claire would have to be back on the show. Peter continues trying to save her except now he’d like to stop her from becoming a future homicidal brunette. In one scene, Claire’s uncle Flint (who she doesn’t know is her mom’s brother) fights with Claire’s uncle Peter…but no one says uncle. Instead dummy shoots a fireball at a gas leak, P and C get away. Will someone get the cheerleader a gun? A sword? Some ninja stars? Girl needs to learn self-defense.

There is a mini family reunion in Angela’s hospital room. Peter, Claire, Nathan, Parkman, and Daphne are told by newly conscious Angela that the formula requires a human catalyst. And, of course, it’s Claire.

Nathan and Nikki/Jessica/Tracy/Whatever had some scenes too but I tend to tune out when she comes on the screen. Enough resurrecting her, already. I look forward to her future death scene.

“Last time I tried to tell anybody anything like this my brother came back from the future and shot me. Twice.” –Nathan Petrelli