'Grey's Anatomy': That Old Feeling

Image credit: Scott Garfield/ABC

PLAYING HOUSE Derek and Meredith are still doing their dance but now they're moving in together

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I understand you have to bring it for a season premiere, especially in season five (!) when everything's starting to feel a little stale. (We learned that lesson from Bernadette Peters and her on-screen hubby, in a way — that you gotta work to keep things exciting as your relationship starts to age — but we'll get to that in a bit.) However, five-year-itch notwithstanding, I could've lived without all the fake-out shocks in last night's Grey's Anatomy, like, for instance, the opening sequence (a dream sequence! Ha! Tricky!) in which Derek died on the table after a car crash. Of course ABC put that in the promos, and of course fans went all kinds of crazy about that, as well as the later scene regarding Rose and a possible love child. Shonda Rhimes can go on all she wants about not wanting to deceive fans, but she had to know that stuff was going to bring the hype. She's a smart lady.

I suppose she also did it because she knew she couldn't open with a scene featuring everyone gathered around the computer waiting for annual hospital rankings to come out. It did, however, set the tone for the whole episode — and from what I can tell, the whole season to some extent — when the Seattle Gracers found out they'd dropped to No. 12. These overachievers were set on edge so much that it almost seemed like they might forget about their sex lives, which are clearly ranked No. 1. No way those fools at Johns Hopkins are getting more.

Ah, but not to worry — soon enough romance reared its pretty head, as soon as Lexi was whispering under her breath about how she "adores" George. (He's a sweetheart and all, but I do find it hard to believe this guy inspires this many secret crushes from beautiful women — he's barely had a few minutes' break between Callie, Izzie, and now Lexi.) Lexi acknowledged that she knew the rule was "no talking unless it's medical" when she and other interns were following Cristina and Meredith around the hospital, but come on — that's not how Seattle Grace got to be No. 12. They seem to talk pretty much only when it's non-medical.

Callie and Hahn were busy avoiding each other for non-medical reasons after their kiss in last season's finale. When they finally forced themselves to talk to each other, though, it was strictly business — mostly a lot of blathering about the "research" they were both respectively "busy" with. Meredith, however, was willing, if not ready, to make herself fully available to Derek — by asking him to move in with her. "I'm leaning into the fear to get a happy ending," she therapized repeatedly.

NEXT: Cristina gets iced