Could Izzie’s Hallucinations Spawn A Much Bigger Theme?

By Alicia Sparks
January 12, 2009

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“Are you sure? ‘Cause that sounds kind of whacked.” - Alex Karev, Grey’s Anatomy.

Yep, Izzie Stevens finally broke down and told her boyfriend, Alex Karev (Justin Chambers, right), that she could see, hear, and feel her dead ex-fiance, Denny Duquette.

And Alex responded exactly as I expected him to.

If you’re a Grey’s Anatomy fan, chances are you spent the better part of an hour last Thursday night either a) rolling your eyes, b) wondering why the heck Alex is so cool with Izzie thinking she can do much more than just communicate with the dead, or c) contemplating the success of a Grey’s Anatomy/Ghostbusters crossover a la Michael Ausiello.

What you might not have stopped to contemplate, however, is that the longer this bizarre love triangle drags on, the longer Izzie’s brain problem continues. (True, we don’t know what that brain problem is, and I’m not even absolutely sure there is one - I’m just going by what “sources” have claimed) - but if there is…). And, the longer this problem goes unattended to, I think a bigger (and perhaps more important) theme we might start seeing in future Grey’s Anatomy episodes will revolve around a loved one’s unwillingness to admit something’s not right.

Of course, that’s just my prediction. It wouldn’t be so surprising, though. Whether it’s a mental or physical problem, loved ones sometimes have issues with denial (for that matter, sometimes the patients themselves have issues with denial).

It also wouldn’t be uncharacteristic of Alex’s character. Remember the whole Rebecca/Ava thing? It took an incident with a knife, an authority battle between Alex and Izzie, and a trip to the psychiatric ward where he was told Rebecca had borderline personality disorder before Alex would admit she had a problem she needed to deal with.

Perhaps there’s hope for this storyline yet?