Lights: On Off
On The Insider: Britney's Bikini-Clad Top 10
Thursday 9:00 PM on ABC
Episode Guide > Season 5, Episode 17

Grey's Anatomy: I Will Follow You Into The Dark

 

Episode Score

 
9.1 Superb
289 votes

Your Score

Air Date

Thursday March 12, 2009

Production Code

517

Episode Summary

After learning at a deposition that more of his patients have died than survived, Derek decides to quit, even as Meredith refuses to give up on him. Meanwhile Bailey and the Chief continue to bicker over her peds fellowship until Adele steps in to mediate. The interns discover something unsettling on a "patient x," unaware that the charts they're looking at are actually Izzie's.

  •  
    10 Perfect

    The best episode of the season by far, maybe even since season three. hide show

    I loved this episode. It was by far my favourite of season five and maybe even since season three. Every storyline was engrossing, all the characters flowed and their was humour and drama at just the right times. My favourite part would be how Izzie finally learned what illness she has to fight. It was just heartbreaking watching the excited interns work out her fate.

    Katherine Heigl is an amazing actress and it would be a shame to see her killed off the show. How intense was it when she shouted at the interns, seeing Cristina's face as Izzie told her...just brilliant stuff. I was surprised to see her confide in Cristina but it made sense. She was funnily observing people throughout the episode, Meredith and Cristina at lunch, Alex's skills...this storyline has seriously gone from painful to superb.

    Secondly we move onto an equally intense situation with Derek breaking down and essentially quitting. I feel sorry for him but I don't like how he ignores this support...but it must be hard dealing with death so much of the time. Meredith cares and its a great step for her. That ending scene between the scene was painful to watch but in a good way. He was slaughtering her but she didn't walk away. I can't believe he did that to the ring...he is a broken man.

    Alex was great her as well, he did great work with the band girl case and I liked how he just let rip with Izzie, told her to start working because he wants her at the top with him. Bailey and the Chief's feud is entertaining but I have to side with the former, she wants to help children. What's wrong with that?

    Cristina and Hunt are really interesting, way better than her and Burke anyway. He pushed her...it seems they have issues to deal with. He was good with Kurev. Callie and Arizona are good, I liked how she tried to play hard to get by saying 'maybe' but couldn't resist. Lexi and Mark are a hilarious couple but the former is a stand out character and the scene where she thanked Izzie talked about patients fighting was really well acted and enjoyable.

    So this really was an episode to watch, all the storylines are getting to the point of brilliance. Cannot wait until the next episode.

    Do you agree?
      0 0
    Report Abuse
  •  
    8 Great

    Izzie and the interns finally diagnose her mystery condition. Alex discovers something about a patient and proves himself to Dr. Robbins and Dr. Hunt. Derek refuses to return to work. The feud between the Chief and Bailey escalates. hide show

    As the dust settled from the crossover event and things tried to return to normal at Seattle Grace, as normal as they could in the drama addled hospital. Derek learns he has killed more people in his career than he saved. Izzie continues on her quest to diagnose herself freely with help of the interns. Alex begins to really shine amongst his fellow first year residents. The Chief continues to demean Bailey for choosing pediatrics, and their tension escalates in the O.R. Lexie decides to fight for Mark, despite the odds. Callie comes clean with Dr. Arizona. Cristina deals with Owen's PTSD. Meredith learns from the Chief of Derek's intentions and comes clean to Derek.

    The big story of the night was finally learning what exactly is wrong with Izzie, it turns out it is metastatic melanoma (Stage IV). What exactly that means is still not clear with me, the disease spread to her skin, liver and brain, thus explaining the hallucinations, but the important thing to take away from it is that there is a 5% chance of survival. Throughout the episode her fellow residents were either concerned or annoyed that she stole the interns for her "Patient X" diagnosis, and then bothered by her weird predictions of what they will be like years from now, and the interns then disappointed for not getting anything out of the contest. Izzie delivered one of her great little speeches demanding that they become better doctors. Then she had a great conversation with Lexie who was the only one who asked what they do next about "Patient X" because her own mother died of the hiccups which has a 100% survival rate, so "Patient X" should fight it, because no matter the odds there are things worth fighting for, and you should want to fight.

    A patient comes in with seizures and Owen and Alex realize that they could kill her by shocking her, but do it anyways and she survives. Alex is forced to babysit the girl, a band geek, who he tries to diagnose despite her band geek friends who were frankly annoying. Alex realized that the seizures were caused by a heart condition, after noticing that she flatlined before seizing, again medical technical things that go over my head. In surgery Dr. Arizona, wanted to believe that Alex was wrong while her and Dr. Hunt operated and had Alex ready the paddles, but he was right and saved the girls life, and won the praises of the two attendings. If Justin chambers ever hoped to win an Emmy this episode would be the one to get him there, unless Izzie dies.

    So The Chief vs. Bailey hit a big bang this week, as they treated a family with a history bad stomach cancer, or some sort of disease. Their tension escalated while they were teaching Cristina and Meredith and arguing over procedures. Then came my favorite moment of the episode, Adele walking out of the elevator to scold her husband and Bailey, a great scene made better with Loretta Devine. Bailey soon realized that The Chief is always coming down on her when she is expressing her feminine softer side, having a baby or specializing in pediatrics. Hopefully this will end the feud, cause The Chief being pissed at his girl Bailey is just plain annoying. It was nice to see Michael Rady in the scene as well, as the one who did not want the surgery because he the president of his frat, Kappa Tau Gamma perhaps?

    So after his fight with Derek, Mark had broken his hand and wanted to desperately get back into the operating room, and had Callie juice him up or something, if they go down this road again i may need to stop watching. If you are unfamiliar remember back to season three with Preston and his hand, once was enough. I hope that the storyline is more a solidifying act of Lexie and Mark with her saying that she is willing to fight for them despite the fact that he is Mark Sloan and she is Little Grey and the odds are against them.

    My favorite new relationship is between Callie and Dr. Arizona Robbins. I love saying her name Dr. Arizona Robbins, it sounds better if you say it with a raspy voice and maybe add your own little side afterwards, like "I am Dr. Arizona Robbins where did you put my Winstons?" something along those lines. While they only had like a few minutes of screen time this week they decided to give it a go, I think, on this show you never know with this show.

    The end presented an interesting role reversal of sorts, after learning that Derek has been carrying his mother's engagement ring for weeks now, she goes to see him at his trailer and land. By the way what ever happened to that house they were going to build? When she confronted Derek saying that she knows there is a ring and that he needs to return to surgery, he blows up at her stating that he is giving her the easy way out because she always runs from commitment. I will hand it to Meredith given her track record she should have broken down right there, but she held it together nicely and without tequila. In the end the most important thing was what is Izzie going to do now? Who can she tell? She decides telling Alex would be risky after his "You can do it Izzie" speech, so she tells Cristina who is not going to be sympathetic, in the air shaft thing with the loud vent to block out the sound so we do not know the exact wording, we just see her mouthing the words. I am wondering what will Izzie do now? And will Cristina keep her secret? I honestly think that Cristina is changing given the fact that she hasn't run from Owen yet given all his issues.

    This was a great episode to come back to, but could we give George a bigger story, he at least had more than one line this week.

    Do you agree?
      1 0
    Report Abuse
  •  
    9.5 Superb

    A strong and dramatic episode. hide show

    It was great to have Grey's Anatomy back and with an episode where plenty happened. It was certainly revealing over Izzie, it seems she really does have a very serious condition with only a small percentage of surviving. Still, a chance is better than nothing, right? George had better scenes than he's had for a long time, when he was with Izzie. I really enjoyed the scene with Adele telling Bailey and the Chief of as if they were a pair of naighty school children. Obviously Derek is going to need to be sorted out big time and I would imagine that's coming up in the next few episodes.

    Do you agree?
      2 0
    Report Abuse
  •  
    7.5 Good

    Meredith and Derek fight, Izzie receives her prognosis hide show

    One thing I've noticed about Grey's Anatomy is how simply awful the writing is for the patients. It feels like an out of touch teenager is scripting the dialogue for the guest stars and all the jokes fall flat.

    I did like the Izzie scenes, even if her future on the show does not look great. Lexie and Sloan was fun as well, for the brief moments they were together, but the Chief and Bailey's "feud" is starting to bore me, and it's just begun. I'm interested in seeing where Derek and Meredith go from here, but knowing TV they'll be back together by next week.

    Do you agree?
      1 1
    Report Abuse
  •  
    8 Great

    A weird and mixed up episode with all kinds of things happening at once. hide show

    This episode seemed too fragmentary to me, as if they were trying to fit too many things into too little time. Everything was happening very quickly and before you had the chance to process one major event, another one followed. Derek gets depressed and of course, his ego issues surface again and he behaves like a jerk to everyone, especially Meredith. The marriage proposal is off and we are left wondering what on earth is going to happen between those two. The constant back-and-forth, breaking up- making up is making me tired and frankly, I think they have overstretched this plot way beyond its normal survival rate. Instead of basing the show's central plot on continuous break-ups between Derek and Meredith, they could actually try to figure out new things instead. Like Christina and Owen, Lexie and Mark, Callie and Arizona. All three of these romances got very little screen time in this epi, and unjustly so in my opinion. The only good thing about this episode was Izzie and the diagnosis that came up for patient X, as well as Izzie's whole attitude towards the subject. It remains to be seen whether she will survive the melanoma and stay on the show or lose her battle with cancer and pursue a film career. In any case it was good to have some closure, and the way it was presented was emotional without being melodramatic. Let's hope there's some more consistency in the next episodes, and for god's sake that Derek will finally come to his senses...

    Do you agree?
      4 0
    Report Abuse
 
See All Reviews

Episode Cast and Crew

View All
  • Goof: While operating on the first of the siblings, the Chief's eyes change from looking at the patient to looking at Bailey between camera angles. []
  • International Episode Titles:
    Slovakia: Pôjdem za tebou (I Will Follow You) []
  • Original International Air Dates:
    Italy: May 25, 2009 on Fox Life
    Latin America: May 25, 2009 on Sony Entertainment Television (aka Canal Sony)
    Australia: June 4, 2009 on Channel 7
    Germany: July 22, 2009 on ProSieben
    The Netherlands: September 28, 2009 on Net5
    Norway: December 8, 2009 on TV2
    Slovakia: February 1, 2010 on STV1 []
  • Music Featured In This Episode:
    1. Front Row by Metric
    2. Duet by Rachael Yamagata
    3. Treeology by Shady Bard
    4. A Storm Is Going To Come by Piers Faccini []
More Notes
  • Arizona: So, I've had quite a day. I got my ass handed to me by Alex Karev, a second year resident. Which is humbling, for a surgeon, especially a know-it-all, type-a --
    Callie: We don't have to do this. We don't have to be friends, it's a big hospital with lots of floors, lots of places to hide. And I'm perfectly okay with doing that for the next few years.
    Arizona: You're not hearing me, Calliope. Sometimes, I panic, in the moment, and I call it wrong. I misjudge a situation. So, if you're up for it, I'd like to take you to dinner.
    Callie: Maybe. (gets off the elevator)
    Arizona: Maybe?
    Callie: Yeah. My schedule's kinda insane right now, so I'll get back to you. (walks off, the elevator start to close, she walks back over and before they close she puts her arm between them so they don't) How's, uh, tomorrow? (Arizona laughs, Callie smiles) []
  • Chief: You told Adele on me?
    Bailey: You stopped speaking to me, sir. That didn't exactly leave me many options. I'd like to know if you'd have reacted like this if I left general surgery for neuro or cardio?
    Chief: I don't follow.
    Bailey: Or is it because you regard peds as a soft specality? Is that what's bothering you?
    Chief: Oh, that's ridiculous.
    Bailey: Well, maybe, but it seems to me that every time I do something that you perceive as soft, like havin' a baby, takin' some time off to see my baby, specializing in babies, I'm dead to you. You wanna know what I think, sir?
    Chief: Not particularly.
    Bailey: I think that you're scared that you've gone soft. You blame this whole hospital;s decline on it. And you wanna know what I think about that?
    Chief: You're gonna tell me anyway.
    Bailey: It's not doin' one bit of good. I mean, surgeons are still droppin' like dominoes around here. So, maybe it's time that you got in touch with your femnine side. Maybe you need a little soft.
    Chief: ... You still shouldn't have ratted me out.
    Bailey: Sorry.
    Chief: Me, too. []
  • Owen: You did a hell of a job today. The Chief is gonna hear about it.
    Arizona: Pretty impressive for a resident. You fix that attitude of yours, you could be the future of this hospital. The one to watch. ... You go Karev! []
More Quotes

Allusions

  • Cristina: Hunt won't even look at me without going all Apocalypse Now on me this morning.

    Apocalypse Now is the 1979 movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola where Martin Sheen as Captain Willard is sent on a dangerous mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a god for a local tribe. []
  • Derek (regarding all the people who have died under his care): There's just so many people. More than Dahmer, Manson, and Bundy combined.

    Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, and Charles Manson are all infamous serial killers, they each killed 20 or more people in the United States. []
  • Episode Title: I Will Follow You Into The Dark

    I Will Follow You Into The Dark is a song by Death Cab for Cutie taken from their album Plans.

    When Ben Gibbard (the band's lead singer) wrote that song, he began to think about death and the importance of people in his life, just like Izzie. []
advertisement

Top Contributors

  • Joker00303 Editor
    User Score 5048 , Last Online 2 hrs, 42 mins ago
  • Yakira Retired
    User Score 4030 , Last Online Oct 15, 2008
  • ntonks_tvtome
    User Score 497 , Last Online 7 hrs, 42 mins ago
  • layle1
    User Score 343 , Last Online 44 minutes ago
  • FRE5Hmaker
    User Score 319
What is a TV.com Contributor?