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‘Grey’s’ fifth season premiere finds Meredith still looking for love

Despite the examples set by her friends, first-year Seattle Grace Hospital resident Meredith Grey is still trying to believe in the happy ending.

Her best friend, Cristina, was recently abandoned at the altar. Another friend, Izzie, lost the love of her life. A third friend, George, got married to a resident, Callie, in Las Vegas and cheated on her almost immediately.

Meanwhile, the object of her obsession, Derek, had been married (although separated), then involved in side relationships while Meredith was figuring out what she wanted.

At the heart of this messy bundle of loves and liaisons is Callie’s theory that everyone’s still in high school. That is, the overachieving teens who graduated high school and focused on their med school studies like a laser never had a chance to learn all of the basics of having relationships. So they’re all running around falling in and out of love like emotionally stunted junior high school students because basically that’s who they are.

And with all of the distractions caused by these brilliant children running around committing medicine, things are starting to fall apart. In two years, teaching hospital Seattle Grace fell from a top-three ranking to 12th in the nation. Chief Webber attributes this to a failure on the part of the hospital to maintain discipline – and, less publicly, on his own unwillingness to enforce the rules with Meredith, the daughter of his old flame, pursuing her residency at his hospital.

Yep, the guilt feelings about Meredith’s mom, the brilliant Dr. Ellis Grey, and her broken marriage and all of that history run deep, dark and twisty in this show.

But so does the wacky fun. Like when Bernadette Peters and her friends, on their way to a gala party, get into a limo accident and are admitted wearing ball gowns. Their husbands arrive later, having gotten into their own limo accident (there was ice on the road). It turns out one of them has no insurance because he lost his job eight months ago and started an affair with Bernadette’s best friend.

This naturally gives Meredith a lot to think about because she’s decided she and Derek should pursue the dream and move in together. Now she’s got to imagine their life together 40 years in the future – whether they’re still together, whether she’s cheating on him, whether they’re still in love.

Heck, Cristina actually envisions it. When a painful sequence of events gets her impaled by an icicle (don’t ask) Christina gets a vision of a distant future in which she and Meredith, now old and gray, have moved in together and resumed their endlessly bickering arguments.

In the end Webber determines that this season is about his staff transcending specialties, and learning everything about everything. It’s about becoming the best doctors they can be and getting the hospital back at the top of its game.

Looking around at what he has to work with ... good luck with that.

“Grey’s Anatomy” airs at 8 p.m. Thursdays on ABC.

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