Meredith and Lexie were forced, once again, to work out their own issues, this time over a routine intubation on what turned out to be a dead-on-arrival guy. Progress apparently was made, as Mer told Lex that the job she did ''wasn't bad,'' even though the dude kicked it and Lexie was all naive and sad about that. Meredith was like, ''What is this about?'' as if there were some serious subtext that was, I don't know, about her? God, enough of this already!

Speaking of enough already, Izzie was still moping about George not telling Callie, and Tongue Cancer Lady was teaching us all an important lesson about speaking the truth when she oh-so-freely told her girlfriend, ''You've got to get a new hairdo. The '80s are over.'' But Iz wasn't in on that case, so she hadn't learned a darn thing and was still being all cavalier about Old Guy until he stopped breathing for a bit, then, when he came to, rasped at her, ''Stop saving my life!'' And even I, Cristina Yang's biggest fan, winced a little when she snarked at Izzie: ''What's the matter? Couldn't find his LVAD wire?'' And yet Izzie totally let the Denny-related dig go, indicating either a total breakdown of emotion on her part or simply lazy writing — you be the judge. Still, I couldn't help loving Old Guy a little when he later said to her, ''A person wants to die, you let them. It's polite.'' At which point I totally didn't want him to die — and totally knew he would.

Which is why we can move onto more important matters. Like: When is Katherine Heigl going to get a supersexy guy with some gravitas who can truly hold his own against her? Yeah, Alex came close, and God bless Denny. Now how about somebody who'll stick around for long enough to give her a run for her money? And how about a truly reasonable love interest for Mer or Der who isn't, you know, Mer or Der (or, God help us, Lexie)? We need to shake some things up there. And good Lord, let's get Alex something to do already. He's just as cute as the other boys, and I suspect he might even have a little testosterone in him.

Tonight we learned from Bailey — who, incidentally, could use a story line outside stewing over Callie's newfound chief-resident power — that ''interns are basically teenagers.'' (Well, duh.) But is it so much to ask that our now-residents grow up, just a little?

What do you think?

Want more McDreamy? See the Patrick Dempsey portfolio from the new EW photo issue and our behind-the-scenes video" from the shoot.

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