The Grey’s Anatomy team learn how to save a life through the majesty of music. //
I don’t if anyone knows this, but the Grey’s Anatomy world is still going strong. The last episode of Season 10 airs next week on TV2, creator Shonda Rimes is rocking a new TV show every five minutes, and (spoilers) Isaiah Washington is returning as Burke after a seven-year stint on the naughty chair for using a homophobic slur. Seems like a better time than ever to revive the Grey’s Anatomy brand through revisiting “Song Beneath a Song”, aka the all-singing episode that aired in the seventh season of the show.
The episode begins immediately after a horrific car crash involving Callie and Arizona. Callie has become a ghostly spirit watching her limp body lying on the bonnet of her car. “The brain is mysterious” her voiceover says. The mystery deepens as she suddenly and inexplicably starts singing the Grey’s Anatomy theme song a capella. Clearly her brain has been mushed in the crash and her disembodied spirit is now watching a musical of her life. Or something. I’m buying it for now.
The body of Real Callie is taken to the hospital. Ghost Callie follows her, singing “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol as she watches herself gurgle blood. It’s distressing, confusing, and nothing like the infamous Denny/Izzy scene that launched Snow Patrol as the Merchants of Sadness. Will the music fix her? It didn’t work for Denny that’s for sure. Suddenly, everyone around the operating table starts singing. Focus guys, this is not the time for Snow Patrol.
Same operating table, but time for a new musical number. Just put a CD on! Lexie starts singing “Breathe” by Anna Nalick through her surgical mask, a very good way of covering up any potential lipsynch mishaps. She throws her tools down and leaves the room. We need all hands on deck, it’s not the time to walk through the hospital dramatically opening doors. In another room, Owen is looking at x-rays and singing an unbelievably literal version of How We Operate” by Gomez.
“Calm down
and get straight (*straightens xray*)
it’s in out eyes
it’s how we operate”
Cut to: heaven (maybe?). Ghost Callie and Ghost Arizona are floating in the clouds in their car. Ghost Callie is talking about how the crash is about to happen. Now I’m confused. Her disembodied spirit has not only ascended, but has travelled back through time? Oh, never mind, she’s started singing “Runnin’ on Sunshine” by Jesus Jackson. Cut back to mortal earth. Everyone’s singing down there too. Singing, and being sexy with each other. It’s no time to be sexy guys, one of your mates has a serious head injury.
Callie’s something levels are dropping and she’s back on the table. The doctors are exhausted, they have tried everything. The only thing they haven’t tried is singing “How To Save a Life” by The Fray. Can’t believe they overlooked that basic medical practice. It becomes very clear that this episode has just become a thrifty way to maximise the expensive pop songs that producers have forked out for in previous seasons. Owen takes the lead. He should not be singing. The man sounds like he has something dangerous stuck in his throat! Put him under the knife as well!
American soft rock band The Fray manage to get her heart beating again. Ghost Callie comes back in to sing “The Story” by Brandi Carlile at Real Callie. “You know it’s true – I was made for you,” she weirdly sings to herself. Her girlfriend Arizona is sitting right there, but she still makes a point to avoid her, instead staring deep into her own eyes. Ghost Callie walks around singing at everyone, including her newly harvested baby (oh yeah, she was pregnant as well). Ghost Callie returns to Arizona’s side with the end of the song. She sings the final line, and her apparition fades. Real Callie wakes up, and the credits roll. Its a medical musical miracle.