‘I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked’ is a very, very relationship-heavy episode, even for Grey’s Anatomy.  While some might consider this fact to have a negative impact overall, the episode actually retains the emotional truth that I find so attractive on television.

Alex and Izzie

I’ll say this, the writers did the best they could given the circumstances.  In a way, Izzie has been highly capitalized as a mystery that viewers need to come back in order to figure out.  However, the end of Izzie and Alex is really more of a blessing for Alex.  After all, he is a man who stayed with his cancer-ridden wife, and that is after all the crappy childhood.  Alex is finally starting to realize his worth and it is all thanks to Izzie, but it also means goodbye for Izzie.  In truth, her character has been in decline since season 3.  Despite the magnificence of the Izzie/Denny storyline, her time on Grey’s Anatomy is over, and her parting gift is a better, healthier Alex Karev.

Mark and Lexie

As the cute, sometimes comical couple of the show, the sudden tone change is very damaging for the couple.  When you mix an immature, emotionally stunted man with a woman still growing out of her youth, it’s tough to take their problems seriously.  Since they rarely dish out serious problems for the couple, their potential break-up does not resonate as much as some of the stronger couples on the show.  Once upon a time, Mark and Lexie seemed to be an escape from the other melodramatic couples on the show.  Those were the good days…

Callie and Arizona

Is it me or are they far healthier than the heterosexual couples on the show?  What Arizona and Callie does so well is their ability to entertain without falling into the patterns of other couples.  They retain a sense of excitement and youthful giddiness without looking childish.  They are healthy and in love; let’s hope it stays that way.

Derek and Meredith

The shocking thing is that they seem incredibly real this season.  Their maturity and their constant battle to balance their professional and personal life is both familiar yet intriguing.  After all, this is Derek and Meredith.  In this episode, they play a complicated mindgame with each other in order to legitimize their ambitions and their commitment to each other.  No longer do I have the creeping feeling that they will break up in the near future.  Instead, Derek and Meredith can finally be a couple who overcomes their problems.

Cristina and Owen and Teddy

With the cooling down of Alex/Izzie and the growing maturity of Derek/Meredith, the iconic couple of the show right now absolutely falls onto the shoulders of Cristina and Owen.  Thanks to a little dose of Teddy Altman, Cristina and Owen retain the sexual tension that made Derek and Meredith so popular in the olden days.  They are the couple who has many, many obstacles in their way, yet nothing seems more passionate than their final embrace.  Of course, Teddy’s involvement in this strange love triangle is what makes the entire storyline so fascinating.  This is what Grey’s Anatomy attempted to do with Izzie/George/Callie but failed miserably.

‘I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked’ challenges every couple on Grey’s Anatomy and for the most part, delivers.  Sure, these characters are no longer the floundering, confused and adolescent children from Season 1, and the transition is very clear in this episode.  However, I am starting to see the payoff of such a change.

Rating: 8.8/10

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