Grey's Anatomy "As We Know It" (spoiler)

Grey's Anatomy is one of the few shows that I actually get excited about seeing (the others being Lost and Veronica Mars). Tonight's episode was... very good and had a big shocking moment. Most episodes have a thoughtful revelation, but this one was... shocking. OK I heistate to say any TV moment is shocking, because that's almost like their job, to shock you once in a while. And I don't want to sound like an unsophisticated TV watcher. But I can't help but root for the characters and hope everything will turn out well, but then that would also mean a boring show. So here's the spoiler: the bomb goes off when the bomb-squad guy is holding it and he blows up right in front of Meredith.

The part of this episode that led up to the bomb explosion was done so well. A perfect sequence of scenes set to the song "Breathe" by Anna Nalick. I was pretty impressed when they had the guitar strumming in sync with the heart monitor's beeps. And then the major shocker right at the end of such a serene song made it all the more huge. But we've seen this device used many times before--chill song followed by a shocker. Such as in the episode of Buffy with Michelle Branch's "Goodbye to You" in the background of a sequence of sad scenes of characters leaving, then suddenly the kiss between Buffy and Spike... one of my all-time favorite Buffy moments.

The way I sum up "Grey's Anatomy" is... poignant characters. Ellen Pompeo plays a perfect glassy-eyed Meredith Grey, who doesn't know if she should laugh or cry at the sad irony of her life. Privileged, a doctor, good looking, but completely defeated by her mother's frustrating illness, her broken heart, and her ability to reduce everything down to its crappiness. She walks around the hospital like a zombie, and who can blame her? Her life sucks. It would suck to be in love with (the virtually flawless) Derek Sheperd, who still loves her but rejects her. It would suck to have to watch your mother deteriorate from world-class doctor to an Alzheimer's patient. It would suck to always be the only empathic person in the room. Yes, it sucks to be her, and you can tell by her permanent half smile, her very messy hair, her downward gaze, her nonchalance. The reason I love her character is that everyone can relate to her on a certain level, her pain.

Bomb squad guy: You have a sense of irony.
Meredith: When it's ironic.