After a couple of months of buildup, a barrage of articles and pictures over the last few weeks, and official Twitter reminders on the day off, fan-ticipation was high for Neve Campbell's guest appearance as Derek Shepherd's little sister Lizzie on the "Love Turns You Upside Down" episode of "Grey's Anatomy." But considering that she didn't appear onscreen until the 59-minute mark -- and then only stayed for about a minute -- the mini "Scream" reunion between Campbell and Patrick Dempsey was best described as nonevent TV.
The fight to save Derek's hand and his surgical career is moving full-steam ahead with Callie and Jackson researching state-of-the-art procedures, auditioning interns to help in the operating room, and searching for a cadaver nerve. Meredith went against Derek's wishes to use dead-guy parts because, as everyone knows and feels the need to mention often, live ones have better success rates. She assigned intern Heather Brooks (Tina Majorino) to phone all four of his sisters to see whether any of them would be willing to step up as a donor. Derek caught wind of his wife's plan and demanded that Brooks "undo it." But Meredith insisted that she keep trying to persuade them to help, and she went to bat every time Derek tried to shut down Operation Sibling Nerve. (Maybe she's concerned that Derek will sink into a depression if he never gets to operate again, worried Callie will never forgive herself if Derek doesn't regain function, or motivated by the need for someone to bring home the bacon while she's on maternity leave.)
Finally, when Brooks couldn't take being the go-between any longer, she spewed: "Enough. You know that live nerves are better than dead ones. Even I know that, and I'm an intern. You put me in an awkward position today. You just threw me to the wolves. Not that I'm comparing your sisters to wolves, but they are out for blood." [Side note: The mention of wolves and blood in the same sentence spoken by an actress last seen on "True Blood" came off like an unintentional inside joke.] "They're furious you didn't call them yourself, and they told me some things, unkind things, and now I know stories. I know things about both of you that I don't want to know. I don't want to be in on your secrets or fights. It makes me really uncomfortable."
And here's where Campbell sauntered into Seattle Grace, introduced herself, and delivered her whopping eight lines of dialogue. Albeit with enough sass that it left us wanting more and praying that in the next episode, despite her conspicuous absence from the preview reel, they will explain why Derek was adamant about not letting his sisters lend a hand (cheap, but couldn't resist!) and why there is so much tension between the siblings.
Campbell interrupted Heather's diatribe before turning her sarcasm/borderline ire at her sister-in-law. "Let me guess. Your parents had a messy divorce and always put you in the middle. Am I right? Lucky guess. Lizzie. One of the wolves. Good to see you, Mer. Hope you got some baby pictures handy, because I did not take the red-eye just so my brother could hack my nerves into hamburger meat."
And then it was over just as quickly. Twitter fans seemed to approve of the casting although we assume they, like us, were expecting more Neve after all the advance hullabaloo in the press and on social media sites.
In general, folks didn't seem to enjoy the intern-centric point of view of this episode.
They still seemed most excited to talk McBaby news despite the pregnancy bomb being dropped in last week's installment and only briefly mentioned in this one.
Watch the full episode:
