Posted by Dustin on 11.14.2008 at 6:55 pm

So in spite of Hahn’s exit from the show, this week’s episode was really good. Though as Hahn left, we got a new character, Meredith’s old best friend Sadie. So far my impressions of her are “annoying” and “bad ass.” So basically she’s the female version of Alex!

The show started off with Christina excited that Hahn had just packed up and left the hospital, though she had a burning question as to why. Her excitement however was cooled by the appearance of Sadie, Meredith’s friend and a first year intern at the hospital. She was Meredith’s first Christina, and that made Christina jealous, real jealous. Christina has always had a jealousy issue, this happened when Lexie showed up too. She needs to get some help. Where is Dr. Wyatt when we need her?

Christina, on a quest to find out why Hahn left, learned that Callie and Hahn were lovers. However Callie didn’t know why she left, all she wanted was work distractions. That came in the form of a homeless man sleeping in a dumpster who was crushed and mangled by a garbage truck. Callie was given the task of rebuilding the man’s legs, which she did, but he still died. She broke down in the OR, though the tears were clearly over Hahn up and leaving the way she did rather than the patient. The patient was just the catalyst.

Lexie and the interns continued practicing on one another, but they unfortunately got caught by Christina who shut them down. Part of me feels Christina brought this on herself, as she’s not teaching her interns as she is supposed to. I guess none of the residents are really.

From the previews for next week it doesn’t seem like they listen to Christina, and Sadie doesn’t seem to be a helping influence on them either. She seems to be pushing them to go farther, next week they operate and take out an appendix! Of course something goes wrong and Lexie brings Meredith in to help. Yeah, this isn’t going to turn out so great. One of the problems I have with this storyline is Lexie is really the only intern we are invested in, the rest we don’t even know (Christina just gives hers numbers rather than use their names). So you know that means Lexie is probably going to be the one screwed over here.

Virginia Dixon arrived in this episode, and as everyone said, she was a little “off.” She clearly had a social disorder and spoke almost rain-man like. However she was a brilliant surgeon and she was there to perform a heart transplant on a Navajo man. He basically had two hearts in him, one his own that had stopped working and the other a 14 year old girls that was piggybacking to keep his own going.

Virginia’s “offness” wasn’t understood, but what was understood was that she craved order and rules. The Navajo man was refusing to have another heart transplant unless the donor heart in him was returned to him for a religious ritual. He believed he was being haunted by the donor, and he could not be rid of the ghost without a proper ceremony. Virginia wouldn’t allow this, medical waste must be disposed of, it was a rule. Bailey got the chief to make a rule that they respected the beliefs of their patients, which he thought was common sense, but because he made it a rule the heart was given to him. The miraculous thing was, when the piggyback heart was removed, the man’s own heart was beating on its own. They didn’t understand, it was theorized it could happen, none of them ever had seen it. Basically the piggyback heart gave the man’s own heart enough time to heal what was wrong and start on its own again. The man did not need another transplant and was rid of his ghost. He was very happy.

At the end of the episode, Virginia asked Bailey if she knew what Asperger’s Syndrome was. Bailey did, it was a social disorder . . . which she realized Virginia had. Virginia said she might be “off,” but she’s not dumb, she knew when she was being manipulated and made fun of. She didn’t think she liked this hospital very much. There was something sad about this story. It was sad that Virginia was misunderstood. As doctors should they have not realized she had a medical condition? However in the end I found myself wondering, was Bailey being mean and making fun of her, or did she just think she was quirky and trying to work with it? Bailey by nature isn’t mean or cruel, so I felt for her too as she realized she had hurt this woman.

Izzie related with the Navajo man, as she was seeing Denny’s ghost. In the end he said it was because she had kept something of his, and she must burn it as it would tie him to the earth and her. She asked Alex, who knew something was wrong, to burn a sweater for her. He did, but Denny didn’t go away. He said he was there for her, and he was real, she could touch him. She reached out and did, which is how the episode ended.

I gotta say, this was odd for me. I love a good ghost story, but this is more like what is going on with “Ghost Whisperer” right now than a “Grey’s” story. I’m still worried they may have Izzie just totally losing her mind, that something is wrong. The other side of me loved this story because I loved the interaction with the Navajo. This is my field I’m studying in school, specifically archaeology, death and burial rituals. So this episode sucked me in.

There was one other sort of out there cliff-hangerish ending. Many of the doctors ended up at the bar as usual. Mark and Christina were trying to comfort Callie. Christina saw Owen come in then storm off. She ran after him and he flipped on her when she touched him from behind, which I assume was meant to be a soldier reflex. She said she wanted him to know how sorry she was they lost the patient today. He then flipped on her again, getting very angry, then all of the sudden passionately kissing her. She kissed back, but sorta walked away from him. It was this weird scene of violence, rage and passion. It disturbed me.