Meredith and Derek had a serious discussion about babies in the last episode.  Derek wants one, but Meredith, as usual, freaked out.  Given her “dark and twisty” past, we can’t really blame her.  Her father abandoned her, and her mother chose work over her.  Later on, her mother got a severe case of Alzheimer’s, and Meredith couldn’t relate to her.  They had a huge fight when Ellis temporarily came to her senses in the third season, but she died shortly after that, and nothing was ever resolved between Meredith and her.  So, naturally Meredith is afraid of being a bad mother.  But at the same time she is learning that she can overcome her bad childhood and be a better mother than her own mother.  While Ellis was never able to get Richard to leave his wife, Meredith married the man of her dreams.  She and Derek are so happy it almost makes me sick!  Anyway, by the end of the episode, Meredith was starting to consider the possibility of having a baby.  Maybe she’ll get pregnant by the end of the episode.  We don’t know whether she and Derek are using birth control.  Besides, Meredith is over 30, and Derek must be in his 40s.  If they want a baby, they better hurry up and make one before they get too old.

Next, we have Mark who wants a family, but hasn’t found a woman to give him one.  After his super serious relationship with Lexie, he went back to sleeping around. He could end up knocking up one of his random conquests.  I don’t know about Teddy though.  She looks so emaciated that she probably doesn’t menstruate.  You have to have a certain percentage of body fat to get pregnant.  Mark could also end up with his grandson; his daughter, Sloan, made a surprise visit at the end of the last episode.  Although she seemed set on having her baby adopted by non-relatives before, she may change her mind and give him to Mark.  All this raises the issue of whether Mark is ready for a baby.  He claims to want one, but he doesn’t really know how hard it is.  He had never even held one until he visited L.A. and held Pete’s baby, Lucas.  I don’t know if anyone is ever really ready to be a parent, but Mark seems more unprepared than most.

Then, there are Callie and Arizona.  Their relationship has been going really well, but Callie wants a baby and  Arizona doesn’t.  This issue is serious enough to break them up if they can’t come to a resolution.  Of course, Callie doesn’t really need Arizona to have a baby.  She can always go to a sperm bank or get Mark to impregnate her.  Then she and Mark would both get the baby they so desperately want.  They are friends and not lovers, but I don’t think that’s a problem where a baby is concerned.  In fact, a child might be better off having parents who are friends.  They would probably get along better.  If Callie has to choose between Arizona and a baby, I’m not sure which she’ll pick.

Finally, I don’t think we can rule out Alex and Lexie.  There has been some foreshadowing with Alex.  He held a baby for a whole day in the “Invest in Love” episode to save her.  We also recently learned that he was a parent to his younger siblings, protecting them from a crazy mother and an abusive father.  Despite his troubled past, I have a feeling he would make a good parent.  Izzie is gone for good, so the baby mama is up for grabs.  Alex has been sleeping with Lexie a lot, and who knows if they’re using any form of protection?  He certainly wasn’t when he got syphilis in the first season.  It could be even more complicated if he uses the embryos he and Izzie made when they thought she was dying of cancer.  We know Izzie won’t be back, but Alex could get a surrogate mother to carry his child.  It would be a way for him to have a part of Izzie with him .

Perhaps, all my speculation will come to nothing, and there won’t be a baby by the end of the season.  Or the baby might come from someone totally unexpected.  Anyone have any alternate theories?

Since then, lesbian relationships have become more popular on TV.  Let’s face it.  American society can be homophobic, but people tend to be far more accepting of lesbians than gay men. The former are generally considered more fun to watch. When The O.C. was at the height of its popularity (the 2nd season), the writers probably doubled their viewership by giving Marissa a fling with Alex.  The relationship was very short-lived, as it became clear that Marissa was still into Ryan.  Interestingly, Olivia Wilde (who played Alex) now plays another bisexual character on House (Thirteen).  Marissa’s lesbianism turned out to be just a phase; she was back with boys in no time.

When Grey’s Anatomy‘s Callie switched teams, it came as a surprise. She had been introduced as George’s love interest, and throughout that relationship she was seen as the pathetic one who loved him more than he loved her.  But then she started spending time with Erica Hahn, and she was finally forced to admit her feelings at the end of the fourth season.  That relationship didn’t last, but Callie’s been into women ever since.

Last season on Desperate Housewives a lesbian kissed Susan, but Susan had to explain (in a hilarious scene) that she was more into rhinos then gazelles.  This season, Katherine has started a relationship with Robin, the ex-stripper.  The lesbian theme is also making an appearance on the new 90210, which I find far inferior to the original Beverly Hills: 90210. After breaking Navid’s heart, Adrianna has met a girl, and there are not-so-subtle hints that it’s more than a friendship.  Lesbian kisses have gone from taboo to common.

While I don’t have a problem with lesbian relationships on TV, it strikes me as strange that most of these lesbian characters are depicted as suddenly turning gay.  Willow and Callie both had serious relationships with men.  But then it’s as if they crossed some sort of line and will only date women from now on.  I don’t think that’s how lesbian relationships really work.  I think there are plenty of women who wouldn’t mind experimenting with other women and are capable of having strong feelings for both men and women.  Women have more fluid sexual orientations than men.  I don’t think its necessary to label someone a lesbian as soon as she has one relationship with a woman.  I see it more as a broadening of experience and exploring of options.  I’d like to see more TV shows portray women who are unable to label themselves gay or straight.  Ideally, people shouldn’t need these labels to define themselves.

I predict even more lesbian relationships on TV in the future.  What do the rest of you think?  Do you approve of this trend?

Addison and Pete are doing the exact same thing in Private Practice.  Pete has been in love with Violet since last season, and Addison recently realized she had feelings for Sam.  To his credit, Pete has done his best to make it work with Violet.  He’s taking care of their child and giving her space to heal after her trauma.  He has made his feelings for her clear many times, but she keeps pushing him away.  Addison, on the other hand, is putting up barriers between her and Sam.  Granted, the situation is complicated, since Sam is her best friend’s ex-husband.  But Naomi has left both her husband and her daughter.  She’s ignoring her family and dating her boss.  I have grown to despise her character after she tried to force Maya to have an abortion and refused to accept her decision to get married.  At this point, she doesn’t deserve any consideration from Addison.  Addison and Pete have embraced the “if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with” philosophy.  But sex is not helping them get over Sam and Violet.  It’s just a stupid decision, especially since they’re doing it at work; Sam has already found out, and Violet is bound to.  This may ruin any chance they had of being with the ones they love, and the temporary pleasure they get out of it is not worth the long-term pain.

I guess my point in all this is that although watching sex scenes between really hot people on TV is fun, these shows are modeling unhealthy ways to deal with pain.  I realize these are not real people, but life does imitate art; I know plenty of people who think casual sex is a way to get over heart break.  Does this ever really work?  I’m curious as to what the rest of you in the blogosphere think.

Episode 11 of House (“Remorse”) gave viewers a lot of insight into House’s character.  The psychopath was a fascinating character.  We usually think of psychopaths as mass murderers, but the medical condition (at least according to House) is just an inability to feel emotions.  The woman had no empathy for other people.  She acted entirely in her own self-interest without any regard for the costs to others.

House’s interactions with the patient were intriguing, because he was starting to fear that he was just like her.  He also does things that hurt other people.  The difference is that his reasons for doing them are less clear cut.  The psychopath’s actions were entirely logical.  She married an unattractive man for his money, and she slept with her coworker to steal his ideas.   But House tends to mess with people for amusement.  When he cut out the head of the monkey and glued it on the picture of Cuddy’s boyfriend, he had nothing to gain.  He knew the action would be traced back to him, and he knew it would hurt her.  The act was immature and it didn’t help him either in his career or his relationship with Cuddy.

We learn on the episode that, unlike the psychopath, House has emotions.  He just expresses them inappropriately.  As Wilson pointed out, it’s easier to apologize to someone for whom you don’t care than to someone who actually means something to you.  House constantly does things to hurt Wilson and Cuddy, the two people who stood by him through his recovery from addiction.  He never expresses any gratitude for their support.  But when he was told in rehab to make amends, he chose to write a letter of apology to an acquaintance in medical school whose paper he had switched with his own.  This man meant nothing to him, but House was willing to pay his mortgage.  This shows how much easier it is to donate money than to do something to help people.  I’m reminded of all the rich people who throw gala charity events and raise tons of money but never actually interact with the poor.

At the end of the episode, both the patient and House started feeling remorse.  The patient found that she couldn’t use her husband anymore.  She wouldn’t let him take her back, because she didn’t care about him.  As she started to feel real emotions, lying and cheating became harder for her.  House seemed like he wanted to apologize to Cuddy, but he never actually made it to her door.  Instead, he gave his old classmate a check as a way to ease his guilt partially. The end of the episode gives us hope both for the psychopath and House.  They are starting to acknowledge their emotions, which means they are on the road to recovery.

I’m starting to understand Cristina a lot better now.  She was wrong to offer to trade Owen in exchange for working with Teddy. But her career is more important to her than her relationship, and I like that she admits that.  She was miserable without a cardio god to teach her, and she’s not willing to go back to that dark place.  She is first and foremost a cardiothoracic surgeon, and she shouldn’t have to sacrifice that for a man.

I was on Cristina’s side in this episode.  Owen was acting like a Neanderthal, just wanting to screw all the time and not talk.  He claims he was trying to get to know her, but knowing someone in the biblical sense is not really knowing her.  Cristina finally opened up and talked about her relationship with Burke.  It got me thinking back to the 3rd season, which I recently watched online.  Burke claimed he loved her, but he didn’t.  He kept trying to change her into someone else.  She didn’t want to get married in the first place, and then when she said she just wanted a small courthouse thing, he organized a big church wedding.  When Mama Burke took her eyebrows and forced her to wear that corseted dress and the choker, you could tell that she had lost herself.  Yet she was still willing to marry him, since it was the only way she could stay with him.  Leaving her at the altar seemed like a despicable thing to do, but Burke was finally setting her free.

Cristina has now realized how harmful her relationship with Burke was, and she is scared that she and Owen are headed down the same path.  It was good that she told him how much it hurt her that he asked her to ignore Teddy’s page to stay and have sex with him (for the 3rd or 4th time that day.  I know that Cristina has a high tolerance for pain, but getting burns on your butt can’t be pleasant.  Also, Owen must be some kind of superman to do it so often).  I think that now she has opened up to Owen, they can move forward with their relationship.

After this last episode, it looks like everything’s falling apart.  Meredith and Derek had their first fight since their post-it wedding.  Call me a sadist, but I was glad.  All that happiness and love was making me sick.  In real relationships, people aren’t happy all the time.  They have ups and downs.  I don’t think this fight will break Meredith and Derek up, but it has brought them back to reality.  They need to realize that married life isn’t always easy.  It takes work.

The evolution of the Alex/Izzie relationship from the second season to the present has been interesting.  When it started, Alex was a jerk who didn’t care about Izzie, and she was the loving, compassionate one who was willing to give him a chance.  Now they’ve completely changed places.  He is committed and caring, and she just does whatever she wants with no consideration for anyone else.

I’m not sure what’s going on with Katherine Heigl, but it seems like she’s going to leave the show.  The writers must have decided to make the viewers hate Izzie so much that we’ll be glad to get rid of her.  I find myself wishing she had died of cancer at the end of last season.  She had the perfect husband in Alex, and she just tossed him aside.  Frankly, I think she never really loved him the way he loves her.  If she did, she wouldn’t have abandoned him after losing her job.  She only came back when Meredith told her he was moving on.  She took him for granted until she thought she was losing him. Then she thought she could just walk back into his life and he would forgive her.  I really liked the speech he gave her in the locker room.  He was right when he said that he doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment.  He deserves someone who cares about him enough to stay and work on a relationship instead of running whenever things get tough.

Lexie and Mark’s relationship has changed too.  When they got together, she was the good girl and he was the man whore.  Now he has really matured.  He bought a place and convinced her to move in at the beginning of the season.  He also took responsibility for his daughter.  He is ready to settle down and have a family.  He’s finally acting his age, and Lexie is acting hers.  It’s understandable that she wasn’t ready to be a grandmother, but it was stupid of her to get drunk and sleep with Alex the same night she broke up with Mark.  Mark thought he was the cheater, but Lexie can be just as bad.   Still, I don’t think he had the right to be so angry with her when he found out about Alex.  He slept with Addison, so they are pretty much even.  He was just shocked, because he had put her on a pedestal.  Now he’s learning that she is human, and she makes mistakes.  I think this can actually make their relationship stronger, because it puts them on the same level. Mark doesn’t have to feel inferior to Lexie anymore.

As for the future, I think both Grey sisters will get through the rough patches in their relationships. The damage that has been done isn’t permanent.  But Izzie and Alex are definitely through.  She might come back for one more episode, but after this season she’ll disappear just like Burke and George. Alex might get together with the new doctor, Reed.  I really didn’t like her when she first came on the show, but she is growing on me.  I’m not sure when new episodes will be back, but I’m looking forward to seeing where all these relationships are heading.

As for the ethical dilemma about transplanting an HIV-infected kidney, I think they did the right thing.  The government shouldn’t dictate what organs can or cannot be transplanted.  Both sisters knew about the HIV and were willing to go ahead with the transplant.  Besides, it can now be controlled with medication.

The first episode had a “happily ever after” quality with Pete finding love with Violet and Violet meeting her son.  But it was too good to last.  We found out that Violet is still suffering from post-traumatic stress from the attack.  She is afraid to leave the house and hides in the closet every time the doorbell rings.  Worse, she doesn’t bond at all with the baby.  The end was very depressing, because it looks like Violet and Pete will never get the chance to have a real relationship.  There have to be complications with Violet giving him the baby, since they still don’t know who his father is.  If it’s Sheldon, Pete will have no right to the baby and may be in for a custody battle.

We’re finally supposed to find out the paternity tonight.  In my opinion, it’s already been dragged out longer than any normal person would wait.  If I were in Violet’s position, I would have found out the paternity as soon as possible, certainly right after the baby was born if not before.  I think we may be in for a depressing season in which all the characters get really screwed up like the 4th season of Grey’s Anatomy.  It’s too soon in the show for the characters to be happy.

Meredith was interesting when she was all dark and twisty and scared to let Derek love her.  Now that they’re married, albeit on a post-it note, she’s downright dull.  Alex and Izzie are also married.  I thought there would be some drama when George died; Izzie might have regretted that she chose Alex, but she seems happy in  her marriage.  Alex pulled away for a while, which was natural in the circumstances, but even that didn’t last too long.  Cristina has let her guard down to be with Owen; Callie’s with Arizona; and even Sloan has stopped being a man whore to be with Lexie.

That last part was most surprising.  What is it about Lexie that could make him settle down?  I identify with Lexie a lot.  I’m also the good smart girl who falls for the wrong people and is really insecure.  I would love to get a hot older man to commit.  But I don’t see that happening in real life.  First of all, middle-aged men usually have pot-bellies, not six-packs, and if they have never settled down by the time they’re forty, they probably never will.  That’s why it can only happen on a TV show.

The most incredible part was when Callie told Lexie that Sloan no longer looks at her breasts.  I’m not so bitter that I think men can’t be faithful, but I don’t really think they can stop looking.  Women do it too. Just because you’re in a committed relationship doesn’t mean you won’t notice when a hot person walks by.  Thinking that someone will only have eyes for you is naive. I think even when I’m in a committed relationship I’ll still get little crushes on other people.  We can control our actions, but we can’t really control our feelings.

My point here is that happy couples are boring, and that’s all we have left on the show.  I just don’t see any way for it to get interesting again.  They’re trying with the merger and people scared of losing their jobs, but let’s face it: Career drams isn’t nearly as interesting as relationship drama.  I did sense last season that Bailey and the chief were growing closer, so maybe there’s a possibility of romance there now that she’s separated from her husband.  True, the chief is still married, but he’s had an affair with a co-worker before.  Still, a romance between the chief and Bailey wouldn’t be interesting enough to save the show.

Can anyone think of some interesting plot lines for this year?

I think what the premiere did best was to intersperse the grief with humor.  I haven’t ever experienced the death of someone close to me, but I think that I would need laughter to get me through it.  Izzie’s reaction at the funeral was perfect, especially to hard core Grey’s fans.  It ties in with the season 2 episode, “As We Know It,” in which Meredith puts her hand in a body cavity with a bomb.  Izzie starts laughing uncontrollably and mentions that she has inappropriate reactions to grief and laughs at funerals.  Actually, laughter is not such an unusual reaction to death. It doesn’t always indicate happiness, but more a loss of control.  That’s what happens when we can’t stop laughing in stressful situations.  Also, death does seem ridiculous.  How is it possible that someone we knew and loved can suddenly just be gone?

As for Izzie, I was pretty sure she would survive.  I hadn’t heard anything about Katherine Heigl leaving the show (although she did complain about working long hours) and her death would have just made it too depressing.  One of them had to survive.