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Post by mesilla on Oct 27, 2012 9:00:07 GMT -5
I agree that he is trying to manipulate her...but I don't think him sleeping with her has anything to do with using her to get rid of thomas. I think they are mutually exclusive.
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Post by browncoatwhit on Oct 27, 2012 9:05:25 GMT -5
I agree that Parker's sleeping with a subordinate is an abuse of power. However, that is not the same as agreeing that Cristina is being abused. For all we know, Cristina is the one who instigated the relationship, she has continued in it for her own reasons, and she's clearly got no reluctance to give Parker the cold shoulder and put an end to the relationship.
I also agree with the argument that Cristina has shown a helluva lot of positive growth in this past episode -- this is NOT the same Cristina who was willing to trade Owen to Teddy in exchange for Teddy's mentorship! Old Cristina would have ripped that scalpal from Dr. Feeny's fingers and kicked him out of the door without a look back. So I'd call this is fantastic and solid step forward for Cristina, and a break from her circling through the same-old/same-old behaviors. (And I also think we should celebrate these victories when we get 'm, because they've been so rare!)
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Post by cl3me on Oct 27, 2012 9:37:13 GMT -5
Cris has a long history of sleeping with superiors from prof in college, Burke, even Owen, so Parker no stretch for her. She's so confident that she believes she's in control of the relationship, hoping she can influence parker and what surgeries she gets, it's only when she finds out what Parker doing to Thomas that she realizes Parker has more of an agenda for her than she first thought. They are both using one another! I just hope that now she sees what's really up she kick Parker out of her bed so to speak.
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Post by hopew on Oct 27, 2012 9:45:58 GMT -5
I've dropped out of the discussion for a couple of weeks because I was traveling with very limited wifi access. I watched the last two episodes together, but I'll admit I had already read some comments online, so I knew what to expect. I've also had a chance to catch up on the conversation here and in the spoiler spec thread. These are my reactions to the most recent episode, mixed a little with my reactions to 9.03 since I really saw them together: 1. On Cristina's "sex friend" story line. I'm less bothered than I thought I would be by her sleeping with someone other than Owen, mostly because of what she said to him in that last, sad phone conversation in 9.03. She said, "we have to stop doing this. I'm here now." That, IMO, was Cristina saying "I am going to try to move on; to do that, I can't keep looking to you for emotional support; I'm not working on our marriage - I'm trying to put it behind me." I think that's what Owen heard too, which is why he was so sad in 9.04, and why he told Derek he didn't think she would be coming back. Although they are still legally married, they are not in a situation in which her sleeping with someone else is a betrayal in the way that it would be if they were still trying to save their marriage. At the moment, they are not. In the real world, formal, legal divorces often take place long after both partners have moved (or tried to move) on to other relationships. That doesn't make me any less unhappy over the choice made by the writers about WHO Cristina chose to sleep with. I was both surprised and very disappointed about the decision to use Parker for that purpose. I agree with trinity that there is ALWAYS a power dimension when someone (particularly, being realistic here, a woman) sleeps with "the boss." It is always particularly risky for the woman. One of my least favorite things about Grey's storytelling is how often Shonda has younger women sleep with their male bosses or superiors. But at least when Cristina did it before, she was driven by physical attraction and professional admiration (with Burke) or by real, deeply felt emotions (with Owen). For Cristina to do this - - to sleep with a boss she doesn't even like and describes as "smarmy" and "reptilian" - - is just plain dumb and is offensive to me as a viewer. If she was just looking for an orgasm, she could have done that in a much less professionally risky and compromising way. Either Shonda just didn't have the budget to hire two actors (one to play the boss, one to play the "sex friend") or she was too uncreative as a writer to come up with another way to introduce the storyline of Parker trying to use Cristina to get rid of Dr. Thomas. I just hope we don't have to see any more of Cristina's "relationship" with Parker on the screen. I also will admit that I am hoping that for once there are some negative professional consequences associated with her (and his) behavior (the relationship is inappropriate from his side as well) although since this is Shondaland I'm not really expecting to see that. 2. On Cristina and Dr. Thomas/Feeney. I love this story line. This is the first time in a long time I've felt that Cristina was being shown as capable of growth. Her loyalty to and compassion for him, expressed in her snarky, sharp way ("he's a national monument, like the Grand Canyon only older;" "was that after you learned to use sheep's blood to lift witches' curses?") was the best part of the episode and showed me glimpses of the Cristina character I used to like so much. I'm not sure where they are going with this, but THIS relationship has the potential to help her grow both professionally and personally. I hope the writers don't mess this up. For the first time in quite a while, I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens in a story line on Grey's. 3. On the state of the C/O relationship. There are reasons why Parker is being shown to be such a jerk, and why the sex between them was shown to be so boring (for Cristina, at least). Unless Shonda surprises me and does, finally, show some negative professional impact on Cristina or Parker or both, I think this whole Parker thing is intended to (i) make Cristina realize that Owen is the only man she really wants to be intimate with; and (ii) serve as plot device to advance the professional relationship and friendship between Dr. Thomas and Cristina. This episode showed that Cristina can't move on with another man as easily as she thought, and that Owen is still deeply in love with her despite his belief that she has abandoned their marriage. We're still moving slowly toward their ultimate reunion. Very, very slowly, I'm afraid! Final random thought - Owen looked so beautiful and so sad in that last shot of him, alone and looking at the stars, outside Derek's trailer. The director did a really great job with that (and with the rest of the episode as well, of course)!
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