20.00–22.00Continuing tonight is the second season of the award-winning hospital drama, currently the toprated show in the US. Ellen Pompeo plays Meredith Grey, who, alongside fellow surgical interns Cristina Yang, Izzie Stevens, George O’Malley and Alex Karev, juggles her personal issues with the everyday life-or-death decisions she faces at work.In tonight’s first episode, ‘Tell Me Sweet Little Lies’, Meredith upsets George; Cristina treats a guitarist who has been brought in with three of his fingers missing; Alex treats a Japanese competitive eater; and the heavily pregnant Bailey is finally forced to step down.Since breaking up with Derek, Meredith has attempted to take her mind off him by bringing a dog home from the pound. However, the new addition to the family has not proved to be a hit with everyone in the house – he’s already used Izzie’s bed as a toilet and terrorised George. When George says it’s either him or the dog, he is hurt when Meredith hesitates before answering. But then he meets a charismatic elderly patient named Mrs Larson, who gives him some good advice that makes him decide to stand up for himself.Cristina, meanwhile, has realised that Meredith is far from over her messy break-up. She wastes no time in letting Derek know what she thinks of him as they work on the grisly case of a guitarist who managed to sever three of his fingers in a backstage accident. When Derek remonstrates with his intern over her less than supportive attitude towards the patient, she responds by rebelling even further – but it just so happens that Cristina’s harshness may have done the trick with the patient.Alex’s patient is Yumi, a Japanese competitive eater who has torn her oesophagus in an event. She speaks no English, but her coach translates for her. Bailey tells him to let his young charge know that she must abstain from competing for the forseeable future, or risk further damage. The coach, however, decides not to pass on this advice and takes Yumi to another competition. It is not long before Yumi is back – in even worse shape. Also in this episode: Cristina admits to Meredith that Burke is under the misapprehension that Cristina has officially moved in; and Bailey is forced to surrender to the demands of her pregnancy when she is sent home for bed rest.
In tonight’s second episode, ‘Break on Through’, Cristina clashes with Bailey’s perky newreplacement, Sydney; Meredith unwittingly revives a ‘DNR’ patient; and Izzie gives some advice to a young mother-to-be.
With Bailey on bed rest, the interns are wondering who will replace her. They are alarmed to find that it is the aggressively cheerful Dr Sydney Heron, who greets them with hugs and announces that her philosophy is “heal with love”.
When Cristina and Alex join Sydney on the case of a newlywed with necrotising fasciitis – flesh-eating bacteria –Cristina is sure that the only option is to amputate the leg, but Sydney is confident that it can be saved with careful surgery. But when Cristina’s certainty that Sydney is doing the wrong thing leads to Burke’s involvement, the intern finds herself having to make an apology.
Cristina is not the only one stepping over the line: Meredith has intubated an elderly patient and unwittingly acted against a ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ order; Izzie treads on some toes by giving a young mother-to-be some advice that the patient’s mother finds hard to take; and George joins the nurses’ strike but ends up crossing the picket line to help out some patients.