Fantastic. I was hoping the Boards episode wouldn’t be a letdown and I wasn’t disappointed. This was a gripping, nerve-wracking, and strangely amusing hour of Greys that did an excellent job of dumping our favorite residents into the lion’s den. It’s worth mentioning that although I’ve grown to detest writers using the whole “six hours earlier” schtick, it did wonders for this episode especially with the reveal that one of our core five didn’t pass their boards. It added an element of intrigue to the proceedings as I constantly found myself wondering which of the various meltdowns lead to the above-mentioned failure. Thus it was quite a shock to discover April as resident in question as I was sure it would be Christina after her confrontation with the fossil. Well done.
In other news, I loved badass Meredith succeeding amidst puking and Avery & April’s bathroom encounter which was just perfectly acted and directed. And of course, the Chief and Avery’s mom continue to amuse me as I’m just a sucker for oldies finding happiness so late in life. However, I wasn’t too fond of Arizona’s storyline as I really couldn’t find myself attached to the Nick character and could have done without the subplot. It was a minor but distracting blimp in an otherwise stellar hour.
Finally, Lexie got one heck of an awesome little speech with her declaration of love to Mark and I couldn’t be happier. They make a truly charming couple and I look forward to their eventual reuinion.
All in all a marvelous hour and a promising lead-in to our final episodes of the season.
Nad Rating
A-
😀 I'm so on board with everything you just said, especially the six hours earlier schtick (that's an awesome word.) Everyone else puts the protagonists in a place where it's due or die, and you just know they're gonna pull through. Here the rug was already swept out from underneath, and we were just waiting for the bomb to drop. And drop it did.
April is a very hate-able character. Not even pairing her with the pretty boy of the cast is enough to redeem her. What does make me root for her is the fact that in the hands of Sarah Drew, she manages to show a few moments of pure cuteness. If anyone else was playing her, i'd fast forward through all her scenes. Our little Everwood alum saves April from the mess the writers try to make her out to be. Her performance in the boards was typical april and i wanted to punch her. Honestly. I expected this kind of behavior from Alex, who's always been aggressive and unlikable, but strangely enough, his wrath was justified this once.
Meredith was wonderful. Yang was yang, not a single glimmer of yin. Jackson was ok. I like him more now than when he was sex-doormat to Lexi.
My girl Lexi killed it in every scene she was in. She made me laugh out loud when Mark understood Derek's lame metaphor like he wanted. She was suturing and she shot derek this death-look. It was awesome. And then her speech…wow. It was plagued with what you call the grey's dialogue, but she killed it.
Kevin McKidd directing brought a fresh take on the usual grey style. Stuff like the fade-in, fade out when derek was talking to meredith, and the close-up on alex when he threw that stuff across the room. You can tell he's thrilled to be doing this. He used music very efficiently, the cues were spot on. The episode featured way more house/ambient music than usual, and it made me nervous, which means they succeeded. None of those songs is remotely itunes-library worthy outside of the scenes of course. The only grey-style song was used at the end, and it's growing on me( “Don't You Give Up On Me” by Milo Greene).
Awesome review as always! 😀
schtick lol.
Also, Derek really is dispensible at this point. Remember way back when he and meredith made the show. Now i still want meredith around, but if somehow in the contract negotiations, he doesn't come back, i'm ok. I love every other character and i'd love grey's just as much if it went on without him. They got rid of the dead-weight that were izzie and georges and ever since they packed on talented actors portraying wonderful characters (Save for april).
Mario you made some excellent points I forgot to mention:
1- Kevin McKidd really did an awesome job. I loved the way they edited the Derek-Meredith talk with the fades. Simply beautiful. And the music you're right was very house/ambient which surprisingly really suited the hour. It gave it a nervous vibe which was just great!
2- I've never watched Everwood but Sarah Drew is doing a wonderful job. She managed to make her likeable with everything going on and I usually hate it. I also much prefer Avery now.
3- I can't get over how awesome Yang was facing off with the fossil. I love that all the Board interviews stayed true to all of their personalities.
4- Derek is SO dispensable. But Meredith and him are the endgame couple of the show so I can't see them ending it without him. But yeah I don't think I'd miss him. I hated Izzie and Georges and agree the show is SO much better without them.
Thanks for all the interesting insights!!