After the mid-season high of the ferry crash saga, Grey’s Anatomy seemed to suffer a bit of a low last night. It had invested so much energy and intensity into the three episode story-line that it felt a bit tired and exhausted afterwards, as though it needed to put its feet up and have a nice sit down. Sadly for us, the show limped its way through a rather slow and sorry hour that saw me roll my eyes in annoyance on more than one occasion.

Now that her mother is no more, Meredith began to accept her other side of the family: sad-sack dad Thatcher and perky step-mum Susan. The uncomfortable attempts at family bonding were dreary and non-eventful, a pale shadow of the emotionally fraught relationship between Meredith and mother Ellis. Why they killed off this character I don’t really understand. Did they think they had played it for all dramatic possibilities or did they simply want to give Meredith a whole new set of domestic dilemmas? Regardless, the new alternative is going to have to pick up speed it if hopes to emulate any of the former relationship’s intrigue.

Supporting Meredith through her daddy issues was Derek, himself preoccupied with one of his long-standing patients, Dr. Helen Crawford. As a sufferer of cancer for many years with a tumour that could only be partially removed intermittently, Helen had routinely visited Derek for him to do what he could before she would need to re-visit him again in a few years time. Fed up with this constant fight for survival, Helen informed Derek that after this last operation she would not be wanting anymore and was ready to die. Upset at his friend’s news, Derek uncharacteristically bullied the woman into re-thinking her decision until she conceded that he could perform a risky operation to remove the entire tumour.

During the operation, Helen flat-lined and rather than page Burke who was available in the next room, Derek opened Helen’s chest and manually massaged her heart back to life. His heroics were rewarded with the survival of Helen and the successful removal of the tumour. Helen was grateful to him for having convinced her to agree to the operation but Derek felt that he had become too personally involved in her medical care and had subsequently interfered too much.

Burke was upset to hear that Derek had risked the safety of a patient rather than include him in the operation, and he felt he knew why: Dr. Colin Marlow. Marlow, a top cardiologist was seen chatting with the Chief as his potential replacement, and his presence at the hospital soon left the other surgeons jumpy and insecure. Burke accused Derek of show-boating in the presence of Marlow, while Addison charged Mark with the same after operating on Jane Doe’s eye. The Chief was unhappy with his surgeons for squabbling so publicly and rather than help anyone’s cause, the medics were all embarrassingly out of favour.

Marlow’s presence unsettled more than just those in the fight for supremacy with the revelation that he and Cristina had previously dated. The relationship had lasted for three years when Marlow was her professor back at Stanford. Burke was horrified to learn of this especially since hearing from Marlow that Cristina had frequently rejected his offers of marriage, dismissing the union as “an idiotic institution for the weak and undirected.” Cristina sought to placate Burke telling him that she was marrying him to keep him happy, though this was not enough for the upset surgeon.

Callie and George were also experiencing relationship woes, with Callie’s surprising revelation that she was a minted heiress. The admission left George feeling emasculated, bewildered and betrayed despite Callie’s best efforts to patch things up. Inevitably their arguments addressed the problem of Izzie, whose grudge against Callie she attributed to her fancying George. George scoffed at this idea, calling Izzie "stacked, blonde and a supermodel”, as thought too good for him. Devastated by the implications, Callie replied “what does that make me?” before ordering a stammering George to leave their hotel suite.

George fled to see Izzie to drink away his sorrows. The two of them soon became drunk, only for Izzie to wake the next morning in her bed next to a naked George. Yawn. Such nastiness was sign-posted long ago, and yet still I felt my stomach lurch menacingly at the reveal. Why either Izzie or Callie would be interested in George, drunk or sober is a mysery to me. Especially when practically every other guy at the hospital is drop-dead gorgeous. Come on ladies, stop fighting over the runty one and get your eyes tested.

Elsewhere, Alex moved into George’s old room at Meredith’s house and continued to bond with Jane Doe. Mark was still maintaining his ‘no sex for 60 days’ promise to Addison and the Chief’s hair was back to normal after his run-in with some dye.