It’s not often that I feel badly for Grey’s Anatomy’s male characters, what with McDreamy and McSteamy’s fabulous hair and fantastic jobs, the Chief back in the good graces with his wife and soberly regaining his leadership position at the hospital, and Owen falling in love with and marrying Cristina, who’s willing to overlook his post-traumatic stress disorder.
But during this past episode, it was the guys’ stories that I found most intriguing.
The best scene occurred near the end of the episode when Derek, Mark and Owen were hitting golf balls off of the roof in the dark. (Where do those balls go? Are they not raining down on some Seattle side street, potentially injuring unwitting passersby or busting car windshields?) It was a bitch session where the things the guys had kept bottled up came out in their raw, honest form as they aggressively hacked away at little white balls.
Derek couldn’t believe that not only did Meredith not tell him her eyesight was deteriorating — a rare side effect of the fertility meds, necessitating the premature end of her cycle — but she went into Derek’s OR without telling him she was having trouble seeing. And with Meredith, every symptom she experiences raises the specter of something worse, of the Albatross hanging around her neck, as well as Derek’s, that goes by the name of Alzheimer’s.
For his part, Owen was outraged that Cristina has simply declared that no babies will be coming out of her body. She’s happy with her life just the way it is, now that she’s no longer curled up in the fetal position. And Owen was justly angry that she would unilaterally make that decision for them as a couple. Granted, that’s a pivotal issues couples need to discuss BEFORE getting hitched, but Owen does have a point that his desires should be taken into consideration. (This is starting to feel a lot like last season’s Callie-Arizona kid struggle.)
Mark, meanwhile, was ticked that he only gets a 33 percent say over what goes on with his unborn child because he has to go through Arizona AND his baby mama Callie. Clearly this threesome is going to get ugly. And fast. When Arizona started complaining to Callie that this was not the life she’d picked out for herself, having to deal with Mark — to whom she’s being a complete jerk — I kept wondering why she’d begged Callie to take her back knowing that this would be the situation. (If Arizona, who’s already on shaky ground with Grey’s fans for her treatment of Callie, continues to act like she’s the one being wronged, she’s going to become as unlikable as the Private Practice cast. ) Mark has every right to be annoyed that Arizona, the one who left Callie and did not want children, is trying to elbow him out of the way as though she’s more of a potential parent than Mark. I normally don’t like Mark’s character, but in this instance, I’m rooting for him.
Finally, there was the Chief who’s the master of denial. His concern was more than just a relationship gripe or power struggle. Far more. It was heart breaking to see the fear in his eyes when he asked Derek to examine his wife for neurological anomalies, as fearful that he could lose the other love of his life to a degenerative brain disease as Derek is of that happening to his own wife.
The combined worry, pain and irritation as expressed by Derek, Owen, Mark and the Chief were well played, not too over the top. And even though he wasn’t up on the roof hitting golf balls, Alex being on the receiving end of a hot-and-cold campaign waged by the new OB, Dr. Fields — who coaxed Alex into asking her out when she knew she’d turn him down — has simultaneously proven to be frustrating and yet somehow alluring to Alex. He probably could’ve used some time hitting golf balls into the night sky.
What I didn’t like, however, what felt thoroughly artificial and just plain weird: Stark asking April out on a date. Seriously? Lexie and Avery gettin’ busy in the shower totally makes sense. But Stark and April … just … no.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Feb 25, 2011 @ 14:00 EST5EDT
I, too, was concerned about those golf balls and the possibility of injury to innocents, so continued searching until I found this answer regarding a previous episode last year – – – – – “And about the golf ball thing, they were hitting them out over the water from the helipad. The first time I watched it, I didn’t see the water but thought the same thing so rewatched the ending and sure enough you can see the water in the background during the first part of that scene.”
The hospital location in this show is schizophrenic at best. I work in the building they use for exterior helipad shots, which is the KOMO television station (and other various offices) in downtown Seattle (KOMO is the Seattle ABC affiliate).
Some things about this location (called Fisher Plaza if you wish to Google it):
-the nearest real hospital, to my knowledge, is Harborview, which is a mile and half away
-the Space Needle is indeed immediately across the street
-aiming golf balls for the water from the helipad, while the Space Needle is on your left (as in this episode), means aiming for Lake Union, which is at minimum 1180 yards away, otherwise they’re launching golf balls into the South Lake Union business district. Even if they turn around to aim for the closer Elliot Bay, it’s a minimum of 790 yards. Even Tiger Woods would be raining golf balls down on Belltown with this shot.
-there isn’t a giant evergreen forest near the Space Needle as often seen in the “walkway bridge in front of the glass way” shots (where Derek was shot). We have plenty of these trees in the area, but not in downtown Seattle!