Grey's Anatomy: Dream A Little Dream of Me (Episode 79)

The season premiere begins with a shocker that I called at the end of last season. Meredith is left standing in the middle of the candlelight house that she built to win back Derek, she's waiting for Derek to return. But, he never does return. Instead, Meredith finds Derek at the hospital after he's involved in a car accident. Just as she arrives at the hospital she sees the docs call the time of death for Derek, and she is devastated. Unfortunately, this is all just a bad dream and Meredith awakes to reality with Derek still alive and well. The reason I say it's unfortunate is because maybe if Derek had actually died the two-hour premiere might have actually been interesting, instead it's more of the same old Meredith and Derek back and forth "you love me, you love me not" drama. I love Grey's Anatomy, but seriously how long can they keep this thing going. Just get married and shut up about it or break up and one of you go away.

After Meredith's bad dream she rushes to where Derek, Hahn and Bailey are standing around a computer reading the latest rankings of hospitals. They're in for a shocker of their own. Seattle Grace now ranks 12th in the nation and has been downgraded from a level one to a level two trauma unit, which places them behind Mercy West in Seattle. Ultimately what this means is that we're in for one hell of a boring season since all the good shit will be heading to Mercy West. No wonder Katie Heigl wanted out so bad!

Fortunately, for the docs at Seattle Grace the city has been hit by an early snow and ice storm, this is unfortunate for the poor victims that get into multiple car accidents but oh well at least it's drama for us, right?

Meredith confesses her Derek nightmare to Cristina, but Cristina is so upset about the new hospital rankings that she couldn't care less and tells Meredith to just shut up about Derek. That's what I'm saying! Annoying Lexie (even though I love her!) hears the two discussing sex and whatnot and connects what they're talking about to Meredith and George having sex. As soon as she asks Meredith if she had sex with George Cristina tells her to shut up. So, let's see... so far the storyline is Meredith fearing Derek is going to die and therefore is clinging to him as usual, and Lexie still wants George but isn't doing much about it except being annoying. What part of this didn't we cover last season?

Things between Derek and Rose are not so... umm, rosy, this season since Derek ended things with her to get back together with Meredith. In fact, Rose is making it known to everyone that she hates Derek. He asks her to transfer to a different part of the hospital but she refuses. Meanwhile, Bailey, Izzie and Alex stand outside waiting and waiting for someone to come in. Finally their hopes of someone being hurt comes true. A limo comes driving wrecklessly into the emergency drop-off. At first I thought we were going to have another accident there like last season, I mean at this point it wouldn't surprise me. It's slightly different this time though. Inside the limo is three women and the limo driver. The women don't seem to be injured all that bad, but the driver went through the windshield and then the women had to get him back in the car, so he's pretty much a goner at this point. They had called 911 but an ambulance never showed up -- probably because there are so many accidents happening with the icy roads. The story is that the women were heading to a ball, their husbands were in another limo and they can't get ahold of them now either. Two of the women are pretty much injury free, but the third woman seems to have brain injuries as she keeps asking what happened every 30 seconds, literally every 30 seconds. Izzie runs a CT scan on the woman and has to keep telling her the bad news of what happened. Alex comes along and tries to make things better by just telling the lady that she's on a spaceship. Why not, right?

As usual despite there being major drama going on Derek and Meredith are off in their own little world playing mind games with each other. They finally snap out of it when they learn that the limo driver is dead. No wonder they're #12. Anyway, Bailey pulls a fast one by listening in on the emergency line and finds out that three men were injured in a limo accident and they are being taken by ambulance to Mercy West. She tells the three women about this and has them "insist" that the men be brought to Seattle Grace instead. The Chief finds out about this but he doesn't care, he's happy actually.

The three men finally arrive and their injuries are pretty serious. Also in the ambulance is some military doctor who we'll call "McMacho." He was the driver of the car that the limo hit but he's fine. He did what he could to help the men at the scene even creating a tracheotomy on one of them using a pen. The docs aren't too excited about McMacho at first but they seem to like him more as time goes on, especially Cristina, but we'll talk about that later. The one guy looks like he may be paralyzed, another with internal injuries, it's not looking good.

One of the women from the limo accident opens up to Meredith that she's been having an affair with her best friend's husband, both of whom were also in the accident. You know this is just going to set Meredith back a few steps again with her "do I or don't I" game with Derek.Meredith is like a tree, she just sways whichever way the wind is blowing. Again, Meredith tries to talk to Cristina about her and Derek but again Cristina isn't having it. She is making it blatantly clear that she's over Meredith and Derek too. Now if only they would get the memo too.

Drama between Izzie and Alex heats up again. I think it's more sexual tension than anything though. These two are bound to get it on at least a few times each season and that is one storyline I don't mind seeing. Alex goes off and whines like a little baby when he thinks Izzie told Meredith about his crying stint at the end of last season. Izzie confronts Meredith later so these two are not getting along now either. During Alex's whining he does do some good though, he finds out that the insurance for one of the men that came in earlier is going to expire at midnight. He tells Bailey about it and they together try to make sure insurance will cover the procedures so the guy isn't left with a mountain of medical debt.

Another one of the men is likely to be paralyzed and he says he's fine with it but it's more so just to comfort his wife than anything. McMacho suggests a new procedure to freeze the spinal cord which in real life actually did save an NFL player from being paralyzed. I'm not sure exactly how it works but I believe it freezes the injury from spreading for a certain amount of time and then they're able to operate. Anyway, Derek blows off McMacho and doesn't want to hear anything about it, Callie on the other hand has done extensive research on the procedure and is all for doing it. It'll be the Chief to make the final decision, eventually he does and he sides with Callie and McMacho. The Chief is pretty much up for anything that might save a life and propel Seattle Grace back to #1.

Hahn is being her typical self again this season. Cristina is performing surgery and having minor difficulties and Hahn, of course, has to make a big deal out of it and act like Cristina is a complete and utter moron. This only further proves the Chief's earlier argument with Hahn that she needs to be a better teacher and he partly blames her for their descent. Kind of funny that since Hahn showed up Seattle Grace went down and Mercy West (where Hahn came from) has went up.

Meredith and Cristina are outside, once again discussing Meredith and Derek. It's like Meredith just doesn't realize that the world doesn't revolve her and Derek. Anyway, Cristina lays it all on the table and tells Meredith that her and Derek shouldn't get back together because it's not going to work. She says it's probably a sign that they shouldn't be together when Meredith keeps having dreams about him dying. As she's storming back into the hospital to get away from Meredith she slips on a patch of ice and falls on her back. Her and Meredith have a laugh about it and then as Meredith is getting ready to help Cristina up we hear something crack. Cristina looks up and sees an icicle getting ready to fall. Instead of quickly getting out of the way she freezes. The icicle falls and impales Cristina in the abdomen. Meredith runs to get help. While Cristina is laying there potentially dying from an icicle wound she imagines herself old and wrinkled living with Meredith, neither of them married, still having their petty arguments. Cristina snaps back to reality and McMacho is there to save the day. He lifts her up and carries her inside. I would think this probably isn't the brightest idea since the icicle could go in further, but that's just my opinion. Once inside typical Cristina tries to control everyone and tell them exactly what she wants them to do and she begs that no one tell the Chief. It doesn't take long for him to find out though. Throughout the ordeal Cristina's interns are taking pics of her with the icicle on their cell phones. You know she is going to make their life hell when this is over with.

Back to the three men in the car accident, Derek operates on the one who may be paralyzed. Although the Chief and Bailey both now side with Callie and McMacho on the freeze procedure, Derek did the surgery to try it his way. His way proves not to work though so they begin doing the experimental freeze, which still pisses off Derek. What could go wrong, he dies? Well, he doesn't, in fact the freeze procedure ends up working, though there were plenty of freak out moments throughout. At one point the guy was almost dead and it was on Callie's shoulders what they should do since she had done the research. She started to freak but Hahn was there and helped calm her down. It's clear something is still happening between these two. We don't end up getting to see the guy walk but he does wiggle his toes by the end of the episode.

Another one of them who McMacho did the tracheotomy on with the pen is still unable to speak even after Mark did surgery. This is sad but what's even more sad is that the guy has to try to explain by writing it down on paper to his wife why he had an affair with her best friend, and why he didn't tell her that he lost his job 8 months ago. Good luck with that one!

McMacho gets sick of all the drama and waiting around to help Cristina so he finally just pulls the icicle out. Then, he's also the one to stitch her up. It's really no wonder they're level two, they have some random military doctor just come in and take over the show. What's going on?! Anyway, Cristina doesn't seem to mind this random guy stitching her up, in fact she seems to like it, a lot. They end up sharing a passionate kiss. Later, the Chief tells McMacho what a good job he's done and that he'd be happy to offer him a job. McMacho turns it down though. So, apparently as long as you wear a military uniform and you act like you know what you're doing then you can perform procedures on patients and even get a job offer at Seattle Grace. Again, it's no wonder this place got downgraded.

During one of Derek's surgeries earlier in the episode Rose handed him a scalpel with the blade toward him. Derek grabbed it and sliced his hand. Rose definitely needs to transfer or something because that's pretty shitty. Anyway, Meredith bandages Derek's hand later and jokes that they should get married. That's probably a curse and they will never get married. Rose later apologizes to Derek and says she'll be moving to pediatrics next week. That's a good thing I never really liked her anyway.

As this two hour borefest begins to wrap up, one of the men they brought in earlier has died. Meredith has to break the news to the Chief and he is outraged. He goes ballistic on Derek and Meredith blaming them for being too soft and letting this happen all the time, and he tells Meredith she doesn't know how to do anything. Derek tries to stand up for himself and Meredith but the Chief doesn't care anymore, he's done being nice.

The guy who was cheating on his wife with her friend is going into surgery. Before he goes he writes his wife a heartfelt letter trying to explain everything which Lexie has to read. While he's in surgery his wife asks Alex why he would do it, he tells her that he was probably ashamed about losing his job and didn't know where to turn so he turned to someone close by, but he still cares for her. Since it's past midnight and this guy no longer has insurance Bailey and Alex decide to turn back the clock to 11:58pm so that insurance will still cover it. Nothing like a little insurance fraud to kick off the season. The surgery goes well and after surgery the guy and his wife sort of make up. She never really makes up with her best friend, even though she tries to apologize many, many times.

At the end we also find out that the surgery to try to correct the woman's memory problem from earlier in the episode didn't work. She's still forgetting everything that happened every 30 seconds. At first her friends tell her the truth that her husband was killed, but then after so many times of watching the woman break down crying and then forgetting it a few seconds later, Izzie just starts to lie and tell her that her husband will be there shortly and everything will be ok. I guess in this case it probably is just best to lie so that the person can be at ease.

Lexie tries to tell George how she really feels but before she can he tells her what a good friend she is, so then she decides not to tell him that she loves him. Callie and Hahn finally talk about their kiss at the end of last season. Both admit they've never been with another woman before but they both are interested in seeing how it goes. Maybe Hahn will finally loosen up a little and quit being such a bitch! Meredith and Cristina continue to discuss Meredith and Derek even at home. Cristina still doesn't want to hear about it which frustrates Meredith. She asks Cristina again for her opinion which Cristina has made plenty clear, but for Meredith's sake Cristina just goes along with whatever Meredith needs to hear to make herself feel better. This works for Meredith and she ends up at Derek's helping him pack his belongings. Izzie and Meredith apologized earlier so things between them are good, but things are still tense between Izzie and Alex. Alex brings home a random girl and is making out with her in front of Izzie. Izzie begins to daydream about Denny even though we all know he's dead and not coming back.

The next day the Chief has a meeting and more or less puts everyone on notice that if they don't start doing a better job they will be out the door. He's done being soft. You can expect the Chief to be a strict bastard this season as he does whatever he has to in order to get Seattle Grace back to the coveted #1 position.

The next episode doesn't air for two weeks due to next week's VP debate. When it returns it looks like Seattle Grace is having a major flooding crisis. I sure hope after this lousy premiere that the show gets back to its roots. They really need to get back to the basics and quit using this whole Derek and Meredith love story as a crutch for every episode. Are any of you still intrigued by their off-and-on romance? What I want is for more season two style drama, I think season two and three were definitely the best.