Is Redeption Possible?

It might have been the good company I watched it with and the amazing dinner my roommate C made for dinner that we gobbled down as we started watching it, but, last night, Grey's Anatomy somehow managed to redeem itself. I was so close to not watching ever again. There was no way things could get better.

The previous week's two-hour mess was painful, to say the least. It focused primarily on a new setting and characters as testing grounds for Addison's L.A./private practice spin-off. And all that was merely the tip of a ridiculously large iceberg. The last few weeks on Grey's Anatomy, ever since the ferry accident and Meredith almost dying, have been a hell of painfully contrived pot twists. Like: Meredith and Derek--finally together and boring as ever. When McDreamy stopped being an asshole, he lost his McD-ness. (Maybe it's just me; maybe I have personal issues.) And now all of a sudden they are on the rocks and I have no idea why (again, maybe me). And...George and Izzy insanely in love? Puh-lease...! Those two look like Bert and Ernie when they kiss. Anyway, George is gay! And: Addison and Kurev finally hooked up after teasing us and each other for most of the season, but it was such a freakin' let down. All we saw was rumpled clothes, mussed hair and the pair of them entering and then leaving a closet in Seattle Grace. And in the end, he comes up to her and tells her he's not looking for a girlfriend, a conclusion he came to after hearing the nurse-station gossip from Ava, his up-until-that-point faceless and memory-less patient. And Addison walks away sad. A battered yet beautiful Ally McBeal-like vision in the Seattle night. It made me stop liking her.

Are Ava and Kurev gonna get together, or what? Why is she still hanging around? I'm convinced they will. C (who has a lot more faith in Grey's Anatomy than I do) says it's not going to happen, that it would be too much like what happened last season with Denny. If it does, I hope the writers do a good job with it.

Ava brings me back to the redeption that was this week's episode. They finally fixed her teeth! First she had a mask of scars for a face, and then Sloan made her a new face but her teeth were these black-ish, uneven nubs, but as of yesterday, the woman had full-on pearly whites. Man, was I relieved! Maybe more satisfied by that even than the revelation of her true identity.

Other good things about last night: Miranda was feisty-vicious like we like her. Callie had a bad-ass surgery-room-bone-setting monologue about glacier-climbing. Burke had some interesting realizations about marrying Cristina. (Will it all be worth it when he walks her down the aisle?) McDreamy put on his McD-ness to flirt with a woman at Joe's. The chief's ex-wife showed up at the hospital and nearly got out with out him seeing her until he found her in a pool of her own blood at the end.

I'm not saying last night was perfect. The worst line had to be: "I am a married man!" which George said very seriously to Izzy during their first conversation where she was trying to convince him to stay at Seattle Grace instead of transferring to that other hospital so that he wouldn't have to deal with his love for her, since he is a married man now and all. And the lamest plot point (brought to my attention by my fellow Grey's lover/hater, Lizzy) was the whole thing with Meredith's father, who came to the hospital in a rage and told her not to come to his wife's funeral, that she killed her, etc etc. It was more fun to watch him slap her last week after she gave him the news. Poor Meredith. I miss her. Ever since she drowned, things haven't been the same...

The show last night ended in a series of incredibly jaw-dropping cliff-hangers. At each one, I turned towards my fellow-viewers to see their tv-lit faces with eyes wide in astonishment. Can't hardly wait until next Thursday. (It's the only tv show I watch, OK? It's all I have...)