After having reviewed the previous episode, I was preparing for this one to let me down. But what is this? The team pulls another winner! And it's from a first-time director! Again, the main focus is on the story, not exploring the core characters - they do have so little left in them to explore, after all. Certain things impressed me. The first one were the voice-over (you'll see - or rather, hear). The second were the surprise twists (of which I shall not speak) - I thought this would be a recycled, true and tested plot template from all the hospital series of the past, but then we reached the middle point and I realized there was still at least one variation that had not been explored. Giving this script to a first-time director was definitely a risk. The marching music (again, you'll see) did not work at all, but the drums in the beginning really did.
There is already another review of the episode, but I'll state my agreement over the great performance by Chyler Leigh. I've been a fan of hers from the early days of her career and since she came on to this series, I just knew "Little" Grey would eventually overshadow the original (hey, I knew her before I had even heard of Ellen Pompeo!). The great "what if" scenario I've been hoping since Leigh's arrival is now a legitimate possibility: Lose Meredith from the series (and save money) and it can still be called "Grey's Anatomy". And we have evidence that sidelining Meredith does not hurt the show. She's always been a rather bland character, with Cristina stealing the show since day one and Izzie (the regal Katherine Heigl) stealing most men's attention. Lexie is so much more interesting than Boredith.
Sure, the episode is not perfect, but then a 10/10 should be very rare, since it means - and this bears repeating - that the end result could not have been improved in any way (at the time). Now, Grey's Anatomy - how about a hat trick next week?
