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6:03 What lies beneath
By Metriosity | October 5, 2009 | 
So I should start out by making a confession. I am fully prepared for a torrent of rotten tomatoes. Since season one, episode one, I have not liked Izzie. There, I said it. I just haven’t been able to find much about her that I cared about. When I look at a character I ask myself one question. Would I ever want to hang out with them. I couldn’t find anything with Izzie that would make me want to.
You might ask why I am making this horrifying confession. Well its because this week I am writing my review based on her part in the episode. No, I wasn’t held a gunpoint to do it. I wanted to and not to berate her or be mean. But because I actually really liked her in this episode. I was a little shocked when I got to the end of the episode and told myself that I would write about her.
The episode’s key theme was paranoia and how it affects each of us. It started out fairly hectically with the residents and interns, nurses and coffee sellers wondering who would be on the chopping block. Cristina is sucking up to Arizona in a desperate attempt to save her job by playing the “I save babies” card. I only mention this as I found her scenes with kids hilarious.
When paranoid your confidence takes a back seat. You become twitchy, edgy and snappy. I guess I would be that way too if something I had worked most of my life for was under threat. Izzie on the other hand seems relatively calm. Her first scene shows her propped against a wall pulling an awkward pose which I think was meant to be sultry, but I was too busy gawking that Nurse Olivia was miraculously back from oblivion. I wonder if she has seen Erica Hahn or Joe and Walter while she was in there.
Izzie is back at Seattle Grace as she doesn’t want to lose her job, or her mind, while sitting in the trailer dying of boredom. Boredom would be the least of my worries if I had incredibly survived a nearly almost fatal bout of cancer. But she is a scrappy one, so I guess we always knew she would pull through. Would now be an appropriate time to mention the wig? I guess so. Her mom sent it to her. I would have preferred candy or money but a wig would probably be my next choice. I have a theory about the wig, which I will go into later. Alex doesn’t seem very convinced by it or Izzie’s decision to return to work, I see his point. Last week she did wake up from almost dying.
Alex: Uh… wha… What are you doing here?
Izzie: Working
Alex: Iz, we talked about this. You’re supposed to be taking another three weeks, really resting up.
Meredith and Cristina look like an elephant just tap danced into the room when Izzie breezes back with her real looking wig. Confidence oozing from every pore as she demands that the next trauma that comes through the doors is hers. The only trauma right now seems to be Meredith and Cristina’s brains melting out of their ears from the heat radiating from that fiery hair piece.
The confidence that Izzie was throwing out there through this scene really amazed me. Last week she was down, defeated and probably wondering why her DNR was not respected. This week she bounced back like instead of cancer, she had a cold.
The peach fuzz chemo hair would not be making an appearance right now despite Alex’s meagre attempts to persuade her otherwise. Which I am actually grateful for as my whole metaphor thingy that may come up later would have been washed away with the first round of fired staff.
Izzie isn’t lucky with the trauma. Bailey pulls Alex into it, as apparently he is her new favorite. I must have missed an episode somewhere as I thought he was working with Arizona last week not Bailey. I guess over night he won her over. But ever the optomist, Izzie doesn’t let that get her down. Instead a moment or two of posing for the interns, one of which has her mother praying for Izzie every day. I couldn’t figure out what for though. It may have been the cancer, or it may have been for Izzie’s mom to stop consulting with her psychic before making hasty hair piece purchases. Epidural intern was there too, chanelling a George type awkwardness as he let Izzie know that her hair looked real.
Ok so that this point I was still fairly anti-Izzie. I have always considered her to be fairly superficial in a lot of things. Parading around the wig didn’t help and playing the cancer card at every opportunity seems to me a little wrong. I had hoped that she would return to work maybe a little humbled by her experience and at this point she still seemed a little brat-ish to me. Wanting the attention and wanting to be the complete center of it.
Next in the path of the red headed rocket was Derek. Izzie has assigned herself to one of his cases and she won’t take no for an answer. Meanwhile in the background, Epidural Intern looks as though Nurse Olivia may have given him a dose of syphallis, as he is squirming a fair bit. This was when my opinion of Izzie started to change. She brushed off Derek’s attempts to question her about her health, instead she seemed to be trying to just do her job. Even managing a withering look to Epidural Intern when he stuttered off about his impending fatherhood. Poor kid.
While Mr Trinidad is being assured by Izzie that his surgery should be fairly simple Alex comes in to ruin Izzie’s party. I started to really feel for her at this point. While I appreciate that Alex is trying to look out for her, he is being very forceful in his methods. It seemed uprofessional to me that he would pull her out of a case to talk to her about her meds. But love is love right? Makes us do crazy things. While she does her best to assure him that she is ok and is on top of the situation he continues to treat her like a child. I usually like Alex but I thought he went a little overboard here. If I were Mr Trinidad I wouldn’t be feeling comforted by a Dr leaning in and demanding one of my physicians goes and gets the other one’s meds. And if I were Izzie I would be embarassed and a little concerned if my husband threatened to beat one of my colleagues and would enjoy it, even if it is Epidural Intern.
After adjusting her real looking wig, they have a tender moment where he calls her an idiot and reminds her that its feeding time at 2pm. I began to wonder if Alex’s need to take care of women could do with some fine tuning. By all means, tough love, but some nice love would be ok once in a while too.
When Alex then bursts into the surgery that Izzie is working on with Derek, I wanted to scream at the screen “Leave her alone!” Unfortunately it would have done no good. I learnt long ago that the screen blocks out my screams so no one hears it on the other side of the glass. Izzie’s defiance was actually quite impressive to me. She continued on, causing Alex to exit with all the grace of a temper tantrum throwing three year old. I do see where he is coming from, as she has gone beyond her limits before and he did almost lose her. No one wants to see their loved ones hurting. However at that point, I hoped that Alex would understand that Izzie had worked up from nothing to get to where she was and so would not let a little thing like cancer get in the way. Sometimes the best way to heal someone is with support, not criticism.
Alex: She gets tired walking to the mailbox. She can’t handle another 5 hour surgery.
Izzie: I know what I can handle.
I gained a lot of respect for Izzie as this went on. She stood her ground. And for once it wasn’t for prestige or for wanting to one up anyone. It seemed as though she were doing it to prove herself. Something which I guess she has been trying to do from the beginning. But in this instance she wasn’t trying to prove anything about background or past, this time she was trying to prove herself to herself.
When Alex arrived toting a banana and a bottle of water, my first thought was that he really knows how to wine and dine a girl. But then I saw the logic in it and ended up “aw-ing” at him like he was a puppy. Hydrate and energize. Smart man… I never thought I would say that about Alex. By this point, Izzie was sweating and starting to look as though she had run a marathon. Which I guess five hours of high stress surgery would be akin to. I tend to get all droopy like that after an hour in the supermarket.
This was a really tender moment for them, as usually they spend their screen time yelling at one another. Alex did tell her to shut up a couple of times but haven’t we all wanted to do that at some point? Anyhoo… refilled Izzie gets back to work. Now we get to my metaphor! Yes, I have been waiting all review for this little revelation. The wig. The way I see it is that the wig is the paranoia. Now, while you are scratching your heads like Izzie and wondering if I should be locked up, hear me out.
Izzie is wearing this wig to cover up her peach fuzz. Like Cristina lying to work in peds etc. Its right there. No one is meant to mention it but you can’t help it that it is staring you in the face. As the scene goes on in the OR, Izzie begins to feel the pressure of it as its making her sweat more. Instead of giving up and taking a break, she demands that they take the wig off her, put her cap back on and let her get to work. Once the paranoia is removed, she can focus on her job, she can be herself and do what she has to do. Is that a cool revelation or what?! Ok, you all probably figured that one out two days ago. 
I cannot promise that I will never again think that Izzie is a waste of screen time. But in this episode, it was actually a pleasure to watch her. It was great to see her as strong and resilient. Rather than feeling sorry for herself. The final scene, with Alex in their trailer actually made the corner of my eye begin to sting a little as a tear threatened it. In the whole episode, with everyone worried about their own furtures, jobs, lives, Izzie was the only one to mention George being gone. I think that really sums up the departing of George. With everyone focused on their own favorite characters, wanting more for them, it was easy for some to overlook George being gone. Just as the Surgeons being wrapped up in their own lives, they have overlooked it. But when the moment comes when things are settling it is easy to notice the absence. How would he have coped with the paranoia? How would he have handled the chief? So many questions that I wouldn’t have asked before suddenly spring to mind.
Izzie: I forgot he was dead today. For a few hours in surgery I forgot I had cancer and I forgot he was dead.
Alex: George is dead and you do have cancer.
It is rare for Alex to call George by his first name. I think that was a really poignant moment. These two rather than avoiding subjects face them head on. Instead of going to play ball to distract them, they went home to rest and talk. In terms of maturing, this couple are up there near the top of the totem pole. Alex does tell Izzie how it is, no sugar coating and Izzie does tend to make Alex face his fears and issues.
I won’t be joining the Izzie fan club just yet but in this episode she definitely rose in my opinion. She was as the surgeons all should have been. Though she stated she was back to make sure she had a job, I think really she had something to prove to herself and she did it spectacularly.
Topics: Alex Karev, Blogger: Metriosity, Izzie Stevens, Justin Chambers, Katherine Heigl, Reviews / Podcasts / Blogs, Season 6 | 7 Comments » |
October 5th, 2009 at 07:13
I totally agree that Izzie was awesome in this episode! Also I appreciate the different view, as i am an huge Izzie fan, because I seem to identify with her so much. Even if you aren’t a big Izzie fan, she still deserves props for this episode.
October 5th, 2009 at 09:26
YAY for confessions….I HATE IZZIE….I sooooooo wanted her to die instead of George…..not a big fan of Merideth either HA! Glad I got that off my chest. Now on to finish reading your post…
October 5th, 2009 at 11:35
i’m also not an izzie fan at all, and even after this week i still havent changed my mind. i really just watch greys for callie, which was kind of a waste this week…but i share the idea that i also usually like characters that i think would be awesome to hang out with…
anyway i think cristina also mentioned george to owen when she was saying she had no one to help her through the merger and that even george would have had owen. just wanted to throw that out there!
October 5th, 2009 at 11:44
haha me too. Callie for the win!
(she is so worthy of her own show!)
October 5th, 2009 at 15:32
I have a love/hate relationship with Iz. In the last year or so, I have softened up towards her though. Mainly because I love her and Alex together.
I thought your review was great! Very honest and thoughtful.
October 5th, 2009 at 21:09
I love Izzie the real is back!
October 6th, 2009 at 06:28
Actually Cristina also mentioned George was gone when she wanted Owen to talk to the Chief and say Cristina was his new “guy” because George had become Owen’s “guy.”
I can’t completely excuse Izzie’s behavior and I can’t condemn Alex for his. Although Alex could’ve handled things a bit better Izzie was being an idiot by not taking care of herself. She’s still sick with cancer and needed to take her meds, yet she wasn’t doing that just to try and prove she’s back to normal (and she clearly isn’t) so I understand where Alex was coming from when he was hovering. He truly loves her and doesn’t want to lose her so if that means nagging Izzie to take her meds and get some rest, then he is going to do it even of it annoys Izzie.
I think they are the most entertaining couple on this show. I like seeing them bickering but then talking things out and facing things head on together. 